We had a great week, and especially a great Pday. Here we go… As per usual we had a mission devotional Monday morning. This one was done by the Scanning Zone. One of the speakers told about how a yearbook he was scanning caught his attention and he went and did some research about this teacher who was dearly loved at his school. As I listened I thought about the many teachers I have had in my life and which ones of them have left an impression in my mind and heart.  I am thankful for some great teachers who have taught me many wonderful things. Even as I write this my mind is thinking about even more teachers that I hadn’t thought of that morning. We finished the devotional and ran home for a bit because our schedule had changed and we don’t have to be in until 10am now. This was our first official day as non zone leaders.  I thought it might be a gradual transition, but the very first thing that happened was a meeting at 10am that I had Curtis come to with me. But there were ...

Aloha everyone. The title of this post refers to last night’s BYU football game’s final score. I was worried about this one, but they actually played pretty good most of the game, there were just too many dumb mistakes here and there that led to their loss, plus a fluky mishap on the quick-kick punt that doomed them. Ugh. We shall see how they play next week against another team that is starting to play well at the end of the season. Enough of that, let’s go back to the beginning of the week and see what we learned. Monday, very in early in the morning, Franklin was having bad dreams. He woke up crying and Mom went in with him and told him he was ok then came back out. A few minutes later he was crying again, so she went back. The third time she said it was my turn. So I went in and laid on the floor next to his bed and patted his back until he calmed down. Then I tried to sneak out. Nothing doin’. Every time I tried to leave he would sit up and start to whimper. So I just laid there f...

We are grandparents again! Wahoo!! Welcome to this world little Mara. I’ll tell you about that a little later in the post, but let’s start at the beginning of the week. Monday morning we didn’t have a devotional and I got up early enough to go workout and ride before getting into the library by 8:30am. We spent the first part of the morning doing ZL stuff. At 10am Curtis and I went to the Group Hosting Committee meeting. As I sat down I looked out the window and saw John the Baptist giving the priesthood to Joseph and Oliver. Well actually it was a statue of that event, but what was strange was that it was sitting in the middle of the road. They had a crane there and I assumed they were going to crane it over the fence into the area by the Assembly Hall building where they had a pedestal awaiting its arrival. Fun times. I’m not sure if Curtis will continue to attend that meeting or if he’ll send an assistant zone leader, but now he knows about it and it was my LAST one of those meeting...

We are at the end of week ninety-two and are actually on a single digit countdown of weeks left…seven! Wow, that seems unreal. Here’s what we learned this week.  We started our week with a devotional that we didn’t have to speak at. Wahoo. It was the Mission Office Staff who spoke this week. Two thoughts stuck out to me. One was Sister Brown’s little story of how a young sister missionary, who met the Brown’s son while they were in the MTC…he is a 33 year old young man that deals with some anxiety and other issues and is here serving as a missionary with his parents…realized he must be a bit stressed with his new responsibilities in the mission field. She reached into her pocket and pulled out several small miniature rubber ducks and had him pick one. Then she told him to put it in his pocket and whenever he felt overwhelmed or anxious to put his hand in his pocket and touch the rubber duck and remember the message she also gave him on a card, “You’ve got this!” I am pretty sure sh...