APR_29_19_MOM_TOW_From Mom
his is the email I sent to you last week. Sorry again that it didn't get sent. But you know me better than that, don't you? When have I EVER not sent an email to you throughout my entire mission? I've made it 23 months. I'm not about to quit now. C'mon.
Hey Mom!!
You always say that your emails are uneventful and boring! But what you don't know is that uneventful and boring sounds pretty appealing to me right about now. I'd kill for uneventful sometimes! But I'm grateful that I'm so busy right now!! Being a busy missionary is a LOT better than being a bored on ineffective one. BLESSINGS.
If it makes you feel any better, I know a tiny bit, just a smidgen, about dealing with crazy kids. I'm actually teaching 4 kids right now. Two were just baptized, Mayson and Cereniti (HALLELUJAH!), but I am teaching another kid named Logan who is preparing to be baptized in June. He's not going to be a convert baptism, but the Bishop has asked that we teach him since he has a bit of a learning disability and has not grown up in the church. AND I'm teaching another 7 year old named Gabe, the younger brother of a recent convert. Goodness. I don't know how you do it. Basically all the kids that I'm teaching right now are within the 2nd Grade Age group, other than Cereniti, who is 10. So major props to you. I can barely handle 4, and not all at the same time. Much less. 20 to 30 kids. I don't know how you've done this for so long. Probs because you had such wonderful angelic kids to come home to, right? Right?....
Reading about this AR scandal was frankly... scandalous. Who know 2nd graders were so mischievous and.... scandalous (I really like the word "scandalous" in case you couldn't tell). What would you do if you found out that all of the AR points I gained in 5th Grade were earned that way? I had over 500, if you forgot. Probably my proudest accomplishment. Getting into BYU was a close second.
But seriously, I can't believe those kids did that. I'm glad they got their privileges taken away. It's like when you find out that one of the best athletes in the world has been using performance enhancers or steroids or something. It makes you wonder what they got away with.
Also, I have no idea what the "Calgon Take Me Away" thing is all about. You just stumped me, the one who's always quoting movies. I hope you're happy. Where is it from?
I'm glad you went to Ontario Mills! Man, I miss that place. If you don't recognize it, imagine what it's gonna be like the first time that I go there once I get back from my mission. I've forgotten what California is like. I haven't seen mountains in two years. Or a desert. I've just been surrounded by green and humidity. What is even desert or dry heat anyways?
Amen. Taysom Hill was a free agent. Now look at him. The Saints' Swiss Army Knife. That dude was a freak. So glad I got his autograph before he made it big in the NFL. Nobody can accuse me of being a bandwagon.
It's funny that you mention that Commencement talk because I was literally just talking about that talk with the First Counselor in the Bishopric here in the Towanda Ward. He knows that I go to BYU and was telling me about that very talk on Sunday. He said it was so funny. I've heard quite a few good commencement talks in my day, so it takes a lot to impress me. You'll have to show me once I get home.
Elder Seeley and I went to a waterfall last week. Man, one of these days you'll have to come up here in Towanda. For a place that no one has ever heard about, it's astonishingly beautiful. You would always tell me about how beautiful Pittsburgh was when you came here all those years ago... I wish you could have seen Winter, Spring, and Summer as well. Man, this place is beautiful all around. Humid, but beautiful. I'm blessed to be serving here.
All of the people that I'm teaching are doing great!! Mayson and Cereniti were confirmed on Sunday, but I'll talk a little bit more about that in my weekly. Needless to say, it was an awesome experience and I couldn't wipe the smile off my face the whole day. They just looked so happy, so whole, and their dad looked so proud of them. One of those moments that make the rest of the days worth it, for sure.
Transfer Boards don't happen until this Saturday evening. So I won't know if I'm staying or leaving until then. I suspect I'll stay and Elder Seeley will leave. I don't know that for sure, so I'll let you know next week if that actually happens. Some stuff has happened that has led me to believe that Elder Seeley's time here in Towanda is at an end, and I'll finish off my mission here with my last companion, whomever that will be. I guess I'll let you know next Monday! I hope I stay, but at the same time, I wish Elder Seeley was staying too. We'll see what happens!!
Anyways, that's me for this week!! Thanks for the email! Love you!
Elder Jake Gonzales
On Sun, Apr 28, 2019, 10:46 PM <perucalica@aol.com> wrote:
Sunday, April 28, 2019
Hi There Buddy!
Yet another Sunday has rolled around and here I am writing another letter after a mostly uneventful week so I’m not sure how long or interesting this letter will be. I will say, however, that I’m always grateful for the weekend because just trying to keep up at work exhausts me. We have about 20 more days with the kids and then another year will be over. I am SOOOOO looking forward to that. When it gets to be this time of the year the demons in the kids start to manifest themselves. Even your normally ‘nice” kids are starting to pull stunts that they haven’t before. It’s definitely time for school to be out.
I found out on Friday, thanks to a whistleblower in my class, that we have an AR scandal going on. I found out that I have kids that are taking tests for other kids, kids that are not reading the book but sitting next to someone that did and then logging into that book and copying the test and also kids that are reading books far below their level by using the password to override the safeguards put into place to keep them from doing that. After doing some investigation, I discovered that over half my class has cheated at one thing or another on AR. Because of that, all AR awards that they would have received at the Awards Assembly have been cancelled for those particular kids. One student, who has been working like a crazy person to get his percentages up so that he could get a trophy was one of the kids who cheated. When I told him that there would be no trophy for him, he said “I didn’t want a trophy anyway.” It kind of reminded me of The Fox and the Grapes story. They’re also going to be losing a few recesses for the next few days as well. Can you believe that kids 8 years old are involved with something like that? I’ve seen it all now! If that were the only thing they were doing, that would be enough. But, they’re doing other things as well. CALGON, TAKE ME AWAY! (Do you know what that phrase refers to? Maybe you’re too young to know.)
Dad and I went to Ontario Mills last night for the first time in probably two years. It was almost like seeing a whole new place as there are a lot of new stores now that I’ve never seen there before. You know how much I love shopping (insert sarcasm here). The parking lot was a crazy place because a bajillion and one people were there to see the new Avengers movie and so vacant parking spaces were few and far between. Dad’s handicap placard saved us once again.
The NFL draft was this week. They announced that Sione Takitaki was drafted by the Cleveland Browns in the 3rd round. As far as I know, he was the only BYU player drafted although there were a lot that tried out at the Pro Day that they held at BYU. Maybe some of the others will be picked up as free agents. That seems to be how the majority of our players get in to the pros.
BYU’s graduation was this week and they announced that they had over 6,000 graduates. I guess now they’re only holding one ceremony per year and that’s in April. They had a guy named Arthur Brooks speak. I’d never heard of him before but apparently he is well known in the BYU circle. He isn’t a member of the Church but he knows a lot about it. He even quoted President Nelson and the Book of Mormon in his address. He told a story of how he was given a briefcase one time when he came to BYU for something and this briefcase had a BYU logo on it. He said when he got home and showed it to his wife, he told her that he didn’t know how he felt about walking around with a briefcase that had the logo from BYU on it and his wife told him, “You need a briefcase and it’s really nice so go ahead and use it.” So, he said that he started to carry it. He said that he travels a lot so he is obviously in a lot of airports. He said that when he’s carrying that briefcase, he always forgoes his coffee because he doesn’t want people to think that a member of the Church is doing something that he shouldn’t be doing. He says that the briefcase has made him a better person. He was very complimentary of the Church and what it stands for and says that he is often told that he is “BYU’s favorite Catholic”. But then he joked that he thinks BYU says that to every Catholic. It was a good talk, well worth listening to.
Well, I’ll quit rambling for this week. Sorry this letter isn’t more interesting. I did my best to come up with something to tell you. As I’ve said before, my life just isn’t that interesting.
Be good and do good. I love you to the moon and back (and also a bushel and a peck).
Love,
Mom
P.S. I'm assuming that transfers will come out next weekend. Is that right? Let us know.
Hey Mom!!
You always say that your emails are uneventful and boring! But what you don't know is that uneventful and boring sounds pretty appealing to me right about now. I'd kill for uneventful sometimes! But I'm grateful that I'm so busy right now!! Being a busy missionary is a LOT better than being a bored on ineffective one. BLESSINGS.
If it makes you feel any better, I know a tiny bit, just a smidgen, about dealing with crazy kids. I'm actually teaching 4 kids right now. Two were just baptized, Mayson and Cereniti (HALLELUJAH!), but I am teaching another kid named Logan who is preparing to be baptized in June. He's not going to be a convert baptism, but the Bishop has asked that we teach him since he has a bit of a learning disability and has not grown up in the church. AND I'm teaching another 7 year old named Gabe, the younger brother of a recent convert. Goodness. I don't know how you do it. Basically all the kids that I'm teaching right now are within the 2nd Grade Age group, other than Cereniti, who is 10. So major props to you. I can barely handle 4, and not all at the same time. Much less. 20 to 30 kids. I don't know how you've done this for so long. Probs because you had such wonderful angelic kids to come home to, right? Right?....
Reading about this AR scandal was frankly... scandalous. Who know 2nd graders were so mischievous and.... scandalous (I really like the word "scandalous" in case you couldn't tell). What would you do if you found out that all of the AR points I gained in 5th Grade were earned that way? I had over 500, if you forgot. Probably my proudest accomplishment. Getting into BYU was a close second.
But seriously, I can't believe those kids did that. I'm glad they got their privileges taken away. It's like when you find out that one of the best athletes in the world has been using performance enhancers or steroids or something. It makes you wonder what they got away with.
Also, I have no idea what the "Calgon Take Me Away" thing is all about. You just stumped me, the one who's always quoting movies. I hope you're happy. Where is it from?
I'm glad you went to Ontario Mills! Man, I miss that place. If you don't recognize it, imagine what it's gonna be like the first time that I go there once I get back from my mission. I've forgotten what California is like. I haven't seen mountains in two years. Or a desert. I've just been surrounded by green and humidity. What is even desert or dry heat anyways?
Amen. Taysom Hill was a free agent. Now look at him. The Saints' Swiss Army Knife. That dude was a freak. So glad I got his autograph before he made it big in the NFL. Nobody can accuse me of being a bandwagon.
It's funny that you mention that Commencement talk because I was literally just talking about that talk with the First Counselor in the Bishopric here in the Towanda Ward. He knows that I go to BYU and was telling me about that very talk on Sunday. He said it was so funny. I've heard quite a few good commencement talks in my day, so it takes a lot to impress me. You'll have to show me once I get home.
Elder Seeley and I went to a waterfall last week. Man, one of these days you'll have to come up here in Towanda. For a place that no one has ever heard about, it's astonishingly beautiful. You would always tell me about how beautiful Pittsburgh was when you came here all those years ago... I wish you could have seen Winter, Spring, and Summer as well. Man, this place is beautiful all around. Humid, but beautiful. I'm blessed to be serving here.
All of the people that I'm teaching are doing great!! Mayson and Cereniti were confirmed on Sunday, but I'll talk a little bit more about that in my weekly. Needless to say, it was an awesome experience and I couldn't wipe the smile off my face the whole day. They just looked so happy, so whole, and their dad looked so proud of them. One of those moments that make the rest of the days worth it, for sure.
Transfer Boards don't happen until this Saturday evening. So I won't know if I'm staying or leaving until then. I suspect I'll stay and Elder Seeley will leave. I don't know that for sure, so I'll let you know next week if that actually happens. Some stuff has happened that has led me to believe that Elder Seeley's time here in Towanda is at an end, and I'll finish off my mission here with my last companion, whomever that will be. I guess I'll let you know next Monday! I hope I stay, but at the same time, I wish Elder Seeley was staying too. We'll see what happens!!
Anyways, that's me for this week!! Thanks for the email! Love you!
Elder Jake Gonzales
On Sun, Apr 28, 2019, 10:46 PM <perucalica@aol.com> wrote:
Sunday, April 28, 2019
Hi There Buddy!
Yet another Sunday has rolled around and here I am writing another letter after a mostly uneventful week so I’m not sure how long or interesting this letter will be. I will say, however, that I’m always grateful for the weekend because just trying to keep up at work exhausts me. We have about 20 more days with the kids and then another year will be over. I am SOOOOO looking forward to that. When it gets to be this time of the year the demons in the kids start to manifest themselves. Even your normally ‘nice” kids are starting to pull stunts that they haven’t before. It’s definitely time for school to be out.
I found out on Friday, thanks to a whistleblower in my class, that we have an AR scandal going on. I found out that I have kids that are taking tests for other kids, kids that are not reading the book but sitting next to someone that did and then logging into that book and copying the test and also kids that are reading books far below their level by using the password to override the safeguards put into place to keep them from doing that. After doing some investigation, I discovered that over half my class has cheated at one thing or another on AR. Because of that, all AR awards that they would have received at the Awards Assembly have been cancelled for those particular kids. One student, who has been working like a crazy person to get his percentages up so that he could get a trophy was one of the kids who cheated. When I told him that there would be no trophy for him, he said “I didn’t want a trophy anyway.” It kind of reminded me of The Fox and the Grapes story. They’re also going to be losing a few recesses for the next few days as well. Can you believe that kids 8 years old are involved with something like that? I’ve seen it all now! If that were the only thing they were doing, that would be enough. But, they’re doing other things as well. CALGON, TAKE ME AWAY! (Do you know what that phrase refers to? Maybe you’re too young to know.)
Dad and I went to Ontario Mills last night for the first time in probably two years. It was almost like seeing a whole new place as there are a lot of new stores now that I’ve never seen there before. You know how much I love shopping (insert sarcasm here). The parking lot was a crazy place because a bajillion and one people were there to see the new Avengers movie and so vacant parking spaces were few and far between. Dad’s handicap placard saved us once again.
The NFL draft was this week. They announced that Sione Takitaki was drafted by the Cleveland Browns in the 3rd round. As far as I know, he was the only BYU player drafted although there were a lot that tried out at the Pro Day that they held at BYU. Maybe some of the others will be picked up as free agents. That seems to be how the majority of our players get in to the pros.
BYU’s graduation was this week and they announced that they had over 6,000 graduates. I guess now they’re only holding one ceremony per year and that’s in April. They had a guy named Arthur Brooks speak. I’d never heard of him before but apparently he is well known in the BYU circle. He isn’t a member of the Church but he knows a lot about it. He even quoted President Nelson and the Book of Mormon in his address. He told a story of how he was given a briefcase one time when he came to BYU for something and this briefcase had a BYU logo on it. He said when he got home and showed it to his wife, he told her that he didn’t know how he felt about walking around with a briefcase that had the logo from BYU on it and his wife told him, “You need a briefcase and it’s really nice so go ahead and use it.” So, he said that he started to carry it. He said that he travels a lot so he is obviously in a lot of airports. He said that when he’s carrying that briefcase, he always forgoes his coffee because he doesn’t want people to think that a member of the Church is doing something that he shouldn’t be doing. He says that the briefcase has made him a better person. He was very complimentary of the Church and what it stands for and says that he is often told that he is “BYU’s favorite Catholic”. But then he joked that he thinks BYU says that to every Catholic. It was a good talk, well worth listening to.
Well, I’ll quit rambling for this week. Sorry this letter isn’t more interesting. I did my best to come up with something to tell you. As I’ve said before, my life just isn’t that interesting.
Be good and do good. I love you to the moon and back (and also a bushel and a peck).
Love,
Mom
P.S. I'm assuming that transfers will come out next weekend. Is that right? Let us know.
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