Another great email!

First of all, thank you so much for the package, it meant so much to me. It really lifted my spirits. And i also received a goody-box from the Vasquezes, so could you pass on my thanks, please? I got a letter from the Sants, which was awesome. It's also really nice to get mail, even when it's just a little note or something. Gabby also wrote me. Thank you all so much for your support and your willingness to not forget about me.

 

Mom, thanks for letting me know about the visa, that's exciting. i just got an email from one of my friends (E. Orr) from the mtc and he said that he and e. ortega are both in brasil now haha. did i tell you about that bishop that works in the missionary department? he told me on saturday  that 70 visas to brasil came through last week. isn't that crazy? so things look positive about the visa. probably the best indicator is that our area here in slc is really starting to heat up. that probably means i'm leaving soon haha. i'm just kidding of course. (i just talked to one of the assistants for the mission about 2 minutes ago and he told us that tomorrow we are going to receive another brasilian visa waiter. back to a trio! which is actually really nice because with a third missionary we are allowed to enter the homes of single women. apparently, E. ramos wanted another one haha, so we're getting on!) i usually try to forget about the visa. last week i made a list of 5 things that i'm going to forget about, one of them was my visa. it's not always easy, but when we're busy, i never think about it.

 

this weekend has been really amazing. we had a baptism on saturday. i might have mentioned her before, she is an older sister who was referred to us from the ward immediately after we arrived here. we started meeting with her that week and she was baptized yesterday. it was so incredible because she says she has been waiting for her baptism since 1987! isn't that crazy? there is just such a sweet and pure spirit at baptisms. i never noticed it before my mission. but baptisms have easily been the most peaceful moments of my mission. sundays are usuallly crazy busy (i got to pass the Sacrament yesterday! haha) and so it's harder to feel that same peace. and i havent been able to go to the temple yet, so baptismal services are just amazing. i never want them to end. i'm starting to notice something about the nature of baptisms. that is, missionaries really do very little to bring them about. of course we call people and schedule the buildings and help people pick a date, and yes, we usually offer the invitation, but the truth is that God is the One preparing these people for their baptisms. it's been amazing to witness, especially after some of the miracles of this weekend (which i'll mention in a second). The Spirit has already been working with these people and one way or another, they get in contact with missionaries, and that's when the dance begins. and if the investigators keep acting in faith, keep listening to the holy ghost and the missionaries don't get in the way of the Spirit, they will eventually receive the blessings that God has in store for them, which comes through baptism. man, every time i write an email i feel like i can only communicate about 30% of the meaning that i want to say, but i just don't know how to do it. I'm sorry, fam.

 

so let me tell you about some of the miracles that God poured out yesterday. It started with the confirmation of the sister that was baptized on saturday. She was confirmed by a man in the ward who just came back from inactivity and who has been teaching this sister with us. that whole story with him is a miracle in itself too. being able to stand in the circle and listen to this man perform such a sacred ordinance for a sister who has been waiting for 24  years was just incredible. miracle. this man has become one of my favorite people that i've met on my mission, i consider him a great friend. then, after that Sacrament meeting, e. ramos and i went to different parts of the chapel to talk to two different investigators who were in that ward. one is the daughter of the recent convert woman and the other was a referral from the ward that has been really difficult to meet with, so we really wanted to catch them both before they left. I met with the latter, and after 2 and a half weeks of struggling to make an appointment, this young woman and her mother (a less active member) told us we could come over that night! miracle. she has never met with the missionaries, but she has already born her testimony at church, and she already wants to be baptized. double miracle. (like i said, God is already preparing His children to be happier, one of the biggest responsibilities of missionaries is to not get in His way. it's so true. we're trying haha.) meanwhile, e. ramos is talking to the other lady, who agreed to meet with us on tuesday, our second meeting with her since we arrived. boom, miracle. we go to another building with another ward, where we talk to the mother of a 9 year old boy who we're teaching. they all want him to be baptized, he wants it, and we want to make it happen for him. the only problem is that the person who is supposed to perform the baptism for him (his uncle) has been really difficult to work with, especially since we've never been able to talk with him directly. but this boy's mother agreed to give us the grandmother phone number so that we could get the uncle's number from her. i know, it's confusing haha. miracle. in the same ward there are two young kids who have been coming to church with their mother who want to be baptized, but again, it's been tough to work out a time to actually sit down with them. all of a sudden, on sunday, their mother is super receptive to us, she talks to the bishop and both of the kids are preparing for baptism in a few weeks. miracle times two. remember that family that i went on about last week? the one i compared to the carpenters? we've been trying to catch them at home throughout the week because we got bought a picture frame at wally world and put The Proclamation in it and we've been wanting to deliver it to them. last night they were home! we had a great discussion with them and the wife told us that she had seen the Proclamation in her parent's house and she actually wanted one of their own. well now they do. bam, miracle. there are even more, but i dont have time for all of them, so i'll just mention one more miracle.... i'm learning....i think i'm actually changing...miracles.

 

i don't have a lot of time, but i also wanted to mention that we just had zone conference on friday. it was the first one i had ever been to and i didnt know what to expect, but it was just awesome. the day was filled with learning and training and snacking on pretzels and practicing and feeling the Spirit. and i wont explain it in this email, but zone conference ended with one of the greatest spiritual experiences i've ever had. It was one of those times when God lets one of His children know that He loves them, but this time it happened to me. i'll never forget it.

 

 

So, thank you, family, for making that happen. i love you all. thank you so much for all the support and the prayers, i dont want to think about what it would be like with those things or without all of you. stay strong and be happy. part of our covenant is to endure to the end, it's just as important as faith, repentance, baptism, and the Holy Ghost. i'll try to remember that if you do too. i love you all so much.

 

sincerely,

 

E. Jonathan Todd Rogers

 

P.S. Dad, happy 30th birthday this saturday. i'll be thinking about you, and i'll say a special prayer for you. it will probably mostly just be me thanking God for letting me be your son. I love you more than I know how to describe.

sorry, posted a week late

Thank you for the emails! I really look forward to them! Since transfers I'm in a new zone so our weekly meeting is on Thursdays now, so that's the new mail day, so I actually wasn't able to get that package, but that means it will most definitely be there this week. Thank you SOOO much! I can't wait for it! Speaking of, I will probably be sending home another package with some things that I would like to keep, but things that I don't need in brasil or things that I don't know if I can spare in the baggage. I'm sorry again because there really isn't anything I can buy here to include as gifts for you. To be honest with you, the wal-marts here in salt lake are quite similar to the one in spokane and therefore my market doesn't have many things that I think you would find cool. I could however include a university of utah bottle opener...I promise I'll make up for it in brasil!

 

Speaking of Brasil, (no, the visa is still m.i.a.) but we met a lady from Santa Maria at church, could it be a sign?? probably not haha. I think I let myself forget that the Lord has a purpose for having me here. When I forgot that, it made things more difficult, but I've been better at remembering that the past few days. I don't know what the purpose is, and I really might never know what it is, but that's where faith bridges the gap right? I still haven't done the electronic part, just so you know. That's about all I know haha. But, we received two portugues referrals this weekend and we're going to contact them tonight or tomorrow, so that will be really exciting. I'll be able to see E. Ramos really shine, but then again, he's always on his game. Let me say a little bit more about E. Ramos...now that I think about it, maybe the reason I'm in Salt Lake is so that I could learn from him. I'm so lucky to be able to work with him. He is so driven and so organized and so good at being a missionary. We had a really cool experience this weekend.

 

So we were tracting a little bit in an apartment complex (we cover a lot of complexes, it's just the kind of area we're in) and we met a young woman who had just had surgery and wasn't feeling very good, she also told us that she was a member and had served a mission herself. She told us a story from her mission and gave us some advice, advice that I think I was really needing that day. and she told us that she had a feeling that we were going to find someone today. It was one of those times that I was really glad that we knocked on that door. So we went on. And we left the complex. later in that day, we went this little culdesac of four really nice houses tucked away in the corner of some apartments and duplexes. We started knocking. Door one: nobody home...door two: not interested. door three: nobody. door four: Not interested, but he took so long in telling us that he wasn't interested that while he was talking to us, a car pulled into the driveway of house number one, and he pointed to the car and said in a suddenly, slightly more friendly way, "Them! They need a lesson!" A young couple got out of the car and laughed. the wife said, "yeah, my husband needs a lesson." Door four took the opportunity to close the door and we started talking to young couple. we helped them take in their groceries and they invited us in. We started talking and she told us that she doesn't go to church anymore, and that her husband is catholic. Their 2 year old son obviously isnt too concerned yet. But then she invited us over for dinner on Sunday! Which was a miracle because we actually didn't know what we were going to do for dinner that night anyway, and we don't get random dinner invitations from people, members or non-members, very often. We had a great time talking with them on saturday and I was SOO excited to go back on sunday. This is just one of those families that you can't help but love (like the Carpenters haha) and you just love being in their home. This is the second time on my mission where I just had this immediate love for someone we met. This is a family that could change so many lives in the Church, not to mention their own. It's a family that already wants to be together forever. The love that they have for their son is just incredible. There are soo many blessings waiting for this family! E. Ramos and I just have to do our jobs as missionaries and step out of the way of the Holy Ghost. If the Holy Ghost touches this family, so many lives will be effected! It's so amazing, so exciting. I can't wait to see them again.

 

Family, I'm doing well. Like I've probably said many times before, I'm learning so much every day. 

I can't even really describe it, but I'm so lucky to be on a mission. It's not always a walk in the park (sometimes it literally is a walk in the park, but metaphorically, it rarely is), but what an amazing experience a mission is. like Bruce R. McConkie said, "How great is my call!"

 

I love you, family. Pray for me, and I'll keep praying for you.

 

E. Rogers

Back in the Valley (Utah Valley, that is) : )

Well my stint in Wyoming was fun, but it's over now. Basically everyone in the mission came back to one building for transfers on Wednesday. It's cool when the whole mission gets together because I get to see the Elders from the district in the MTC. E. Powell (my MTC companion) is amazing, all of the Elders in his district don't want him to leave to Brazil, they want to keep him. So let me tell you how tranfers unfolded. The mission is split up into zones, and each zone has two desinated zone leaders. At transfers the zone leaders (standing in the parking lot) hold up a poster board with the names of everyone in their zone and their companions. So once they hold up the posters everyone runs around trying to find their name. I got lucky, mine was on the first board I saw. Guess who my companion is.............his first name is Elder.......his last name is Ramos! Sound familiar? It should, because we were in the trio together before. I'm not sure I gave you a sufficient idea of how great E. Ramos is. I couldn't have asked for a better companion. It's common for only one companion to move out of the area so that after transfers someone is familiar with the area, so E. Dodge is still in our old area and E. Ramos and I are in an area just south of that old area. I think with all of these visa waiters the have enough missionaries to spread them out a little bit more than usual, so E. Ramos and I inherited a part of two different stakes that used to belong to the other Elders in those respective stakes. I don't feel like I explained that very well...Oh and E. Ramos is still designated over the Portuguese branch. So this week has been really exciting because everything is so new to us, but we both want to work hard to do what the Lord expects of us.

 

It's been cool to get to know the leadership in the wards. Let me tell you a little bit about Bishop Jenne. I don't know him really well, but in the little bit of time that I've had to spend with him, he reminds me a lot of Brother Shoemaker, aka, he's awesome. I'm really excited to work with him. When I was talking to him on Sunday, it came up that I was a visa waiter, and it turns out that he works in the missionary department of the church! He told me that there are about 140 missionaries waiting on visas in the world right now. Isn't that crazy? I figure at least 10% are in this mission. And he said that when he gets the report this week about visas, he'll let me know if he sees my name. So that's pretty cool. I've been trying to fight it but I find myself thinking about Brasil more now than I did in the previous three weeks. It might be because I'm trying to speak more Portuguese with E. Ramos. I don't know what the weather is like in Spokane but it seems like it got a lot colder here right after General Conference, which is a huge blessing because we wear suit coats full time now. There is snow on the mountains and it's so fun watch E. Ramos talk about snow. He's never seen it snow, he's never touched it, he seems to be one of the few people who is really excited for winter around here. As for me, I'm loving the fall-like weather we have. Fall is by far my favorite season. It just feels so special...so good to me. And that means we have Halloween and Thanksgiving coming up!

 

I'm learning a lot with E. Ramos. Because it's just me and him now, I get to do a lot more, which leads to a lot more learning. It's been really cool to notice the difference between how I felt knocking doors on September 13th and how I feel now. In September, I had no idea what to say and I was on the verge of peeing my pantaloons. But now that it's October, I actually still have no idea what to say when my fist hits the door, but at least my bladder is under control now. It's really quite an adventure knocking on doors. I've learned that it doesn't do me much good to procrastinate the knocking. Whatever planning I try to do ahead of time amounts to nothing. I don't think I realized that I could be a missionary and still have normal conversations with people, even as E. Ramos and I talk about the Gospel. I don't think I really believed the promise that if I opened my mouth, I would be given the words to say. Elder Bednar gave a talk that said something about this. He said that some people get it backwards, they wait for the words to say before they are willing to exercise the faith and open their mouth. That was/is me. Just like what my beautiful Seminary teacher Mother taught me, I have to move my feet before the Lord can direct my steps. So, here's what a common doorstep approach might look like: E. Ramos looks at me, indicating that it's my turn. I turn off my brain and just knock. Then I turn my brain back on, hopefully it starts back up before they answer the door. They answer, there are many possible attitudes that could they could manifest, and E. Ramos and I scramble to show them that we are not hostile, nor alien, nor babbling idiots. It's a tough job. But it's exciting. Sometimes the contact is less than successful, sometimes people just want to be polite, and some people really seem to be interested. It's an adventure with ups and downs.

 

The zone leader in Wyoming told me something that I like. He told me that the people we talk to are more afraid of us than we are of them. It reminds me of what Scout leaders tell Deacons on their first campout when they are afraid to go to sleep. But I thought about what he said, and it really makes sense. A lot of the people we talk to here know exactly who we are, and it's fun to see people avoid us as we walk down sidewalks. I've had to wrestle with a tough thought. I wonder why it is so dang hard to share the gospel with people. I mean, it's true! It's REAL! It will change your life! I know that, but they might not. Why do they almost literally run away? Why do they shut doors in our faces wihtout listening to us? Of course, it's their right to do that, and we respect that right, but what the heck is so grotesque about our faces that turns them off so suddenly? I don't get it. The zone leader in Wyoming gave me a copy of a talk that Elder Holland gave in the MTC a few years ago. It's called "Teach the Atonement", it's an amazing talk. There was one or two paragraphs that talked specifically about this question that I have been having. I don't have the talk with me, but I'll try to capture the meaning, but the unique Holland flavor will certainly be lost. He said, you'll have days on your mission when you wonder why people aren't lined up on your door step in the morning, dressed in white, waiting to be baptized. He said he wondered the same thing. But he came to the conclusion that Salvation is not cheap. It was certainly not cheap for the Savior. If we are to claim that we are representatives of Him, and that we accept His Gospel, we better have some evidence of it. We better have some bitter moments of our own. Our own experiences in "Gethsemane". Make no mistake, He suffered the Infinite Atonement for us, but that does not mean that the rest of our lives will be easy. But Imagine what it would be like without our Savior. Actually, don't do that, don't imagine something that dark and awful. But there is good news. It's the Gospel. It's Jesus Christ. Life is tough, but it's worth it.

 

About the carry-on bag, you can send it to the mission office, which is the address I gave you before. Thank you, Mom! Also, could you post something on the blog about how thankful I am for everyone's letters? And tell them that I'm sorry that I haven't been able to respond to any of them? Today is actually my first regular p-day in the mission and it looks like I might only be able to get one letter out...I wish it wasn't so, but pois e.

 

Well, I just found out that we have to get off.

 

I love you all. Thank you so much for everything.

 

Love,

E. Rogers

Pics from Conference

                                              I took this at dusk.  The lighting was perfect!

                                  Me, Jon, Ricole and Michael... don't look at my puffy eyes!

                                                        I think this is my favorite one!

More later.   : )

In Wyoming!

When I received my mail last Friday, one envelope came from Ricole, which included a note from Michael, meu cunhado. He shared something with me that really hit me in the heart. Something like, Greater love hath no man than this, that a man layeth down his life for his friends. I never thought about this scripture in a missionary sense before, but I might just be one of the most important things for me to do right now.  I had a wonderful life before my mission, pretty much the best in the world, but it was a life that is very different from the life that I've committed to the Lord that I would live now as an Elder. I have a lot of changing to do, in the sense that my faith and my reliance on the Lord must become more real, more substantial, more powerful. My discipline and obedience must improve. I could go on and on, but I won't waste the time. Besides, I know that if I go on for too long, I might sound like I'm complaining and that I need consoling. I don't. I have what I need. I have a relationship with my Heavenly Father. This is something I was thinking about last night as we were driving back from General Conference. 

 

Let me tell you about this drive. We weren't going back to my area in Salt Lake. In fact, I'm in Wyoming right now. Kemerer, Wyoming to be more specific. At 2pm today we're going to meet the Zone Leaders in Lyman, where I will be partnered with one of them. On Saturday night after conference, the Assistants to the President called and told E. Dodge to have me pack everything up because after the last session on Sunday, I was going to drive up to Wyoming, where I was going to be fill a gap left by an Elder who is going home this week. This is temporary though, because Wednesday is transfer day, so we'll drive back to Salt Lake for that, and I could be assigned anywhere in the mission after that. I don't think visa waiters serve in Wyoming very often (or at all) because it's so far from the Airport if a visa were to suddenly come through. President Winn said I'm the first visa waiter to serve in Wyoming. But today is p-day and then I'll put in a full day tomorrow and then back to SLC, so it's adventure for me. It's really quite fun and exciting.

 

So I'm in the Kemerer Library right now. Sometimes I don't understand why I'm so happy. If I think about the very vagabond lifestyle that I seem to be living, and the very interesting trailer that we slept in last night, and some other things like that, I'm not sure I would've been so stinking happy if that was my life a year or two ago. But then I think about the missionaries in the Book of Mormon, especially Alma and the Sons of Mosiah. Their examples, their experiences, and their teachings mean SOO much more to me now that I'm a missionary. While I always appreciated and enjoyed their accounts, I LOVE them now. Their missions were almost unthinkably difficult. Their life was at stake all the time! I might have 4 little pomeranians chasing me sometimes, but I've never feared for my life. It's interesting to hear those missionaries speak about their joy, their fulness of joy. I never understand what that meant. I think I'm starting too. When I woke up this morning in my proselyting clothes (I didn't feel like bringing my bags in from the truck and unpacking, because I'll be sleeping somewhere else tonight haha...), but anyway, when I woke up, I was just happy. Just happy. There was one of those days in the MTC that I remember specifically too. Just happy. When I wake up in the morning, and I go to pray, my brain is still a little fuzzy, but I always try to remember to thank my God for letting me be on a mission. 

 

Although not every moment is fun or easy, there is nothing I want to do more than to please my Heavenly Father. My relationship with Him has grown so much since I came into the field. I'm not sure that I'm learning a lot of new things about Him, because I've been taught about His nature for my whole life, but now all of those things that I was taught, all of those things that were in my head, are now being learned in my heart. I don't think I ever understood the difference between those two kinds of knowledge. It reminds me of the analogy Ms. Ringold used in English class. When she was trying to teach us how to write, she wanted us to go very in-depth about a few, powerful points, and not to glance on many irrelevant points. She reminded us of the difference between a body of water that is an inch deep and a mile wide and one that is an inch wide and a mile deep. Geologically speaking this is probably nonsensical and means absolutely nothing, but I think it helps to illustrate how I'm growing. I've always "known" in my head that God loves me, that He answers prayers, that faith works miracles, and that His angels are round about to bear us up. I already knew those things in my head. But they are making their way down into my heart now, and I'm starting to really know them, the kind of knowing that doesn't require quotation marks around it. What a blessing it is to serve God as a missionary, because now I know in my heart that He's real. Now I know He is my Heavenly Father and now I know that a mission is the best thing for my life. Now I know that there is a difference between knowing something in your head and in your heart. That pathway from head to heart is paved by faith. 

 

I think something that I read from Elder Andersen while I was in the MTC has really changed my mission and consequently, my life. He said that faith is not just a feeling, it's a decision. I know I've shared that before, but it means so much to me. There are so many reasons in the world not to believe. It would be so easy. We do not have to look for reasons to doubt. Those reasons naturally come to us, at least, they do to me. But add my testimony to Elder Andersen's by saying that faith is a decision, and life is too short to doubt, to fear, to choose anything that seperates us from God. Wasn't that a great talk yesterday that reminded us that we are free to CHOOSE between eternal life and death? It's a choice. I don't know what will happen if we procrastinate that choice but I don't know why I would want to find out. And the cool thing is that the blessings of the Gospel aren't only enjoyed after we die. Every blessing in my life, every single good thing has come from God. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is one of those blessings from God. He gave it to us because He wants us to come back and live with Him with a fulness of joy.

 

I feel like I'm rambling. I'm sorry. Those are just some things that have recently trickled into my heart. You probably would like to know more about what's going on with me, but the truth is that I don't really know what's going on with me haha. I don't know where I'll be tonight or tomorrow, or where I'll be assigned to serve on Wednesday. But I promise you that you don't have to worry about me, because the Lord takes care of those who trust in Him and who lean not unto their own understanding. I've been trying to do a lot of that. He'll take care of me. I know in whom I have trusted and I will trust in Him forever. That line comes from 2 Nephi 4, probably my favorite chapter in the Book of Mormon. That reminds me of a story about that chapter, two in fact. One of them was my own story, and how I came to love the chapter, but the other has to do with a woman that we've been teaching. She is really struggling. Especially with alcohol. Last Sunday, we went by to see her and we read 2 Nephi 4 and I shared my story. As of Friday, she hadn't taken another drink since that night. Those five days have been a miracle for her. Like Bro. Heaton said in the MTC, as missionaries, we have front row seats to the greatest show on Earth. God is at work among His children, bringing to pass their eternal life. I mean that.

 

This conference was amazing wasn't it? God has called prophets and apostles. He speaks to them. That means that whatever they tell us is what God wants us to know. I am specifically thinking of Pres. Uchtdorf's talk. President Uchtdorf receives revelation from God, and President Uchtdorf told us that our Heavenly Father wants us to know that we matter to Him. If God is telling President Uchtdorf to tell us that, that means that we are forgetting how much we matter to God. We must be forgetting that we are literally His children. Imagine how much that pains Him as a Father. His kids are forgetting how much they matter to Him. That's why He told a prophet to remind us. It's true. He loves us, and He is intensely concerned with our lives. And just like the $.29 piece of chicken story, what matters to us, matters to Him. Isn't that what a father does?

 

Rambling again...sorry.

 

Mom, you are my rock. You are the reason for why I am who I am.

 

Dad, you are my hero. You are my motivation and my pattern for who I want to be.

 

Violet, you had a tough job being the oldest, but you did it perfectly. I should say you still DO it perfectly. I admire everything about you, except for how you kept a certain secret from me recently...haha

 

Ricole, what the heck...you would be perfect if you hadn't waited for me to leave so that you could get married. That brings you down to a 109 on a scale of 100 of awesomeness. I have to think that the name "Ricole" must mean sunlight or brightness or brilliance or happiness or something like that in a language that hasn't been discovered yet. I can believe that.

 

Mitch, you're always last on the list, but you're first in my heart. Anyone else but you would probably go googly eyed for that sentence, but I bet you're laughing at how corny they sound to you. That's one of the many things I love about you. But take away all the corniness...take me seriously for a second...you're my best friend. I could've been a much better brother and example to you, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for any and all of the times that I put something ahead of you. I can't believe how stupid I was to not take advantage of all the time I had with you. You have got to be the greatest human being I know. You might not be a doctor yet, but when you walk into my room, you will always immediately have my attention and respect, and I will acknowledge you as the smartest person in the room. Mitch, was it me or did this conference seem to have a lot about missionary work? Maybe I'm biased. As you prepare for you mission, you'll hear a lot of ideas, like study Preach My Gospel, go on splits, mow the lawn (this one will probably come from Dad), memorize scriptures, etc. These are all good. They're all great, in fact. But one of the talks this weekend gave a few suggestions and the first one was "Gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon". That's the most important thing you could do in my opinion. Do it however you want to do it, testimonies are unique to every person, and they will develop in ways that are just as unique. I'm trying to do the same. I suggest it to you because it's what I'm working on right now and I think that if you work on it now, you'll be ready to work miracles as an instrument in God's hands when the time comes. I've always felt like you're ahead of me in my own life. I personally like it this way. Being older, I get to bully you and beat you up, but as the less wise one, I get to learn from you. Best of both worlds, queue Hannah Montana. Bro, I love you. Be happy, Life's too short to be any other way.

 

Sincerely,

 

Elder J. Todd Rogers

 

P.S. Thanks for the updates on your own  lives. Keep 'em coming, please! I might not have time to say a lot about them, but I really look forward to them!