What could possibly go wrong?

Nothing could possibly go wrong here.

The last two weeks have been fraught with technical challenges for TMFKATB and our email exchanges. One, they are not turning up until later in the afternoon and two, it looks like he is not going some of our responses to his letters, nor us his. So that's not been cool. As a result, I was on a train into the City this past Monday by the time his email started rolling in. As I've noted before, the Blogger app and I are not friends so I wasn't going to try and post while I was in the City. Hence, the delay in getting this week's letter posted.

His letter was short on detail, which was kind of frustrating, given the current technical brouhaha we're encountering. That said, it was evident that he's really enjoying the leadership opportunity he's been given. He and his companion are working hard and he's positive in his attitude. They had to give a family they'd just started teaching to another set of missionaries when they discovered that the family lived outside their assigned teaching area. That can be a real drag but rules are rules. His take on it was this: 'Sometimes we reap and sometimes we sow!'

One of the pictures he included, which is the one that leads this post, made me laugh. What could possibly go wrong here? I think it's safe to say that neither is a skilled barber and yet here is TMFKATB getting a free haircut. From the sequence of the other pictures, it's really hard to tell if there was a before and after. But again, what could go wrong?

I know what could go wrong. I lived it. When a Peruvian lady tells you she went to finest school of barbering in all of Lima and she can cut your hair, just say no. Learn from my mistakes. Because I said yes to that offer thirty years ago when I was a missionary. Red Flag #1 - the fact that she cut my hair in the courtyard of her apartment complex on Miami Beach. Red Flag #2 - the fact that she didn't use a single mirror. Red Flag #3 - the fact that she uttered a Spanish curse word that I couldn't understand about midway through the hack cut. Red Flag #4 - the fact that she left the top completely untouched, leaving me with a modified 'Flock of Seagulls Go On A Mission' (it was 1986, people) look. Upon return to our apartment, I went to wash my hair and discovered why she'd left it long. It was to cover the multiple bald spots she'd left on the side of my head. Seriously. Um...thanks. My only recourse was to shave my head (professionally!) into a crew cut. No good came from it. None. You've seen how I look with a hat on. It's exponentially worse with a crew cut.

Let's not speak of it again.

A late start

An effective reminder that it's colder for
him in the Zion Curtain than here in the 'Stan

TMFKATB has been really good about his weekly letters being sent at the same time every week. It's rare that he deviates and when he does, it's weird and it seems to send our schedules into disarray. Today's letter was one of those that arrived quite a bit later than normal. Fortunately, the reason for his tardiness was simple (in his own words, 'lazy') and not concerning, like being hospitalized when he was in Mexico.

Not only was his letter a little later than normal, it was pretty brief. He'd had a busy week and saw blessings come into the lives of some of the people they've been working with, so that made a busy week even better. There's some buzz in his mission about a worldwide meeting for all missionaries on the 20th of this month as everyone is trying to figure what it might be about.

He's managing the cold and snow. Funny that our climates have switched completely. We have yet to experience any real snow to speak of and he's seen more in the last month than he'd like to see in a year's time. Through it all, though, he's got a positive attitude, still happy to be learning and growing. It's a good perspective to have as the new year dawns.

Not the Three Tenors

Three missionaries and a family of three

With this week's letter from TMFKATB, he filled us in on what it's like to be training two missionaries at the same time. It is something of an unusual situation, as typically Mormon missionaries work in pairs (because you've seen two of them at your door or two of them on their bikes), or companionships as they are known in the vernacular of the Church. That is, as I said, the typical situation and, of course, TMFKATB finds himself on the outside of typical.

Six weeks ago, he started training a brand-new missionary. Normally that training lasts for two transfers, as these six weeks period are known. Last week, TMFKATB learned he'd be training again - another brand-new missionary - but that young man would join as a third. So the duo becomes a trio. The Three Tenors they are not. But just as Jose, Placido, and Luciano had to learn their voices, these three are learning to do the same. They are learning to blend their voices (in another language) and their styles of teaching as well as their desires to serve their fellowman. As he put it, "It's going to be interesting." I'm confident he'll make it work.

As I've noted before, it's been quite an experience as a father to be taught by my son as he serves this two-year mission. He and I were going back and forth about a challenge (albeit a minor one) that has been vexing me and out of nowhere, he popped off with the following:

Maybe God just wants to work even harder than you are to do this. You can do much harder things. You got this. Think positive.

He didn't cure cancer with that statement, nor did he explain why the awful Kardashians are a thing (only Satan himself can do that). What he did was state simply what I needed to hear. Am I ever glad for the simple things!