May your spirit reside with .......

Kelly has pretty vivid nightmares, not often, but they do happen. Last night was one of those nights. When one of these nightmares occurs we generally say a prayer together to calm her down and then we can get back to sleep.

I am not a heavy sleeper and I struggle to fall asleep when it is light outside, so I take Advil PM to help me get to sleep. The only side effect that I have is that I have more vivid dreams, they are not scary but instead are weird.

So last night when Kelly had her nightmare, I offered to pray. Unbeknown est to me I fell asleep and back into my dream as I was praying. After a brief pause I said the following. "My your spirit reside with.... all those that are associated with the circus.....darn squirrels".

In my dream the elephant show at the circus was in the ring and they had gotten scared by the squirrels that had gotten loose and were running a muck at the circus.

A Small Piece of America.....

As we approach the Fourth of July I have been humbled by the recent string of celebrity deaths. I realize that many people die every day in odd situations and circumstances and that just because someone is a celebrity should not give them priority over anyone else that has passed away in the last seven days.

A part of me is sad because part of American culture is gone. It might be said that the people that have passed away this week were not perfect people, but no one is. This all hit me today as I heard about the passing of Billy Mays. My wife and I have been loving the Discovery channel show about him and Anthony Sullivan. The show was not only entertaining, but eye opening. Billy was a man of the people, but was a family man first. He was not perfect, but was trying to be better. You could see this effort to be better on the show.

Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcet, Billy Mays and Ed Mcmahon were all people that helped to define what is best American culture and the way of live. Some of us make music, some of us model clothes and are advocates for cancer survivors. Billy helped normal everyday people achieve their dreams, who hasn't wanted some help to achieve their dreams? What Billy did may not equal to the same fame and fortune as MJ or Farrah, but for those of us that know even a little bit about Billy, know that your bowl of cereal at 3:00 AM in front of the TV will not be the same without Billy Mays. My thoughts and prayers go out to all of friends and especially his family.

I hope and pray that someday......someone (even myself) will build upon that small piece of the foundation that it means to be American that Billy Mays started.

Busiest Semester Ever!

Pictures will come soon, but Kelly and I finally took the leap into owning a home. It has been 3 weeks and we are slowly starting to love our little place. I am constantly fighting the battle against crab-grass, and am slowly winning.

Between, School (3 weeks left), work, and having a funny little 3 month old at home I have no more time to write. My next post will have lots of pictures.

Mission Stuff

On August I will have been home from my mission 3 years. It is crazy how time has passed from such a great time in my life. I was just minutes ago looking through my mission stuff and found my "letter's binder". It includes all of the letters that I got on my mission, even if they were good or bad.

I want to start by thanking my sister, Staci. She knows knew me better than anyone else then. She never questioned my choices or pushed her ideas onto me. She was the perfect example of faith, in a time in her life where she was going through her own hardships. She needs to know that I will be always be grateful for her always positive letters.

This might sound like I am dissing anyone else that wrote me, this is not true. I always appreciated the mail that I got and they were always full of support. Some were very opinionated, but we are Visser's and it is in our blood to be so. The part that made me laugh out loud was that there are a number of stories, that led to these opinions being shared and causing tension. It all started with the use of my money. One event forever changed the letters that I got on my mission because this event forced me to use the remainder of my mission money on a necessary tool. I will not divulge the story, and have told it to very few people and told no one while I was on my mission.

I will admit, in High School I spent my money like an idiot! This habit was quickly kicked when I got home from my mission (all except for my first bike which I bought on credit and then quickly sold). My seemingly "unwise" use of money was a frustration for everyone. My parents graciously gave me spending cash each month to make up for this money shortage and I owe them many thanks. This did not stop the letters full or financial advice from coming. When I would get these letters, I would not like them. So when I would write letters on P-day I wanted to write happy letters, so I would start by writing letters to the "girl". After writing her letter first each week I would then write everyone else. It was hard to not let this "girl" influence my letters home to my parents and friends. So this would start a vicious cycle of letters from my family that would be about money to letters about the "girl", repeated twice a month. All of this came from me abstaining from telling one story. Now, I ask myself it it was worth it? Yes it was.

Many people, not only my family were afraid that I was losing focus and had too many distractions. They might have felt that way for awhile but eventually those fears were quieted when I was blessed to participate in 10 baptisms (3 times the mission average per missionary). Had over 300 investigators to church in two years. Taught over 1500 lessons. Read the Book of Mormon 9 times, and Preach My Gospel 22 times. I wrote over 150 pages of trainings and talks that I still use today (these numbers are all accurate, I counted them all). My efforts on my mission led to my subsequent finding a beautiful wife and the best Mother that I know, having a wonderfully happy son, and the being able to provide for them with my single income and to be debt free, attending school and purchasing our first home.

It is true what they say, actions do speak louder than words. I really am grateful for the love and support of my family during my mission. There words of warning, as frustrated as they made me at times, were out love and care. I have great respect for all of them, and I hope to emulate the love we had in our home growing up in my own home.

Ultimate Taste Tester

For a while I thought that the ultimate taste tester would be my dad, but then I realized that the man has a carbohydrate phobia and that many great foods are made of carbs and not just MEAT, sorry Dad!

The ultimate food tester is a Dog. I know that the first thing you might think is that a Dog eats road kill, drinks water out of the toilet, and licks its own behind. These are all strong arguments. But you should be asking, what will a dog NOT eat? If a dog eats a dead bird, rather than think "gross! roadkill". Think "yum, poultry". When he drinks out the toilet, think "I should drink water from a porcelain cup".

Now lets look at what a Dog won't eat. A dog won't eat a pretzel. Why? Pretzels are gross, that is why! They might lick the salt off, but not the "thing" that is leftover. I once fed a sourdough pretzel to an angry dog on the milk route and it ran away in terror.

Carrots. I once saw a dog not eat a carrot that was covered in peanut butter. He just starred at it saying "Why ruin that perfectly good peanut butter?". I have seen dogs each celery, lettuce, and broccoli without any dressing or topping on them. So clearly it is not just vegetables they don't like. Dogs are also a good way to test the health of our diet. Many dogs do not each chocolate, soda, candy or coffee. This could also be a dieting tool.

I am not saying that there are not exceptions to every rule, including this one, but the next time someone asks you to eat something funny ask yourself if a dog would eat it?

Naps

I may not be a real member of the Visser family. I hate naps.

Every member of the Visser clan (including my wife) are all terrific nap takers. I on the other hand hate them. I will tell you why.

I loved my mission. I have spent a good amount of time this week on the phone with old mission companions, members, and converts, catching up and inviting them to Weston's baby blessing. Maybe in my digging up memories of my long lost past, I have stirred up old habits.

On your mission, every P-day is like fine chocolate. You cant eat it all at once, it will make you sick. You cant let it get too cold or too hot because it ruins the texture. It needs to be a busy day, but everything that you do needs to be fun. The biggest way to destroy your P-day is to take a nap.

I quote Pres. Evans when he was asked by a missionary is he can take naps on P-Day "You can take a nap when everyone else takes a nap, at 10:30". He was referring to lights out for sleep. Ever since this day, naps have felt like such a waste of time. What could you have done in those 30, 60, 120 minutes? I hate to think about.

This reasoning explains why I am more grumpy when I wake up from a nap rather than before I take one. I do dumb things after a nap. For example, I snapped at Kelly for wearing my pajama pants an hour ago, right after I got up from a 2 hour nap. I then cleaned the kitchen in like 10 minutes to try and make up for my lazy nap.

Dear Weston

Dear Weston,
I should be spending this time working on homework as I am behind and the semester is about to end. The last three weeks have been so exhausting, but so worth it. You are a special spirit with limitless potential. Your mother and I often wonder how we got so lucky. This short note is the first of my fatherly advice. My first point is going to be the best advice that I can give you. Listen to your mother. She is a noble person full of charity and love. She and I will always be here for you. Despite our mistakes and the ones that you will make, we are a family and are only as strong as our weakest member. I want you to be independent and able to care for yourself and your family, but never be afraid to ask for our help.
As your father I look forward to those days were you learn life's lessons about work, trust, love, and faith. You and I share a common name, just like I share a common name with my father. I would consider it one of the greatest honors of my life to share my father's name, he is a hero in many ways. I only hope that you can feel the same way about me when you have your own children. I leave with you lyrics from a song that in 20 years will do nothing but make me feel old, but describe how I feel perfectly.

When I was,
A young boy,
My father, took me into the city
To see a marching band
He said "son when, you grow up, will you be, the saviour of the broken, the beaten and the damned."
He said "will you defeat them, your demons, and all the non-believers, the plans that they have made, Because one day, I'll leave you, a phantom, to lead you in the summer, to join the black parade."
My Chemical Romance "The Black Parade"

I love you,
Dad