October 2025

 Hello there and welcome back.  Today we will be talking about October.  There was quite a bit happening in October.

We'll start out with a bat saga update.

The clean up people washed their hands of the whole mess, stating that they have done everything they could.  The decision was made to put up insulation and sheetrock and a new fireplace and call it good, meanwhile crossing fingers and hoping against hope that it gets rid of the smell.  Spoiler alert: It didn't.

No offense to whoever the construction people are, but I think they were the cheapest option available because let me tell you, they did some very questionable things. (Hint: You can't put anything heavier than a book on the new mantle).

After the clean up people left the scene, we started asking when the construction company would be coming over.  Crickets.  We asked again.  Crickets.  We finally got word that they would be showing up on October 13th.  

October 13th arrived and it was pushing noon before anyone showed up. I was then told that someone had ordered the wrong fireplace. An electric fireplace had been ordered!! It's a gas fireplace people!! And so I was then told that they would not be starting construction and they were just there to take some measurements, then said they would be back on either Friday or Saturday. Friday came and went, Saturday came and went, Sunday came and went, Monday came and went, and we arrived at Tuesday. It was a little before 9 am when Nathan called to let me know that they had told him that construction would begin!! I waited, and waited and waited and waited, no construction people came. One guy finally showed up at just a little before 11:30. He removed the old framing from around the fireplace, put up insulation in the Living Room, but completely forgot to put up insulation in the Sunroom. It was a 'B' day for the junior high, and on 'B' days, Meow-meow got out of school early because he did a home gym class, which means I had to pick him up from the school at 1:30. Well, at 1:30 I left to go get Meow-meow, and when I got home, the guy was gone. THREE DAYS went by and we heard nothing. Nathan called to complain and we were told by the rental company that they would find out the construction crew's schedule and let us know, but we heard NOTHING!! The one day that the guy had been there, he dumped a huge stack of sheetrock and 2 x 4's in our driveway, and this was right around the time when we were having all of those epic rainstorms. After that, we had zero clue when they were coming back, zero clue when it will be finished, and zero clue on anything. Oh, and putting up the insulation, did nothing to get rid of the smell. By this point I was losing hope that it was ever going to be done, or that the smell would ever go away.

We had been dealing with this for FIVE MONTHS to this point!! For FIVE MONTHS I had to deal with zero access to my Living Room, my half of the office was torn apart leaving me unable to access ANY of my craft stuff because it was all in boxes in my KITCHEN!! FIVE MONTHS of breathing in bat poop!! FIVE MONTHS of having to deal with a smell that I can only imagine is what the pits of hell smells like. We were well into October and I was not able to put out any Halloween decorations, and my hopes for being able to decorate for Thanksgiving were dying and I was beginning to wonder if I would even be able to decorate for Christmas. We had reached our breaking point and were starting to talk about the 'M' word. (I have three swear words: Snow, Move, and Winter). That there should tell you something about how bad the situation was! Nathan and I had seriously started talking about the 'M' word, and had even gone and looked at a couple of potential houses. We had decided that IF when they put up the sheetrock and IF it could get rid of, or significantly tone down the smell, that we could possibly hold out until the end of February when our lease ended and then do a month to month lease until the end of the school year, with the worst case possibility of just moving at the end of February.

Finally we got word that they would be coming on Friday, October 26th. I'm in the temple on Friday's, so when Nathan picked me up from the temple at 2:30, I asked him if the construction people had come by. The answer was no. We had just barely walked into the house when there was a knock at the door. Low and behold, it was the construction people. They said they were there to do some construction, but not much. They didn't do anything. What they really were there for was to show the sheetrock/framer guy where to put up sheetrock and do the framing for the new fireplace. I had to remind them that the sunroom still needed insulation as well as sheetrocked. They kept forgetting that the sunroom was a part of this whole fiasco. They were also shocked that the insulation guy didn't insulate it. We were then told that the guy would come back on Saturday and SUNDAY to do the work. I was not happy with construction being done on the Sabbath. The construction company, from what I could tell, was run by these two ladies. They had shown me a picture of what they were going to do with the fireplace, but from what I remember, the picture looked like they were going to follow the same basic pattern as the pre-existing fireplace, but just replace the rock with shiplap....

I was sorely mistaken

Two guys showed up Saturday morning.  I made sure they didn't forget to insulate and sheetrock the Sunroom

But this is what they did to the fireplace.  I was not expecting that.  I knew right off the bat that this was just going to be a bad idea.  Oh, and when they pulled back the plastic sheeting that was sealing off the room from the rest of the house, they got assaulted with the smell.  One guy dry heaved and had to leave the house for a minute.

The came back on Sunday to finish the job.  You can see Nathan in his Sunday clothes helping them hang the sheetrock, which by the way is the kind of sheetrock you normally hang in a shower.  I was a bit puzzled by why they were using it here.

The only thing the accomplished was trapping the stink in that massive eyesore.  I do have to admit that the smell was diminished by all of this.  We kind of felt like we were back to where we started, with being gaslit by the house. The smell was still there, but it would randomly sneak up on you.  Sometimes I would smell it but Nathan wouldn't and visa versa.  Oh, and you could still smell it outside when the wind blows in the right direction.  Just another reason why I still think there is another source.   

Then we waited, and heard nothing about when they were coming back to finish everything. A couple of days later, the two ladies randomly showed up stating that they were there to paint. No one was really communicating anything to us. For instance, I was not made aware that they would be painting the ENTIRE ROOM. I thought they would be matching the color and only painting the half of the room where the construction had been. We had furniture and stuff all shoved up against the other end of the room so it would be out of the way of the construction. Me, Jacen, and Eilee had to scramble to get everything moved out of the way. Nathan was stuck at work in a meeting and couldn't make it over to help (see, Nathan works from home, but because we couldn't use the sunroom for most of the time, he had to find somewhere to go work. There is a work space at the Technical school that he rented space in).

When we moved into the house, there were some very, um, shall we say 70's curtains hanging from this window.  With all of the construction, they had been taken down, with zero plans of putting them back up again, thank goodness.  However, the sheetrock guy was supposed to patch up the holes.  He did not.  The ladies then had to run to the store to pick up some mud to fix the holes, which meant that they couldn't paint those spots.  They painted everything else and said they would be back the next day to finish the job.  They did not come back the next day.

A couple of days later, the guy who had done the insulation randomly showed up and said that he was there to do the painting.  He painted the spots above the window and THEN he put MASKING TAPE around the edges of this ugly box!! Then he painted it an almost imperceptibly lighter shade of depression gray.  And also, it's not like there wasn't any PAINTERS TAPE available for him, as there were several rolls of it laying around!!

Guess what happens when you put MASKING TAPE over fresh paint????

If you guessed that it would make a mess, you would be correct.  I was also left scratching my head as to why he painted the box if they were only going to cover it in shiplap.  

And now we get to Halloween. They came on Halloween to put up the shiplap and get it ready for the fireplace to be installed, and I haven't even begun to tell you about the fireplace. Don't worry though, we will get to that, after all, it is the proverbial straw that broke the camels back, but you'll have to wait until tomorrow for that part of the story.

No accent colors, just gray.  Gray walls, gray shiplap, everything is gray.  Sure the gray shiplap is a slightly lighter color of gray than the walls, but it's all just gray.  And don't get me started on the whole ugly eyesore that is now dominating the room.  It looks like the back of someone's house was swept up in a Tornado and then crashed right into my Living Room.  The minute they took out the sheetrock for the fireplace, the whole house was hit with a wave of stench.  They put up this black garbage bag in the hopes of holding back the smell.  I'll give you a hint, it didn't work.

By this point, we were very seriously considering moving and had started to look even more than we had before.

As for the rest of October?

Meow-meow had more belt testing for Taekwondo and moved up a belt

We had two home football games in October.

October 3rd we played West Virginia and beat them 38-24

If you aren't familiar with BYU, they have a confection called a Cougar Tail.  It is a giant 15 inch maple bar donut.  It is very delicious, but every now and then they up the game.  This is a Cougar tail that has been cut in half with two giant bratwursts in the middle.  Very messy to eat, but very delicious.

Gameday photo.  It was oddly warm for an October game.

Then they did an EPIC drone show.

I love going to the games!!

Over the course of the football season, there were several youtubers that came to the game to do a video on just how awesome LES (LaVell Edwards Stadium) and the fans are.  As I was watching the video from a guy who came to the West Virginia game, I noticed that he had been sitting really close to where we were sitting, and so I paid close attention to see if we randomly showed up in his video, and to my excitement, I saw that at minute marker 24:56 you could see me and Nathan making our way up to our seats.  

Ordinarily I am in my seat at least an hour before kick-off, but this was a Friday night game, and despite leaving ridiculously early for the game, we barely made it to our seats.  If we hadn't been running behind though, we wouldn't have been in the video.  However that doesn't change the fact that I am of the opinion that one should be in their seat well before the band takes the field, and win or lose, rain or snow, you DON'T leave until the game is over!!  Those tickets are expensive, and I want to get my money's worth.  I also like to get there early enough to get my food and get into my seat, and have my food consumed early enough so that I don't have to try and juggle my food while people are trying to get past me to get to their seats. 

Then, October 18th was the HOLY WAR!!  BYU vs. Utah.  We beat them 24-21

Right before heading out to the game.  I was trying to do a video of my voice before the game with the plan of doing a video of my voice after the game.

IT'S

GAMEDAY

I do love the half time show when we play Utah.  Our red, white, and blue colors are just so patriotic.

There is always a big to-do at the end of the 3rd quarter where Cosmos comes onto the field with a drum and the entire stadium goes nuts.  Well this time Cosmo was on top of the scoreboard.

Another awesome drone show

We hit turbulence

Fireworks after the game because we won.

I love a good field storming.

A different Youtuber went to the BYU vs. Utah game, and while I was watching his video, I noticed that he did a portion of his video right around the time that we would have been in the vicinity.  I didn't find me or Nathan, but I did find my mom and brother.

I guess this makes us Youtube famous, right?  No?  Well, I tried.

Eilee got her mission call, and was set apart as a missionary.  She is serving a service mission here in Layton, and doing a mighty fine job of it too.  We are very proud of her.

Meow-meow made his own costume for Halloween.

I woke up one morning with this odd bump on my forehead.  I have no idea how it got there or what I could have done to put it there, all I know is that it hurt for a couple of days.  

Then, the other day, I noticed that I now have a divot right in that spot.  At first, I couldn't figure out where in the world the divot came from, until I was going through my photos and came across the photo above.  It is a complete mystery to me.  

And yes, I realize I look very angry in both pictures.  I assure you I wasn't angry in either of the photos.  That is my concentrating-to-take-a-photo-of-a-weird-spot-on-my-forehead face.

Video chat with Jimmy shenanigans

We got a TON of rain in October.

Cocoa Bean being her adorable self.

And last but not least, News from Elder Davis, who was quickly approaching the end of his mission.

Deem street.  How cool is that!! (My maiden name is Deem)

Soooo. It's been a while since I sent an weekly letter. Before I get into my missionary life here's an update on the work!!

Miguel - my bro got BAPTIZED! What an extravagantly joyful moment. 

Joseph - he's so chill. Bro loves coming to church. He's got s few steps before baptism but he is great.

Fonzi - Fonzi is still pushing forward to baptism. He is incredible.

Angel and Ricky - they also just got BAPTIZED! They are super cool. Ricky boxes and angel is at the ripe age of 8

Nadirah - she is so close to being baptized, as I'm righting this she is in her baptismal interview. She is just a wonderful person.

Dorothy - we love Dorothy. She is so funny. This was a truck driver and loves the book of mormon. She is hilarious and is planning on getting baptized November 2nd. 

It's been great in the field. There was so much work done and so much work to do. 

Missionary miracle moment: we met this really cool guy who had pretty much the same belief in doctrine as we do and we felt the spirit very strong with him. His name was Drake and we hope to see him again. It was a miracle because we took a little short cut on our way hope and we were doing silly things on our bike which made us slower so we ran into him. 

Tender mercy: since I'm writing this during Nadirahs interview, we are having it at a chapel that holds a ward I used to serve Called the gateway ward. I got to say hi to a ton of members who I connected with and who I knew so that was such a blessing. 

Quote of the week:

"I am grateful for brother brock and i hope God can bless the johnsons and big mike and tonya mallory"

- Marcell in fast and testimony meeting

Well, Lots been around town these days. Like I said we had a few Baptisms which was just a treat. I got transfered which is good and bad. Good because it's a new area and I get to see a few new faces. I also get to know some more members. But it is unfortunate because I'm leaving some of the Greatest members I knew (the butt dialer(brother brock), bro carmany, big mike mallory, brother Jewitt, and all the other top G members there). It was such a baller ward. Saw many mighty miracle. Had good memories. My new ward is chilllio the members are sick, and there's some amazing people in the ward about to be baptized. My companion is him. Elder Porter, he's new but not like brand new, only been out 6 weeks. But he's funny and he's pretty well adjusted. I'm finishing it off right with a biking area too up in the north zone so I get to go to the Airforce base and cop some free clothes. Unfortunately it's only for 5 more weeks because this is the last transfer of my mission, but who's counting? (my mom). Buhyeah it's been good around these parts. It's been a hipity Skippy couple of weeks since my last email. It's been. Went to a multicultural event and sung at it, that was sick. General conference was fantastic. I ran over a pigeon on my bike . Went to winco to shop. Yeah, idk. Not much else to say. The work is fantastic it is majestic. It's great. serve a mission if you can. But anyways. Luv ya bye!

Here's a talk I wrote

What a great day to be here before you to speak on receiving a witness. What a great day it is to be alive. We live in a world full of great inventions. We live in a world full of fantastic Structures. Along with that we live in a population that is greater than any other time before. Because of all of these working minds and bodies around us, people come up with ideas, thoughts, philosophies. All of those result in a lot of questions and answers. I would say the most questions asked are from those who reach about the age of 5 who start asking their parents about everything. But that questioning side of us continues in our life. We seem to question everything. We are all constantly looking for answers in many different things. And a lot of us have found a variety of answers. To fully answer a question, you need to be taught the truth. You can answer a question with a lie but without truth that question will never be fully answered. But now raises the question, what is the truth? Oh how that question has been asked and asked and asked. What is the truth? What is the truth about what really is out there? Which answers to the golden questions are true? Well that's what time I am going to talk about today. I am going to talk about how I have found the truth and how you all can know with a surety that it is true. 

Like I said there's a lot of concerns we seem to have as a human race. A few of the most brought up concerns are, where did we come from? Why are we here? And where are we going? The plan of salvation questions. Along with that come primary questions such as, does God exist? Is Jesus Christ the son of God and the Savior and Redeemer of the world? Which church/belief is true and the right to follow? Is the Book of Mormon the Word of God? And many more. I love the talk titled “stand forever” . It's a BYU speech given by Lawrence E Corbridge. I love it because he talks a lot about what I talk about. I would highly recommend you listen to it. Here's how he explains primary questions:

“Not all questions are equal and not all truths are equal. The primary questions are the most important. Everything else is subordinate”

Later he says:

“If you answer the primary questions, the secondary questions get answered too, or they pale in significance and you can deal with things you understand and things you don’t and things you agree with and things you don’t without jumping ship altogether.”

Today I am talking about answering the primary questions with eternal Truths. But first let's explain what eternal truths are.

D&C 93:24

24 And truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come

I can not give a better explanation than that. So now that we know what truth is, how can we gain that truth? 

D&C 84:45

45 For the word of the Lord is truth, and whatsoever is truth is light, and whatsoever is light is Spirit, even the Spirit of Jesus Christ

Let me repeat that

The Word of the Lord, the scriptures, is truth. And whatsoever is truth is light. And light is spirit. Even the spirit of Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters this is echoed throughout the entire standard works. I will list a few times it is talked about.

1 Nephi 11, Lehis dream, the iron rod is the word of God.

2 Nephi 32:3 words of Christ teach all things.

Alma, 32, compares the word of God to a seed.

Alma 37, compares the Liahona to the word of God.

brothers and sisters. It is just that. I have experienced that. I know that to be true. These words have brought me to Jesus Christ. His words draw me unto Him. They are the truth. 

Why do we emphasize the Book of Mormon? Why don't we just need the Bible? There are so many more questions like these that we all ask. And there are so many ways I can answer these questions, but in reality these questions are secondary questions. The primary question that I can show you how to answer is, is the Book of Mormon true? And how do we just know? How can we gain such a pure knowledge of this truth that it pushes away all other doubts? 

The answer is always the same, and it always has been the same. Read the Book of Mormon with real intent, and Pray to know it is true. The very last prophet in the Book of Mormon highly encouraged us to do just that.

Moroni 10:3-5

3 Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.

4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. 

5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.

If any of you are having doubts about The Book of Mormon, I would ask you, have you read the Book of Mormon and actually prayed with real intent, real intent meaning You really want to know and you are willing to act upon the answer you receive? And if you have and you still have doubts I would like to ask, have you read it and prayed to God if it is true again? It is not a one time thing. The manifestations of the Spirit come in small and simple ways. Reading the Book of Mormon and praying to know if it is true, even if you receive a strong witness, is a life long pursuit.

The only person that is stopping you from receiving a witness is you! You are the catalyst for changing your desires to Real Intent. You are the one that decides to push past the dark temptations of the world and Grip upon the Word of God. There are no excuses, no matter your situation you will be able to read or listen to the Book of Mormon in some way. Even the scriptures promise that.

2 Nephi 27:29

29 And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness.

You have every opportunity to know if this book is true. Please don't brush past that.

My witness of what I have talked about today is this; that it is true. I have read the Book of Mormon. And I have asked God if it is true. And as I have done that over and over, I have received a witness, from the Spirit of God. And as I continue to read, I will continue to receive a greater witness. That is not all. There was one day where I had the chance to read the Book of Mormon from sun up to sun down. A day where I read the Book of Mormon all day. This was my day that I decided on which I would come to know if this book really is true. Every hour of the day I went and I prayed to know the truth. In the beginning, I felt the peaceful witness from the Holy Ghost that I always feel, although I didn't fully recognize that feeling then I do know, and what a blessing it is. I continued to read and pray. By the end of the day, in fact the last hour of my reading. I went and I opened my heart unto the Lord. I can not describe the overwhelming sense of joy that I felt. The room filled with light, a light that filled my heart, and the light was warm. There was no fear in the room, no doubt, but only pure knowledge, truth, and light that the Book of Mormon is true. That witness will forever hold me accountable, and I can not deny that witness, I know that what I felt was genuine, it was more pure than anything I have ever felt. I know that this book is true. And because I know this book is true, I know Joseph Smith was a Prophet, and that the church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints is the Lord's kingdom established on the earth again. 

If you want to know, read it, pray, and if that doesn't work, do it again. It will change your life, you will receive a witness.

A person filled with this love can not be content with keeping it to themselves. After you receive this light, you just want to share it with every living soul. I have seen that in myself, I have seen it in my parents lives. And I see it in all of you. Sharing the message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ has been the greatest gift and experience of my life. I encourage you all after you receive this witness from the Holy Ghost to share it with all who are around you. It is the gift of limitless love. 

Greatest above all I know that Jesus is the Christ. I know that he did live, and that he does live. I know because of the witness from the Spirit. I know God is our loving Heavenly Father. Please seek this witness for yourself.

Thank you all for your support. I know what the Lord has spoken is true, and I say that in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

And that is a wrap for October.