Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Peace

Well friends, I'm out for the next two years. I've been called to serve in the Texas Dallas mission, so I'll be elsewhere preaching the good word till about July or August 2011. It's been fun.

This is what I'm supposed to do, and I'm excited to go do it. The blog should remain up, and I think I've paid the domain fees for the next three years. Hopefully I'll come back and write when I get home. We'll see though.

Anyways, friends, I just wanted to post one last time before I leave. Sure, I haven't posted much this past year, but I still love the blog. It's been an important part of my growing up. It wouldn't have been possible without readers out there like you. Thanks for reading.

If you're interested in writing me, my MTC address is:

Elder Christopher John Thatcher
Texas Dallas Mission
Provo Missionary Training Center
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604

That address will work for the next eight weeks, or till about september 9. After that, if you feel inclined to write me, you can catch me at

Elder Christopher John Thatcher
Texas Dallas Mission
13747 Montfort Dr Ste 120
Dallas, TX 75240-4454

Much love folks. I'll be back in two. Peace out :)

Friday, July 10, 2009

Five Days

Do you ever wonder about unwritten blog posts? And by that I mean to say that I've been wondering about unwritten blog posts tonight. I have brief flashes of ideas, often when I'm going down some stairs. Just ideas that deserve exploration and writing, stuff that I think, "Hmm, I could blog about that..."

In the event that you've been following the blog, you'll no doubt notice that I haven't been writing about these things. That's alright, but I feel like it's a bit of a shame. Those ideas didn't really get explored too deeply by me. (That last sentence is very ugly-- 'get explored' is not a pleasant way to talk about exploration, and 'too deeply by me' is especially bad. I think that 'by me' is the ugliest part) Revision: Those ideas didn't really experience the exploration I felt they had potential for. Because of that, I didn't experience the exploration that could have come from it. Because I didn't write it here, I lost out on a lot of potential gains.
  • I could have learned something about myself, or at least about how I percieve the world.
  • I could have left something here for me to come back to later. Without writing, there is no permanent record of having that thought.
  • I could have produced something that may have been valuable to someone else.
Of course, none of those bullets are guaranteed. I could write a full post every time that I felt like I had potential for it, and I could perchance never experience any of those successes. Be that as it may, I feel like the potential is there.

I don't mourn the loss of the posts that I didn't write. I do wonder about a future where I would have written those posts. How would things be different if I sat down and worked for that hour it takes to write?

I'm out of here in five days. I'm going on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. This is something I've been preparing for for all of my life, and I'm very happy and excited to go. I'm out of here for two good years. I don't regret my decision to pack up and peace out of my local life at all.

It does present a lot of cool opportunities. Sometime before I leave I'm going to write myself my "welcome home" letter. It's a letter that'll detail the plans that I have for myself when I get home. Writing the letter means that I'll have to make a plan for myself. It's not every day that you get to check out of your life for two years. It's sort of like a recess. Go somewhere else, work like you've never worked before, and then come back and make your life the best you possibly can. This project, my life, that I've been working on for the past 19 years is about to take a time out. Timeouts are a great opportunity to reevaluate and gather the resources and vision to come back stronger. Timeouts change the outcome of games, you know. I'm excited to take a timeout.

Will you be hearing from me before I leave? I sure hope so. I want to write a post about my plans and dreams. There's more to say. There'll always be more to say.

Will you hear from me once I'm home? I'm not sure yet. This blog did something wonderful for me and my life... I don't know if I'll have the same need for a blog once I resume my life. We'll see, though. I believe in all of this writing mumbo-jumbo. It's been good to me.

This is Christopher Thatcher, peacing out for the night. Peace and love, friends.