Evening Call with You (Valdivia), May 11, 2026

About an 83-minute evening video call. I was on the home side, Mom joined intermittently from off-camera, and you were in your house in Valdivia (moving a fridge when you picked up). A washing machine ran for much of the call and you flagged repeatedly that you could not hear well over it.

Opening, moving the fridge

You picked up while moving a fridge. I said hello. You said you would call back if needed, but stayed on.

Earlier-in-day misstep

I asked you if I was not supposed to talk about something earlier in the day. You said no, but it was fine. You said the other party had not caught on and would find out in a couple of days. You told me not to overthink it: "You didn't know. You couldn't have known because you didn't see anything. So don't overthink about it." I apologized. You said it was okay.

Mother's Day shirt

I told you about the Mother's Day shirt I got for Mom. The shirt says "I [heart] MoM," with Mom positioned so her hair fills the middle of the heart. Mom modeled it on camera. You said it was sweet and told me "good job, Dad."

My day

I said it was a day I was happy was over. The parts I liked: a view that was nice, time talking with Mom, going to the gas station with her. You said that would have been fun.

Alexa and the reason for the mission extension

You asked how Alexa had been the past little bit. I said better. You then brought up a thought you had been sitting with. You said you had been thinking about what you will do once you get home, and that you have about four months between your return and the start of school. Your stated belief: "I think one of the reasons why Jesus is making me stay on the mission and miss my first semester of school just so that I can get home and just love Alexa. I won't be so that I can get home and I can be her friend so she doesn't go off and be with dumb friends. So I think that my mission when I get home is to just love Alexa and to just show her that she doesn't need to be stupid to live." I added that part of that is helping Alexa find who she is. You agreed. You said it was a random thought you had had.

Ice cream and "six weeks to sexy"

You were eating chocolate-coated ice cream out of a Tupperware on camera and described it: normal ice cream with a chocolate covering and chocolate dripping down the sides that had frozen on. I said it looked good. You asked me how my "six weeks to sexy" was going. I said it was nonexistent and that it would turn into "five weeks to frumpy" in a moment. I told you that you looked fantastic and that you would have plenty of time at home for exercise. You said: "I threw up in my mouth a little bit when you said the word exercise." You added that you were starting a rule of not eating after 10 PM and announced on camera, "I'm so healthy. I'm eating a bowl of ice cream alone. It's not Al, it's the Tupperware."

Request for mission dates

I asked if you could send screenshots or write out the dates of your areas and transfers so I could build a mission timeline. I asked you to explain transfer-call mechanics. You explained that you get the transfer call (cambio call) and the cambios themselves happen on Tuesday. You offered to either send the transfer boards (the printed companion-photo boards published each transfer) and write it all out, or for me to take a screenshot. I told you to do whatever was easiest and quickest.

Staying in the building next to the mission home

I asked if you were going to stay in the mission home in Puerto Montt. You said no, you would be in the building directly next to it. The current occupants are the Hermana leaders of Puerto Montt, who are being transferred out so the house can be handed over to you. You have stayed in the house before and described it as nice. It is about 5 minutes from the mission home. You tried to share photos of the house and of companion boards on your screen, but they came through pixelated on my side. I said I would just figure it out and send you text messages you could react to with thumbs and emoji.

In the middle of the house photos you went on a tangent asking if I had a nail brush at home, and described what you meant ("hard, like a brush for the baling shoes"). I said we have a sponge but probably nothing like that.

Tech issues from the washer

The washing machine in your house was loud enough that you could not hear me for stretches. We tested speaking louder and you said it helped a little.

Facebook friend requests

I shared my screen and asked you to vet pending Facebook friend requests:

• Claudia Andreata (raw: "Claudia Andre beta"): a recent convert from Valdivia. You said I could accept her but did not have to.
• Jamie Frisbee and Luke Rowley: you did not recognize either. I asked Mom off-camera; Mom did not recognize them either. I deleted them.

Bottom retainer coming loose

You told us your bottom retainer felt loose. It was still in, had not poked you, and had not detached, but you suspected one of the glue points had come off. Mom told you to chew carefully on it. If it broke, Mom said, you needed to go to a dentist immediately and have it re-bonded before any teeth started moving, because once they move it means braces. Mom cited Gus as a cautionary example, someone who forgot her retainers and has not worn them in three years.

Mission timeline dictation

This was the core of the call. You told me to get out a notebook (or just something to write with) and walked me through your mission from the start, working from your phone's schedule. You corrected yourself several times as you pulled up the actual dates. The internally consistent version you landed on:

• February 9, 2025: set apart as a missionary (Home MTC begins).
• February 10, 2025: mission start.
• Thursday, February 20, 2025: arrived at the Mexico CCM.
• Wednesday, March 26, 2025: arrived at the Chile Puerto Montt Mission. You explained the reason you arrived on a Wednesday instead of a Tuesday was that the [Bayotas, see Cleanup Notes] get there on Wednesday. You spent that night in a hotel, not the mission home: "We don't stay in the Mission home here, it's always a hotel."
• Thursday, March 27, 2025: flew to Punta Arenas.

Field companion sequence (you corrected the first pass once you pulled up dates):

On the gap between companion end dates and new-companion arrivals, you told me: "The new kids, they come in later... I was with Hermana Soares until November 30 and with Hermana Juncker from November 30 until February 23. That makes it simpler, even though it's not completely true."

You do not know Hermana Figueredo's first name. The title you gave: Hermana Líder Viajera, which you translated as "Traveling Hermana Leader" or "Hermana traveler." You said the probability of the May-18-to-August-10 plan changing is "like zero."

The August 10 to September 23 stretch (your return) is unresolved.

"Grandpa missionary"

I asked if it felt surreal to talk through the whole timeline. You said: "It feels so weird because I don't feel like I've been out here for that long, but I have. I'm old." I said: "You're the grandpa missionary." You answered: "I am the grandpa missionary. It's crazy." You said you would be home in 103 days and had been out for 455.

Antibiotic, the beach, and the foot-washing line

You were on antibiotics during the call and offered me some. You talked about your day at the beach. The town was a small coastal town you struggled to spell. You asked me how to spell "nava" (Cleanup Notes: almost certainly Niebla). Hermana Fano slipped into the water and scraped up her arms and feet. You cleaned the wounds. Your wording: "I had the opportunity to be a nurse today because when Hermana Fano fell into the water, she scraped up her arms and my hands and my feet and her hands and her feet. So I got it pretty well up. It was cool, a medical emergency. Yeah, she let me clean her feet. It was cool of her, unlike Jesus." (Reference to John 13 foot-washing.)

CTR ring in Spanish

An elder gave you and Hermana Stewart a CTR ring, in the Spanish form HLJ ("Haz Lo Justo"). You described how it happened: "We asked for it, he had one, and we were like, 'My goodness, we've always wanted [one]. So are you going to give us one?' And he was like, 'What?' We were like, 'So yes.' Then he was like, 'Whatever.' Then we gave it... it works out perfect."

Teaching and finding in Valdivia

I asked if you were teaching anyone. You said you were teaching a couple of people, and that you had three people with baptismal dates "but they just don't like to listen to us. So we just never can have lessons with them. It's poopy." I asked what works best for finding people in Valdivia. You: "Here what works the best is knocking doors and references."

Why "Calle-Calle Valdivia"

I asked why the area is called Calle-Calle Valdivia rather than just Valdivia. You explained that there are two stakes in the city: the Stake of Valdivia and the Stake of Calle. I offered the analogy of Herriman vs Herriman South. You agreed.

Family update

I summarized what was happening at home: working with Natalie to help her graduate and have all of the fun life moments she wants before she graduates. You asked which fun moments. I said her senior trip to Oregon, among other things. Banter followed about the yard: Mom said she had not done a single weed since you left and had been saving them for you. I said Mom had actually been planting weeds in anticipation of your return. You asked if Mom had been waiting for your return at Bryson's birthday too.

I added that Natalie has been working hard to graduate, has been studying hard, and is close to getting her hair-cutting license.

You asked about Mason. Mom answered that Mason is not ignored but is entering middle-school age. I said I had my last Dads and Doughnuts with Mason the week prior. You asked if that was what the pictures I had sent were of. I said yes: "That was the very last dads and doughnuts I'll have." You said that was so sad. I added that Mason will be moving to middle school and Alexa to high school, so there will be no one in elementary school anymore.

You asked how Mom and I felt about that. I said: "There's so much happening right in front of us that it's hard to think about the bigger picture when we're just trying to get through the day." Mom agreed that summed it up. Mom added that we have two months to make those things happen, and then we would take care of them and go from there.

Turning 50 and a Relief Society anecdote

I said about turning 50: "I don't feel very good about it. Let's just downhill until I'm dead." You responded: "I think we're in the same stage of life right now because I'm just about to die in the mission. So I understand completely how you feel." Mom (audible off-camera) told the story of telling her Relief Society presidency, at age 25, that she was halfway through her life. The presidency was in their fifties or sixties. Mom: "It was really tacky what I said. Well, you live, you learn."

Bryson update

Mom said she has been trying to get Bryson to go to two institute classes per week and told him that if he would, he could find the girl he could marry. She made a promise on it. You asked how Bryson was doing with not being married. I said: "He has a good attitude about it. He realizes his worth. I think that he's not settling just to get married. He knows what he wants." I added that Bryson talks to Mom much more than to me; I said I rarely get any communication from Bryson, and that I said "rarely" only because otherwise I would have said "never."

Mom added that Bryson is trying to make good choices, use his time wisely, not be discouraged, and keep trying.

Bryson's major and Brother Fox

You asked if Bryson really only had one year of college left. Mom said yes, but Bryson is talking about keeping going longer. You asked what he was studying. The answer (after some confusion): financial planning. Mom clarified that Bryson had been doing financial planning the whole time; before school we had talked about accounting, but when Bryson first met with a counselor he changed it to not-accounting.

Mom laid out the career picture: a financial planner can work at a bank or for someone like Brother Fox. The problem is it takes years to build clientele up enough to make a living. Bryson would need a corporate job and treat planning as a side gig. Working in an insurance office was also possible. But, Mom said, Bryson would not be the next Brother Fox until he was an old man. Mom added that financial planning gives Bryson the social interaction with people that he likes and is good at, which accounting did not have.

The smelly shirt

You were wearing a borrowed shirt that smelled weird. You admitted it and said you would forgive whoever loaned it to you, "or if not, she knows where I sleep."

Phone working better

I asked what had changed with your phone, since it had not been having the same audio issues as in the past. You said you did not know what changed. I said I hoped the cell phone company had got their act together.

Tomorrow's schedule

I asked what your day looked like tomorrow. You said it would be super full. You said you would be busy with normal stuff for the next couple of days because you had confirmed a bunch of things. You said you preferred being busy.

Connecting with members in Valdivia

I asked if you had made connections with a lot of the members. You said yes, and that it had gotten easier as your Spanish improved. "I'm good friends with all of the [members]." You added that those are skills you will use your whole life, and that going home you will be able to order McDonald's in Spanish. I added Panda Express. You told me not to make it too hard.

Things you've learned beyond Spanish

I asked what other things you felt you had learned. You said: "I genuinely feel like a new person. My body has changed."

Pressed further, you gave a list while trying to fit your phone into a different position (your back was hurting from the angle):

1. Spanish. Real-world fluency. Connecting with members got easier as the language gap closed.
2. People skills.
3. Patience. "Learning how to not be mad when people are..." You trailed off looking for the Spanish word. I offered "retardante" ("fire retardants" / "fuego retardante"). You agreed.
4. How to be a good leader.
5. A theology of callings. "It's really just because that's where God needs them for their personality in this time. You don't get called as a bishop because you're better than someone else. You don't get called as the Relief Society president because you make better green bean casserole than your neighbor Sally. It's not because of that reason. The reason you're called to where you are is because God needs you, your specific skill set and where you are."

Mission is more for the missionaries

You brought up a conversation you had been having with Hermana Stewart: "We think the mission is more for us than it really is for the other people. We get to bless other people on the way, but really, it's about us. The most important thing is that we are able to convert ourselves so that then, years and years down the road, [we] will still be here. It won't just be like a year and a half of waste."

I responded that the more you put into mission and serving and working and learning, the more you get out, because you give yourself a chance to make mistakes, get out of your comfort zone, repent, and start over again. I extended it: every day is a new chance; memories of yesterday and ideas of tomorrow do not weigh on the present; the choices we make today set tomorrow's starting state.

You said you had been thinking something similar but lost your train of thought when you tried to articulate it.

Joy and Mercy talk

I mentioned a talk Bryson had sent that was really good. I said I would send it. The title: "Joy and Mercy." After some back-and-forth on the speaker, you resolved it: President Dallin H. Oaks. I said it was from 1991, and that "the way that he looked then is when I shook his hand." You referenced the photo I had from Hawaii. You added: "He does look softened by the years of heartache, pain, and sadness."

Spit, hygiene, and a sad boy

A brief tangent: you told someone in the house (a "sad boy") not to be in the sink and that you would give him a lift. You then asked me whether the morning I had watched you was the morning I had watched your spit come out of your mouth. I said I had seen that, but only for a minute. You added that you had to be careful with the retainer not to brush it too hard.

Noir camera and the "poser" / "opposer"

I said that earlier that day I had adjusted my work camera to black-and-white and then had AI generate a backdrop of an old private-detective office in black-and-white. You did not know what "noir" was. I explained: old black-and-white style. You pulled up the dictionary definition and read it: French for "black," used in English to describe a style of crime fiction or art "characterized by a bleak, cinematic, moody atmosphere." You added: "So like my life with Hermana Stewart."

I sent over a screenshot a coworker named Kris had taken of me at my desk during the noir camera setup. The coworker thought it was funny. You looked at it: "My goodness, dad. I like how you're not even sitting at your desk." I explained I had been "shunning" my desk, trying to summarize a meeting that had turned into people venting. I had needed to simplify the conversation to get to the root of what needed to happen, because it was 5:30 PM and I was done working. You said: "And so you're just doing your thinking [face]." I said I had not been trying to do a thinking face. I was concentrating, and was not looking at the camera because my biggest screen was elsewhere. Everyone in the meeting had laughed because it looked like I was posing. You: "That's a poser. You're an opposer."

Garage door, lights, phone charging

A short stretch of practical banter as you moved around: garage door (it had to be held down to close), phone charging, lights. I offered to turn the light on for you, then admitted I did not have Wi-Fi lights.

Email thanks

I thanked you for doing your weekly email. I asked if you had already been planning to. You said no, that you had written it after Mom's message: "I love how my mom tells me to do things you need to do emails. It's not that I don't want to. It actually is that I don't want to. I don't care enough to try if I have lots and lots of time. Normally I'll send one, but I just haven't had lots of time these past couple of weeks." I asked if you really thought it had only been two weeks since your last email. You admitted "I said too much."

"Beautiful idiot"

You asked Mom and me if we noticed you had a long neck. Mom said you looked like a dream. You said your companion had just told you you looked like an idiot. I corrected: "A beautiful idiot."

"Boyo" / "get rid of the bozo"

You held up something for me to read. I read "Boyo." Mom (audible) said: "You've got to get rid of the bozo." She clarified: not me, "her boyfriend Bozo... Dad has to get rid of the bozo." (See Cleanup Notes: subject of "her" not explicitly named.) I said: "Yeah. Yeah. It's going to happen."

Your type of guy

Riffing followed about your "type": guys who do financial planning, "especially if they have an app"; guys who got ripped on their mission and now play guitar in a band. You said this had happened.

Height check

A quick check across the family on heights, with Bryson being taller than me.

Closing

Mom said she had to go to bed. Goodnights and "thanks for talking, have a great week." Me: "Love you. Bye."

Cleanup Notes

The auto-transcript was rough. The transcription service tagged all home-side speech as either "Jason Heywood" or "Kaitlynn Heywood"; Mom was on the call but appears in the raw under those tags. Attribution in this cleaned file is based on context (e.g., retainer advice, Bryson career analysis, "get rid of the bozo" reframing came from Mom).

A running washing machine on your side made multiple stretches partially unintelligible.

Glossary corrections applied silently. Items flagged for review:

• "Bayotas get there on Wednesday." You used this term explaining why you arrived in Chile on a Wednesday instead of a Tuesday. Not in glossary. Best guess: los novatos (the rookies / new arrivals). Preserved verbatim in the body with a flag. Verify with you next call.
• Hermana Figueredo first name and surname spelling. You did not know the first name at the time of the call. Resolved post-call: full name Eleonora Belén Figueredo confirmed via her Facebook profile (befigueredo2) after the May 18 pairing.
• "Niebla." You asked me how to spell "nava" and could not produce the name. High-confidence match to Niebla, the seaside village just outside Valdivia.
• Mom's "get rid of the bozo." Subject of "her" not explicitly named in audio. Most likely referent is one of the home girls' boyfriends. Not recording a specific name to avoid mis-attribution.
• "AP prop" stretch around the 37-minute mark. Likely a stray "April" or stutter; no semantic content recovered. Omitted.
• Coworker "Kris" in the noir tangent. No employer, project, or other coworker names captured.