I've been working

May 21, 2014

Salt Lake City, Utah

Hi Dad,

I got your message when you called. Sorry it’s taken me so long to

get back to you. I’ve been pretty busy.

I worked on that movie I told you about for two weeks as a

Production Assistant. It was really hard work because we were trying to

complete about a month’s worth of work in about 12 days. I remember

saying to someone on set, “I wish my Dad could see how much physical

labor is involved in making movies.” You have to move around a lot of

heavy equipment like large lights and various metal stands, set them up

for the shot, adjust them, take them apart and then move them to the next

location.

We were filming in Brighton near the ski resort so we also had to

contend with the snow which meant shoveling and we were also doing a

lot of work outside so we were hiking through the snow as well, again,

carrying equipment from place to place.

There was one scene that we were filming were our actors from

Los Angeles had to race in the snow. Well, since the change in elevation

between L.A. and Brighton was around 8,000 feet, it was really hard for

them to run and they got tired very easily. One thing that I noticed as the

crew moved to the new location was that nobody remembered to bring

water with them. So I grabbed some bottles of water, put them in my

coat pockets and made my way to the set. When I got there, the director

was still telling the actors what he wanted them to do so I stood by and

as soon as the director was done giving his instructions, I said to the

actors, “Gentlemen, I’ll be standing by with bottles of water for you as

soon as the director says cut.”

Since this was a relatively small production, I basically took it

upon myself to take care of the actors whenever I could. Checking on

them to see if they needed water, something to eat or something carried.

I also usually have some chap stick with me and I heard one of the actors

behind me say, “I need some chap stick.” I turned around, reached into

my pocket and brought out a new chap stick and said, “I’ve got you

covered.” He was very grateful for that.

It was a rough couple of weeks but I’m really proud of the work

we did and what we accomplished in that time.

My girlfriend, Danica, and I have been going to church together

and trying our best to have a regular monthly temple date. We usually go

to the Bountiful Temple. We also have dinner with her parents from time

to time and try to have Family Home Evening together.

Since the beginning of the year, I’ve been organizing a lot of

papers, photographs and other items that I’ve collected over the years.

It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time and I hope that I can

show it to you some time. As I went through boxes of things I’ve held

onto since I was a little kid, I started to sort them out and organize them

according to the different places we lived and how old I was. Most

everything is now organized in binders and pretty much sums up my life

from when I was born to my time in the Navy. I still have to organize the

things I have from the last 15 years.

A lot of this organizing is with an eye toward my future with

Danica. We’ve been talking about getting married—though I haven’t

officially proposed yet—and I’m basically reorganizing my apartment

and my life to make room for her. We already spend so much time

together that there won’t be too many surprises for us in the long run. I’ll

be sure to let you know when I pop the question and what our plans will

be after that.

Take care!

Love,

(signed)

Joseph L. Puente