Hey Jacob,
It’s been an interesting week...but something that makes it good is that tomorrow, Sarah and I have the day off. I actually didn’t have to work on Friday either this week, which was really nice. It was a good thing, too, because we had to get lots of things done. One of those things is that our toilet chain that is connected to the stopper got disconnected and we couldn’t fix it ourselves manually because there was a shelf where the toilet back was. So, we asked the landlady if she could send a maintenance guy and voila, after working for like 15 minutes, he took the water out of the bowl and reconnected the chain and now it works fine. Another thing is Sarah wanted me to ask him if he could connect the water hose that is connected to our fridge to the fridge. I went out of my way to ask him and he did it, which was so nice. Now we have water and ice, which is crazy nice. On Friday, I met Sarah at her work because they were having a potluck there. They had rice and chicken, and afterwards, we went to the Monoprice store to pick up some cords for charging my phone for the car and the room. Unfortunately, I didn’t pick the right connection for the cord, so we’re going to have to return it ASAP.
We’re going to go watch Black Panther tomorrow, which just came out last Friday. I am still up in the fence about this movie, because it seems to have a lot of Black Power mentality, etc, but we’re going to watch it with my usual friends, Gus and Arcy, Axel and the rest of their family. Afterwards, we’re planning on hiking some mountain, whether it be close or far.
I had a tough time at work on Tuesday. It was hard because the teacher, a first grade teacher, kept walking in in and out and started teaching herself when I didn’t teach exactly the way she wanted it. It got harder when I started feeling anxious and I felt all those little first graders were conspiring against me. They weren’t really, but it still made a hard day. She came in in the middle of a math lesson I was teaching and told me practically to start over from square one. Not only that, but I had been teaching them this lesson for at least an hour and the kids were getting restless. But I felt like it was my duty to reteach this and this made the kids even more rowdy, because otherwise we would’ve been out for PE. To top the cake off, she came in at the very end of the day and a paper that I had told them to put in their backpack, she made them take it out and put it on their desks. I was late in getting them out and our classes got mixed up with other classes. So, all in all, not a very good day.
That said, I had two good days, too. Both were at Jurupa Vista. Monday was the SDC class and Thursday was Mrs. Martin’s class. I love going to schools where the teachers are excited to have me come teach their class, and I don’t have to be expected to do perfectly. I’m planning on finishing out the year, but after this school year is over, I want to get a new job...maybe through Apple One, the employment Agency that Sarah got her work through. Sarah’s job is moving to Brea, so this next week is her last week in the job. She’s not planning on going with them, so she has to find a new job as well. She’s going to apply for a receptionist job that our apartment motel complex is offering. Hopefully she gets it. She’s turning in the application tomorrow.
I got Sarah flowers the day before Valentine’s. On Valentine’s, the youth of our ward went to do Baptisms for the Dead. It was a pretty amazing time. You know, for these events, we always hope there will be enough adults with the Melchizedek Priesthood, and boy did we score this month, we probably had at least 11 adults, and we only needed 7. It was cool too, because one of the boys was a new deacon doing the baptisms with the youth for the first time. His name is Edward Guillen and since he’s a deacon, he’s in the quorum I oversee. This afternoon in church, we explained to him the proper manner of passing the sacrament. We told him a lot of information, but he got most of it down, I think.
We had to leave the church at 5 so Sarah was still working that night til then, so she showed up afterwards. She asked me if I could take food she had cooked to her father, who lives in Redlands and who is going through a lot of ups and downs recently. I dropped the food off. We actually went to his house for FHE on monday and bought him some food then too. For FHE we played Apples to Apples with three people. Even though he was feeling a bit loopy he still had a commanding lead in the game. At the end, we had to do a tie breaker, because we both had like 11 green cards. I won. Sarah was way behind, haha.
This week was Melany’s birthday. We were able to go and celebrate it with her and the family. Wiwa was working. Ammon had turned on The Men in Black. We looked at how old that movie was. Can you believe it is 20 or so years old? It’s crazy. Wiwa invited Sarah and I and Mom and Dad to the house on Saturday for a Peruvian dinner. We had Carne Asada and Anticuchos, rice and beans, and Maracuya. Boy was everything good. Sarah and I had signed of for our Elders for dinner, so I asked Wiwa if we could bring them over. He said of course, so they got to share in the good meal. Joseph Anthony, Anila’s brother is here visiting from Peru/New Zealand. It was nice to see him and talk to him. He had some questions about Disneyland that he asked us all, and we all gave him our two cents worth of information. He’s here for that, to see family, and to go to Utah to visit old mission companions. Pretty fun.
Well, I hope all is well with you in Pennsylvania. We love you. I think about you constantly and know you are doing great things. Dad let Sarah and I come over to eat Estofado that mom had made. It was delicious. My Sunday was pretty stinkin amazing.
Take care and send me a line and some pictures.
Love you,
John
