Hey Brother,
I hope you enjoyed all the Instagram Roger Federer pictures I sent you. He really is a great guy, always so humble, and I hope he always is that way. I was so happy, though, to get a good night’s sleep before a Sunday (instead of staying up late watching a tennis match). And then being able to pretty much stay awake during church (unlike last Sunday).
Church, though hard because of the language, was good. We got new callings on Wednesday and we were sustained and set apart today. Sarah is a primary teacher, and she also has opted to play the piano when the piano player isn’t there. She taught the 8-10 year olds with a one day warning. She really loved doing it though. She loves the kids already, after one week, and can really be there for those kids. The kids were really good for her as well. She taught them about animal sacrifices and about having a broken heart and a contrite spirit. I’m glad she had such a good time.
I am super excited about my calling. I get to work with the youth, in particular, the young men, of the Juniper Ward. I am now the 2nd counselor in the Young Men’s Presidency. G-sus Noriega is the President, a 31 year old guy that is really nice and really cares about these young men. I should know the name of the new 1st counselor, but I can’t remember. The boys are all awesome. Joshua Mondragon has been really nice, as well as Isaac Garcia. I sat in quorum meeting today where an Hermano Olguin gave the lesson. Isaac introduced me to the young men. I gave a brief synopsis on my life, including a small bit about coming home from my mission early, but in the end loving every second I was out there and being okay with coming home and how such a thing blessed my life...that God has had a part in every aspect of my life, and then I shared my testimony. The kids, acting funny, asked me my credit card # and SSN, which I kindly offered them. I look forward to working with these men.
This was a hard week work-wise. I can’t remember so much about it...more like I don’t want to remember. I’m looking forward to this next week, though. I have a good SDC class the next two days and I have Jurupa Vista on Friday. It’s been quite a while since I taught at Jurupa Vista. I’ve been teaching a lot at Birney, which has been giving me lots of so so experiences. They just don’t like me there. I tried Rogers on Friday, but instead of teaching second grade, it was first and I just lost control.
For date night this week we got take out from Sub Stop and watched Dan in Real Life, which Sarah liked. We were going to go out swimming, but decided to swim on Saturday. Remember how cold our feet felt at Bridal Veils, well, that is how cold it was that Saturday afternoon. Sarah jumped in without testing the waters first, and it was cold. I just submerged once, but we couldn’t handle it.
We invited Mom and Dad over for dinner Thursday night. It was super cool to have them over at our house for a meal. We made fried chicken, mashed potatoes and cabbage salad. Afterwards we talked and later we played STOP!, which Mom won, followed by Sarah, Dad, and me. Dad wanted to make “boxing athletes” a category, haha. I was able to go watch the BYU Gonzaga game with Mom and Dad on Saturday. We had Pizza and Buffalo Wings. Sarah wanted to finish cleaning up the house, organize the boxes of stuff we have. We actually want to put a table there from Lucy and Jesus in the corner by our door. She was done with all of the boxes when I had returned.
We lost that game, unfortunately. It was sad, because the last 4 years we have beaten them at the Kennel. We were really holding our side of the game, until the last minute and a half of the game.
Anyways, it’s been a good week of sorts. I’m looking forward to this next week. I had a doctor’s appointment on Wednesday, but it was just a preliminary appointment, and I have another one this week on Thursday. In it, I’ll talk about the medicine I am taking and get refills. Hopefully, this time around I will get them for 6 months, like my previous doctor said I was going to get. All this is through Kaiser Permanente now.
We are just getting home from a Viewing of Sarah’s sister-in-law’s mom. We were able to see two of Sarah’s sisters and a brother and her mom. Even though it was a solemn time, it was nice to talk to the family and to her nephews. Her brother, Richard, has five boys, and we talked to the oldest, and the 3rd or so oldest shared a comic he had made, in the style of Dave Pilkey. It was pretty cool.
Now I’ll leave you. I love you, Jacob. Take care and send me a line.
Love,
John
