Happy Sabbath, everyone.
The date today, January 28th, marks four weeks since my husband John and I got married. It's been a remarkable four weeks and even in this short amount of time, I can see why Heavenly Father desires that His children get married, and what a blessing it is. I am more motivated and have better support to continue in my goals with a husband by my side who is loving, encouraging, and engaging in sharing the burdens of this life together. We can both see how the difficult trials before we were married have prepared each of us individually to both make the most of time in our lives together (by not making the same mistakes we have made in the past) and also to see the contrast between what has happened in the past and what we are encountering now. I definitely believe that our brief stints of sorrow has better prepared us to receive and appreciate the joy.
We honeymooned in Huntington beach where we did a lot of relaxing and very good eating. Certainly the highlight of the trip was a lovely gondola ride where we ended up learning some of the history of Venice and talking about Italian politics. I sure love learning! We also had another quasi-honeymoon experience where we went to Utah for our open-house. It was incredible to see and reconnect with so many people who came, even people from Idaho, roommates that I hadn't seen for almost seven years, people that I had only met through mentoring but found over the internet so I didn't know face-to-face, and of course, one of the highlights were Rex, Julie, Alex and his son Benny Pond. And of course, I consider my friends in Provo my Utah family. The furthest traveller was my bestie Sylvia who came from Illinois. Sarah Mabel Jensen and her family planned to come, even though she just had another baby only a few days earlier, but the storm the night before changed their minds. Many thanks to sister Jami Evans who basically put on the entire thing.
We stayed with John's grandmother (truly a marvelous woman) in Hurricane and got to visit with some of John's aunts, uncles and cousins who lived nearby to see us. Everyone that I've met is just wonderful in John's family. We stayed as well with Victor and Lynda Sorensen, (our cousins in Orem) and are certainly grateful for their goodness, their warmth and hospitality. It was nice again to have a relaxing time with the fast-pace of wedding planning and then going almost immediately back to work. We have hit the ground running!
With this new beginning, both of marriage and of the new year, John and I have created goals and habits that will continue to fortify our lives. We wake up every morning and read our scriptures, pray, sing, make our beds, eat breakfast and make lunch and get ready for the work-day. We find that our goals have been facilitated by the mercies Heavenly Father puts in our path. For example, one of my goals is to grow my business. I have received three or four new clients just in the past two months for my business and that has brought in greater income. That also helps us in our other goals of saving and getting out of debt and becoming more self-reliant. John has been blessed to find a substitute job almost every single-day since we have been married and is waking up earlier to accept the assignments that were otherwise too early to go to. Our marriage helps us work harder to build the life together that we desire. We both went to the doctor because we have really good health insurance now and are focusing on my physical therapy (to get back to running, etc. after my accident) and to focus on eating healthier. John and I go to the gym multiple times a week and much more motivated to cook at home since living in the same apartment helps our lives be at a (slightly) lower pace and we get to plan our time together. Other blessings have come from the development of the self-reliance classes at church, where the introduction to the new classes started this evening. I am taking the growing my small business course and John is going to the class that will help him learn how to get back into school so he can pursue a master's degree in music therapy.
We live in a lovely little gated community in Bloomington, California (just bordering Fontana where John grew up), in a 550 or so square foot apartment. We have been blessed with a vision and the resources to take this (what might seem to some as a small) cozy space and turn it into a place called home. Mom came over just this weekend to have a mini-vacation and she helped a lot in helping us organize our apartment. We have a lot of food storage and have been finding creative ways to store it where it is accessible and not tacky. I love to cook but feel less motivated if I'm not in an organized kitchen, but everything fits perfectly and it really does look good.
We have been given a couch, a rocking chair, a dining table and chairs, a rocking chair with ottoman, a coffee table, a mattress and a bookshelf all for free, have made our own end tables and will soon make a desk, and all of our other furniture (bookcase, dresser, drawers) only cost about seventy dollars. We have been very, very blessed.
John is a really good cook and makes many of our meals, either from his own repertoire or according to my instruction, and the food is always very delicious. He does so much of the cleaning also while I am at work and the laundry facilities here are state-of the art brand new and at a relatively reasonable price.
We had the sister missionaries over for dinner the other night where I made cauliflower and potato soup from scratch and John made corn-bread casserole. The elders also happened to stop by (they didn't know the sisters were coming) to get to know us since they were in the neighborhood. We like our ward although, with the honeymoon, the open-house and a stake and a regional conference, we have only been once, although we have already made some very good friends. John and I got asked by our bishop to come and meet with him this Wednesday night and it's probable that we are going to get callings.
My job will be ending on February 25th since they will be relocating to Brea and I didn't want to go with them. It was a difficult choice, but building my business is my ultimate goal so we feel that working part-time for me will be a good thing so I can really make gains with the momentum that I already have. I look forward to finding a new place to work and if it's half as awesome as Monoprice then I would be really blessed. This week I'm going to start looking for new and better work.
John and I find the a theme throughout this month has been receive. Our Heavenly Parents have placed miracles, gifts, blessings and inspiration in our path to help solve every problem and all we have needed to do is have the faith to ask and work for them and the humility to receive them. We received so many wedding gifts and miracles, and as know, the greatest gift of all from our Heavenly Parents was the gift of Their Son.
Thank you for being in our lives, for your love, inspiration and support. We love you all so much.
Sarah and John Gonzales
