3/31 188th ANNUAL GENERAL CONFERENCE DAY I + Solemn Assembly

Today was the last day of March...wow.

We watched the sessions of General Conference at our house. Arno joined us for the last 20 or so minutes of the afternoon session and watched the Priesthood Session with us. The apostles told us to write about how we felt about the Historic Solemn Assembly that took place today. First of all, for my kids, why was today's General Conference historic. Well, President Monson passed last January and in the middle of January, they announced that President Nelson would be the next president. Well, in the first session of this conference (and I have only been alive for one other solemn assembly) they held a Solemn Assembly, where we Sustain the new president of the church. They begin by asking people to stand and raise their right arm to the square in support and sustaining for the new president, starting with the first presidency, the apostles, the seventy, priesthood holders, relief society,  young men, young women and children. There is power when this happens and it is felt throughout conference. Also, two new apostles were called, Elders Gerrit W Gong and Elders Ulysses S. Soares were chosen. I predicted the second one would be called.

Then in priesthood session, another historic thing happened, which won't really be noticed by the children (because it'll be commonplace), but the High Priest and Elders Quorum is going to be combined into one quorum and the two presidencies are going to be dissolved, and made into a whole new Elders Quorum presidency. I wanted to call Dad, because he is (now was) the High Priest Group Leader for Oleander Ward, but it was funny because he hadn't watched it, or at least mom told me that he hadn't watched it when we called. He didn't answer the phone and mom was at the grocery store when I called her.

We watched Seinfeld, before Arno left.

The conference was good. And I stayed awake throughout it all. I attribute that to my lovely wife and her helping go to sleep at 10:30 or so pm. Conference was really good. I took copious notes.

3/30 Ward Temple Sealing Night and last Friday Off

I got up when Sarah got me up at 9am and took a shower because I told myself the night before that I would wake up when I was summoned. Did a lot of Flash watching and The West Wing watching.

We also went to the temple tonight and bumped into a couple from Mesa, Arizona there. Bishop Garcia was in the session, along with his wife, Sister Sierra, Brother Alas and a temple worker witness. Sarah shared a lot of knowledge that she had about the temple sealing. We then went to the room where we got sealed and talked and prayed in the Celestial Room.

We also watched a Series of Unfortunate Events episode from book 5 Austere Academy that I watched last night way late.

I got Whoppers for us from Burger King for date night. And I also got Sarah some onion rings.

Tomorrow is General Conference.

3/29 Four-night crossover and Potato Pancakes

We spent all day watching like 6 or so episodes of The Flash and two episodes of The West Wing. Four of those episodes was the four night crossover Crisis on Earth X. One of them was online but the rest we had to pay for.

In between we ate Miguel's burritos and Sarah made potato pancakes with my help.

I say we spent all day, but Sarah had an appointment with the Doctors, family planning related, and we also read our scriptures together.

I stayed asleep til 11am.

Sarah's almost caught up with the Flash now.

3/28 Chill Day and Scouts

It was an okay day.

We didn't really do anything today, except make good pasta and chicken and we worked on stuff, and we watched The West Wing.

We went to get Miguels from Grand Terrace with Sarah's gift cards that she got from Mom and Dad. We got four burritos, one for today and one for tomorrow. Sarah put all the Salsa's in an empty olive oil container that she had washed a lot previously.

While I was away at Scouts, Sarah watched one and a half episodes of The Flash Season 4.

Scouts was mediocre. Hermano _________, is in charge of the 12-13 year old scouts, but he seemed really like a know it all. I gotta see if he's coming regularly to help us. He asked one answer questions and was not very nice to us when he explained how the new program of scouts and young men activity was suppose to work. Basically, you're in scouts until you get 1st Class badge, then you are on your own and you go to young men activity. Which, it should only take you until you turn 14 to get the Tenderfoot, Second Class, and First Class badges.

Sarah and i spent some time talking about what her mom went through as a child.

3/27 Sarah's 32nd Birthday, Grand Slam, piano, and Dominos

I spent last night making an Instagram story for Sarah's birthday. Then, after going to sleep, I woke up with Sarah at like 3am and we talked for several hours about things. It was quite the lovely pillow talk session that I needed.

I got up along with Sarah, and we decided to go to Denny's for a free Grand Slam. Sarah shared eggs, hash browns, sausage and bacon with me. We tried to get a subscription to IHOP, but couldn't for the free pancakes. We drove to Jimmy Johns/Subway and Baskin Robins. The girl at the counter wasn't going to give it to us because it was another subscription with barcode, but then she offered us a free ice cream. Sarah got coconut and pecans and other things. That was nice of the girl.

We got home and Sarah's dad offered to take us out to lunch. We went to Olive Garden on Hospitality Lane in San Bernardino. I got never ending Rigatoni with five cheeses and marinara sauce, but changed it to Spaghetti. Sarah got a chicken something, and Arno ate salad and whatever we were having. We did get a triple appetizer of Calimari, breaded lasagna, and fried zucchini. And for Sarah's birthday, she got a apple pie with vanilla ice cream, although, she wanted the canoli, I think.

I went to teach the Guillen kids piano today in this order: Edward, Benny, Luis, and Vivi. Vivi spent some time talking to me after we were done learning and her mother was out. She is a really nice girl and gave me a hug goodbye. They are actually really talented kids. I taught Luis about guitar scales, the major one first today.

Christina Martin, Sarah's sister, called me when we were at Olive Garden. She told me she had a surprise gift of food to give Sarah and that it was going to be delivered at 7pm. And to tell Sarah it was from both her and Athena. It was pizza from Domino's and some really good chocolate cake pudding filled. Very good.

Then we watched the first three episodes of The Flash Season 4...the season we're in. I had 5 dollars worth of Google Play credit and used that as we ate the pizza. Don't know what we're going to do about the other episodes. She's 13 episodes behind, plus 3 crossover episodes. We'll see.

3/26 Leftover Dinner and Chocolate Bundt Cake

As you can see from the pictures, Mom and Dad invited us over for dinner tonight at the house, and surprised Sarah with a chocolate bundt cake. For dinner we ate all the leftovers in my parents fridge, which included rice and estofado, fried rice, bad meat (which I ate all of), macaroni salad, and lots of other stuff. The conversation was of King of Queens and Seinfeld, letters to Jacob and back and other stuff. Very stimulating.

We stayed home most of the day, only venturing out to get toilet paper from Food 4 Less.

We watched at least 3 episodes of the West Wing, finishing season 3. It was sad because someone beloved died, unfortunately. Someone close to CJ Cregg. We also took a shower.

We finally got our Ensign Magazine. YAY!

Tomorrow is Sarah's Birthday. She will be 32!

3/25 Letter #61

Hey Jacob!

M. Night Shyamalan must be from a small town in Pennsylvania because Sarah and I watched Signs the other day (she liked it) and it turns out that family lives right by Philadelphia. So once again, if you start noticing the crops in your town being bent out of shape making a crop circle, you know that you must preach the gospel to those aliens that come and invade. Although, I don't know how much they'll take to it because, as you know, their greatest weakness is water. Oh Well, no baptisms among that alien race, but maybe they have cousins that don't have that imperviousness.

So, I told you about the primary Easter activity that we had yesterday. It was right after two children baptisms. One of the Elders in my ward, Elder Brower, got to baptize and also the Bishop of our ward. The primary asked Sarah to give the talk on Baptism, and she did a really good job. It was all in Spanish. Many people came up to her to tell her she did a good job, but not only that, they complimented her on her singing. She has really good pipes. She gets complimented on that a lot, actually. She sings to her full capacity, unless of course, the song touches her to tears, which happens more than you think. Sarah is amazing at memorizing song lyrics. She practically, and literally, knows most of the lyrics to all the English hymns. You know, I can't get the lyrics right at all times and it's annoying; well, she gets them right and can tell you the meaning of any song.

Another example of her lyric knowledge prowess: we went to an Easter Kenneth Cope fireside where they sang all the songs from his Greater Than Us All cantata this evening. She knew all the songs and was mouthing the words. Several people noticed this from the choir, and they kept asking us why we didn't join the choir as well. We had our reasons, like busy Sundays and other commitments. But, like most church music, these songs were touching Sarah's heart, and she got a bit teary eyed at some moments. The song I knew was His Hands...which is a very touching piece about the Crucifixion of the Savior.

I was telling you about the primary activity. There were a lot of unknowns...like who was going to be present (like parents) which there were like more parents than kids, and where it was going to be held. It was held outside, in the Stake Center picnic tables and field. I also didn't know if I was going to share at the beginning or the end of the activity. Also, I was in church getup because we didn't know that we should bring a change of clothes. But it's okay. I knew that it was suppose to be 10 minutes in English. I was a bit nervous and I for sure didn't take 10 minutes. Oh Well. My favorite thing that I learned (or already knew) in preparing this talk was the scripture about in 1 Corinthians 15:56 where it talks about how the grave cannot have victory and the death loses its sting because of the atonement of Jesus Christ. I thought about Grandpa. How, when he died, it stung a little, but not nearly as bad if I didn't know that he would live again, because of Christ. I am so thankful for everything Christ has done for me, and for my family.

It's been a great week. Most of my days were spent with Sarah getting things done. We made up a vision board in the which we put up our immediate and long-term goals. One of them which we have together, is that we want to go to Disneyland. We've been looking at prices, of course...and of course, it's a bit expensive, not to mention, we need all the spare change we can get (you know, for laundry and stuff). Well, 103.5 FM  is giving away free tickets, but ain't nobody got time for that listening business. So we've been looking around for how we can get discounted or free tickets. Well, amazingly, we were on date night, and we had a waitress in training and guess what?, she works at Disneyland and told us she can get 3 people in for free 20 times a year and to text her near the date we wanted to go, and she'll let us in. Her name is Tyra, BTW, but that's what I call a miracle. MIRACLE, as they would say in HIMYM. So, we're planning on going in April some time in the middle of the month. And it is also a manifestation of when we are looking for something to come into our lives, God will make it possible if it is a righteous desire.

Sarah's birthday is this Tuesday. Sarah's Aunt Carol sent her a birthday card this last week, and in it was a $50 to Red Lobster. So that is where we went for date night where we met Tyra. We spent it all with the tip. We felt like we should tip nicely with the revelation that our waitress in training is giving us free admission to Disneyland out of the kindness of our hearts. I tried Lobster tail for the first time. It was actually pretty good. But the best thing we got was shrimp in this awesome butter sauce and herbs. I was practically licking that stuff off the plate at the end of the night, it was so good. Probably the last time I go there, though, not because of the food but because of the price. Seafood is so expensive. So, so expensive. All the lobsters in the tank said hi!

Sarah finished the 3rd season of The Flash! Did you finish that season? I can't remember. It has Savitar in it, the God of Speed. However, she wants to catch up with me in the season that is going on right now. They're like in the 16th episode, so she has a lot to catch up to. We might have a way to catch up, though, through an amazon account that Sarah's dad has. Hopefully it works. This season is pretty good. I have no idea what's going to happen though, but there are a lot of elements about this season that I like (such as, Flashtime). Sarah and I got pretty emotional at the end of this season, though. Getting emotional for a comic book show, crazy.

We've befriended a homeless man that lives on the corner of Cedar and Valley. Actually, Sarah met him at the gas station on the corner. His name is Colin. Long story short, he's a nice guy and we've been helping him out a bit, like inviting him for lunch and stuff.

Well, so many other things have happened that I cannot remember all the awesome things that have happened. Well, one thing you should probably know (not!) is that they had bacon/onion/and every other topping hot dogs at the primary activity that were really good. But you probably didn't want to know that.

Well, I hope you are doing well and converting all those villagers and aliens.

Love you,

John

3/24 Easter Primary Activity, Baptism, and the end of Season 3 of the Flash

We decided to go to Dollar General so that Sarah could pick up Easter items for pictures at the primary activity which was right after the baptism of the two children, Elvis and Heidi. Sarah did a great job with the baptism talk. Rebecca Guillen wasn't there to give the Holy Ghost talk. Elder Brower and Bishop Garcia did the baptisms.

I was unsure about a small talk I was suppose to give at the Primary Easter Activity. I didn't know if there would be adults (which there were, like half), I didn't know if it was going to be done in the chapel (which it wasn't, it was outside), I didn't know if it was going to be at the beginning or the end (it was at the beginning, after the opening prayer). I did know that I had to take like 10 minutes (which I didn't, I took like five max.) But in the end, it was okay. I didn't have to worry really. I said a small prayer that I would do good during the opening prayer, and I just went for it with my intended audience and a note card that I worked on last night. Bishop and others thanked me for my words on Why we Celebrate Easter.

The activity was really good. We had a nice chat with Hermana Guillen about whips and forms of torture and crucifixion. Okay, it was a strange but nice conversation with her. I don't feel as scared of her as I kinda did previously. We ate three hot dogs each, mexican style, with bacon, fried onions, fried green bell pepper, and lots of condiments. Sarah was feeling so-so, so I brought her home after we ate and said our goodbyes.

We watched an episode of The West Wing and finished season 3 of THE FLASH. In between, we went to the grocery store to stock up for the week. We watched the whole last few episodes, and as I remembered them, they were heartfelt and left a lasting impact. Especially the second to last episode when Iris died, and the revelation in the season finale that it was actually HR.

3/23 Red Lobster and day spent talking and watching

Today was a nice lazy day spent with Sarah.

We had date night at Red Lobster, where we got the feast with the Lobster tail and crab legs and two types of shrimp. I feel like there should be more bang for your buck, but it was otherwise really great. Also, we most likely have a way to get into Disneyland for free come April. Our waitress was a newbie, following another waitress. Her name was Tyra and she mentioned that she works at Disneyland and if we wanted we could use her free passes (not for March). We just need to text her close to the date and she'll get us passes. How great is that? We're planning on going with Sarah Mable Jensen and family in April sometime. Probably a Tuesday or Wednesday.

The food was extremely good for first go at lobster. It definitely does not taste like chicken. It has its distinct taste, for sure.

I had a rough time staying awake this morning. I stayed up long enough to read and pray with Sarah, then I fell asleep for another hour hour and a half. This was not a good idea, especially since I left Sarah alone for that time to fend for herself

We had a nice long chat about leading and being there for each other.

I got sarah some Onion rings and a whopper from Burger King.

We then watched two episodes of the flash and The West Wing.

I spent the evening working on what I'm going to say to the kids of the primary tomorrow about Easter. I have some ideas.

3/19 Colin McQuade help and Vision Boards

Today was a good first day off of work.

I slept in until 11am. Then, after I showered, Sarah and I watched two videos about making vision boards...and then we made one for our own selves, then together.

We then got a call from Colin McQuade and he needed help buying a new cell phone. He's a homeless dude that lives off of Cedar Avenue that Sarah met at a gas station twice. He's  a really nice guy. We took him to Hometown Buffet by Walmart in Rialto, and had a good nice time with him. We took him later to get his phone. He's going to pay us back. But it is nice to help every once in a while.

Sarah and I then watched the flash, had fun, and then went to the library to pick up the requested Seinfeld Season 3 dvds.

We had FHE and played codenames.

Mom called to see how Sarah was doing and to tell us about Tony's mishap with oil paints at his job and having to go to the hospital for it.

We then called Briana and made sure she was doing okay. She and Tony are.

We watched Seinfeld and Sarah fell asleep on my shoulder.

3/18 Letter #60

Hey brother!

As always, I am super proud of you and all you do. Even if it takes you two times to juggle sticks and stuff, haha. No, but really, I know that you and Elder Lin were a right pair. You two reminded me of when I served with Elder Delgado. We had so much fun together. Even after the mission, we still keep in touch. I'm sure after your mission, you and Elder Lin will be lifelong friends. I don't doubt it a bit. I hope you and Elder Li are getting along alright. I like this pattern of you serving with foreigners, haha. You might not have had to learn a second language, but it seems second languages seem to do their best to find you.

BTW, I shared "The Village" with Sarah the other day. Besides the fact that she whimpered when Noah stabbed Lucius Hunt a couple of times, she thought the movie was well thought out and liked it in the end. The reason I bring it up, is that in the movie, if you can remember, the village is in the "Walker Preserve" in Pennsylvania somewhere. So, don't skip over them. They need to hear the gospel too, even if some of their customs are a little backward. You can be the creatures in their woods that brings them the color red into their lives and convince them of the error of their ways. But, seriously, great movie, right?

I was and am going to be tested twice this week. Both the President of the Young Men and his 1st counselor (Hno. Rubalcava). Hno. R had asked an Hno. Romero to teach the Young Men their lesson, but he flaked out way last minute. I got a text in Sunday School asking me if I could teach in 3rd hour. Of course, I said yes, and immediately chose a lesson from the Come, Follow Me manual on my phone and prepared a lesson on the spot. Their month is centered around the importance of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I chose the lesson entitles something like "Why does the Lord send trials in our lives?" I told the story of Abraham and Issac, and then I reminded them of the Refiner's fire in our lives. How, in order for a metal to be purified, it must first undergo an extreme heat so the impurities can be burnt off the metal. I pointed to some of the kids to name some metals, and it was funny, Jo jo mentioned that diamonds were metals. We all laughed, but the analogy worked well for that instance too, That, diamonds are carbon that undergo immense pressure until they become what we know as diamonds. I think the analogy went far. Isaac helped me by providing a movie for class to watch that went extremely well with my lesson. It was a youth Mormon Message about a girl named  Brittany that had an illness, but which illness did not deprive her of serving and helping others. Anyways, I know that because of our trials, specific to us, we can savor the sweet joy of life.

Anyways, the second test for this upcoming week is that the primary president asked me (through text to Sarah) if I could give a brief explanation of what Easter is and what it means to all of us to the primary at a primary activity this Saturday. I'm still finding out if I get to teach this in English, and how long I will have to take to explain it. Hopefully it is in English. Sarah also has to do stuff to decorate and things for pictures, etc.

This was my last week of school for two weeks. We are on Spring Break. I don't know all we're going to do this week and next. I for sure have to look for more work and do some research on colleges to go to. Some much needed research. I'm thinking of applying to become a tutor. I don't know how much it pays. Hopefully I can apply. Sarah is out of work too. She is working hard on getting her business running. She actually got paid this week, so that was nice too.

For my last week teaching, I took Jurupa Vista SDC Mrs. Raymondo's class on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. They weren't easy days, but they were extremely manageable because of the help she receives that I got. She has to aides, Mrs. Ceja and Mrs. V. Both teachers like me, so it makes my time in her classroom extremely fun. It was funny, because I had gotten to JV a little late, and another sub had accidentally gotten my keys. Well, Mrs. R knew that I was suppose to teach her class, so she was relieved (and expressed it to me) when I got to her class and corrected that sub. She was like, my class would've had a fit if Mr. G didn't arrive after we told them he would be there.

Since Saturday was St. Patrick's day, we had activities related to St Patrick's day. Mrs. V had them paint orange around a white paper plate, cut out the center, and glued a Leprechaun's hat on top, the orange being the leprechaun's beard. We took pictures. We had to wear green that day. The only green shirt I have is my "Get a Life" 1up shirt from Super Mario, so of course I wore it. It gave a lot of the kids a kick. And when I saw mom later that day, she was like, why are you wearing that shirt, did you guys not do your laundry this week? haha.

Sarah and I made two trips out to LA this week. I didn't have to work on Wednesday, so we decided to go to the LA Temple to attend a session. That temple is so big. Afterward, I showed Sarah the room who's rooms can fog up, and my favorite geography temple pinpoint game. I beat her soundly. And we took pictures in front of the Christus statue. Mom says we look like tourists because we have bags and we had just changed into street clothes. We had lunch with Sarah's mom afterwards. Then we spent time with Sarah's sister and niece.

It was Sarah's sister Lisa's birthday on Saturday, so Sarah and I went with her dad to her home, where we spent the day eating pizza and chips, recounting stories of our family history, and just talking with the family. I shared our story of our ancestor that crossed the Mississippi River but because of the ferry man who spit tobacco in the oxen's eye, had to hold their baby above the water as they crossed. They had a lot of good family stories. I also shared about our grt grt Grandfather that went to jail because of polygamy. One of my favorite things that they shared was just the way that their family would talk about food by smacking their lips and saying the food emphatically.

Sarah invited the Sisters over for dinner on Monday night, after having spent part of the day with them. We had a great dinner and good conversation. We tried making Grandma Palmer cookies, but we didn't have baking soda, so we put in a substitute, but the cookies went totally flat on the cookie sheet. It made a sorta crisp or we called it a cookie brittle. We had the Elders over the next night, and Sarah whipped up some cream and added the brittle and strawberries to the dessert. It actually turned out really good. We had chili the first night, and Jambalaya the next. We actually made a pretty good supreme pizza on bread for dinner tonight, after a failed attempt at making two ingredient dough.

Oh, and last but not least, we were invited to Tia Lucy's birthday party this last Thursday. The party was good. Sarah hasn't been feeling good, having off and on bouts of sickness. She wasn't able to make it to church today because of the sickness. We did a lot of waiting. They did have chips. And then the food arrived from Mucho Gusto along with Tia Anila: pollo a la brasa and rice and french fries. The cake was Mil Hojas cake, which wasn't really that bad. By the time we had finished the cake, it was time to go home for me because it was late. Mom asked me for a ride because dad wanted to stay at the Peruvians a bit longer.

I lied. Sarah, our sister, and I started the March Madness brackets again. The whole family joined in in one group. Unfortunately, Sarah my wife, made a bracket, but didn't join our group. I chose Gonzaga to win, to the chagrin of some of the family. Tony did too. I've been on top. Although, Sarah  my wife has been following on her bracket, and she is actually beating us all, so far. The last four days has been full of games and lots of upsets (as usual). I have three more brackets, one in my old ward's group, and two just for fun to see how it goes. But my Gonzales Family bracket is doing the best (which is the one I cared about the most). The next games start again on Wednesday, sweet 16 and all. I love march madness now, haha.

Well, I love you, kiddo. Drop me a line and let me know how you are doing. Thanks for last weeks letter. You're great.

Love,

John

3/17 Lisa's birthday and stuff

We went to Sarah's mom's place (#forscience) no, to celebrate Lisa's birthday in Torrance. She had us buy 4 pizzas from domino's and invited the rest of the family. Danny and Carol came, and so did Athena and Noah and Uncle Ken. Athena and Sarah went at it when Athena mentioned that she didn't like that Sarah got the table, the table that use to be in her mom's house. A table of which, is not even my favorite which would probably be more of an argument for Athena. Sarah loves that table.

Sarah's mom got on Arno and Uncle Ken for not having shaven (or taken a bath).

We did have a lot of fun sharing family history stories. That was good, and bonding over eating was good too.

We gave Arno a ride. We made it to IKEA afterwards where we got a mattress cover, not a sheet,  haha.

3/16 Last day of School

3/15 Lucy's birthday and stuff

3/14 LA TEMPLE AND STUFF