4/29 Letter #66

Hey Jacob,

What a crazy week it has been, let me tell you.

It ended with me going on a campout with the Boy Scouts (youth) of our ward. I had soooo much fun, it was crazy. We left for Bogart Park at like 6pm. Sarah had to see me off (as she had to work that whole day), and I noticed I had forgotten a baseball cap and a chair for sitting. It was okay, though, I just sat on a wooden plank when we were around the fire. Bogart Park is located in Cherry Valley which is just west of Beaumont. East of Redlands a bit. It was still light outside. We set up our tents. I did most of my tent all by myself with just the setting "up" with the help of Edward Guillen in our troop. Leaders cannot sleep with the boys at night, so that's why I had my own tent. The boys who came were Edward, Luis, and Benny Guillen (although Benny is like 11), Immanuel Sanchez and his Dad, which most of the boys were calling "wiseman" by the end of the campout for various reasons; Sammy Garcia (Isaac was sick), Aaron and Joseph (Jojo) Tovar, and Jorge Munguia. Then me, Hermano Jesus and Adolfo. It was a good group, a wacky group at times. For example, the boys played Truth or Dare. You may wonder why. Well, just recently, a scary movie with that title just came out, and they were talking about it, which prompted them to play it. For some reason the previous boy had to ask the next boy or leader a truth or dare and then think of something. They wanted the dares to be reasonable (or you die, haha), so mine was how many times have you read the book of mormon. I said more than 3 times to be reasonable. The scandalous one is Edward asked Jorge Munguia if he like his sister Vivi Guillen. Everyone that was there was "Ohhhhh," and Jorge took a long time to answer so we just assumed he did. But then everybody was like, what truth or dare is in this circle, stays in the circle, haha.

I brought a paper copy of the Book of Mormon to the campout, so when quiet time approached I asked if I could read aloud a chapter and story from the book to the party. I did that because I remembered a very spiritual reading of the scriptures that President Knudsen did on our 21 hike. He read the story of Ammon. I read the story of Moroni and Zerahemnah. Then I asked the kids if they knew what happened next after I read the build up, and they all participated in telling the story of that confrontation. Some kids knew, some didn't. But I hope it was as spiritual as when President Knudsen did it for us. I plan on doing that on any campout we go on. It was a bit chilly.

It was cold, but I prepared well. I had two s'mores in the evening, and two in the morning. We had some really good hamburgers for dinner. I had two double-doubles. It was very good. I brought some red pans for the morning breakfast, new ones. And before I got up the next morning, and the grill wasn't working, they had used the pan over the fire, and the bottom was blackened. They used the grill at night and several kids accidentally dropped some patties into the grill slots. And "wiseman" crazily grabbed each of the patties that fell through.

The next day, the kids and leaders went to the park across the way. Luis brought a football, and I watched them play. I didn't play, because of my left ankle, just in case. But, then Luis got hurt and I subbed in. And when I did, I led the team by getting a touchdown, and catching a couple that led to touchdowns, and I even got an interception. I did the black Y shirt I was wearing proud. We even did a jungle gym obstacle course and the boys all competed. I was the only one of the leaders that participated in it and I got second place, haha, I was last. We walked to a pond, and someone that brought a metal bat, hit rocks into the pond. We had a grand time. I did at least.

It's been a regular old week. Just a lot of working and trying to get through the day some days. I definitely worked every day this week. Friday was pretty difficult. I roved at Grimes Elementary, where instead of doing more than one teacher or so, they put me in a sixth grade class all day long. I wanted to shoot myself, haha. The kids weren't expecting the male teacher to be out, so they weren't very happy. And not only that, but Avengers Infinity War came out the night before and some kids were threatening other kids with giving them spoilers. Which I hated, because I didn't want spoilers either.

I hope that tomorrow, when I teach at Jurupa Vista, I don't get spoilers. We're planning on watching it tomorrow after school. I don't think those 2nd graders have it in them to know what spoilers are. So, I think I'll be okay. Avengers came out on Thursday night. I know Braden has seen it, and that Sarah, our sister is probably going to see it on Tuesday. I am looking forward to watching it very much. The culmination of ten years of movies, you know. 18 movies. You did this to me, and I am really thankful and glad you did. There was a boy in that 6th grade class that had a captain America shirt on like mine, and he was plugging his ears so that the stupid people wouldn't spoil it for him.

I did an SDC class at Reche Canyon the other day. Both first for me. It is a school on the farthest east boundary of the school district, which is a reason I haven't been there before. I mostly did it, if you can believe it, because one of the sub managers from Sycamore (whom I love) transferred there. That was my first reason. The second was that it was SDC. You know that Recess episode where the class goes to a different school to play them and they see that this is a bizarro school that is like an exact replica of their school. This school had a scary likeness to Jurupa Vista, it was crazy. The SDC class had only 6 of 8 students, and two very nice aides. I really do consider going there again for the SDC class now. I had a really good day. And I looked pretty good to the aides, because there were two subs that looked bad. One was in a severe class, and all he did all day was read a sci-fi book in the back of the classroom. That and the other sub had a super sketchy character. He was like walking around talking to the kids creepily. So, they liked me. I also felt good there because, Laurel, the transferred sub manager complimented me at the beginning of the day, and she said that I had a good reputation in the district from the Head sub manager Valerie MacDougall. Which is always good to hear.

We've had a guest at our house this weekend. He is one of Sarah's good friends, Jonathan. He came to our wedding reception and I had met him and his wife before we even got married. His wife Erica has been having a super hard mental time lately. This is the same couple that Sarah went to stay with last week. Well, she was put into a mental hospital in Chino. So, he asked if he could stay, since Chino is closer to us, then it is to him in LA. She is projected to be in that hospital for the next little while. Hopefully she can be transferred to a hospital at UCLA soon, and Jonathan will be able to visit her there. They have been waiting for an opening. She is not well. She is kinda reminding me of all my experiences in the mental hospital that I had. Treating my parents not so good. Jonathan is hoping that the doctors are seeing how crazy she is being and that she gets stabilized by the time she is released or transferred. I'm sure that the doctors are seeing it though. Hopefully, they can help her out. I has been really tough on the couple and family.

We all can't believe that you are almost halfway done with your mission. I see Ms. Santos on occasion and talk with her about you and the family. We also can't believe how fast Sarah and Briana are graduating or graduated. It all just seems like you guys just got there and now you are done with your education. It's crazy. Sarah graduated and so the parents have been up in Utah the last half of the week.

It's funny. Today at church, the High Councilman for our ward asked us if he could talk to us after church. He asked us if we could facilitate for the next batch of Self Reliance classes that the Fontana Stake is offering starting next week. We, of course, said yes. And he also said it might be in Spanish too. Crazy. It seems like we will never be rid of these classes, haha. But we're glad to do it.

We've also been asked to participate in Dia de los Padres y Madres dances on the 12th of May. It's really last minute practicing and stuff. Also, there is a Heritage Day coming up on May 5th. Lots of stuff.

One more thing, Sarah and I went to temple baptisms on Thursday with the ward mission leader. It was quite fun. And i got to here the confirmation prayer in spanish and I got to baptize several people and be baptized for several names.

Well, I hope you are doing well. I love you a lot. Send me a line if you have the chance.

Love,

John

4/24

We have barely any money. I checked Wells Fargo last night and we were in the negative. I transferred the $25 that was in the Savings, but today, we managed to be about $100 in the negative. I don't know what this means and what will happen or what Wells Fargo is going to do about it. We'll get $70 from Sis. Guillen tonight after piano lessons, and I have some cash that we can deposit. I guess the trick now is to stay over the red zone in the next couple of days until Sarah gets paid. I am just a little bit nervous, because I've never been in the red before. So, it is a new thing.

4/23 JV roving, first Steak, and FHE

It's been an alright day.

First of all, I was at Jurupa Vista roving. I started in Mrs. Altherr's class for an hour or so, then I had time to go help out in Kindergarten, much to my dislike, but fortunately they were at recess for most of the time I had to be there. Then I was in Mrs. Fisk's classroom for about an hour. She came in when the room was in somewhat disarray. Like, right when she came in, I was getting on some girls for putting loads of hand sanitizer on their hands and other kids were in the library done with their assignment. It was then lunch time, and I didn't have to go to another classroom for about an hour and a half. I read my scriptures, and prepared an FHE lesson. I also talked with Mrs. Martin for a few minutes, and Ms. Santos for a bit. Ms. Santos was like You've seen what my kids were like on Friday and Monday last. The last class I was in, Mrs. Salazar's 1st grade class was really good. Really good. Like they were already really quiet doing an assignment or reading. Then she had us do gonoodle exercises where the kids pick the video they want to watch and follow. I, of course, chose If I Were Not a Gonoodler, my favorite one. Then recess, then switch class for like a half hour and I taught them about the desert habitat and we watched two small videos. Then I read to them, and by the time all that was done, Mrs. Salazar returned. I was a little anxious (but not anxiety anxious) about taking Mrs. Salazar's class, but in the end, it was unfounded to be so anxious. I just haven't been having so much success with 1st grade classrooms. But, it all worked out alright. And then, the office let me go home early, which was nice. They like me up there. So I walked to where I parked, which was outside my parents house, and went inside, walked to the bathroom, and got a sleeping bag for myself for this Friday's campout. And wrote a note to mom so she knew I was home.

I did some weeding when I got home, after I went to the library to print out some music and guitar stuff for tomorrow's piano lessons to the Guillens.

I also made some steak out of the meet that we had from Sarah Mable and family.

Then after eating and watching The West Wing, we had Family Home Evening. Sarah shared from Mormon 3 about never forgetting the hand of the lord in our lives like the other people did in the scripture she shared. I shared from March 2018 First Presidency Message about listening to the prophet and receiving revelation. Then we watched the video about the conclusion of President Nelson's trip to Laie, Hawai'i. We shared our testimonies. Then for the game we played music on the piano and guitar.

We then closed and finished a crossword puzzle we started last night.

I had a scare today with money. We were pending in the how about $12. I transferred the last $25 from the savings to the checking. But we don't have that much money because of bills and things. It scared me. Hopefully we'll stay out of the hole, pending and non.

4/22 Letter #65

Hey Jacob,

Wow, it's been a crazy week, as I'm sure it has been for you too.

We've have had many highlights of the week, the biggest one being, Sarah and I got to go to Disneyland on Wednesday with Sarah's friend Sarah Mable Jensen, her two daughters and her dad, Andre. Her two daughters are super cute. She has a daughter named Scarlet who is three or so years old and a baby named, Lily. They are the cutest little girls.

We got in for free. But not after we did our darnedest to make it work out. Tyra, the girl that works at Disneyland, the girl we met at Red Lobster had several problems the day of. We had texted the night before and everything was going to work out. We were going to meet her at the park and get the tickets with her. However, morning of, we get a text that she wasn't going to be at work on time and that her bus would only give her a few minute window of opportunity to get us the tickets and for her to arrive at the Indiana Jones ride where she worked, and besides, they changed her schedule the day of. We were like Oh No, what are we going to do? We finally decided to offer her a ride to Disneyland. Which was good for her because, without us, she would have been really late. We didn't even get her there with enough time to spare, but she would have been extremely late if she had taken the bus. So, we had her in our car, talking to her and we got her some chocolates as thanks. She had us park in the McDonald's parking lot right across the street from Disneyland. We booked it to the security line, where me, Sarah and Sarah Mable went through the no bags line and we waited for her to get through the bags line and to go to the bathroom. We got the tickets at the front gate and let her depart to the ride she works at. We hope that she arrived on time and that the park didn't get mad at her for letting us in.

After all that, we walked back to our cars and drove to the parking lot. We parked in the Toy Story parking lot and then stood in like a 15 min line for the busses tot he park. When we got there, we were pretty hungry, so Sarah Mable got a locker at the front of the park and we ate the food we had brought. That altogether was like 2 hours. We wanted to be in the park by 9:30am, but we didn't actually get into the park until 11:30. It was okay though, we had enough time to do everything we wanted.

My biggest thing that I wanted to do was go on Space Mountain with Sarah, so that was the first Fastpass we got. Sarah Mable really wanted to take Scarlet on Pirates and the Haunted Mansion, so that is what we did first. She definitely liked Pirates more, She even told her mom while we were on Haunted that she would rather be on Pirates. This was Sarah's first time on Space Mountain (and we only went on it once) but it was soooooo fun, of course and she loved it. Her eyes are closed in the picture. The funny, but really cool thing that Sarah and I got into the grove on on some rides (the fast ones after Space Mountain) was that we started holding hands, like on Indiana, and Thunder Mountain, and Splash Mountain. Those three rides we got to go twice on. Indiana broke down while we were on it, so when it finally started working again, they told us we could stay on and enjoy it for a second time.Thunder Mountain was fun, as we did it at night and it was fun to put up our held hands during the ride. And Splash Mountain was great. We also went on that at night, too. It was breaking down a lot, but we got to go on it at the time when it wasn't broken down. You will see in the picture our held hands.

We went on other rides throughout the day. We rested and ate at different times...and split up several times. Sarah and Sarah Mable wanted to go on Autopia together, so they left me in charge of getting Indiana fastpasses and in holding the infant in a holding backpack. Boy was that nerve wracking at first. She didn't really want her pacifier. But finally, after a lot of walking, she started falling asleep. So all was well, in the end. Sarah and I stayed til closing. We watched a bit of the firework show, but the family left after that. From there we went to the Abraham Lincoln show, and it really surprised me that when they openned the curtain that there was an animatronic Abe Lincoln there. I literally exclaimed in surprise when they opened the curtain, because I had no idea that they were going to show us that. We also got to eat at the Carnation Cafe with reservation. What we didn't know is that Sarah Mable and her Dad were going to pay for the meals.

Not only that, but we are extremely blessed. They've been in town most of the week. They came bearing gifts of food. Andre, Sarah Mable's dad, has a farm and several cows. He brought us a whole cooler fool of meat from one of his butchered cows. Ground beef, steaks, etc. Then Sarah Mable took us to Costco and bought us some vegetables (big sized bags), chicken and salmon burgers, not to mention most of the food that we used for our Disneyland trip, including muffins and pound cake. This definitely was a godsend because we have been running out of food, or at least seeming to run out of food, which has been the feeling.

Sarah Mable and Andre also took us out to eat on Thursday. They took us to this fancy sushi restaurant in San Bernardino and we got All You Can Eat rolls of Sushi, my favorite being the Las Vegas Sushi. Scarlet wouldn't have the spicy sushi, which was a lot of them. We went to their hotel pool and spa two different nights. The second night there were tons of high schoolers getting ready for a conference, visiting from SLO county: San Luis Obispo. It was kinda annoying because the first night we had the pool to ourselves, but the second night, there were all these annoying teenagers.

Work this week was just trying to make it to Wednesday for the Disneyland trip, and, after that, making it to the weekend. I taught Ms. Santos' class on Monday and Friday. She team teaches with Mrs. Williford. Mrs. Williford's class is the harder class and fortunately she gets them out of the way in the first section of her class in the morning. On Friday, one of my friends from the Singles Ward, Amanda Ahlmann, was at Jurupa Vista roving (which is what I wished to do). But, besides all the familiar faces at Jurupa Vista, it was nice seeing her familiar face as well.

Funny thing, I was at Sycamore Hills on Tuesday, and I was roving, but they put me in a sixth grade class throughout the day. Edward Guillen, one of my deacons, was in that class. So I got to see him interact in his element. He is to himself, but when he's comfortable, he gets out there. Another funny thing, is that I teach him and his siblings piano on Tuesday. I got there early, and his mom let me in to teach him. Well, after his lesson, we had some down time in between the time that his siblings came home, so he let me play Fortnite, the new "in" game that all the kids are playing these days. Of course, as always, I was bad at it, but it was cool to connect with him on that level for a few minutes.

One of Sarah's best friend's wife was put into the Psychiatric hospital the other day. She was released really early because she voluntarily came, so, like me when I was sick and off meds, she was going crazy at the house. So, Yesterday, Sarah went to go visit them and stay the night with them while she was acting crazy. I drove half the way, but, her husband asked if I not come, because she was reacting poorly to people she didn't already know really well. Sarah stayed up really late that night, and came home this morning to prepare for Sacrament meeting. She had to prepare a talk in Spanish for the congregation on Prayer. It was a pretty good talk.

I then accompanied Sarah to her primary class, in which she talked about Jacob and his four wives and 12 sons. The class was really good. I can't wait until the next three weeks when we talk about the story of Joseph.

Oh, yeah, there was a Talent Show on Friday as put on by the youth. Sarah and I sang How Far I'll Go from Moana, and I played the Ukulele ON AN AMP. Wow, it was so cool. Now I want an amp for my Uke and any other future instruments I get. Sarah sang without a microphone because they didn't seem to be working that well. Naomi Mondragon played Riptide on the Uke, too, with another girl singer and Josh did the percussion. I could've sworn that she was playing the Ukulele that you made a drawing of, because it had a picture of a wave on it, but after further inspection, we came to the conclusion that they were similar, but not exactly the same. Josh and friends did a percussion type performance. And I also got to see my piano students perform songs on the guitar and singing. There were other good performances, like two dances, one by the Mondragons and the other by the Sister Missionaries in Mexican costume.

Another miracle is that Sarah got a job for the next two weeks in an apartment complex answering phones and other stuff related to that. She started on Friday. This is definitely a blessing.

Also, at my request, Luis Guillen taught our Priesthood class today, and he did a good job. He's a deacon and he taught about the Restoration of the Priesthood. He ended early so I took the rest of the class talking about D&C 13, John the Baptist's blessing to Joseph and Oliver Cowdery.

Anyways, send me a line if you can. I'm always grateful for any lines you do send me. IDK, should I pray that it always rains on your p-days, haha, j/k. I love you. Enjoy your day and do something relaxing.

I love you so much.

Thanks for all your prayers on our behalf. We are praying for you too.

Love,

John

4/21 Sarah helps Jonathan with Erica I drive halfway

4/18 Disneyland with Sarah and Sarah Mable Jensen and family

4/17 Edward Guillens class and Sarah Mable Costco Run help

4/15 Letter #64

Dear Jacob,

It’s been a good week.

It ended (at least Friday) ended with me teaching at High School again. This is my second time ever at a high school. I went all the way down to Grand Terrace for this one, and guess who I bumped into at the school. A happy Principal James Western. I hadn’t known that he was the principal there. At the time, it was lunch time and I needed help finding a microwave. The microwave. I know, menial task for a principal, but he helped me nonetheless. Last time I was at a high school, they didn’t give me that much time for a lunch because the scheduled time was for later in the day. I saw him later and he was commenting on how much water a student was not drinking. Don’t ask me why. So, the class I was there for was Vocal Music and Music History. The two music history classes were divided into groups for presentations and they all gave their best presentations (which were definitely high school level). One of them was a organ piece and when they played an example of the piece, one of the audience was like, “Oh, so he composes Halloween music.” Haha. It doesn’t get better than that.

The vocal music classes were all very cool. Some were practicing arrangements of Flashlight from Pitch Perfect 2 and other songs were like a medley of Disney Songs. Others were practicing choreography for pieces set to the Hairspray musical. It was fun to watch. She did have a TA that was taking down names of people in the Advanced Chamber Choir that weren’t doing anything. About 4 kids were focussed on eating a super spicy chow mein dish. I don’t really know why. Others were singing happy birthday, etc. No movies, but it was cool to see each of the classes in work. The TA’s name was Jurnee (she was black) and she was in like 4 of the 6 periods (a senior) along with another senior named Lizbeth. She actually didn’t show up for the beginning of last period and people were wondering what was up. Then she showed up and I told her I marked her late, jokingly. The boys in the final choir class were practicing either some kind of chant, or For the Longest Time in another room. I was able to play warm ups for the girl choir, and some kids asked me how long I have been playing. Overall, good experience. If choral classes at High School show up, I probably will take them again. Don’t know about the other classes yet.

The weather has finally been getting hot so Sarah and I have been going swimming. She has been teaching me tips about the frog kick and the breaststroke and also how to better freestyle and blow water out of my nose when I’m swimming. We have a pool in our apartment complex. It was funny, the last time we went, an interesting man named mike was shouting at us from the second story of his house and just letting us know how excited he was for us to go swimming and for the nice summer weather we’ve been having. We plan on going more and more as the summer progresses. We do have a jacuzzi, but it is never heated past a lukewarm feeling. So, it feels good after going in cold water, but that’s about it.

I taught everyday this last week. At work on Thursday, I taught a first grade class. First grade has been really hard to teach lately for me, just because of my mindset, and how I’ve been feeling at places like Rogers Elementary. But this time was actually not too bad. A highlight that I took is that we were asked to read certain materials. So, I would have them read with me. Echo read. And I finally had them sing the words of the materials, copying how I sung the song. The kids really took to it. It was a nice change. Especially from the error I made earlier that day in bringing them to the wrong computer lab, when a teacher needed me to be there stat. OH well. The teacher I was subbing for didn’t really seem like she cared too much, though. She warned me about the major offenders. She had four. One in every corner of the room.

It was fun, though. I had lots of extra time on my hands at the end of the day in that same classroom. Fortunately, the teacher had left her computer there for me to play with. So, I knew from earlier teaching on previous days, that the first graders had been practicing a 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 dance to the Cotton-Eye Joe. So, I had them perform it for me twice in the classroom (not consecutively). They had also learned the song “You Gotta Friend in Me” song from Toy Story, and they happily sang that song. I also had them do Youtube DDR to songs by One Direction that I notice my SDC kids like to dance to or watch a lot. They had a good time that day, as did I.

I was in Jurupa Vista SDC earlier this week for Mrs. Raymondo. It turns out that Mrs. Raymondo has early stages of breast cancer and at the end of this week she was going to have the surgery and recovery. The aides were asking me if I could teach for the next three weeks or longer. I cleared my schedule for this week, but I didn’t get the position. They were happy I was there on Tuesday, but, had told me that they thought I didn’t get the job because the sub that was going to take over for Mrs. Raymondo, might actually be the teacher that takes her job when she goes to a different school, because that is what she’s thinking about doing. Oh well. Fortunately I was blessed with the ability to find jobs the rest of the week.

The other two days I was at Sycamore Hills in SDC and in a second grade class, the same class I had taught when there was a beehive at the school on a Wednesday. That class is easy to teach because Mr. Stoffel has an aide that helps out. It was a good day. I didn’t see the Guillen kids that day, and they didn’t see me.

We had scouts on Wednesday. We had a normal “meal planning” meeting for a campout that we’re having in two weeks. I have to bring beans for breakfast burritos. It reminded me of long boring scout meetings where we planned menus before. Although, the kids made it fun. We also discussed if we should raise money for scout camp this year and the consensus was no. When I told Hna. Garcia about that, she wasn’t very happy, seeing as how she now has Isaac and his brother, Sammy in scouts. I honestly felt like it is too late in the game to raise the money, not to mention they are having Pioneer Trek in July. But I just let her vent out all her emotions. I’m also trying to get one of our boys to come to the scout campout. His name is Jared, and he is a little on the doesn’t-want-to-go-to-things-outside-of-church mentality. His mom has come to me with pleads of help to get him active. I’m doing my best to encourage ALL the boys to come.

We had the Elders over for dinner on Thursday. We had originally invited Lucy and Jesus to come, but they cancelled because a prior commitment. So, Sarah prepared a homemade lasagna. It was super good. Super super good. The elders shared a five minute brief explanation about the restoration. In Young Mens today, I focussed on the Book of Mormon, and particularly the questions of the soul section found in chapter five of Preach My Gospel. I had three groups of three take one question from the chapter, read the book of mormon chapter and then help explain it to me. I tried to play devil’s advocate with Josh Mondragon and Jorge Munguia and Sammy Garcia’s group. It was quite fun.

WE’RE GOING TO DISNEYLAND on Wednesday for free! Yay! I was a little scared that our in was going to find a way to say no to us and it not work out, but in the end, she is pulling through. We invited Sarah’s dad, and Sarah’s friend, Sarah Mable Jensen and kids are coming as well. I’m really looking forward to it.

Mom and Sarah went to a relief society activity pulled on by the stake on Saturday. Mom picked her up and they were on their way. Dad called me later that day and asked me if I wanted lunch with him. Of course I said yes and we ate pizza hut pizza and watched the highlights from the last two friendly Peru soccer games. Then we talked about things in the church and wards we are in and waited for the girls to come home, and then we talked some more. I showed Sarah baby pictures and we broke out the scrapbooks and some photo albums. It was quite fun.

Anyways, just got back from a seminary fireside, where Sarah and I participated in an activity where we pretended to be investigators. It was really fun.

Well, I hope you are doing well. I love you so much. Have a great week and don’t forget to send me a line.

Love you,

John