So, I know I never sent you the info about who won Wimbledon. Sarah and I watched the ending of the finals match between Djokovic and Anderson. Needless to say, it wasn’t really that interesting. Djokovic dominated the whole match taking the first two sets like 6-2, 6-3, or something. Anderson took the third set to a tiebreaker. Which was nice of course, to see some challenge, but we think that in the end, Anderson (from South Africa) was just too tired from previous matches. We told you how long his match was against Federer, and then he played Isner and that lasted at least 6 hours. Not so fun. If I were him, and I had ran that marathon, I probably would have lost to Djokovic as well. IDK. He definitely gave his all to make it to the final. Sarah found out, and I realized, that in the Women’s championship they award the victor with a plate, instead of a trophy. Honestly, I’d feel gyped outta a trophy. And Sarah was vocal about how that is not really nice. We read about the Wimbledon trophy, and I showed her a picture of Wimbledon trophy that you drew on Instagram. Well, what’s next? I assume: The Australian Open. Sarah actually did take the time to watch the Nadal vs. Djokovic match with me. I am definitely indoctrinating her into our tennis culture. You’d be proud of me.
So, as I write, I am in Idaho, driving back to Provo to drop Sarah off, pick up our stuff at her house, maybe see Elder Delgado from my mission and do the 3 and a half hour trip to Hurricane. It’s been such a nice weekend, even if it is fast. We’ve been planning this trip ever since a date for Cohen’s baby blessing has been in the air. Believe me, it was a privilege just to be here and stand in the circle of arms rocking our little Nephew with Tony, Dad, and his brothers-in-law, and his Dad and the member of the bishopric.
Actually, the whole experience was super touching. Tony welcomed everyone to his home, thanking all those who had travelled a great distance to participate in this great experience. It is my first ever baby blessing I have participated in, so it was special to me, too. Cohen began to cry in the middle of the blessing. Afterwards, Tony emotionally touched our hearts with beautiful words of thanks to all of us. I practically got teary eyed as he did so. It was just so cool.
Of course, the day before, I got to hold our little nephew for the first time. My first reaction, how small he was. Of course, he’s a month old. I asked Briana how many pounds he had gained since birth. The answer: a little over a pound. I held him, and it was just perfect. He was pretty sleepy. Then he started crying, and I, not panicked, but looked around for help, and Briana came to my rescue. Tony is super good with him. He bounces him up and down as he goes from crying, to pacified. He’s super good with him. I got to hold him one more time after the blessing. While he was with me that time, he was looking up at me and at the ceiling. Then he started crying and Briana came to my rescue once again. Sarah, my wife, got to hold him and she was very good and entertaining with him, singing to him and talking to him about his development as a baby to young child. He’s cute. He’s definitely worth seeing and being related to.
Our trip has been short, but sweet. And plans had changed a lot. Last week, we offered Sarah, our sister a ride to Idaho for the blessing and told her we would be driving back from Idaho on Sunday. She took us up on the offer. So, on Saturday, we arrived in Provo to pick her up. When we got to Provo, we texted Mom to let her know we had made it. She quickly texted us back: Don’t leave Provo, please, because our flight has been delayed and we will miss the St. George Shuttle to Idaho Falls, and have to wait until 6pm for the next one. We gladly stayed in Provo, for a couple of hours. Then, after we cleaned out our trunk and car of all the unnecessary stuff and miscellaneous stuff we put in Sarah’s apartment, we went to pick up the parents from the airport. We got there at the exact same time as when it was arrived, although the security at the Salt Lake Airport wouldn’t let us station ourselves in the Arrival section, so we circled around the airport 3 times until they were ready for us to pick them up.
I wouldn’t know, because I was driving the car from Salt Lake to Rexburg, but I’m sure the back seat, with 3 grown adult people was definitely not comfortable. We had some squabbles. Dad slept through Jim Gaffigan’s show we had downloaded, etc. After three or four hours of driving, we got to Idaho Falls. We couldn’t find the rental car place, so Sarah R. went to look for the place. She found it and we said bye to the three for a little while.
We got to see several of Sarah’s friends that lived in Idaho Falls, including a previous branch president’s wife, a really nice hispanic lady named Ember who was at our Open House, and her friend Jayden, who has two girls. We spent a few minutes with each. All had high praises for Sarah, and Sarah had high praises for them and me. Ember actually gave us taquitos for the road. We stopped at Sarah’s sister’s house in Rigby. She and her family are getting prepared for a move back to California. Her husband is a police officer, and they feel like this is the best thing for them.
I got to play with their two little girls (two of my nieces on Sarah’s side) named Fiona who is going to turn six, and Briana who is three years old. I got to hold them and have lots of rough housing fun with them. They were running around me and I was reaching out my arms and hands to catch them as they ran around me. Then I would pretend to be asleep, and they would try to knock me over sitting on the floor. Then we finally played a game where I turned on some music I have downloaded on my phone. They would dance around, then stop, and when I stopped, they would freeze. We all kinda got into it. It was so much fun being with Christina’s kids. She has really cute girls, and they were really warming up to me. It was nice to talk to Christina (who is Sarah’s youngest sister).
Well, this week has been interesting. I went to Mesa on Tuesday evening. I stayed with Aunt Kerry, Uncle Jesse, and Gracie. Jesse wasn’t home when I arrived. So we talked, and then Aunt Kerry made me a quesadilla. Then she took me around town to show me the place where I was going to have my interview the next morning. We also went to go visit Aunt Ann. While we were there, one of her optimistic friends came by. She was so happy-go-lucky.
Then, later, I went with Jesse to go get Jimmy John’s and water from Walmart. They have a dog named Melanie, who they call Mel Mel, or poopy or stinky. At first, she was very not happy to see me, growling and barking and stuff, but later she warmed up to me. It was nice being with them and seeing the area.
I had my interview that morning. The appointment was with LIFE, or Lauren’s Institute for Education. The initial interview went well. In it, I learned that this place also has Mormon Service MIssionaries. After that, they placed me in three different classroom settings. The first was with 1st/Kindergarten-aged children.They were observing me. I was sitting next to a silent boy named Isaiah. He had a mini tablet to point to and show what he was thinking. The teacher did her monring routine. They told me I would be in 3 different classrooms for 30 minutes each. I tried my best to look good with the child I was with. The second classroom housed older children. I made friends with a boy named Dade and he showed me his art collection. He likes to draw Tim Burton-esque drawings of people, including Sonic and other different characters. It was nice to connect. I was also able to meet different students. They were doing groups in the class. I met another Paraprofessional named Zachary who’s nickname was Susan. Don’t ask me why. One of the kids he was talking to did a hangman game which incorporated his nickname. The third classroom I just pretty much observed the students eating snack. I talked to one of the girls and found out she was a service missionary turn employee. I didn’t really have 30 minutes in that last classroom before they had me out of there.
I then went to a UPS store to get my Arizona Fingerprint Card. That took like a minute, that cost $75. It was really easy. Then I met wtih Aunt Kerry and Gracie at a Gyro restaurant in Mesa. It was so awesome of them to get me food. As I talked to them in the last two days, they talked about their new trainer at the gym named Lennis. Gracie would raise her eyebrows everytime she said his name. And they would laugh and giggle for a second.
My trip there and back was good. It took exactly two gas tanks to get there and back in my little Corolla. We had to get an oil change, and the oil change guy tricked me into thinking he would take my $7 coupon. He totally got me. Both ways, I stopped in Blythe at the Carl’s Jr. and went to the bathroom, and took a 30 or so minute nap in the parking lot. I saw the Casino Morongo, the windmills, the Colorado River, and the planes landing in the Phoenix airport. They do have cactus as you get closer to Arizona, instead of the Joshua Tree.
I got back just in time on Wednesday to go to mutual and joint meetings. Sister Mondragon got us together to make fruit shakes, and then we played games afterwards. They had a lot of fruit, like strawberries, blueberries, cantaloupe, pineapple, banana, and mango. They even had dates, and for fun, Joshua Mondragon dared Luis Guillen to try a concoction of everything, including ginger root and chocolate milk. The games were fun. I led a game of Apples to Apples. The primary children were there and a young girl named Victoria Najarro. The funny thing was, is by the time we were finished with the game, she had more green cards than two or three of the young men and women, including Sammy Garcia. It was a fun game, and it was funny to rub it into his face. I know, I can be mean sometimes. But you know, those young men can be so smug, haha (although, they were actually kind of mild during this game).
You probably heard that France beat Croatia in the World Cup. It’s too bad, I wanted the underdog to win too, like your companion.
Also, Sarah just got an email that they are ending her temp job with Niagara this week. So, prayers would be nice. We trust that everything will work out. We have been meaning to get Sarah’s computer fixed so she can use it more often, and we finally did on this trip up. One of her good friends fixed it. I tried to show my tech-savviness to her, but downloading two different drivers just wasn’t working. So, we relied on outside help, including taking it for a quote to Best Buy. Her friend was super nice about it, and I’m sure he did a great job (we still haven’t been able to check it).
Well, send me a line bud. We love you so much! We pray for you constantly. You are on our minds a whole lot. I hope your new companion is treating you with respect and love and has a missionary mindset still. Can’t wait to hear from you tomorrow.
Love,
John
