This letter will probably be pretty short compared to previous ones.
It's been a long day. Long, because I had a long night last night with Sarah. We spent a good portion of our night last night translating the Tabernacle song "My Shepherd Will Supply My Need." But not only translating, we had to make it fit with the tune we were given. So we took the three verses of the song and just went with it. We did a great job, I think. It's a great song. I'll put it here:
My Shepherd will supply my need:
Jehovah is His Name;
In pastures fresh He makes me feed,
Beside the living stream.
He brings my wandering spirit back
When I forsake His ways,
And leads me, for His mercy's sake,
In paths of truth and grace.
When I walk through the shades of death,
Thy presence is my stay;
A word of Thy supporting breath
Drives all my fears away.
Thy hand, in sight of all my foes,
Doth still my table spread;
My cup with blessings overflows,
Thine oil anoints my head.
The sure provisions of my God
Attend me all my days;
O may Thy house be my abode,
And all my work be praise!
There would I find a settled rest,
While others go and come;
No more a stranger, nor a guest,
But like a child at home.
And here's our Spanish version without punctuation or accents:
Mi pastor me proveera
El Senor es Jehova
En praderas verdes me pastorea
Por el arroyo vivo
Mi alma errante me amansa
Si reniego de su guia
Y me conduce su amor
Por sendas de verdad.
Aunque pase por las sombras de muerte
Me infundes de valor
La palabra de su aliento
Quita mi temor
Su mano colma la mesa mia
En toda mi afliccion
Mi copa rebolsa con bendiciones:
Aceite, mi uncion.
Provisiones seguros de mi Dios
Me ayudan por mi vida.
Que sea tu mansion mi casa
Y cante alabanzas/y cante cante alabanzas
Alli encuentro mi descanso
Pues otros vienen y van
No soy extrano ni visita
Soy nino en hogar.
Anyways, 3 verses of a very spiritual, poetic song, and also fitting meter, and under a deadline. Well, it made for an interesting night. The deadline I speak of is that we are forming a Spanish choir for a special Spanish Devotional where Elder Lynn G. Robbins is coming. But it is in 2 weeks. And since we had conference last week, and I only knew about it the week before...well. I was asked to lead the choir and choose the song, and Sarah and I came up with the idea to do this one. We're very happy with the product. Then, I transcribed the notation and the lyrics as well throughout the day until our 6PM practice, which we were late for because I had to make copies. It's looking good, though.
Our choir only had a few people. 4 women and about 10 men. But it was good. Of course, there are things that I need to improve on, but fortunately, we scheduled about 3-4 more practices. It will be pretty grand. We are going to be getting more people, since this practice was kinda set last minute.
Other than that, I was feeling pretty on low energy today. I even went home early, because I couldn't handle it. Sarah played my last hymn, after I did the Sacrament Meeting count. I'm doing better now.
Work's been good. Just normal.
My friend and ex-roommate, Spencer Irvine, just moved to Phoenix from Maryland. When I heard that he was coming, I jumped on the opportunity to see him, and of course, help him and his wife with the move. After work on Friday and some communication, I met with him to help him move a table they had bought on a Facebook selling website. It was a pretty nice table, but not as heavy as the owner was making it out to be. Sarah met me and the couple at their apartment. After moving the table in, we caught up. Sarah was talking with Meg, and Spencer and I chatted for a good long while before we decided to leave because of our hunger. It was so nice to see Spencer after so long. He was one of my last roommates in college, before I graduated. He was a good friend, and I am excited to spend more time with him, now that he is so close, and Sarah and Meg hit it off as well. She even offered us some Filipino food to take home.
We decided to head to an Indian Restaurant. It was pretty nice. The waiter was super nice and we found out that his name was Edwin and we got into a conversation about how my Uncle's name is Edwin (Wiwa). He also asked us about our Peruvian food that we like to make. We found out that he is leaving for better work in a month. We left a nice tip. The food was just amazing. It did not disappoint.
Friday was pretty exciting as well. We were asked to give Gracie a ride home from school, so afterwards, since we were in Gilbert, we tried out a Churro place called Dulce Churro Cafe. It is a dessert restaurant that the son-in-law of one of our elderly members, los Hermanos Naumann. The churros were super good. We walked around the complex for a bit, and then decided for date night, that we would go to an Italian restaurant for named Caponnes or Saponnes, I think. The food there was amazing as well. Sarah and I have normally been sharing the plate, and getting a good taste of stuff. One thing we did eat was a cheese and meat board. So good.
We gave Gracie a ride from school another day this week, and when we picked her up, we asked her if she wanted to look at houses that were close, from the outside. It was pretty fun.
One of the aides in my classroom, Celia Messer, had her last day on Friday. She's upgrading to being a bus aide instead, not really sure why, haha. We had a smallish party for her on Thursday, where I brought chips. Fun stuff. It'll be hard to see her go, and we may be shorthanded at time, although, one of the sped teachers made a schedule so we aren't.
I've kinda been an errand boy for Miss Eva. Three times this week she asked me to leave the classroom (aside from the times that I take Gavin out), to do stuff for her. It started Monday or Tuesday. She asked me to go take her white Ford truck to see if a piece of discarded furniture was still around and pick it up if I could. It wasn't there. But after the fact, I really desired having a truck in the future. We shall see. The third time, she asked me to get a card filled out with notes from different people in the SpEd department for Celia. And the second time, which is the funniest, is that she sent me to get a signature for an IEP from Aunt Kerry. That was a fun one, because I just chatted with her for a good long time. It was great. However, Eva was really wondering what I had been doing for like 20 or so minutes, no joke. It was good talking to Kerry for a while. We just caught up and talked about different things like conference or come follow me, or just life. I love her.
Well, I said this letter was going to be short, but it really isn't, so I'll end here.
I love you Brother. I haven't really chatted with the family this week unfortunately.
Anyways, I hope you are doing good. I love you. Send Elder Seeley our greetings and love. Prayers out to you, fo sho.
Love,
John
