Wow! I was talking to our newest transferred elder, Elder Arntsen, and I had to do a double take when I mentioned how many P-days you have left. Two! Only two! How are you not home already?!? j/k. Honestly, though...it's only just a few days til I can call you up at any time I want, and just catch up. You are honestly my favorite brother, haha, but I know that that is implied in our family. I've always been fond of you, for many reasons. I just had the thought to name as many of them as I can:
First of all, you are a good brother. Not just to me, which is very apparent, but you are good to every member of our family. I've always loved how close knit us kids are to each other. I have always admired your bond with Sarah, our sister. I've always wished for that same bond. But I'm glad that she has a good brother she can relate to, that isn't always me. I love Sarah so much, though. I wouldn't be able to consider a life without her. She is an integral part of our family, as is every member.
You are a faithful man. Always have been, always will be. I'd like to think I was an influence in how you were brought up.
You are caring, loving, kind, considerate, compassionate, and always thinking of others. I always saw it in our family, but, it has been good seeing the world also experience your goodness. Isn't it great that Heavenly Father sends us somewhere else, that isn't our home, or even to a place we ever thought of, and that we were sent there for a reason, definitely no coincidences??? That there are people you may have never met had you not served a full-time mission for two years in the Great state of Pennsylvania!? Imagine never being able to have met Carolina, or Stu, or those two sweet kids, or Stephanie and her husband, etc, etc....but the list goes on, doesn't it??? I'm sure it does for you. You will always forever be connected to the people of your mission. Heavenly Father chose you to serve there, for all the reasons.
You are a sweet, sweet spirit. I love you for all of the things that you are good at, and even all those things that perhaps you aren't good at. Tennis, for one. Ukulele for another. And the art of drawing. For your interests as well, such as the whole of the comic book genre.
I honestly don't want to imagine life without you! It would be an injustice. You truly have lived a beautiful life. And will continue to do so. (and remember, every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings). How is it that our family got so blessed to have You? I am the happiest big brother in the world. Let's not forget Briana in this conversation of sibling love. What joy it is to have her in our life! Her little family brings a smile to my face, but more importantly, she brings a smile to my face.
I have been VERY blessed in regards to my siblings.
Well, I hope that gives you some encouragement for the final 12 days of your mission.
I love you, brother! <3
Well, this week has been very good to us. I got my first piano student and the lesson went soooooo well, I couldn't believe it. He's a 7-year-old boy named Giovanny Hernandez. He has no knowledge of the piano, so it was exciting just getting him amp-ed up for the experience. I am so excited for what is coming in my future, and how much I can help people have a love for music.
That FHE-ish movie night with the two families of kids was a smashing success. In total, we had 8 kids in our home, and we watched the movie Ralph Breaks the Internet, which is actually pretty good. We were somewhat celebrating a little 7-year-old girl's birthday named Sulema. She's going to be 8 this month, right when you come home. So, four of her siblings and cousins, and I also invited the Garza family kids. It was great, but it kinda didn't start that great. I picked up the Garza's first and then walked with them to the house of the Perez kids. Well, the reception was less than welcoming, especially from the 10 ish Romeo Perez. Well, I wouldn't have it, and I got on his case for being so unkind to another family, but unfortunately the damage was already done. However, feelings grew much more kinder as the night wore on. Also, movies are not good activities for getting to know people. But what was awesome, is that some of the kids were all scattered about the house, some on couches, others on chairs, but by the end of the night, their movement brought them huddled around our TV watching the movie, but mostly just playing around and getting along, around a fan. Lots of smiles and laughter. And although Sarah and I didn't really hear the ending of the movie because of the loudness, we were content with the things that were happening between the kids. The walk to our house was good, but the walk back was crazy because those kids were so hyped up. Sarah and I put on our parent/adults caps and lay down the law for those kids. So, they went from bouncing off the walls to walking two by two in a straight line. Of course, being kids, the order was broken a couple of times, but we made it. Not without an almost incident though. Right next door to the Perez home, there was a gated yard with a menacing dog, but the front gate door was OPEN for some reason and that Dog was baring teeth for all to see. Well, some of the kids dashed for the house, and fortunately, the dog followed on the other side, which gave me leeway to close that fence gate. Phew! Thanks be to our God that nothing happened to those kids. Besides me having a good relationship with the Perez kids, the best part for me was today, before sacrament, one of the Garza girls, Maria Angela, came to me and asked to have a limited-use temple recommend interview of her own volition. I was happy.
We had our Branch Father's Day activity on Friday. It was really good. The food was good (different Mexican dishes that I don't remember the names of) and the entertainment was spot on. Most of the show, if not all, was coordinated by a sister in our branch named Maria Reyna. She did some choreography of a dance that a good portion of the Relief Society sisters participated in. There was a poem read by la Hermana Giron. The elder and sisters did that kind of skit where you see the upper half of their body covered by a sheet, and their lower half is done by the other two persons, so they look like two midgets. It looked good and was quite clever. Then, la Hermana Reyna had some of the youth do a presentation where they had the same sheet, but a spotlight shining on it so all you could see were the shadows on the sheet. Well, they reenacted scenes of the transformation of man from young boy to marriage to first kids to those kids graduating. It was super cool. I did get video of it. Then they had all the fathers, including me, do a large game of musical chairs. I wasn't being very competitive so I lost on the second round. Then we had a dance, where I saw my friend and second counselor in the presidency, Carlos Santos, dance with his wife for the first time. Sarah got there when that was happening, because she had to work on Friday night. They gave her the food that they set apart for her at my request. All in all, really fun night.
I had our first real presidency meeting on Tuesday. It went well, and I was glad to meet with them. And then we went on visits on Thursday. Half set up the chairs for the activity, but they asked me and Carlos to go and do visits. We had in mind to visit Mario Cruz and Jasmine and their family. They weren't there, but I had just found out the Sunday previous that her parents are in the branch, so I suggested we see them, which was a good suggestion because they lived one street over, and because the brother, Francisco Ortiz, while being a held back shyish man, was very inviting and let us in. It was so cool getting to know this brother, because he is a Welder by trade, and he has his own shop in his back yard. He was working on painting some fence-like garage doors for a friend that he had welded together, because the friend had helped place stone flooring in his backyard. Also, this man has even welded his own grills. I had to take some pictures, especially for dad. It was really cool getting to know him.
I also took the time to see an Hermana named Martha Ochoa. I spent time getting to know her and we had a lot to talk about. It just warmed my heart talking to this woman, and she also allowed me to give her a blessing for an MRI she is having on her knee this Tuesday. I gave it in Spanish, and it honestly just flowed, which was super cool.
It's been really cool having Sarah at my work, or at least in the same office building. She visits me when she is on her break. Actually, I worked five shifts, and 4 out of the five of those shifts were spent in FreshRisk, which is a division of Fresh. I like working that division a lot, and I got to train three different people those four days. One named Lorelai, another Sarah, and the other Vanessa. They were all new to the system and admittedly scared, but I was happy to show them that they had no need to be so.
Also, on Saturday, they were giving away Swag, and I won another red Amazon Central Ops shirt that I gave to Sarah. I beat a guy at RoShamBo (or however you spell it), which was just a glorified game of Rock, Paper, Scissors. I had to go through 4 or 5 rounds to do so, but it felt nice beating a guy named Pearce for it. Anyways, Amazon is always fun.
My dreams of going back to school for Music is getting realized! I took a 30 question placement test on Friday, and I got all of them right, ALL 30 questions! I couldn't believe...granted, I touched up on some stuff I didn't know during the week, but all my hard work has been paying off. And, it is another testament as to my decision to do music, I mean...I did not so good in my degree of Psychology at BYU, and a large portion was the tests, and continually failing them. But, this test was almost inviting. I felt good about it, even getting a tricky one right.
We have been spending time getting things proven that I haven been a resident for a year. I even got my Arizona Driver's License. I know, I probably should have done that 10 days after I moved, like they say...but honestly, I did not know that that was the law...but now I am wiser. So, if we ever do move again, I know. It was actually not that bad at the ADOT which is Arizona's DMV. The girl was super nice to me, and I preached going to school to do what she loved. Surprisingly, her dream was to work with cars, but she wanted to do something safe and lucrative.
We have gotten a letter from Mesa High School from Robin Mazak, one of our good lunchtime friends, that states I got a job a year from when I need to get residency for school. This letter is actually the key to my getting residency. I had to get it signed because MCC is not taking it otherwise. Sarah and I also had a chat with a College Counselor, which was really informative, and we also went to go visit the Music Department, which was super good. I am excited about this. I am going tomorrow to turn in my Driver's License paper that I needed to get, and also to visit the Music Department about which classes I need to register for. The dream is coming true.
Sarah and I had the opportunity to go to another personal Energy Healing class given by the woman that organizes the Energy Healing Conferences, Tammy Ward. She is also a good friend of Sarah's. The class was so good. I enjoyed every minute of it, and learned many new things for my arsenal. I am excited to try them out.
And Sarah and I went swimming on Thursday night. It was super nice and I got to try out my new goggles, or as Sarah calls them, Googles. I am now requesting to go swimming almost as much as possible, which is not usually normal for me. But it is getting hotter and hotter, and we still haven't turned on our Air Conditioning. We have been good, though. Using fans and the like.
Well, that about tells you all I can remember. I hope you are great and super excited about life, and that that person with a baptismal date is progressing. I love you, brother.
Love,
John
