We were able to go to Disneyland together as a family. I have some favorite moments. They had just opened the Star Wars land to the public. I couldn't believe how awesome it looked. The Millennium Falcon never looked so good. In fact, we got to literally ride in the vessel and do a smuggler's run. Each person had an assigned part to play and what was cool is that there were six roles, and we had six people to play the parts. There were two pilots, two shooters, and two engineers. The first two roles made sense, but I'm not exactly sure what the engineers did the whole duration of the ride. Sarah and I got to be pilots. I think we got the large of the stick with that deal. I controlled whether or not we go left or right and Sarah controlled going up or down. Now I think I know why Han Solo needed a copilot in Chewbacca.
After the ride, Briana and Sarah went really quickly back to attend to Cohen, who must have been having a rough go, So my wife, Jacob, Tony, and I explored the place for a few minutes. Jacob really wanted to get a picture with some Storm Troopers, who we saw walking into the Star Wars land, so we looked around for them again. We found them as we were walking out of the park. They were hard to catch, though. They were definitely playing the part. As they passed us by, they stopped a man that had bought a Light Saber souvenir (probably at a gift shop) and said that he mush have had a special license to carry one. I thought we wouldn't be able to stop them from going off, but Sarah dashed after them and told them that we were friends to the empire. That stopped them in their tracks. For about a few seconds. Enough time for me to take a selfie. Sarah was the hero of that venture.
We went on Thunder Mountain Railroad twice as the line was very small. It was one right after the other. What was funny, is right when we got in the car to go, Sarah had noticed that the previous people in our cart had left their waterbottles and sunglasses. We had also noticed who was in our cart before us. Well, Sarah noticed that they were walking and looking for their stuff as they were leaving and right when our cart started moving and were going down the way at the beginning of the ride, we were probably going about 20 mph-ish, Sarah grabbed the sunglasses and tossed them as the cart was starting to speed up, while calling out to those women. Somehow miraculously, she got them to them. The ride was super fun.
I also enjoyed one-on-one time I spent with my little nephew, Cohen, and my mom. The rest of my family wanted to go on Indiana Jones Adv ride, which is now, one of my least favorite rides at Disneyland. Briana actually knew about a cool little cove for babies that they have had since Disneyland opened. It's a quaint little place, really old fashioned. I helped Mom change Cohen right when we got there, and believe me, it is a lot easier to do so when the person you are changing doesn't weigh a ton. It was great to be with Cohen. He was taking several steps, crawling around like mad man, wanting to see the places where other moms were nursing. I had to stop him. We also played around with plastic cups and water. And I also played around with him with Sarah's keys. He really liked going after them, kinda like a little cat chases a laser point. It was kinda sad when his actual parents returned after the ride. I'll have to spend more time with him in the future.
We had the chance to go on ALL the mountains, since it was Tony's first time. I loved it and it was glorious. I also enjoyed getting a corn dog with Sarah. What was cool is Briana and Tony also shared a corn dog; which, is honestly different than if we had been with our parents in our family before Both Briana and I had families.
It was so nice spending time with the whole family at Disneyland. I also enjoyed spending it with my wife. Sarah and I decided to go to the park about 2 hours before my family got there. We decided to do the things we love and even some things new. The first thing we did was get the MaxPass for our favorite ride, Space Mountain. We took pictures in front of the big Mickey Mouse that is composed of flowers that is in front of the park. We also took pictures in front of the Sleeping Beauty Castle. We decided together that while we wait for the Pass to take in effect for Space Mountain, we would go to the Fantasy Land rides, which is a place we usually skip when we go there. Our first ride of choosing was the PETER PAN ride, which is normally the most sought out ride in Fantasy Land, and for good reason. It is really a magical ride, probably my favorite in Fantasy Land. In case you have never gone on it, you are literally in the ship they sail/fly on to Neverland, and you are flying, FLYING. But the most amazing thing is that you see England from up above, like a bird's eye view, seeing Big Ben, etc. And then you see Neverland as portrayed in the Disney movie of Peter Pan.
We then had a few minutes to spare before our ride, so we went on Snow White, which is a ride Sarah has never been on. However, Sarah has never seen the movie, and the ride is not something to cry home about, even for someone who has never seen the movie. I am planning on showing Sarah that classic movie soon, though. Space Mountain was sooooo fun. I had to psyche Sarah up for the ride, because she was getting pretty nervous, but I think Nervousness is another thing that Heavenly Father gives us so that when the thing we do that we're nervous about, will make it all the better. It was so fun.
Cohen liked Haunted Mansion, but really didn't like Pirates. We enjoyed going on It's a Small World. Something that was really Magical...well, I've been to Disneyland with an Aunt (Lucy) who has never been before, and I got to see her eyes light up when she met Minnie Mouse for the first time. Well, when we were in Toon Town, we took a few minutes to go to Mickey Mouse's house. The sign outside said 10ish minutes to meet him. Well, it took at least 20 and so we were getting irritable in line a bit. Well, we walk in when we were on deck, and Cohen sees Mickey. His reaction was priceless. I think Briana said that it was the only time he had smiled during a ride/event at Disney. It was soooooooooooooo cute. Mickey even wiggled his nose, which was really unexpected! And, Cohen even grabbed at the nose, which was the cutest thing ever, and Briana's reaction to his reaction was one of joyful glee and happiness. Really great memory.
Splash Mountain was pretty memorable for me, as I sat behind Sarah and Jacob and Tony. Well, since we were a full party, they decided to add one more to our group that wasn't in our party, a girl named Angelica. I got to know this girl as the ride was going on. She was nervous as she's only gotten to go on Splash Mountain the time she had come to Disneyland before. She was from Las Vegas and she had just graduated from High School, and while the ride was going on, I was psyching her for the drops, while giving her life advice. Honestly, we would probs make great friends. Well, on Splash Mountain, right before the big drop, on the way up, I thought, well I should take my hat off, and then I thought, I should take the picture of myself holding up the BYU hat and me pointing to it. Well, in the picture, I am holding up the BYU hat, but not quite pointing to it, I didn't time it right....aw man. Opportunity wasted, but good story.
Disneyland was good. Really Good.
We offered to go get the In-n-out afterwards. It was definitely much needed.
Another nice moment of the weekend that I don't think I wrote in my last letter, is we organized ourselves to talk about the Week's "Come, Follow Me" reading and lesson. I really enjoyed hearing from my family about their take on the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. I also loved hearing my two siblings, Sarah and Jacob, playing their favorite Ukulele songs. It was really serene and peaceful. Sarah even felt how nice it was.
Sarah and I had our Year and a Half married Anniversary yesterday. It was nice to be with her, and talk about the day we got married. We went to our nearest park (actually called Guerrero Park), and we lay in the grass, with Sarah's head on my stomach and look up into the night sky talking about such things. It was really neat to look up into the stars and it was reminiscent of the time that we went to the Phoenix Art Museum and stood in a completely dark room surrounded my mirrors and we felt like we were in complete nothingness and yet so empowered as well. We decided to visit the investigator family, la familia Robledo, just to see how they were doing, as they didn't make it to church, and we had heard that their teenage daughter had been sick. It was a super good visit and the dad just joked around a lot with me and Sarah. They are such a nice family. Their little daughter Jani (pronounced Ha-ney) was so cute. They gave us pistachios to eat and she was just grabbing at them. I showed her a picture of Cohen, and she just smiled. She is a two year old little girl. Sweetest little thing. She even started following us as we were leaving. Ari, the teenage daughter, was actually doing okay, but didn't really participate.
I was asked to teach the Fifth Sunday lesson this week, for the Branch Presidency. It is my first lesson since moving here to Arizona. The Elders Quorum President did ask me to teach at the beginning of our residency here. Well, I was battling throughout this week as to how and what I should talk about, but mostly because I was assigned to teach it with the newly called Branch Clerk, Alex Juarez. We did our best to get together throughout the week, but each time it fell through. Finally, I told Sarah my frustrations, and she told me that I should prepare a lesson as if I was going to be the only one teaching it. Well, her advice served me well, in that I prepared a lesson that I was happy with, and morning of, Alex asked me if I could teach it, and he'd get next lesson. If Sarah hadn't been so understanding, I don't know if that would've gone over well with me, but I was prepared, and I had no hard feelings toward the Brother.
And boy, my lesson went really well. So well. I was teaching, in a language other than my own, and I was connecting with the members of the class. Even the sister missionaries told me afterward they started recording it without my knowledge. What helped even more is that before the hour, I went to find my wife, who was in the Mother's Room, and I asked her if we could say a prayer together. And that calmed my nerves. And I had also miraculously found a picture of the story that I was going to talk about in the library. My lesson topic was how to incorporate Gospel learning in the Home so that our children will want to learn for themselves. I used my recent Come, Follow Me reading to talk about this topic. I used the story of Thomas, the apostle. We, as parents, are the 10 that have seen Christ and know he has been resurrected and have gotten our own testimonies of Christ, and our children are like Thomas, they won't believe until they get their own witness. And I delved into how we can allow the Holy Ghost and our works to help our children receive their own witness. It was a good lesson.
Other than that, it's been a good week. A lot of working. A lot. We have needed to spend the rest of last week catching up after our nice vacation. But it was good.
Anyways, there is always more, but I have to get to work for today.
Last thing, though! Sarah and I spent a good portion of our morning today doing our Meal Planning. And we decided that this month, since it is the Independence Day of Peru on the 28th of July, we will be focusing on cooking Peruvian dishes the whole month of July, at least 2 a week, culminating with a celebration on the 28th in honor of that Holiday. Also, Dad's birthday is the 27th.
Happy Independence Day to you!
Love,
John
