7/24, 7/21, 7/14 The Trefflich Family Reunion

Dear Family and Friends,

0I'm thinking about "enduring to the end" again. What does that actually mean?

After working very hard, enduring the three/four days of continuous work that both Sarah and I had, we got to our second goal for the summer! The thing we've been saving for and working for. We made it to see and be with OUR family, the Trefflich/Lagunas/Martin/Gonzales side. In fact, when we had heard a couple months ago that Sarah's brother, Enoch, was going to be deployed this week, and Sarah asked me if we wanted to go and support the beautiful baptism of his and Sonia's daughter, Melany, I of course said yes, that we would do our best to get up here to support. I even referred to the adage that I hear all the time in one of my favorite TV shows, THE MIDDLE, "We do for family!"

This weekend has been so fun! We decided to leave on Thursday afternoon, after Sarah had finished working. I spent all of that morning, doing all of our Vacation packing. I ended the packing by using the Rotisserie Chicken that we had bought for some soup we were going to make this week but never got to do because of the business, and made some Rotisserie chicken sandwiches, which Sarah was very happy with at the end of her shift. We got on the road after watching some funny Polos that I received from Danielle Trefflich.

The ride was good. I drove first, and Sarah drove the rest of the way. Sarah and I spent a good portion of the trip on the California side talking about Moses, specifically because Stephen in our Come, Follow Me book, was discussing his life and said some things about his age that I didn't know was recording in the scriptures, such that he was 40 when he left Egypt, and 80 after the burning bush. We then decided to read Exodus for more clarification. We stopped at the story of when Moses was almost killed because he almost didn't circumcise his child.

We spent the night at the Garcia home in Fontana. Vicky received us happily, even though it was like 9:30pm at night. She gave us some half-slices of toast with cream cheese and cranberry jam that they had personally made. Then she gave us some of Isaac's birthday cheesecake from Claim Jumper. All the while, we discussed stories about Mount Everest, stuff I had never heard before because I have never read about the crazy mountain. But it seems cool. The air mattress did the job for the night.

We had arranged with Helen that we would go pick up Arno on our way to meet up with her in Santa Clarita. However, what we didn't know is that in the first 3 miles on the Interstate 10 the freeway was closed to one lane, probably because of an accident that was almost all the way done when we passed in the one lane. Anyways, it put us off a couple of hours.

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Finding time to write about the Family Reunion during the family reunion has not been that easy.

First of all, it was really awesome!

We went up to Marysville and spent time with a good majority of the family in two different "cabins." Namely, the Lincoln House (which, ironically, wasn't a cabin) and the Brownsville House (which was a nice, actually brown, cabin). We drove up there first and had a good dinner. It was in the middle of the woods, so we spent time hiking around, which was actually not too easy because there were a lot of weeds with thorns and stickers. The cabin was really, really nice, with the exception of the railing to the upstairs rooms. They were super loose and potentially could have caused a fall...but fortunately, no one fell, haha (at least not that I heard about). The Brownsville House fit Richard's Family, The Martins, Athena and her two kids, and some of Enoch's in-laws (I think), oh, and Possibly Arnie???. Yeah, that's how big it was. Sarah and I stayed at the Lincoln House, appropriately named because it was in the little town of Lincoln. This house was very, very nice. It was us, Arno, and Lisa and her family. We were given the Master Bedroom, which was very nice of them. Unfortunately, Lisa's family couldn't join us on the first day's festivities because Adina had last-minute homework due and for some reason, wasn't getting the WiFi password to the Lincoln Home's internet.

But the big thing happened the next day. Melany was baptized confirmed by her father, Enoch. The meeting and ordinance were spectacular. Many people came. Helen played the piano, Lorenzo Trefflich, Richard's son, gave the baptism talk and Diana Treffich, his wife, was asked to give the talk on the Holy Ghost. Sarah was asked to lead the music. Jon Martin and I were asked to be the witnesses (she had to be dunked twice because her left arm didn't fully get immersed) and the rest of the brothers and Arno, Enoch's Father, participated in the confirmation.

Afterwards we took pictures in front of the building, after eating a hearty pinwheel sandwich and chips and some nicely decorated cookies. The pictures were interupted at times by baloons that said stuff like "I'm 8," kept on blowing into the pictures. It was a tiny bit windy, and hot (nobody really wanted to be outside). The kids that saw the baloons were asking their parents for them, namely Noah and Briana, and unfortunately they flew away right after we put them in the car.

Earlier that morning, Sarah, Julius Lagunas, Helen and I went to the Museum of the Forgotten Warrior. It is a museum that has a collection of items from all the wars that the United States has fought in (I think). It is kinda like a Mom-and-Pop museum located in the middle of rural Marysville. The things that are in there are actually truly amazing, ranging from helmets, to uniforms, to actual helicopters and jeeps, all from different war areas. We got to know the owner, and she is a recent Widow of a man that collected this stuff and he had a dream to make it into such a museum. It's actually quite a remarkable story.

The evening festivities were quaint. We all gathered around a cake that Sonia had made, or maybe a friend of Sonia's, and sang a hearty Happy Birthday to her. We included Richard, who's birthday was the week before, and Adina, who's birthday is this week. We ate really, really good Carne Asada, cocinado por la mama de Sonia. I was asked to stuff the pinatas, and later we let the kids at them. I was also asked to be the pointman in finding a place to put the pinata, but I told them I didn't know too much about that. I played card games with William, Ricardo, Lorenzo, and others that joined here and there. We played Exploding Kittens. Fun game.

The next day was are departure. We decided to go to church with Enoch's family. On the way we had to pick up Helen, who was staying at the Beale Air Force Base Home of Enoch throughout her time there. We listened to some stirring talks and got to watch Melany get welcomed into the church. It was hard saying goodbye to them, knowing that this would be the last time we see Enoch, and perhaps, the rest of the family. Sarah and I walked to the girl's primary class, right before we left and gave Melany and Maya a big hug.

The trip back to SoCal was without events. And we made it easily to our cars. Then we took Arno home. And proceeded to the first of our 5-night hotel stay, as gifted to us from a good friend of Sarah's, Cindy Johnson. Sarah had given Cindy a call a couple of weeks prior to the reunion, seeing if she had room for us to stay at her house. She said no, but that her son is a manager of one of the Marriott's, and with that, is able to get discounts to hotels. We didn't know if we could pay for a Marriott, even after the discount, but Cindy, out of the kindness of her heart, offered to cover the costs. We dumb-foundedly agreed, grateful to her for her kindness and generosity.

The first night was a stay at a Residence Hotel, which not surprisingly, is more of a little apartment (or residence) than a normal hotel room. It was nice to be with Sarah there, and we discussed the next day's events that night and early into the morning, eating from the only hotel during this stay that had a contintental breakfast.

We decided to go to Hollywood, specifically to see the Stars on Hollywood Blvd, see the Mann's Chinese Theater, which is actually PLC theather now, and to go to Ripley's Beleive it or Not. Sarah also wanted me to be introduced to a restaurant not too far away called Canter's, a family owned Jewish restaurant. And we decided that our mode of transportation would be the bus and the metrolink/subway. I was uber excited to be in the Metrolink again. It reminded me of my childhood. All of the places we went to that day were amazing, and it was a nice day to ourselves, outside of the family Reunion.

Our next three night hotel stays were at the Westin Hotel, right next to the LAX airport. We even got there on the day that my brother and Mom returned from Peru, but missed out on seeing them then, or giving them a ride. During the stay we watched a movie called Awakenings, with Robin Williams and Robert De Niro, watched the three Seinfeld episodes about when Kramer goes to Los Angeles, and we swam in the pool.

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The following two days were at two different settings in Los Angeles: the first in El Segundo Park, and the next at White Point Park, on the coast. It was pretty cool to see many members of the family there, including Arno, Helen, Arnie and Dila and kids, Danny and Carol, Athena and kids, Christina and Jon and kids, Lisa and Adina and Julius, and us. It was quite fun to play around at the park on the first day. There was a big kids and little kids park, and so of course we played at both. Danny and Carol brought their dog Foxy/Roxy??? She was a hoot to play with. Laura, Julia and I played tossing a water bottle like an egg toss, as well as saying the alphabet backwards, and other little fun games. I then went with Laura and Adina to play a modified version of table tennis, where you got like a million points if you hit it from one table to another, or a quadrillion points if you get it over the overhanging polls, and googleplex points if you get it out of the fenced-in sections. Yeah, so there was no rhyme or reason to the madness, but it was quite fun. So fun, that later, at the end of the lunch, Briana, Fiona, and Noah wanted to play. We played an extremely modified version for the two little ones, haha. But they had fun. All the while, Sarah and Athena were at it in an all-out duel, at least until Mia started fussing in my arms in the shade. Earlier, in between the two, I got to play Arnie. Oh, it was fun. I think he thought I would be easy…but he didn’t know how competitive I could get. The first game was terrible for him. The second he did much better. But overall, I came out the winner.

It was nice to talk to him after the game, though. I talked with him about his service in the military, and about Enoch’s deployment. It was a really interesting conversation. I have never had any real desire to serve in the military, and have even been afraid of conscription in the future, but seeing Sarah’s brothers, many of whom have served or are serving; it is truly an inspirational thing. Especially since they have families that they leave, and kids. Man, I sure do appreciate the things they do for our country and for our freedoms.

The Beach was super nice. BTW, lunch all three days was great and filling and it was super cool that we came together for it. Julia taught me how to ride a ‘hoverboard.’ And I really held my own, I think. Sarah also told me that she rode it, but I missed seeing the glory. The thing that is most fun about hoverboards for me is the turning around. Julia, however, is the all-out pro. However, an unlikely candidate emerged from us, Julius Lagunas was riding the hoverboard, and it was a glorious sight. I honestly couldn’t believe it. He was cruising around. It was also surprisingly hot in the little cove next to the cliffs that we were eating.

After the party at White Point, Sarah and I did a drive along the coast. It was pretty great. We passed by the Trump estates and golf course, and then we dropped by to see Cindy Johnson. It was a super good time spent with her, bouncing off ideas with her about our future.

The night before, Sarah and I went to go see the movie Spider-man: Far From Home. It was definitely a great Spider-man movie. If anyone has seen it, I am free to talk. But I will give no spoilers here. It was nice to go watch it with Sarah. We used the AMC gift card my parents gave me for my birthday, so we only had to pay 99 cents. Worth it.

The last day of the family reunion was pretty cool. However, being the last day, it was also the day we were most pooped. But we were able to drive to Athena’s house in Oceanside??? or for sure, the San Diego area. Their house is super nice. They have only lived there since January or February, but it was super cool to get a tour and just talk sitting on her couches. I introduced a game that I had done my research about (namely through POLOing Sis. Knudsen for ideas). The game involves sitting in a circle with one empty chair, switching names at the start, and having to sit down in order of age being mixed up, and not knowing who’s names is who’s. It sounds confusing but was actually pretty fun. Then we watched the Diversity Day episode of The Office, since Ashish had made it home, with noticeable Lol’ing from Arno and Helen…then we watched a SNL skit that they had just put out about Japan’s The Office, and a little bit of Black Jeopardy. To keep the kids occupied before that, I used my camera to tape Briana, Fiona, and Noah. It was great fun to watch them make up stories about ‘having a birthday party and eating a cake like cookie monster’ or ‘going shopping and eating the cake they bought at the end like cookie monster.’ Then I introduced one of my favorites, The Paper Bag Game, which involves putting a paper bag on the floor and, while standing, no hands and not letting your knees touch the ground, bending over and using your mouth, picking it up and ripping off the a piece of the bag until there is practically no bag left and you are bending to pick something off the ground which is Practically the ground! Not very easy for adults. I played that with the three kids. I intentionally lost by toppling over three times. Noah got third place because he picked up the bag with using his hands and knees, and Briana got second and Fiona got first place.

We followed Christina home that night, just to make sure she made it. She had been feeling very tired from the organization of the Whole family reunion. We made it home, picked up our Hotel key, and had a good night. The next day, Sarah had arranged that we go to her friend’s house in Canyon Lake named _________. We swam for about an hour and just talked about many things, and then left. We then drove to my home in Fontana and had lunch at Viva Villa with Sarah, my mom, and my Brother. It was good to eat with them and just talk for a little while. Then we made our way back to Arizona without any hitches. Well, just one. Our home was a pure mess! Mainly because I wrecked it packing for the trip.

Sarah and I both worked on Saturday, the maximum amount of hours. And got ready for Sunday.

Sarah got called as the Relief Society President of our Guerrero Park Branch! So crazy, and yet so awesome. She chose her two counselors: her good friend, Elizabeth Santos, and another good member of the branch, Paulina Giron. They did the sustaining in our first hour meeting, which was our Fifth Sunday meeting, and was resustained in Branch Conference in the next Sacrament hour. She was set apart by the President, and I stood in the circle. It was truly awe inspiring to see her with those women talkingabout different ideas they have. I'm really excited for her.

I did not have work on Monday, so I spent the whole time Sarah was at work, getting our house clean. It was laborious, but I had different YouTube videos on, and I talked to Briana on the phone. I worked super hard, and now our house is clean.

Sarah had to look for her Social Security card yesterday, and combed through the whole house looking for it. She put everything back later, with the reward of finding it, (or at least I found it later). I also helped Sarah fill out an application for new work. However, shes probably not going to continue with it.

Sorry to all who have been awaiting this letter. It is not easy writing about a family reunion while it is happening. And we had a really nice long family council on Sunday, when I normally write my letters.

I'm grateful to all of you who do read, and if you know of anybody else on the list that might like the letter, go ahead and message me.

Love you all,

John Gonzales