Monday night was awesome. We decided to have a mini family council when we got home from work. I don't remember if it was that night, but we did watch Mission Impossible 4:Ghost Protocol, which was a super good movie. Sarah and I have made a commitment to do some form of exercise consecutively everyday, for at least 15-20 minutes. Well, to kick-start it all off, we went to the Guerrero Park to go kick around the soccer ball that my dad gave us the last time we went. It is a red and white soccer ball, with Peru written on it. We did some pulling of the ball with the bottoms of our feet, than we maneuvered it around make-shift cones made out of waterbottle, keys, wallet and something else. Then we practiced kicking the ball at a goal that is found in that park. I felt super happy because Sarah was doing so well. I really enjoyed playing around with her. Than I told her about the game that my dad would use to play with a soccer ball in a tennis court, except we played it without the net. On our way home we called the President, because it was his birthday.
For the following day, my wife got a Polo from my brother saying he has been feeling the worse he's felt since he got off the mission. He has just moved back to Provo, and on Monday he started his new job with the BYU Sportsnation people. I'm sure that is a bit stressing. He reached out to Her personally for help to increase his arsenal of things he can use against the feelings he is having. I hope he gets better soon. I really do love that kid. I am really happy that he reached out to Sarah. I've been trying to get him all week since Thursday last, but I have heard bo-diddly. So, it was cool that he reached out to Sarah with how he's been feeling. She gave him some good pointers as to what to do to help better his situation. Hopefully it was useful, and that he keeps reaching out.
School has been super great. Although, Tuesday was long, and I'm sure tomorrow will feel even longer, because we will add the extra one-on-one class with Leia Wasbotten, my private instructor. I am actually pretty excited to meet with her, because I will finally be able to choose some good music for the German pieces that need to be sung for my diction class and jury.
I was thinking about singing the song from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat called "Close Every Door," but I haven't been able to find the copy that is at my house in California. I have been looking at other songs, and I have found a German singer, Hans Hotter, who is an amazing singer of the language. For the first song that I am going to use to test out my range and singing ability in front of her, I have chosen, "Oh, Home Beloved wherever I wander" from the hymnbook. Anyways, I am super excited for that extra portion of my schedule.
Speaking of extra portions: I have been made a second tenor in choir. The first day or so I was sitting by a guy named Jacob. He was super cool and very chill and laid back. Well, as of yesterday and today, I was asked to sit/stand next to a man of 41 years of age named Michael. I was, at first, a little annoyed by him. He seemed to know all about the pieces we were singing to a fault. He also made comments about certain things that I didn't really appreciate at the time. Well, this has reminded me of Sarah's first experiences with Tyler Hudrlik, one of misjudgment and annoyance. Well, I decided to actually get to know him a bit, and while he could be annoying still, I just choose to laugh. I'm excited to get to know him better. He says that he is a very good sightreader, and he is also very powerful when it comes to singing the tenor part. He could actually lead us if he wanted to. He was really funny today, because I chose not to judge him to harshly.
The other day, I was able to go to my studio class, which is the group gathering for the one on one private instructions. I was able to extend a hand of caring to a girl named Brielle, or Bri for short, that was feeling a bit overwhelmed by everything that had occurred to her. She had just found out that she had to join "Diction" class as well, and she was already stressed as it was because she (and I) had just learned that we will have to cover the costs of an accompanist for our pieces that we perform for those classes, for every practice (probably $15 per half hour session and $5 for the actual performance). I told her that she didn't need to worry about German Diction, that we hadn't covered to much just yet and that she would be okay. I think I may have a new friend, soon.
Work has been super great...we've been getting up on time for it, even for work like today that was at 5AM. But I was able to talk to Matt about his own Podcast that he had done with a fellow friend. He told of how they talked about everything under the sun, all while in a bar. I have been wanting to write a Podcast instead of videos about the scriptures, and everything else LDS related. I spent a good portion of work today thinking about why I want to do a podcast, and hopefully I will reach those that belong to a certain demographic of people that just want to earn more about the church of Jesus Christ.
I've also reached out to an elderly fellow named Arthur Hamilton that has written some music and he sent me the mp3s yesterday. Pretty good country.
Sarah did a good job at her relief society activity yesterday and the food was so good. Definitely time for bed.
Wednesday, August 28, 2019
Monday, August 26, 2019
8/26 The Start of School, a Bingo game winning night, and forgetting the Missionaries
Dear family and friends,
Sorry I’ve been MIA for the last two weeks. Ya know, things come up. I had tried a new system starting 2 weeks ago where I write a bit of my letter everyday, and it worked, but I never got around to sending it out. I’ll probably attach it to the end of the letter, or at least some excerpts.
The biggest thing that hinders me from getting a letter out every Sunday would be the Sunday evening activities. Last week, for instance, Sarah and I were invited to Peter’s house for the Palmer quarterly “Mesa-Gilbert bunch” dinner, (as Granny likes to call it). We had decided to have a dinner hosted about every 3 months in different homes. It started with us, and last weeks was Aunt Ann’s and Peter’s turn to host. It was quite a fun time. We had hamburgers and some nachos and other potato salads, plus some great pies and cheesecakes. Ann had a great idea to bring some of the books that she has about Harry ‘Vearle’ Payne. She read some of his memoirs, particularly about deodorant, and his mother’s reaction to his desires to become a lawyer. (She shed many a tear because of her experiences for being brought before a jury in Utah, and exiled to Mexico for the practice of Polygamy). Ann also showed us some pictures from times back in the past. I hope that in future gatherings of the ‘Mesa-Gilbert bunch,’ that we expand on this tradition Ann created.
I didn’t even get to writing a letter for this week because of a Branch FHE we had yesterday, so I will be as brief as I can handle (which, for the most part is not brief, but very comprehensive).
Last week was the start of something new for me. Well, new in the sense that it has been a very long while since I attended college. Yes, last week was the first week of my college bound life. And let me tell you, it is an exciting venture, and it’ll definitely be stretching.
I started school at MCC (Mesa Community College). I am in the music program, and I had only signed up for 2 classes, Aural Perception I and Music Theory I. I had taken a placement test provided by MCC to see if I could test out of the intro classes, and I did. Well, I chose the classes to fall on Tuesday and Thursdays, so that I could work the other 3 days of the week.
Day of, I go to my first class, AP1, and my teacher tells me (after I had introduced what I want to go in to which is Choral Education) that I should talk to the Music Counselor. I do, and he tells me that if I want to transfer to a major university in the Future, that I should be taking 2 other classes, as well as take a private instruction class. One was the Concert Choir at MCC, and the other was a Diction class. I told him that I would have to think about it.
I call Sarah during her work break (in between my only two classes) and ask her what she thought, and she just told me to go for it, since this is what Heavenly Father has told us to do, and since we wanted to take all the classes associated with learning about Music.
So, day of, I signed up for 2 more classes and a private instruction class. Choir is so great. And it turns out that the Diction class’s emphasis is in the German language. Sarah and I didn’t see the point of the private instruction until after the diction class, because as an assignment, I will need to memorize and sing 3 different pieces in front of the class, with the greatest command of the language. With the private instruction, though, I also have to perform 2 extra songs (doesn’t need to be in German). So after a week of classes, German diction will most likely be my most challenging class, followed by Music Theory. But honestly, right now the theory class isn’t even phasing me.
It’s been an interesting week, for sure, but I am excited about the prospects in my future.
Other than that, just a normal week, working with the biweekly payment, instead of weekly payment that I have been getting.
Fun thing is that on Friday, Sarah and I participated in our Bingo Night, hosted by our apartment. It was really fun. The grand prize was a big screen TV. But for me, I felt they did it all wrong in how they gave the prizes out. Instead of waiting til the end to give out the Big Screen, they pulled out a raffle ticket, and gave it at the beginning of the meeting party. That said, we played five games of bingo with prizes. Sarah and I both won a game each. We got 2 tickets to a movie at Harkins Movie Theaters, and Sarah got a $10 Amazon gift card. With the prizes we got a bag of gummy bears and a box of M&Ms. At this Bingo, we had great nachos.
Sorry I’ve been MIA for the last two weeks. Ya know, things come up. I had tried a new system starting 2 weeks ago where I write a bit of my letter everyday, and it worked, but I never got around to sending it out. I’ll probably attach it to the end of the letter, or at least some excerpts.
The biggest thing that hinders me from getting a letter out every Sunday would be the Sunday evening activities. Last week, for instance, Sarah and I were invited to Peter’s house for the Palmer quarterly “Mesa-Gilbert bunch” dinner, (as Granny likes to call it). We had decided to have a dinner hosted about every 3 months in different homes. It started with us, and last weeks was Aunt Ann’s and Peter’s turn to host. It was quite a fun time. We had hamburgers and some nachos and other potato salads, plus some great pies and cheesecakes. Ann had a great idea to bring some of the books that she has about Harry ‘Vearle’ Payne. She read some of his memoirs, particularly about deodorant, and his mother’s reaction to his desires to become a lawyer. (She shed many a tear because of her experiences for being brought before a jury in Utah, and exiled to Mexico for the practice of Polygamy). Ann also showed us some pictures from times back in the past. I hope that in future gatherings of the ‘Mesa-Gilbert bunch,’ that we expand on this tradition Ann created.
I didn’t even get to writing a letter for this week because of a Branch FHE we had yesterday, so I will be as brief as I can handle (which, for the most part is not brief, but very comprehensive).
Last week was the start of something new for me. Well, new in the sense that it has been a very long while since I attended college. Yes, last week was the first week of my college bound life. And let me tell you, it is an exciting venture, and it’ll definitely be stretching.
I started school at MCC (Mesa Community College). I am in the music program, and I had only signed up for 2 classes, Aural Perception I and Music Theory I. I had taken a placement test provided by MCC to see if I could test out of the intro classes, and I did. Well, I chose the classes to fall on Tuesday and Thursdays, so that I could work the other 3 days of the week.
Day of, I go to my first class, AP1, and my teacher tells me (after I had introduced what I want to go in to which is Choral Education) that I should talk to the Music Counselor. I do, and he tells me that if I want to transfer to a major university in the Future, that I should be taking 2 other classes, as well as take a private instruction class. One was the Concert Choir at MCC, and the other was a Diction class. I told him that I would have to think about it.
I call Sarah during her work break (in between my only two classes) and ask her what she thought, and she just told me to go for it, since this is what Heavenly Father has told us to do, and since we wanted to take all the classes associated with learning about Music.
So, day of, I signed up for 2 more classes and a private instruction class. Choir is so great. And it turns out that the Diction class’s emphasis is in the German language. Sarah and I didn’t see the point of the private instruction until after the diction class, because as an assignment, I will need to memorize and sing 3 different pieces in front of the class, with the greatest command of the language. With the private instruction, though, I also have to perform 2 extra songs (doesn’t need to be in German). So after a week of classes, German diction will most likely be my most challenging class, followed by Music Theory. But honestly, right now the theory class isn’t even phasing me.
It’s been an interesting week, for sure, but I am excited about the prospects in my future.
Other than that, just a normal week, working with the biweekly payment, instead of weekly payment that I have been getting.
Fun thing is that on Friday, Sarah and I participated in our Bingo Night, hosted by our apartment. It was really fun. The grand prize was a big screen TV. But for me, I felt they did it all wrong in how they gave the prizes out. Instead of waiting til the end to give out the Big Screen, they pulled out a raffle ticket, and gave it at the beginning of the meeting party. That said, we played five games of bingo with prizes. Sarah and I both won a game each. We got 2 tickets to a movie at Harkins Movie Theaters, and Sarah got a $10 Amazon gift card. With the prizes we got a bag of gummy bears and a box of M&Ms. At this Bingo, we had great nachos.
Sarah and I also got to go to a performance of Joseph Smith the Prophet, a musical presentation by Rob Gardner, as performed by an institute choir and orchestra. We were invited by our friend and neighbor Heidi Greathouse, who was in the choir. It was very moving, and we were glad to go, for ourselves and to support.
One last thing about this week, we had signed up for the missionaries for dinner on Thursday, but when they showed up on our door, we had completely forgotten. Fortunately, we had something on mind that we had already talked about...we just had to multiply it by 3 for six people. We are saying goodbye to all our missionaries. One, a sister Anica Shmidt is going home in a couple of days and her trainee is moving to another ward. Our Elders are also being whitewashed out of the area--so, 4 new Elders are coming in. It'll be a transition, seeing as how we love these four. And Hermana Rusk surprised me twice this week, showing me how much she has grown just in the last transfer, because she is normally quiet and to herself. But at our dinner she shared her thoughts on a certain matter, and all I could do was smile, then last night at the FHE, she thanked me for having accompanied her to "Be Thou My Vision."
Well, that's good for this week, until next,
John
Here are excerpts from last weeks letter that never got sent.
Biggest thing that I didn't write about is that we went to California for less than 24 hours to celebrate Jacob's birthday and to meet his new girlfriend, Audrey. I was pleased at the time we spent with them. During the time, we talked, slept (during the night), but before Sarah wrapped Audrey's birthday present for Jacob (which was a painting of a German shepherd with a smaller cuter dog that I don't remember the breed name for, which was their dog spirit animals). I played tennis with Jacob in the morning, stopping because of a bad tumble and a scraped knee that really hurt my pride more than my knee. Then we went to Souplantation. Sang Happy Birthday at home while eating their 'donut' cake, and played some Heads Up. Audrey is super good at the capitals. She is also a very nice, sweet girl. I was happy to get to know her. We hope to be able to get to know her more in the future as well. And then we picked up both our cars, one we drove to Fontana, and the one that we lent to Jacob during his summer, and drove home.
Sunday, August 18, 2019
8/18 My thoughts on this week
One of the awesome things about our Sunday family council was that while we were discussing our things, we got a text from my brother. We had been in the talks of picking up the car we lent to Jacob as soon as was convenient for him. It was seeming that we were going to meet him in the middle to pick up our cars. The middle would have been Blythe so we suggested that he drive out with my mom in two separate cars so that she could take him back in her car. It was also in the talks that maybe he drive out with his girlfriend, Audrey. Well, we got a text with another suggestion. “Why don’t you come to California so we can celebrate my birthday and you can meet my girlfriend and pick up my car.” It was very convenient that we were already discussing what our week looked like when we got that text, and after some discussion we decided to take him up on his offer.
Monday was great! We went to work at the beginning of the day and decided to try to visit one of our members in the mental hospital. Unfortunately we didn’t have a PIN # provided by the patient, so we couldn’t get in. So we drove home, and after some talking and grounding ourselves because of the feelings we had being at the reception area of the mental hospital, we made some calls. I only made two calls in regards to members that needed an appointment, but Sarah made many a call, because the Relief Society President from our fellow Spanish Branch, Liahona III, invited the our branch’s sisters to an activity teaching about nutrition. Sarah enlisted the help of her counselors in calling all of the sisters. While she did that, I picked up some requested movies from the library. Actually, they were the three ultimate movies in the Mission Impossible series.
That said, we didn’t get to watch any of the movies those first three nights. Monday was off the table for 2 reasons, really good reasons. In Sarah’s calls to the sisters, she had come to find out that a sister in our branch, Hermana Gonzalez, the very first sister I ever met in the branch, was having some car troubles, as well as needed to set up an appointment with Bishop. One of the car troubles was that the air conditioning wasn’t working very well in the car. Sarah told her that I had recently bought and filled our car with some air conditioning fluid. I had just learned how to do so. So we decided to drive to her home to try to perform this service for her.
When we got there, her youngest son, who lives with her (she is an elderly lady), knew what the problem was with the AC, and it was that there is a leak/hole in the system. We unfortunately did not have the type of fluid we needed to repair leaks. But in the process we helped the Hermana feel less anxious about meeting with bishop the next day. She invited us into her home and we were amazed by the amazing beauty that her home demonstrated. In every space of the home there was a story that was told, mostly telling us of her devotion to Christ and his Gospel. It felt amazing in her home, and I can’t wait to be invited back soon. We arranged to pick her up the next day.
The other reason was right when we got home, our friend, Heidi Greathouse, gave us a call. She asked if she might come over for a blessing and to chat for a bit about her life. She had been experiencing some health problems and had come to get some counsel from the Lord about things. We chatted with her for about a half hour, while watching some funny YouTube videos. The blessing was really nice, and I am grateful every time someone asks me to give one. I sometimes have all these preconceptions about what I am going to tell the person based off what I know about their problem, and what advice I could give. But, when I place my hands upon a person’s head, be it my wife’s or another person in need, after I have prayed, the words just flow, and sometimes it is the thing that I was thinking of, but really, things are said that I hadn’t previously thought of before. It is a nice assurance, for me, that Heavenly Father is “well pleased” with me, enough to entrust me with His power guided by His spirit. Sacred, just sacred.
That practically ended the night, except that on Sunday night, we had decided to do our best, to clean up after ourselves, following a chore chart we had made. It has been working well. That said, I was tired and not in the mood to help with the cleaning, but I did read to her from the short stories of Sherlock Holmes. We are reading “A Scandal in Bohemia,” which is about Irene Adler, his only scandalous relationship. Sarah was very interested in the outcome of the story, as this was her first ever reading of one of those stories. We loved the details placed, and the craft of the story told.
Tuesday was great in that we had the whole day, away from work, to ourselves. We decided to spend the day cleaning. We went through a great deal of Sarah and my clothes, parting with dear pieces of clothing that we have had for ages, that are so hard to give away, or throw away, because of the emotional attachment we have to them.
The sister missionaries came over after lunch that day, so that we could practice Be Thou My Vision, which we will be performing in Sacrament meeting on Sunday. This was our first practice, and being that it was our first, it went really well. It did because Hermana Rusk knew the song really well and because she is also a very talented singer. She arranged to get her step-dad’s own version of the song, and one of which Hermana Rusk is comfortable with. We decided to practice a couple of times at our home, and later that night in the Relief Society room.
That same day we organized old papers, which was mostly old mail that needed to be discarded. Then we decided to do something that made our unity even stronger, we turned all of our bills into paperless billing and we are having all the paperless bill emails sent to the same email account which we created that same night, instead of emails being sent to at least three separate personal email accounts. We were super excited to do so and it was a nice joint effort. For the most part, it worked out pretty well.
That was the night I found out about the extra $30 in our Venmo account. I was in the process of hooking Venmo to that account and noticed that we had money in that account. It came at the most opportune time, since that night was the night we would be using the gas most before another day of work.
We picked up Hermana Gonzalez for her appointment but made some alterations to the plan. I asked, while she was in the car, if I could change her appointment to later that night with President so that she could go to the Relief Society activity with Sarah. She was willing to do whatever, so that is what happened. We had to juggle it around because of the fact that after her appointment with President, she would have no one to give her a ride home, and she would be at the church until someone became available.
Not sure how good that decision was later for her, because the change of appointment caused her to be at the church til a little past 9:30, and Sarah and I didn’t get home til 10ish. Tuesday was a little crazy, since we were having our semi-annual audit. I sat with, but our branch clerk was able to do it. That night, Carlos Santos asked me if I could give a talk on Sunday, on the sacrifices that are made, and that we make for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The next day started as a day of work for me. I spent most of my down time thinking about and writing down my first thoughts about the topic Carlos had assigned to me. Then, I continued my Come, Follow Me study.
We had arranged to eat dinner with our friend, Ashley Cooper, who lives in the furthest region south of Phoenix (personally, I wouldn’t consider it Phoenix because it is divided by a mountain, but….), it’s actually in Ahwatukee, which is (at least what I know) kinda an Indian reservation area??? I will learn about it later.
It was a super, super fun time with Ashley. She made us a really great chicken casserole with a side of rice and salad. We just “ate it up.” Sarah was able to have a fun time just chatting with her, mostly about Ashley’s newish boyfriend. He seems like a really cool guy and we are happy that she found someone. With that, they got into a conversation of religion, because Ashley is spiritual person and her boyfriend seems to be religious himself, just not really devout. Ashley just had some question about things related to receiving answers from Heavenly Father. Like most people, including me sometimes (but trying to get better), she feels it isn’t an easy thing to receive answers.
Monday was great! We went to work at the beginning of the day and decided to try to visit one of our members in the mental hospital. Unfortunately we didn’t have a PIN # provided by the patient, so we couldn’t get in. So we drove home, and after some talking and grounding ourselves because of the feelings we had being at the reception area of the mental hospital, we made some calls. I only made two calls in regards to members that needed an appointment, but Sarah made many a call, because the Relief Society President from our fellow Spanish Branch, Liahona III, invited the our branch’s sisters to an activity teaching about nutrition. Sarah enlisted the help of her counselors in calling all of the sisters. While she did that, I picked up some requested movies from the library. Actually, they were the three ultimate movies in the Mission Impossible series.
That said, we didn’t get to watch any of the movies those first three nights. Monday was off the table for 2 reasons, really good reasons. In Sarah’s calls to the sisters, she had come to find out that a sister in our branch, Hermana Gonzalez, the very first sister I ever met in the branch, was having some car troubles, as well as needed to set up an appointment with Bishop. One of the car troubles was that the air conditioning wasn’t working very well in the car. Sarah told her that I had recently bought and filled our car with some air conditioning fluid. I had just learned how to do so. So we decided to drive to her home to try to perform this service for her.
When we got there, her youngest son, who lives with her (she is an elderly lady), knew what the problem was with the AC, and it was that there is a leak/hole in the system. We unfortunately did not have the type of fluid we needed to repair leaks. But in the process we helped the Hermana feel less anxious about meeting with bishop the next day. She invited us into her home and we were amazed by the amazing beauty that her home demonstrated. In every space of the home there was a story that was told, mostly telling us of her devotion to Christ and his Gospel. It felt amazing in her home, and I can’t wait to be invited back soon. We arranged to pick her up the next day.
The other reason was right when we got home, our friend, Heidi Greathouse, gave us a call. She asked if she might come over for a blessing and to chat for a bit about her life. She had been experiencing some health problems and had come to get some counsel from the Lord about things. We chatted with her for about a half hour, while watching some funny YouTube videos. The blessing was really nice, and I am grateful every time someone asks me to give one. I sometimes have all these preconceptions about what I am going to tell the person based off what I know about their problem, and what advice I could give. But, when I place my hands upon a person’s head, be it my wife’s or another person in need, after I have prayed, the words just flow, and sometimes it is the thing that I was thinking of, but really, things are said that I hadn’t previously thought of before. It is a nice assurance, for me, that Heavenly Father is “well pleased” with me, enough to entrust me with His power guided by His spirit. Sacred, just sacred.
That practically ended the night, except that on Sunday night, we had decided to do our best, to clean up after ourselves, following a chore chart we had made. It has been working well. That said, I was tired and not in the mood to help with the cleaning, but I did read to her from the short stories of Sherlock Holmes. We are reading “A Scandal in Bohemia,” which is about Irene Adler, his only scandalous relationship. Sarah was very interested in the outcome of the story, as this was her first ever reading of one of those stories. We loved the details placed, and the craft of the story told.
Tuesday was great in that we had the whole day, away from work, to ourselves. We decided to spend the day cleaning. We went through a great deal of Sarah and my clothes, parting with dear pieces of clothing that we have had for ages, that are so hard to give away, or throw away, because of the emotional attachment we have to them.
The sister missionaries came over after lunch that day, so that we could practice Be Thou My Vision, which we will be performing in Sacrament meeting on Sunday. This was our first practice, and being that it was our first, it went really well. It did because Hermana Rusk knew the song really well and because she is also a very talented singer. She arranged to get her step-dad’s own version of the song, and one of which Hermana Rusk is comfortable with. We decided to practice a couple of times at our home, and later that night in the Relief Society room.
That same day we organized old papers, which was mostly old mail that needed to be discarded. Then we decided to do something that made our unity even stronger, we turned all of our bills into paperless billing and we are having all the paperless bill emails sent to the same email account which we created that same night, instead of emails being sent to at least three separate personal email accounts. We were super excited to do so and it was a nice joint effort. For the most part, it worked out pretty well.
That was the night I found out about the extra $30 in our Venmo account. I was in the process of hooking Venmo to that account and noticed that we had money in that account. It came at the most opportune time, since that night was the night we would be using the gas most before another day of work.
We picked up Hermana Gonzalez for her appointment but made some alterations to the plan. I asked, while she was in the car, if I could change her appointment to later that night with President so that she could go to the Relief Society activity with Sarah. She was willing to do whatever, so that is what happened. We had to juggle it around because of the fact that after her appointment with President, she would have no one to give her a ride home, and she would be at the church until someone became available.
Not sure how good that decision was later for her, because the change of appointment caused her to be at the church til a little past 9:30, and Sarah and I didn’t get home til 10ish. Tuesday was a little crazy, since we were having our semi-annual audit. I sat with, but our branch clerk was able to do it. That night, Carlos Santos asked me if I could give a talk on Sunday, on the sacrifices that are made, and that we make for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The next day started as a day of work for me. I spent most of my down time thinking about and writing down my first thoughts about the topic Carlos had assigned to me. Then, I continued my Come, Follow Me study.
We had arranged to eat dinner with our friend, Ashley Cooper, who lives in the furthest region south of Phoenix (personally, I wouldn’t consider it Phoenix because it is divided by a mountain, but….), it’s actually in Ahwatukee, which is (at least what I know) kinda an Indian reservation area??? I will learn about it later.
It was a super, super fun time with Ashley. She made us a really great chicken casserole with a side of rice and salad. We just “ate it up.” Sarah was able to have a fun time just chatting with her, mostly about Ashley’s newish boyfriend. He seems like a really cool guy and we are happy that she found someone. With that, they got into a conversation of religion, because Ashley is spiritual person and her boyfriend seems to be religious himself, just not really devout. Ashley just had some question about things related to receiving answers from Heavenly Father. Like most people, including me sometimes (but trying to get better), she feels it isn’t an easy thing to receive answers.
Sunday, August 11, 2019
8/11 Ghost-dust-busting, Work recognition, and Mission Impossibles
Dear Family and friends,
Our week started pretty interestingly. I got awarded employee of the month at Amazon, where I work. It was pretty interesting, because I had been feeling pretty iffy the whole day, and that day I definitely did not live up to that status. They were pretty generous in their description of why I was chosen. You can read it for yourself:
The funny thing is, it is like, how do you act when you are awarded such an honor at your work, especially when you are getting acknowledged for it? I gave everyone a high five at our stations and thanked them, because without my other coworkers, I could not practice the things that I was being praised for. In Fresh, I have been super blessed to meet with all walks of life, and become friends with them. I feel like Fresh is my home, and I am most happy when I am working in that work group, among friends, and people that I would call my family.
One of the perks of getting this award is I found out that I will be able to be treated, On Amazon’s dime, to go to any restaurant in the Area, however poor or ritzy it is. Not only that, but I get to take two of my leaders: one lead (who is over the Fresh and other workgroups) and an AM, or Area Manager. I already have the two picked out. I would like to take my good friend Vita Estevez and an Area Manager that I have gotten to know named Tia Jones. Not sure which restaurant I should choose, though.
Monday was super cool, though. We had our FHE with our favorite teenage girl branch members: Anna Martinez and usually Valeria Lozoya, both whom are recent converts. We love having them over, and just taking the time to get to know them. They both are starting school up again this week. Anna is an incoming Freshman at Dobson High and Valeria is starting Senior year there as well. We’ve been trying to encourage them to sign up for seminary, so we’ll see if that all works out. Valeria was unable to make it though because her home was having an A/C problem. We spent the night just browsing through the Children’s Songbook, and choosing songs to sing with her, seeing as how she doesn’t know many yet.
I got the first textbooks that I have excited about in a long time. Actually, it’s been ever since my freshman year of college that I was actually excited about a textbook, and surprisingly, or not surprisingly, they were the Norton Music Anthologies, that I got for my History of Civilization class that emphasized music. The weird thing is that we hardly used them in class. But I still have them to this day. The textbook that I have now are for my first Music Theory class at MCC which starts August 20th. It’s been exciting looking through it. Before I even bought it, I read the first 2 chapters in the “look inside” section that Amazon provides. I am super excited for what’s to come.
Tuesday at work was more of an on day at work for me than Monday was, ironically. I was in my zone and was able to help a nice lady who is going back to Seattle name Fatima get more familiar with how everything works. Besides a cough and the weird onset of some hiccups, the day was great, having been able to talk to some of my siblings. Later that night, we went to go pick up the second Mission Impossible movie at the library. We explored a little bit more after we checked it out. I found out that on the second floor they have a seed exchange program, where you can check out 3 different types of seeds of different vegetable giving plants a month. While we were by that section, we saw the Hermanas misioneras from another barrio (ward), who were about to teach a lesson to a man that is investigating named Angel. It was super cool because we were like proxy member presents for a sec. He was from a city in the Southern part of Mexico that is experiencing unrest right now and a new presidency. He said if we want to go that way, we should go in five years time, when the government is stable.
We talked to the nonfiction librarian because we were looking for where some books were that had gotten moved. She told us about how the Mesa Public Library follows the Dewey Decimal System, but college libraries do it differently because their nonfiction section is so much more vast. She told us about the irony that the Religious books (which we were looking up) are located in BS section of most college libraries. I could appreciate the irony.
As we started looking for those, I realized that the time was quickly approaching the hour that I needed to be at church for church meetings. I barely made it to church on time, and without my suit. I talked to Hermanas of our rama (branch), and we chose the song Be Thou My Vision for Hermana Rusk to sing in church on the third Sunday of this month. I am kinda wanting to make my own arrangement from the simple hymn.
Besides working, Wednesday was a nice, normal day. We had requested Mission Impossible 2 from the library to watch. We decided to watch it that night. What we didn’t know is that that movie is considered one of the worst in the whole franchise. Which has given us time for lots of discussion in the last couple of days. While there were a lot of good parts, it mostly had a relationship evolve so fast that there was no character development, and no understanding of Tom Cruise’s character nor empathy towards the choices that his fling made. I really liked the “close to the eye” knife shot, and impressed with the daring that Tom Cruise has, especially when we know some of the stunts he does were his daring ideas, and that he actually performs most of his stunts in Mission Impossible.
Wednesday and Thursday they had me bouncing around between stations helping to train new people or old people that were crosstraining. And while I like doing it, it just got old fast on Thursday, and I was feeling a little sick that night. I called my brethren who were going on visits that night, and asked them that if after their visits, they could come over and give me a blessing. Beforehand, Sarah told me to pray to see if there is anything I can do about my persistent cough and headaches. So, when she left for her Relief Society Presidency meeting, I went and laid down while listening to soft Christian music on Spotify and praying to see what is up. I felt like I should work on the commitment I made to myself about one and a half months ago to observe starting to have no screen time after 9:45PM and settling down with the hopes of sleeping at or around 10:30. I also felt like I need to be nicer to myself about things. I’m going to have to work on that one for sure. The President and Carlos ministered to me that night, just listening to what I have to say, and then they gave me a blessing. It was super great.
I’m so grateful for people that minister to us; that Heavenly Father has sent us here to touch certain people’s lives. He only asks that we care for our Brother or Sister. He asks us to share what we know with all we come in contact with. I had an experience Thursday morning with a coworker. She was waiting for her 2nd shift to start. Good friend named Jill. She told me about how growing up she had had experiences with other members of the church that were her friends that went off the deep end. After talking with her, I came to the conclusion that it was because of a toxic control of her friend’s lives as placed on them by their parents. Strict observance of a law, while good, defeats the purpose, if you don’t allow for choice, or understanding of the principles that you are strictly trying to observe, and it can be detrimental to the people that you are “forcing.” We talked about how living to that extreme is what the church has been trying to do since Jesus’ time. This is why he fulfilled the Law of Moses. And the Law of Moses was only given because the Children of Israel were in such disrepair from their time in slavery, that they could not live a “higher law.” It was a really good conversation, and who knows what will come of it, seeing as how she is irreligious and doesn’t see the point of it. Hopefully I helped her understand a little more and that a seed was planted in her heart. And, at least she knows that I’m her friend.
That day I thought I was going to lay low and just work at a station like normal. But instead, I was helping train two stations, while also helping anybody else that needed help that the leads couldn’t help right away. While I like training, I think I overextended myself a bit because by the time I was done with the shift I was feeling tired and a little bit sick from the use I got. Also, I had just talked with the AM (area manager) that I had wanted to invite to my free dinner, expressing my sentiments how I was going to bring my wife to our dinner, no questions asked. While I like this AM very much, at times I think she is rather strict and seems to not like fun over getting the job done. I say this because she first said that this should be only 3 people (me, lead, AM). I told her that one, I do not do things without my wife, and two, that my wife and I don’t have one on ones with someone of the opposite sex withou the other being there. Tia asked if I would reconsider if I chose another lead or manager that was a man. While that would fix the problem, it still didn’t involve Sarah, so I said no. She then later approached me and asked if we could bypass the whole eating lunch with two women by ordering something from the App Grubhub (which apparently gets to go orders from many places) and eating at the building we work in in a conference room or something. Boy, I was feeling less and less special, and a little annoyed, because it didn’t seem like I was going to get what I wanted. I’m going to tell her no, and probably suggest a restaurant called Ruth Chris’ Steakhouse, a suggestion from my friends Carlos and Elizabeth Santos. Sarah looked at the menu and sides of stuff like vegetables are like $12, haha, entrees $50+. Hopefully they won’t turn me down (mostly because it is Scottsdale).
So, I had been feeling sick because of tiredness of work, so I stayed home, instead of going on visits with my presidency. But they did come to administer to me, at my request, after their visits. I explained to them how bad I felt that I couldn’t be out there with them that night, but about how glad I was that they came to be with me. At my request, the brethren gave me a blessing of healing (anointed by the president in Spanish, and sealed by Carlos Santos in English).
Friday was just an interesting day, as my normal shift I was asked to crosstrain in the “Cap Rooms,” an extension of the Houdini workgroups. I had done it only once before. However, it isn’t too hard, and I caught on really quick. With that, I had a lot of down time. My ideas were to read my scriptures, and study some of the Church’s Newsroom (it is a goal that I had for every week, to stay up to date on the current events of the church, seeing as how they are updated almost every day, if not every day), but, instead, I immersed myself in Romans 4, part of this week’s reading. I wasn’t expecting to find it so thralling, but I learned so much studying that chapter. In fact, on first read, I was so confused, because Paul writes in a Shakespeare-esque type fashion. About 2 weeks ago, Sarah suggested a website called biblehub.com, which gives you a good majority of the Bible’s translations, such as the New International Version and others, side by side. Boy has that helped in my study of the complex letters that Paul had written. After studying those and institute and seminary manuals, etc, I learned that of Faith, and how before circumcision was introduced as an outward ordinance, a sign of the covenant we make with God, Abraham had enough faith that it was “counted unto him for righteousness,” showing that people’s faith Is the first principle of the Gospel, followed by works that we can do, the ordinances we perform, that help us enter into the kingdom of God, and that they work hand in hand. That the Law of Moses was fulfilled, and that instead of the circumcision that men use to do, now we need to be circumcised of Heart. We need inward conversion, not just be going through the motions. Great chapter. Lots of time spent on it, til the very last second of my work.
That night we helped building cleaning rep with our week of cleaning the church. It was pretty cool, because we had the sister missionaries helping us and Brother Mora, and there were wedding preparations going on. Boy did the cultural hall look magnificent. Two weeks in a row, who knew? Anyways, Sarah and I worked on the men’s bathroom, cleaned windows, and vacuumed. Sarah got to look all cool with her vacuum. She looked like a modern day (not ‘80s, haha) Ghostbuster...and that was the theme song to our cleaning playing around in our minds. The sisters helped us because they had invited Sarah to an appointment that fell through. And Brother Mora was outside sweeping the leaves from the big tree out front of our building. Pablo, the building cleaning coordinator was there to help lead us to what we should do next, and we got it done in a relatively short time.
That same night we had gotten the third Mission Impossible meeting, and we watched it before and after the cleaning. J. J. Abrams, you always deliver. He was the chosen director for the movie, and it was crazy good. He was one of the directors of LOST which some people like and some people didn’t like (but I liked from my Childhood [actually, early college adulthood]). But he has also directed Alias (which I haven’t seen but was the reason he got asked to do this movie, and recently The Force Awakens: Star Wars 7 (which was a smashing success before-in some people’s perspectives-Star Wars 8 ruined it all). Haha, I personally like the two newest installments in the Star Wars Saga, but I digress. MI:3 Was super good. Great moments, good relationships built, great villains: great all around.
Saturday was our trip to the Gilbert Temple. We went with our Branch, who have tried to make weekly attendance on people’s minds a thing. We have been longing to go back, since the last time we went for an actual session was about three months ago. I will be happy to report (to Aunt Kristen) that not only did we get the Endowment work done for a man and a woman, but Sarah passed out 6 more cards to members in our branch that hadn’t brought any names. Although, I think one of those 6 was from Dad’s family, as well. But not only that, we saw Aunt Ann in the temple a couple rows in front of us, participating in the 8:30AM Saturday morning Spanish session with us. We greeted her warmly in the Celestial Room after the session was over. In that same room, I had a great conversation about Come, Follow Me scriptures with President Castaneda, and Sarah had a lovely heartwarming chat with Sister Casteneda. They were the ones who gave us rides. Afterwards, they treated us to Cafe Rio, one of my favorite after temple restaurants, and then drove us home.
That same day we had the Leadership meeting and the Adult session of our Stake Conference. Wonderful talks and instructions were given. In between, I got to meet the Stake Clerk’s 3 of 11? Children. They were super great kids to talk to. Also met two of the Stake Executive Secretary’s kids as well. Teenagers are fun, especially the bubbly ones. There was a beautiful song that touched our hearts in the Adult session called Because He Lives, which is actually a Sally Deford song I later came to find out. Great duet.
Sunday was just as good. I was asked to be one of three brethren to count the number of people attending the General Session of Stake Conference. I think, with all three of our counts added together, we had about 800 people. Got to meet some missionaries who may or may not serve in our ward in the future. It’s pretty exciting. Our friends, Elizabeth and Carlos Santos, did the Spanish translation for our Spanish speaking members. Both nights Sarah wanted to sit up front near the ASL members, to watch and sometimes participate with them, for Sarah has learned Sign Language in the past.
It’s been a great week. With the writing of this letter, I tried something different that way I’m not spending all my free Sabbath time writing this letter (which is a long endeavor some weeks if I want to do it right). I am also aware that it has the length of probably one of Paul’s epistles. Well, after reading a little from Romans this week, I am inspired to be a better letter writer, with some great experiences, both spiritual and temporal. And for those that made it this far in the letter, thank you for your interest in our lives.
Our week started pretty interestingly. I got awarded employee of the month at Amazon, where I work. It was pretty interesting, because I had been feeling pretty iffy the whole day, and that day I definitely did not live up to that status. They were pretty generous in their description of why I was chosen. You can read it for yourself:
The funny thing is, it is like, how do you act when you are awarded such an honor at your work, especially when you are getting acknowledged for it? I gave everyone a high five at our stations and thanked them, because without my other coworkers, I could not practice the things that I was being praised for. In Fresh, I have been super blessed to meet with all walks of life, and become friends with them. I feel like Fresh is my home, and I am most happy when I am working in that work group, among friends, and people that I would call my family.
One of the perks of getting this award is I found out that I will be able to be treated, On Amazon’s dime, to go to any restaurant in the Area, however poor or ritzy it is. Not only that, but I get to take two of my leaders: one lead (who is over the Fresh and other workgroups) and an AM, or Area Manager. I already have the two picked out. I would like to take my good friend Vita Estevez and an Area Manager that I have gotten to know named Tia Jones. Not sure which restaurant I should choose, though.
Monday was super cool, though. We had our FHE with our favorite teenage girl branch members: Anna Martinez and usually Valeria Lozoya, both whom are recent converts. We love having them over, and just taking the time to get to know them. They both are starting school up again this week. Anna is an incoming Freshman at Dobson High and Valeria is starting Senior year there as well. We’ve been trying to encourage them to sign up for seminary, so we’ll see if that all works out. Valeria was unable to make it though because her home was having an A/C problem. We spent the night just browsing through the Children’s Songbook, and choosing songs to sing with her, seeing as how she doesn’t know many yet.
I got the first textbooks that I have excited about in a long time. Actually, it’s been ever since my freshman year of college that I was actually excited about a textbook, and surprisingly, or not surprisingly, they were the Norton Music Anthologies, that I got for my History of Civilization class that emphasized music. The weird thing is that we hardly used them in class. But I still have them to this day. The textbook that I have now are for my first Music Theory class at MCC which starts August 20th. It’s been exciting looking through it. Before I even bought it, I read the first 2 chapters in the “look inside” section that Amazon provides. I am super excited for what’s to come.
Tuesday at work was more of an on day at work for me than Monday was, ironically. I was in my zone and was able to help a nice lady who is going back to Seattle name Fatima get more familiar with how everything works. Besides a cough and the weird onset of some hiccups, the day was great, having been able to talk to some of my siblings. Later that night, we went to go pick up the second Mission Impossible movie at the library. We explored a little bit more after we checked it out. I found out that on the second floor they have a seed exchange program, where you can check out 3 different types of seeds of different vegetable giving plants a month. While we were by that section, we saw the Hermanas misioneras from another barrio (ward), who were about to teach a lesson to a man that is investigating named Angel. It was super cool because we were like proxy member presents for a sec. He was from a city in the Southern part of Mexico that is experiencing unrest right now and a new presidency. He said if we want to go that way, we should go in five years time, when the government is stable.
We talked to the nonfiction librarian because we were looking for where some books were that had gotten moved. She told us about how the Mesa Public Library follows the Dewey Decimal System, but college libraries do it differently because their nonfiction section is so much more vast. She told us about the irony that the Religious books (which we were looking up) are located in BS section of most college libraries. I could appreciate the irony.
As we started looking for those, I realized that the time was quickly approaching the hour that I needed to be at church for church meetings. I barely made it to church on time, and without my suit. I talked to Hermanas of our rama (branch), and we chose the song Be Thou My Vision for Hermana Rusk to sing in church on the third Sunday of this month. I am kinda wanting to make my own arrangement from the simple hymn.
Besides working, Wednesday was a nice, normal day. We had requested Mission Impossible 2 from the library to watch. We decided to watch it that night. What we didn’t know is that that movie is considered one of the worst in the whole franchise. Which has given us time for lots of discussion in the last couple of days. While there were a lot of good parts, it mostly had a relationship evolve so fast that there was no character development, and no understanding of Tom Cruise’s character nor empathy towards the choices that his fling made. I really liked the “close to the eye” knife shot, and impressed with the daring that Tom Cruise has, especially when we know some of the stunts he does were his daring ideas, and that he actually performs most of his stunts in Mission Impossible.
Wednesday and Thursday they had me bouncing around between stations helping to train new people or old people that were crosstraining. And while I like doing it, it just got old fast on Thursday, and I was feeling a little sick that night. I called my brethren who were going on visits that night, and asked them that if after their visits, they could come over and give me a blessing. Beforehand, Sarah told me to pray to see if there is anything I can do about my persistent cough and headaches. So, when she left for her Relief Society Presidency meeting, I went and laid down while listening to soft Christian music on Spotify and praying to see what is up. I felt like I should work on the commitment I made to myself about one and a half months ago to observe starting to have no screen time after 9:45PM and settling down with the hopes of sleeping at or around 10:30. I also felt like I need to be nicer to myself about things. I’m going to have to work on that one for sure. The President and Carlos ministered to me that night, just listening to what I have to say, and then they gave me a blessing. It was super great.
I’m so grateful for people that minister to us; that Heavenly Father has sent us here to touch certain people’s lives. He only asks that we care for our Brother or Sister. He asks us to share what we know with all we come in contact with. I had an experience Thursday morning with a coworker. She was waiting for her 2nd shift to start. Good friend named Jill. She told me about how growing up she had had experiences with other members of the church that were her friends that went off the deep end. After talking with her, I came to the conclusion that it was because of a toxic control of her friend’s lives as placed on them by their parents. Strict observance of a law, while good, defeats the purpose, if you don’t allow for choice, or understanding of the principles that you are strictly trying to observe, and it can be detrimental to the people that you are “forcing.” We talked about how living to that extreme is what the church has been trying to do since Jesus’ time. This is why he fulfilled the Law of Moses. And the Law of Moses was only given because the Children of Israel were in such disrepair from their time in slavery, that they could not live a “higher law.” It was a really good conversation, and who knows what will come of it, seeing as how she is irreligious and doesn’t see the point of it. Hopefully I helped her understand a little more and that a seed was planted in her heart. And, at least she knows that I’m her friend.
That day I thought I was going to lay low and just work at a station like normal. But instead, I was helping train two stations, while also helping anybody else that needed help that the leads couldn’t help right away. While I like training, I think I overextended myself a bit because by the time I was done with the shift I was feeling tired and a little bit sick from the use I got. Also, I had just talked with the AM (area manager) that I had wanted to invite to my free dinner, expressing my sentiments how I was going to bring my wife to our dinner, no questions asked. While I like this AM very much, at times I think she is rather strict and seems to not like fun over getting the job done. I say this because she first said that this should be only 3 people (me, lead, AM). I told her that one, I do not do things without my wife, and two, that my wife and I don’t have one on ones with someone of the opposite sex withou the other being there. Tia asked if I would reconsider if I chose another lead or manager that was a man. While that would fix the problem, it still didn’t involve Sarah, so I said no. She then later approached me and asked if we could bypass the whole eating lunch with two women by ordering something from the App Grubhub (which apparently gets to go orders from many places) and eating at the building we work in in a conference room or something. Boy, I was feeling less and less special, and a little annoyed, because it didn’t seem like I was going to get what I wanted. I’m going to tell her no, and probably suggest a restaurant called Ruth Chris’ Steakhouse, a suggestion from my friends Carlos and Elizabeth Santos. Sarah looked at the menu and sides of stuff like vegetables are like $12, haha, entrees $50+. Hopefully they won’t turn me down (mostly because it is Scottsdale).
So, I had been feeling sick because of tiredness of work, so I stayed home, instead of going on visits with my presidency. But they did come to administer to me, at my request, after their visits. I explained to them how bad I felt that I couldn’t be out there with them that night, but about how glad I was that they came to be with me. At my request, the brethren gave me a blessing of healing (anointed by the president in Spanish, and sealed by Carlos Santos in English).
Friday was just an interesting day, as my normal shift I was asked to crosstrain in the “Cap Rooms,” an extension of the Houdini workgroups. I had done it only once before. However, it isn’t too hard, and I caught on really quick. With that, I had a lot of down time. My ideas were to read my scriptures, and study some of the Church’s Newsroom (it is a goal that I had for every week, to stay up to date on the current events of the church, seeing as how they are updated almost every day, if not every day), but, instead, I immersed myself in Romans 4, part of this week’s reading. I wasn’t expecting to find it so thralling, but I learned so much studying that chapter. In fact, on first read, I was so confused, because Paul writes in a Shakespeare-esque type fashion. About 2 weeks ago, Sarah suggested a website called biblehub.com, which gives you a good majority of the Bible’s translations, such as the New International Version and others, side by side. Boy has that helped in my study of the complex letters that Paul had written. After studying those and institute and seminary manuals, etc, I learned that of Faith, and how before circumcision was introduced as an outward ordinance, a sign of the covenant we make with God, Abraham had enough faith that it was “counted unto him for righteousness,” showing that people’s faith Is the first principle of the Gospel, followed by works that we can do, the ordinances we perform, that help us enter into the kingdom of God, and that they work hand in hand. That the Law of Moses was fulfilled, and that instead of the circumcision that men use to do, now we need to be circumcised of Heart. We need inward conversion, not just be going through the motions. Great chapter. Lots of time spent on it, til the very last second of my work.
That night we helped building cleaning rep with our week of cleaning the church. It was pretty cool, because we had the sister missionaries helping us and Brother Mora, and there were wedding preparations going on. Boy did the cultural hall look magnificent. Two weeks in a row, who knew? Anyways, Sarah and I worked on the men’s bathroom, cleaned windows, and vacuumed. Sarah got to look all cool with her vacuum. She looked like a modern day (not ‘80s, haha) Ghostbuster...and that was the theme song to our cleaning playing around in our minds. The sisters helped us because they had invited Sarah to an appointment that fell through. And Brother Mora was outside sweeping the leaves from the big tree out front of our building. Pablo, the building cleaning coordinator was there to help lead us to what we should do next, and we got it done in a relatively short time.
That same night we had gotten the third Mission Impossible meeting, and we watched it before and after the cleaning. J. J. Abrams, you always deliver. He was the chosen director for the movie, and it was crazy good. He was one of the directors of LOST which some people like and some people didn’t like (but I liked from my Childhood [actually, early college adulthood]). But he has also directed Alias (which I haven’t seen but was the reason he got asked to do this movie, and recently The Force Awakens: Star Wars 7 (which was a smashing success before-in some people’s perspectives-Star Wars 8 ruined it all). Haha, I personally like the two newest installments in the Star Wars Saga, but I digress. MI:3 Was super good. Great moments, good relationships built, great villains: great all around.
Saturday was our trip to the Gilbert Temple. We went with our Branch, who have tried to make weekly attendance on people’s minds a thing. We have been longing to go back, since the last time we went for an actual session was about three months ago. I will be happy to report (to Aunt Kristen) that not only did we get the Endowment work done for a man and a woman, but Sarah passed out 6 more cards to members in our branch that hadn’t brought any names. Although, I think one of those 6 was from Dad’s family, as well. But not only that, we saw Aunt Ann in the temple a couple rows in front of us, participating in the 8:30AM Saturday morning Spanish session with us. We greeted her warmly in the Celestial Room after the session was over. In that same room, I had a great conversation about Come, Follow Me scriptures with President Castaneda, and Sarah had a lovely heartwarming chat with Sister Casteneda. They were the ones who gave us rides. Afterwards, they treated us to Cafe Rio, one of my favorite after temple restaurants, and then drove us home.
That same day we had the Leadership meeting and the Adult session of our Stake Conference. Wonderful talks and instructions were given. In between, I got to meet the Stake Clerk’s 3 of 11? Children. They were super great kids to talk to. Also met two of the Stake Executive Secretary’s kids as well. Teenagers are fun, especially the bubbly ones. There was a beautiful song that touched our hearts in the Adult session called Because He Lives, which is actually a Sally Deford song I later came to find out. Great duet.
Sunday was just as good. I was asked to be one of three brethren to count the number of people attending the General Session of Stake Conference. I think, with all three of our counts added together, we had about 800 people. Got to meet some missionaries who may or may not serve in our ward in the future. It’s pretty exciting. Our friends, Elizabeth and Carlos Santos, did the Spanish translation for our Spanish speaking members. Both nights Sarah wanted to sit up front near the ASL members, to watch and sometimes participate with them, for Sarah has learned Sign Language in the past.
It’s been a great week. With the writing of this letter, I tried something different that way I’m not spending all my free Sabbath time writing this letter (which is a long endeavor some weeks if I want to do it right). I am also aware that it has the length of probably one of Paul’s epistles. Well, after reading a little from Romans this week, I am inspired to be a better letter writer, with some great experiences, both spiritual and temporal. And for those that made it this far in the letter, thank you for your interest in our lives.
I love you very much! I’m grateful for a church, that if we put in the work, can connect us to the whole world, but specifically: individuals. People that we can touch with just our experiences.
Love,
John
Love,
John
Tuesday, August 6, 2019
8/6 Vid making, Causa Rellena, and Missionary pep-talks
Dearest family and friends,
Life is great, but for sure can sometimes have the twists and turns of a normal rollercoaster. You just gotta hang on tight sometimes. The thrills of life are what make things worth it, though. That’s why we came to earth, honestly. Because we knew ALL that we would go through would be worth it enough to have a body and experiences that would help us grow from a wee seed into a sappling and even more so that we become a tree. Hopefully all of us get to grow into the people we have the potential to become. But everybody’s lives are different. Our days are numbered only to the Lord who gave us life. It is sad, but one sappling may be stomped on at a very young age, while another of adolescence gets cut down. The great thing is that whatever our lot is in life, we will all live forever, even after our demises, or better yet, the end, but the start of another beginning. I am so grateful for the chance I’ve been given to know what I know. To know that I am important. To know that Christ has Everybody in mind, random citizen Joe Blow and random son, and husband, and someday father, John Gonzales. He got to know me personally in his Atonement. I don’t have to worry about whether or not He loves me. I know he does. I just gotta live my life to the fullest, because he has sent me here to experience a joy. He wanted to share that joy with me, with my family, with my wife, with my children, with my friends; with literally everyone who has come to the Earth. He wants us to experience a Joy that only someone who has gone through all He has, could ever know. He wants us to become like him. He wants to connect us. Literally, through bonds to others. Our spouse and her family, and to family that had come before us. God is merciful. It’s just our job to see it. It’s our job to come to know who He is. So we can become like him.
Those have been some of my thoughts the last couple of days as I’ve studied Paul, as I’ve had the opportunity to spend time with the missionaries, in a noche de hogar (FHE) lesson we had yesterday, through testimony meeting, through personal, and couple experiences we have had.
The Elders and Sisters of our Branch came to have dinner with us yesterday. I am so grateful for the privilege to have two sets in our branch. They are all great individuals. We decided to finish out our month Dedicated to my Father’s homeland of Peru by serving and preparing Causa Rellena. Causa is a Peruvian dish. Basically, it is riced potatoes with a large amount of lime juice and it is filled with carrots, onions, shredded chicken in its own sauce. It could be compared to a potato with a filling in it and with a lemony taste, and it is served cold. This ends our celebration of the Independence day of Peru. It has been a good month of great food. Peruvian food is literally some of the best cuisine I have ever tasted. Couple that with a woman that has no trouble cooking things that are new to her, and life is good.
I had promised Hermana Schmidt (sister missionary) a long time ago that I would show her and the other missionaries the video I made for Jacob and his return from the mission. While we ate, we sat down and watch that video. Then, I felt prompted to ask them if I could share the lesson. They said of course. I proceeded to let them know that each of them had been called to the Mesa Arizona Mission for a reason. That there are no coincidences. And I shared a story from my mission about something i had experienced before the mission that came in handy while tracting one day. Story for another time. Then I said that they have had experiences that no other individual missionary has had, and for that reason we have been called to do this work of being missionaries. It was a time well spent.
The Relief Society of the branch was in charge of yesterday’s Noche de Hogar (FHE). The president of the branch, Presidente Castaneda, asked Sarah if they could have Family History themed lesson. Sarah was able to get sisters to help with each of the things we did. Sister Reyna taught about all the ins and outs of Family History and it was a really good lesson. A previous investigator family that the sisters had dropped because of no progression came because of a call from Sarah. We also had two other investigators there.
We played Family History Pictionary. For some reason our teams were called Guerreros and the Lamanitas. In my turn to draw something on the board, I wanted to use a strategy to keep the opposite team from guessing what I was drawing, so I tried to intentionally cover my drawing from the other team. Well, I got penalized for doing so, haha. They actually came to me for ideas about the game we should play in this meeting. Afterwards, we ate some really nice prepared fruit with the token hispanic chile, Tamarind, signature of the Mexican culture. It was good times all around, and as the last of us were leaving, we all walked and talked and stood out in the heat of Arizona as we sweated our fluids. But it was a great night!
-------------------------------------------------------------
I know this is all just about practically Saturday and Sunday, but I am working on a new method of writing my weekly emails, while still writing about a good majority of my life.
The awesome thing is that I am working on the video for the Gonzales Family Vacation. I was planning on making it a whole long video, but after much deliberation, I decided I am going to make three different videos, all focusing on three aspects of our break: Jacob’s return, Cohen’s first birthday, and the family trip to Disneyland. As I started working on it, I found out that I actually have about 120 minutes of content for these three videos that will be from about 10 minutes each max. Imagine, making a 30ish minute video of the whole of the Family Vacation. It’s a lot of material to sift through and cut and edit.
Not only that, but I am going to be making a video, or videos (more likely) about the Trefflich Family Reunion, which probably has about the same amount of material as far as minutes go (and I haven’t even thought about how I’m going to cover it, just yet). But, to be announced in the future.
Well, I love you all and I am hoping you have a great week.
Love,
John
Life is great, but for sure can sometimes have the twists and turns of a normal rollercoaster. You just gotta hang on tight sometimes. The thrills of life are what make things worth it, though. That’s why we came to earth, honestly. Because we knew ALL that we would go through would be worth it enough to have a body and experiences that would help us grow from a wee seed into a sappling and even more so that we become a tree. Hopefully all of us get to grow into the people we have the potential to become. But everybody’s lives are different. Our days are numbered only to the Lord who gave us life. It is sad, but one sappling may be stomped on at a very young age, while another of adolescence gets cut down. The great thing is that whatever our lot is in life, we will all live forever, even after our demises, or better yet, the end, but the start of another beginning. I am so grateful for the chance I’ve been given to know what I know. To know that I am important. To know that Christ has Everybody in mind, random citizen Joe Blow and random son, and husband, and someday father, John Gonzales. He got to know me personally in his Atonement. I don’t have to worry about whether or not He loves me. I know he does. I just gotta live my life to the fullest, because he has sent me here to experience a joy. He wanted to share that joy with me, with my family, with my wife, with my children, with my friends; with literally everyone who has come to the Earth. He wants us to experience a Joy that only someone who has gone through all He has, could ever know. He wants us to become like him. He wants to connect us. Literally, through bonds to others. Our spouse and her family, and to family that had come before us. God is merciful. It’s just our job to see it. It’s our job to come to know who He is. So we can become like him.
Those have been some of my thoughts the last couple of days as I’ve studied Paul, as I’ve had the opportunity to spend time with the missionaries, in a noche de hogar (FHE) lesson we had yesterday, through testimony meeting, through personal, and couple experiences we have had.
The Elders and Sisters of our Branch came to have dinner with us yesterday. I am so grateful for the privilege to have two sets in our branch. They are all great individuals. We decided to finish out our month Dedicated to my Father’s homeland of Peru by serving and preparing Causa Rellena. Causa is a Peruvian dish. Basically, it is riced potatoes with a large amount of lime juice and it is filled with carrots, onions, shredded chicken in its own sauce. It could be compared to a potato with a filling in it and with a lemony taste, and it is served cold. This ends our celebration of the Independence day of Peru. It has been a good month of great food. Peruvian food is literally some of the best cuisine I have ever tasted. Couple that with a woman that has no trouble cooking things that are new to her, and life is good.
I had promised Hermana Schmidt (sister missionary) a long time ago that I would show her and the other missionaries the video I made for Jacob and his return from the mission. While we ate, we sat down and watch that video. Then, I felt prompted to ask them if I could share the lesson. They said of course. I proceeded to let them know that each of them had been called to the Mesa Arizona Mission for a reason. That there are no coincidences. And I shared a story from my mission about something i had experienced before the mission that came in handy while tracting one day. Story for another time. Then I said that they have had experiences that no other individual missionary has had, and for that reason we have been called to do this work of being missionaries. It was a time well spent.
The Relief Society of the branch was in charge of yesterday’s Noche de Hogar (FHE). The president of the branch, Presidente Castaneda, asked Sarah if they could have Family History themed lesson. Sarah was able to get sisters to help with each of the things we did. Sister Reyna taught about all the ins and outs of Family History and it was a really good lesson. A previous investigator family that the sisters had dropped because of no progression came because of a call from Sarah. We also had two other investigators there.
We played Family History Pictionary. For some reason our teams were called Guerreros and the Lamanitas. In my turn to draw something on the board, I wanted to use a strategy to keep the opposite team from guessing what I was drawing, so I tried to intentionally cover my drawing from the other team. Well, I got penalized for doing so, haha. They actually came to me for ideas about the game we should play in this meeting. Afterwards, we ate some really nice prepared fruit with the token hispanic chile, Tamarind, signature of the Mexican culture. It was good times all around, and as the last of us were leaving, we all walked and talked and stood out in the heat of Arizona as we sweated our fluids. But it was a great night!
-------------------------------------------------------------
I know this is all just about practically Saturday and Sunday, but I am working on a new method of writing my weekly emails, while still writing about a good majority of my life.
The awesome thing is that I am working on the video for the Gonzales Family Vacation. I was planning on making it a whole long video, but after much deliberation, I decided I am going to make three different videos, all focusing on three aspects of our break: Jacob’s return, Cohen’s first birthday, and the family trip to Disneyland. As I started working on it, I found out that I actually have about 120 minutes of content for these three videos that will be from about 10 minutes each max. Imagine, making a 30ish minute video of the whole of the Family Vacation. It’s a lot of material to sift through and cut and edit.
Not only that, but I am going to be making a video, or videos (more likely) about the Trefflich Family Reunion, which probably has about the same amount of material as far as minutes go (and I haven’t even thought about how I’m going to cover it, just yet). But, to be announced in the future.
Well, I love you all and I am hoping you have a great week.
Love,
John
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