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!
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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
