9/23 Sedona and the Inspiration to Travel to Eastern Europe

It has been just a crazy time in my life...

Let me explain.

Really, I am just trying to be a good husband. Following the spirit, and getting better at listening to Sarah and showing Love for her in the ways that she needs.

About 2 weeks ago, before we took our trip to Sedona, we had gotten into a fight. It was a very hard fight on me. Although, something that I need to do is not to get soooooooooo defensive, and I have been working on that. However, this day, I felt that Sarah didn't recognize the LOVE, the love that I show her on a daily basis. The problem was that I had been complaining about not having enough time. I have a mindset of the fact that TIME just doesn't ever allow me to have time for myself. But Sarah had said something that truly ate away at me, because she had said that I don't really care about her. After she said it, though, she knew, at least about that, that she had been in the wrong, at least about that. I guess it is that I HAD been showing her love, but it wasn't in the ways that were meeting her needs. My ways of showing love, at least two weeks ago, was to be subtle about it, doing things for her without question or thought of myself. But what I found out, is that I needed to change that about myself. So I have been resolving, to show her love in ways that she can see, and that she loves and appreciates. Mostly, it has to do with Holding Her, hugging her, kissing her, laying next to her, being with her, paying attention to her.

However, she also had to learn stuff about me to change the way she loved me. We have understood that one of my weaknesses is that I am not always vocal about my things. That I am not always understood or heard in the time. She has come to learn to read my subtle cues while I try to improve my expression of my needs and desires and wants. It hasn't been perfect, but we are trying.

Haha, we even decided to get away. We left the dreariness of work life and took a day or two off. We took the time to be with each other in a place other than our home, and it was something that we both desperately needed. We decided together to get away, and I chose a place based on suggestions and intuition and we got out of Mesa for 2 days.

On the trip, she learned that I Have a Voice, a voice that when heard, can change and touch the people that hear it. We were driving to Sedona and Sarah had fallen asleep. So I decided to listen to my recording of my most recent lesson with Leia Wasbotten (coolest voice teacher I have ever had [of course, only one I have ever had]). Well, Sarah woke up in the middle of the drive to our rehearsal of the song Shenandoah. It caused Sarah to cry, hearing it for the first time. She expressed that I need to let my voice out, or at least that's what I gathered I needed to do.

God speaks to us in crazy ways.

I was very irreverent to the things I had heard about Sedona. I was treating the thought that "Sedona was a spiritual place" lightly, especially when I hear of stuff like vortexes, or vorticies, of areas in Sedona where the concentration of spiritual force is magnified. I just couldn't believe that such a place existed. I know now how close-minded those thoughts were, and how those feelings didn't leave much room for faith.

I was actually really happy there. It wasn't like totally overcoming me, when we first got there. Yes, the vistas were amazing, the happiness of this Grand Canyon-esque place was for lack of a better word, Grand. But, it was just a place to me.

Up until we went to a agreed upon "vortex" of Sedona. The Chapel of the Sacred Cross.

Let me tell you, I was not expecting anything of the feelings I received while I was there that day. First of all, it was a reverent place to be, akin to an area where you don't want to raise your voice above a whisper. You walk in and the first thing you see is Jesus Christ on the Cross. It wasn't Grotesque, like most cross images (except for his eyes), but the artist that crafted this place, also put a semblance of a tree or a root growing behind the cross of Christ. As if the Cross brought forth Life. I was struck at the beauty and the thought put into about how we can make Christ's last suffering a symbol of Life and Beauty. Well, this artist did it.

Sarah and I sat at the Pews in the chapel in silence. Definitely touched. And like pews of most Catholic Churches, they had a ledge for you to kneel and pray. We decided to pray as a couple. I went first. And as I was saying my prayer, ideas that weren't mind, in fact, they went in almost contrary fashion to my own ideas came: inspiration. I had to wait until after Sarah had prayed to let her know the wave of unexpected inspiration that came.

The wave of inspiration touched on the fact that my concert choir of MCC is going to go to Europe this following end of school year. In particular, the chosen destinations would be Munich, Vienna, Salzburg, and Prague; in east Europe. The voice said that I must take this opportunity of a lifetime to experience this with my Choir. I was like, What? Where is this even coming from? I had been telling myself that it wasn't worth the money ($3200) and that I can always go some other time. The thoughts about this trip hadn't even been on my mind. It was completely out of the blue. But God was giving me this Gift of inspiration to Go!

How am I so lucky? How does God Love me So?

After telling Sarah, we asked in regards to her. Well, the answer was that of a neutral one. Which is actually the very thing Sarah needed to do some inward searching and introspection about what to do about our future, especially if she is to come. Well, a couple days later, we had resolved to do everything possible to stay together, especially on business/leisure trips. And honestly, I don't want to be too separate from her, like when we were separated from each other in transition when I moved out here to find work and under the guidance of God.

Well, Sedona was what we needed, to get away, to come closer together as a couple, to become more unified, and to come closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ through our own unification.



Since Sedona, two weeks ago, our fights have been resolved better. We have chosen to listen to the other and try not to get hurt without finding out what is wrong and getting to the root. An example is how yesterday, we started fighting but resolved it quickly, looking bad, but working it out, with happy feelings of love and commitment to do better.

Things are so great!

Europe, here I come!

9/9 Incomplete letter about the week

Life is Good!

Sorry about last week. I won’t bore you with the mundane details, but with the most important of the last two weeks, if I can even remember back that far.

One fun thing is that our neighbor and friend and maintenance guy, Frank Verdugo. He’s a really cool guy, that we first met when he helped fix a leak in our water heater, and that is when we found out he is a member of the church. Well, the missionaries heard that it was his birthday and invited us with the Santos to go and do a small surprise. Well, he cancelled on them, but we decided to walk to his house anyways as a group, mainly because there was a cake with blue frosting that the Elders had made. We found him out in a small grassy area outside his house playing with his three month puppy called “dude.” We had a fun conversation with him. We were about to leave but I would’ve been remiss if I didn’t sing a hearty happy birthday to him, with a the Peruvian twist of singing the Spanish version at a funner and faster speed than the English version. I got so hyped in the process that by the end of the song I was doing jumping jacks. Don’t ask me how that inspired that, but it was pretty cool.

A couple months ago I met the famous, at least to me and other organists and LDS enthusiasts, Brent Jorgensen, who attends the ward that meets at our building. It was one of those star struck moments where you meet one of the people that you have only heard about and who you want to be like someday. Well, he invited Sarah and I to his home to talk and to actually give us a scanner/printer and an actual desktop Mac Computer (albeit old, but still functioning), and with a music notation program that he uses called Sibelius. It was very nice of him. And I am happy to be mentored (or at least, I feel like he’s a mentor) for the things that I love. I even asked him to give me an assignment. It’s pretty exciting.

I’m really excited! I have finally chosen two German songs, 1 song from a musical, and my one on one helped me choose another song, for my repertoire. I’m not sure if I wrote about it. First, I have a one-on-one voice/singing coach. Her name is Leia Wasbotten and she is from Pennsylvania, actually. She is just really cool, and pretty inspiring, and I am learning a lot. So, my two German songs are called, “Wir Wandelten” and, “Odin’s Meeres-Ritt.” The musical song is, “Close Every Door, “ from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. And the one that she chose for me is the timeless classic “Shenandoah.” Now writing this, I was told to come up with one more song, and I was thinking that Shenandoah reminds me of the Tabernacle Choir, which reminds me of “Danny Boy,” which was President Hinckley’s favorite song. I think I might suggest it for the fifth and last piece to learn for the repertoire.

A couple weeks ago, Sarah had an awesome Relief Society activity where the women decorated a square that will be patched up into a quilt-like piece to be hung. Reminding them of their importance, and the importance to bring more to add to the beautiful tapestry that is the Relief Society.

We had amazing grilled fish with the Santos family in Maricopa