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
