"Musical Mormon Chillin' with the Fam"

All of us are different. We all have had different cultural backgrounds and experiences that have truly shaped us into the people that we are now and that we will become. Want to know a little about mine? Well then, keep reading!

Life in a big Family

My whole life has been centered on my family. Growing up, I never really needed to hang out with my friends because I always was content to be with my family. When you have 8 siblings, there is always something going on, and you are never alone. I think this had a huge impact on the person that I am today. When you have a family that large, you have to learn how to share, how to not always be the center of attention, and to understand that you are not always going to get your way. I also had to learn many lessons about where true happiness comes from. With my parents trying to support that many children, we often had to go without some of the extra “frills” of life. But this helped me to understand that money is not what you need to have a fun time with the people that you love. These experiences and lessons have shaped my way of thinking and have helped me to see what matters most in life: The people that you are with, the memories that you can create.

Music to my Heart.

My mom has always believed that if we are to be successful, well-rounded people, we need to be able to play an instrument and be musically literate. When I was 9 years-old, I didn’t agree, but now I couldn’t be more grateful that my mom forced me to take piano lessons, with violin lessons shortly thereafter. Music is one of the biggest aspects of my life, and has grown to be one the most common outlets that I use to define myself.  It is a way for me to express myself in a way that can’t be show in any other form. Playing either the violin or piano has always been a way for me to calm down, to relieve stress, and to just simply do something that I love. I have come a long way since I was an Elementary School student that would fight with her mom about why she wanted to quit music lessons.

“I am a Child of God”

I know who I am, and I know my purpose here on earth. If there is one cultural identity of mine that defines me the most, it would have to be my religious beliefs. I am a devout member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and my beliefs and practices shape everything that I do, and everything that I am. I have been a member my whole life and I have learned these values and principles from my parents. These teachings have shaped my life and make a huge influence on the choices and decisions that I make daily. I have always participated in this way of life, but my true conversion came when I served a mission in Madrid, Spain. I experienced a whole new way of life, and I truly learned for myself that my religion is how I want to define myself. 

Well that is just a little taste of who I am, and those things that shape my cultural identity. I encourage all of you to think about those things that have defined you in order to understand more about your own culture and identity.

******Note to followers: This post has been in response to a class project.

My Grandma Mary and other stuff

I received one last email from Grandma today, that I guess she must have sent right before she passed. Her emails were never very long but those short and simple sentences such as ¨I love you¨ and ¨ My prayers are with you¨ always did give me a little boost, because I know that Grandma has always been one of my biggest supporters. I will always be grateful for that, because the mission has changed my life. Even though at the end of her life, she struggled with many things, I never think about those things when I think of my Grandma Mary. I think of the many times that she took us to ¨La Puente¨ , and the love that we shared for good food, and old classic movies. I think of the endless number of Saturday´s that I spent dusting and vacuuming her house, and how she would buy me KFC after. Who can forget her incredible Christmas parties, where we would eat amazing appetizers and Honey Baked Ham. 7 layer dip anyone? Like I said, we share a love for good food. And let´s just take a second to remember she always owned at ¨Trivial Pursuit¨. To this day, we still joke about Simon Bolivar. I also think of the love the she always showed for our family, and the support she always gave. I also think of how strong her testimony was and how she really did have the ¨Spirit of Elijah¨ I know we always joke about family search, but she has helped so many people and changed many lives through her dedicated service. I love Grandma Mary so much. She was a wonderful person, and an incredible Grandmother.

I know that when something like this happens, it is always hard, and we don´t always understand why. But I do know that the Lord always knows why. Grandma was sick and she needed relief from the pains of the this world. The scriptures in Alma 40: 11-12 really applies to Grandma, and will probably offer some comfort in this hard time. It says that all those people who pass on will be ¨taken home to that God that gave them life¨, and those that are righteous will be received into a ¨state of rest¨ a ¨state of peace¨ and there they shall rest from all their ¨troubles¨ and ¨sorrow¨ I know this is true for Grandma, I know that she has found rest and peace, and I know that she has been reunited with her other family members that have passed on.

Even though we will miss her a lot, and things will probably be different for a while without her, she is not really gone. I know she is still there supporting us and rooting for us to hold on. And I know that we will all see her again, and that we will live together as a family forever.

I can´t even tell you how grateful I am for the knowledge that we have, and for the opportunity that we have to all live together again. It brings me so much comfort, because I don´t know what I would do without every single one of you. I am so grateful for our family, and for the love that we have between us.

I love and miss you all. I really wish that I was at home right now, but I know that I am doing the right thing, and that Grandma would never want me to give up, and that she would want me to keep going and finish strong. And that is exactly what I will do. Because I know that´s what God wants too.

Things are going well here in Alcala. For the past two months, we as missionaries have been planning this fireside, that was to help excite the youth to serve missions, and to just excite the ward in general to get more involved with the missionary effort.  President came and spoke, I spoke about the joy that comes from serving the Lord (Alma 29:9) and other youth spoke, a couple of returned missionaries, it was awesome! The spirit was so strong,and it was such a success. The president came up after and thanked us, and said that it had been a huge success, and this is what we are doing here, trying to help and serve others and inspire the ward. I feel really good about the work we have done here in Alcala. The ward has made such progress these last six months that I have been here. I really am just so happy about it for them, cause I love the members here. 

Today for Pday, we went to El Escorial, a small Spanish pueblo that is surrounded by a mountain, and has this huge castle on the mountain side, and just trees everywhere, probably the most legit Spanish place I have been to yet. Oh the perks of serving a mission in Europe :)