Un buen dia, by Jodi

Today was really good. It was our first day in the new branch and a bit overwhelming with everything being in Spanish. But also really spiritual. I don't know what happened to me, but suddenly I couldn't control this flood of emotions during each of the hymns in Sacrament meeting. I just felt so blessed to be here and so grateful for the church and the unity that it brings. The songs are all the same. The structure of the meetings are the same. But it's all in this completely foreign language. I don't know why it was so meaningful for me, especially since I hardly understood a word of it. I've been pretty stoic with this whole move up to this point, aside from some discouragement and frustration with getting logistics worked out. But this was the first time the emotional side really came out.

I got a calling today. They called me as Primary secretary. I'm excited because it will allow me to play the piano in primary each week. They've just used a CD player for the music until now and they actually just got a keyboard for the ward a few weeks ago. The other presidency members only speak Spanish, so it's going to force me to learn faster. Between us 3 American families, we've got 9 kids in Primary. Then there are about 10-15 Tico primary age kids in the branch. Autumn told me that some of them come without their parents, since their parents aren't members. They just wake up and get ready and walk to church. So cool that our kids get to see that kind of commitment from kids their age.

Amid the spiritual emotions at church, I felt really frustrated with myself because they are so greatly in need of help in so many capacities, but I feel so inept in my ability to help because of my Spanish. I just keep thinking I should be doing more and understanding better. I don't know why I'm so impatient with myself. Troy was telling us that one of the difficulties they're dealing with is getting mission papers filled out. The branch presidency, which consists of Troy and the branch president, are so busy that they don't have time to help them fill out their papers. Plus, the wait to get their dental work done is a year and a half. Troy told us about one teenager in the ward named Jeffrey who is an orphan and is living with a family in the ward and recently joined the church. He's trying to get ready for his mission, but Troy and El Presidente are maxed out with all their responsibilities. So, they've asked Kevin to take Jeffrey on as a project and help him get his mission papers taken care of.

Another interesting thing about the branch down here is that until recently, the branch was meeting for various reasons almost every day of the week. They had branch activities several days a week, plus auxiliary meetings, plus youth activities, plus church. The branch meets in Santa Cruz, which for a lot of us is a 45 minute commute each way. So, it just wasn't sustainable and a lot of the members didn't come because they can't afford to get there so frequently. Troy is working on reducing meetings to Sunday church with auxiliary meetings immediately after and branch activities each Thursday night. It's crazy to me that they're having to reduce the activities. In Utah, it seemed like they were always trying to make sure they got enough activities in to keep the ward united.

Tonight was really good. We went to the Blanchard's for dinner and the branch president and his wife were there as well as Victor and the Pina's. Presidente Duren served his mission in southern Idaho, so he speaks English really well. But the rest have pretty limited vocabulary. Everyone is so patient and helpful and understanding with my lack of comprehension, though. Naida Pina is definitely my favorite. She has done a lot of Spanish tutoring for families that move here, so she's extremely articulate with her words and speaks really slowly for me and makes sure I understand her. It's so helpful because most of the time I just catch bits and pieces of conversations or nothing at all. But with Naida, she makes sure I understand everything and can really engage in conversation. I was telling her how grateful I was and how good of a friend she is and she said "no soy tu amiga, soy tu familia!" (I think that's what she said). It was just so matter of fact and like, "of course that's how it is. How else would it be? We're not friends now, we're family." I love her so much.

We played this game in spanish that's a lot like "Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar"? It was really simple spanish, but tricky because you have to remember the phrases and remember which number you are as you move up and not lose the rhythm of the game.  It was super fun and entertaining for me but what was monumentally awesome was my cute Autumn (who has been extremely stubborn about not wanting to learn Spanish) decided to play with all of us adults. And she was one of the last people standing. She was awesome! She kept mixing up the spanish words, but she'd just act like she was saying it right and of course no one said otherwise. We just kept laughing and she kept right on playing and moving up. It was so great. It was such a great moment for me watching her in that setting and seeing the possibilities of what can come. Que un buen dia. :)

p.s. Shel, bring really cool clothes for church. There's no air conditioning and it gets nice and toasty. Poor Kevin only lasted a few minutes with his suit coat. If Trent has a short sleeved dress shirt, tell him to bring that.