Why did I take piano lessons? by Jodi
Second week at church. We got there at 9:00 on the dot. Luckily, they don't start even close to on time, so we had plenty of time to greet some friends and find our seats. Then, the branch president came and asked if I could play the piano for sacrament meeting. A little nerve wracking, but doable since no one there plays the piano, so I figured they wouldn't be as likely to notice when I mess up.
Then, I see that all the primary kids are in the front by the stand and the primary presidency is sitting on the front row. So, I start putting two and two together since I'd been in primary last week and they'd been practicing program songs and it was about primary program timing. So, I asked Troy to ask them if they'd been planning on me playing the piano, since I'd practiced with them the week before. While he's talking to them, they look over at me smiling and give me a big thumbs up. So suddenly, I realize I'm accompanying the sacrament hymns as well as the primary program.
Also, last night Troy asked me if I'd play a special musical number in sacrament meeting next week. I didn't exactly bring any piano music with me since I didn't expect to have any opportunities to practice. We brought the keyboard home with us from church so I can practice. So now I just need to find some piano music. The only problem with doing a musical number on a keyboard and being totally solo is a.) you have no pedal, so all the notes sound choppy and b.) you have no volume control so there's zero dynamics to the song. So, I'm going to be playing some piano song that's choppy and all one volume. It's going to be awesome. I've got to imagine they'd rather listen to a CD recording.
I got set apart today and the branch president asked if I wanted the blessing in english or spanish. I'm thinking, bring on the spanish. Maybe I'll finally experience the gift of tongues like I've been praying for since the day we got here. Not so much. I understood something about my family being blessed and that I'd learn the language "rapidemente." I asked after the blessing if that's really what he said and he said yes, so now I'm super stoked. :) But, since I didn't understand the rest of the blessing, I asked Troy to translate. Anyhow, he gave me a synopsis, which I can't remember right now except for being able to learn the language quickly. But, he did give me some background that I didn't know up to this point.
So, I already knew that our branch president had been living in San Jose with his wife and felt like he was supposed to move to city of Liberia to help with the church, which is about two hours north of our branch. So he moved to Liberia and ended up being called into the district presidency. As part of that, they asked him to come down to our Santa Cruz branch and pray about who should be the next branch president. He came down and met with the members and prayed and prayed and didn't receive any inspiration. He went back to the mission president and told him he was really sorry, maybe he should send someone else because he hadn't been able to figure out who the next branch president should be. The mission president told him that was because he was supposed to be the next branch president.
So he and his wife packed up their car again and moved to Santa Cruz with no home and no jobs. I guess when he got here, he just started fasting and praying his heart out to receive help running this little branch because he just didn't have the manpower for all the callings he needed filled. Then, out of the blue, these families from Utah just started moving into the branch. So, Troy said he gets really emotional with these callings he gives each of us because he feels so strongly that we were all inspired to come here and help him with the members of his branch.
It's so crazy. I never saw our move to Costa Rica as being inspired. If I was smarter, I probably would have, seeing as how quickly and easily all the pieces fell into place to make this move possible. But up until now, I saw it more as just a really cool adventure we'd decided to take our family on. The longer we're down here though, and the more life's complexities just fall into place so perfectly against all odds, I realize what the scriptures are talking about when they say how our Heavenly Father just wants to shower us with blessings. I don't remember ever feeling in my life, a full blown "showering" of blessings like I have with our move here. It has been absolutely incredible and I'm so grateful to be here.
Kevin made lemonade for dinner tonight. We didn't realize how few lemons you need. The Pina's gave us a huge bag of like 100 little lemons to make lemonade. So we just assumed you need a bunch to make the lemonade or they wouldn't have given us so many. Kevin had to keep diluting the juice to make it taste right until we ended up with a lot more than we'd planned on.
Then, I see that all the primary kids are in the front by the stand and the primary presidency is sitting on the front row. So, I start putting two and two together since I'd been in primary last week and they'd been practicing program songs and it was about primary program timing. So, I asked Troy to ask them if they'd been planning on me playing the piano, since I'd practiced with them the week before. While he's talking to them, they look over at me smiling and give me a big thumbs up. So suddenly, I realize I'm accompanying the sacrament hymns as well as the primary program.
Also, last night Troy asked me if I'd play a special musical number in sacrament meeting next week. I didn't exactly bring any piano music with me since I didn't expect to have any opportunities to practice. We brought the keyboard home with us from church so I can practice. So now I just need to find some piano music. The only problem with doing a musical number on a keyboard and being totally solo is a.) you have no pedal, so all the notes sound choppy and b.) you have no volume control so there's zero dynamics to the song. So, I'm going to be playing some piano song that's choppy and all one volume. It's going to be awesome. I've got to imagine they'd rather listen to a CD recording.
I got set apart today and the branch president asked if I wanted the blessing in english or spanish. I'm thinking, bring on the spanish. Maybe I'll finally experience the gift of tongues like I've been praying for since the day we got here. Not so much. I understood something about my family being blessed and that I'd learn the language "rapidemente." I asked after the blessing if that's really what he said and he said yes, so now I'm super stoked. :) But, since I didn't understand the rest of the blessing, I asked Troy to translate. Anyhow, he gave me a synopsis, which I can't remember right now except for being able to learn the language quickly. But, he did give me some background that I didn't know up to this point.
So, I already knew that our branch president had been living in San Jose with his wife and felt like he was supposed to move to city of Liberia to help with the church, which is about two hours north of our branch. So he moved to Liberia and ended up being called into the district presidency. As part of that, they asked him to come down to our Santa Cruz branch and pray about who should be the next branch president. He came down and met with the members and prayed and prayed and didn't receive any inspiration. He went back to the mission president and told him he was really sorry, maybe he should send someone else because he hadn't been able to figure out who the next branch president should be. The mission president told him that was because he was supposed to be the next branch president.
So he and his wife packed up their car again and moved to Santa Cruz with no home and no jobs. I guess when he got here, he just started fasting and praying his heart out to receive help running this little branch because he just didn't have the manpower for all the callings he needed filled. Then, out of the blue, these families from Utah just started moving into the branch. So, Troy said he gets really emotional with these callings he gives each of us because he feels so strongly that we were all inspired to come here and help him with the members of his branch.
It's so crazy. I never saw our move to Costa Rica as being inspired. If I was smarter, I probably would have, seeing as how quickly and easily all the pieces fell into place to make this move possible. But up until now, I saw it more as just a really cool adventure we'd decided to take our family on. The longer we're down here though, and the more life's complexities just fall into place so perfectly against all odds, I realize what the scriptures are talking about when they say how our Heavenly Father just wants to shower us with blessings. I don't remember ever feeling in my life, a full blown "showering" of blessings like I have with our move here. It has been absolutely incredible and I'm so grateful to be here.
The primary kids and presidency after the primary program.
Our church building.
The parking lot...a.k.a. the front lawn
This is what it looks like after church is over. It's like a full on fiesta. :)
Dinner tonight at the Johnson's. Since we're all so far from family, they've all made a tradition of doing Sunday dinners together each week.
No, my kids are not in swimsuits on Sunday. Ok, maybe they are. But it's so dadgum hot down here and it costs way to much to use the A/C, it's hard to avoid the allure of the pool.
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