March & April, A Summary of Two Months

March and April have been interesting. Grandpa Larsen died on March 5th, my birth day; it is interesting because I feel that from now on my birthday is going to have a different meaning. I will always remember the day he passed away. I have spent a great deal of time thinking about him and his legacy in my life. His legacy to me is like the furniture he built for his grandchildren, he did not build that furniture especially for me, but my kids are going to be able to see it, enjoy it, and probably pass it on to the next generation. His furniture is like the gospel principles he taught to his family, I am sure he was not thinking of me, but because his example was as strong as those pieces of furniture I get the blessings too. My grandparents died before I could remember them, so, Mike’s grandparents are the only grandmas and grandpas I have ever met, and I feel so grateful for their kindness and love that they showed to me since the first time each one of them met me.

We went to Aunt Karen and Uncle Jeff farewell, I am very excited for them to go on a mission, I have a special place for Aunt Karen in my heart, I have never felt like a beautiful woman, and I was not big on the idea of having engagement, and bridal pictures because I thought I was not going to look well in them. However, she was willing to spend hours with me and Mike making sure that our pictures were perfect. I am so grateful for her love and service. I love her so much and I will miss them but I know serving a Mission is what the Lord wants them to do.

On March 24th I attended a talk given by this young man Kyle Maynard. He was born without arms or legs. I was in tears the whole time just thinking how silly people can be, we are always trying to excuse ourselves for our failures. And here he is a motivational speaker, a terrific athlete, and an inspiration to people who think that they are the ones with limitations. I am so grateful for opportunities like this. He said, “I believe God made me the way I am in order to show people that there is no amount of adversity that a single person cannot overcome if they fully trust themselves and trust in the will of Jesus Christ. And in time, I learned that I had to trust and believe in myself on the mat, and, even more importantly, I learned that I had to trust fully in the Lord my Savior, no matter the circumstances. I prayed, and God delivered the answers. I may not have wanted to listen to those answers at the time, but I know they were the answers He intended for me to hear”.

I have been very busy with school this semester, I am not taking a lot of credits but it is difficult for me. I am not trying to complain, but when you are trying to read, understand, and write in a second language it gets a little more complicated. I particularly struggle with general classes, the fact that I am not interested in some subjects, and that most of them are not extremely necessary for my major made them even harder for me. I guess I have to learn to live by the rules of this country.
Last Sunday I receive an email from an honor society at UVU asking me to write an essay to see if a qualified for a book scholarship, I am a member of this international honor society, its members have excellent grades and are the top 10% of the student body in the university, and the scholarship was for Latino students, so, I could not use that on my essay. I felt that I would not get it because besides my grades and my Latino blood I do not have any other especial skill. At least that is what I thought, the next day I got an email telling me that I had gotten the scholarship. It is important to me because sometimes I feel that I would never finish school, that English is too hard, and that I am not smart enough. At the end I realize that my mind is the only thing that limits how far I can go.

Mike and I are heading to California on the 30th of this month; he is going to be doing an internship during the summer in a boarding school. I am excited and at the same time a little scared because this is going to be the first time being by ourselves, and I am so used to Utah that I don’t know if I am going to like another state in the country. The good thing is that I am going to be warm and that I would probably be working too.
My Gospel Principle

I said I was going to talk about the gospel principles in my life, I was just thinking about tithing. Back in Mexico my parents live on what they earn every month, they never have extra money to go on vacations or to go shopping, which is the way I grew up. When I started learning about tithing I was a little bit apprehensive about it. I could not understand why people who are very poor would have to give money to the church when they can hardly survive with their paycheck. It was really hard to me to start paying tithing, as well as the other principle; I had to act on faith not really knowing if that was really going to bless my life. I was paying for school, books, clothes, and I was also helping my parents with the bills at home, so I was very resilient to pay it. It is still hard, I think is going to be a while until I become used to the fact that everything I have belong s to the Lord. Mike’s mom told us one day that tithing is not something she does, but rather something she is, and that is my goal, not to pay tithing, but become a tide payer. We are very lucky that we are living in Mike’s parents’ house and we have not had any problem paying our tithing. But I know that as we star living on our own we are going to face problems that are going to challenge our willingness to pay tithing. I pray that we are always strong and faithful, and I know that by doing what the Lord requires from us we are going to get the blessings.