home with my boy

After a very long ten days, I am home.  It is always difficult to be away from home for a long period of time, but this trip seemed especially long since the bombing in Boston happened on the day I arrived in High Point.  While I was away, all I wanted to do was hug and kiss my little boy.  Like you, my heart and head have run the course of emotions and while I realize it is old news according to the news cycle, it is still present in my mind.

So over the weekend, I have hugged and kissed my little Ryan about a thousand times and thanked heaven for my little family.

Whenever I'm gone for awhile, it seems like Ryan grows a month or so older.  This time I came home to a very imaginative little boy.  His daddy has a very curious, imaginative mind, and it seems Ryan is following in his footsteps.  He's been going after every bug, monster and dinosaur in our house.  Luckily, for the bugs, monsters and dinosaurs, the green laser gun has a dying battery otherwise they wouldn't stand a chance.

On Saturday we went to downtown Salt Lake for the annual Nihon Matsuri (Japanese festival).  I was shocked to see all the white people dressed up in full anime costumes.  Celebrating Japan isn't what it used to be!  But we were able to meet up with Janelle and Sienna, Trent, Sarah and Charlotte and Brian - although Brian was working his Liberty Mutual booth (anyone need cheaper car or home insurance?!).  We brought Charlotte home with us and the two littles had quite a fun time just riding home in the back seat.  How cute are they?

The weird thing was, having two children in our car gave us the feeling of what it would be like with two kids.  I can't explain it, but it felt real and it felt like we were a proper grown-up family (as opposed to the pretend family??).  One thing we realized is we will need a different car because Tony's knees were practically in his chest from having the seat so close and poor Charlotte had to put her legs on either side of her seat for lack of room!

As I said before, it's good to be home.

and I was doing SO well...

I seem to have dropped off the blogging world again and after I was doing so well in March!

It's April and that means the High Point Funiture Market in my world.  I was here a few weeks ago, home for a week and now I'm here again for ten whole days.

The show officially starts on Saturday, but look at how beautiful our showroom looks for our grand opening at our new location!  You can't really tell, but those are purple velvet upholstered walls in the picture above.  The long low cabinet is vellum and the ensemble is absolutely stunning.

So you might not hear from me for awhile because I am in the furniture capital.  But if you happen to be in North Carolina, come on by and say hi.

Bye y'all!

advice for Adril

I love Mondays.  Every Monday I receive an email from Adril.  Now that he's been out a year, his emails are much more detailed.  A year ago, his emails were something like:  We had a great week.  We are teaching a lot of people.  I have a new companion and he is from (insert country here).

But now?  This is the email he sent me last week (thanks to Kathy's nephew for the translation!):


Hi Mom, how are you? Last week was wonderful, full of spiritual experiences, trying to find families in order to help them come closer to Christ. We also went to the temple and it was marvelous.

Last week we lost a brother {as an investigator} that was listening to us very well. One night we passed by his house and reminded him that we had been waiting for him at the church and he hadn't arrived. He felt really bad. I feel like pressuring them is wrong, but I'm going to improve my teaching skills. I want to teach with conviction. Mom, can you help me with your opinion on how to teach with conviction or give commitments with conviction please? Thanks. Thanks for the money Mom, if you ask me what else I need I will tell you whatever I need, but for now it is enough. Thanks mama Natalie for worrying and thinking about me, I love you.

Last week we had a beautiful experience. A boy from a part member family was baptized and before he never wanted to get baptized and wouldn't listen to his parents. His parents were very worried, they had plans to get sealed in the temple, but their son wasn't a member yet. Nevertheless, his parents worked with all their hearts to help their son. Their son felt the Spirit, and felt that his parents had greatly changed y he got baptized. His father baptized and yesterday confirmed him so that he would be a member. His father shed tears of joy and wept like a child. I could see the happiness of this family and now they can bring to pass their dream or goal of going to the temple and being sealed with all of their family. What a beautiful experience I've been able to have, I realized that the Lord brings to pass his great works when we confide in God.

I love this boy and am so proud of the work he is doing.  So my question to you is, what advice do you have for Adril?  What lessons did you learn as a missionary teaching people?

You can email me at:  nmano@yahoo.com or better yet, you can email or write to Adril directly! 

email address:  adril.garcia@myldsmail.net

Elder Adril Garcia Perez
Mision Peru - Lima Oeste
carlos salarerry #3664-los olivos
casilla de correo 39-054
lima 39
perú
 

The Mano Hunt

I have a big family.  I grew up going to family parties with more aunts, uncles and cousins than I could count.  I have so many great memories of spending time with my grandparents and on family vacations every summer with my cousins.  And that's even with us being the "California Mano's" and coming out to visit family only for a few weeks every summer.

Now that we're Utahn's, we have the added bonus of getting to go to all the Mano Parties.  My personal favorite is the Easter party.  It starts out all cute and innocent with the hunt with the little ones.  Fairness is the name of the game with Auntie Linda setting down the "8 eggs plus a golden egg" per child.  You see, we have really little ones on the hunt along with 10 year olds and this makes it all fair and square.

But after all the cute and fairness comes the real hunt for the, uh, big kids.  You would think the prize was a winning lottery ticket. 

Thank you Auntie Linda for another fun family party!