So I have been a slacker. I promised to post more often and well, I need to work on keeping my promises. Well, we got to spend our Thanksgiving in Arizona with our family, although it was short, it was so much fun. The weather was amazing! The food was fantastic! The family was just what we needed! Its weird when we are in Arizona it just feels so comfortable and familiar and this trip I heard my husband say something he never says, “...I think I miss Arizona” But as we left and got closer to Provo, it really felt like, “Ok, I just can't wait to get home and into my bed!” I think it made me realize that home is where your family is, our family is in Arizona but now it is in Utah as well. Jose, Jeter, Eva and I we are a little family! Is that a crazy revelation or what! I mean we are coming to our 1st year wedding anniversary, I guess I should figure out by now that home is Jose!
Coming home from Arizona and having to deal with the end of the semester has a duality of feeling. Happy that it is almost over and to be done (for Jose) with those class and Anxiety that the end is here and he had so much to catch up on. This semester has been challenging and difficult. There is so much pressure placed on pre-med students. Not just with classes but with extra-curricular activities, such as working on talents and service and how you will look on your applications. The competition is fierce and well it will be for sometime. I mean there is no real end in sight and sometimes it feels like so much. Jose is not really one of those cut throat people that only thinks of himself and how he could get ahead. I know this is what will make him a wonderful physician one day, but it will be his challenge as we deal with other cut throat individuals in this field. Pray for us that we may always keep the best perspective.
So upon us is the Christmas season. To be quite honest I was never really fond of the season, not necessarily the Savior's birth and what Christmas is, but what others have made it to be. The demanding of a particular gift, at times children insistent that they “need” to receive a particular gift. People counting gifts and making sure that they have the most gifts. It just breaks and saddens my heart. I guess this is what made me stress out during this season. Thank goodness, I have ALWAYS had my family, so in reality I have never lacked for anything. This year the sentiment rings more true than ever. I have my family in Arizona and those friends that are like family spread all over. But this year I have so much more, I have MY family, what an amazing gift this has been for me. Jose my forever friend, Jeter our most loyal companion and Eva our gift from God. I don't know exactly what the New Year will bring but I know what this holiday will bring and we are going to start our own family traditions. It will be a humble Christmas, so to speak, no “gifts” but I know it will be the best. We have fun activities planned and lots of treats for us...chocolate abuelita, winters snow, christmas movies, christmas cookies, christmas lights and decorating. We are grateful for Skype as we know it will bring us closer to our family that is so far away!
As some of you might know a friend of ours recently passed away after a short and difficult battle with cancer, she was only 25 years old. She has been a great source of inspiration for me and I hope to share some of her with you, that she maybe a source of inspiration to you as well. Her name is Susan Mortensen Turley, she was just married earlier this year, she would have celebrated her 1st year wedding anniversary this January. I wanted to share some of the talk her father gave at her service last week. Jose and I could not be there due the fact that it was in Tempe but her family was generous to share with everyone else the spirit that was in that chapel that day. Here is some of what her father talked about. Please read it and ponder, the Love that our Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ has for us and feel his spirit testify that to you! Con Amor! Los Pena
...As a part of our life here on earth, we will make mistakes, we will make choices contrary to God’s commandments. We know from biblical prophets that no unclean thing can enter back into God’s presence. In order that we might be clean, God sent His Son, Jesus Christ to teach us how to live, and to atone for our sins so that justice and mercy might have equal sway in our eternal judgment. God’s promise to us is that if we follow Christ’s way and live in the way that He directs us through His Light, the Holy Spirit, His teachings, and those called under His authority, that we will be clean through Christ’s atonement. At the end of our mortal lives, we can return to live with God, our Heavenly Father and continue to learn from Him and grow. From Faith, comes action. From an early age, Susan understood this concept. She understood that if we live by faith in God, that all would be eternally well and good. As she said in her last message posted on her blog – “I have learned that a lot of things in life just don't go the way we plan. This is by no fault of our own.” As we exercise our faith in God, His perfect eternal vision and perfect care for us will deliver us home to Him. On the earth, when God impacts our lives, whether directly or through another person, our responsibility is to act or change, to not be the same person. We are here today in remembrance of Susan’s life. Having the privilege of knowing her for all of her 25 years, I believe that one thing she would want us to do is to make changes in our lives that reflect her legacy. Let me relate an experience that illustrates that. The day before she died, I was privileged to listen to the last telephone conversation she had. She wanted to speak with a dear friend. She was weak, unable to speak above a whisper, but as this friend started to end the call, she said, “Don’t hang up, I need to tell you one more thing. Never forget who you are. Always remember the things that we talked about.”
That is our challenge – Don’t hang up on Susan. The reason you are here is because you loved her and want to remember her. Her impact on your life needs to include this knowledge. Never forget that we are indeed God’s children, that His way is the best way, and that when He acts in our lives, our responsibility is to respond in faith, love and joy to His actions. If that means change our habits, we should change our habits. If that means to go to church, we should go to church. If that means to be kinder, gentler, more loving in our family, we should do that. If that means that we stop telling God what He should do, and instead be faithful in accepting what He is teaching us, we should do that.
In time, the intensity that we feel at Susan’s passing may fade. It is natural, our lives are busy, we move on. The intensity will return when a picture jogs our memory, or when a thought comes to our mind. Perhaps tears will come at that moment. However, what should not fade from our lives is the change to our very souls that we feel at this moment. What should not change is the impact of the Holy Spirit that you feel right now, this very moment. The action that you should take is to cement the changes to your soul that God is prompting you to do right now. Because you don’t understand everything, you may hesitate. I urge you to take the action of committing to yourself to move forward in faith and diligence. Because He has perfect, eternal vision, God will answer all of our faithful prayers, not always in the way that we wanted, but in the way that will best help us to achieve our eternal potential. All of us prayed for Susan’s health and recovery from cancer. Instead of the removal of her cancer, God answered our prayers for her with by increasing her understanding, with the giving her the ability to bear the pain, with greater strength for her to carry on and endure in faith to the end. He healed her eternal soul. As the apostle Paul said,
7 And lest I should be exalted above measure …, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, …
For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.
And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
I love this verse in the book of Psalms: “Be still, and know that I am God….”
Christ said, “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst”… and He also said through the prophet Isaiah,
18 And therefore will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the Lord is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him.
9 … weep no more: he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee.
0 And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, … thine eyes shall see thy teachers:
1 And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.
Susan and all of us hoped and prayed for her freedom from cancer. Through the grace of God, Susan found freedom and teaching above the everyday, above the mundane, leading to eternity. Our task is to do likewise, with whatever opportunity God places in our path, to follow the promptings that He sends to us, to learn for ourselves, and experience that joy described so often by those of faith in Christ.
Listen to the words of faith, diligence and action from Jeffrey R. Holland
…the tests of life are tailored for our own best interests, and all will face the burdens best suited to their own mortal experience. In the end we will realize that God is merciful as well as just and that all the rules are fair. We can be reassured that our challenges will be the ones we needed, and conquering them will bring blessings we could have received in no other way.
If we constantly focus only on the stones in our mortal path, we will almost surely miss the beautiful flower or cool stream provided by the loving Father who outlined our journey. Each day can bring more joy than sorrow when our mortal and spiritual eyes are open to God’s goodness. Joy in the gospel is not something that begins only in the next life. It is our privilege now, this very day. We must never allow our burdens to obscure our blessings. There will always be more blessings than burdens—even if some days it doesn’t seem so. Jesus said, ‘I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.’ Enjoy those blessings right now. They are yours and always will be.” I testify that God, our Heavenly Father, lives. I know that He sent His Son to teach us God’s way, to atone for our sins, and to enable our own resurrection, just as He was resurrected. Of the truth of these things, I testify, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
