The Face of Your Father (El Rostro de Su Padre)

The Face of Your Father  (El Rostro de Su Padre)

23 June 2013

This week began on Father’s Day, and part of it was snatched up into my last family letter, due to being late writing…but I have a few stragglers remaining from Sunday and Monday that may merit inclusion.  First, meetings are getting easier.  It really helps if people giving discursos or talks let us know at the beginning if they are something on line, because with three buttons, the rest of us can follow along (in Spanish or English—“exito”, or success!)  This has helped from day one.  Also Monday, the Conference Liahonas arrived at our in house Distribution Center!  Waiting for two and 1/2 months for anything has to increase the suspense and the end game joy.

In Relief Society I thought about Maria—that so many of her friends have chosen to complete applications to fulfill missions.  They have lived 18 and 19 years.  So, what is a tithe of their life?  Two years/eighteen months!  I am proud of them for making a choice to put the Lord first.  I told the story of my father’s father, Ivin L. Gee, when he and Grandma were just out of college, short on money.   He decided that they had so little that it would be better to wait to pay their tithing.  The happenings that proceeded continued from bad to worse, from illness and employment and other difficulties.  Finally, Grandma put her foot down.  We are paying our tithing!  And they did.  They never owned a mansion, though my children loved the retirement center of their last few years with grand piano in the lobby.  

They did not travel from Antartica to Bejing.  However, Grandpa became a spiritual leader for his community and others, and many handfuls of children and children’s children (now great grandchildren) are following in putting the Lord first in tithing their lives, like Maria’s friends—putting first things first.  Ask Kristen about her experience…and Val’s and my decision to drive a small gray envelope to the post office…We can attest that sharing when it seems impossible can reap amazing blessings.  Our estate attorney told us that his encouragement to his eight daughters has been--if they need something big in their lives, to pay ahead.  At the moment, Val and I are hard pressed to want anything, except a functioning toilet paper holder, but update on that later!

A week or ago, I dreamt about lions (“and tigers and bears, oh no!”) 

 

I woke, trying to figure out, why would I be dreaming about a zoo?  Well, Monday, we went!

We joined all couples minus the Amados and drove 

 to a lookout point 

about an hour from the temple and saw in perspective what our special place looks like from the other side of the valley.  President Ocampo told us a week ago that we work in the most beautiful building in Tegucigalpa. 

our "castle" from 25 miles away

 After seeing the whole valley, it looks possible.  

This is a white basilica downtown

And a basilica anaranjada (orange center)

We climbed some mock ruins 

and saw a Cristus statue,

 lunched at a taco type stand and wandered through the Honduras Zoo. 

(no tigers, but a 3 legged jaguar, and the bear died.)

Thursday, I got to work as a "guia" or guide, meeting people at the front door, with their initial entry.  There were at least two sealing sessions with young families from over an hour away. Val was invited to witness these gatherings, which he talked about tenderly afterwards, his first experience with such.   Earlier in the lobby, the young children were tired and having a hard time being happy.  I walked over to the little boy who was whining and pulling at his mom’s long earrings.  I wondered how "Patty Cake, Patty Cake, Baker's Man" would translate for a Spanish-attuned 18 month old.  Well, mostly through hand motions, less language, we moved on to “This Little Piggy went to Market”,  “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” (I know that one in Spanish,) and lastly, “Little Bunny Foo Foo walking through the forest, catching all the field mice and bopping them on the head.”  

Actually, I have never heard of this rendition included in temple approved hymnos and I only knew the word "raton" (rat) but it seemed perfectly adequate.  After five or six minutes, the little boy calmed down and nestled contentedly on his mother’s lap.  

Then, Friday, I procured Canciones Para Los Ninos, a Children’s Songbook, and Saturday located bubbles. 

My Provo language specialist Friday quoted a journal article claiming that students of language who succeed are those who find significant motivation to practice.  His homework assignment was to locate a quote or a picture of something to remind me why I am trying to learn Spanish.  I found this:

“Nothing is going to startle us more when we pass through the veil to the other side than to realize how well we know our Father and how familiar his face is to us.”

(President Ezra Taft Benson as quoted by Pres. Henry B. Eyring, Ensign, May, 1991). 

If this is true, then now is the time to get to know some of His children and love them, to see if it is possible to make a difference.  Picture, from mind’s eye to this page-- a young man possibly 25, officiating in a temple session yesterday, the expression on his face emanating an unprecedented attitude of reverence, effusing with sincerity in each gaze of interest, appreciation and respect for the people in the room--or a young couple, assisting with lighted eyes savoring, absorbing every concept.  It is such faces 

coupled with the open-eyed wonder of toddlers in a temple entrada that increase my motivation to practice and stretch. 

 To "open" my mouth!  

and continue to work, watch and hope for a renewed gift of tongues.

Amber started a great job recently.  

The extended Gee family had a marvillosa reunion at Heber Valley.  Maria finished a class in surveying, heading to celebrate with Tom and April the entrance of Evelyn.  Val's prediction is 2 July and 12 pounds--please forgive this, April! My guess is: 7 July at 12 noon, and 8 lb 3 oz.  "Vas a ver" (much used words here, meaning, "We will see!)

Here is to April, hoping for swinging breezes for the next  few weeks

This is me, asking for even a one-line response from you!!

A Need for Willing Men (or Put your Shoulder to the Wheel)

   A Need for Willing Men (or Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel)     17 June 2103

Last Monday brought an outing to the Costco Twin, PriceSmart with my Bassett friends from Wyoming.

My (first) errands were outside of PriceSmart, hunting communication hardware for Val.  I went to Office Depot, who asked me to return later, ran across the street to Radio Shack, who told me to try a different nearby Radio Shack, near the Do It Center (“Indufesa,”) 

yes a Home Depot look-alike, but a lot smaller.  “Do It Center” had a phone connector, but not a headset.  Radio Shack #2 told me to go to Cariba Computadors, who told me to try “Made In China” (Pronounced “Maday Eeen Cheena”  and a good  15 minute walk away).  I finally decided to cut my losses and return to PriceSmart, where I began to lose hope that the Bassetts might have endured my endless odyssey.

I did gather my needed items there, with eyes out for Bassetts, just in case, heading out the receipt line to solicit help from a kind clerk, who led me to the customer service counter for paging and a telephone.  I called home to learn that my friends had returned for obligations at home.  “Iba sola,” I was going it alone.  Val offered to come by taxi to retrieve me.  (Groan.)  However, in the process of helping me, the customer service assistants found a manager who spoke English.  Asking for advice, I heard that the taxistas, especially ones with radios, were generally safe.  “But, I could drive you home in our personal security vehicle,” which he promptly obtained and met me, my purchases, and the pouring rain at the entrance. 

On the way home, he told me how he knew English:  his father worked for the Honduras Consulate from the time he was about 8 until age 13, in New York City.  His family lived in New Jersey for several years and he attended school there.  When I directed him to our home, I gathered that an aunt and uncle of his worked in the temple.  He willingly accepted my gift of un Libro de Mormon which we have purchased in Spanish and personalized to share with taxistas.   Not a taxista, but a “generosa gerente”, kind manager.  And as President Amado says, quoting Shakespeare, “All’s well that ends well!”

Tuesday, I was supposed to have a BYU MTC language tutor interview.  Val had a concurring telephone conference, so we tried to add the MTC Senior Spanish materials (Do email me if you want them, I thought they were straight forward, easy to follow, and they make the reader feel, if not super smart, at least like trying.)  Well, in the middle of downloading, our building internet cut out.  No phone call.  No Spanish materials.  I dressed and walked to the temple, worked 8 or 9 hours, and walked home.  Upon reviewing the download, Val’s eyes grew wide.  “My new laptop is full, Laurene.  How did that happen?”

 I did not know.  We looked under my “Language Training” folder and found 167 gigabytes.  For perspective, our friend Greg, who services computers at Weber State University computers, taught us that the United States Library of Congress will fit on a 10 gigabyte drive.  Translation:  during our work shift, the computer had somehow downloaded 17 Libraries of Congress!  The next morning, we learned how to delete the file. We deleted and started fresh.  I like this arrepentimento (starting over fresh) principle, most days.

 

In the meetings this week, most of the meaning translated straight across.  Wednesday, I finished the Book of Mormon in Espanol--just shy of 4 weeks since we have been here.  I jested to Hermana Ocampo 

and a few others that “Now I have the gift of tongues…I simply need to open it!”  But seriously, understanding is becoming more doable, and I believe that Heavenly Father is opening my eyes and my understanding, like a flower whose petals are warming to the light. 

Speaking of opening, I have been working at arriving closer to “on time.”  This is dicey sometimes with a locker in the baptistery, where sizable young women groups shower after their excursions.  

One day, I arrived with two minutes dressing time.  The room was empty!  But, the door to my locker was unarguably locked.  No one inside and no way in--except one!  I am learning the meaning of the word “arrastrarse.”  I found in Genesis 3:13 something about this:  “sobre tu vientre te arrastrarás”  (upon thy belly shalt thou go)”    

Well, I got to try it firsthand! And I was not (too) late. 

Another day, a volunteer was needed in the oficina, where all the family file cards and indexed names get “registered” into computers. When the bar code scanner accepts a completion of a baptism, confirmation, or other individual or family work, a twinkling sounds like a soft bell ringing.  I decided that it was similar to “It’s a Wonderful Life” where Clarence, one of the angels gets his wings. 

I shared this with Elder “Gallo” the assistant recorder, who in turn instructed me in the fine art of explaining that a “bostazadar” is contagioso (a yawn is contagious!)  Is it true?

Back to lockers…another day this week, I arrived with a large group just beginning their descent upon the lockers.   Again, I had just a couple of minutes.  Arbitrating the entrance time, I slipped in to my locker, secured needed clothing and rushed for the elevator.  Landing inside, I looked up to see President Amado step inside.  “Oh, no!”

 “What?!”  He replied. (He lived in San Francisco for years, and served his mission in Central Washington—a breath of English air, when a soul is in dire straits.)

“Well, I was thinking about changing in the elevator!” 

“Well, you had better be fast!”   (The elevator may take 20 seconds.)  So I found the Obrera dressing room and changed, elevated up the “ascensor” and made our meeting in time to have President Amado asked me how I was.  “Super Obrera!”  I enthused! 

On Wednesday during one of the sessions, there was slight alarm.  The officiator looked at me with a little urgency: “We need men.  Could you go get some?”  He said this with his eyes and a few hand motions.  Eager to help, I rushed out the door.  Realizing he had asked the Wrong Obrera, I headed to the women’s dressing room for Spanish help, anxiously indicating:  “Necesitamos HOMBROS ahorita!”  ("We need SHOULDERS now!") Promptly a woman ran to get a packet with clothing that would fit on someone’s shoulders. 

“No, no hombros! HOMBRES!”  I was directed to the men’s corridor and rounding up some true hombres, have presently been sufficiently schooled in the difference between hombros and hombres!

Friday was my first contact with the BYU language specialist.  It went well, and I made a goal to learn 5 new vocabulary words and 5 new verbs every day.   What I learned at the door of the second session that I helped with is that a door handle is called “abrir la puerta” (amazing!  “Open the Door”) Great word!   My helper also told me that one of the doors like my mom’s that has a hole to peer into is called “Mira la Puerta”!  If all the vocabulary words are this straight forward, I am going to do well. 

For Spanish learning friends, here are some Spanish helps my tutor offered. 

1       slowspanish.com (comprehension and pronunciation)

2        conjuguemos.com (a vocabulary/verb conjugation;

3       Quizlet.com (a flashcard website that helps with things like Spanish food, etc.)

4       Spanishdict.com

Father's Day

was full—why I am writing late—we learned about Eleanor’s 6^th birthday Pirate Party, Lanae’s big day 6/17, Kristen and Zach being invited to a weekly party at the neighborhood Spencer nursery—the whole family!  I think I need to teach them what I am learning about the difference between pescados (fish—you know—the fishy crackers) and sins (that get washed away with water and hard work!) 

Speaking of water, I have figured out now why Val and I are here just a little younger than a few.  We heard that President Monson was lowering the ages of missionaries, maybe got a little mixed up, but didn’t hear that it could not include younger couples, so decided to “catch the wave!”  

President Thredgold assured us that we would feel close from afar.  And Sunday, we gratefully got to talk with every one of our children.  All eight are great!!  Thank you for caring, for reading, for putting your HOMBROS to your personal “ruedas” (wheels.) 

 May your duty be filled with a heart filled with song!  Love to you, Hermana Laurene and Elder Val

Ascend in Pursuit to the Loftiest Skies

Ascend in Pursuit to the Loftiest Skies                                                                   9 June 2013

Last Sunday, in the middle of one of our Skype calls to five of eight children (and a fifth grader who turned 11 last month, just "chilling”!) our temple President, Roberto Ocampo called the “home” phone (a challenge “a veces”—at times—a discierna—to discern—which ring is ringing and “la manera”—the way to open up the ring!)  President Ocampo invited us to lunch, almuerza, for noon on Monday, which we accepted.  Monday is our preparation day, a delightful, usually jam-packed 15 hours, filled with grocery procurement, laundry, cleaning, and whatever else can be reasonably fit before Family night, where temple missionaries gather about 6 p.m.

Our “missionary family” consists of three NorteAmericano missionary couples, a couple who help manage the casa de huespas (guest house, 

where missionaries and presidency reside in apartments which I have shared pictures of, on the east half, while visiting families and participantes or patrons coming from near and far stay in on the west half.)  

On the main level, where Val and I and the Bassetts, our Lovell, Wyoming missionary friends and the Cruzes, or the hosts to this building stay there is a reception area, 

 lounge and an enclosed windowed spacious eating room with many tables, sinks, and stoves for families and wards to congregate.  

Upstairs among the bunk bed rooms, is located another lounge for participantes and a third comfortable gathering area for the missionaries.

In our outing with Ocampos, we became better acquainted with our president, Roberto and his wife, Argentina.  

President Ocampo stands several inches taller than Val—maybe 6 foot 5 or 6 inches.  Sister Ocampo, is possibly 5 foot 2.  They are from San Pedro Sula, a city some four hours north of here, where they met at a single adult activity, and both have both been members much of their lives.  President Ocampo directed the Seminaries and Institutes in Honduras, which is how he met his counselor Don Cazier (brother to Val’s sister Sherryl’s husband Bob Cazier) directing Church Education Systems for Central America.  Sister Ocampo taught early morning seminary for years, which, here begins at 5 a.m.  At least two of their four sons have studied engineering.  Two daughters live in the United States and one daughter lives a few blocks away—Gina is tall and beautiful, with young children.  She studied viola at BYU until developing tendonitis, and helps in the temple.  

After our visit with Ocampos, a temple engineer unlocked the Monday temple (open Tuesday-Saturday) to let me practice.  The organ stands grand and glorious.  Presently, buttons allow programmed hymns to sound, but sitting atop a coveted bench, working manuals with pedals, music plays only from the top keys.  The pedals afford no sound whatsoever.  This can be a good thing to cover any feet-driven mistakes, however it is the pedal music that offers a rich foundation for the rest. 

My memory reaches for July 4, 2012, a Bear Lake Valley moment, to grasp a patriotic passage of “O Beautiful, for Spacious Skies.”  I woke up today thinking of the music that caused me to vow an everyday journal experience.  Maria and I had practiced months preparing a piano/organ rendition that we performed for our ward, and auditioned with a Paris, Idaho, neighbor to use in the Valley-wide program presented each year.  The music had been found, polished, and our kind neighbor listened, wondering how she would use us. The choir was set to sing that very number (repetition.)  

But, yes, a participant had prepared a four minute slide show that would need accompaniment.  The piano/organ duet would fit well, if condensed to four minutes.  Could we do it?  Of course, yes.  For years, Gee Grandparents had helped with tours in the Paris tabernacle, when I was in college, and later.  My father and mother had spent a good chunk of Dad’s retirement building out the porch of our Paris pioneer Stucki home to create a “great room” for family near and far  to gather.  

Daddy’s health was making walking difficult and no one knew how much more time we would have left.  The morning of the program arrived, and there was Dad, holding a seat under the balcony of this auditorium constructed by ship-builders, like the Salt Lake Tabernacle, to magnify acoustics, with each pine bench painstakingly painted to resemble oak:  

  “Oh, beautiful for spacious skies--for amber waves of grain!”  Pedals blended with manual pipes belting a celebratory hallelujah.  Dad glowed.  His family letter echoed strains from authors and columnists, Richard and Linda Eyre, who attended the commemorative event. 

Some efforts to practice, work, love and sing make their mark.  I believe it happened here.  And the message even carried its way into the heart of the organist, months later helping to lead a gathering surrounded with murals in a Tegucigalpa temple, peopled primarily with patrons praying in Espanol.  

The same person who struggled to master perplexing pedal pipes, pondered to understand what to petition, to understand and welcome these eager, interested faces packed into overfilled padded chairs.  Ideas came, as they do, on some temple days—prayers for brothers and sisters to be blessed with contented growing children, reaching their potential…to have harmony in the home… to find answers to their need.  And the good has been crowned with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea!  

Val worked at the front desk yesterday and met a woman from a few hours north, who traveled with her ward on a temple excursion.  She had not participated enough in her ward to qualify for a recommend; however, something told her that she should come anyway.  She wanted to touch the temple walls.  She wanted to feel the peace of this beautiful building and seek for answers to some of her problems.  Having lived in the United States for a few years, she spoke with Val in English.  After maybe thirty minutes of talking with him, she told him that he was an angel, that she felt the love of the Savior through his kind words. 

The above 3 & below, are "Mormon Channel" facebook pix taken prior to dedication, this is just past front desk.

Val shared another experience from Friday at the front desk.  An active child, maybe four years old, was bored, playing in the waiting area.  After finding some paper and entertaining the little girl with a tiny paper airplane, Val watched our temple matron enter, sit beside this little one, take her tiny hands in hers and speak to her, as she likely explained the temple, what it is about, how it helps us love our family, and why we might feel good inside when we go there.  Val was touched as he watched this woman with the responsibility of welcoming and escorting individually the numberless patrons arriving for the first time, taking moments to minister one by one in such a calming way to this unsettled child.

Last week, a friend asked, “What do you do in the temple, anyway?”  I have ventured to try every job I can.  Why not eye the youth to help them find small, medium, large and extra large "ovorales" (white jumpsuit used for baptisms) and the extra periphery of socks and underclothing? 

The lavenderia or laundry area, filled with sempiterno (eternal) montanas (mountains) of clothing in various stages of wet (mojado--dripping, humido--damp,) dry (secado) and soiled(sucio) to clean (limpia) offers a marvillosa (wonderful) place to try out new words.  

Hermanas love to have their names memorized, and they laugh when someone twirls in curtsey, my name is (me llama,) “Estar Aqui!”  (To Be Here—Here I am!) When one of the sisters smashed a bug, she was a surprised to hear someone question if she needed to arrepentirse (change her ways) for matar (murder) in the laundry!  The most recent humor happened when one of the brethren showed up, then disappeared during one of the assignments.  I am not sure if traducer (translated) means the same in Spanish, but it was timely to suggest that he might have been taken up into heaven.  Everyone liked that (well, maybe not his wife!)  I still await time helping in the guardaria (nursery—I am learning to coo in Espanol.)

But my biggest challenge occurs in large reunions (meetings) 

where words come in the artillery firestorm of unintelligible prattle.  It has been difficult to decipher needful messages, but gradually, some of the words are starting to take shape.  On the way to an assignment, fighting tears, I spoke to my director, stopped on the stairs.  She got to hear of a favorite book of our nieto (grandson) William: La pequena locomotora que si pudo (The Little Engine That Could):  “Pienso que pude, pienso que pude, pienso que pude!”  If only I can be that little engine! 

On one such day last week, (the day I would have found worms in the back yard, if there were any, to eat) our director pulled me aside to put her arms around me and tell me, “Te Quiero, Mucho!” (I really love you.)  Her husband, tall, and quiet, watches his wife wrap her kindness around the sisters, one by one by one, the jewels that she can find, closer to the ground. 

Go search in the depths where it glittering lies,
Or ascend in pursuit to the loftiest skies:

‘Tis an aim for the noblest desire. 

(Oh, Say, What is Truth, Hymns of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, no. 272)

En abismos buscadla, en todo rincón, o subid a los cielos buscando ese don: es la mira más noble que hay.  (Himnos de La Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los ultimas Dias, p. 177)

From the grade school jump rope chant: “High, Low, Medium, Wavy; Walky, Talky, Slowly, Pepper!”  Val and I are trying to work the “walky, talky, slowly” part before the pepper comes full speed.  Thinking of you, wishing for your skies to be spacious, and crowned with comradery, with courage--"I think I can, I think I can."

Love to you, Laurene &; Val