Has it been three years already? Really?  That's what happens to life - It keeps on going on even when we are distracted and don't notice.

Cleaning the Church

I signed Oscar and I to go help clean the church today. Since I work for the Church Facilities Management, I know exactly what is expected from the members.  We worked hard, thank goodness Reggie helped! But I am always so grateful for this very mundane experiences that can become great spiritual lessons! The Church buildings are so special places.  Our Coral Springs building is so special for us:  Oscar was the first Bishop there, he received the building brand new, Tito became an expert with sound and satellite systems. In these buildings our children are bless right after birth, baptize at the age of eight, attend youth activities every week beginning at age 12, attend seminary every school day of their high school years, go to their first dances, have their wedding reception, and most important: we take the sacrament and remember the Savior every Sunday!! I think we can find time to help keep it clean and always help make it look as it should look!

Temple Marriage

Manuel, Oscar and I were staying in a hotel. It was so good to have a few moments with just one of our children! This occasion was particularly great, since it was right before his wedding.
Tito gave us some good advise on things we need to do to make Manny's wedding day more relaxing. Poor Tito, being our oldest, he has endure probably the most mistakes from us! But we are grateful for his sound advise.

We arrived at the temple early and very relax (at least Oscar and I were relaxed!) Tiffany and her parents arrived a little later, then her grandparents. Two of Manny's mission companions came - Elder Bowcut and Elder - of course they're not missionaries anymore, but I love them so much! They were such good companions! David Rusk also came, he has been Manny's best friend since they were three years old.

Oscar and Tiffany's Dad were the witnesses, so they all went inside right away and I stayed in the waiting room until all our family arrived. The Browns, the Ralphs and the Hansen also came.

One side of the room was filled with Tiffany's family, the other side had our little family. I wish we had more of the extended family there with us, but I sure was very grateful and it felt so wonderful to have four of our five children there in the temple with us. Of course we would have loved to have Danny there also, but we are so happy he is serving a mission now!

The sealer was wonderful and he gave great counsel to Tiffany and Manny. Everybody in the room was uplifted by his words. I can't express how very happy I was to witness this special day and, like I said, to have most of our children and their spouses there with us!

28th. Wedding Anniversary

Time goes fast when we're having fun! We have been married 28 year now. We have been so blessed. We have five wonderful children, two great daughters in law, two sons in law, five grandchildren and two more on the way as of today!! Our family started July 15th. 1983 in the Provo Temple. Almost a year later we were so happy to welcome our first child - Juan Jose (Tito). After another year, we were expecting our second child and we moved to Canada for five years, right after Oscar finished his MBA. We welcomed our second, third and fourth children in Canada and then we relocated to Florida, thinking we would be here for just a couple of years, to save enough money to go back to Canada and buy a house there. Well, twenty two years later we are still in Florida, and loving it!

Our anniversary celebration was great: We drove to Orlando, went to Disney, stay in a hotel there, went to the Temple the following day, lunch at Cheesecake Factory, and drove back home. My love for my husband has mature and grow and I know it will continue growing. He is such a good man, a great father and my best friend! I am a very lucky woman!!

Family Dinner

June 17, 2011

We are in Utah for Manny and Tiffany's wedding. Tonight we hosted the family dinner. It was such a nice experience to get to know Tiffany's extended family and so good to see friends that are as close as blood relatives to us: Kirk and Michelle Brown, David Rusk, Diego and Luis Ortiz....

I am so thankful for the instant friends and helpers we made. There were members of Tiffany's family who I felt as if I knew already. The visiting teachers of Tiffany's mom volunteer to help us in the kitchen, they were amazing! I am so grateful for all their help and the sweet spirit around them.

Manuel sang a song to Tiffany! It was beautiful!

We had posters of Danny and Ben (Tiffany's brother) who are serving full time mission for the church in California and Argentina. It was fun to see how popular these posters were! Tiffany's mom had the great idea to make the posters and they were a hit!

EFY Miami

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We had a session of EFY here in South Florida last week. We called it EFY Miami, but it was for youth who live from West Palm Beach, all the way south to Key West, and that is four Stakes of the Church! EFY stands for "Especially for Youth" and is a program for young men and young women 14-18 years old. The youth are assigned into a small group, usually ten girls or ten boys, they have a counselor who stays with them the whole time, and they have a full week of games, classes, dances, and other fun activities. But mainly, it is a program designed to strengthen them spiritually. I learned about it when my oldest son was 15 years old and we inmediately recognized the value of it. Needless to say, all our children attended EFY as many times as they were allowed to participate. The positive impact it had on every one of my children was very obvious and I highly recomend it to all parents and parents to be.

Our "Miami Session" started with very small number of youth registered from our stake - only 21! Our goal was to have 100 youth participate, so we got to work and we ended up with 95 participants!! We fed them breakfast every morning, then sent them on a bus to the building where they met with the other three stakes and the EFY counselors. Every night they came back to us and we sent them in small groups to wonderful families who hosted them for the night. There were more than 300 youth all together from the four stakes! I visited a few times the building where they were meeting and it was impresive to see all those young men and young women having such a great time.

Once again, and now as a stake youth leader, I witnessed the powerful positive impact EFY had on the youth. Thanks EFY!!

Wedding Celebrations

I am looking forward to getting together with friends and dear ones to celebrate Manny's wedding. We have been busy for weeks trying to make it an enjoyable time for everybody.

Tiffany's parents are having a reception at their home, and we'll have another here in our church building. I love to see our family and friends. We have lived far away from our families all the time, and so many of our friends have become like family to us. It is always so good to get together for happy reasons!