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!

Protected!

Oscar was in Brazil last week. Wednesday night he called me to tell me he had been in a car crash! I did not have good telephone reception, so I rushed out of the store to try to talk to him, but I was not able to communicate with him until next morning!! I did not have a good night, thinking he must have been hurt and in the hospital....Finally we were able to talk around ten a.m.! Since he was with three other business associates on this trip, every time they took a taxi he rode in the front. But when they went for dinner, two of the guys decided not to go, so he sat in the back - luckily! As they cross an intersection, the driver of another car did not stop as she should have and hit the taxi on the passenger side. The driver was hurt, the other guy sustained a minor injury to his leg. But Oscar did not receive even a scratch! How grateful I am for a protecting hand! I then realized how blessed we have been: 23+ years of international travel, and this is the very first (and I pray the last) incident/accident Oscar has been involved.

Tiffany's Temple Day

Today Tiffany Winkel will go to the Temple to receive her endowments. I am so happy to know that our son Manuel will be bless to marry her next week. The theme for the young women in the church says: "...we believe as we come to accept and act upon these values (faith, divine nature, individual worth, knowledge, choice and accountability, good works, integrity and virtue) we will be prepared to strengthen home and family, make and keep sacred covenants, receive the ordinances of the temple, and enjoy the blessings of exaltation." Your Temple Day has arrived Tiffany! We are so glad and thankful you were prepared!

Jorge Fuentes

I am heartbroken with the premature death of our friend Jorge Fuentes! He was only 18 years old! We need to be kinder to each other. We need to show our love everyday to our dear ones. We just never know when they or us, will be call to go back "home". Jorge was a very good friend to our dear Jenny Lagiglia. Jenny was of course devastated, and it was very interesting to see how much all the youth from the stake liked him!

Jorge was very close to his parents. Brother and Sister Fuentes were blessed with strenght and peace, and they were actually comforting the rest of us. Brother Fuentes gave a magnificent talk during the funeral. The gospel of Jesus Christ gives so much hope and perspective to death. As my son Danny wrote to me when I told him about the death of Jorge: "We live to die, and we die to become inmortal....he is now Elder Fuentes on the other side of the veil".

I love this picture! It is obvious Jorge loved his mother! One of Jorge's sister had a baby the day of the funeral service! They named him Jorge. I wonder if they met before Jorge went on to eternity, and little Jorge came to earth.....
Good bye our friend! Till we meet again!

A Happy Month of May

Nick, Titi, Reggie and Leah came to stay with us for a month! How fast that month went by! Little Reggie cried every time Oscar or I needed to leave the house. He was always asking us "up please!" ('pick me up please'), telling us "bless you" when we sneezed, or "thank you abita", when I gave him Popsicles for breakfast (the popsicles were 100% fruit juice!Good breakfast choice). He calls me Abita, short for Abuelita, and Oscar made sure to teach them to call him Oscar!

Reggie loves us during the day, but when is time to retire for the evening, he sends us away from his bed and calls his mom!

Then Leah, oh Leah! She is a doll! She took her very first steps here at home with us, and she was only eight months old! She is always very aware of what is going on around her. She was of course so very happy when we included her in whatever we did with Reggie!


What a wonderful thing it is to have our children become parents and bless us with grandchildren!