Lea Salonga

Have you ever heard of Lea Salonga? She is a Philippine entertainer who has the most amazing beautiful voice! She was the guest singer along with the BYU Chamber Orchestra yesterday. Wow!  What a treat that was to be invited as a VIP guest to this one of a kind concerts!

We got the best seats next to her mother who is her agent and her brother. They seemed so nice and just delightful people. I hope to be able to invite them to our home to get to know them a little better. Lea is so cute and such a fantastic singer. The concert hall that seats 1,800 people was sold out! After the show we got to mingle with all the performers. It was a night to remember!

Con amor,
Vero

My most precious possession

Yesterday, I renewed my most precious possession. My temple recommend and got to go inside the Manila

temple for a session. 

While I was there I felt the need to count my many blessings...

One of my favorite hymns is Count Your Blessings.

“When up on life’s billows you are tempest tossed,

When you are discouraged thinking all is lost,

Count your many blessings

Name them one by one,

And it will surprise you what the Lord has done…

This past weekend I was able to listen to numerous talks that were given by extraordinary men and women on a myriad of different subjects. I teach in Relief Society every fourth Sunday of the month so I am always listening to talks.  One of my favorites was a talk about taking inventory of the blessings that have come into our lives:

“As I have reviewed the past many years, I have made some discoveries. One is that countless experiences I have had were not necessarily those one would consider extraordinary. In fact, at the time they transpired, they often seemed unremarkable and even ordinary. And yet, in retrospect, they enriched and blessed lives—not the least of which was my own. I would recommend this same exercise to you—namely, that you take an inventory of your life and look specifically for the blessings, large and small, you have received.”   -Thomas S. Monson

What a great idea!  Taking an inventory of the blessings we have received in our life to date.  I was given a notebook at the beginning of the year to find a quiet place to sit and start writing down all of the blessings that I can think of that have ever come into my life where I saw the hand of the Lord.   I have been writing in it each day.

  My goal is to literally flood the pages with the lists of blessings I can recall.  I want to capture all of them, even the smallest blessing of finding something I have lost after saying a prayer, to meeting certain people, to having certain opportunities, to the miracles that I have had come into my life.  I am really excited to do this exercise this year and I am going to report back to you on how it goes.    My mind has already begun racing with memories even just in my planning to write it down this week.  It is amazing the things I have begun to notice were blessings when I first decided to start thinking about it. 

 I would challenge all of you reading this to make the same notebook this week.  And when you finish it, maybe take some of the most meaningful items from the lists and make little notecards that you can write one on each card to hang them on your cubicle at work or tape them to your mirror at home, or put them somewhere that you when viewed they can give you a pick me up to help you stay grateful and focused on all of life’s blessings.

Life truly is a blessing.  I stand in awe at the many blessings I have been given over the years:  my family, my friends, my life lessons…so much to be grateful for and so many more blessings still to come.

“A good life is when you smile often, dream big, laugh a lot and realize how blessed you are for what you have.”   -unknown

 Smile today, dream big, laugh a lot, and realize you are so blessed!  It is always a great day when I get to go to the temple! 

Con amor,

Vero

Happy birthday to Mamilda!

Today is Monday May 29^th a day when people in the U.S. are celebrating Memorial Day. This is one special day to remember those who have gone before us. This for me and the Henriquez family is also a special day because on a day like today Mami Hilda, my grandmother, was born so I don’t want this day to come and go without paying tribute to her. Happy Birthday Mami Hilda!

Mami HIlda would be 93 years old today if she hadn’t gotten cancer.  Elder Russell Nelson was also born in 1924 and he even likes to ski to this day. He has so much energy and his sharp brilliant mind is incredible. I can picture Mami Hilda cooking her favorite dishes for the family on Sundays and taking care of her business during the rest of the week. She used to be super busy, just like President Nelson. 

From Story Worth question I get asked each week there was one about What were your grandparents like? So today I want to share what I wrote: 

The only grandparents I remembered were Hilda and Carlos Henriquez. We called them Mami Hilda and Papi Carlos. I never knew my grandparents from my dad's side of the family. My dad's dad, Francisco Flores, died when he was still young and my grandmother Aminta (and believe it or not, that is my first name) was very distant from us. She was very Catholic and that is all I knew of her. I only saw her two times in my whole life. One when I was about 10 and another time when I was about to graduate from High School. She was in a wheel chair and seemed so old and fragile. 

My mom's mom is another story. Mama Hilda is featured in the Daughters in Thy Kingdom Relief Society Book published by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The story in the book explains how my grandmother Hilda was asked to be the Relief Society President by her branch President when she was a new member and a young mother of seven children. She felt inexperienced, unprepared and inadequate to do the job but nevertheless, she accepted the call. While she served caring for other women in the Church, she developed leadership skills and developed new gifts such as teaching, public speaking, and organizing meetings, activities and service projects. She influenced the women in the branch and taught them how to serve one another. The sisters loved and respected her. She helped other women to discover, use, and develop gifts and talents; she helped them become builders of the kingdom and my grandmother stayed faithful to the temple covenants she made.

 I went to see her when she had cancer before she passed away. I could tell by the look on her face how painful the illness was and how much she wanted to go. My grandmother is one who endured to the end. All her life she had been a leader. She owned a small business that provided her with enough income to travel to the USA countless of times South America and to Europe. Her favorite was Spain. She loved having family over for dinner on Sundays after Church. Her favorite food to eat was “carne asada” and her favorite drink was Coke. She owned a beauty salon and a gift shop. People around the neighborhood came over to her store to purchase anything from hand lotions and perfumes to dresses and toys. She had a mini Target. Many of her goods were imported from the U.S. and were of good quality.

After my grandmother's passing, a friend who served along with her in the Relief Society wrote my aunt Silvia a letter saying: "Your mother was the person who taught me the way to become what I am now. From her, I learned charity, kindness, honesty, and responsibility in our callings. She was my mentor and my example. I am 80 years old, but have stayed faithful to the Savior and His gospel. I have served a mission, and the Lord has blessed me greatly."

One thing that I loved about my grandmother is that she was self-reliant. She took care of herself and her teenage children later in life when she was forced to do so. I don't remember papi Carlos, being next to my grandmother at all. They had separated even before I was born and he was too involved caring for a new young family. I do not remember seeing my grandfather all that much. He would come to some family gatherings but I never knew where he lived or what he did for a living. He was a mystery to me. What I do remember about their relationship is that it was never hostile. Somehow my grandmother accepted him the way he was and forgave him. She was kind to him. He was always welcome in her home. It never felt tense when he came to visit probably because he never showed up with his new wife and kids to anything that dealt with our family. I think that was the reason why it wasn't awkward.

Papi Carlos, bless his heart, died from a brain tumor with no assets to his name. He was always poor economically speaking. Never traveled anywhere or did anything fun the way my grandmother and her children did. When he died, I remember crying about how different his life had been compare to the rest of the family and I realized how much he missed out and how much we also missed out not having him closer. Papi Carlos and Mami Hilda are in heaven now and I hope by now they are figuring things out that they couldn't while they were on earth. 

Con amor,

Vero

Teaching about Fear and the Holy Ghost

In Relief Society we discussed two talks: "Prefect Love Casteth Out Fear" by President Uchdorf and "Let the Holy Sprit Guide" by Elder Rasband.

I pointed out some remarks that I felt were important to mention as I read both talks. In the talk Let the Holy Spirit Guide I like the fact that Elder Rasband explain the importance of knowing the way the Spirt communicates with us.

He said: Our Father in Heaven knew that in mortality we would face challenges, tribulations, and turmoil; He knew we would wrestle with questions, disappointments, temptations, and weaknesses. To give us mortal strength and divine guidance, He provided the Holy Spirit, another name for the Holy Ghost. We have the sacred responsibility to learn to recognize His influence in our lives and respond.

Each week as we partake of the holy sacrament, we make a covenant to always remember Him. How do we do that?

*First: We strive to live worthy of the Spirit.

We obey God’s laws

We study the Scriptures

We pray

Attend the temple

Live true to the 13^th article of faith “being honest, true, chase,  benevolent, virtuous, and doing good to all men.

*Second: We must be willing to receive the Spirit.

The Lord has promised, “I will tell you in your mind and in your heart, by the Holy Ghost, which shall come upon you and which shall dwell in your heart. “

*Third: We must recognize the Spirit when it comes.

You feel it in words that are familiar to you, that make sense to you, that prompt you… The voice of the Spirit is still and small. Do you know that voice?

*Fourth: We must act on the first prompting.

Ending remarks with his testimony.

 If we pay attention to the prompting that come to us, we will grow in the Spirit of revelation and receive more and more Spirit-driven insight and direction. The Lord has said, “Put your trust in that Spirit which leadeth to do good.”

May we take seriously the Lord’s call to “be of good cheer, for I will lead you along. “He leads us by the Holy Ghost. May we live close to the Spirit, acting quickly upon our first promptings, Knowing they come from God. I bear witness of the power of the Holy Ghost to guide us, guard us, and ever be with us, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Elder Uchdorf talk went into the idea that we need to let our fears aside and enjoy the Lord's love.

"The Great Awakening"

During Joseph Smith’s time. One of the primary objectives was to awaken the people who appeared to be asleep regarding spiritual matters. These preachers had a dramatic emotional preaching style…Their speeches didn’t put people to sleep but they may have cause a few nightmares…their purpose seemed to frighten people into Church.

Fear as manipulation: Fear has often been used to get people to take action. Parents with children, employers with employees,  politicians, with voters, and it’s even used in marketing, etc. In his talk he wants us to contemplate and consider the extent to which we use fear as means of motivation and to suggest a better way. He continues explaining the problem with motivating through fear?

It is true that fear can have a powerful influence over our actions and behavior, however that influence tends to be temporary and shallow. Fear rarely has the power to change hearts… people who are fearful may say and do the right things but they do not feel the right things…they often feel helpless and resentful, even angry. Over time these feelings lead to mistrust, defiance, even rebellion.

A Better Way

The more I come to know my Heavenly Father the more I see how he inspires us and leads us. His work and His glory is to mentor us, exalt us, and lead us to His fullness. God is merciful, gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth. Our Father is Heaven love for us, His children surpasses by far our ability to comprehend. Does this means that he overlooks behaviors that run contrary to His commands? No, definitely not! But he wants to change more than our behaviors. He wants to change our very natures. He wants to change our heart.

What does He want?

He wants us to reach out and take firm hold of the iron rod, confront our fears, and bravely step forward and upward along the strait and narrow path. He wants this for us because He loves us and because this is the way to happiness.

So how does God motivate His children to follow Him in our day? 

He sent His son!

God sent His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ to show us the right way. God motivates through persuasion, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, and love… God is on our side. He loves us, and when we stumble, He wants us to rise up, try again, and become stronger.

He is our mentor.

He is our great and cherished hope.

He desires to stimulate us with faith.

He trusts us to learn from our mistakes and make correct choices.

This is the better way!

What about the evils of the world?

The corruption and wickedness in our day are alarming but in spite of all this, I wouldn’t trade living in this time with any other time in history of the world.

We are blessed beyond measure to live in a day of unparalleled prosperity, enlightenment and advantage. Most of all, we are blessed to have the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which gives us a unique perspective on the world’s dangers and shows us how to either avoid these dangers or deal with them… the Lord often reminds us to “Be not afraid to be of good cheer, and to fear not little flock.”

Brothers and sisters, we are the Lord’s little flock. We are the Saints of the latter days. Inherent in our name is the commitment to look forward to the Saviors return and prepare ourselves and the world to receive Him… As His covenant people, we need not be paralyzed by fear because bad things might happen. Instead we can move forward with faith, courage, determination, and trust in God as we approach the challenges and opportunities… God Himself has said, “In the World ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”… Therefore, let us set aside our fears and live instead with joy, humility, hope, and a bold confidence that the Lord is with us…

Brothers and sisters, we are the Lord’s little flock. We are the Saints of the latter days. Inherent in our name is the commitment to look forward to the Saviors return and prepare ourselves and the world to receive Him… As His covenant people, we need not be paralyzed by fear because bad things might happen. Instead we can move forward with faith, courage, determination, and trust in God as we approach the challenges and opportunities… God Himself has said, “In the World ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”… Therefore, let us set aside our fears and live instead with joy, humility, hope, and a bold confidence that the Lord is with us…

Con amor, 

Vero