I Miss Utah

Thoughts on 127 days of quarantine. 

Today is an official state holiday in Utah, even though we don’t get the day off in Buenos Aires, I always like to celebrate it by watching a video or reading stories about pioneers. It all started when the Pioneers first arrived on July 24th,1847 to settle Utah! The day is to celebrate the settling of the state of Utah and it is celebrated each year with parades and fireworks and rodeos and many other fun activities. 

I miss the deeply rooted general culture of kindness, generosity, and community, a byproduct of its inherently unique pioneer spirit unique to Utah. I've lived in four different places around the world for over 10 years and had never experienced isolation, so at times I am at a loss. Being home all day makes it especially difficult as many find this kind of community through their work environment or Church.

Sure, I love living in Buenos Aires and I know that Utah isn't perfect, in addition, I'm so deeply grateful to be supporting my husband and yes, I know that generalizations are less than entirely accurate. It's just that I sometimes wish that more people and places could experience the kind of love that people in Utah, and many other small-town regions, have for each other. 

The pioneers that came to Utah faced tremendous hardships to get to the state. They traveled with handcarts across the plains and many of them lost children, spouses, siblings as they made their way to Utah. They faced attacks by mobs and they faced snow storms and starvation. The stories from the journals of the pioneers are stories of tremendous faith and perseverance. If you want to see an awesome movie about the pioneers I would highly recommend the movie Legacy or “17 Miracles” they both are amazing movies and watching them will touch your hearts tremendously or you may want to follow “History of the Saints” by Glenn J. Rawson. 

Sometimes I wonder, who on earth dares to demean and mock what pioneers went through to arrive at their destination to build a little bit of heaven on earth. Who would do that? What is wrong with people! But it happens more and more. Pioneers, created a community where there were  no poor among them, of being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, lovely, of good report, praiseworthy and doing good to all men. New comers don’t appreciate what those pioneers did to create a place dedicated to loving each other. With the years, a new kind of community is emerging, changing its core values of integrity. Utah is known for the close- knit fabric of its community and the eagerness of its residents to support each other the same way pioneers took care for each other, one by one. 

As we get settled into our new neighborhood I yearn to go knock on my neighbors' doors and offer them homemade cookies and my phone number so that we can get to know and support each other, and then the very next moment I cringe at the idea of doing that since they don’t seem too friendly and I can picture their faces as they think "what on earth is this lady doing knocking at my door and what is her motive, anyway?" That would not happen in Utah or at least not when I lived there. The selfless acts of service of its members it’s like nowhere in the world. 

The conscious genuine focus on building up each other's strengths rather than trying to find their weaknesses is what I love about Utah and their rich heritage. Congratulations on your well -deserved Pioneer Day! 

Con amor,

Vero