Flashback to 1994

Today as I was looking for a picture of my sister Vanessa when  she was a little girl, I came across some old pictures of a trip our family took twenty years ago in 1994. This is my journal entry for a scrapbook I am doing.


A memorable trip took place in the summer of 1994. My parents took me and Cristi when she was only 12 to our first trip to Europe. My mother wanted to go on a cruise to the Greek islands and Istambul, Turkey and for me it was also my first time at an Arab nation of Turkey.

The trip didn’t start off on a good note: The plane was late arriving from San Salvador to Guatemala City and missed the connecting flight to Los Angeles where my parents and family had to take the next flight to Madrid.  I was coming from Salt Lake to Los Angeles to join them on our way to Spain but when I got there, I learned that they had missed their flight L the connection was too close and as their plane was landing in Guatemala City, their connecting plane was taking off. This is before cell phones and internet but somehow I got word that they were not going to be joining us in Spain.

 It was also before 911 so they got them into some type of a tunnel and had them take the next flight to Amsterdam.  Our next stopped.  In Madrid Cristi were welcomed by some guy who had a melt down and kick the phone from the wall. This guy was at the counter greeting people if you can imagine that! We checked in and made a plan to make the best of it so we were encouraged to see a bull fight since it was going on that weekend and we were closed to the arena. I had no idea what this experience would be like so I thought they would kill one bull and that would be it but no, they went on and on and on kioling six bulls. One of those experiences you do when you are there but once in a lifetime is enough. I didn’t enjoy it one bit. I felt it was so barbaric and dumb. Next day we just went shopping. 

Somehow we made it ok to Amsterdam the next day and there we waited at the airport for them to show up. This was a little tricky not speaking Dutch. It took a lot longer for them to come out because my mother’s luggage didn’t arrive.  So we get into a taxi cub to take us to the Hotel and my father gives him a bill and this guy does not give him his change back and keeps a tip of $100 because he figures we don’t know any better because we are some dumb tourists.  Rats!! In Amsterdam we got to see the Van Gogh museum and Anne Frank’s house and tour the city in a sort of a boat ride. It was weird to see the notorious red light district. The Hotel was closed to many gift shops so we went shopping some more, especially for my poor mom who had no clothes.  

The next stop was Athens a third world country type of a city but someone they manage to get tourist in to see their ruins and those were truly amazing. We went to see all the ruins and somehow my six grade Social Study class of Greece made perfect sense. In There we were a little lost because of the language barrier. My parents and Manuel Jr. spoke Spanish to everyone they met and my sisters, Cristi and I spoke English but it was so hard to communicate to get around. We stopped at a place to get pizza and ice-cream and somehow we don’t know how but we were charged over $80.00 for one pizza and much more for ice-cream. Again dumb tourists people take advantage of. I can honestly say, to this point I was not too impressed with Greek hospitality.

In Athens we took our cruise to the Greek Islands and Istanbul. This is was the reason for this trip anyway so we were ready to start our journey. I loved Santorini, Crete and Rhodes the best!

A visit to a seven wonder of the world!

The purpose of this trip also was to see one of the seven wonders. The Colossus of Rhodes!!    
This was a statue of the Greek titan-god of the sun Helios, erected in the city of Rhodes, on the Greek island of the same name, by Chares of Lindos in 280 BC. It is considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The Colossus of Rhodes in ancient Greece was said to be the only statue larger than the mighty Zeus at Olympia. But this statue didn't last as long as Zeus -- at least not vertically.

In the third century, the Greek island of Rhodes was confronted by angry Macedonians. They wanted the Rhodians' help waging war against Ptolemy I in ancient Egypt. But the Rhodians didn't want to get involved in the conflict. They resisted the Macedonians, and the warriors eventually relented. The Macedonians left behind all of their supplies and equipment.

The Rhodians were so thankful for their safety that they decided to honor their patron god -- Helios, the sun god -- with a statue. They sold the Macedonians' cast-off goods to earn money for it. Around 294 B.C, the sculptor Chares of Lindos began work on the colossus. Using bronze, iron and stones for building materials, it took him 12 years to complete the statue. It measured nearly 110 feet (33 meters) high when finished -- that's about the height of a 15-story building [source: Hillman].

An artist's rendering of the Colossus of Rhodes shows the statue straddling the island's harbor, circa 250 B.C. No one knows for sure what the colossus looked like or where it was located on the island. Judging from written accounts, scholars have proposed that it was a standing figure holding a torch in one hand. And some accounts testify that its face was modeled after Alexander the Great's [source: Smithsonian]. Legends say that he stood over the harbor, one leg on either side forming a majestic tunnel.

While there are plenty of accounts and illustrations that support this theory (some suspiciously from the Middle Ages, centuries after the statue had been destroyed), it's unlikely that the colossus would have stood over the harbor, no one really knows. The colossus stood strong for 53 years until an earthquake struck Rhodes in 225 B.C.

An odd place to find John the Baptist remains.

Istambul was our next stop. The highlight of this city was going inside several mosques where men were praying and the visit inside the Topkapi Palace Museum where the arm of John the Baptist remains is showcased. The arm of St. John the Baptist and its case belonged to the Byzantines prior to the conquest. In 1484, Bayezid II (1481/1512) send it as a gift to the Knights of Rhodes. It was later discovered in Lefkose Castle in Cyprus and brought back to Istanbul in 1585. Another thing I would never forget on this trip to turkey is the concept of hard sale. People coming from nowhere selling you stuff. I went inside a rug shop and low and behold, bought a couple of very expensive rugs and by some miracle they actually got to my home on Diana Way in Utah. These 20 year old rugs are on my City Creek  apartment.  There I discovered I needed to plug my nose. The odor was grotesque. Like no other, not one person there was wearing deodorant and was so hot outside.  Yuck!

Well we all enjoyed the wonderful food of the cruise ship and the company. It was an eventful trip. One of the things we were aware was the soccer world cup going on at this time too. It was hosted by the US in nine cities and the last game was Italy against Brazil who won the world cup that year. As if nothing else could go wrong when we get to the airport, Mari’s camera bag is missing and all the wonderful pictures she took were lost. All we got are some spare pictures here and there but she had the bulk of them. The interesting thing is that even when so many things went wrong on this trip, we only remember the good times and all the fun we had. There are wonderful memories of a more innocent time for all of us. No hassles at the airport. People even got to meet you at the gate as you came off the plane. You could buy a two way ticket and sell the return if you didn’t use it. No one checked your name on passports to match your ticket. How it all changed!

 

My little sister is now 40

" Estas son las mañanitas que cantaba el Rey David, a las muchachas bonitas se la cantamos asi. Despierta mi bien despierta mirad que ya amaneció ya los pajaritos cantan la luna ya se metió."


Today is Vanessa's 40th birthday. I remember when I was 14 when all of the sudden my grandma Hilda came to tell us. It's a girl. She is a doll!! She was born with highlight on her hair and she has always kept them. So today in celebration turning 40 I want to share the four steps to start your day off right by Robert Puff Ph.D


1. Get rid of the alarm: The first word alarm clock says it all. Alarm means to feel frightened, in fear or danger; terms not exactly evocative of peace of mind. In order to wake up in a gentle relaxed way, I suggest that  you replace your blaring alarm with beautiful, gentle spa-like music.


2. Drink water: Sleep has depleted your body of water. So in order to replenish your system drink water. Avoid other liquids like juice. It's pure and simple water that your body is craving.


3. Read something Inspirational: Even if it's just a few sentences of a couple of paragraphs, reading something uplifting and peaceful will send your mind in the right direction. You'll be focused positive, calming thoughts. If you ever wake up agitated from dreams that filled your sleep, a pleasant passage from the scriptures will reset your emotions. For that I got a nice copy to give you when I see you again.


4. Do a little yoga: A little yoga and stretching will prepare your body for a fabulous day.


Now I will add one more.


5. Pray: Now, find a peaceful place to sit or kneel folding your arms. Talk to your Heavenly Father as you would talk to any person and give thanks for a new day and all of your many blessings and ask for something if you want. This will prevent for your day to begin with worries and fears. In order to fill your sleep with relaxation, I also recommend that you pray before you go to sleep. Your morning and evening routine comes full circle. Starting with a peaceful calm, and relaxing morning will make a world of difference in terms of how you experience the rest of your day. When stress moment arise, remind yourself of the calm and well being that you experienced by praying.


Feliz Cumpleaños!

Pardon my French

Today was temple day with my husband. I reminded him that the last session is now at 4:00 pm rather than 7:15 pm and that we better go right away when I saw it was 2:30 pm if we wanted to make it to the 3:00 O'clock session or to go walk around the park for a bit, shower and go to the 4:00 pm session but we decided just to get ready and go earlier. The session was in French and it felt wonderful to listen to it on a different language. I felt something very special. It was so nice to listen to it in French since I had to listen to it so carefully to understand.
 I always feel good when we remember to do this on Saturdays. It is the only day we can go considering that Daniel does not get  home from work early enough to go on weekdays.  I loved it because it is full of people from all over including some of the islands. I felt very helpful since I am a worker I was able to help the sisters know how to put on the headphones, something so simple but you  have to know how to do it.

Activity days

I had the children come to my home today for activity days. We had been discussing the first vision and today we saw the movie of Joseph Smith. If it wasn't for the book of Mormon, It would seemed so hard to imagined that he saw so many Heavenly beings but that is the only way the gospel could have been restored. Amazing!

I asked the Missionaries to share their thought since this is something they are teaching. As they spoke it touched my heart to see  such incredible young girls who sacrifice 18 months of their lives for what they believe. I am always in awed by their service. I hope someone is feeding my Cousin Albert’s son, Braxton while he serves in Cambodia! I also am awed by those who serve in our Military. I NEVER let a service man or woman pass me without thanking them for their service. What great examples of selfless courage both are to me.

Zumba dancing and more!

There are many ways to get in shape and probably Zumba is not the best but I love it. Dancing has been one of those things our family is known for. In El Salvador I remember that every single celebration whether is a wedding, x-mas party, graduation or a simple birthday will include dancing. So naturally I am all ready to zumba every time I get the chance and here in the Domincan Republic I get to attend a session every night. Monday to Friday one starts at 6:00 pm and the other at 7:00 pm If we ever move which I am sure it will happen eventually, the Zumba class is one of those things I will truly miss. Today I want to start a new goal. And given that sharing it with all of you will up my chances of success by 33% since “Research recently conducted by [Dr. Gail] Matthews shows that people who wrote down their goals, shared this information with a friend, and sent weekly updates to that friend were on average 33% more successful in accomplishing their stated goals than those who merely formulated goals.”
I figured why not? So here goes:
My entire life I have been an unhealthy eater or have had diet issues because I am fat. Which is ironic because I HATE to eat things that are bad for me like McDonald’s or any fast foods Yuck! but I love all kinds of sugary candy and anything sweet….LOVE TO  EAT, PERIOD!).


 I am addicted to anything starchy like bread and juice drinks or those energy drinks. I go through  periods of overeating food to the opposite end of the spectrum where I crash diet. I desperately want to get healthy and lose at least twenty pounds before I go back to El Salvador for my nieces High School graduation next Summer. El Salvador is my home and want to be able to eat Pupusas while I ma there and not feel guilty.  That is my goal. But this time I want to lose weight the right way. I want to do it in a way that is healthy and good for my body rather than starving myself or doing some crazy fad diet. And so I set a goal for myself to get healthy and lose a few pounds before the Holidays hits and today was day one! I decided it was time for me to really invest in my own health and to hire a professional trainer to help me achieve my goal because I feel like I don’t have enough knowledge of what to do on my own, so I am admitting my weakness and bringing someone on board that can help me be better.


He is preparing my rigorous training for me besides going to Zumba in the evenings when I can. And teaching me how to eat right and in a healthy way. I am so excited to be doing this. As hard as I know it will be to completely change my eating habits, and as much as I am afraid of having to give up my emotional addiction to my chocolate cravings, I desperately want to be healthy and to feel and look good. As I am getting older I want to be smart and treat my body with the respect my body deserves. I can’t take my health for granted anymore. I have to invest in my good health. Lately I have felt pain on my knees and back. That is not good because it's a sign that I am putting too much pressure or weight on my joints and bones. I also have to be so careful to not get diabetes. It runs in my family and my doctor advice me to lose the weight around my tummy. I also got a condition with my thyroid that has slowed  my metabolism and it is only going to get slower. Welcome to menopause!

So there it is – now all of you know about my goal and I am now accountable to all of you to achieve it. PRESSSURE! But it is good pressure because it will really force me to live up to it so I don’t let any of you down. And now I would challenge every one of you to pick a goal and go share it with other people today – hold yourself to it – it’s exciting!! It’s a new adventure!! Try it!!
According to another woman who wrote on her blog: " Goal setting is one of the things I am the most passionate about in life. It started when I was just a young girl. My father would hold a monthly one on one meeting with each child and in that meeting he would ask us to tell him our goals for that month. He would then write them down on a card and hang onto that list until the next month’s meeting where he would pull out the card and ask us if we had accomplished our goal. That exercise he did with us really taught me the habit of goal setting, writing it down, and sharing it with someone – in this case, my father – so that I had someone to be accountable to." Amy Anderson

I have let my husband, sisters and the girls know of my goal. I am also going to start a program via internet that Cristi is doing on line and I will work on a detox diet as well from a book Bianca gave me. I am going to weigh in every week to see my progress and I will keep you posted. Today Daniel took my before picture and hope that my mother's day, on May 10th I can share my after picture with all of you out there. Cheers to a new Vero in 2015!!

Be self reliant

Today and for the next three days I get to be by myself. Something I do often since my husband has to travel to various islands in the Caribbean. This time he is going to visit the Cayman Islands. I only have heard good things about that island so I am sure it will all go well but you always pray for things to go smooth. I guess Daniel needs to implement a few changes taking place in regard to the growth of the Church. It looks to me that more and more is important for people to become self-reliant and is the topic I will be teaching next time I meet with my students. I was so fortunate to meet a wonderful man who came to the DR to give a seminar on the topic his name is Mike Murray. He is a man I got to know while he was here and who I have great respect. Mile Murray spoke at a devotional for young adults. He had an amazing career. He explained to us how when he attended Standford one day a fellow came to talk to the students. He was Steve Jobs. He later found himself reporting directly to Steve Jobs at Apple Computers in his mid 20s as the head of the marketing for the Micintosh. Another woman who knows Mike also wrote this about him:

" Mike joined Microsoft in 1989 reporting directly to Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer.  He spent 10 years at Microsoft during a 10 year span when the company’s stock grew 40% year over year for the entire 10 year span.  Mike walked away from Microsoft having made significant money off his stock options.  Mike could have chosen to do anything with his money, but what he chose was to dedicate his money and his time to serving others through his charity work.  One of the charities Mike founded is called Unitus which helps increase access to microloans throughout India, Africa and other areas with a need in order to help people find a pathway to self-reliance.  Through his efforts he has been able to affect the lives of hundreds of thousands if not millions of people throughout the world.

The best part about Mike Murray is the fact that if you were to meet him on the street knowing nothing at all about his incredible success you would literally think you had met one of the kindest, most gentle hearted, humble, and unassuming men out there.  He shows no sign of arrogance or entitlement.  Mike acknowledges that he worked hard for many years to achieve the financial success he achieved, but he then immediately points out that he knows many people who have worked just as hard as he did yet did not get financially blessed the way he did.  You can tell that it genuinely bothers Mike that everyone who works hard doesn’t have the same financial rewards as him and he has now dedicated his life to helping everyone he can to achieve financial success too.

Mike is generous beyond belief. He is thoughtful and authentic and you can feel of his sincerity for helping others – not for the sake of gaining accolades or attention for himself, you can quickly see how uncomfortable that makes him – no, Mike does it solely for the purpose of doing all he can to help others succeed.  He is an amazing example for all of us." Amy Anderson

 I feel blessed I had the chance to eat dinner with Mike Murray and elder Gay. I am a better person because I know them. They are very inspiring! I had the chance to be at some training they did where I was their translator. How lucky to know good people like Mike Murray and elder Gay and to learn from his example of how to make this world a better place by using our talents, resources and time. Their visit to the DR and their example is one I will always cherish.

 

Teaching about talents

Today my Institute class was about developing talents. I started asking the  students if they could think of people who are talented. I was reading about a famous Dominican fashion designer who had just passed away. Oscar de la Renta and  how he became an icon of fashion. I also told them about Sammy Sosa and Juan Luis Guerra. All those famous people had their humble start somewhere. I explained to them that we come with unique talents from the pre-existence and that is up to us to discover what they are.
Speaking to these young men and women is my favorite thing to do because I love their energy and excitement for life and their passion. I love that they are full of hopes and dreams for the future. I love their light and the enthusiasm for finding out better ways of doing things their thirst for knowledge and growth. They are so much fun to spend time with.


We went over different quotes by the leaders and read two scriptures accounts.
We went over what to do to discover what our talents are and how to develop and make good use of them. We saw the Mormon message by Elder Holland "Better things to come" and discussed in depth to never give up. President Heber Grant is a good example of that playing baseball and developing excellent writing skills.


We went over the fact that God knows best our mission in life and how we need to pray to know what he wants from us. What are those talents we need to develop and he will show us the way. We need to pray about it, and read our patriarchal blessing to get that guidance we need. There is a quote I saw on a blog by C. S. Lewis that come to mind when I think of this theme.
 

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of—throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace.”

I love this analogy since I am into homes lately and my wish someday is to live in a beautiful home like if it were my own temple. A home where I can honestly say, this is the best I can offer my children and grandchildren when they visit. It is not about pride but about having something worth having and I think that after the temple, the next beautiful thing should be our own home and is the same with our own lives. So often in life we have a picture in our head of what we think is our mission and what we are capable of doing, or who we think we are capable of becoming but the true reality is that what God knows we are capable of and what He knows we can become is so much bigger and better than anything we could ever imagine and that is why we have to trust Him. Unlike us, He doesn't make any mistakes. So let Him build you into that grand palace he knows you are meant to be.

I love the fact that the students all participated and shared so many ideas with one another. I just love the students!