Dinner, gifts and celebration

I have given the book "In the Spirit of Jershon" to all our children, sisters, aunts and uncles and dear friends but to this day, no one has thanked me for it or told me if they even read the book in which I wrote a chapter. In one home, the book is not even on their shelf which means that they threw it away but were embarrassed to say that so they made up a story that their dog had shewed it like if I was dumb to believe that but today for the first time I gave a copy of the book to the Phillips and they had tears on their eyes as they thank me. It was their 54^th Wedding anniversary. We took them to eat at Don Julio an Argentine famous restaurant and we also had a box of high quality chocolates and another small gift for Ann’s purse but what they loved receiving was the book. Finally, someone who appreciates something I wrote. 

 

Is interesting to see an older couple with health issues serving the way the Phillips do. They are loyal to their faith which expands to all they do including their marriage. I love to be with couples with such high degree of commitment. Here in Argentina we got twelve older couples serving. They lived productive lives and are still producing after retirement. They are great examples to me. I remember one time around Valentines in the Philippines, when we used to hold the Family Home Evenings with the senior couples, we played fun games, told stories and even had a type of Newly Wed game. It was hilarious. I was hoping that by this Valentine we could have gotten them together but the COVID cases are increasing. 

 

I was hoping to do some Italian dinner with a tenor singing or do a story telling contest to see if we could tell which story belonged to each couple or match the faces with their wedding photo. It’s so cool to see how beautiful and young they once were. I remember going to visit Mimi when she lived in an assisting living place and saw a lot of widows who had fun stories to tell. They lit up just like young girls falling in love all over again as they shared their stories with us.  And what great stories they were!  The personality of each Grandma showed through as she told her own story.

  

The most romantic story of the night was the one of Betty Jane and her young husband.  They married during the depression and they had no money.  Betty Jane desperately longed to just have one new dress, but she didn’t want to ask her husband for any money as they were incredibly poor.  One day when she was pregnant with their first child he came home and handed her a $20 bill and told her he wanted her to have a new dress.  That meant the world to her.  She became choked up at this part of the story and let us know that she wasn’t sure she could get through the next part because the love of her life had passed away just a few short years ago and she missed him so….  She said that about two weeks before his death he came home very sick and told her to get dressed to go into town.  She said he rarely commanded her around like that so she knew it was important.  When they got downtown he took her hand and walked her into a dress shop and took her back to the rack of her size and told her to try several of the dresses on.  She did and loved them all.  He asked her which dressed she wanted most, and she turned and asked him which he preferred most on her.  He turned to the sales woman and told her to ring up all the dresses for his wife – he wanted her to have all the beautiful dresses.  He died just over a week later. What a romantic loving gesture of her husband and the tremendous love she had for him and that is the type of love I see showed by Ann and Gregg to each other. I am grateful to know them and to know that they appreciate us, our children and everything we do for them and give them. 

 

Con amor,

Vero

Temple on Tuesday

Many families have what is called Taco Tuesday where they have Mexican food for dinner every Tuesday. I like to call my Tuesdays Temple Tuesday. Every Tuesday we make room in our busy day to attend the temple. I like the fact that now, you need to make an appointment to attend like when you see a doctor or make reservations at a Restaurant. I like that because it gets marked in your calendars. Every second Tuesday of the month, we go with the Area Presidency. 

Today, January 11^th, 2022, marks the first time since February 2019 that we attended the temple. It is a privilege to go inside. A member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints get a temple recommend every two years. The following are the questions you are asked to get a temple recommend.  

1.    Do you have faith in and a testimony of God, the Eternal Father; His Son, Jesus Christ; and the Holy Ghost?

2.    Do you have a testimony of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and of His role as your Savior and Redeemer?

3.    Do you have a testimony of the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ?

4.    Do you sustain the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as the prophet, seer, and revelator and as the only person on the earth authorized to exercise all priesthood keys?

Do you sustain the members of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles as prophets, seers, and revelators?

Do you sustain the other General Authorities and local leaders of the Church?

5.    The Lord has said that all things are to be “done in cleanliness” before Him (Doctrine and Covenants 42:41).

Do you strive for moral cleanliness in your thoughts and behavior?

Do you obey the law of chastity?

6.    Do you follow the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ in your private and public behavior with members of your family and others?

7.    Do you support or promote any teachings, practices, or doctrine contrary to those of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?

8.    Do you strive to keep the Sabbath day holy, both at home and at church; attend your meetings; prepare for and worthily partake of the sacrament; and live your life in harmony with the laws and commandments of the gospel?

9.    Do you strive to be honest in all that you do?

10. Are you a full-tithe payer?

11. Do you understand and obey the Word of Wisdom?

12. Do you have any financial or other obligations to a former spouse or to children?

If yes, are you current in meeting those obligations?

13. Do you keep the covenants that you made in the temple, including wearing the temple garment as instructed in the endowment?

14. Are there serious sins in your life that need to be resolved with priesthood authorities as part of your repentance?

15. Do you consider yourself worthy to enter the Lord’s house and participate in temple ordinances?

All except three #7, 12, 14 are answered in the affirmative. I learn so much each time I attend the temple. It’s all center on the whole purpose of why we came to this earth, to live with our Heavenly Father and Jesus again. 

Con amor,

Vero

Looking at the Old testament with Different Lens

Hope you are enjoying reading the Old Testament. Yesterday I was asked to teach in the Primary kids who were five and six and how I love teaching that age. I could picture our grandbabies in my class and had so much fun talking about the creation. 

 

In my study last week, I went deeper than what has been written in Genesis. Things like on “Day One” (Light) We need to establish Christ as the source for light wherefore we can distinguish between light and darkness. On “Day Two” (Firmament) decide which outside influence should be invited and which should be kept out. What is from above and what is from beneath? On “Day Three” (Land, sea and plants) distinguish between shifty cultural currents and solid gospel ground. Seek life and growth but stay rooted and grounded. On “Day Four” (Sun, moon and stars) Order and arrange my life and distinguish between greater and lesser influences between good, better and best! On “Day Five” (Sea creatures and bird) Spread your wings and explore more options. On “Day Six” (Land animals and humans) Learn my limits but at the same time work hard at developing divine potential. On “Day Seven” (Sabbath) Separate work and rest. Give God His due and take time to be holy. 

This was taken from Mary Osmond fun page: "I have started this new year studying the Old Testament again. Even though I have read the beautiful stories from the Bible many times over the years, I find I gain a deeper understanding each time I do. Instead of taking the stories literally, like a world being created, I think of what God is trying to create in me. So this time I am applying a more symbolic way to learn what Father in Heaven is trying to teach me. Symbolism is God’s teaching language. It’s how one story can teach many different principles to us… depending on what we need spiritually at that particular time in our life. 

For example, in the creation story, we can read it simply as a world being made. But this past week the impressions I have felt are how God can make something magnificent out of something unorganized… including us! This has brought me so much peace, especially now as our world seems to be filled with more and more chaos. So I thought this Sunday I would share a few of my personal impressions. 

In Genesis ​​​1:2-3 it says: “And the earth was without ​​​form​, and void; and ​​​darkness​ ​was​ upon the face of the deep. And the ​​​Spirit​ of God ​​​moved​ upon the face of the waters. And God ​​​said​, Let there be ​​​light​: and there was light.” 

 

God commanded the elements and they obeyed. As I pondered this symbolically, when we obey God’s word or commandments (like the elements did), we can be transformed into the beautiful creations we were meant to be.

Another point I felt impressed about is when God calls the things He made “good.” What this suggested to me is how we should treat all God’s creations. They are good… ALL He created, including ourselves! Why is it important to know that we were created in God’s image and that we are good? How does this affect the way we feel about ourselves, others, and God? I like to take thoughts like these and try to visualize them. If I walked with the Savior long enough, I believe I would learn to see everyone as Christ sees them. He sees them with limitless potential, regardless of what their past may have been. And as I continue to symbolically walk with the Savior daily, I strive to develop that gift also, to see that beautiful potential in all of us. Do you agree?

With the Savior’s help, we can move from the darkness we encounter to a brighter light within us. We can learn to separate those things that don’t bring us joy and growth and dissipate the darkness by moving our souls to seek light. I also believe that light is always symbolic of the Savior!

 

Another part of the creation story that has always fascinated me is how God knows Adam and Eve will make mistakes. Before Eve is tempted, God knew this would happen and was ready with a solution. The solution to the fall in the Garden of Eden… is Jesus Christ. The solution to every time I fall… is Jesus Christ. That sounds like an easy answer, so how?  How is He the answer? Each time I try to make myself the center of the problem I cannot see the solution. By being the center, I mean using words like, “I’m angry, I’m sad, I’m confused, and I’m depressed.” When I change my language from “poor me” and choose instead to focus on what God wants me to see, I start to think… “what am I to learn from this or who can I help or assist today?” Then I begin to see the solutions I need. When I get outside myself and put my problems and comforts aside, I start to see the world a little closer to how I believe the Savior does. When I offer up my strengths for the Lord to use, I feel my weaknesses become strengthened. 

 

Over the years, I have learned God isn’t as concerned about the mistakes I make as much as He is interested in how I will react afterward. Like any loving parent, our Father in Heaven doesn’t want us to dwell on what we have done wrong, that’s stagnation. But rather He would like us to humble ourselves and ask for His help to fix them. When we organize ourselves (as the elements did) and move from our darknesses to finding the light, God will provide help to all who come unto Him. And like mother Eve said, “Is there no other way?”, there really isn’t!  The Lord will surely bless us with knowledge to dissipate the darkness so we can heal, become wiser and more whole. 

 

God can always make something magnificent out of things unorganized, He will always create form from void and darkness into light. No matter what life will bring, He will always help us amidst life’s storms to create a solution and become better than we could ever be on our own! All He asks is that we follow Him!" A second every word she said. 

 

Today, we are grateful for the opportunity we will have again tomorrow to go to the temple. It has been a long time since we were able to go. Starting tomorrow, we will be going along with the Area Presidency every second Tuesday of the month. 

 

With love,

Vero and Daniel 

 

Resolved!

Back when I was 19, attending the LDS Business College’s Institute class. I came across an old document called “Resolutions” written over 100 years ago by John Witsoe.

When I read his words, Elder Witsoe inspired me to the point that I have read them each January as I am working on my own new year's resolutions. They are a reminder of how I want to live my own life in the same manner he lived his. That was a turning point in my life because it was then when I decided long ago to make a conscious decision to remain faithful for the rest of my life and resolved to the type of things he described in his journal

 This is what someone wrote about him:

“On January 2, 1891, a 19-year-old Norwegian immigrant sat down in his home in Logan, Utah and wrote the following lines on some lined paper:”
‘As I have come to fully realize; that, I am as weak as all other mortals—perhaps weaker than many; and realizing that happiness in life is only obtained by having a pure heart, a clear conscience; and fearing the Lord and keeping his commandments; also as I realize that happiness in old age consists of reviewing a life devoid from great sins; the gratification of noble desires manfully carried out; and finding that my life up to this time has not been as I should like it to have been: I lay down the following regulations by which I shall try to conduct my life hereafter; to which end may the Lord Almighty, my Creator, help me.’

He then spelled out 17 resolutions. Nearly eight months later, on Tuesday, August 25, 1891, he copied them in a hardcover journal. Here he was to record his years of struggle as a stranger-student from Utah Territory at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 
He began by entering the 17 resolves that were to guide his life.

‘Resolved:
1st. That religion, the science of sciences, be made my chief concernment throughout life.

2nd. That I will daily pray to God in secret.

3rd. That I will daily reflect upon God and his attributes and try to become like him.

4th. That I will receive Light, Wisdom or Knowledge, wherever or however it may be offered.

5th. That I never be ashamed to acknowledge my principles, beliefs and religion when I once become fully convinced of their correctness.

6th. That I never lose one moment of time but improve it.

7th. That I maintain strict temperance in eating and drinking.

8th. That I never do anything that I would not do were it the last hour of my life.

9th. That I daily read the word of God, that I may learn His will and that I may be comforted, strengthened and encouraged by so doing.

10th. That in any narrations I speak nothing but the pure and simple verity.

11th. That I always do that which I think is my duty and for the best good for my fellow beings.

12th. That I live with all my might while I do live, that I may not die a living death.

13th. That I never by word or manner try to force my opinions on others but that I simply state them and offer my arguments against others!

14th. That I seek to overcome the habit of being quick tempered, loud speaking, impatient motions and whatever might offend my fellowmen and hurt me.

15th. That I never for a moment forget my duty towards my mother, she who has made me who I am and who will make what I will become, she who has spent the better portion of her life in my behalf and to whom I owe all the honor, respect, and affection that I can give; also that I always remember my duties toward my brother and all my friends and relations.

16th. That I complete every task which I begin; also that I carefully consider my purpose and its results before taking upon me any duty.

17th. That I always remember that the men and women I meet are my brothers and sisters and that I look to the beam in my own eye before attempting to remove the mote in my fellow’s eye.’

“It would be well if every young man and woman today would similarly evaluate his or her position in life. …
“The young man who wrote these lines … was John Andreas Widtsoe. …
“… In March 1921 he was called to the apostleship by President Heber J. Grant and continued in that position throughout a long and eventful life” 

It has always amazed me how a 19- year old had so much wisdom. Today, I also look up to those men and women who are great examples in my life and hope that my grandchildren and their children will look up to them as well. 

 

Con amor,

Vero

How Many New Years are There?

Found this article on New Year's  Day worth sharing.

"I  always took New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day at face value — they were secular holidays, celebrated as such — until I met some friends from Israel. 

I learned that most Jewish Israelis did not celebrate on Dec. 31 and that nothing closed on New Year’s Day. The calendar flipped over — a digit or two replaced — and no one seemed to notice, let alone care.

I asked my friend, a born-and-raised Jerusalemite, what’s up with that? She explained: “We call New Year’s Sylvester, and we don’t celebrate it because it’s a Christian holiday.”

Her response surprised me. I’d never heard of Sylvester even though, as a child, I was immersed in Christianity. I’d grown up in a deeply devoted Catholic community watching people attend mass on a regular basis and moved to Salt Lake City later in life which had a house of worship in every corner.  

With a little digging online, I discovered that Dec. 31 is, indeed, according to the Catholic calendar, the feast day of St. Sylvester, a fourth-century pope. I also found that it’s not the only link between Christianity and New Year’s.

Like Dec. 31, New Year’s Day is a Catholic feast day. It was long known as the Feast of the Circumcision of the Lord and the Octave of the Nativity (that’s just a fancy way of saying that it was the eighth day after Jesus’s birth and, thus, the day he was circumcised in accordance with Jewish tradition.) But that changed in the 1960s and, today, New Year’s Day corresponds to the feast of the Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God. 

These discoveries left me with questions about the history of religious observances that fall on the New Year and whether or not we might all, unwittingly, actually be partaking in Catholic feast days. I also wondered what other religious traditions might be hidden in our New Year festivities, including the foods we eat. 

Battle for New Year’s soul

I took my questions to Andrew McGowan, an Anglican priest and historian who serves as dean of the Episcopal seminary at Yale Divinity School. 

McGowan explained that the feast day of St. Sylvester came from the same fourth century calendar that gave us the Dec. 25 date for Christmas. That his feast day corresponds with New Year’s Eve is a sheer coincidence — St. Sylvester, who was a pope in life, died and was buried on Dec. 31. 

Nonetheless, St. Sylvester is remarkable for a couple of reasons, one of which might account for the staying power of his name. 

“In the fourth century, most of the people who get into the Christian saints’ calendar are martyred. Sylvester is one of the first who gets a feast day for himself without having gotten (killed) and it’s because he was the pope when Constantine became a Christian,” said McGowan.

Constantine’s conversion marked the moment that Christianity began to “transition from a marginalized religion to an imperial power,” he added. Because Sylvester happened to be at the church’s helm at the time, he gained significance. 

Sylvester’s legacy also may have benefitted from the work of Augustine of Hippo, who, in the years following Sylvester’s death, was “castigating people” for celebrating the secular New Year holiday, McGowan said. 

Augustine, who later became a saint, and other ancient Christians “were ambivalent about (New Year’s) because it was a Roman holiday,” McGowan said, adding that “even in the fourth century ... people were having a little too much of a good time.” 

Although St. Sylvester’s feast fell on New Year’s Eve by sheer coincidence, it was “used to remind people that they shouldn’t be getting drunk, they should be hitting the church,” McGowan said. 

Prayer and penance on Jan. 1

Early Christians also battled for the soul of Jan. 1, in part by protesting raucous secular events. 

 

One man, Telemachus, was stoned to death in a Roman amphitheater in A.D. 404 after he attempted to stop a New Year’s Day gladiator match, according to Christopher Labadie’s “The Octave Day of Christmas: Historical Development and Modern Liturgical Practice.” 

Telemachus had attempted to shame the crowd, shouting “Cease from the superstition of idols and polluted sacrifices! (For) today is the octave of the Lord,” Labadie noted. Jan. 1 is now the little-known feast day of St. Telemachus. 

According to Labadie, when Telemachus was martyred, Jan. 1 wasn’t yet an official feast day. It was, instead, observed as a day of “prayer and penance.” 

But festivities tied to the eighth day after Jesus’s birth were quickly catching on and, a century later, Christians began having circumcision feasts. 

Jan. 1 officially became a Catholic feast day marking Jesus’s circumcision in the 1500s, and it remained as such until 1961, when it was changed to the “Octave Day of Christmas.” 

In 1969, the feast day was changed again, getting its current name: Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. 

Reflecting on the changes to the festival’s name and focus, McGowan lamented the lost opportunity to discuss Jesus’ Jewish identity. 

Changing the feast is a “little bit like dumbing it down,” he said. The Feast of Circumcision was “an opportunity to explain and teach and probably to look for positive connections between Jewish and Christian identity. It’s a missed opportunity.” 

But if you look at the food many Americans eat on New Year’s Day, that linkage is still visible, albeit in a quiet way. The popular New Year’s Day dish of black-eyed peas, known as “Hoppin’ John” in the South, is typically on the Rosh Hashanah table when Jewish people celebrate their New Year in the fall. 

Referred to variously as lubia or rubia — depending, in part, on where one’s Jewish ancestors came from — black-eyed peas are a symbol of abundance. It is widely believed that Jews brought the custom to the New World — more specifically, to Georgia — during British colonial times. There, the tradition was mapped on to the secular, Gregorian calendar and it spread throughout what is the United States today. 

Multiple new years

If this all sounds a bit confusing, that’s appropriate, since confusion around the date of the new year has existed for centuries. 

The Hebrew calendar offers a prime example: not only is it wildly out of sync with the Gregorian calendar, but we also have not one but four new years, though the numerical year only changes on one of them (Rosh Hashanah — The New Year.) 

McGowan noted that New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day haven’t always been celebrated on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1. In much of Europe as late as the 18th century, the new year began on March 25, which is the date of the annunciation. In some places, Dec. 25, or Christmas, doubled as the New Year. 

He also pointed out that still today the Catholic liturgical calendar begins not on Jan. 1 but on the first Sunday of Advent. 

Even in the United States, multiple new years exist, McGowan added. There’s the fiscal year, which runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30 and, of course, the school calendar, which doesn’t seem to correspond with much of anything (as parents who have to arrange care for out-of-school children all know.)

And it’s worth adding that the Catholic Church recently added another layer to the religious significance of Jan. 1 feast day. In 1967, Pope Paul VI also named the date “World Peace Day” — a powerful idea to meditate on at the start of any new year.

 And now you know! 

con amor,

Vero

The Food that Saved a life

I took all the Christmas decorations today but wanted to tell one last story dear to my heart because it happened while Daniel lived in Argentina during a financial crisis. 

"Eleven -year old Ruben had already chosen where he would hang himself. It wouldn’t be hard. All he would have to do is throw a rope over a branch, and in a little while, it would all be over. Ruben lived in a chanty town in Northern Argentina. Although still a child himself, Ruben was forced to find food not only for himself but for his younger brothers and sisters. But there was little food to be found. Ruben had dropped out of school and spent his days on the streets of the city, often standing at street intersections offering to clean the windshields of stopped cars. As the days wore on, he felt an increasing despair. The few coins he earned were hard to come by and insufficient to feed himself, let alone his younger brothers and sisters. The miracle he had yearned for had never come. It was in this state of mind that Ruben had decided to end his life. 

 

But as he stood, deep in thought, a large truck pulled up beside him. “I’m looking for the barrio 13 of July,” the driver said. “Do you know where that is?” That is where I live, Ruben said. “Do you want me to take you to it?” The driver nodded and Ruben hopped in the cab and directed the driver toward the place he called home. 

“What’s in the truck?” Ruben asked. 

“Food.” 

“where did it come from?”

The driver shrugged his shoulders and said, “What does it matter?”

When they arrived, the driver got out of the truck and explained to the woman who appeared to be in authority, that he had brought food. 

“Bring the packages in here,” she asked. 

The driver opened the back of the truck reveling not a package, but entire truckload of food. 

“What is this?” Ruben asked.

“It’s yours. Belongs to the people of your neighborhood.” 

“All of it?” 

“Every box.”

The truck was filled to the top with hundreds of boxes of food: pasta, flour, rice, beans, oil, sugar… more food than Ruben had ever imagined. Tears formed in Ruben’s eyes as people from the barrio surrounded the truck. Then they began to cheer. They cheered that the food had arrived. They cheered for Ruben. “I brought them!” Ruben said over and over, tears streaming down his face. “I brought them!” It took eight men and two hours to unload the truck. That night, many in the barrio slept next to the boxes of food. “We were afraid it might be only a dream,” they said. “We did not want to be awaken only to find it had disappeared.” 

 

The next day, food was distributed to those in need. And Ruben and his brothers and sisters received enough food to last them for months. From that day forward, Ruben never spoke of suicide again. He had become a hero in his neighborhood. And a hero does not think of killing himself. Ruben returned to school and began looking forward to a new future. He had discovered there was reason to hope. That he was not alone. That others knew of his suffering and cared enough to help. 

 

Not long after, word began to spread that the food had come from a Church who cared for people who were hungry. It had come from a group called Latter-day Saints. It had come from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I was a witness of such event. Daniel R. de Almeida. 

Three Kings Day

Three Kings Day 

In many Latin American countries, Santa Claus isn’t as popular as he is in the United States. Rather, it is the Three Wise Men who are the bearers of gifts and leave presents in or near the shoes of small children. The holiday is also known by the name Epiphany and dates back to the 4th century. A grand feast would be held on this day to pay homage to the Three Wise Men.

Many believe mysterious events preceded Jesus’ birth with perhaps the most notable being the appearance of the star in Bethlehem. This new star appeared in the evening sky just prior to the arrival of Jesus. Three wise men, or Magi as they were known, whose names were Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, traveled a far distance to pay homage to Christ. They brought with them fine gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

Three Kings Day, or El Dia de Reyes, remains an important holiday for Christians. In addition to gift-giving, there is also a culinary treat that is specific to the holiday. Known as Rosca de Reyes (King’s Cake), this holiday dessert is a symbolic pastry. Shaped in a circle to signify a king’s crown, this sweet bread holds a special surprise. Inside is a small plastic figurine representing the baby Jesus. Whoever finds this token is obligated to host an upcoming party on February 2.  Now, you know! 

 

Con amor,

Vero