A Visit With My Mother and Dad

Carlos (c. 1941)with his sisters Celia, Helen and Consuelo aka Chelo

Yes. It was so amazing and filled a place in my heart. I actually came across some family history cassette tapes I had done back in 1985. and 1991! Apparently I was there on a visit with my parents in California. At the beginning of the tape, my father, Carlos was just ready to leave for work. He took the recorder and gave a greeting to my oldest son, Hank while he was serving his mission in Venezuela.

Carlos with Elena and oldest child, Carlitos. this picture is about one of the stories mentioned on the tape.

He gave a nice message and started to speak in Spanish. I relived that visit and felt a closeness to my parents and the love they had for me and my family. What a wonderful opportunity to spend at least and hour listening to the tapes.

Elena, my mother recounted when she and Carlos met for the first time and the circumstances. It was so sweet and was like going back in a time machine. There was a lot of details on there that I had forgotten her telling but remembered when I heard the tapes again. She spoke of the relationships they had with other family in San Antonio; about their courtship, where they lived when they got married and up to when they built their first home just before I was born.

The house built in San Antonio

I could visualize everything we talked about as I held onto the moment. I stayed up late last night to listen to some of it and continued today as I worked in the kitchen this morning making beef jerky. My husband, Ron is hunting for a few days so I had the house to myself and listened away. Time well spent.

My Mother, Elena Sanchez Rodriguez

I just want to pay a tribute to my mother on her birthday. She passed away 18 years ago and would have been 95. I miss her a lot and think of her everyday, and always in my heart. She molded my life and blessed my life greatly and her influences lives on. Happy Birthday, Mama.

My beautiful mother, at age 17, Brownsville, Texas

This is one of my Dad's favorite pictures of her. He always carried it in his wallet over the years

I think this one was taken after my brother Bob was born, by the way she wore her hair then.

Elena, about 7 or 8. with her brother, Albert and Uncle Naco. He was a month older than her.

Elena with her mother on a calf in Harlingen. She was living with her grandmother, Nestora until age 12 when her grandmother passed away. She and Albert then went to live with her father's mother, Jesusita aka Maria Jesus Linares Sanchez in Brownsville.

They were a handsome couple, here with us three older children

The got to 'grow old' together. Love this picture of them. They are about early 60s, guessing.

Insights and Awareness of God's Creations

We went to Seattle several weeks ago (June 13) to visit with Matt and Beth when their new little one was born. He was all of one day old. How precious he is! My heart melts when I see that little tiny person have all the faculties of a physical body. I marveled as I saw and felt his sweet Spirit. Here he has a spirit and a body, it functions like a new model of each of us. He sneezed, and I had the thought –isn’t that incredible to see him have such a normal, natural human trait! God made his body, and his little spirit is housed in that body, and he is the product of his parents who love each other and brought him into this life. How delicate and marvelous that is to be blessed with two wonderful parents who love him and his siblings…GOD’s hand is definitely in our lives. We take it for granted of what is all around us at that same hand in ALL of our lives.

We wake up to a new day which God made happen, the Sun shines and brightens a beautiful blue sky, with puffs of clouds that bring rain, and gave us trees and flowers to admire his creation everywhere we look. We eat, and have have food that he created, right? Then there are the pets we feed and care for too. We have things to do, and we use our bodies that walk, and eat, we digest our food, all because of the creation God made for us to DO that which we overlook that is part of the divine creation of our habitation in a physical body. We are part of that creation each day and moment we breathe in the Air he allow us to have to survive. And think about the Water we drink too that God made for us that help keep our bodies functioning properly.We cannot survive without either one.

Then night falls, the Moon and Stars come out and grace our good Earth with a time to rest and sleep. We sleep,our bodies renew with that sleep and we repeat that cycle all over again. Then, depending where we live, we have the four seasons, and the weather too.

We just finished reading the Pearl of Great Price, and as I read to Ron aloud (albeit in Spanish)as he drove. I saw and felt the purpose of the days created from the first day through the seventh when all of these above creations were organized for us to live in this world.

My eyes of understanding felt the depth of what we have with us to constantly remind us how much God IS a part of our lives and how easy it is to overlook the meaning as it applies to us and permeates everything we do and ARE and what we can become through time and eternity.

I Know that God is there; He lives and is high in the heavens, in Kolob and I feel such gratitude for his great love for us, his children. He knows I am awake at this very moment and writing this all down as I woke up without being able to go back to sleep. How amazing that is to know what I know and appreciate that I am his daughter too. I know I am loved, and have such peace with that awareness.

Anna R Walser

Update

We welcomed Preston McIntire on June 12. We had a new assignment to go to Redmond, WA to visit Matt and Beth when they had baby Preston. He is adorable and so sweet. He is indeed a miracle of life. We look at this bundle of joy and see how perfectly developed he is and how he does all the things his body was designed to do! What a blessing. He sneezes, eats, sleeps, poops and wets. How incredible a creation, do you agree? We marvel at the joy and excitement that accompanied him in his arrival. Welcome Preston, we love you and are honored to be your grandparents. Mother and Baby and Dad are doing great and getting a little more much needed sleep as Preston adjusts to earth life.



Family Mission Message June 19, 2013

The days go by so quickly and before we know it a week has gone by once again. We are blessed to be where we are, and learning so much. We marvel at the growth we see in the missionaries and in ourselves. We wish we could contain the impact to store an used again and again. We have fond memories and are so thankful for the sweet influence of the spirit that sustains us.
The observations we make when the transfers come around are that changes are evident and unavoidable. Growth occurs when the missionaries experience a change in their assignments and need to readjust their lives and carry on the best way possible. These are the things that mature them and toughens their spirits to be able to endure through it all and carry on. The day comes when those we work with move on and the need to say goodbye. It is like saying good bye to our children when they have to leave to go away for an extended time and we don’t know when we will see them next. Next week our current mission president and his wife are released and a new president will take over. We will say goodbye with lumps in our throats and tears of joy for having known and loved them. We see the elders and sisters do the same when they are transferred. Their goodbyes are tearful for the bonds of friendship they formed and drew close to those they got acquainted. It is important to live in the moment and do all we can to appreciate the experiences.

This week we learned of the passing of a young mother, (36 years old) in our home ward that used to be my visiting teaching companion before our mission. It was such a shock to not know she was sick and dying. She had been sick some of the time we were companions and so I made sure to go visit our sisters even if she wasn’t available. We developed a friendship during that time anyway and I got to know her a little better through serving her and taking her and her family fresh vegetable from our garden. She could not thank us enough, she appreciated those small acts of giving. She had many talents and worked with her husband and managed his business for him in his entertainment profession up to the day before she passed, even though she felt miserable and weak. She left behind to daughters, 9 and 11. We went to her viewing and gave our respect to her husband and family. I was just grateful to have heard about it on time, through my visiting teachers from the ward when they came the day of the viewing.

Celebrating Mother's Day

This week is going to be shared a little differently. It is Mother’s Day. What a wonderful day to celebrate having and being a mother! There is something I want to recount from a talk given in General Conference in April 1997, by Jeffery R Holland. It was called “Because She is a Mother.” At the moment, as in some instances, I remember the feelings I had when I heard it and how it MOVED me to action.
Those days when that talk was given, I was a student at UVSC, aka UVU now. I had placed an application to BYU since I was finishing up an AA degree. Well, that same day I had received a rejection letter from BYU saying I had too many credits that were transferred from my Fullerton Junior College transcript. Needless to say, I was devastated. Then I heard Elder Holland’s address. It gave me such courage to write a letter immediately to the person who signed the letter rejecting my acceptance to BYU.

I don’t recall what all I said, but the point was that I just KNEW I was supposed to attend there and could they please reconsider? A few days later I received a phone call from the committee person and he gave me a few suggestions to write another letter to the committee directly and also pointed out that the credits the letter referred to was from my cosmetology major. It turns out since BYU doesn’t have that kind of program, it negated those credits going against me. I did exactly what that kind gentleman told me to do. Then I received another phone call congratulating me to tell me I was accepted! I received a letter besides later. I was so excited that I baked that kind man a plate of chocolate chip cookies and took them to the administration building. He didn’t know what to say other than no one had ever done that before . . . and the rest is history! I got in and completed in three consecutive semesters. I applied to the U of U for a Master’s and finished in 2000. Whaa HOOOO!
“One other story. This week I was reading aloud in Doctrine and Covenants 97:1-2. As I finished the verses, [in Spanish], I had this perception come to my mind and saw my great-grandmother Maria Elena Eduiges Rodriguez- Ulloa and her daughter’s sitting in her home in San Antonio, TX visiting each other. I told Ron what I saw in my mind’s eye before I read it in English to get the exact verses to understand clearly what I had read and saw at the same time. Then he said, “I wondered if they have accepted the Gospel on the other side.” There is no doubt in my mind they have, but it was a good question.

Maria Elena Eduiges Rodriguez Ulloa with her family in 1918
Doctrine and Covenants 97:1-2

1 Verily I say unto you my friends, I speak unto you with my a voice, even the voice of my Spirit, that I may show unto you my will concerning your brethren in the land of Zion, many of whom are truly humble and are seeking diligently to learn wisdom and to find truth.
2 Verily, verily I say unto you, blessed are such, for they shall obtain; for I, the Lord, show mercy unto all the meek, and upon all whomsoever I will, that I may be justified when I shall bring them unto judgment.

I feel peace that these faithful women have accepted the truth on the other side. I stand all amazed. 
These are the parents of my great-grandmother, Maxima Munoz and Clemente Ulloa.

Grandma Busy Crocheting

Grandma, (me) has been busy learning how to make crochet headbands. It's been fun and i loved making them. Most of the granddaughters got one. I learned how to make hats too.

I want to learn how to make boys' caps for next winter.

This Just Made Our Day!!

Little acts of kindness go a long way. This week we received the sweetest letters from grandchildren, and their parents. It made our week!

We were delighted to received their sweet handwritten notes and learn about what they are doing in school, work and being missionaries in their own ward. Thank you, Hank, Lori and all the K's, too. : )