Eva the Beautiful

Independence Day

Well we missed the GRITO, which is where everyone gets together and yells, VIVA MEXICO, because they start the celebration the night before, and Eva wasn't feeling that good, so 10p was alittle late for her to be partying, but we went to the parade on the morning of the 16th, the actual day of Independence. Eva loved the horses and the drums. Although I was disappointed that we didn't get to see more of the celebrations, it was still fun, and we still say, VIVA MEXICO.

Mary Diaz

Today I went to wash some clothes at Mary Diaz’s home. She is the branch president’s wife, and the seminary teacher, and a really amazing lady. She has a washer and I went to use it. As I sat at her home while I waited for the clothes, a deep sense of wonderment and desire to understand came over me. Only one room in her home has a roof, over it, she cooks over a fire, and has only dirt floors. Her daughter Carla has only two t-shirts and neither of them fit. Mary told me that she knows how to sew but can’t afford a machine. She sewed Carla’s Uniform for school, a wool skirt, BY HAND. A pleated wool skirt, are you kidding me?

She cooked as we talked and I waited, and she had puppies around her feet laying in the dirt, and flies everywhere. But she moved and worked like a dance, she controlled the flames of the fire as easily as I turn a knob to reduce the heat on an electric stove. She automatically covers every thing so that the flies don’t get in, and she moves the hot pan over the rising flames with her bare hands as if it wasn’t hot at all. I asked her if she gets burned, and she said, simply, No.

She is a short fat little lady, with short hair that she gels up so it looks darling and stylish, but she wears an old t shirt with the neck cut out, and a very old worn skirt. She speaks pure truth, and doesn’t mince her words, and when she laughs it reminds me of how I think santa would laugh if he were real. Her head falls back and she laughs from a deep sincere part of herself, it brings forth a sound that really makes me feel happy, and it is obvious that she is truly a happy person.

All day every I think about my home. I think about carpet and cars and washers and dryers and microwaves, and TV’s and cable, and paved streets, and running water, and electricity, and hot water, and what an EASY EASY life I had there, and I want to go back. But I wonder if I was ever as happy as Mary’s Laugh. Truly sincerely joyful. And I wonder what wrong with me. Why am I so weak? I want to be as tough and as happy as Mary, but I am not. I am not because I was born in an easy. I think as Americans go, I am pretty tough, but I am weak sauce compared to Mary.

Who is better? Well no one is better than anyone else, Right? I believe that. But why was I born to the ease and comfort and Opportunity, I am stunned when I think about the opportunity, and she was born here. why can she work circles around me, and I am a weak and pathetic compared to her. But why was I allowed the chance to develop my talents, and enjoy every comfort that life has to offer, aind she doesn't even have a floor in her house.

She is a talented seamstress and pianist, but she wasn’t born to parents that paid for a weekly lesson with the finest teachers in the state since she was five years old. Nor did she have the luxury to practice the piano everyday after school, because she had to work. Work hard to live and survive and keep her family going. And now her children are the only ones in the church besides me that play the hymns, but they are self taught, and don’t know the names of the notes or the symbols, they just get the notes off the page. And her oldest son wants to go to high school, but it is not free here, and so he doesn’t get to go. And he works, all day and then goes to the church to play the piano.

I guess who is better off is the real question. She doesn’t know a different life, and she has developed the gift of being happy in the life god gave her. And her life if is not about things, its about people and giving and serving and working hard, and I know that is why she is happy, she is focused on the things that make you happy. Carpet and microwaves are nice, but they don’t really make you happy. They make a walk through the living room nicer and serving left overs easier but they don’t really give you true joy, like Mary has. So I guess she is better off. Because it is so easy to forget what truly makes you happy and what truly matters when life is so easy.

Temple Trip

This is the Vera Cruz temple. We left our apartment at 345am, and got on a bus with
other members of our branch and a neighboring ward at 4a. We arrived at temple a little after 8am. we did a sessions and sealings and spent a long time in the celestial room. We left about 3p. What a beautiful day in the temple. I wanted to leave with a more clear idea of what we need to do and how long we will be here, but I didn't get that. Just peace. At the end of it all, that was enough.