Busy week of events!

So...how is everyone doing??? I guess I need to fill ya in on the last week of my life. I would say that a significant number of things happened.
First on Thursday December 3 I was invited to attend a group interview with Bank of America since currently I am trying to get a job as a teller at a bank. I left in plenty of time, but because of traffic I only just barely arrived on time. The interview itself lasted 2 1/2 hours. It was actually pretty fun though, as we all took turns telling about ourselves and our resumes, and then we had to do some actual role playing of the job and we finished by choosing one word that described ourself and explained why that one word fit ourself so well. I chose the word Perseverance and explained that the reason for choosing that word is because I just don't give up! :) I have come to see that about myself, that I just don't give up and I expect that something will happen as I strive to live the way I should and I put all my effort into making my dreams a reality. Two of the recruiters that were there during the interview carpool home together, and Kelly(the one that called me back) said that they had talked about me the whole way home and loved my attitude and everything about me! :) So I was put through to the next step and told that I had an interview tuesday the 8th with the bank on Stapley and Main. Wow that was some great news!

Friday was a fantastic day as it was the day I finally got to take my princess to a fancy ball! The LDS institute at ASU had been planning and preparing for a wonderful Christmas ball, it was fantastic! The tickets themselves were free, but they could have easily charged $20 and not even made a profit! There was a delicious dinner provided of pasta and salad, there was live entertainment(a quartet of string instruments), the decorations were fantastic with a large Christmas tree in the center of the dance hall, and there was even a professional photographer taking pictures of the couples for free! But even so, the most beautiful sight of the evening was my date Kristen! She wore the most beautiful blue dress and a pretty corsage that I had surprised her with. It would not be dishonest to say that she was the most gorgeous thing there. :) To compliment her dress I had worn my good blue pinstripe suit with a matching tie. We looked great, and had a wonderful evening.(The photos are curtosy of her sister Becca who took them with her camera. Thanks Becca!) We saw a few people we knew, but mostly just enjoyed the evening dancing in eachothers arms. We had a ball!

Saturday I helped my dad mud some drywall for a job he's doing. He had hurt his left arm earlier in the week and it was agitated to the point of causing him severe pain and making it almost immobalized. So my brother J.R. and I went with and assisted him in finishing up a job he was now incapable of doing alone. Also that afternoon I went with my brother to his home to play rock band. On the way to his house I was transporting his wife Esther and daughter Barbara, since Esther had bought a desk at a garage sale and that took up the rest of their car. So I was driving rather fast and weaving in and out of some busy traffic trying to get to the freeway with all of the holiday rush. As I took a quick right turn, a somewhat sleepy Barbara was awakened as her car seat tipped over! Esther glanced back and noticed that her daughter was now tilted 90 degress. She asked Barbara if she had tipped over and Barbara's response was "AY"(Yes in her language, lol). So Esther fixed her back up right again. I spent the afternoon playing rock band with my brother, though I most certainly should have been doing homework...but hey! a guy's got to live a little! ok, maybe I have been doing my share of living lately but even still it was a good time to catch up with my bro. whom I never seem to see anymore.
That night Kristen, Seth, Heather, and I went to walk around the Mesa, Arizona temple grounds and see all of the beautiful christmas light displays. It was a bit chilly but I had my arm around Kristen and did my best to keep her warm ;) I really like the photo we took, it has a great look to it! We finished the evening watching "Night at the Museum 2" at Seth's house. haha, Seth fell asleep during the movie and was snoring SO LOUD!!!!!!!!! It was hilarious!
Sunday was a day of baby blessings for the Erickson family! First Becca and Eric blessed their child and later Rachel and Jared blessed theirs. So it meant double the sacrament meetings, but I believe that means double the blessings! And I can totally go for that! And in the 2nd Sacrament meeting Jacob got up and actually bore a real testimony! I am so proud of him for taking the time to say something of value, unlike the last time he "bore his testimony" lol. Later on we headed out to my grandparents place for a delicious sunday dinner! Kristen was welcomed right into the family and we stayed long enough to finish watching the LDS Christmas devotional. Following the devotional, my grandpa, some uncles, and I went into a seperate room and gave my dad a blessing. Then later he went with my uncle Will who is a physician's assistant to get some medicine and a shot to help with the pain and discomfort. Gosh I love having aweome family hook-ups!
Monday was un-eventful for the most part. We went to our branch's Family Home Evening. The activity was making gingerbread houses out of graham crackers. We had to run to the store to get them some more frosting and some cheap prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners. Afterwards we went to Marks house with like millions of people and watched Heavyweights. What a great movie! Though it surprises me that I still have not seen the whole movie lol! Everytime I watch that dang movie, something comes up and I don't get to finish it!
Tuesday I had my interview with Band of America! I feel like I did well, but I am still waiting to hear back from the recruiter to see if I got the job or not. For those of you that do not know, that branch's location is in the heart of Mexico! Or at least there is quite a hispanic population around there. So I was told by several people to over-emphasize the fact that I am fluent in Spanish. Which I did do, and I even had the opportunity to converse in spanish with some customers who were waiting, while I was still waiting to be interviewed. I think that is awesome that I had that opportunity! :) That night we attended the Red Mountain High School Christmas choir concert. It was somewhat boring, but it had it's good parts. All in all a great day!
Wednesday I worked on some last assignments for the fall 2009 school semester and then did some Christmas shopping! In the evening, Kristen and I went to the Zoo Lights!

It was alot of fun to see all the lights, and we even saw some animals too, like the flamingos and an otter. We got some pictures with the different light displays and did our best to stay warm as we walked around the zoo and enjoyed the sights. I would definitely say we are taking the time to enjoy the Christmas season and all the wonderful memories it has to offer!

The Gift of Tongues :)

I am studying the Spanish language or Espanol as it is referred to from within the Spanish language. I chose to study Spanish for many reasons. I first was exposed to Spanish at an academic level when I was in the 6th grade. We had a “hands-on” approach to learning Spanish songs and the alphabet, etc. I continued to study it through my Jr. High and High School years. This made four years of advanced Spanish study. I always found the language fascinating but struggled to grasp it at a conversational level.
When I was 19 years old I chose to serve a 2 year proselyting mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For those who are not familiar with this organization, young men and women are encouraged to give a few years time to voluntary service work which includes the preaching of Christ’s gospel. However, the individual “Missionary” cannot choose where to serve, rather the individual is called to serve in a specific part of the world. I was called to the Iowa Des Moines Mission and was told that I would learn to preach the gospel in the Spanish language. So I embarked to the Missionary Training Center (MTC) in Provo, Utah where I began my 2 month language training. While in the MTC, I learned to perform several basic tasks in the Spanish language: pray to God, share a favorite scripture, give directions, introduce myself, bear testimony of the truth of Christ’s gospel. It was a fantastic experience and very rigorous as one might imagine. For 2 months, I spent every day in the classroom perfecting my ability to communicate in the Spanish language. I found it very helpful to read the Holy Scriptures (Holy Bible, and Book of Mormon) in the Spanish language. I also found it helpful to pray only in Spanish as this forced me to learn how to express myself in a foreign language.
Each day I found myself coming closer to understanding the language and continued with trust that if God had called me to speak this language, then he would assist me and make it possible. My teachers continually commented that I was grasping a lot of Spanish and this partly was due to my past exposure to it.
After two months in the MTC, I departed from the Salt Lake City airport and arrived in Des Moines, IA without the slightest idea of what to expect.
The day after my arrival I was paired up with my “trainer”. He is referred to as a “trainer” because it was his responsibility to teach me how to be a missionary and to assist me in learning more Spanish. Each morning our schedule permitted us to spend a few hours studying the Holy Scriptures and one hour of Spanish study. For the two years I tried to take full advantage of this hour for learning the language. My trainer taught me the importance of using Spanish often and tried to avoid using English whenever possible. I quickly learned that “street-Spanish” is very different from the formal Spanish I had been taught in the classroom. In my first week in the mission field I heard this saying often “e’toy bien bien, se q’e el libro de mormon e’ la ‘erda’. Wow! That didn’t seem like anything I had learned in the MTC. The true Spanish would have been “Yo estoy muy bien y se que el libro de mormon es la verdad.” It means that “I am doing well and I know that the Book of Mormon is true.” I quickly learned that I would have to listen and speak a lot if I was to grasp this language.
I often found it difficult to express my true feelings in Spanish and felt frustrated at the concept of conjugations and vocabulary differences. I continued to pray for assistance and studied daily. My trainer helped me to learn how to bear my testimony of what I knew was true and share a little of the scriptures with the people we were teaching. With time, my tongue began to be loosed and I felt the power of God opening up my understanding. He gave me the power to preach the gospel and sent forth the Holy Ghost to bear witness of the truth to all who heard. He helped immensely and after six months of being a missionary I felt that my skills were beginning to approach fluency. I understood many jokes and often told many to lighten the mood. I worked daily to develop my accent so that the Hispanics would not instantly know that I was a “Gringo”. I found a book at the public library in Norfolk, Nebraska called Construction Spanglish. The book contained many “Spanglish” words and phrases that have come to be common place in the United States amongst Spanish speakers. This book helped me to learn quick ways of remembering common vocabulary. It taught simple tips like “in Spanish the word for shovel is pala, so just think about your ex-girlfriend named Paula. ‘You really did dig her didn’t you?’, now you can remember that ‘pala’ is ‘shovel’.” These tips helped immensely and soon I found myself speaking more and more like a Hispanic and less and less like a Gringo. It also helped that some of the companions I had were born speaking Spanish. Sometimes they were trying to learn English and so we would speak to each-other, I in Spanish, and them in English. We would correct one another of the mistakes we made. I learned to accept the fact that I would make mistakes and grew to find humor in them. I remember that one time we stopped to ask a man from Mexico if he needed help, because he was working on his car. I had just learned the word for “pliers” which is “pinzas”. So I asked him if he had any, but I made a mistake and instead said “Pinches”, which is the equivalent of the F word. It was very funny and the man knew that I didn’t mean anything by it. I learned to enjoy the mistakes I made and allowed them to improve my understanding.
Overall I learned to speak Spanish rather quickly and it was all thanks to the help of God and my own nature of working at something without quitting. For the next year and a half I worked daily to perfect and improve the level of comprehension and speaking that I was capable of. By the end of the 2 years, I spoke a genuine mix of Spanish as spoken in Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Colombia etc. I had developed a strong accent to speak and pronounce the words correctly. This was very helpful in making quick friends with the Hispanics as they appreciated the time and dedication that I had put in to learn their language. Many allowed us inside their homes where we taught them about the Book of Mormon and the Prophets that God has continued to call to lead and guide his church here on the earth. Many listened and were baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I know that the things we taught them are true, and I know that it was only possible through the grace of God who assisted me in learning a foreign language to a deeply fluent level in the short span of two years.
Is this story anything less than remarkable and miraculous? I wanted to show my gratitude and appreciation to God and continue to perfect and use the Spanish language that he had taught me in my two years of service. That is why I am studying Spanish here at ASU. There is a great program here, and there is such a need in nearly every workplace especially here in the Southwest portion of the United States.
It makes perfect sense to me that I was called to serve a mission when still a teenager as that was the time when my brain was still growing and thus it was much easier to grasp a hold of a new language. I think that there are many people of advanced age that continue to learn new languages, but for the most part, of those I know they learned a language in their younger days and that taught them the pattern to learning a new language. I would definitely agree that it is easier to learn another language at a younger age. Spanish is a great language and I hope to retain much of my capabilities in this language for my whole life.