The First Time I Heard a Celia Cruz Song

If you haven't seen Google's homepage today, they did a tribute to Celia Cruz, because it would have been her 88th birthday today. She is regarded as the "Queen of Salsa".

Which is why this is a good time to share the story of the first time I heard one of her songs.

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I was serving a mission for the LDS Church in Guatemala, and I'd been there for around a year.

On a Mormon mission, usually the leadership moves you to a new city with a new companion every 4-6 months. After two months in the Provo MTC, I'd been in the coastal city Escuintla to start (#1); then Boca del Monte, a suburb of the capital (#2); and now I was serving in a mountain city, Sololá (#3).

When we needed to travel farther than we could walk, we'd either hitchhike in the back of a pick-up truck for a small fee, or use the public transportation--otherwise known as the famed "chicken buses".

Beautiful, aren't they?

Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked laying out the background info.

It was a Monday (our one-day-per-week off from proselyting), and my companion and I were riding on a chicken bus down to Panajachel to hang out with the other missionaries and eat lunch together.

Usually the buses play the radio, which was heavily skewed to Los Tigres del Norte, Hermana Shaki (Shakira), and the Brothers Maná, but a song came on during this ride which I'd never heard before. It was upbeat, catchy, and fun, so I asked my companion if he knew the band or who the guy singing was.

Yep, I asked about "the guy" singing.

We got a good laugh when he didn't know but someone sitting nearby informed us that it was Celia Cruz, a woman famous in the Latin music scene for decades.

I heard that song a lot more during the rest of my time in Guatemala, and I always thought of the funny story of when I first heard it. I'd recommend searching for a song or two of hers on YouTube, like maybe "La Vida Es Un Carnaval".

Listening to it now, I can hear clearly that it's a lady, but I guess my ear wasn't tuned quite right that day.

Happy 88th birthday, Celia. RIP, and thanks for the memory!

Agency: Every Soul is Free

One of the key doctrines of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a.k.a. Mormons, is agency, or the right of every person to make decisions and choose between good and evil.

Good and evil isn't always the choice, though. Sometimes the choice is between good and better, or better and best. But we still get to choose.

On Sunday, the music director in church picked a song for the opening number that I didn't even recognize. Maybe I've heard it before, but I can't recall that occasion if I have.

The hymn was #240, "Know This, That Every Soul Is Free".

Though a relatively short one, it conveys some deep lessons and its message struck me.

If you're an auditory learner, this is a men's choir singing the hymn: 

And for visual learners, here are the lyrics from the lds.org website:

1. Know this, that ev’ry soul is free
To choose his life and what he’ll be;
For this eternal truth is giv’n:
That God will force no man to heav’n.

2. He’ll call, persuade, direct aright,
And bless with wisdom, love, and light,
In nameless ways be good and kind,
But never force the human mind.

3. Freedom and reason make us men;
Take these away, what are we then?
Mere animals, and just as well
The beasts may think of heav’n or hell.

4. May we no more our pow’rs abuse,
But ways of truth and goodness choose;
Our God is pleased when we improve
His grace and seek his perfect love.

Interesting, no? That 3rd verse is a little strange, even though it's technically true.
I especially like the line "God will force no man to heav'n" and the whole second verse.
But I'm really loving the set-up right now.

"To choose his life and what he'll be;"

We make decisions, and then we have to live with the ramifications and results of those decisions. We can't choose the outcomes, especially when the agency of other people comes into play.

Sometimes the decisions others make will hurt us or change our world completely. Drunk drivers, terrorists, and those sorts of individuals will affect us, and we may not be able to avoid their poor decisions.

But we can choose our reactions to the situations we are in. Whether to become bitter or resentful or closed-off from the world and those around us who want the best for us. We choose how to react to everything in our life.

That is our agency.

If you've never read "Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor E. Frankl, you need to. ASAP.
Go get it at the library this week, and read it cover to cover.
He'll bring you to tears with his heartbreaking story, but also he'll convey the power of choosing your reactions to tough situations in a much better way than I probably ever could.

We make decisions, and hopefully we'll choose good over evil. And then outside forces will act on us, but we make the choice of how to react. My new goal is to focus on the positive and try to learn from tough situations, so I'll be better prepared to help others and cope with difficulty going forward.

Emily's Endowment Weekend

Going into an LDS temple is a pretty big deal, so I was excited for Emily when she told me she'd taken the temple prep courses and had a date to receive her endowment in the Washington DC LDS Temple.

(Note: If you want to learn more, here is an article about the LDS endowment.)

Emily's mom came to visit for the weekend and act as Emily's guide in the temple. I was very happy to meet her, as she's actually the first person that I've met from Emily's family.

I picked Emily and her mom up early, so we could get up to the temple to have plenty of time for Emily to buy garments and then for us to head inside and not be stressed for time.

Plus, it gave us time to snap a few pictures before, including this cute one.

After our time in the temple, we had to get a few shots with the special people who came to support Emily in this big step. She is definitely blessed with some high-quality friends.

Since her parents hadn't been able to see the Pentagon 9/11 Memorial when they last visited DC, Emily and I took her mom to check it out. Such a peaceful place, and we appreciated the design of the benches facing toward (for people on the plane) and away from the building (for those on the ground).

We were all pretty tuckered out from having woken up early, so I dropped the ladies off for a quick naptime, and then we met back up a few hours later to see the free 6 pm show at the Kennedy Center.

Emily had looked into it beforehand, and the Philadelphia Jazz Orchestra didn't disappoint. I think I enjoyed watching Emily and her mom taking in the show together as I did listening to the upbeat, expertly-played music and singing.

Feeling quite cultured, we headed down to Old Town Alexandria for some dinner and a more intimate musical setting. Before dinner, we saw my favorite DC glass-player.

After dinner, we hit up the piano bar at Bistrot Lafayette, where we were able to join in the singing and request a few numbers. If you haven't been, you haven't lived. Emily's mom was loving it so much that we felt bad making her leave with us at just before midnight.

My brother Pete and his wife Jordyn had just made the move down to the DC area from Philly, so we met up with them for lunch the next day, and I liked them getting to also meet Emily's mom.

Having finished our lunch, Pete and Jordyn needed to continue unpacking, and Emily's mom wanted to get to the airport, so we dropped her off.

Such an action-packed, entertaining weekend. I wish those kind didn't ever have to end!

(Note: Emily's mom requested that I not post pics of her. Like mother, like daughter, I suppose...)

The G-Child's Baptism

Eight years old is a big milestone for LDS kids, because they've reached the age of baptism.

Lucky for me, I was able to extend my Utah vacation an extra couple days to be able to attend his service and witness him taking this step. Yes, I'm a very proud uncle.

Proud son and papa

The siblings

Back at their house, Adam and Lindsey hosted an ice cream reception for family and friends.

Quite the spread of toppings

The happy boy

Proud grandpas

Grammy and Nana Betts

The Smyth brothers

Can't wait for the next family baptisms!

Just don't hurry and grow up too fast, nieces.

Gay Mormons: It Gets Better

This past weekend, there was a conference in Washington DC for LGBT Mormons, friends, and supporters. While I wasn't able to attend, I think it's a wonderful sign that some members of the LDS Church are changing their viewpoint about homosexuality and gender issues from exclusion to inclusion.

Recently, a couple videos have come out from LDS groups in support of LGBT Mormons, using the "It Gets Better" tagline. I applaud the makers and participants in these videos, because hatred and fire and brimstone are not productive. Love and compassion and caring are.

I include the videos here:

BYU students

Family and friends

Well made and to the point.

I'm hopeful that more people will speak up, and do so in a spirit of love and inclusion. All are welcome and loved, or should be, especially by followers of the LDS Church, who have so much to give.

Sidenote: While researching, I came across the MoHo Directory, which links to blogs by gay Mormons and supporters. Thought I'd share, just in case anyone would like to read more stories or thoughts on this topic. 

Flashback Friday: Tysman Rap & Mormon Rap

Since this is the first week of my Flashback Friday series, I figured I'd throw in a bonus post.

I grew up in Utah, and my parents are both BYU alumni.
My dad took us to BYU football games, and we loved seeing the "QBU" passing attack shred opponents.

Though I was pretty young, I still remember watching Ty Detmer pass his way to the Heisman.

My dad followed that year with the same fanaticism that the BYU faithful followed Jimmer Fredette's senior season. All the publicity and staggering statistics made for lots of excitement.

As a natural result, my dad's football-loving sons were all about Ty and how great he was.

Ty Detmer, BYU's Heisman winner

And when it was clear that Ty Detmer was leading the Cougars to a special accomplishment, some guy seized the moment and wrote one of the worst raps in history. Which I loved back then, by the way.

The Tysman Rap.

Yes, it's pretty bad in retrospect. But at the time, I thought it was the bee's knees.

A couple years later, I guess some other guys figured white people (other than the Beastie Boys, of course) deserved another chance at rapping about something totally not-rappable.

The Mormon Rap.

It's so bad that it's good. Also, many of the references are still surprisingly relevant.

That's kinda scary if you think about it.

I hope we (meaning BYU and Mormons) learned our lesson and don't try any more rapping like this.

Or perhaps there actually are some decent raps by/about these topics now.

Nah, I doubt it, and it's not worth the time or effort to research.

Now Available: Gluten-Free Sacrament

Each Sabbath day, Christians around the world take the Sacrament/Communion.

This act reminds believers of the Savior's sacrifice for them and is a renewal of promises made.*

In my church (the LDS/Mormon Church), the Sacrament consists of bread and water.

Recently I joined a new congregation, and I was somewhat surprised to see this in the announcements:

Do you see that? Gluten-free sacrament is available! How cool is that?!

Not sure why I'd never thought of it, but surely there are some who need this and I'm glad the leadership here makes it available so that those people can fully participate in this important weekly ordinance.

*If you'd like to know more about Mormon beliefs regarding the Sacrament, you can [read here].

Mark Asper: Oregon Duck, Hero, Eagle Scout, Husband, Father, and...

Mormon.

Of course.

When I read the story this morning on Yahoo News about how an Oregon offensive lineman had saved a choking man's life, and credited his Scout masters and Eagle Scout training, I started to wonder.

When the story then mentioned he was the oldest guy on the team, and that he was married with two kids (both daughters, how cute!), alarms started going off in my head.

So I figured I'd check his Oregon player profile to see if I could get any more info. [Stalker-ish of me?]

When his profile included these tidbits, I determined he's likely a member of the LDS Church:

• Attended Bonneville High in Idaho Falls, ID. Not a slam dunk, but there are lots of Mo's in ID.
• Majoring in Spanish. That could mean a lot of things, until you factor in the next point.
• Redshirted the 2007 season "after being away from the game for a two-year religious mission commitment."

Bingo.

Lots of churches do mission trips, which is excellent and I wish more people had/took the opportunity to serve those in need around the world, including in the U.S., but the two-year part is usually a pretty straight-forward LDS giveaway.

So while I don't really have a horse in the Rose Bowl, I'll be cheering for Oregon's #79.

Not just because he's Mormon (as there are probably some LDS guys on the Wisconsin side, too), but because he's a great guy and a life-saving hero.