The Universal Language

I have a calling in my ward. I am the Pianist for the Agua Santa Ward in the Vina del Mar Stake. It is a blessing in so many ways. I have a purpose, I have an obtainable goal to work toward every week, and I am getting so much better at playing the Hymns.

Remember that part in Remember the Titans when Coach Denzel Washington walks onto the football field and says, "this, is my sanctuary." Well, I have a key to the Church, and when I walk into the empty Chapel to practice, I usually stop to take in the wonderful feeling and I think to myself, "this, is my sanctuary." When I go to the empty Church Building it doesn't matter that I didn't understand anything my teachers said in class, it doesn't matter that I don't use direct or indirect object pronouns correctly when I speak, I doesn't matter that I forget how to conjugate verbs properly or that I forget new vocabulary words I wrote down all of three seconds ago.

All that I have to think about is music. I don't even think in English much. I just thing about music, the glorious, wonderful, universal language that I can speak. I'm not the best pianist by any means, but I love this calling because I can feel myself improving. I can play Hymns that I struggled to get through a week ago. It's like Spanish in fast-forward. As of late, when I'm feeling really good about things--and especially when I'm not--I sing along with the Hymns (in Spanish of course). My favorite Hymn is Mas cerca, Dios, de ti. Words cannot explain how good it feels to sing my heart out in an empty Chapel. Like I said, I am blessed.

Here is the most wonderful sight to my eyes; the empty Chapel. The keyboard is the left of the window. Denzel said it best, "this, is my sanctuary."

So It Begins...

You know, it didn't seem to matter that I had known and was planning on going to Chile for about eight months (since about November of 2008), the change still hit me hard. But what I find interesting is that my scariest moment was not when I walked off the plane in Santiago, rather, it was sitting at DIA waiting to board for Toronto, Canada. I was terrified. I kept questioning myself, "Why am I doing this? Why did I want to do this? Why did I ever think Spanish or going abroad was so cool!?!" Thankfully I had a book to calm me, and one passage talked about how people can do many things if they just have courage. Courage. The word struck a chord in me. I can do this, yes I can, I simply need to apply the courage I know I have somewhere, and whatever courage I lack (which is a lot), I know I can get from other sources like family, friends, and the Atonement. Once I ran these thoughts through my head, I was fine. Seriously. I felt so much better. I actually enjoyed my remaining flights (kinda), and now I really got a kick out of not understanding anyone. So, on the brink of my new adventure, I like to say that yes, it's hard and totally different, but I can do hard things, and I know that I can do all things in the strength of the Lord.

The Denver International Airport before I had time to sit down and freak out. So young, so naive...

Toronto, Canada Airport and I'm excited to see Chilean pesos. I couldn't believe it. I gave the lady at the Currency Exchange $30, and she gave me 11,000 pesos, which sounded like a lot to me (sucker!).