So, one month ago we celebrated the blessed 4th of July. In Mexico. Because there are cheap fireworks here. Just kidding! We celebrated because we have all come to reflect on and more sincerely appreciate the place we call home. Mexico and the Hispanic culture have been fun and wonderful to experience. There is a kindness and spirit of togetherness that I have felt only here. Plus, Spanish is just an awesome language and I'm not afraid to speak it if I'm talking to anyone under the age of 6! (Even Ukrainian KIDS are intimidating.)
That being said, there just isn't another place like the good ´ole U.S. of A. In all honesty, I´ve thought a lot about what to say to ´´honor´´ my country in this 4th of July post, but I feel ignorant this year. I took an amazing class by Elder Holland´s son my first semester at BYU called American Heritage. I felt and learned a lot of truth about our founding and our growth as a country and since then I´ve felt like a knowledgeable, patriotic, and grateful citizen. And then, as life usually goes, something happens to make you see you don´t know as much as you thought. For me that was the death of my 31-year-old cousin, Sgt. Glen Jacob Whetten, in Afghanistan this March. I never really got to know him well (I was afraid of ALL the ´´old´´ cousins when I was a kid) but his family are my closest relatives (and truly amazing people) and seeing them hurt was a poignant reality for me.
I think ´´sacrifice´´ has been a word that I have tossed around in expressions of my gratitude for this country I GET to live in, but not one I understood. I still don´t claim to understand it fully, but some people I love definitely do. And I am sincerely grateful. Grateful that so many are willing to choose and/or accept to bear the weight of that reality (sacrifice) when they or someone they love serves in our country´s armed forces.
Aunt Amy, Pink family, Lee family, Whetten family, and Jake... Thanks for your testimonies, courage, and strength. You are thought of often and are in many prayers. We love you and feel blessed to be your family. I really do love this country and because of Jake will forever act to honor it in the ways I can.
From Jake:
I was not scared of dying,
I did what I was trained to do,
Face Adversity on the battlefield,
Head to head.
With my rifle in one hand,
And my faith in the other,
I faced Adversity.
Know that when I went down,
I went down, standing up,
That I fell forward, not backward,
Not running away, but charging ahead
And that I faced Adversity.
I tell you now,
It wasn’t death that I feared;
It’s not knowing what I was made of,
That’s what I feared.
It’s knowing that I fell for what is right,
That I embrace.
As far as regrets,
I had none,
Other than not enough times saying,
That I love you.
--Glen Jacob Whetten
3/19/78 – 3/12/10
KIA Afghanistan
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