Pleasant Greetings from Sacramento, CA, USA! The summer month of July brought 3-digit temperatures to the high of 110s, so came out the Capri pants, short sleeves and light clothing, and relaxing days at the gym and walks on the parks.

We’re all excited to celebrate the 4^th of July: started with morning Mass at St. Mel to thanks GOD for all the Blessings for America, sing GOD Bless America, breakfast at Black Bear Diner; visited Fr. George Snyder at his new parish as Pastor  of S

t. Claire Church in Roseville (from Redding, CA). Fr. George toured Sean and me around his 15-acre sprawling Romanesque beautiful church. Definitely, he will be kept busy by the parishioners of 7,000 families. After taking photos around which I shared on FB, we went for lunch at Golden Koi Japanese/Chinese buffet Fr. George specified. Then, Sean and I went shopping at Galleria; after short rest, we proceeded to Hagan Park in Rancho to watch the colorful fireworks; took midnight snacks at Denny’s, before heading home. It was a thoroughly busy day, and worth the fun and excitement, especially since Sean just got the good news of his promotion at work! We maximized our time as Sean is always out of State work assignments, especially on week-ends.

My regular activities with Opus Dei went on smoothly; our monthly BCBP gathering came with the usual group photos, followed by our Action Group meeting at Raley’s Natomas to discuss plans and programs for implementation. Likewise, we held a going away/ despedida party for Jojo I. who decided an early retirement from his IT position for a leisurely life in Pinas – how exciting and admirable!

The month was highlighted by the Bruno Mars Concert at Golden 1 Center, called 24K Magic World Tour 2017. Sean managed to get VIP tickets which afforded us VIP entrance, freebies, reception amenities of food, drinks, shopping; the big surprise was our seats – we got middle aisle seats, 5^th row from the stage giving good view and room for dancing the entire show; we got to appreciate the colorful pyrotechnics feature and good recording of the entertaining performances. The front act was the Jabawockeez (male group with some Pinoys) wonderful choreography with their songs; Bruno Mars was a Total Entertainer with his amazing voice and the choreography of his entire band – Entertaining Performance for 4 hours, and all the Dancing!!!

 

Other highlights for the month:

·      Continuous Two-way Communications with all family members; Gerry, Sarah and Sean always checks up on me;

·      I attended the monthly meeting and apostolate for the St. Mel Vocations Ministry giving 3 checks starting June 2017; It had been my lifelong apostolate to support the vocation of Priesthood; I support 3 seminaries in Pinas; Fr. Robert Barron’s Mundelein Seminary in Illinois, and now the St. Mel Vocations Ministry;

·      Movies watched for relaxation were: Spiderman – Homecoming; With Sean being out of town most week-ends, our bonding time had been minimized;

·      On my grocery shopping at our nearby Raley’s, I dropped my black wallet and thought that I had lost it. When I returned to Raley’s the following morning, the supervisor retrieved it from their Lost and Found section, and I got the wallet back and all the contents inside. I truly have Faith in the American culture and system – so GREAT!

Much love and Best Regards!!!