Metropolis of Mucci

Dearest Father

2009-12-19T17:03:00.000-08:00

Dearest Father
By Elizabeth Ann Mucci

I found myself standing perfectly still, as if frozen by regret. A warm tear was born to fall rapidly to the earth, releasing me from my unrelenting fear to enter this place of sadness and doubt.
My hand trembled as I reached forward to grab the red doors that's paint was far worn and stripped from the mighty wood that we had both used to build this building.
My Heart began to swell with many emotions as I entered. Cobwebs and dust had accumulated from the many years of neglected care, yet I still found a strange pleasure in the musky smell from the old hay. Must be the young farm boy in me at heart.
Then I saw it. A table in the back corner, baring the weight of many boxes that were packed neatly, left to be forgotten; baring the weight of a boy who died in pursuit of lifting the weight off many who were suffering.
As I walked forward towards the boxes my heart began to beat vigorously within my body. The air became thick and I found myself longing to breathe freely without so much pain, without hate and bitterness.
I gently brushed the dust off the top of the first box, to find his writing in black marker,
"My country I will serve!"
Opening the box I was to find the emblem of our beloved country, neatly folded with precision and care. How could I feel so much hate for something that represents my freedom? All I could think about is how it represented the loss of a piece of me. No legacy to be passed on, no one to carry on the family name. It had all been taken in the name of this beloved country.
Why was I here. I had been avoiding this retched hell of memories for four years. Why now was I compelled to reenter into this place of misery?
I sifted through his things remembering them exactly as I did when I packed them. Lifting a book from the box a small letter slipped from within its pages ready for its words to be heard by him who was intended.

My dearest father,
I wanted to thank you for teaching me how to love, and how to care for others, thus influencing my decision to give back the love you have shown me, to those who are crying out for it. You always taught me to be grateful for the freedoms and privileges I have in my life. Father, I am so incredibly grateful for those freedoms. I am also grateful for the Gospel you made sure I was able to have in my life so that I could better appreciate my agency and the freedoms that I was given in a more spiritual sense. How could I ever give back a sacrifice equivalent to a life that was given so that we may be free and happy and return to our heavenly father again? I know you are unhappy with my decision to join, but Remember my beloved father, I am willing to make this sacrifice knowing that if I succeed, many lives will be saved and they will know true happiness. I couldn't ask for more than to be like my savior, my brother Jesus Christ. I will return to you again. That is the whole plan right?
Be strong for me while I am away. I will see you in no time.
With love,
Jonathan

I didn't bother putting the things I had removed from the box back. I merely held tight to the letter and made my way back out into the light of day. Such peace had overcome my body and I knew that I was free from the demons that had held so tight to my soul for four years. After all the years I had been teaching the lessons, this time I was to be taught, to be called to humility. For just as god sent his only begotten son to save the souls of many, so had I. Yet God still loved all, even though he knew his son suffered. Now I could let go, now I could move on, for He was waiting for me to join him, and I was finally ready to except that wonderful truth.

" I will go before your face...mine angles round about you, to bear you up"

2009-12-13T13:06:00.000-08:00

As I type these words, my heart is filled with gratitude. Gratitude for my circumstance of life. I became very ill the past few days, and this is the worst possible time to be sick. I lost my apartment due to debt, both business and personal. I live in my parent's1984 RV with has leaks when it rains.. Having no way of repairing the roof, my father bought us a tarp to cover over the RV until the raining season in California ceases. There is no paved cement on which the RV is parked, so my wife and I either have to go through my parents house, which inside resides a cat that Liz is very allergic to, or to walk in mud and do our best to keep it out of the RV. When its dry and the windows are open, the dust settles all over our tables and clothes, it truly is a chore in itself to keep the RV tidy.

It is the Christmas season, and we both work in retail. We work long and hard hours, and I have become ill. When one of us misses work, we miss a bill to be paid, or food to eat. There has been times where we have sat in our break rooms at work and envied others eating food while our peasant portion wasn't enough to satisfy our hunger. I have contracted a case of Strep Throat, a sickness that I haven't had in years. This is the worst possible time for me to have this sickness because of the work that I will miss.

I felt that all was lost, everyone keeps telling me that" it could be worse", and then it gets worse. I keep telling them "Yes, but it could always be better..." I say that so I will do my best and focus on the positive aspect of my life's, even though I feel that I can count my blessing on my fingers.

As I went to the urgent care, I wondered how would I pay for this. Our cell phones are about to be turned off if I don't pay them and this money now has to go to making me better. I feel so selfish and wished there was another way.

Liz and I got out of our car and Liz reads the name on the door and suddenly gasps "Dr. Robert Rigg JR." I recognized the name, and it reminded me of the slight envy that I have of Taber's career success, and the yearning I wish to give that success to Liz and he has to Becca. I figured that was no relation, and believed it was a foul trick played upon a broken man. As we entered the Urgent Care, I started filling out the paperwork and Liz asked if Dr Rigg was there and the nurse said yes.

We then were taking into a observation room and were asked the normal procedure questions that a nurse is required to ask. Liz told the nurse that she believed she was related to the Dr, it being Taber's brother. The nurse then walked out the room and informed Dr. Rigg of us claiming to be related to him, we could her Dr. Rigg outside ask "What's their last name?" The nurse responds "Mucci". "I don't know any Mucci's" Dr. Riggs replies. After the conversation Dr Rigg enters our rooms and says "How do I know you?" Once he entered the room, Liz knew right away he was Taber's bro, and began linking the missing pieces.

He was so excited that we were there, he was telling everyone that his in-laws were there. He sounds like a boy who received a new puppy for Christmas. It amazed me to think he was so excited to tell everyone we were there, surely he had closer relatives that mean much more to him than a couple of strangers he met merely 10 sec prior.

However, I have come to learn that this was not the case. I learned that he is successful yet lives alone, with his son who recently returned from a mission. Oh, how my heart ached for his situation, for I know the pits of loneliness far too well. After he checked me out he asked if we had insurance. We told him we are waiting on Liz's work to send us a card and the details on how to use it. He simply said "When you get it, just fax it over to me" and "Don't worry about paying today, I won't charge you anything." He gave me the antibiotics that I need to get better and we were about to leave, then he asked if he could take a picture of us and send it to Becca. We laughed and said sure.

After leaving Becca called Liz and they chit chatted about the experience. I on the other hand was taught a wonderful lesson by the Lord. I recently have felt that the Lord has abandoned us until we "learned our lesson" so to speak. I felt punished for trying to live a normal life. I felt like because I was married so I wouldn't fall into excommunication, that I was cursed for not being sealed and using self control until March 20, our original wedding day. We sacrificed almost everything, including ties to family members, to be together and it seemed that the Lord wanted to take more. I was wrong.

The Lord was with us through it all. He is all knowing, and because of his great power, created a plan that started more than 30 years ago for this one moment in time. If Dr Rigg never became a doctor.....if Becca never met Taber....if I never met Liz...If I didn't lose it all...none of these extraordinary blessings would have ever came to pass. But they did, and because of those wonderful blessings, I too get to enjoy a small blessing of a $13 prescription given to us by a man, who loves his family, and by a God who loves us all.

The Lord is real, his gospel is real. "Therefore, ye must always pray unto the Father in my name; And whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is right, believing that ye shall receive, behold it shall be given unto you." (3 Nephi 18:19-20).

I testify that the Lord is always at work "to bring the immortality and eternal life of man."(Moses 1:39) He knows each one of our problems, all the way down to the sickness you contract the night before. I prayed to be borne up by the Lord last night,and an answer to that prayer I did receive. The Lord had to humble me so that I might once again see his awesome power and his mercy that he so willingly gives. May you all not be like me and go the hard way to know that the Lord is there, but keep the commandments and focus on your sins of omission, so you may enjoy the fruits of the Spirit, and know of the love that God has for all of his children. We are all #1 in His eyes. May this testimony be recorded here on earth and in heaven in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

Mucci Ohana Crib

2009-09-13T12:22:00.000-07:00

[Click Above to See the High Quality Pic of our Apartment!]

Tony and I have been promising you guys pics of the apartment. however, I have been finding myself somewhat displeased with the results of the pictures because they weren't doing the apartment justice. Video it is!!!!!

Hope you guys enjoy the little tour of our beautiful new home.

love Liz and Tony

our ray of sunshine

2009-09-11T19:38:00.000-07:00

Ever since we have moved to Simi Valley CA, I have noticed that we are blessed with some of the most amazing sunsets. Living on the third floor too helps us get to appreciate them more aswell.

picture from our patio

we get to sit on our couch on the patio and enjoy this breath taking view.

We have a huge window in our master bedroom, and we can lay on our bed and look out the window. I took this one this morning while laying on the bed.

another pic I took last night after we went out for dinner. Gosh I love the sunsets here. they are so amazing.

Eklect Enterprises Beginning

2009-08-18T17:20:00.000-07:00

I dont really blog much. Probably due to the fact that I stink at writing. I would probably be better at podcasting, which might be in the near future.

Anywho, I just wanted to write and tell everyone to check out our latest version of EklectInc.com. Its the new parent company that I am working on creating. Unlike Eklect Records of old, this one will actually work LOL

Click Here for the Website

SAN DIEGO

2009-08-03T11:18:00.000-07:00

So this weekend, Tony and I got a much needed vacation to San Diego. It was so fun, and we are really happy that we got to spend some time with Sarah and Tau and Aunt Karen.

The first night we stayed up pretty late playing some games with Aunt Karen. Tony kind of just gave up in the game. I don't know if it was becuase he was the only guy against three girls or if he was really just dead tired. It was super fun though.

As usual Uncle Bob was just doing his thang... Passed out in a chair. That is like his constant state of being. lol

The next day Tony and I drove down to San Diego to have some reminiscent times.

We spent our first day together in the gas lamp district. It was really fun to see it 5 months later and see where we are at today. It is crazy!

This was the first place we hung out. Next to the MAC store there was a furniture store. It isn't there anymore, but we went in there when the girls were looking at makeup and sat on a couch and started to get to know each other. lol

Thought this building was really cool looking. I took so many pics of the buildings in SD. The architecture in that city is so amazing. I love it.

While we driving, we stumbled by a harbor with tons of ships. Tony LOVES pirate ships and all sorts of things like that,. so we had to stop by and check it out. He was so cute.... he was like a kid with a new toy or something. He was totally geeky over the whole thing.

This is the first ship we went on and looked at. It is the same ship they used on the movie Master and Commander. It was super cool, but I got really sick being on it from all the motion.

bell on the Master and Commander ship

wheel thingy

This is a Russian submarine. It was so stuffy and hot on it. and you had to crawl through four little holes to get through. I didn't get as sick on this, but it was really small and uncomfortable. the American sub we went on later was a lot nicer and more spacious.

Taking a second to snap a pic on the submarine

On top of the sub.

Some more buildings in SD

On our way home we decided to Take the PACIFIC COAST back. So we got to go through Laguna beach, Newport, Long beach and so forth. it was cool. We stopped at a cool beach and snapped some pics too.

I think this is Capistrano beach

There were tons of rocks all over the beach and I had a lot of fun taking pics of them.

more rocks

cool shot of Tony sitting on a bench

Then we went to BALBOA ISLAND, and took the Auto ferry across the water.

It was cool to be in your car on a ferry. I still got a little sea sick. I get motion sick real easily.

pic on the ferry

Right when we were driving off the ferry.

We had a total blast. and it was awesome to take a stroll down memory lane. I mean, everything started for me and Tony in San Diego. That is where we first met, and fell in love. We even were super giddy staying with Aunt Karen this time, because this time, he actually got to come upstairs with me. lol It is so crazy how fast Love works. I mean we have been together for almost a half a year, but it seems like just yesterday when we spent that first day together in San Diego.

Tony- Liz Says I Should Blog

2009-06-10T19:46:00.000-07:00

...Blog.

;-)

♥ Life Together ♥

2009-06-10T14:45:00.000-07:00

Tony flew out to Utah May 15th and packed me up. We rented a u-haul and the both of us drove out to California to start our new lives together.
I am so grateful to have Tony in my life. He is so amazing, and I have never been treated with so much love and tenderness. He is the Blessing in my life that I am so eternally grateful for.
my life... I am in the process of becoming a master personal trainer. I will be certified as a personal trainer, advanced personal trainer, nutrition and wellness consultant, sports conditioning specialist, and a master personal trainer. It is supposed to take me a year to accomplish everything, but since I do not have a job right now, I consider my studies and my working out time as work. I dedicate 8 hours out of my day to read and workout. I am not gonna lie, this is like the best job ever. ha ha ha
Tony works at onestop right now, However, I am hoping that we can soon have him focus on his music 100%
this is Tony working on a new song. I just sit on the couch and just stare at him. I really can't help but be fascinated with him. He is so talented. I am very excited for his future in music, and I have every confidence in him.
playing in the pool my first Sunday here. The family is wonderful and I love them very much.
our engagement party. That was a very very yummy cake.
Life together pretty much ROCKS! I don't think we could be any happier. When the silly things in life start to distract us, we keep reminding each other of how blessed we are to have each other in our lives, and we keep pushing forward to accomplish all the goals we have set before us. We are so very happy and can't wait till March 20Th is here so we can be sealed for time and all eternity in the San Diego Temple.

Tony: Found a Cool Video On Facebook

2009-05-02T15:14:00.000-07:00

I saw this video on Facebook and thought it was very nice. God bless the servants of the Lord. They also know how to keep you ground on a solid foundation. What a blessing! Oh yeah....and Liz is freakin hot!

Tony: I'm not that good at this whole blogging thing ;-)

2009-04-26T00:44:00.000-07:00

So I figured a good quote on marriage would suffice ;-)

Marriage, designed to be an eternal covenant, is the most glorious and most exalting principle of the gospel of Jesus Christ. No ordinance is of more importance and none more sacred and more necessary to the eternal joy of man. Faithfulness to the marriage covenant brings the fullest joy here and glorious rewards hereafter. The abuse of this sacred ordinance despoils the lives of individuals, wrecks the basic institution of the home, and causes the downfall of nations.

-Elder Ezra Taft Benson, Conference Report, April 1949, Afternoon Meeting, p.197

♥ Liz's version of how Tony Proposed ♥

2009-04-24T14:42:00.000-07:00

Being in Hawaii with the love of your life is such an amazing experience. Especially when you get to face many challenges together, such as illnesses, frustrating experiences of being lost or not finding parking lol, and weird stalker girls that are obsessed with your boyfriend. lol. Yes these things happened to us. However, that's really not the important part. The first couple days Tony and I were constantly proclaiming our love to each other expressing how badly we wanted to be married and to be with each other for eternity. I knew that eventually he would ask me to marry him for he had called my dad the week before and asked for my hand in marriage. I would have never thought that within the next seven days after asking he would've got my ring and put together his whole plan to propose to me. He even purposely set up little nets of deceit to throw me off by saying that when we get back to the mainland, we should go ring shopping. I told Tony that I didn't want to go ring shopping, and that I wanted my husband to pick my ring out all on his own. I wanted him to put a lot of thought into it, and make sure that it was special and symbolic. I could care less what the ring looked like. All I knew is that if he picked it out and it was a ring that he thought would represent me and our love, then I would LOVE it.

Sunday morning Tony woke me and and pretty much gave me 30 minutes to get ready for church. Low and behold I was still ready before him. We discovered that on this trip that he is a lot more high maintenance than i AM LOL.

We went to church and had to sit out in the lounge area because they were having ward conference. Tony started reading his patriarchal blessing during sacrament and showed me a paragraph here and there as he read. Then he just offered for me to read the whole thing.

As I read his blessing, I have never felt so appeased with my life. It's almost as if many things in his blessing were answers to the questions I had to how I was to accomplish the things the lord wanted me to do in my blessing. A peaceful confirmation came over me that Tony and I really are so perfect for each other and the the Lord really does need us to be together to help each other do his work. As I began to express these feeling to Tony his smile just grew and many different emotions were apparent through his countenance.

He all of the sudden suggested that we hurry and leave because he was very hungry. I didn't oppose because he had been sick the past 2 days and hardly ate anything, so I was all about him getting some food in his belly.

We went back to the Orme's house and sister Orme informed us that they usually have a pot luck after ward conference. Tony looked pretty excited about this and wanted to go. I wasn't really in the mood for a pot luck or being social. I just wanted to be with Tony, but he just seemed to excited about it, there was no way I could decline. So it was back into the car and off to the church.

Tony wanted to stop off at the temple first and check out this view that sister Orme had told him about. The temple grounds were just so gorgeous and peaceful. The sister missionaries talked to us for a minute and extended the offer for us to check out this amazing exhibit about Christ. I was pretty excited and as I started walking over to the exhibit, Tony grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the door. He told me we could check it out after the exhibit. Now that I think about it I guess you could tell he was stressed about something, but I was so oblivious at the time.

We drove up to the hill and the gates were closed. I thought to myself, " well that's that!"

but no. Tony sees a little part of the the fence that was about 4 feet off the ground.

"wanna hop that?"

I looked at him like, are you serious? I was wearing high heels and a skirt, but there he was again with that face. he just seemed like he really really wanted to see that view, and I wasn't about to be the party pooper. So yes I did hop the fence in my skirt.

We were joking around about how we broke into temple grounds and I started busting up laughing when Tony started to pant and act like he was gonna die from being out of shape. Little did I know that he was really trying to calm himself down cuz he tends to shake when he gets excited or nervous. He did a very good job at hiding his anxiety.

When we made it to the top, the view was absolutely breath taking. It over looked all of Laie and the ocean and the temple. There was a little overlook area and I walked over and sat down. Tony got a HUGE smile on his face and walked over towards me and grabbed my hands and told me how much he loved me. I smiled at him and told him I loved him too. Still 100% oblivious to what was happening. He started to tell me that he knew that when he got me my ring it had to be huge because you can measure someones love by the size of the ring. I shook my head and smiled and told him that wasn't true. But he got on his knee and pulled out a giant paper weight diamond ring. In fact it was even more humorous because the first day we met we went to San Diego and he saw that ring in a store and jokingly proposed to me. So when he pulled it out, I just started laughing and told him he was silly. he asked me, " Elizabeth Ann Luka Kapuanani Aloha Uda, will you marry me for time and all eternity?" I started to laugh and said Yes.

Then.... he started going for his other pocket and said, " Good cuz the real ring is right here."

My heart stopped and I felt like I couldn't breathe. He pulled out a red box and opened it and there was my ring. AMAZING! It was so perfect in every way. Green is my favorite color, and told me that is also represents eternity.

I said yes and grabbed him and hugged him and kissed him. I couldn't believe it. He was so sneaky, and I really had no idea. We just sat there and enjoyed the moment, until Tony had to shout from the hilltop that he was gonna marry me. Then some security guy came and told us congratulations but we weren't allowed to be there. we laughed and thought it was cool, because it's not fun sneaking on to property if you don't get caught.

We spent the next couple hours at the temple and saw the exhibit and watched some presentations on eternal families. The spirit was so strong and I felt like this was the most amazing Sunday ever. When we were in the temple I saw brother Eubank and was pretty frustrated because I knew I had seen him and felt like I had known him my whole life. Turns out it was true. He was my weather guy from Utah. Him and his wife congratulated Tony and I and we sat and chatted with them for awhile.

I am so grateful that the Lord has blessed me with having the opportunity to be in Tony's life. He is so dear to me and is my best friend. We can't seem to go more than 1 minute without smiling when we are together. We are so giddy around each other and we seriously can't take our eyes off one another. Tony makes me laugh and truly brings so much joy into my life. I am so excited to start my life with him and to be by his side for eternity.

♥ Tony's version of how he proposed♥

2009-04-24T08:06:00.000-07:00

-This is an excerpt from my journal. I could care less about spelling and grammar in my journal, just FYI ;-) Enjoy-
In the morning we woke and we to church at 10am at the Orme's building, but different ward. I was talking with Liz about random stuff, and I let her read my patriarchal blessing. She was shocked by it, and talked about her blessing and how similar they were, and how she felt that we were made for each other because she was here to help me achieve what I need to do, and the same goes for me for her. I couldn’t take it by this point. I said I was hungry and wanted to go back to the house for lunch. We get back to the house and Sister Orme was still home and was about to go to church. She said that sometimes afterward conf. the wards would have a potluck. I saw this as my perfect opportunity to get Liz out of the house, because now I have both rings in my suit pants pocket. We drove up to the temple and we needed to get to the top of the hill behind the temple.

We went into the visitor’s center and asked how to get to the hill, we were given directions and we went. There was a great exhibit about the savior, but I rushed us out of the building and toward the hill, Liz couldn’t understand why I was rushing her out of the building and didn’t want to see the exhibit. We now are at the gate and it’s closed, but the fence is only about 4 feet tall and had a platform you could stand on to hop over. So somehow, I convinced Liz to do this. So we both hopped the fence in our Sunday dress attire, and walked up the hill. I was breathing hard as a joke for Liz to act like I was out of shape going up the hill. I was also doing this to calm my heart rate down so I wouldn’t shake because I was so nervous to ask her. I knew what the answer would be, but still it was nerve racking!

I had no idea how I would start this, so I said you can always measure how much someone loves you by the size of the ring the man gives you, she said No its not, and I got on one knee. It was a beautiful day, and could see the temple and the ocean perfectly. Time stood still for the first time in my life, and everything around us seemed bright. I asked her by her full name, if she would marry me for time and all eternity. And I pulled out the big paperweight ring. She was laughing and said “Aww babe you are silly” but then I said, here is the real ring for you, and pulled the little red box out of my right pocket and her face went from laughing and smiling to total shock. It was a priceless look. I and I opened the box and she started hugging me as I stood up and kissing me and said yes she would marry me. And keep saying how sneaky I was, she had no clue that I was going to do this, and was commenting on all the things I was saying during the trip about shopping for a ring when we get back to LA, and other things. And we talked about how earlier she said that she wanted her future husband to pick out a unique ring for her that had symbolism behind it. So it was perfect in every way.

The Spirit really helped me out with this one. I am so grateful for the influence of the spirit in my life to make it so special. Hawaii has always had a special place in my heart and so does Liz and it was just 100% perfect. The Lord’s hand was truly working miracles that whole day. And it was funny because I was going to wait for sunset to do it, but the Spirit kept telling me to do it sooner. And low and behold that night it rained during the sunset. And that was fun too, because we went to Laie Point and it started to rain and we got stuck out here and we were drenched and we always talked about making out in the rain, so we did and it was incredibly romantic.

I was glad we got to experience that on our engagement day. During the night we spent it with the Ormes chatting and eating dinner, and then had scripture study with each other and went to bed