Genuinely Giancarlo

Hey guys, it's been a second. I wanted to apologize real quick that I missed the blog over the past couple days but that's just because life has gotten in the way. I am going to try harder to get posts out but I know that my "post-a-day" aspiration might be a little out of my reach at the moment. I hope that you will forgive me for my shortcoming in this regard. So I just want to share a quick story of something I was thinking of last night as my family and I were driving somewhere: SUNSETS. Last night my family and I were driving on the freeway for a while and eventually I looked out the window and saw one of the prettiest sunsets I've ever seen in my life. I tried to take a picture of it but my camera couldn't accurately capture the pinks and reds in the sky so the pictures are still pretty good but man they don't do the sunset justice. I also took these from a moving car so they might not be perfect. REGARDLESS, THE SUNSET WAS...

Let me begin by apologizing for not posting anything yesterday. I had some time set aside for blogging but it was taken up by a soccer game I didn't know I was playing in until an hour before and a spontaneous trip to see some friends. My bad. Anyway, this post is related to some thoughts I had today as I made my trip to the Mexican Consulate in Salt Lake City. Here we go. Reminder: I am scheduled to depart on an LDS mission on December 5th, 2017, for the Mexico Ciudad Juarez Mission. I've had to do a lot to prepare for this event, and today I had an appointment to finish up some of the legal stuff. In order to serve a mission in Mexico, you have to get a visa to live in the country for an extended period of time. So, scheduled by the church, I had an appointment today to appear at the Mexican Consulate downtown with the purpose of obtaining this visa which would allow me to travel to Mexico as planned. Let me say here that I haven't traveled very much in my life....

Today's post is about some good luck I had today. No big lessons here or any profound thoughts of any sort, just a quick story. Enjoy. If you've ever been to BYU campus, you'll know one thing: the parking police are ruthless. Leave your car parked in the wrong spot for five minutes, and you run the risk of getting a ticket or even getting your car booted. It's disgustingly impressive how efficient they are at cracking down on poorly placed vehicles. I don't go to BYU, obviously, but I have many friends who do. I have a few friends specifically who (out of the goodness of their hearts) have invited me to stay in their dorm a few times and I have loved the chances I've had to hang out with them and stay down there. BYU isn't the school I'm planning on attending after my mission, but these times sure have been a blast. So one time a couple weeks ago I went to stay with them. I headed down on a Sunday night, intending to come home sometime on Monday bu...

Again, tonight's post is late and will be brief. I am legitimately sorry. Forgive me. So I don't have a lot to say. But I want to say a bit of something I was thinking about today. Part of the reason I haven't posted anything today until right now is the fact that I was pretty busy today. I got up, got ready, went to the doctor to get some shots, watched Italy tie a soccer game that leaves them out of the World Cup (don't worry, a big post about that is coming soon), and then I had to work, which didn't leave a lot of time for blogging. But that's not super important, or at least not all of it is. I just want to talk about one small part of my day today: the doctor. Part of my mission preparation is not religious, but logistical. In order to serve in Mexico, I have to make arrangements that help me live in this foreign place for an extended period of time. So today, I went to the Salt Lake County International Travel Clinic to get some immunizations. ...

Short post today. I'm a letdown, I know. Today's post will be brief because it is late and I am busy. No excuses. Honestly I just need to finish up a couple things and I want to go to bed, but I wanna get something out there before it gets too late. Today I went to Temple Square in Salt Lake City with my best friend Madie to take some mission pictures (which I will soon use to announce to family and friends some details about when I will go on my mission and when they can say their goodbyes and such. All extremely fun things, I know). Here are some of those pictures, placed here for your viewing pleasure and also for me to talk a little bit about: My personal favorite So I share these pictures because I want you to see them but also because I want to talk about how these pictures came to be. You can see a lot of things in these photos. You can see me, holding a Mexican flag, wearing a suit with a Mexican flag pinne...

A real post today? I'm killing the game. So as you know (or at least should know) today is Veteran's Day, a holiday set on the anniversary of the Armistice of World War I intended to honor all people who have ever served in the Armed Forces. It is a day of remembrance, of honor, and of respect. Although Veteran's Day isn't one of the holidays everyone gets excited for and in spite of the fact you won't see Veteran's Day decorations at Walmart 3 months before the holiday actually occurs, I think today is a great opportunity to say thank you to the people who serve on behalf of our country. To the people who selflessly sacrifice their time and their energy in the service of the country: I salute you wholeheartedly. Thank you for doing what others are not willing to do in order to protect the rights, privileges, and opportunities we all enjoy. And to those who have made the ultimate sacrifice and laid down their lives on behalf of us: Thank you. I don't k...

Although you can technically count this as a post, I will not be uploading a normal, thought out post tonight. I had been planning on writing one today but due to things beyond my control I have little more than these few minutes to write so I will use them to tell you that I apologize for not having a real post today. To make up for today's absence, I will be uploading two posts in one day sometime in the near future (likely this coming Sunday, but as you can tell from this post things don't always go as I plan). Again, all I can say is that I'm sorry I can't write out a real post tonight and I hope you understand. Thanks, and I'll see you tomorrow.

Fiery post today; coming in hot (pun only kind of intended). Let me begin this post by saying that I love my father. I have the deepest forms of admiration and respect for the life that he's lived, the struggles he's overcome, and the things he's achieved. In his life he's played in bands, served in the navy, and traveled across the world to an unfamiliar culture in order to raise a family. He's an incredible man, and I am blessed to have him as a father. With all that said, though, I can't tell you that we necessarily agree on things 100% of the time. We were raised in different circumstances and we have different priorities and values. Because of these differences, we sometimes have disagreements about how to do things (usually resulting in me doing things his way because he's my father and he generally knows better than I do). Today was one of those days. Storytime. Today started out as any day does: I was awoken around 6:30 AM to read scriptur...

Day 4. What's up? So today I was planning on typing out a post about something I did but it wasn't really coming together very well so I have decided to push that post back until (at least) tomorrow and instead will be publishing something I wrote for my English class during senior year. I hope that sounds okay to you. I must confess that I never like English classes. Not that I didn't view them as important or anything, because I did. I know that it's important to learn proper mechanics, usage, and execution of language. If I wasn't required to take an English class every year of my educational career, I wouldn't speak or understand the language nearly as well as I do and I certainly wouldn't have the confidence to run this blog. It's because of those classes that I understand grammar and spelling and communication in general. But even though I learned a lot in my English classes, a lot of the material seemed trivial at times. Why did I have to ...

I've tried being an adult for a while, and I don't think it's right for me. Thank you for the opportunity. I'm kidding (well, sort of). By legal standards, I have been classified as an "adult" for the last 383 days. As a kid growing up, I thought adulthood meant that you got to stay up as late as you want, make big decisions, and overall just run your life exactly as you want to. No people telling you no, no restrictions hanging over you, no worries about things. I was wrong. To be fair, 19 years old is barely what most people would consider a real adult. I know that I have a long way to go and a lot to learn before I can really say without hesitation that I know what I'm doing. But I hope I can get there soon. Also, I personally have a really weird situation. Most people following their high school graduation go on to college or get a job or in some way or another start doing something with their lives. I, however, am stuck in limbo. Sinc...

Hey guys, it's been a while. In this blog post, I want to give you some updates. But in order for me to do that, I need to explain some things. Here goes nothing. As many of you know (or can at least guess) I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (commonly referred to as the LDS Church or simply the Mormon Church). While the beliefs I hold in this church are very important, valuable, and tender to me, I have not shared many of these beliefs on this blog simply because I don't know where to begin or what to say. I guess I still don't know what to say. But if nothing else, know this: I do not know the intricacies of the universe or fully grasp the extent of all human knowledge because of my membership in my church. I don't know everything there is to know about the world or life or God or really anything. But what I have learned in this church has brought me happiness that I have not found anywhere else, and this feeling of happiness has lea...