Photos of myself and my family

This is a picture of my family: My three brothers and five sisters from the left to the right José Rodolfo, Oscar, Antonio, Alicia, Hilda Beatriz, Me (Rebeca) Audelia, Laura, and Victoria. My father, Sabino Martínez de León and my mother Josefina Pineda Posadas are sitting on the sofa.

This is a picture of my siblings and I when we were children from the left to the right: Audelia, Victoria, Alicia (carrying my youngest brother Oscar) Laura, Antonio, Rebeca, and the ones in front of me are José Rodolfo and Hilda Beatriz.

 These three pictures show the house were my family and I lived when we were children. When I was seven years old, my family emigrated to Nuevo León, México.

When it rained, the water was stored here to do the laundry, take shower, and any other house duties, even to drink it.

When we were children, we used to eat pingüicas, a fuit with sweet pulp.

To get home we needed to climb this mountain.

In this school my oldest sister (Alicia) and I started our elementary education.

This is a panoramic view of the town "El Realejo" where my parents and seven of their children were born.

This is my father with one of his best friends, Pedro. He got cancer and died this year.They were friends
for more that sixty years.










This is my aunt Herminia Pineda posadas, my mother´s sister, and her daughter María del Rosario Pineda Posadas.

Pedigree chart

Here is my pedigree chart.

Family History goals

Answer the Following Questions—Type your answers below the questions:

1. Write your favorite quote from the provided list.

“A life that is not documented is a life that within a generation or two will largely be lost to memory. What a tragedy this can be in the history of a family. Knowledge of our ancestors shapes us and instills within us values that give direction and meaning to our lives” Bridges and Eternal Keepsakes

DENNIS B. NEUENSCHWANDER of the First Quorum of the Seventy

2. Write your feelings about family history work.

I feel that I need to do more. I am struggling to keep my journal, but I want to do it. The quote I cited on question one made me feel the need to keep it. With this course I understood that family search is more than just doing genealogy. It is writing journals, family books and book of remembrance. I love it and I want to have more time to work in this issue.

3. Define in writing a character trait that you desire to work on in order to realize more success in your future family history efforts.

Perseverance, time management, and set goals. I think I need these three things in order to work better in family history.

4. Write specific goals you feel to set for yourself concerning your future work in family history and temple service. Consider breaking the goals into short, medium, and long-term.
5. Identify challenges that may derail your goals.

Some of the challenges that may derail my goals in this duty will be the time management, the amount of things I need to do at home, and the other callings I have in the church.

6. Make plans that will enable you to realize your goals. Don’t just identify what you want to do, also state how you will do it.

I will set specific time to keep my journal and I will set it as one of the main things I need to do during the day. I also will gather pictures about my family and use the questions given in this course to interview my relatives and ask my parents about their ancestors and the histories they remember about them.

Create your own goals—Fill out the chart below with your own goals. They can be Family History related or just general life goals. Set goals and use them.

Submit your responses—Copy your answers above and the chart below and paste them into the comment box of the corresponding iLearn assignment.

My Dreams	Goals
Gathering pictures of my family and ancestors	Daily: ·         Write two daily messages to relatives asking to send me 3 representative pictures of their family. ·         Organize the pictures received in a folder by relationship. ·         Keep a record of the families that have sent the pictures. Weekly: ·         Accommodate pictures by family ·         Check if all of the pictures are in chronological order ·         Place the pictures in order per family in a book Deadline: January 31, 2014
My parents’ and grand parents’ histories	Daily: ·         Send a message to my brothers and sisters asking about the best histories they remember from our parents and grandparents ·         Set a folder for each family members and place the histories on each folder Weekly: ·         Accommodate each history on each folder ·         Place the histories in order ·         Begin the format of the book and copy each history in a word file Deadlines: March 30, 2014
Keeping my journal	Daily: ·         Reflect on the experiences I had during the day ·         Write the most significant experiences I have during the day ·         Keep a reminding message  “write on your journal” on my computer Weekly: ·         If I could not write on my journal daily I will write a weekly summary of the experiences I had during the week. ·         Check if I don’t missed a day if so, I will write the experiences I remember from that day Deadline: I will do it for a Month from December 15, 2013 to January 15,2014
Doing my father’s book	Daily: ·         Write one of the experiences I remember I have heard from him. ·         Place the histories by theme. ·         Set the format of each history he has related Weekly: ·         Visit my father each week. ·         Interviewing my father about his life (I will use “Building a book about” to ask questions about his life and experiences. Deadline: June 30, 2014

Two stories of my ancestors

This is my aunt Herminia Pineda Posadas. She is my mother’s youngest sister. She was born and raised in El Realejo, a small town located in Guadalcazar, San Luis Potosi, Mexico.  She had a hard childhood in this town because my grandmother used to bully her with physical and emotional abuse. She became a single mother when he was fifteen years old. Nobody knows who the biological father is. She named her daughter María del Rosario Pineda Posadas.  My grandmother (Aurelia Posadas Cruz) was not happy with this issue, so the abuse continued, until Herminia felt so stressful and decided to run away from her parents’ house when she was seventeen years old (1962).  Two years later, my grandmother received a letter from Hermninia where she invited her mother to visit her in Veracruz. She also said that she was married and the name of her husband was Juan. My grandmother did not give a response and she did not go to Veracruz either. It has passed more than fifty years and my grandmother died in 1980. My mother has a strong desire to find Herminia and her daughter, but she does not know where she is living. I have tried to find her through different means (internet, TV programs or government departments) without success.

My grandmother Romula de Leon Obregón (father’s mother) lived with my family and I when I was a child. She had her own house in the same grounds near of ours. She was widow since 1950 when my grandfather (José Luciano Juan Martínez Dávila) died. She liked the fruit trees like peaches, apples, apricots, and sapota. She used to cook corn tortillas in the mornings. Sometimes my siblings and I played bingo with her, although she did not like to lose the game. Sometimes she was bad-tempered. She liked to dance a lot and she frequently used to go to parties. One day she, my mother and I went to Guadalcazar and my siblings stayed at home. They were children and they played around the house and ate all the apricots the tree had.  When we return from Guadalcazar and my grandmother saw that became so angry.  When I was almost eight years old, my family and I migrated to Nuevo Leon and my grandmother stayed in El Realejo, but she used to visit us once a year.  Years later when she got Alzheimer, she stayed with us and my mother took care of her for some years. She died in 1999 at the age of ninety-five years old.

This is a picture of our house, and my grandmother lived in a similar house.

My Personal Life History

My name is Rebeca Martínez Pineda. I was born on October 26, 1968. I am the second of nine children. My brothers and sisters’ names are Alicia, Antonio, Audelia, Victoria, Laura, José Rodolfo, Hilda Beatriz, and Oscar. My youngest two siblings were born in Nuevo Leon. My father’s name is Sabino Martinez de Leon and my Mother’s name is María Josefina Pineda Posadas. The following picture was taken thirteen years ago. Actually, all my brothers and sisters are married. I have twelve nieces and twelve nephews. I also have two great-nieces and three great-nephews. During Christmas time when we have a dinner together we are almost fifty people!

Seven of my siblings, my parents and I, as well as most of my ancestors were born and raised in a small town called “El Realejo” in Guadalcazar, San Luis Potosi, Mexico.  When I was a child my brothers and sisters used to play in the fields near home. We didn’t have any kinds of toys, so we played in the trees, with the rocks, in the creeks formed by rain. We also played with domestic animals like chickens, pigs, hens, dogs, and a cat. My grandmother lived with us and she had fruit trees like apples, peaches, sapota, and apricots. My mother sowed corn and beans, while my father worked as a miner.  The following picture shows the house where my family and I lived until I was seven years old.

In this small town I finished my first two years of Elementary school. There were few children, so the school just had two groups. We used to go to school from 8 to 1 and 3 to 5 from Monday to Friday. I enjoyed a lot my life in this small town.  My childhood was very happy. I really miss the life in this picturesque place. After that, my parents decided to move to Nuevo Leon, Mexico, because in that small town there were not job opportunities for my father.  In this new place I finished my elementary and middle school education. Some of my cousins had migrated to Nuevo Leon a few years earlier, and one of them met the missionaries and he sent them to my family. I was baptized in the church when I was eleven years old (February 25, 1979). In that year just four of my nine siblings were baptized. My mom and three of the other siblings joined the Church in 1985.The missionary who taught us the gospel is from Veracruz, México. Here is a picture of him.

We were a big family, so my father could not pay everything. When I was seventeen I decided to continue my education at Benemérito de las Americas, a Church High School located in Mexico, Distrito Federal. I studied and worked there until I finished High School (from 1986 to 1989). Being in that school was a blessing in all aspects of my life because I got a strong testimony of the Gospel. My testimony was strengthened and I learned to keep a balance in all the spiritual, social, academic, and emotional aspects of my life. The experiences I lived there were a turning point in my life.

When I finished High School, I was almost  twenty-one years old and I had a strong desire to serve a mission, so when I was in my last year at Benemerito, I filled out my papers to serve on a mission. I was called to serve in Mexico-Hermosillo Mission from 1989 to 1991. I had thirteen wonderful companions and I met wonderful people in Obregón city, Guaymas and Hermosillo, Sonora. Twenty years have passed since I served my mission and I still keep in touch with some of the missionaries and my president and his family.  I lived wonderful experiences during my mission time. In the following picture there are some of the sister missionaries that served at that time. My companion and I are there too.

After I finished my mission (1991) I came back home and started to work to help my family and save money to go to the university. I began college education in 1992 and I got a Bachelors Degree in Linguistics (1998) and five years later I started a Masters Degree in TESOL (2003-2007).

After I got my bachelors degree, I had more time to travel to different places. My best friend (Kathy) and I visited some cities in Mexico like Puebla, Cholula, Mexico City, Casas Grandes, Chihuahua; and Guadalajara. We traveled together to Salt Lake City, Utah and we visited Provo, Jordan River, and Salt Lake temples. We used to serve as workers in the Mexico-Temple during our vacations.  I love traveling so I visited Mazatlan, Culiacan, Hermosillo, Guaymas, and Veracruz too.

I also had the opportunity to attend institute classes and be in the chorus. I enjoyed my time during my twenties and thirties because I had a very good time with my friends who are members of the church, so we used to go at the institute and attend religion classes and activities organized by the institute. Most of these friends got married in the temple and have strong families.

Since I was a single woman, I used to study hard and serve in the church in different callings. For ten years, after my mission I served in the Primary organization in different callings like teacher, primary president or counselor. I also have served in the Relief Society organization as a counselor or a teacher in the ward and in the stake. I was called to serve as a Family History Consultant for ten years in my ward and in the Family History Center. I have served in the temple as a worker for eleven years. I have had a lot of wonderful experiences in these callings. 

I met my husband in the temple when he went to receive his personal ordinances. He is from Spain, but he has lived in Monterrey, Mexico since 2008. He met the missionaries and joined the church in 2010. He says that he is so happy to be a member of the church. A year later (2011) he was prepared to go to the temple to receive his endowment. I was serving in the office of the temple, so I welcomed him to the House of the Lord and checked his data to register his ordinances. After that day he wanted to go out with me and he called a friend of mine who gave him my e-mail. He sent me some emails and we went out and got to know each other for a year before we got married and sealed in the Monterrey Temple on December 26, 2012.

We do not have children so we enjoy our time serving in our callings in the church. He’s a Sunday School President in our ward and I serve as a Young Women Counselor. We also enjoy serving together in the temple as workers twice a month. He works in a construction company from Monday to Saturday and I work at Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon from Monday to Friday. I have worked in different places and companies since I was fifteen years old. When I finished middle school my father told me that he could not pay for my education anymore, if I wanted to continue I needed to work and study at the same time. So I began to work in a Sewing Workshop until I was seventeen and then I went to study in a High School in Mexico. There I worked as a cleaner in the Seminary Building and as a domestic worker in the director’s house. When I came back from my mission I worked assembling automotive parts in an auto Assembly Company for three years (1991-1994). Then the company closed and I lost my job, but I worked as a babysitter for two years (1994-1996). When I was almost finished with my college education I got a job as an English teacher for a year and a half. Then I got a position in a university library. It was the most amazing job I have had. I enjoyed it a lot and I felt satisfied with that work. I learned a lot of things related to libraries and document delivery in an academic library. I worked there for twelve years (1998-2010). The following picture shows the library.

In 2010 I got offered a new position in my work as a language center coordinator and I felt that it was a new opportunity to grow, so I accepted it and I have worked in this language center for three years. I have a lot of work projects.

The Church and the Gospel of Jesus Christ have been an important part of my life. I have had a good life and beautiful spiritual experiences. I think that my life has been happy because our Heavenly Father has blessed me in different ways. He has given me the opportunity to get education, good jobs and a good family. One of the best blessing is the opportunity to meet my husband be together forever.

My testimony of the Gospel has been growing through the time. It started while I was taking seminary classes with a gentle teacher who was there every morning at 5 a.m. I know that my Savior lives and He suffered for my sins. I know that the Book of Mormon is true, I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet called by God. I know that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet in nowdays and He let us know our Heavenly Father's will. I am so grateful to have the Gospel in my life.