Four of my heroes

As I've been setting my goals for this new semester, I've been thinking a lot about the character attributes that I'd most like to develop. As I was pondering that, I thought of some of my heroes that have those attributes that I want to develop, and who inspire me. I have many heroes, but I want to talk about four in particular here: Gina DeMaio, Matías Pedreira, Marco Pagnin, and Jonathan Lewis.

First, Gina DeMaio. I met her very briefly, only one semester last winter. But the things that she taught me are things that I think about all the time. Gina is half Armenian, half Italian. She speaks five languages extremely well - Armenian, Italian, Arabic, English, and Spanish. She worked for the U.N. for quite a few years before coming to BYU-I. She was Muslim before converting to the church. A few days ago, I just got the amazing news that she decided to serve a mission! I'm so proud of her. Something I absolutely love about Gina is her international experience with and drive to work in Christlike charitable ways. She once told me a story that totally broke my heart, but made my respect for her grow tremendously. Since she speaks Arabic, she once moved to Oman to volunteer in an orphanage. She says that children with disabilities in Oman are often marginalized, neglected, or abandoned, and no one takes the time to teach them how to read or write. She taught the children in that orphanage to read and write in Arabic, and loved them and gave them affection. The kids loved her like a mother, because it was the first time that many of them had been treated kindly. Gina told me that she's so saddened by the idea that she'll probably never see any of those kids again, and she thinks and dreams about them constantly. Gina played a huge part in helping me finalize my career plans in the charitable organization and NGO sector, specializing in Human Rights. When I think of her and our conversations together, it really helps me to maintain the international perspective, and remember that there's so much more to the world than just working to support my own family. She reminds me that every one of us has an enormous potential to use our lives and careers to alleviate the suffering of others in this world that, otherwise, would have little or no chance at a hopeful and happy life. The vast majority of people leave that potential untapped, but thanks to Gina, I won't. She also greatly inspired me to keep up with my studies of le Français, Euskera, Русский Язык, and فارسی, all of which (except for Euskera) are extremely important languages for my career path.

Next comes Matías Pedreira. As some of you who have read my mission book will remember, Matías was my favorite mission companion. We served together in the city of Bari, Poggio Franco. Matías has an incredible story. He was baptized by himself, then baptized his family. Six months later he went on a mini-mission, and then six months after that he went on his real mission. He's a spiritual powerhouse, and I've never met someone who knows the doctrine and teachings of the prophets better than he does. He's read and memorized every single book and manual that the church has ever published. Matías has lived (and is currently living) trials that would put me on my knees. He has an insanely difficult life, full of immense trials. But these trials only strengthen his determination to be devoted to God and His gospel in every facet of his life. I always admired the fact that his spirit and devotion to God always shine through, not dimmed in the slightest by his many trials.

Marco Pagnin is the father of my girlfriend. He's the model of the type of father that I want to be for my family one day. Before I met Marco and his family, I thought that that type of family only existed in the movies. I've never seen a father so entirely and exclusively devoted to his family. It seems like the only thing that he cares about or ever thinks about is spending time with his family, or making their lives better. Together with Silvia, his wife, they've created an extremely close-knit family. They wrote books for their children, putting their names in as the main characters, in order to teach their kids certain values and make them feel special. They hold family home evening and scripture study always, and eat dinner together religiously. I've learned so much about basing earthly fatherhood on the Eternal model of Fatherhood from the short time that I've known him.

Lastly, Jonathan Lewis. Jonathan was my roommate last fall semester. Johnny-Boy had the most amazing ability to make everyone feel special, listened to, cared for, and loved individually. He's so incredibly compassionate and charitable. When he talks to someone, they know that they have his full and undivided attention, and he remembers details about every conversation that he has. When you are having a bad day, you can count not only on being cheered up by Johnny-Boy, but also on the follow-up, being checked on throughout the week. I admire so much his ability to make the people he's talking to feel so cared for and loved.

As I go through this new semester and overcome the trials in front of me, I hope to come out of it having developed a little more of the characteristics that I so admire from these four people. I hope to be more international, motivated, charitable, Christ-like, devoted to God, knowledgeable of the scriptures, loving, compassionate, and attentive to the needs of others.