Latest / Pastor Plek's Podcast / What Does Freedom Feel Like?

Transcript

What Does Freedom Feel Like? · Pastor Plek's Podcast

• 0:05
  SPEAKER_02: And welcome back to Pastor Plex podcast.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_02: I'm your host, Pastor Plex, and I've got a special guest for us today.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_02: Manny, why don't you introduce yourself?
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_02: Tell us where uh the operation that you own and uh talk to us about it.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_02: Give us a brief background.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh my name, my full name is Manny Alonso Gassemi.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: I am the founder, owner, and head instructor of at Matkar Martial Arts down the street here in Wells Branch.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: We uh provide jiu-jitsu classes, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, grappling-based, and kickboxing.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, we just moved here about a year ago.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_02: Where'd you move from?
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh from Florida, but I was traveling all over the place.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: The nature of the gym was primarily in Costa Rica.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, in Costa Rica about three years ago, and then we moved back to state.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: We wanted to be by the water, but because I used to live in California and I love California, it's weather and all that, but I know it wasn't really business friendly.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: So we decided to not move back to California with my girlfriend.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: So we moved to Florida, okay, but then we found that there's too many competition.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: I thought California is oversaturated for this industry, like grappling in and uh jiu-jitsu, but Florida, South Florida, Miami was more saturated.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: So, and also we found out that we're just two miles away from one of the best gyms in South Florida, so we're like, we might as well just train there and don't touch our remaining of savings.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: So just figure it out if we want to do this.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: So I in Florida, I just rented part of uh U of C gym and uh teach there.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: After two years, we decided to drive towards California, see see what God wants for us.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: And then someone told us, hey, why don't you give it a shot in in Austin?
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and I was like, I never leave in Austin.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: I used to live in Houston as well.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: But okay, let's let's let's see what's gonna happen.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: So we stopped at uh in Texas, and uh after two months searching, we were very close to saying, you know what, let's let's move it.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: Like we can't find any location, everything is expensive here as far as locations.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, but it was very business friendly.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: So we got our LLC, we got all the document, and then we find a good landlord right down the street, and we're right, you know what, let's sign a contract, let's just stay here, let's start our business with no base clientele, which is very risky.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's wild.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: But thank him.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so what's what's really wild is that your landlord is actually our landlord.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_02: Uh our landlord owns this property.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: Really?
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_02: You know, the one that over at what's in Bratton Square, he owns three properties, and it's a it's a brother-sister combo.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_02: Anyway, yeah, not a big deal, but it's like it's kind of wild.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so we have the same property owner.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_02: Uh okay, so tell me about the origin story.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_02: Like, where'd you grow up and like how did you get into jujitsu of all things?
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I was born in Iran.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_02: When you say Iran, that like blows my mind.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_02: Because I think Manny Alonzo, I don't think Iran.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: So, all right, what very good question.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: So, I was born in Iran.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: I uh I don't want to go deep into it, but I I'm I'm almost four years old.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: I was born in Iran, right after right in the middle of the war between Iran and Iraq.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: And then after the revolution in 1979, a few years after the revolution, so the Iran turned to become Islamic Republic of Iran.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: And then uh I was just a normal kid in a very educated family.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: My parents both are university professors.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: My dad is a very successful physician, uh, infection disease specialist.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: And my mom is a university university professor as a Persian grammar uh professor, teaching like Farsi.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: Farsi, yes.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: And then uh I grew up uh tricking lock normal kids.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: I always loved I was very active, almost hyperactive, and uh almost at the age of 15, I started realizing I want to go start doing weightlifting.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then Rocky IV was the movie that inspired me, everybody else.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: Rocky IV, and I was a big uh fan of soccer or football, so I was starting doing boxing, and I was like, I want to start using my legs too, because I play soccer in a very, very serious manner.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: So uh by the time I This is all in Iran, you know, this is all in Iran, yes.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: And uh after watching Rocky IV and then uh the movie Kickboxer, Jean-Claude Van Dom, Frankie.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, oh yeah, I was like, okay, that's the sport that I want to do.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: So I started with kickboxing basically.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: By the time I was 18, I had my first uh amateur fight, which was a province championship, and I got a second place.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: But my first fight ever, I knocked the guys out in 20 seconds because I was so stressed.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: I just bombarded with the punches.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: So my background was is kickboxing in Muay Thai all the way when I left Iran and I started traveling the world.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: But because of a grappling and basically wrestling is a national sport, so I had that idea, and also in higher school, we practice uh wrestling.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: So jiu-jitsu for me starts about 18, nine, 18 years ago, 17, 17 years ago, I would say.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh not even in Iran, in in Costa Rica.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_02: Pura Vida.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: Pura Vida.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: I have it here in my respect.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: So jujitsu is about 17 years, but before that, kickboxing, boxing, and I had over 100 fights, amateur fights, until I hit the pro level.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but jiu-jitsu, Brazilian jiu-jitsu grappling, because of my wrestling background, uh, it wasn't that hard for me.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: However, the f especially during the white belt era, I got smashed by most of my training partner as a white, as a white belt.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: They were all black belt.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: Nice.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: But now it's not now, it's become my career, even though I have a bachelor's degree in agricultural engineering.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: Of course you do.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: And uh yeah, but I I hold on, hold on.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_02: So when did what what age did you leave Iran?
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_02: 22.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_02: 22.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_02: Did you speak English at that point?
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: Very little bit, just a little.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, your English is amazing.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_02: Uh that's that's why okay.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and I know that I'm now I'm talking about Iran, and you may not want to go into it, but like what was life like in really, you know, from 1979 when everything because Iran used to be like a really prosperous, really great, and the revolution happened, it went dark, right?
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_02: Is that what happened?
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_02: Like, what was it like growing up?
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_02: Did you see the crumbling of the culture or society, or was that a gradual thing, or was it immediate, or is that something you didn't even notice?
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: Very good question.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: I uh growing up in a uh, I would say above average middle class family, yeah.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh going to a school, coming back, having the freedom of uh doing whatever I want as long as it's uh approved by my parents, especially my dad, very strict forward dad, very uh and and uh not really paying attention to politics and the stuff out there, but just because my dad like was God to me, like whatever he said, I will do it.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and then I was doing it, but I I think I was 13, 14 years old dad.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: I uh my dad asked me, hey, I want you to start praying this way, like uh five times a day, praying in Arabic, uh Islamic, like so.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: I was raised until 14, 15, 16 Muslim without any question.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever I see, I ask.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: But around 16, that that was the time that I started asking, Hey, what is why we do this?
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: Why women have hijabs?
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: Why they cover their head?
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_02: Was that so before 79?
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think the women had to wear hijabs everywhere, right?
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't have to.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't have to.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so then after 79, everyone's wearing hijab.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_02: Was that still sort of a new thing?
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_02: Was that a weird thing for some ladies to go like, oh, I gotta get I've gotta remember to put this on or else the what do they have police to police that?
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: These are the questions that I was asking people around me, including parents.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: They don't answer me.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: This is it.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: Before that was bad, the king was bad, everything was bad.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, explain me.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: And then all the propaganda, all the TV media.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: We had only two channels.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: So there's not internet, there's no, there's no internet, there's nobody wants to talk about it.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, so I start doing whatever I was told that there's a good good thing going out, like one month of the year, I have to start fasting for like I think I fast for like uh six or seven years straight every year, every Ramadan.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Ramadan, 30 days, and then I just feel good.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: This is good, this is gonna take me to the heaven, and then uh start praying, and then uh once I start questioning things, just like what she said, yeah, no answer.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_02: No one, no one had any clue.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_02: No answer.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_02: And were they afraid to answer anything?
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_02: Or was it just they didn't know?
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: No, they they truly believe that that's the right path.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, god, and a young kid want to ask this kind of questions.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, how do you how do you gonna explain that wearing hijab will take that woman to heaven, the other woman doesn't have hijab, will go to hell?
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: How do you explain it to me?
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: So it is what it is, that's a good thing.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't want to call the name, but some of the closest people in my life before revolution, they didn't have hijab.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: After the revolution, they put hijab.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: The amount of brainwashed to the roof that I don't want to make it too political, but who that person that did the revolution and everybody listened to him, which is right now is dead and all that.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, this is I I'm sorry, now we're going taking this to about I don't want to make it political too much, but man, what a shock to a culture to go that okay.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_02: Now I don't want to can am I allowed to talk about New York City and Mondani.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_02: Is that okay?
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, okay, all right.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_02: So when you see Zoran Mondani, I mean tomorrow, but we're we're recording this on the day before the Tuesday.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_02: So tomorrow he is probably gonna be elected mayor of New York City.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_02: Like, does that freak you out?
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_02: Like, tell me why.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: Because I come from that background, because I know what that religion, quote unquote, I'm not gonna call the name, yeah.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: That religion can do to a society.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: I come from a country with 25,000, probably more, but registered like uh authentic 25,000 of kingdom and being free in religion.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: I come from a Cyrus King background.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: Oh wow brag about it.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: I know I'm like a lot of typical Persians that oh, I'm from now I'm an American, I love it, I pr I I I I I'm proud of it, but King Cyrus, that's a big deal.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: We're big fans of King Cyrus.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: 47 years of that religion.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: You can look at look at the result of the country crumbling.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_02: Crumbling.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, and now Mamnani wants to be a we want to be that plus Marxist and communist and socialist.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: Free boss, give me a break.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, free boss will bring everybody to the bus, and then all those people that they they take advantage of free stuff.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: This was exactly the chan for the supreme leader who the first one that when they did the revolution, we're gonna give you free water, free electricity, free everything.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: What is where is where's the free things?
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: And now this is the country with looking at Mamdani in New York.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: I literally I'm thinking, I was thinking my girlfriend, let's go to New York one of these days before it before it crumbles.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_02: Man, many.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm so grateful that I'm getting this perspective.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_02: This is wild.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um, okay.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_02: So you leave, so like, does there are there elections though in Iran?
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_02: Like, are there fake elections?
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_02: How's that work?
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I I don't know really about it.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I here is here is the here is the one of the main reasons that I start thinking things not things are not authentic.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: I don't see any clarity.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: I don't see any, I can't understand what is this going on.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: I need to travel, I need to go out.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: So, and I'm like the closest people to me who are very educated, who are very good people, but I can't even get the answer.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like, why do you do this?
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: Why do you do that?
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I start thinking about traveling outside of Iran.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_02: Hold on, was it like a normal thing to travel outside of Iran?
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_02: So, how did you get out?
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's interesting.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I I uh I graduated, I got my bachelor's degree, uh, four years college, I got my uh bachelor's degree, and I was like, okay, you have to go to the military service or you have to uh get a get a whatchamacallit, uh go continue your education.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I uh did not go to military service.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: I uh I mean it was like it was like uh you could buy it, you could, you could, you know, if you uh I'm not gonna say privilege, but if you it was a law, and so you you can have passport, but with the Iranian passport, not so many places you can go.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, period.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: So, but it's very typical that people uh travel to the uh surrounding countries, like to go to Dubai, to Turkey.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, uh the first country I want to go, I want to go far, very far.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: Where can I go?
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: I put the lease, and I was like, oh, Venezuela is one of those countries.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: And back in the days, Hukwich always had a good relationship with the Iranian government.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's still their government with our government, which is interesting.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: The communist, Islamists, like, you know, how does it go?
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_02: Islam is well, and and also Russia really was big in backing Iran, huge, still, yeah, big time.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: And um, so I just planned.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: I just planned to go to Venezuela, got my passport, and had some saved up because I started working since I was 18.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and I just saved up.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the uh this is a story that I was gonna actually tell to the audience today.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I got my everything ready, and I was like, you know what?
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna pack a backpack, travel to Venezuela, see, see how things work.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: We didn't need a visa, it was just a visa and the entry upon the entry, but I got a visa for one year.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like, I'm gonna stay maybe one year maximum, see what's going on.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: It then it turned up I stayed there two months and I came back, but that changed my life.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I moved to I traveled to Venezuela and I went to uh uh Margarita Island in the city called Porlamar.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: Beautiful city.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: This is I think this is 06, 05.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and uh the very moment that I realized, oh my god, for the past 20 years, which I was the kid going to a school, going to the gym, weightlifting, fighting, training martial arts, come back home.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: And then with my parents that we travel a lot to the different countries, different cities in Iran.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I had a good childhood.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: And uh but I was always because I raised very educated by two parents that they also they also practice Islam, right?
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: Normal Muslim.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: They're normal Muslims, they don't force me to do anything.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: Even if I was a girl, I don't believe my parents will force me to put hijab.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, we think this is a good way, do it.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: But I was not a girl.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe that was a good thing.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: So in Venezuela, maybe the second day I got out of the hotel in that very city, Port Lamar, Islam Margarita.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: I went to walk into downtown, and it was a church.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'd never seen a church in Iran just one time in a city called Isfahan.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: There was a traditional building, traditional like location, and it was a kind of not really active church.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: So that was my first time.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to a place, church with a cross on it, and see people worshiping, clapping, dancing, looking up and down, happy, happy.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I was literally walking and I would just hear the song.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: I thought maybe there's a concert going on in there.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: So I went inside.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody told me to, you know, you don't, you're not allowed to come here because over there, the other religions, a lot of them because they're also Shias, they're Sony, a lot of different branches.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: You don't easily can get to them on score.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, if I mean if you're a woman, you have to have scarf or hijab.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, I went in, somebody was underdog in his Spanish, por favor, por favor, Pasa Delante.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: Come on in, come on in.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: And then I was like, I didn't know Spanish, which right now I speak fluent Spanish, but I went in and I was like, I just sit right there, and there was a guy, I'd never forget that.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, he he looked at me and says, gringo, gringo.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know what gringo means, but because maybe I didn't really look like Hispanic, but I I'm not looking like you either.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like I'm not, but uh maybe I would look like a tourist.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: This is 20 years ago.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't even have shorts.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: It was like a it was a warm country pants and some tiny shoes.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: Try to be like look as much as I can to look like a tourist.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm first time getting out of Iran.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: What?
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: And then I was like, look at look look at these people.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: They're they're they're clapping.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: They're enjoying, they're enjoying it.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, okay, uh what I was told you have to be serious towards him, you have to smile is not allowed, and there's no celebration when you're worshiping.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: You have to be very serious, you have to say all the things in Arabic, uh, put your fore to the ground.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: He's up there, he's watching you.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: He's watching you.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: If you do anything wrong, he's mad at you.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: I basically was never experienced being happy talking to him or whatever, he's up there.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, okay, and I just stayed there probably for like 15 minutes.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: That was probably the purest time that I felt in a religious place communicating by just standing and watching with some overpower, some, some, some, uh, some superpower up there.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not really religious, but I'm enjoying seeing this.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: That basically changed my life.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, oh my god.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: That moment, that 15 minutes changed your life.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: Changed my life in this, as as term of as terms of uh as terms of uh, okay, you can also talk to God like this, right?
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: Happy.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: Some people are crying, but happily.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and there is someone up there talking to them.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's all Spanish.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: I have no clue what they are saying, but they're happy and they're dancing.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: And it and it was beautiful, it was beautiful when I was like, okay, all right, I'm done with that thing.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go back to Iran.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, probably I'm gonna pack it up, and this time I'm gonna move permanently.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: That that 15 minutes also brought me like that, and this is I I was 20 years old.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't even have any clear idea what is dictatorship, what is democracy?
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_02: I mean you're 20, you don't know anything, right?
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: What is democracy?
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I just and I was in a peak of my training.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: I was getting ready to uh fight for qualification for the national team of Muay Thai, kickboxing, but I could actually that was another path.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: If I want to pick that path, I would fight for Iranian national team as a kickboxing uh fighter.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh when you go for a national team, you have to go through a lot of uh oh, training, I'm sure.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: Training, not only that.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_02: Political training, right?
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes, yeah.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_02: Indoctrination.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like, no, no, no, no.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: Freedom is more important for me.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: And and also, and also the the movie uh the the The Brave Heart, Mel Gibson.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: That was another couple movies changed my life a lot.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I so these you're you're you're sparking up some movies that are really powerful for me as well.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_02: So it's exciting to kind of hear like globally, movies like have impact in people's lives on a personal level.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_02: That's so wild.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_02: And and what so can you talk to me?
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_02: I know that again, I'm going back to this, but we here in the United States, we take freedom for granted.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_02: Like we don't even know what it means not to be free.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_02: We're so free.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_02: And so we say all sorts of ridiculous things about government uh because we have no idea what it's like to live without that freedom.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_02: So talk to me about like when you came, maybe it was in Venezuela at that church, or maybe it was when you hit the United States or Costa Rica or something.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_02: Tell me about like when you realized there was no like the difference, or that was it an oppressive feeling?
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_02: Give me the give me the freedom feeling of what it's like to go from no freedom to freedom.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: I never talk about these things anywhere.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: Just very close people in my life, they know this.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: But it's interesting to tell you before you in Venezuela, the first place I felt freedom was shockingly, shockingly another Muslim country, very close with Iran.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: My flight has three days from Tehran to Damascus, three days layover in Damascus.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: This is uh again about a two decade ago to Syria.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: Another Muslim country, very close with Iran, very close, but that's a Muslim country.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: That's a Shi uh Muslim country.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: Women are free.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: You see girls with bikini, not bikini, like very uh, I don't know the term, the very, very free.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but Muslim swimsuits like stuff like that.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: But nightlife, you know.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, wait a minute.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I spent this three days, I don't count it as I leave there, but in Venezuela, I spent quite a quite a few months there after it's like especially a second time.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: Before even this, it was dead.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: However, because they're you're still you're still in a Muslim country and you're still here praying in a speaker six times a day, five times a day, out loud, they encouraging you, hey, go to the mosque, pray, pray, pray.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: And those three three days, I was not really paying clothes.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: I was not feeling free.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: I was just in a layover and three days, and I was like, because it was a cheaper flight, so I stayed three nights in Damascus, but they had a good night life, and I went out.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: There are bars, there are clubs, there are women without a scarf and hijabs.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, is this also a Muslim country?
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: And we are a Muslim country, and they have more history to be Muslims fully.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: Before 1979, we were not fully Muslim, right?
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: We had Islam since four or five hundred years ago.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, I'm not a uh historian, but since 1979, it became an official religion.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: So in in Syria, I was like, wow, the you can have Muslim people with this woman with this scarf and hijabs, and then you can have uh normal girls, normal guys, you can wear shorts, you can wear a t-shirt that has US flag on it.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: This is this is not cool in Iran.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: Especially now, right?
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: But it wouldn't be illegal though, right?
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: Illegal, no, but you get in trouble.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: The relationship cops or the courtesy political police, they will pull you over.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: What is this?
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: What is this?
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: Are you supporting this and that?
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, so that was in Syria, but in in in Venezuela, I felt it.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: I felt it as long as as soon as the the the the second time, the first time, because I back to Venezuela again.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: The the flight landed.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm outside in a transit uh hall in an airport, and I was like, this is cool, this is free.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: I can wear short in a tropical, I can wear a short, I can wear tank top.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: You can't wear tank top back in the days in Iran as a guy.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: Of course.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now, now you can.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: I can see some videos here and there sometimes.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: But you still have to have you can have expectation to see some cops come, okay, change it to a t-shirt with no nothing on it.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: So, first time feeling the freedom was in Venezuela, which I still did not know.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: This is actually a communist country.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's just degrees of freedom, I guess.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: But after that, when I came back to Iran and I planned as a longer story, I wrapped it up six more months after that.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: I wrapped it up.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: I go back, I went back to Venezuela, and then I started traveling like a backpacker around Venezuela.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: And long story short, eventually I made it to Costa Rica.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_02: Costa Rica is great.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's a freedom.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: I felt that, oh my god.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: Even though it's a Catholic country, you see beautiful church all every corner, but they just it is no, they they don't officially uh there's not an official religion.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's it's they call it Switzerland of South America or Latin America.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: No army, all the money goes to education and healthcare.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the first time.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: But and I was like, you know what, this is it.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: I would like to make it up north, maybe to Canada, maybe to Coast, maybe to the U State, but uh I wanted to do it in a legal way, so I'm gonna wait, maybe find a way, maybe get a visa, maybe because now I'm in third country, so I can find a solution to come to a state which is exactly.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_02: How long did it take you to learn Spanish?
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: I would say about six months, but six, but but you're a Mer 400% immersed.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: In in Venezuela, I was talking mostly in English, just oh, you do English when you were so you learned English in Iran.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: So in in school, you learn here.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: Got it, got it.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: All the way to 12th grade, you have one two one hours, two hours a week English.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: But it was mostly like British fundamentals and all that.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: In Costa Rica, in Venezuela, it was all English until I make it to I went to Nicaragua, Panama, yeah, and then ended up to Costa Rica.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: In Costa Rica, I was like, okay, this is it.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: I love this.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: This is beautiful, this is gorgeous.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: This is people are very nice.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: There's no you there, there's no you're in an embassy here, not so many Persians live there.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: Most of maybe 99% of the Persians were from America, like Persian American move here, move there.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like, I'm gonna stay here and I'm gonna leave here.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: If I find a way to go up north, especially Canada, because I have my cousins, bunch of my cousins live in Canada.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but no rush.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: This is this is freedom.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: Then I started practicing Spanish.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: I told myself no English, there's no farce, you know, nobody is here.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I'm just gonna practice the Spanish.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: I can't go to the class or university.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: I need to work and I start working and I start fighting underground, and then uh just the Spanish.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_02: What city were you in in Costa Rica?
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: I was all over, I was in La Juela, I was in Heredia, mostly in San Jose.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: I live in North Pacific side, Guanacaste, and uh, but primarily I was in Heredia.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_02: Oh wow.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, my wife learned Spanish.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_02: She she went just for four months, uh, summer of 2000 gosh, must have been like 2000, gosh, no.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_02: 2008, 2007, 2006.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_02: Like, she was there learning Spanish, which is wild.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_02: That's a beautiful, yeah, beautiful country.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_02: So uh, okay, so you you learn Spanish.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_02: How do you get to the US?
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_02: And how like tell me that process?
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_02: Because one of the things, you know, we we have the immigration thing is such a big deal here, especially in Texas, like uh, you know, with people coming in that were undocumented and all that.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_02: Like, what did you do and how did you do it?
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I tell you the last part, this is one of those parts that uh I'm actually working on a book, yeah, and maybe in the future I add this part, but I'm just gonna compact and make it like a small version of what happened to me in Costa Rica.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because in Costa Rica uh I got my I basically I I very simply I request uh job applic job permission because I get to Costa Rica with a little bit of difficulty, but uh I I got a hire a lawyer, I paid the lawyer all of my all of my savings to hey get me papers here, and I don't want to get any any I don't want to take the detour, I don't want to do anything illegal, I don't want to get married with a 90 years old grandma to get my no I want to become I want to become a resident of this country and I give them all of my background that I um I'm an engineer, I'm a fighter, uh I fight in a higher level in amateur, kickboxing and muay thai in this country, but the country, the name of that country was a problem for me.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, basically, Costa Rican government had to investigate me up and down to my DNA if I'm if I'm a good guy or I'm a bad guy.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: Eventually, it took a few months for them, I would say about a year to find that out.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: And it was it was hard.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't have job permission.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: I was doing uh black market jobs.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: Basically, not black market, no, let me let me rephrase it, like a dishwasher.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and uh I still keep up with my with my training, and then I started doing jujitsu in Costa Rica.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um they have a pretty good program in Costa Rica because a lot of Americans move there or have a it has a very good influence in Costa Rica.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_02: Totally, like um, yeah, it's a huge vacation spot for Americans.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_02: Uh it's a they're very friendly towards America.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's number one, I believe in is number one uh uh industry for them, like tourism.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: So they they they they have to welcome and they're very nice people.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: I mean I'm I'm Costa Rican in heart.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: American in heart too.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so anyway, once I got my papers in Costa Rica, I was so happy I got my papers and I started having opening bank account and this and that.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: Uh honestly, I could I could have stayed in Costa Rica a year and a half, a little less, a little more than a year to get citizenship in Costa Rica because I stayed there about six years.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: I received a recommendation from a friend who was also uh kind of a student of mine, like as I was teaching privately, kickboxing and muay thai.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: I had friends from UN, United Nations, U US Embassy, Costa Rican immigration, a lot of law enforcement, a lot of cops and law enforcement because of the nature of what I was teaching them.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I got a recommendation one day that, hey, after like living there for quite a few years, would you like to go to a state?
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: Just like that, in a day, we're having uh dinner or lunch with with some of them.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, I thought he was joking.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, What?
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: Do you want to go to a state?
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: United States.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: I said, uh what what uh come on, man.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: You're joking with me.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, no.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: What?
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: No, why?
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, yeah, I mean, uh what?
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: So and they they didn't continue, didn't follow up.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: They let me maybe psychologically let me to sink it in.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: Let's think about it.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: A few weeks later, we hang out with friends with friends after the class, and then I was told again, hey, would you like to go to the United States of America?
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: I said, What are you talking about?
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, no.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you want to send me somewhere else?
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: Send me to Canada.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: I have I have I have family in Canada, I have my cousins over there.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and it's a peaceful country.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to go to a country that they don't like me.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: No, who said that, many?
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: They they love you.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's a country based on immigration.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: I said, I don't know.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: Are you serious?
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: This time they were explaining more.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: Don't worry about it.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: We would you just tell us yes, and then we give you all the details.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: Let me think about it.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_02: And I was so shocked.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_02: Tell me what would tell me when you say, when you hear as a non American, you hear.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_02: Do you want to go to the United States of America?
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_02: What does that mean to a person that came from Iran that was kind of naturalized in Costa Rica?
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_02: And then the opportunity to go to the United States comes, and you think, like, what's the thought?
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_02: Too good to be true, or like, I don't know.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: Absolute impossible.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: Too good to be true.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: Because I'm coming from a country on a paper is the number one enemy of America.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: I was grew, I grew up in a country that every hour there is a chanting in the street, in the propaganda and in the TV, death to America, death to Israel.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: I come from a country, I have to prove it to the to the graveyard that I'm good guy if I want to go to America.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: Because the whole thing about Iran is you guys say death to America.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: And as a kid, I was not agree with that.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: That was one of my very first questions.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm probably 10 years old.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm asking that, I said it, Dad.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_00: Why do we say death to America?
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: Don't say it, but I kind of it's it's it's good.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Mom, auntie, teacher, coach, why do we say that why death?
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: Why we go every once once a year in a muhar and we go out when is Imam Hussein's death, and then uh back in the days, one of the most brutal things I remember as a religious uh ceremony with the Mashadi, they hit to their head to just sympathize with what happened, whatever thousand years ago to that leader of that religion got killed.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I grew up with blood, with with with negativity towards y'all, towards Western culture and everything.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: So when I when I couldn't confronted that, hey, you want to go to America?
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, that's too good to be true.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: And we're having lunch, we're having dinner.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_00: These are my friends.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_00: I trained them here and they're boxing multi.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now we become friends.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe I'm a cool dude that they want to hang out with me, but I have nobody in Costa Rica.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: I just love the and they knew that I loved their country.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: I truly love Costa Rica.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I went and I asked one of the very old uh Iranian friends, I would not say friend that I know over there, and he also moved to Costa Rica right after the revolution.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_00: Probably he's dead right now.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: I think he's dead.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, hey, Mr.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: Blah blah blah.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: I got some some offer like this.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: What should I do?
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: And he immediately told me, Manny, you're smart.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now you speak three, four languages, far six Spanish, and English.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_00: And you you you're you're an athlete, you're you're a strong man, this and that.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_00: You they want to use you as a spy.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: Be careful.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: Say no.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: They will, they, yes, of course they want to.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: Nowadays, uh, they use people that they speak their enemy's language.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe they send you back to the region.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe they you become a spy.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_00: I said, oh yeah, you're right, you're right.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, sir, thank you, sir.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, okay.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: So I was confident to say no to probably the greatest offer I've ever received in my life.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_01: Oh man.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I I just leave it right there.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: I don't follow up with them, but they call me.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_00: They call me.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_00: And this time from their phone number was like a bunch of zero.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I and I I picked my phone, because Suri can cell phone, and then it was a lady and one of them, I think her name was Lupita.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like I was not, it was not my she was not my friend, my friend, but she was one of that group.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: She said, Hey, did you think about what I told what we told you?
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Yes, come on, man.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: Why are you so insisting?
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: This is too good to be true.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know what?
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: And she was like, Why?
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: Why no?
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: What is your reason?
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: I said, What is your reason to why me?
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_00: There's so many people who want to go to America.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: I know there's so many people who want to go to America.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: I know that for a fact.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody wants to come here.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: Why me?
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I I never show interest.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you guys hear me to talk about my cousins in Canada.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_00: But it's it's so weird.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I think you're gonna use me as a spy.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: I think you want to use me, I don't know, for CIA, for FBI, send me back to the region.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_00: She she laughed and she was like, okay, here we go.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: I know, Manny.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: This day, this time, let's sit down and let's talk about it.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna give you a schedule, an appointment, come to the US Embassy in Pavos, Costa Rica.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: Beautiful, beautiful building, very, very high-profile building.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like, okay, cool.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: What?
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to US Embassy or it was a is it was it was not a whole US Embassy, it was a branch of them in this location.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like, okay, cool, no problem.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: Then I wake back to talk to that guy, and he was like, be careful, you might kidnap you.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: I said, couldn't mean kidnap me.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: Well for what?
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_00: Who am I?
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, who am I?
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_00: I barely got my document in Costa Rica, and Costa Rican government are basically under coast under US government.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_00: Anything happened in Costa Rica, the US government knows about it.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: So they probably that's actually probably they that they know about me.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like, okay, you're maybe you're too old.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm thinking listening to you too much.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm always looking for words of wisdom from people that they know more than me.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like, you know what?
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: This is just an appointment, and they're gonna explain me why they want to do that.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_00: So I went to that appointment, and it was a lady, a white lady who speaks farsi as good as myself.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, oh my god, this is like movie.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_00: This is like this is like movie.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: And he she starts, salam, uh, hi, how are you?
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_00: My name is blah, blah, blah.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, are you Persian?
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: No, you cannot.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we have some white people with the green eyes north of Iran, but you you look American.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_00: No, I'm uh I'm an American, but I was like, okay, this is in my head, I was like, this is it.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: This is it.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: Here's here, I'm a spy.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: Here we go.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: Officially, and then it immediately reminded me of black hole.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it reminded me of movie uh spy game, yeah, Robert Redford and uh Brad Pitt.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, oh my god, it's gonna be cool.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's one time life.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_01: Wait, listen, you could be a spy.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, anyway, go on.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_01: Oh man, this is good.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then she explained to me, hey, my my colleague told me that this is your concern.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: Let me explain to you.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: There is a program called SIV, special immigrant visa.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, we are looking for special immigrants, we're looking for special people that they are smart.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: The two words that I never forget, she said, and I felt proud of that.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: She said, We're looking for brain.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_00: You're a brain, you can help the country, you can help, you can we want you to in America.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_00: You speak three languages, you know, and you're a good guy.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_00: And long story short, she said, trust me, we checked your entire life basically.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_00: We know what elementary school your grandpa was attending in Iran 300 years ago, for example.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_00: And my grandpa was only sixth grade.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's it.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: She he didn't continue more than that.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_00: So she explained me more stuff that they know about me, and they said, So we know that, we even know that this is amazing about you as government, and then we know that you love this part to be like this.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_00: We know that you you left for freedom.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_00: You left for freedom, you left for having a good life, uh, pursue freedom.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_00: Your desire to even be in Costa Rica is what we have in in our constitution: freedom of speech, freedom of uh everything.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: You you you all for that.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_00: And also you speak three languages, and we have a job for you.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_00: We have job for you.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_00: I said, I don't have anybody in America, I don't have a job.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_00: What am I gonna do?
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have any.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_00: We have a job for you, we will protect you for quite a few months.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_00: Once you get your social security number, you on your own.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_00: But for before that, we help you.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_00: This this program called SIV.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, okay, a special immigrant.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna be a special uh immigrant.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, you become an you go to America, uh-huh.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_00: And the good part is you're moving to America with your green card in your pocket.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, you give me my green card?
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_00: So no, you get to that and we give it to you there.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_00: But you you don't have to apply for a green card once you're there.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_00: You you you you're you're gonna get it because with this program you're gonna make it there, and then we take care of that.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_00: But you're going to have a job and as kind of interpretation, but it's going to be uh office work, you know.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_00: And then, but you still need to go through a process of applying for that job.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_00: But you're not gonna be helpless.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_00: We will help you.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_00: And uh what do you do here?
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_00: I said, I'm I'm I'm training at that moment.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_00: I was working full-time as a kickboxing instructor in a gym and also uh call center.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: I said, You can you can't just work, you can work for$400,$500 a month in Costa Rica forever, but over there there's more opportunity.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_00: This is the reason.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_00: And and uh you still have 100% right to say no.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, so you don't expect me to say yes right now.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_00: I said no, go home and think about it.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_00: But she basically clarified everything and she explained me everything, and I was like, okay, so no CIA, no FBI said, no, no, no, no, no.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_00: For that, you you for that you have to be citizen, first of all.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_00: You can't be just a green card holder, you have to be citizen.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_00: But the thing is, you're going with our own invitation, like this.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, huh.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_00: So you picking me up, said yes, we picked you.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_00: You resolved this is a very selective program, which I'm not sure if it's still going on or not, but uh uh basically after maybe one or two days thinking, I said yes.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_00: Pastor, after I said yes, six more months I was in America.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_00: All the medical tests, everything was quickly passed, and then I got escorted to the airplane.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_00: I never forget that day that in Costa Rican, in Juan Santa Maria airport of San Jose, it was a line for that very flight that went to us to stay to Miami.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_00: I got escorted and I passed through the whole line, and then people looking at me, and I was two uh Costa Rican off one Costa Rican, one American, both lady very officially dressed up.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_00: They said, Hey, let us go.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_00: And then I was like, good, good.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, and then I escorted and said that's it.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then I moved to they I fly to Florida, and then I they flow me to I was yeah, I was in Florida and then Houston and then California.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_00: And then it was all true.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_00: It was all true.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_00: I got my citizenship after this was I think it was 2012.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_00: This was all over after I got my I mean, not over, it's all very quick.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I yes, I got I had to wait for my social security number because before that you can't get received money from government or anything.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then green card, and then citizenship, and then uh to the point that I think uh I was I was not committed, I didn't have any promise to the government to work for them, but it was better than nothing.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_00: I was working as an uh interpreter and also a case manager for some nonprofit, half government, half uh nonprofit agencies.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_00: But eventually I decided, you know what, uh I want to be full-time fighter, I want to be a full-time coach.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I think 2016 I made that made happen.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_00: I did pro level, but I was older, so I had a couple MMA fights, and then I was like, let's just switch to just jujitsu.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_00: I focus on jujitsu, and till now.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_00: I got my citizenship in 20, I think, 18.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_02: What was that like?
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_02: What was the emotion of that?
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_00: Very good question.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm getting glissed on right now.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know anybody more proud to be American than myself.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_00: I slept with my US passport the first two nights in my bed.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_00: I slept with my passport, and I was like, and every time I have this conversation with anybody asking me this question, I getting emotional.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_00: I come from a country on a paper that it's absolutely impossible with the way that I came to America, not investing, not getting married with an American girl outside of America, this 90-day fiance stuff.
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right, right.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_00: I got picked up by US government, but the greatest nation, greatest country on the history of the world.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know, every nation has the greatest part, from the Cyrus, the King, the Great, Iran, China, Rome, Aztecs.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_00: We have nations here and there.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_00: We have empires all the time.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_00: But this, even though I believe maybe US government, maybe US did something bad before.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_00: But as long as I remember, we've been doing better.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_00: Like, yes, Vietnam War was not maybe far fair, whatever.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_00: Now I know because I work for US government, I work for uh nonprofit, ton of schools that we're building in Vietnam.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of other things.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_00: Every, regardless of conservative or democrat or liberal, every government comes, we're helping the world.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_00: We're helping the world.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_00: Iran, the place that I was born, Persians, Persia attacks India.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_00: If if Indian wants to be mad at us, they have a right.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_00: Mongolians attack Iran, they kill everybody, Persians, Arabs attacks Persians, like every part of the history, somebody attacks somebody and tried to take over the Rome's, Alexander, this and that.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_00: At this very moment, regardless of the history, US doing good.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_00: Generally doing good.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_00: And now this country picked me from Costa Rica that I was living happily with freedom.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_00: And yes, I was not making too much money, but I was happy.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_00: But they said, Hey, you can do this, but you can do the same things here with much more opportunity.
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_00: Do you want to go there?
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I turned them down twice.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_02: I turned them down twice.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_02: And you were chosen.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_02: I I think that's the coolest part of the whole story.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_02: You're a chosen, man.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_00: I and I turned them down to who's who would do that?
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_00: Like, no.
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, America, we're American, come over here.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_00: No, I'm being a stock up.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_00: And then I was like, you know what?
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_00: Now you want to take me there?
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_00: Let's do it.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_00: What?
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_00: Six more months, I'm over here.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_00: I got my citizenship.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I pay for expedition for my passport.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I was like, I'm gonna, I want my passport.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_00: I want my passport.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then I change.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I I I picked uh not change, I picked uh Alonso.
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_00: Let's be back to your first question.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_00: I pick Alonso as my middle name.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_02: Oh fun.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_02: Because you got to choose whatever name you wanted.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_00: I pick Alonso because in heart I felt Costa Rica is my home country in my back, but that was then now.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_00: This is my home country.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_00: I just equally love these two countries.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_00: And um even my Instagram, even my social media, I don't even mention my last name, which I didn't really change it for the respect for my father.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right, right.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_00: And but I picked Alonso as my middle name.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I am Manny Alonso.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_00: I am Manny Alonso, and uh I had to go to Rica.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_00: I go to Surica many times a year.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_00: I actually opened a business there, then I just wrapped it up, bring it back over here.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I slept with my passport two days.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's funny, maybe people laugh at me, but yeah, I was like, It's the coolest story.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_00: Like, that's my passport, and I wake up in the morning.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_00: Is that let me see?
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_00: Still there.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_00: Nationality American.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_00: Am I an American?
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_00: I was just watching movies like Rocky 4, other movies.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's like there's me.
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's that they're American.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I was a kid.
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, oh, look at those blue eyes, green eyes people.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like, cool, cool.
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I don't even speak English.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_00: I that's cool to be one of them one day, and I'm one of them.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'm an I'm an American.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_00: And uh when when because it was a big ceremony when that person was making all the audience of people that getting their citizenship in that very uh big arena, making us to read the oath.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, where did you do that?
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it was, I think it was in Houston, yeah, Houston, Houston, Houston.
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I uh I was just pouring, uh pouring like and I was like, yeah, whatever it says in the in that oath, yeah, I'm I'm gonna do it.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna I'm gonna protect this freedom.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_00: And until this day, uh anybody, anybody into my face wants to disrespect America, wants to tell me that we're bad.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_00: I said, you unhappy?
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_00: I will pay for your travel.
• 45:45
  SPEAKER_00: Go, not even, not even Yemen or Nigeria or Somalia, Iran is a safe country.
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_00: Go there, I pay for you, leave there for one day.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, just please leave there, I'll pay for you.
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_00: And then you realize you guys not only take it for granted, you have no idea what you're talking about.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_00: You have no idea.
• 46:01
  SPEAKER_00: You cannot convince me that this is not, this is a bad country, this is a not great country, and then you want socialism, Marxism, and all that.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I am for no at no what bit by no means I'm not a politician or religious.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_00: I I can't even talk about it properly.
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_00: But I have an idea.
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_00: If you provoke me, especially in Farsi, I can I can lecture you in Farsi, tell you what happened to me, what happened to my my my people, what happened to our our money like being sent to other countries for their for to help them.
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_00: And this government over there, they don't even care about their own Persians, and then they they support other groups and countries.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to talk about it right now.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be make it too political.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_00: What I did, I was like, okay, I don't want to go that path, you know, I don't want to talk about this to hold word until maybe this is the moment that I'm actually uh releasing some information about my life.
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_00: But I want to be inspirational.
• 46:57
  SPEAKER_00: I actually I am to my brother, to my uh cousins, and some of them, a lot of them after me, they moved out, they've pursued freedom.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, whether they were so liberal or democrat or conservative, republic, whatever, whatever.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, just be out.
• 47:11
  SPEAKER_00: What I'm doing right now through sports or martial arts, just three things that Persian culture from the Cyrus the Great was basically teaching us, and it's not even religion.
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_00: Do good, act good.
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, uh good uh good thoughts, good actions, good deeds.
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_00: These three things.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_00: These three things is a Persian, uh the Zoroasterian uh the symbol comes from this thing.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not even expert on that.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_00: I can talk about it a lot.
• 47:43
  SPEAKER_00: But what I'm what I'm trying to say is just I'm trying to teach my students, kids, and adults, just do good, act good, have good thoughts, and then martial arts will help you with that.
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_00: Jiu Jitsu will help you with that because especially jujitsu is a martial arts that it comes with resilience.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_00: You cannot face away, turn away from the problem, which is another person.
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_00: If I turn away from the other person, I gotta get choked.
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_00: So I have to face the problem, frame, yeah, scooch out, and then find a way to counter or maybe choke him or something.
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_00: So jujitsu, it's absolute great martial arts.
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_00: And what I'm doing right now, after years being here, implementing on that absolutely not in a religious or politic, politic ways, to make people understand life is too short, be good, do good, do no harm, just take care of your freedom, take care of your happiness, and try to do good.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_00: And uh if if we get to the close of the conversation, I can explain to them that where I come from, none of this easily happens.
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_00: So be thankful for what you have here.
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_00: Be thankful what we what America is and where you're living.
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_00: Because a lot of a lot of times, because you're taking things for granted, you're just bored, you get in the street and you start uprising for this and that.
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_00: You have no idea.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_00: You can't even do that over there.
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_02: Right, right.
• 49:05
  SPEAKER_02: That's you that's shut down.
• 49:07
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, wow.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_02: I I feel like I've just been so blown away by your story.
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_02: Uh okay, talk to me about your gym.
• 49:13
  SPEAKER_02: Talk to me about like kind of like who you train, you know, age levels, all that kind of thing, and how you instill grit into their lives.
• 49:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we start from five years old and up.
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_00: We just recently started opening a four years old class, but that's for evaluation.
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll be four years will come for a class because jujitsu is a very detailed sport, even though four, five, six years old, we teach them a lot of games-related jujitsu, jujitsu-related game.
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so we can take four years old after one or two sessions of free session, free child of evaluation.
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_00: But uh, we start from five years old and up.
• 49:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh every day we have two kids' classes, and then at after the kids' classes are adult classes are six fifteen.
• 49:55
  SPEAKER_00: The kids' classes are 4.30 and then 5.15, and then adult classes are 6.15 and then 7 uh 15.
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, these are jujitsu first and then kickboxing.
• 50:05
  SPEAKER_00: And Tuesday, Thursdays is purely jiu-jitsu, entirely jujitsu for adults, 6 to 8.
• 50:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and then we have Saturdays family MMA, which is for people that they have two family members in our gym.
• 50:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, whether it's two kids or one kid or an adult, they can be on the mat at the same time.
• 50:20
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, nice.
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_00: Because of my striking background, which I am very proud of, a lot of jujitsu coaches, jiu-jitsu practitioners, yes, they might have a little bit of a striking background, but not a lot.
• 50:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, as a former uh kickboxer and amateur fighter, because my MMA career was just MMA, right?
• 50:37
  SPEAKER_00: But uh I highly uh uh encourage my students to take my striking class as well.
• 50:43
  SPEAKER_00: And my girlfriend, who actually let me open a parent parenthesis, I believe she would be a great just herself.
• 50:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna I'm gonna be out.
• 50:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna see over there.
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_00: She will be great next guest for you because where she's coming from, she's defin definitely I don't know if I can say this.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 51:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh maybe so I got hurt by religion to the point that forced me to leave out of that country.
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 51:15
  SPEAKER_00: And then I realized, okay, there are good religion, there are bad religion, there are good ways to uh talk about religion, there are bad ways, there are proper way, but I am strongly believe in God.
• 51:27
  SPEAKER_00: Strongly.
• 51:28
  SPEAKER_00: I think God is a non-religion topic.
• 51:31
  SPEAKER_00: You can call it God, karma, energy, superpower, something.
• 51:39
  SPEAKER_00: There is somebody up there, like any any color, any anything in the world, any group, any things that needs an organizer.
• 51:47
  SPEAKER_00: This place has an organizer, a family has an organizer, a gym.
• 51:50
  SPEAKER_00: Without that organizer, that that that society cannot flourish.
• 51:55
  SPEAKER_00: Flourish and then keep the shape and form and everything.
• 51:57
  SPEAKER_00: So there's somebody up there.
• 52:00
  SPEAKER_00: She got definitely uh hurt by religion.
• 52:04
  SPEAKER_00: And who she is right now, which is an extremely successful young lady, extremely successful woman.
• 52:11
  SPEAKER_00: And and uh I thought I'm gonna end up single because I didn't really want to have any serious relationship with my life.
• 52:20
  SPEAKER_00: And when because we were co-workers, and then we we uh we worked together, and basically I left.
• 52:28
  SPEAKER_00: I left where I was working, and then I traveled, I started traveling, and then basically she joined me just as a co-worker.
• 52:34
  SPEAKER_00: So, hey, you want to open your gym?
• 52:36
  SPEAKER_00: Can I be your partner to steal?
• 52:37
  SPEAKER_00: I said, You sure?
• 52:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but anyway, uh the way that she got involved or forced to practice a certain little religion, and then the way that she got out of that situation, basically she escaped that situation from very, very it's like the her story of her life.
• 52:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna say anything.
• 52:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, if you decided to invite her, she will be here.
• 53:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, uh we have a very similar background.
• 53:06
  SPEAKER_00: But the problem for me was outside of my family, which is gently encouraged me to practice Islam, right?
• 53:14
  SPEAKER_00: In her family, it wasn't a gentleness.
• 53:16
  SPEAKER_00: It was like oh yeah.
• 53:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um like David Kirsch situation.
• 53:24
  SPEAKER_02: Oh wow, wow.
• 53:26
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I we definitely didn't talk to her about that.
• 53:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like she she's the smartest, the most brilliant person in so like a command somewhere just doing wild stuff, yeah.
• 53:38
  SPEAKER_00: How she basically left that situation and then coming to me, and we were just co-workers, right?
• 53:45
  SPEAKER_00: And then after that, after a few months, it's still because in Costa Rica, we were just co-workers.
• 53:49
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, I'm gonna open a gym.
• 53:50
  SPEAKER_00: You want to be in Costa Rica?
• 53:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, password, yes, let's go, let's go.
• 53:53
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I love you as a co-worker.
• 53:55
  SPEAKER_00: And then after being six, seven months together, we decided, okay, she loves me, I love you.
• 53:59
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, you know what?
• 54:00
  SPEAKER_00: I love you too.
• 54:01
  SPEAKER_00: You know what?
• 54:01
  SPEAKER_00: I you know what?
• 54:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and then she told me some of the stories.
• 54:04
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, oh, whoa, whoa, I saw some stuff, but whoa, whoa, whoa, oh my god, you need to write your book, and she's working on it too.
• 54:11
  SPEAKER_00: Or yes, she's tired.
• 54:13
  SPEAKER_00: She needs to, yes, absolutely.
• 54:14
  SPEAKER_00: But I was like, okay, I, at least my family was at my dad helped me to leave Iran.
• 54:21
  SPEAKER_00: I said, hey, and the second time, for the second time, I have very limited money.
• 54:24
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Dad, I want to go back to Venezuela.
• 54:25
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have money.
• 54:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's okay.
• 54:27
  SPEAKER_00: Follow your dream, follow your dream.
• 54:29
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Dad, you're still a very conservative person, you know.
• 54:32
  SPEAKER_00: Somehow you're your generation were frontliners for revolution.
• 54:38
  SPEAKER_00: So this crap is what you your generation brought you.
• 54:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry.
• 54:42
  SPEAKER_00: You brought it on yourself, right?
• 54:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but no, you know, she never he never he never admitted that he's regrettable.
• 54:49
  SPEAKER_00: I said, I help you.
• 54:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 54:50
  SPEAKER_00: And also he helped all my other brothers.
• 54:52
  SPEAKER_00: Three brothers, one here, one in Ireland, one in Canada.
• 54:55
  SPEAKER_00: The Canadian, the Ali, my younger brother, he's pursuing his PhD in philosophy and in anthropology.
• 55:00
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, wow.
• 55:00
  SPEAKER_00: The other one is in Ireland, almost about to be citizen of Ireland after like almost a decade.
• 55:05
  SPEAKER_00: He is a electric engineer.
• 55:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a dumbest one, I'm just an agricultural engineer.
• 55:10
  SPEAKER_00: But I also pursue fight.
• 55:11
  SPEAKER_00: My dad was always encouraged me to do basketball because he's an academic sport and he's a high IQ people.
• 55:17
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Well, that I like to fight.
• 55:20
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, I love my dad, and he raised me very straightforward, but he never forced me to do anything.
• 55:27
  SPEAKER_00: He encouraged me, and I was like, okay.
• 55:28
  SPEAKER_00: And once I start asking questions and he couldn't answer me, he knew the answer.
• 55:33
  SPEAKER_00: But whatever.
• 55:35
  SPEAKER_02: Do you think there's freedom in you that he's experiencing through you?
• 55:39
  SPEAKER_02: Very good.
• 55:39
  SPEAKER_02: Like it's we call it vicarious.
• 55:41
  SPEAKER_02: Like when I live my freedom through you.
• 55:43
  SPEAKER_02: I can't experience it myself, but I I get to experience it through you.
• 55:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's a very good that's a very good thing.
• 55:51
  SPEAKER_00: I never thought about it.
• 55:53
  SPEAKER_02: And it can go positively.
• 55:54
  SPEAKER_02: Like I think your dad, like he culturally, that's where he is, and he gets to enjoy the freedom you do, you get through you.
• 56:02
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes it can be negative, where like all your hopes and dreams rest on your son and his success, and you better be successful.
• 56:09
  SPEAKER_02: And so that doesn't sound like how your dad is, but a lot of dads do that.
• 56:13
  SPEAKER_02: They'll put all this pressure on their son to be something because their um who they are is seen in who their kid is.
• 56:20
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's that's a very good analogy.
• 56:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because he's not, I maybe saw him two times crying in his life.
• 56:29
  SPEAKER_00: Once was when I left.
• 56:31
  SPEAKER_00: He was just pouring in, hey, sorry if I was a bad, bad father.
• 56:36
  SPEAKER_00: I said, No, you never was a bad father.
• 56:37
  SPEAKER_00: And the second time was the last time I met him in Turkey, 2019.
• 56:41
  SPEAKER_00: My first travel with my US passport.
• 56:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I met them after 10 years.
• 56:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and he he again cried and says, Hey, I'm sorry.
• 56:50
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Daddy, stop being saying that.
• 56:52
  SPEAKER_00: I love you.
• 56:53
  SPEAKER_00: Who I am is what you raised me.
• 56:55
  SPEAKER_00: And you never forced me to do none of those things.
• 56:57
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, you helped me financially, emotionally.
• 57:00
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, I don't have a kid, but if I ever have a kid, I don't think it's gonna happen.
• 57:04
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want kids, but I I I I I I think I'm gonna do them, do what you did.
• 57:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna be straightforward, I'm gonna raise men, not just kids.
• 57:13
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 57:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but I what she said is making me thinking, right?
• 57:17
  SPEAKER_00: He enjoys seeing, enjoying freedom and what I'm doing through me, because that generation has still had freedom before revolution and they messed it up.
• 57:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, they messed it up for whatever reason.
• 57:29
  SPEAKER_00: They wanted Islam, this is Islam now.
• 57:32
  SPEAKER_00: You wanted this, this is it.
• 57:33
  SPEAKER_00: And nothing against there are there are good and bad people everywhere, they're religious people.
• 57:38
  SPEAKER_00: I don't say Muslims are bad, I'm just saying what governments of Iran did is not it wasn't right because we have look at look at Saudi Arabia.
• 57:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's a source of Islam country, it's free, it's good.
• 57:49
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, Jennifer Lewis can put a concert there, right?
• 57:52
  SPEAKER_00: You can't do it in Iran, right?
• 57:54
  SPEAKER_00: And do they have rules and yes, Sharia Allah?
• 57:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes, but at least they're they're letting people to leave.
• 58:00
  SPEAKER_00: When I say the largest dictatorship is you can't even have your girlfriend's hands in your hands when you walk in the street because the relationship comes, pull you over, ask you, is she your daughter, your wife?
• 58:11
  SPEAKER_00: And if it is, what is the document?
• 58:13
  SPEAKER_00: If not, you're in trouble.
• 58:14
  SPEAKER_00: At least in Saudi Arabia, you can do that.
• 58:16
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe not in a couple cities like Mecca and Medina, but so that's that like it's it's crazy.
• 58:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's it's country like Iran.
• 58:26
  SPEAKER_00: So my dad didn't force me.
• 58:28
  SPEAKER_00: But what hurts me the most was the society, the whole country.
• 58:33
  SPEAKER_00: Versus over here, the whole country is basically free, basically.
• 58:37
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, but the family can force you, like that person that I mentioned name.
• 58:42
  SPEAKER_00: So my girlfriend who speaks better than English than me because she's American.
• 58:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, she can she can bring it.
• 58:49
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I can't wait to hear, I can't wait to hear her story.
• 58:50
  SPEAKER_02: But I want to give you a perspective also on the fact that you were chosen.
• 58:55
  SPEAKER_02: I just like I'm I'm stuck on that idea that the United States chose you, which is just the coolest idea, and then how much you treasure your passport.
• 59:02
  SPEAKER_02: That really moves me.
• 59:04
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, as a Christian, so there now I'm gonna get into like Christian theology for a second.
• 59:08
  SPEAKER_02: What we believe is that that God is in heaven and then he looks throughout the world and he chooses people whom he will reveal himself to.
• 59:16
  SPEAKER_02: So, like he came to me when I was in my uh 20s, and it was like life went from black and white to color in a second, and I felt chosen, and then all of a sudden, I you know, I didn't really grow up.
• 59:33
  SPEAKER_02: I I went to church growing up somewhat, probably about as much as you probably went to the mosque.
• 59:38
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and you know, I go.
• 59:40
  SPEAKER_02: But then when I got hit, I was at a church that they were singing, and people really were into the music.
• 59:46
  SPEAKER_02: People were really into God, there was joy on their face, and I was like, what is going on here?
• 59:53
  SPEAKER_02: And then when it felt like the pastor spoke, it was like he was talking right to me, and my heart was exploding that Jesus died.
• 1:00:00
  SPEAKER_02: On the cross for my sin, and he rose from the dead and he wanted me.
• 1:00:07
  SPEAKER_02: And that that reality hit me in all of life.
• 1:00:13
  SPEAKER_02: There was like no going back.
• 1:00:17
  SPEAKER_02: And so since I went, you know, I went and jumped out of airplanes, I was arrangered, I was in the army, I got to go to war and combat and all that.
• 1:00:24
  SPEAKER_02: And all throughout that time, there was just this deep sense that, although I'm American, I'm super proud of that.
• 1:00:28
  SPEAKER_02: Like I'm a part of the kingdom of God, and ultimately that is my home, whom I'm representing everywhere I go, which now I get to be a pastor and preach and do all that.
• 1:00:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it has been the most remarkable and beautiful experience.
• 1:00:39
  SPEAKER_02: And I can't help but think, you know, like our interaction isn't coincidental.
• 1:00:43
  SPEAKER_02: And my prayer, if you don't mind me praying this, is for you and your girlfriend, is that God would reveal himself so fully to you that you would see how good he is and how much this thing of being chosen isn't just to be an American, it's to be a son of God, which I'm I'm excited for you.
• 1:00:59
  SPEAKER_02: So anyway, I wanted to share that with you.
• 1:01:00
  SPEAKER_02: And man, I hope we have get to have way more conversations of this because you are fascinating.
• 1:01:04
  SPEAKER_02: Man, I'm like, I need more Manny in my life.
• 1:01:06
  SPEAKER_02: You guys probably need more Manny in your life.
• 1:01:08
  SPEAKER_02: Manny, how can people find you?
• 1:01:09
  SPEAKER_02: How could they how could they get a hold of you if they want to like come train?
• 1:01:12
  SPEAKER_00: So the name of our gym is the first two letters of my name and her name.
• 1:01:17
  SPEAKER_00: Her name is Kaylin.
• 1:01:18
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, good.
• 1:01:19
  SPEAKER_00: With a very unique spelling Irish name.
• 1:01:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:01:22
  SPEAKER_00: So it's C-A for her name and Manny, which I uh picked my first the first first letter of my second name, which is Alonso.
• 1:01:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:01:32
  SPEAKER_00: So it's M-A-C-A.
• 1:01:33
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, good.
• 1:01:34
  SPEAKER_00: Macha Martial Arts.
• 1:01:35
  SPEAKER_00: Love it.
• 1:01:36
  SPEAKER_00: Maka Martial Arts.
• 1:01:37
  SPEAKER_00: And uh just just type maca martial arts at uh uh marcomartial arts.com.
• 1:01:43
  SPEAKER_00: You can see my website.
• 1:01:44
  SPEAKER_02: Or just head down Wells Branch Parkway to in the make a right and you're off of Maryltown, right?
• 1:01:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, Maryltown Plaza.
• 1:01:50
  SPEAKER_02: Man, Manny.
• 1:01:51
  SPEAKER_02: I hope we get to more interactions like this.
• 1:01:54
  SPEAKER_02: I I honestly think that this was really powerful.
• 1:01:56
  SPEAKER_02: Do you mind if I pray for you and for Caitlin?
• 1:01:58
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 1:01:59
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I want to say one more thing because the uh, like I said, as a person that I'm truly believing in God and his support.
• 1:02:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:02:08
  SPEAKER_00: So we pray every night.
• 1:02:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:02:09
  SPEAKER_00: Caitlin and I almost every night.
• 1:02:11
  SPEAKER_00: When we sign up new people, we pray double.
• 1:02:14
  SPEAKER_00: We when we lose, sorry, when we sign people, we pray a lot.
• 1:02:18
  SPEAKER_00: When we lose people, like people cancel their membership, we pray triple.
• 1:02:22
  SPEAKER_00: Nice God, you close one door, you open another door.
• 1:02:25
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you close one door, you open five doors.
• 1:02:27
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 1:02:29
  SPEAKER_00: We we opened this gym in uh last year's September with absolute no-base clientele, and we did uh a few online marketing, and then we'll start doing in-person marketing.
• 1:02:40
  SPEAKER_00: We had no rent for the first month.
• 1:02:43
  SPEAKER_00: This is the story, nobody knows, only that family, and I just told them recently.
• 1:02:48
  SPEAKER_00: We had no rent for the first month, and we already I wrote a big check out of my savings for first month deposit and last month.
• 1:02:55
  SPEAKER_00: That's like 10 grand.
• 1:02:56
  SPEAKER_00: Oh so, and then we moved to Austin, we have to go to a new place and buy all the we were we were moved back to from Costa Rica to Florida and from Florida to here.
• 1:03:05
  SPEAKER_00: I was like a backpacker.
• 1:03:06
  SPEAKER_00: We put everything in in my car, which is SUV, and then in my truck, and then just so we have to buy everything.
• 1:03:12
  SPEAKER_00: So for the October, we had no money to pay the rent unless we spent another four grand for the rent to pay my rent.
• 1:03:21
  SPEAKER_00: So the whole September, I was shaking.
• 1:03:24
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, babe, what are we gonna do?
• 1:03:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I mean, God is great, this and that.
• 1:03:28
  SPEAKER_00: One night we we one day we pray so hard, and we had very low price for pre-sale, very cheap membership, nobody showed up.
• 1:03:39
  SPEAKER_00: And it's close to the end of the end of the September, beginning of October.
• 1:03:43
  SPEAKER_00: I have to pay the rent.
• 1:03:45
  SPEAKER_00: We pray and we have a membership of six months, 12 months, or pay in full.
• 1:03:50
  SPEAKER_00: The pay in full is a family, it's you pay for the full four-year, and you get maybe uh a month free.
• 1:03:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then uh this day, this moment we pray this night.
• 1:04:03
  SPEAKER_00: The next day, we have a family that came from a uh marketing event we had in uh Harriman Festival in Cat Hollow Park.
• 1:04:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:04:11
  SPEAKER_00: This whole family, a gentleman, uh former uh Marine, Purple Heart, military guy, God bless military, God bless America, God bless all those parents that I mean he has familiarity.
• 1:04:23
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Hey, I want my boys to G G so this and that.
• 1:04:25
  SPEAKER_00: And then we had a free trial, two sessions in class, and then uh they came back the third time.
• 1:04:31
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, okay, they're probably gonna sign up.
• 1:04:33
  SPEAKER_00: That would be good.
• 1:04:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like, that's that's like that.
• 1:04:35
  SPEAKER_00: And that was in pre-sale, that was a real real price.
• 1:04:38
  SPEAKER_00: And he was like, it is like$200 a month.
• 1:04:41
  SPEAKER_00: And uh they left, and I had to uh they they second they finished the kids' class, and then they left.
• 1:04:48
  SPEAKER_00: My girlfriend does all them signing up, and I had to start the adult class, which was only one guy or two guys.
• 1:04:54
  SPEAKER_00: I was just teaching them, and then she finished uh she was talking and I was like, Oh, probably they're signing up.
• 1:04:58
  SPEAKER_00: Good, good.
• 1:04:59
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Two guys, let's go do, let's do warm-ups and all that.
• 1:05:01
  SPEAKER_00: So, anyway, the adult class got over.
• 1:05:03
  SPEAKER_00: We closed the gym, and and I walked towards her and and nobody was in the gym, and I was like, Hey, did they sign up?
• 1:05:11
  SPEAKER_00: This this guy, and she was like, She just started crying.
• 1:05:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
• 1:05:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, What what tell me?
• 1:05:16
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Take a guess.
• 1:05:17
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Tell me, tell me.
• 1:05:19
  SPEAKER_00: Did they sign up?
• 1:05:20
  SPEAKER_00: Because we have no money.
• 1:05:22
  SPEAKER_00: And she started crying and said, You got a guess.
• 1:05:23
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Okay, six months.
• 1:05:25
  SPEAKER_00: Six months, no.
• 1:05:27
  SPEAKER_00: 12 months?
• 1:05:28
  SPEAKER_00: They sign up for 12 months, and then they pay at least for the first month.
• 1:05:32
  SPEAKER_00: So we have a couple hundred dollars for the for this month.
• 1:05:34
  SPEAKER_00: I said, They pay in full.
• 1:05:37
  SPEAKER_00: I said, What?
• 1:05:38
  SPEAKER_00: He said, They pay in full.
• 1:05:39
  SPEAKER_00: I said, You're telling me that that gentleman with his wife and two kids, they pay$4,500,$40,$4,200.
• 1:05:46
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Yes, they swap the car.
• 1:05:48
  SPEAKER_00: So not only we have rent for the October, we have a thousand dollars for ourselves.
• 1:05:53
  SPEAKER_00: No business can pay you profit the first month.
• 1:05:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, No, you you you're kidding with me.
• 1:05:58
  SPEAKER_00: He said, she's to come over here and she's crying.
• 1:06:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, So that$4,500 is on our bank account in our first month.
• 1:06:06
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, someone trusts me as a coach, you as a coach to teach their kids and then pay in full for the whole we're nobody here.
• 1:06:15
  SPEAKER_00: There's this is this is Austin.
• 1:06:16
  SPEAKER_00: This is uh jiu-jitsu hub of the world, the big names.
• 1:06:20
  SPEAKER_00: We have like war champions surrounding us in Stater Park, in in Flugerville that have gyms.
• 1:06:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not famous.
• 1:06:26
  SPEAKER_00: I in Houston, California, I have some base clients there, but I didn't open a gym over there in Florida, even in Florida.
• 1:06:31
  SPEAKER_00: But here, I'm nobody, nobody knows me.
• 1:06:33
  SPEAKER_00: But these people come, that person knows jiu-jitsu a little bit, but he trusted me to pay me$4,500 right now to teach his kids, and they're still our students.
• 1:06:44
  SPEAKER_00: So and then we have money.
• 1:06:45
  SPEAKER_00: And then I felt that I literally felt, hey, I got you.
• 1:06:52
  SPEAKER_00: I got you, keep going.
• 1:06:54
  SPEAKER_00: And from that moment, not only for our gyms, we double our prayers, we pray, we talk, and me myself personally, when I'm when I just talk.
• 1:07:04
  SPEAKER_00: I talk in farci, I talk sometimes in Spanish, I joke with him, he's up there.
• 1:07:09
  SPEAKER_00: I feel his hand sometimes.
• 1:07:11
  SPEAKER_00: Every time anything bad happened, every time, every time anything bad happened, he's like, I feel it.
• 1:07:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like and this some people, some non-religious people like myself, uh you blah blah blah blah.
• 1:07:21
  SPEAKER_00: Bro, I'm not religious.
• 1:07:23
  SPEAKER_00: He's up there.
• 1:07:24
  SPEAKER_00: You can believe in Jesus, Moses, Muhammad, whatever, whoever.
• 1:07:27
  SPEAKER_00: Honestly, in this case, I'm not saying this for you to like me more, yeah, but I think Jesus is the best one as well.
• 1:07:34
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, well, I'm gonna pray for you in Jesus' name if you don't mind.
• 1:07:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, sir.
• 1:07:37
  SPEAKER_02: Father, thank you for Manny and for Caitlin.
• 1:07:40
  SPEAKER_02: I am so excited for them.
• 1:07:42
  SPEAKER_02: Lord, you have shown up in their lives over and over.
• 1:07:50
  SPEAKER_02: From that church in Venezuela, where for 15 minutes he got to see just the joy of the Lord uh to that moment where he was chosen to come to the United States.
• 1:08:02
  SPEAKER_02: Just even now, our interaction, I can see your hand on Manny's life, and to that point where you got that first month's rent paid for um supernaturally.
• 1:08:14
  SPEAKER_02: And so, God, you've been hearing every one of their prayers, and so I pray you would continue to do so.
• 1:08:18
  SPEAKER_02: And I pray, Jesus, you'd reveal yourself so completely that they would know that how loved they are, how cherished they are, that the love that he received from his dad, it's like that times a bazillion of how much you love Manny and how much you love Caitlin.
• 1:08:32
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm praying for your favor to fall on their life and on their business.
• 1:08:35
  SPEAKER_02: And you would bless them and keep them.
• 1:08:37
  SPEAKER_02: You'd make your you cause your face to shine upon them, be gracious to them.
• 1:08:41
  SPEAKER_02: Lord, would you reveal yourself fully so it wouldn't be a mystery of who is answering all these prayers?
• 1:08:46
  SPEAKER_02: We love you, God.
• 1:08:47
  SPEAKER_02: In Jesus' name we pray.
• 1:08:48
  SPEAKER_02: Amen.
• 1:08:49
  SPEAKER_02: Amen.
• 1:08:49
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks, Manny.
• 1:08:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, sir.
• 1:08:51
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, thanks so much for watching.
• 1:08:52
  SPEAKER_02: If you got any questions, you can text us at 737 231 0605.
• 1:08:57
  SPEAKER_02: We'd love to hear from you from you.
• 1:08:58
  SPEAKER_02: From our house to yours.
• 1:08:59
  SPEAKER_02: Have an awesome week of worship.