Secret #18

It snowed today. Some guy was whistling "O Holy Night" waiting for the elevator outside my office. Happy...Christmas?

Kagan and I had our engagement pictures taken this last Saturday. Our photographer is Whitney Lewis and she is AMAZING.

Want to know who else is an amazing photographer? My sister. She's fantastic. Check it out.

I have such a great family. :)

I hear wedding bells ringing...

You have no idea how long I've been keeping this in.

I'M ENGAGED!!

I would post pictures on here, but my computer has some retardation problems, so here are some links:

Here's a picture of my ring straight on, and here's one from the side.

Here's the setup where he proposed.

Incredibly happy.

The day he proposed started out as one of the worst days I'd had in a long time, but me made it one of the best days of my life. :) I love him!

Oh and for those of you who haven't already heard, Kagan Eden and I will be married on July 31, 2010 in the Manti Utah temple. We can't wait!

P.S. If you want to see all the pictures I posted for this, just click here.

P.P.S. I know many of you are probably thinking "Wait...weren't you going on a mission?" You are correct in thinking so. I had planned on going on a mission, but plans have changed. After much thought, prayer, and an overwhelming confirmation, I am confident that I have made the right decision, and that I'm going to be incredibly happy, married to my best friend. The Lord works in mysterious ways, but I'm glad He works things out the way he does! :)

Secret #18

I've decided that when I have my first boy, his middle name will be

DANGER.

And I'm not even kidding.

Imagine the baby blessing in church.

Whirlwind

This is life:

Whooooooooosh!!

At least, that's how it works for me.

My life is a whirlwind. And you know what?

I love it.

I cannot think of a time in my life when I have been happier than I am right now.

And it just keeps getting better.

Finals don't matter. Work doesn't matter. Plans don't matter. There's only one thing that does matter:

This is right. :)

Secret #17

I haven't posted in a long time. I don't have much time these days with which to spend doing much else than being incredibly happy (and slightly conflicted, albeit) and not wanting my days to turn to nights, and back into days again.

Alas, the world continues turning, daytime becomes nighttime, the world waits for the sun to rise, and it comes alive again.

The other night I went to a concert featuring a fantastic artist named Tyrone Wells. It was wonderful, for many reasons, the following being one of them.

"We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things."
13th Article of Faith

Tyrone isn't LDS, although probably most of us who didn't know much about him thought he was, from the way he acted during the show, and even some of the things he said.

I do know, however, that some of the songs that man sang filled my soul with the Spirit of the Lord, even if he didn't mean it to. The songs weren't religious at all, just happy. His music just made you feel good, and that's my point.

Each of us has been blessed with the Light of Christ, no matter who you are. All that is good comes of the Lord. And he shone with a light of goodness and happiness, the Light of Christ, in a way that I loved. He was just one of those people who makes you want to be a better person.

Doesn't that just brighten your day?

Called to serve!!

I'm going on a mission!

"Dear Sister Roeller,

You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the Philippines Bacolod Mission. It is anticipated that you will serve for a period of 18 months.

You should report to the Provo Missionary Training Center on Wednesday, June 2, 2010. You will prepare to preach the gospel in the Tagalog language."

These few sentences have and will change my life in ways that I cannot even imagine.



This is me, opening my mission call. This was the smallest I could get this image and it still won't fit on the page, so if you feel the need to watch it in all its glory, click HERE. The video is kind of long, beginning with waiting for David Neilsen to get there (which I'm still mad about, by the way :P ) and ends with me ending conversations with my family on the phone and learning how to say the name of my mission. The middle part is the best, though. The part where I read it.

Enjoy! :)

I hope they call me on a mission

Only I don't hope I grow a foot or two before they do.

Update:

My papers are officially in! As in they are in Salt Lake, Church Headquarters, the real deal.

My bishop tells me that they issue the calls on Thursdays and then mail them out on Tuesdays. Most people in Provo get their calls on Wednesday. What does that mean for me?

It means that I could potentially have my call in my hand by March 17th--next Wednesday.

Could I be any happier?

Refer to the title of my blog for the answer to that question.

Secret #16

I have probably 5-10 blog posts that I haven't published, just saved in my dashboard, which remain unpublished for various reasons.

Some I just can't think of how I want to phrase them. Some I have written out completely, but it just isn't the right time to post them. Some I started to write, but then went back and realized it was total garbage, but I can't bring myself to delete all that hard work. And some I thought about the fact that I wanted to write them, jotted down the general idea, but I just can't bring myself to actually write them out.

I've thought a lot about what the hardest thing to leave behind will be when I'm on my mission. I've thought of books, my movies, my music, my friends, my family, my shoe collection, my non-missionary clothes, my phone, my computer, etc...but I think I've got it figured out. I think it will be the fact that I won't be able to call my mom, whenever I want, to tell her something, to ask her a question, or just to talk. I'll miss her. Going on a mission will be worth it, but that doesn't make it any easier to leave it behind.

Nailed

So today I competed in my very first open ballroom competition. I danced in the Novice level, which consists of waltz and quickstep, and in the Pre-Champ level, which consists of waltz, tango, fox trot, and quickstep.

Considering the conditions (my partner and I have only been dancing together for a month, and in that month I've learned all four dances, and especially that i FINISHED learning the fox trot and the tango routines *this week*), we did okay. Not great, but okay. I'm considering it a practice round, because it was my first time competing. Next up: Nationals, in one month. Crazy!

Now to the real point of this post. Because of my competition, I put on fake nails. I hate wearing fake nails. They're completely debilitating. It's taken me twice as long to write this post because I can hardly type. I've moped and moaned about them all day, and I just discovered a major upside to these nails.

I started to take my hair out (not literally out, but I had it in a fancy updo, and that's what I was taking out), and then I started brushing it out with my fingers. And that's when I discovered it: the best feeling in the world is fake fingernails on your scalp. Especially when your hair has been glued to your head all day. It's heavenly.

Thank you, Heavenly Father, for giving me these fake nails, and then giving me the opportunity to see the bright side of things.

*I just noticed another good thing about these nails. I love the clicking sound they make when I use the track pad on my computer. :)

Secret #15

Things that are funny when they're happening to someone else, but not so funny when they're happening to you:
1) Running while wearing a backpack.

2) Trying to push open a door, only to realize that you're supposed to pull it.

a) Expecting a door to be really heavy and pulling on it really hard, only to have it fly open.

3) Getting locked out of your apartment while it's raining and you have class in 15 minutes

4) Finding out that something went wrong at work and having to be the one to tell your boss.

5) Finding out that all your life you thought a word was pronounced one way, only to find that you've been saying it wrong your whole life. And finding out by saying it wrong in front of someone.

6) Falling asleep in class and either doing the head bob, or waking up by majorly jumping.

7) Forgetting the teacher's name when you're saying the prayer in class.

8) Being on a horribly awkward date.

9) Wearing high-water pants.

10) Running out of ideas for your list on a blog post.

Many of these have happened to me recently. It's a good thing I have such a good sense of humor, and that I like to make other people laugh. :)