marry me...

Beside the picture of the above, the title of this post was inspired by this song. Go listen :)

Yesterday I had the opportunity to be apart of one of my best friend's wedding.This blog post has a lot of insights and pictures...so brace yourself. The first insight I will share ties back to this post.

When my dad passed away, obviously it was easy for me to see a lot of hardships and trials that would follow in my near future. Because I'm human, I wasn't able to see at the time the blessings that event would also bring. My dad was a car dealer/mechanic. When he passed away I was working on a car with him (I'll blog about this later), and I needed money to pay for everything we were doing. Aside from wanting a car, when my dad passed away I was the oldest living at home, so my mom NEEDED me to have a car to be a second driver. So, I got a job working at Cold Stone to earn money for my car. This is where I met one of my best friends Lindsey Hehl. I was fifteen and she was sixteen.

Lindsey has been such a blessing in my life. She has such a strong testimony of the gospel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. She is not afraid to be honest, so you can always trust what she is saying to be her real opinion. She is always up for an adventure and doing something crazy. Because of Lindsey I have had some of the best times of my life. Because of Lindsey I met a boy whom I fell in love with who has highly influenced my life, while we dated, and even when we haven't been dating (that part of my life is a whole different story....maybe we'll go into that another time). Because of Lindsey I came out of my shell a whole lot and learned to take more risks and have fun....even if it means having the cops called on us for "launching missiles from a vehicle in motion".....AKA throwing water balloons from a car at the Provo 4th of July camp-out instead of doing drugs like most other attendees....excuse us. Lindsey has been a friend of mine through thick and thin.

Yesterday, on Aprill 22, 2011, I was able to go wait outside the temple to see her and Logan come out after being sealed, attend their luncheon, and see them off at the reception. At the luncheon there were some good words of advice about love and caring about each other in a relationship and marriage that I wanted to mention:

*No secrets. -I love this and totally believe that this is very important in keeping an open and honest relationship.
*If it's not about love, it's not worth it.
*You ALWAYS have to respect each other.
*No marriage can function without the guidance of the Holy Ghost and prayer to Heavenly Father.

Here's my favorite: *If it's hard, if it's heavy, if it will make you hot or cold, if it takes a large amount of energy, if it's not pleasant, if it's tiring..it's the husband's job. If for some reason the wife does not want to do the rest of the jobs, they can automatically by default turn into the husband's jobs. Also, the husband should not have to be asked by the wife...he should be able to know just by "the look".

Okay, obviously the last one was supposed to be kinda funny...but in all seriousness, I learned a lot from being a part of Lindsey's day.

As I have grown, I have found that Heavenly Father has blessed me with the ability to love others easily, and He has blessed me with a loving and caring heart. At times I have found this to be difficult...as weird as that may sound. I think we all learn a lot from dating and meeting friends, new people, etc. What I have found is that love is not something that can be controlled. It can be worked on and improved, but I've never found a way to keep it from inside if you if it's something that naturally comes. Sometimes you love or care about people who might not feel or act the same way back. I have found this both in friendships and in dating. However, I have also learned that whether it's reciprocated, appreciated, understood, or whatever it may be, loving others, regardless of the type of love, is Christ-like. It is something that we are blessed with and a tool we are to use to become close to God and more like Christ, which is what our eternal goal should be.

I'm so excited for the day that I get to be sealed to someone who loves and cares about me, and someone who I can love and care for....for forever and ever and ever.

 St. George Spring Break '08

St. George Spring Break '08

                                         

4th of July (post "missile-launching") '10

Little Linds...and tall Kels :)

Our "trick"....please compare this with the next 2 photos. April '08

Ogden Drive-in theater, June '10

AF Haunted Forest, October '10

My little best friend!

Wedding Day!!! 4.22.11

Congratulations Lindsey Anne REYNOLDS!

I'm so excited for Lindsey! Her example of getting married in the temple, having faith and patience until she found Logan, and her diligence in all she does, makes me excited and inspired to do the same.