dripping with passion

the first monday in may is a holiday in england. ian has to study on saturdays lately (the cfa exam is coming up in just a few weeks) and we need to fulfill church responsibilities in our london congregation on sundays, but may first was a totally bonus day off! so we took a little overnight road trip through the english countryside to one of the areas i lived in when i was missionary. i served for four and a half months in the random town of trowbridge, wiltshire, and spent some time in the nearby stunning roman city of bath. it was really great to bring ian and moses to some places that are so meaningful to me, to get out of the busy city into the green hills, and to explore some new bits of the countryside. click through to see some photos!

we went back to london for a few days after our day in stockholm. on friday, the boy ran to and from different meetings, and i stayed in the tiny basement studio we were renting to work (i’ve been working about quarter time remotely while we’ve been in europe, but i had a lot to catch up on by the end of the workweek). that night, we met my lifelong friend amy and her husband rob for dinner, which was super wonderful. amy was tied at the hip with my sister saydi their entire childhood and adolescence, and they’ve remained the best of friends – so amy has always been truly like a sister to me as long as i can remember. she’s seen me through every stage of life, but since she and her husband and four girls live in england, she hadn’t yet met the boy! it was great fun to introduce both amy and rob to ian and to share a meal together. love these people so much! on saturday, the boy finally had an opportunity to see some of the city! he’d been there for quite a few days but in...

i really, really love weddings a lot. and because it seems i’m always living in a different state than where my friends are getting married, i have missed so many weddings. too many. when my mission companion slash dear friend ashten told me she was getting married this august 11 and gave me some real good reasons why i should be there, i put my foot down and decided i wasn’t going to miss this one. then, i got asked to help plan a statewide church young single adult conference here in the bay area that happened to be on the very same weekend as ashten’s wedding. then, my parents were invited to speak at said conference and accepted. and thus an ironic weekend evolved. i put lots of hours and lots of stress into helping plan the conference, and then after work on friday drove to the airport, parked my car in short-term parking, and hopped on a plane. my parents picked me up at the salt lake city airport, we stayed up way too late talking and watching the olympics, and then early the ...

on the mission , i had the fantastic opportunity to train a few new missionaries. in the england london south mission, the trainees were considered “sons and daughters” of the trainer “mums and dads.” and then, in turn, when our little ones trained, their sons or daughters became our grandchildren! i got to train the spectacular sister mcgraw in my last area. i am so grateful that i got that time to serve with her. even though she had sprained her ankle in the missionary training center just days before coming to work with me, she was one of the most diligent missionaries i ever met. sister mcgraw just may be the most cheerful person on earth. she is sunshine in human form. i learned so, so much from her, and we had so, so much fun together as we saw miracles everyday. after i came home from the mission, my babygirl sister mcgraw became a trainer too, and my mission granddaughter count went up! last weekend sister mcgraw’s daughter, sister mcmanus, got married here in the bay area an...

i made my last rounds of mission visiting in the random town of trowbridge, my middle area where i served for 4 months. that period was without a doubt that hardest time of my mission. i endured things i didn’t know i was capable of enduring, and i learned a bit about true, godlike sorrow. i remember sitting in the car with my companion on the worst day of my mission. it was raining outside and for the first and last time as a missionary, i let myself just sit because i couldn’t carry on. we cried and my companion said, “every bit of me is sad.” i am forever and ever grateful for these experiences that hollowed out my heart in a paradoxically beautiful way. i’m so glad for those challenges, which i aimed to experience fully. that being said (woah, major debbie downer, sorry), i also saw some incredible miracles and had some great times and some outlandishly happy moments serving in trowbridge. i learned so much. in many ways, those 4 months glow the most when i think of the mission. f...

i can’t think of a sweeter brand of joy than what i felt being in the temple with someone that i taught as a missionary. if heaven feels even a little like that, it will be heaven indeed. dianne is a breathing miracle and testament of the healing and brightening power of the gospel of jesus christ. she lived in emotional and spiritual darkness for a lot of a lot of years, and the gospel made her blossom. now, she is an absolute ray of sunshine. i saw god’s love and truth transform this woman, and i count that as one of the most beautiful blessings of my life. one day this july dianne and i basked in the light of the gospel together in the house of the lord, and it really was just the sweetest thing imaginable. a kind of culmination or gift of spiritual reward – a syrupy sweet that i savored. isn’t she the cutest thing ever? she’s faithful and trusts and loves god with all her heart. and she’s so happy!   as we walked around the temple grounds and peeked in the mission office,...