I Love To See The Temple

So, kids. Alison is going to the temple. On Wednesday. In, counting today, 3 days.

I was sitting and thinking about this experience yesterday during church. When did my own personal desire to go to the temple start? Was it from the moment I left the womb? ;) When? When was I first taught about the temple?

Well, I have AWESOME parents. The best. {Haha, get it?} They've always had pictures of the temple in our home and I was taught from a young age in Family Home Evening. So really, it was as early as I could comprehend the concept. In nursery, my leaders taught me about the temple. My mommy sang "I love to see the temple" to me every night. I sang about the temple in primary. I had a picture of my own of the temple. My mom showed me pictures of her and my Daddy outside the temple after they were sealed for time and all eternity {they looked so classy!}. There have been so many lessons in young women's and relief society about it.

One of the most important things I could ever say about the temple is that I always had a desire for myself to go. I never felt like I was being pressured into it or anything whatsoever in that sense. I had the burning desire within me from a very young age, and couldn't wait to go all on my own. I had the great blessing to have such a nourishing environment around the temple-so blessed. In the end, though, it was my own decision.

So the day came when I turned 12. My mind was exploding with happiness. I could actually go and do baptisms for the dead! What would it be like? My Daddy took me for my first time, and it was wonderful. Just wonderful. Yeah, everything was new, but it all made sense. I loved the pure, sacred feeling I felt within me as I did those ordinances for, really, my family on the other side. I'll never forget that first time. I hold it dear to my heart.

I've been back to the temple more times than I can count. Every experience has been absolutely beautiful and brought me great comfort and given me guidance when I needed it. The temple is where I can go to always feel the spirit. There's never a question if I'll feel it there. How amazing is that?

I made a goal with myself to try my hardest to go to every temple in Utah and do baptisms for the dead in all of them before I graduated from high school. I remember going in my room and writing down all the temples in Utah. There's actually more than most people think! The usual Fab 5 came to mind- Salt Lake, Timp, Logan, Manti, and St. George. But there are SOOOOO many more! [SIDENOTE: Including ones under construction, there are 16 TEMPLES in Utah alone.] I was astounded! I am so blessed to live so close to so many temples! I started on my quest with eagerness.

Being honest here, I didn't reach my goal. But I got close! The most important thing is that I gained such a strong testimony of temples, and had so much fun with the experiences that came along with travel and the people who were with me at each one. Also, what a cool thing- that so many temples need to be built to accommodate the faithful saints.

Overall, my experience of temples thus far has been splendid. Awe inspiring. I can't explain the feeling I feel every time I gaze upon the temple. From New York, to Idaho, to California, to St. George- I feel something that I can't find anywhere else. Forever.

My whole heart and soul is aching with happiness with my upcoming entrance into the temple to be endowed, and then days later, sealed for time and all eternity to my very best friend, Chad Edward.   I have such a testimony of the temple. I will sit and chat with anyone anytime about it and the blessings it brings. Call me up anytime. Being worthy to enter the temple has made me such a better person and have the greatest perspective in life. I get to have the knowledge and peace that forever? Is real. COMPLETELY 100% real. Do you realize the power that holds? Great power.

I can't wait to enter the temple and enter into sacred covenants with my Father in Heaven. And the greatest part is that my family will be able to be right by my side. The ones forever is all about.

I am so excited. That's a total understatement, but it'll have to do. This is the most important part about this whole wedding thing. Not the flowers or the centerpieces or the yummy reception food, but THE TEMPLE. Oh yes, the temple.

I'm so grateful for the wonderful examples I have all around me of temple marriage. {Get ready for a million photos!}

                     

All my grandparents, Mommy&Daddy, almost ALL my aunts and uncles and cousins have been married in the temple as well.

The power of forever is real. And I'm so privileged to be apart of it.

"I love to see the temple

I'm going there someday

To feel the holy spirit

To listen and to pray

For the temple is a House of God

A place of love and beauty

I'll prepare myself while I am young

This is my sacred duty"

"I love to see the temple

I'll go inside someday

I'll cov'nant with my Father

I'll promise to obey

For the temple is a holy place

Where we are sealed together

As a child of God I've learned this truth:

A family is forever"

Forever. :)

ABJ

Happenings as of Late 2

Due to a tragic disease that both my mom and I's cameras have caught, I've realized and confirmed that I haven't done a lot of posts lately with pictures of current events. I promise this will definitely end when I'm all hitched and moved into our happy place. :)

But without pictures, things are moving along slowly. Wedding planning is super fun, and then not so much on days where you're driving in an un-air conditioned car all over the universe and your knee pits are sweating up a storm. Then you get grumpy gills sickness and hate everyone that talks to you.

I went to UVU yesterday {for the 3rd time, which is a whole other story to get mad about, but I'm deciding to look over it} to get everything finalized for FAFSA and all that jazz. Ya know, making sure I don't start school and they say, "Oh! You didn't pay this random fee that you never saw...". And let me tell you, I am NOT doing all that fun stuff on my honeymoon, so it was going to be completely solved! My financial counselor is just the best. Good ole Melissa. She makes everything so much better and happier. My mom and I sat down like a pair of trolls from driving in the heat and that stupid kid that clearly took our spot by cutting us off on purpose  {which I never really get mad about driving stuff, so this was a big deal for me}, and it was like Melissa was our fairy godmother. Magic! We left all pretty like princesses and happy as could be. Ah. I love good service!

I adore the fact that I get to hold my little nephie {nephew} every single day. We get to have Auntie/Nephie bonding time and I just love it. He's already so different that a few weeks ago! He's building up some muscles, making new sounds, making little smiles-just so cute. I'm seriously having withdrawals about moving into our apartment because then I'll only get to see him once a week! But, alas,  I'll just have to enjoy the weekly growing upness I get to see from my little guy.

I go to the temple in 5 days for my endownment and I am just the most exciting thing ever. Seriously, folks, I have been waiting and preparing for this since I was a wee little one, and now the time is here! It's so surreal and I just can't believe it. What a wonderful gift Heavenly Father has given his children.

Well, I must be off to accomplish other things! Here's to being bride in 11 days!!!

ABJ

A Day

Today was a day {if ya know what I'm sayin'}.
I was probably every  side of the spectrum of emotion, which is no bueno for the little brain I have. Like when you mix together ALL the colors of paint? It's what....brown-ooey-death color? Yeah. Not good for the health of a working head.

But like the quote above ^ says, there were wonderful somethings in my day. Signing a document saying I was going to marry the man of my dreams, feeling like a sweet college kid again as I walked down the hall of the university, eating my favorite treat with my mommy, going to the temple with my sweetheart, buying donuts at a discount price and eating them with milk, cuddling with my baby nephew, playing with a puppy, changing into my fiance's superman shirt {don't worry, by myself of course :)}, singing EFY songs with my future hubbie, and snuggling up to episodes of The Cosby Show.

I would say those were GREAT somethings.

When you type it out like that, it reminds me how sweet life is-and that I'm real blessed.

So, if you're having "a day", take a sec and maybe write down a few somethings of your day. It may turn out you actually had a pretty swell day after all.

;)

Loves,
Your Little Besty

Leafy

So...

I love me seester. 

A LOT. 

If you know Elise, you know what I'm talkin' about.

Elise has always been my rock. The one I can look to. The one to be honest and straight up with me. Ever since I was little, I wanted to be just like my sister. Everything she did amazed me. I remember going to YW when my mom was a leader and Elise was in YW because I wanted to be by her and watch her. Kinda creepy, but not. When she had a birthday party at our house, I wanted to be one of the friends and hang out with her and play games. She was/is the coolest girl ever in my eyes and I couldn't get enough of her. My sister was my role model.

Leafy is the most beautiful woman ever. Seriously. You all know this. When I say this, I mean outside and in. She has a heart of pure gold and always cares about others. No one feels awkward around Elise. Everyone feels special and important. She is a comfort and brings peace to your troubled heart. You know this if you know Leafy. It's a great, spectacular gift she has. 

I have an incredible love for my sister. We started becoming real good friends right when I needed her. We would talk in the car and listen to 97.1 station on the radio and rock out to hip-hop and other crazy stuff. She gave me the greatest advice about ANYTHING and EVERYTHING. She still does. 

Elise is super smart. I've always admired her brains. This doesn't really mean just school, though she was a wiz {except that one class in college....haha!}, but just about life. If I have a question about anything, she has an answer or somewhere I can go looking. Seriously, she's like an encyclopedia! She is a hard core worker and learner and I love that about my sister. 

Her spirit is phenomenal. Leafy has always had a strong, firm testimony in the gospel and it's provided me strength multiple times. I love hearing her thoughts on gospel principles and what she believes because it blows my mind. She has the most beautiful testimony ever.

What an incredible sister. I'm completely, over-the-top content with only 1 sister because she is every single thing a sister is. I would never trade her in for the world! Heavenly Father knew what he was doing when he put us together because she has drastically changed my life as my big sis. Oh boy, has she ever. 

Now Elise is about to have a baby. A little, beautiful, amazing, bouncy baby boy. I FREAKED when I found out, not because I was gonna be an Aunt {which I freaked out later about by continued hours of screaming in my room}, not because we'd have our first grand-baby, but because ELISE was going to now be a mother. My role model now a mother! I couldn't be more excited for her. Her son is THE LUCKIEST boy alive. He is being born to the most lovable, beautiful, kind, sweet, tender, strong, firm, hard-core, spiritual, phenomenal woman ever. My sister. My Leafy. My Elise.

I can't describe how I really feel about this matter. All I can say is, my sister is better than words could ever say. And my nephew is gonna be awesome, because Mommy Leafy is awesome. :)

All my love to you, Leafy. I can't wait to hold your little one! How blessed he is to be your lil guy. Never forget how much I love you!!!!!

Happy Becoming Mommy Day this Sunday! Love you!

Love always,
Little Sis

Sneak Peek

Our engagements are in!!!!!

However, I must wait some time to post them via Facebook and everywhere in the world :) till my sweetie and I have gone through all the pictures and decided what to post.

So! I know there's been some I posted in my last post, but here's another one from the CD we got today. :) Ha, so in love.

Yipee! I'm getting married!!!!!!!!

LOVES,
ab future j

Our Story

    Chad Edward and I met in September of 2007. I was a scared-out-of-my-pants sophomore at AF High School. He was a junior, probably not as scared-out-of-his-pants by this point. I'd been involved in theater in junior high and wanted to pursue it in high school as well, so I decided to audition for the school play, Peter Pan. A lot of people told me that sophmores were lucky to get into the shows and I was a young teenage girl, so with my mind, I probably wasn't gonna make. But I might as well try. So I auditioned and waited for the results.

    Chad wasn't planning on auditioning. He actually signed up the DAY OF the auditions and took the last spot on the sign up list. A name was actually erased, so he "technically" wouldn't have been able to sign up if the name had been there. {Though we all know people squeeze their name on the list:)}. He waited for the results.

   What do ya know, we both made it! I got the part of Wendy {which I still am shocked about to this day}, and Chad was a pirate. As the rehearsal process went on, I actually formed a crush for his best friend! Chad Edward started having some love dove feelings for me :), but knew he couldn't really do anything about it because of the "Best Friend's Girl Don't Even Think About It" thing. " :)

   We became good friends back stage behind the pirate ship. Every time before I went on for a certain scene, he was behind stage with me and we would joke and laugh. I thought he was funny and comfortable to talk to. I liked him as a good friend.

   The next semester started and we found that we were in the same seminary class. Sweet! We sat by each other and got to know each others spiritual side. I think this is where we really got to know each other. Sadie Hawkins was coming up and I wanted to go with someone that was super fun and would go crazy with me, so I thought my new friend, Chad E. Johnson would fill the quota. :)

   We had a BLAST at Sadies! We always joke about how when I picked him up and we walked to the car, he was about to open the door for me and I slammed him against the car and said that I was the man tonight and he couldn't do that. :) Haha! Poor guy. It seriously was one of the funnest dances I ever went to in high school. We went crazy and had the best time ever! I think this dance started the "best friend" phase for us.

   I dated his best friend on and off, and even though I was a whole bunch of drama as far as boys went, Chad was always there for me and would let me vent to him about anything. I really did tell him everything and knew I got turn to him for comfort. I knew he liked me, but at this point in time, I just didn't like him more than a friend. Poor Chad, I was such a meanie in regards to liking!

   We continued to be best friends into his senior year. He was still always there for me and knew how to make me laugh. I went on liking other boys.....and he was there when stuff got sticky. What a GUY! Seriously, in his position, I probably would have been gone long ago! Near the end of his graduation, I sorta started having that "Ally-you're-so-stupid" thing going on. I really thought about it, and I realized how much Chad meant to me. What was I doing? The boy who treated me the best ever was right in front of me and I never gave him the time of day! {as far as dating went}. So, this is where our "first kiss" happened {which is another story for another day ;)}. It was so exciting!

   Well, after a few weeks, and a few months away from his mission, I started feeling a little weird about us. It just wasn't right. I didn't want to say anything because I was scared of hurting him {again}, but there came a time when I just couldn't ignore it anymore. Being the awesome man he is, he took it pretty well and we went back to being friends. Looking back, we both appreciated this time. He was focused on his mission and we still got to hang out a lot as friends.

   Before he left, he mentioned that if I was here when he got back, that would be great, but if not, he just wanted me to be happy. I said I was going to date other people and if I was still here, we could see what might happen. But for sure, we would write as best friends to support each other!  This was the greatest thing for us because we didn't feel tied down to a promise-so he could focus and I could freely date without feeling disloyal.

   Chad was first and foremost my best friend, so it was still hard to see him go. I was soooo stoked for him to serve in Oklahoma, but I missed him! I remember crying all night when he left! Haha, there's best friends right there. It was hard not being able to call him anytime. I missed our porch talks and "cookie dough" babies {don't ask :)}. But I knew he was on the Lord's errand and I wanted nothing more for him!

   The next two years would take forever to tell. But to sum it up, being away from someone you care about a lot can really get your mind reeling concerning the subject of a special forever someone. I did date, and loved it. I definitely needed that in my journey and I learned so much! About myself and about what I really wanted in an eternal companion. I'm SO GLAD I took this opportunity in my life. I wouldn't trade it for anything.

   Chad was an AMAZING missionary. I wish I could tell you all of his stories. He was a ROCK in a stormy sea, and I admire him for it. I don't know if I could have went through what he went through. I saw him "catch on fire" spiritually and it was spectacular to watch as a best friend who knew him so well! I was so proud of him every day. 

   Near the last 6 months of Chad Edward's mission, I started really thinking. I was just done with the dating phase at that point. Chad was coming home soon, so I might as well wait till he gets back. I knew I couldn't really go on, as far as dating goes, until I knew what could happen with Chad. So I lived up the single life and anxiously watched the mailbox for his weekly letters and the calender for his homecoming. :)

   He came home, and literally, the rest is history. We decided to date exclusively the day after he got back after we did baptisms at the Mt. Timp. Temple and knew marriage was in the picture from the beginning. However, we took it slow, like a smart little couple, and got to "re-know" each other. He was still Chad and I was still Ally, but we were both very different! So this time was important for us. 

   We had our bumps along the way, just like every couple. I definitely had my "cold feet" moments where I didn't know if I was supposed to get married for awhile. Maybe I was supposed to serve a mission-maybe I wasn't ready for marriage yet. Chad was always very patient with me when I had these "episodes" and was very understanding and sweet. Of course he wanted to get married ASAP, but he made sure I knew that he would do whatever it took for me to feel ready. He even said once, "I'd wait 10 years to marry you!". Yep, definite keeper.

   We got engaged after dating for 8 months {you better believe we got flack for that! But I'm proud of us for waiting till we were ready!} on May 8th at Memory Grove Park in Salt Lake City. What a day that was!

   Chad Edward & I couldn't be more happier-the only thing that will bring us greater happiness is being sealed for time and all eternity as eternal sweethearts-which is gonna happen on August 14, 2012 in the Salt Lake Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Wahoo!!!!! Here's to forever, baby!

   It still gets me sometimes that we're actually getting married. I've said this to Chad before, but sometimes it amazes me-I'm really marrying Chad Johnson. Honestly, when I met him in 10th grade, I never thought I would marry this guy, but now, I would never think twice about marrying anyone else. We really are BEST FRIENDS, even meaning the mean and ugly side-which is why we are so great and strong together. We've been through a LOT, both good and bad and know we can make this work. Now that we're together, we're soul mates!

   I can't wait for our new adventure to begin. Marriage is seriously gonna ROCK with Chad Edward. I'm thrilled beyond belief to be spending my eternity with him and that I get to watch all the amazing things he's gonna do. Being a killer-hunk of a husband,a marvelous daddy to our kids, serving the Lord every day of his life and a million other things. What a life we'll have!

Here's to a bright, incredible eternity. I love you, Chad Edward!