Sunday, October 17, 2010

The only thing that is constant is change!

Wow how times have changed! It's only been about two months and my life is, I feel, completely different. How you might ask? Well, I'm now the 27th ward Relief Society President. Ahhh! I know! Me? I'm the most immature person I know! (That's not completely true) It's been quite the adventure so far. When Bishop called me into his office I was sure I was getting kicked out of the church. I could think of nothing else. Little did I know that he was releasing me from activities chair to put me in Relief Society. What a spiritual experience that first week was! I could hardly contain myself I was always spiritually feasting. It was wonderful! Since then, I've lost, at least a little bit, the desire for that constant nourishment from the spirit. It's a lot of work and it is easier to go back to the way things were. I'm still a good person, don't get me wrong, I'm just not in ultra church mode all the time anymore. I felt the weight of the calling because I know how much I love and respect all the relief society presidents I've had and now that was me! I have 44 girls lives that I'm in small way responsible for. I've never been to so many meetings in my life! I don't think I even went to this many as a missionary. Ok, maybe, but I go to a lot! One Sunday a few weeks ago, I was at the church from 8:00 am to 9:30 that night with an hour and a half break in the middle. Wowza! I've got the best councilors in the world! Kacey Chidester is the first councilor. Out of the entire presidency, she is the only one I knew before. She was in the same mission with me. She is wonderful! Alyssa Williams is the second councilor. She is a lot of fun! Ashley Lee is the secretary is the secretary. With her I was a little nervous to call her because she is a freshman and just from the first time meeting her I didn't know if our personalities would work out, but she is fantastic! All of them are extremely responsible and so willing to do anything! I love them all! My visiting teaching leader is Sunita Anand. She is from India and the cutest thing ever! I definitely have the cream of the crop to work with. They sure do make things really easy for me! I love them all! The girls are great and the ward is great. No complaints there. What an experience!
The next item of business is that I'm pretty much getting married! I'm in love with Cameron Gleed. He IS the bees knees! He makes me want to be a better person! That's so cliche to say, but it's so true! This is our story:
We met the first part of February 2008. I was a seasoned missionary getting transferred to Cape May. He was a greenie getting transferred to the same area. Getting to know the new elders was the last thing on my mind, I had Sister Woolley to get to know. Sometime after that we were having lunch at the Tolmans and he reached across my plate. I thought that was super rude and I snapped at him. I must have been having a bad day or something. I'm not sure how much longer after the lunch incidence happened that I got the phone call that Kanatha died. I was devastated. I was in an area where I didn't know anyone very well and I was supposed to deal with this change by myself. That's at least what I felt like. I remember the night I got the emailed obituary from Mertle Rae I read it out loud to everyone there. (The elders, Tolmans, and my companion) I of course cried, but I looked up and I saw him wipe a tear. What a sweetie. He was so kind to me. I could tell he genuinely cared. I couldn't be mad at him after he was so sweet to me. After that we became super good friends. When I got home, we wrote emails and letters pretty much every week the rest of his mission. His letters were definitely the highlight of my week. He got home February 4, 2010 and called me soon after he was home. Mostly because I told him to, but the other mostly because he wanted to! : ) After he got home and was in Washington, there wasn't a lot we could do other than talk on the phone, which we did quite often. He goes to BYU so he moved a few months after he got home so he could start school. The first time we met up was at Temple Square. When we finally saw each other it was magic! He gave me the best hug ever! We went to the Joseph Smith Memorial building and had a quick lunch before I had to go to Kainoa's violin recital and he had to meet up with his grandparents. That afternoon after the recital I called him and invited him over to meet my family and eat some pizza, no big deal. He came over and we had a lot of fun, but that's kind of inevitable when Cameron's around. He's a lot of fun and everyone likes him. We went shopping that night for a tie for Jodi's wedding and just goofed off in the stores before we dropped him off at his grandparents house. After that we would talk more on the phone, but never really saw each other mainly because as we all remember, Trevor was a big part of my life at this time. This part in our story is a little hazy to me, I know we kept talking and such, but that's about all I remember. Well, this summer we kept getting closer and closer thanks to Trevor. I'd call him to complain or to tell him the latest dumb thing Trevor had said and he was so good to listen to me. It then became a joke that Trevor wasn't going go go away until I had another boyfriend. So he was my boyfriend. He started calling me all the time and we'd say things like, "hey girlfriend" "Hey boyfriend" all the time. Then it started not being such a joke. When the Winegars came home he came up to their homecoming but he came up the day before. I took him out to the Adams lake to meet them and they loved him. That is really important to me for them to meet because the Adams are very important people in my life. We had a lot of fun, then that night we were at David Beatty's cousin's house in North Logan watching a movie he held my hand and I LOVED IT! He is so wonderful. We saw each other that next Sunday at the Winegars homecoming and that was fine, but there were a lot of other missionaries there that both of us wanted to talk to separately. Since then, I didn't see him until the mission reunion. When I walked into the gym I thought I was in the wrong place because I didn't know anyone but I saw President Winegar so I started to walk towards him when Cameron turned around and saw me. He gave me a giant hug and said, "hello beautiful!" I melted! The rest of that day he just followed me around and we kinda held hands through the conference sessions. We talked about what is going to happen after I graduate and other random topics. That Sunday I went to his grandparents house in Layton to watch conference with them. I love his grandparents. I went to his family reunion in July so I'd already met a bunch of his family and they are perfect. Not a lot of drama and just super nice people. I felt like part of them the instance I got there. I love that about him and them. They are very kind people. The first session we didn't talk or even sit very close by each other, but the second session he put his arm around me and we held hands then. This was a very big point in our relationship because we were being affectionate in front a lot of missionaries and his family on Sunday. I loved it! I love walking into a room, seeing him, and being able to think, "wow, that one likes me!" I think that every time I see him. After dinner with his family I dropped him off in Kaysville and before I got in the car He told me that he loved me. What a wonderful thing to hear! I'd heard, well read, it before, but never heard it from him. I said it back and got in the car and left. Ok, in all honesty I knew it was coming because during conference I happened to look down in his journal and saw that he had wrote that he loved me and was going to tell me or something along those lines. This last weekend was the Tolman's farewell so I went down and picked him and Kayla up from the BYU game and we went to the DI to find Cameron to find an ugly sweater. He has an obsession with ugly sweaters. After that, we went to his ward talent show. That was great because he held my hand during that too! Another major step taken because now his friends know. The only issue is that I don't know exactly what he is thinking about me. I know everything else what he was thinking, but other than that I'm clueless. I guess it makes it kinda fun because when he does actually tell me what he is thinking it surprises me and I like that, but it would be nice to be able to read his thoughts when it comes to me. Sunday at church with the Tolmans he held my hand during church, but the best part was that he kissed the top of my head. Sweet huh!? Oh I love that man so much! We hung out with the Tolmans that afternoon as well as the Winegars. We went to their house with them and played games. Fun, but kinda awkward to be on a double date with the mission president. After that we had dinner with his uncle's parents in Sandy. That was a lot of fun. They adored me! I can't say I blame them, but they were a super nice and wonderful family. That night he hugged me and that was that. All through the week we talk, facebook, text, and write snail mail. I love it! I really get to know him a lot of different ways. This last weekend he rode the train to Ogden and I met him there. We had lunch and went to Ifly (an indoor skydiving place) with Jamie and Steve which was a lot of fun. I love them! After we dropped them off, we went to an art museum but it was closed. We took crazy pictures and laughed a lot. After that we went to 25th street and just went in and out of all the little antique stores finding the most random but awesome things. After that we went to Rainbow gardens. It is a restaurant/gift shop that was fabulous! I dropped him off at the train station again because I had to go back to babysit for Darci. He makes me so happy. I love that he laughs a the same things I laugh at. He is a great member of the church. His family is super strong in the church. He is creative. He is smart. He is majoring in actuary science. He wants a lot of kids. He is random just like me. OH man, I could go on for hours about how wonderful he is, but I've been working on this post for a very long time. He doesn't know about the plans for us to get married in July, but he will know soon! He is my same kind of weird!

5 comments:

  1. That is cool Julia glad you found some one who makes you so happy! Congrats

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  2. Thanks Kara! He is wonderful! I just need to let him know about his wedding that's being planed! :)

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  3. Lol it will be a great suprise for him!

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  4. Congrats Julz!! He sounds so great and perfect for you! I can't wait to get home to meet him!

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  5. Julz,
    The BarJ Wranglers start in June or May or whenever Memorial Day is. Maybe we could all make a special trip up there that time of the year! That might fit in with your July plans?I bet dad would love to take pictures then. Ya know. Let us know what you think. ;-)

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