I am engaged!!

Soon to married!!

I am marrying Mitch..

We are excited.

Loves.

SJ.

Missing

This is what I miss today...

The little girl that I am holding in the picture was in love with me. I had a dance-off with her older sister, who was five at the time. I did the splits and they were amazed, probably because I was slightly over-weight. During our dance-off I got a leg-cramp trying to do a backwards bend. They all laughed. I couldn't move for at least a minute or two. The mom, woman in pink, was my favorite member in Kaunas, I ate a lot of food with her. She would always let us in when we had a cake in our hands. I laughed and laughed with her. I miss her.

The picture where I look awesome in the blue shirt (I loved that shirt) is with my companion Sister Janiec, we had a good time. She thought I was crazy. We almost got attacked by a bee the size of a golf ball, seriously. Sister Janiec broke the dresser she was so scared of the bee. I tried everything to kill that bee, I think I finally hit it was a Dansko and it died. Sister Janiec saw me in the best and worst of my mission, she was my last companion. I was more afraid than anything to go home, I kept on telling myself it was never going to actually happen. She sat up with me the last night of my mission and helped me realize it was all going to be alright. Lily & Fred (story for another day) were our greatest source of entertainment during our companionship.

The picture with the umbrella is with Sister Robbins, we were companions for six months. I love her, I am pretty sure God knew we had to be companions. We saw more miracles than I have ever experienced in my life. We essentially were each other's first companions. We were little, actually getting fatter by the day, sisters stuck in a big city. We found out what it really meant to love others. We laughed every day, Sister Robbins peed her pants about a billion times, seriously. She even peed her pants in my shoes...gross. It rained a lot, we liked the rain. In fact one time, Sister Robbins was laughing so hard over a puddle of rain that she peed right there in her skirt in the rain. Needless to say we were late for an appointment, we went anyway...sick. That black sweater I am wearing was a handy-down from 500 other missionaries, it was gross and awesome all at the same time. I think only sister missionaries can understand the beauty of handy-down clothes. Even though they are usually ugly, they seem to fit like a glove. Sister Robbins had to go home early and I remember the day she left the Baltics, it rained so hard. It was February and I was positive that the entire world was crying for me. I walked away on a cobble stone street in Klaipeda, I probably tripped because of my shoes, and I turned around and she drove away. I was sad.

I miss my mission, I want to go back, I was just there, I think that the people in my mission used to need me more than I needed them and now I need them more than they need me.

Goodnight.

Love,

SJ

Happy Wednesday...

Diet Coke vs. Diet Pepsi.

For most of my life I have been against drinking carbonation, except on Christmas and holidays.

When I was younger, there was a notion put into my head that carbonation will make you a slower runner or make you fat. Which is probably true, but just those two ideas made my desire to drink carbonation completely stop. I went years without drinking carbonation.

Well since I have become older, I am so old – 25 to be exact, I have succumbed to drinking Diet Coke here and there. This habit started about a year ago when I started working 40 hours a week. (In all honesty there was a little bit of Diet Coke drinking on my mission, mostly to battle the days of complete exhaustion.) I was still, and still am, struggling to find time to have a perfect social life, career that is moving forward, free time to exercise, dating and casually reading on the side. With all this and staying awake in meetings which start sometimes at 7:00 a.m. in the morning, Diet Coke was my only answer. (This is so ridiculous) I was faced and still am faced with the choice between coffee, water, and Diet Coke. Well since coffee is an automatic no and water is there for me to drink the rest of the day, of course I choose Diet Coke. This started being a “once a week” habit and slowly moved into a Monday – Friday habit. Currently I am down to about two a week. However last week when I ran 14.5 miles with my friend Molly, the only thing I wanted when I finished running was Diet Coke. I stopped at my Grandma’s one the way home and took one from her fridge downstairs.

I am ashamed to admit this, call me vain, I don’t care. But I hate that I feel like I need a Diet Coke to stay awake, however I do pay much more attention during meetings when Diet Coke is involved.

Back to my title, “Diet Coke or Diet Pepsi”. I have a preconceived notion about Diet Pepsi. I associate Diet Pepsi with people that drink soda or pop all the time. And I don’t want to be considered one of these people, not like “these people” are bad. I have lots of friends that love Diet Coke, one of my best friends who is currently residing in Lincoln, Nebraska loves Diet Coke. In fact, she informed me just the other day, that cans of Diet Coke are cheaper in Nebraska. Who would have thought? I don’t where this notion came from or exactly why I have it, but I can’t force myself to drink any form of Pepsi, not like I really need to. I think part of me is afraid of the taste, is that possible?

So, where did all this come from…there are 12 Diet Pepsi’s in my fridge and not one Diet Coke.

Are you a Diet Coke drinker?

Europe.

I have been promising to put up pictures from Europe for the last month. For one reason or another I have delayed. So, to all my loyal readers/lookers, I know there are very few of you, here you are. I have debated back and forth in my mind how to present the trip. It was incredible. I went with Rach and we met amazing people.

Here are some of the people we met...

Lithuania

These are most of the girls from the Vilnius Branch.

(Jolita, Sarah, Aleksandra, Kristinia, Marinia, an old Elder, and Sandora)

This is Alinia, she is one of my MOST favorite little girls in Lithuania.

Did I mention it rained the entire time we were in the country?

This is Giedre, she is very important to me.

I met her about 8 months into my mission and we have been very good friends since then.

We are standing on top of one of the highest points in Vilnius.

This is Lucy and Maggie. They are from China. Lucy makes the best Chinese food I have EVER had. Maggie is afraid of the camera and Lucy has the strongest faith I have ever seen.

These are the girls from Klaipeda. This is a picture of Anna's wedding shower. Anna was my companion, she is native to Latvia. I picked her up from the mission home exactly one year after my mission started. She was a brand new missionary and the first thing she did was correct a grammar mistake. She is the one who really taught me how to speak Lithuania. She moved to Ireland with her husband. I love her. (Anna, Sarah, Vika, and Little Dovile)

This is Edita's mom. Edita lived with my family when she came to America before she got married. Edita's mom was so king to let us stay with her.

This is Dima and Natasha's family!! They are truly amazing. When I began my mission Dima and Natasha had their first little girl, Nikole . She is now 3 and crazy!! They had Sophie about a year ago. Rachel thought she looked just like a cupid. We spend a night with them, it was crazy and fun. Nikole cried when we left. Nikole also ate more than Rachel and me, which is pretty incredible. (Rachel, Sarah, Dima, Nikole, Natasha, & Sophie)

This is Saules and Marinia. I love them. When I was on my mission, Marinia never failed to inform me that I was gaining a little weight. She also taught Jenna and me some hilarious stomach exercises. We could never get through the exercises because we were always laughing too hard. Their daughter Emma, in the picture, was born on my mission. I can't believe how big she is. (Saules, Marinia, Emma, & Sarah)

This is Nijole and her husband. I worked with Nijole my entire mission. She fed me a lot on my mission, a lot. Rachel and I had lunch with Nijole and her husband. We ate for three hours straight. It was great, we were so full we could barely walk away.

Germany

This is Diana, Mitch's cousin. Rachel and I stayed with her in Munich.

Rachel and I went with Christian and his cousin Andrew to a bonfire to celebrate the summer solstice. Christian went to SUU to receive his Master's degree. Christian is from a little city right on the border of Germany and Austria. This was my favorite night of the trip. More details to follow..

Rachel, Christian, and I lit wax candles, walked up a hill, and lit a bonfire with 20 little kids.

It was awesome.

While at the bonfire, we met these nice German men. They were drunk and shocked that Mormons were there. They were also puzzled as to why we didn't drink. On the night of the bonfire, Christian told Rachel and me that he has never seen two girls eat so much food. Should we take that as a compliment? I think so.

Greece

This picture was taken in Athens in front of the Parthenon. These are our (Rachel and my) friends, Lilly and Matt. We met them in the airport in Naples. We were stuck in Naples for a billion hours, our flight was delayed for way too long. Good thing we met Lilly and Matt. They got engaged in Paris a few weeks before coming to Greece. We spent two days with them, they loved us.

I don't know this lady's name. But Rachel met her at church in Greece. She is from Philippians and Rachel was able to speak Tagalog with her. I thought it would only be fair to put one picture up of Rachel with one of her people.

This is us with the sister missionaries in Greece.

Austria

Rachel and I met some of these girls at the temple in Frankfurt. They were so nice to let us stay with them in Vienna. They live in Vienna and took Rachel and me on an incredible tour of the city.

(Sarah, Rachel, Ester, Lillian, Ester, and Margaret)

More to come...

Jodi & Tyler

These two love birds are tying the knot.

I have known Jodi since I was eight. We danced together at Salt Lake Dance Center and lost contact for a little while. It just so happened that we were reunited again in the MTC when we became solo sister companions. Ever since then we have been the best of friends.

This picture perfectly portrays how happy Tyler makes Jodi. I can't wait for them to be married.

Congratulations!

"500 Days of Summer"

saw the movie, loved the movie. go see the movie.