My New Black Friends!

I was just getting off the frontrunner from work on Saturday when a tall black man and a shorter black woman approached me.

"Can I borrow your cell phone to make a phone call?" The tall man asked me. Dang, I thought, I hate it when people ask me that and I don't have my phone.

"I would let you borrow it but I left it at my friends house," I replied. "My wife is coming to pick me up here soon though and you can use hers."

"That works," The tall one said again. The three of us started walking over the the frontrunner parking lot.

"What brings you two out here to West Jordan?" I asked.

"My mom's boyfriend is getting baptized today," The tall one responded again.

"That's awesome!" I exclaimed, "I love baptisms. They are always so cool."

"Yeah," He said. "I'm a convert to the church. I was baptized when I was 16 and I was the first one in my family to join the church."

"Wow!" I said. "That must have been hard. You were the pioneer of your family."

"Yup," He said.

About then Charly, her mom, and Luke pulled up in her mom's little white Honda Civic. Charly got out and I asked her if my new friends could use her phone. Of course she said yes and handed the phone to man.

"What are your names?" I asked.

The girl spoke, "My name is Mia," She said, "And this is Wallace." Wallace grinned at me. He was on the phone with his mom.

"My name is Benjamin and this is Charly," I said, introducing us.

After calling, Wallace and Mia found that they would have to wait a while in the parking lot for Wallace's mom to pick them up. We ended up offering them a ride.

"I don't know how well the four of us are going to fit in the back of this little Honda..." I said. "How tall are you Wallace?"

"I'm 6' 6''," He said grinning again.

We all squeezed in. Charly sat on my lap which work out pretty well for me. We were able to get them to the right place and as far as I know they made it to the baptism with their mom.

Both Charly and I love it when we get opportunities to serve other people. I know that we will be blessed for it even if the things we do are small sometimes. I always enjoy making new friends as well and it's not every day that I get to make new black friends! Unfortunately there just aren't as many in Utah as there are in Brazil.

6'6" Makes Any Car Seem Small.

Ben and I went down to West Jordan this weekend. While we were down there, my parents wanted to take us out to dinner for our birthdays on Saturday night. Since I had dance in the morning, I was already down there; Ben had to take the train from his work to meet up with us. We were going to pick him up from the station and then head straight to dinner.

We took my mom's car, since it's the nicest. Luckily, it's also the roomiest. My mom was driving with Luke in the front passenger seat. That left the back for Ben and I. 

When we pulled into the station, we found Ben right away, talking with a couple of people. I got out of the car, to signal Ben and get a we've-been-apart-all-day hug. He ran over to me to get my phone for the guy he was talking with to borrow. We waited while the guy, Wallace, talked to his mom. 

When he hung up, Ben asked him, "So you have someone coming?"

"Why?" Wallace answered. "You offering us a ride?"

Ben looked at the car, back at Wallace and Mia, then back at the car and laughed. "If we had room, I definitely would be. I don't think we have room." 

We said our goodbyes and climbed into the car. As my mom started driving out of the parking lot, we told her the story, laughing. 

"Well," my mom said, "where are they headed?" 

"West Jordan somewhere." 

"That's the way we're headed," she said. "If we could squeeze them in, I don't see why we couldn't drop them off on the way." We turned around and Ben ran after the couple. Ben opened the door for them, then walked around to the other side. He slid in, closed the door, then pulled me up on his lap. I bent over, leaning my head on the seat in front of me. Even still, we were squeezed in pretty tight. Poor Wallace still had to bend his head down to fit.

It was quite the adventure. It was nice to be able to help them out and Ben and I always love meeting new people.  

Aeropostale Date: Does Aeropostale have scarves?

Charly likes to plan dates and I like to improvise on dates. It works well for us that way.

Back when Charly and I were dating we went on a date to the Gateway mall in SLC. The date was fun. I think we ate at Tucanos which was cool for me because it's a Brazilian restaurant.

After that we were wandering around the mall when we saw a cloths store... It might have been Hollister... I don't remember for sure but there were some couches in the front so we sat down. People that came in the store would stare at us so I decided to start welcoming them to the store.

"Welcome to Hollister!" I said as a person walked in. They gave me a strange look.

I looked over at Charly. "We should go do this for real at a store!" I said.

"Ok," She replied.

We found an Aeropostale and went inside. "Can we talk to the manager?" I asked one of the workers. "Sure," the worker said.

When the manager came up to us I started my lie.

"Hey, we are doing some volunteer work because it is so close to Christmas and we were wondering if we could stand at your entrance and welcome people in to the store?"

The manager brightened right up at my words. "Of course!" She said. "You can even give them our pitch!"

After she explained the pitch to us Charly and I went to the front of the store and started welcoming people in. We were having tones of fun for some reason and so I'm sure we were smiling really well when we welcomed new customers. We even had a customer ask us where a scarf was which was a big deal because when I went to answer I realized that I didn't know if Aeropostale even sold scarfs so I turned to look back in the store to see...

Needless to say it was one of the funnest dates I've been on just because it was so different. If you ever need something to do on a date I would highly recommend fake volunteering to be a greater at a store.

"Welcome to Aeropostale!"

About a month before Ben and I started to officially and exclusively date each other, we met up at the Gateway to spend the day together. We spent the first part of the date playing silly games and eating lunch at Tucanos. Then we started going store to store, talking and laughing and having fun doing absolutely nothing. 

We were in Hollister, sitting in the big, poufy arm chairs in the front of thei store when Ben had the brilliant idea to start welcoming people as they entered. I agreed, though I was more self-conscious about it than he was. 

Then Ben had even more of a brilliant idea. 

"Charly, let's walk down and find another store to do this at!" He was very excited. 

"Okay," I agreed, more because of the funny looks we were getting at Hollister than out of actual desire to do it. 

As we walked along the stores, looking for the perfect one, Ben got me more excited about the idea. We decided on Aeropostale, but we wanted to be more legit than before. We walked into the store, right up to the cashier. 

"We were wondering if we could talk to your manager?" Benjamin asked, in his most polite voice. The cashier disappeared for a moment, then reappeared with a professional looking lady close behind her. 

I tried to keep a straight face as Ben explained to the manager what it was we wanted to do. "We are here today doing service, for the Christmas season, as we were wondering if we could stand in front of your store as volunteer door greeters?" I wondered if he had thought this speech out beforehand or if he was just making it up on the spot. I couldn't tell. 

The manager got almost as excited about it as Benjamin, after her initial surprise. She was happy to let us do it. 

We stood there for probably half hour. Every customer who came in recieved a "Welcome to Aeropostale!" from either Ben or I, and everyone who went out left with "Happy holidays!" or "Thanks for coming in!" trailing behind them. 

We were so legit, too. There were customers passing by who asked us about sales going on or if the store carried certain items. It was a fun activity to do together; we still look back at it with laughter. 

I can always count on Benjamin to come up with an activity that I am both embarrassed by and love at the same time. That's what husbands are for, I suppose. 

Favorite Parts of Disneyland/California!

(These are not necessarily in order)

Charly and I were lucky enough to be able to spend the night in St. George with Quinn Balhorn's aunt and uncle. Their names are brother and sister Calder. We originally met them when our car broke down on our St. George trip to see the St. George temple. They are awesome people and it was fun to see them again and have breakfast with them.

Swimming in the ocean has got to be one of my favorites as well. The water was pretty cold but that made it fun walking out into the deeper water. I was nervous for sure the deeper we got... I have this issue with swimming in water that has creatures larger than me that can eat me... I did fine though and now I really want to try surfing.

I loved being able to stay with Kim and Dan's family. I know for a fact that Charly and I wouldn't have gone if it wasn't with them... in fact we probably shouldn't have gone anyway but we did and we had a blast!

The rides were great! Some of my favorites to go on were Soaring, Tower of Terror, Screaming, Indiana Jones, and Radiator Springs Racers. I also really enjoyed World of Color and the Aladdin show.

The last thing that I thought was really fun was the Animation Academy. It was just a simple little "how to draw" with some Disney characters but Charly really loved it and of course I loved it because I love art. I guess it was just really cool for me to see Charly take an interest in art because art is such a major part of my life. Charly did really well too! Here is a picture she drew of Mickey Mouse.

My Top 5 of California!

1. Staying with Brother and Sister Calder when we stopped in St. George Friday night. 

2. The many times Ben and I went on the California Screamin' roller coaster!

3. Animation Academy--a cute little place Ben and I found, where they teach you how to draw Disney characters for 15 minutes at a time. Ben says I found my hidden talent there, so now I can become a Disney artist. It was really fun, despite Ben's teasing. 

4. The audio book Ben and I listened to during our long drives. 

5. Just being with Ben. No matter where we go or what we do together, I can't help but feel grateful that we're together. We've almost been married nine months, and I still feel grateful everyday to be married to him. 

2013 Hightlights!

January - My birthday! I'm sure other things happened but it's too long ago to remember.

February - I wrote Charly a letter telling her I still loved her.

March - I moved out to Orem. I was very blessed to get a place to stay for the first little while and Charly and I were once again blessed when we found our apartment.

April - I'm not sure... did anything big happened in April?... Oh yeah! I married Charly. I'm the luckiest guy in the world!

May - Charly started school at BYU! Sometime around here we started doing our blog. I'm so glad we do. I love writing and our blog is a good way for me to write without taking up too much of my time.

June - We spent all our money... hahaha.

July - We spent the 4th of July with Charly's family. There was a huge water party at her Grandma and Grandpa's house.

August - I Quit Wells Fargo and Started School at UVU. My major is Computer Science and I love it! It take quite a bit of time though.

September - I started working at Kynetx sometime around here. I work as a web developer and it is practically my dream job! I learn new things every day and I don't ever want to leave.

October - We literally did nothing on Halloween... I don't think Charly was too happy about it haha.

November - We spent thanksgiving in Vernal! We also got stranded in St. George! It was fun. The St. George story could be an entire blog in itself but I won't go too much into that. If you want more details ask me in person.

December - Jeremy Troff got home, Charly's had her birthday, and we spent Christmas with both families! Christmas was super fun because of the gifts that we got for the people in our family. We also got some great gifts in return.

2013 Year in Review

January: I went on my first ever road trip! Jon and Kwinn and I went to Monticello temple, then drove to Vernal. We went to the temple there with Ben (which was awkward at the time, as the first time we had seen each other since breaking up) and then went to the Manti temple with Ashley. It was a blast! 

February: The highlight of this month was such a good day. On that day, I got the letter from Ben, the one telling me that he wanted to marry me (whether I went on a mission or not) and my acceptance letter from BYU. It was my dream-come-true-day. 

March: I was preparing like crazy for my wedding. We got married really fast from when we decided to get married, mostly because of school and some of my family's schedules. 

April: Ben and I got married! Marrying Ben was the best thing I've ever done. He treats me so well, I don't know how I got so lucky to deserve his love. We also went on our honeymoon, which was huge for me because I have not been very many places. Now I have also traveled down the coast of California and into Mexico on our cruise. 

May: I started at BYU! I have not made the folk dance team yet, but I love BYU. We also moved into our cute little apartment. 

June: Ben and I spent June super spoiled. We did basically whatever we wanted and had a blast being newly weds. It was a fun, uneventful month. 

July: I got my job at Response. I didn't stay there long, but I really liked it when I got it. 

August: Ben and I ran five miles together, from Oquirrh Mountain Temple to Jordan River Temple. We didn't train for it, so it was really hard for us, but we ran the whole way. That's the furthest I have run without stopping and I was proud of it. 

September: I switched majors from Psychology to FACS Ed to my current major--family life, emphasis family studies. I love my major and I love all the classes I need to take for it so far. I'm really glad I found it, because it is perfect for me. 

October: I sold my little red car--without any accidents or tickets in it (a first)! I also learned to drive stick shift, so I could drive Ben's little car, Toothless, to school everyday. I was also very proud of that. 

November: Ben, Jon, Ashley, Kwinn, and I all went on a roadtrip down to St. George and got stranded when our car broke down. It turned into quite the adventure, with us carrying all our stuff across roads under construction and to church, finally staying with Kwinn's aunt and uncle, who became close friends. It was really fun. 

December: This month was huge. Jeremy, my best friend, got home from his mission in Finland. I finished off the semester with all A's and A-'s (even in my math class!)). Ben and I spent our first Christmas together. I turned 21. 

This year had a few ups and downs, but I loved it. I was so very blessed during it. I once asked Jon why I had so many blessings in my life. He told me that it was so I could use them to bless other people. This next year, I want to remember that and live up to my Heavenly Father's expectations of me. 

2014 is going to be another great year.