Almost!

I remodeled my blog a few days ago, but with that change it seems that commenting on blog posts is no longer an option. :S Sorry, blogosphere. If anyone has any ideas or tips, pass them on. Other than that, I'll keep troubleshooting and experimenting...in between travel arrangements for my family, putting together music and a slideshow for a wedding reception, and other wedding preparations.

I get married in two days! After waiting six months, eleven months, or almost 23 years (however you want to look at it), the biggest day of my life is finally almost here. Erin's house is full of people, food, and flowers. More family is on the way (pray that they all get here!). Tonight Erin will be going through the temple and receiving her endowment, which is a major life event in and of itself. I am so excited to be a part of that, and to continue going to the temple together often for the rest of our lives. There we can be closer to God and serve others. And we will be blessed for staying worthy to enter the temple. We're lucky to be living in Provo for the next couple of years, where there is a temple close. After Provo, I don't know where we will be, but I am sure that we will make whatever effort necessary to be a "temple loving"* couple.

I can't believe that I'm really getting married!

* "...I...invite the members of the Church to establish the temple of the Lord as the great symbol of their membership and the supernal setting for their most sacred covenants. It would be the deepest desire of my heart to have every member of the Church be temple worthy...
"Let us be a temple-attending and a temple-loving people...The temple is a place of beauty, it is a place of revelation, it is a place of peace. It is the house of the Lord. It is holy unto the Lord. It should be holy unto us” (Jay M. Todd, “President Howard W. Hunter: Fourteenth President of the Church,” Ensign, Jul 1994, 2).

J.J. & Erin vs. the Rest of the World

(For some brief follow-up to my last post: I didn't get a job as an MTC teacher. A repeat bummer. But, I did get hired for one of the "easy, mundane and mindless" options. I'm on the custodial staff at the Stephen L. Richards Building on the BYU campus. I'm really looking forward to something free of stress and drama. And something I don't have to wear a tie for! I'll be there every weekday morning starting August 31. Maybe I'll see you there!)

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I am on the verge of the single most important day of my life.*

In approximately 5 1/2 days, I will be married to Erin. She is what I've always dreamed of and so much more. She is perfect for me. I am in awe and disbelief that I could be with someone who is so exactly who I imagine as ideal. She is beautiful, hilarious, intelligent, thoughtful, romantic, sweet, cute, faithful, loving, positive, fun, selfless, motivated and true (among other favorable attributes). I have no doubt that I will be happy every day of my life because of her. I really am incredibly lucky and blessed that someone like her feels and thinks these same things about me. Our future together will be joyful and successful, especially when it comes to the things that really matter.**

As our wedding day approaches, Erin and I grow more and more excited. We are so confident in this decision to be together forever. A lot of spouses-to-be are filled with anxiety, but I am filled with simply elation. I am about to marry the most amazing girl in the world, and I definitely do not deserve her. I will be working to earn this miracle for the rest of my life.

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We will be married on August 21 in the Houston Texas Temple. Here is one of only a few locations in the entire world where Erin and I can truly be married forever. The temple is the most sacred place on earth. Temples and what happens inside them is the closest to heaven that most people are likely to reach in this life. Going to temples is part of utilizing restored priesthood power that connects us to God and heaven. A wedding in the temple will seal Erin and me together for eternity - this life and the next life - and prepare us for all the blessings God has in store for us and our life together.

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This week I left home in Oregon for the last time before the wedding. I stayed in Utah for a few days to attend the weddings of a couple friends, and also to prepare for my new life in Provo with Erin. I spent a long day at BYU doing job interviews, looking for a job for Erin and buying textbooks.

As I crisscrossed my way around campus for the first time since April, I couldn't help but smile from place to place as I imagined what it would be like to be there with Erin in a couple of weeks. Life at BYU and in Provo already looks different, seen from the eyes of a soon-to-be married man. Before now, I was one of about 30,000 students, with a lot of friends, experiences and memories. After Erin and I move back to Provo, however, it will be just me and her. Everything else will be supplemental, a fuzzy background in the world that revolves around Erin and me. It is her who will be by my side, for me to share every mundane and extraordinary experience. She will be number one for everything, the first thing I think of when I wake up and the last thing I think of when I go to sleep, every day from here on out. There won't be a me without her. It is with her that I will do the rest of my growing up and growing old. I won't be just one person anymore. Erin and I will be a single entity. One unit, spiritually and socially, surrounded by everything else.

Me and Erin vs. the rest of the world.

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I just wanted to take this moment to somehow express my feelings as I prepare and anticipate marrying Erin. Words aren't really enough, but I do not hesitate to broadcast to the world that I love Erin and that she is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me.

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* "This choice [of marriage] will be the most important of all the choices you make in your life" (Gordon B. Hinckley, “Living Worthy of the Girl You Will Someday Marry,” Ensign, May 1998, 49).

** “The most important part of the Lord’s work that you will do, is the work that you do within the walls of your own home” (Harold B. Lee, Doing the Right Things for the Right Reasons, Brigham Young University Speeches of the Year [19 Apr. 1961], 5).

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