Jayson Chimes In

Hi all,
I know you all may be surprised at this, but this is Jayson writing the blog. I know I don't participate much in this realm of our social experience, but I thought I should maybe add my two bits every once in a while. All I can really do is add to what Karissa has been saying: we love our new place, and we miss our old one. I'm personally loving my experience at the U, it's really a great school, and I love the new subjects I've been learning, particularly those having to do with computers. It seems like all of my homework is done over the internet, but I kind of like it.
It's been great living close to family, I love being able to go to family dinners more often. We've decided that as long as we're living in Salt Lake, we'll probably never eat another Sunday dinner in our own apartment, because if it's not my family that has us for dinner, we have two other households on Karissa's side that want us over.
This semester has also been nice for me personally because this semester I decided to under schedule myself. Now that may sound like I'm being lazy, but I'm not. I've found that if I fill my schedule to what I think I can handle, then I usually end up stressed out because everything is taking longer than expected. But this semester, I purposely left out a few things in my schedule, and it's filled in very nicely; I'm busy, and working hard, but not stressed.
On a last note, I just wanted everyone to know just how much I love my wife. She is an amazing person, and I think I don't let her know that enough. I know I can do better at getting her flowers, doing special things for her, etc., and that is my goal for this year. I want all of you to hold me accountable to that. If you see me, ask me when the last time was I did something romantic for my wife, this way I won't have any excuses.

Coincidence?

Hi everyone, this is Jayson writing this post (suprised? I would be). Karissa asked me to write this post because this last weekend we had an experience that was very dear to me. Let's just say that miracles do happen. One of my converts decided to fly out from Philadelphia to visit Utah, visit the sights, and get sealed to her deceased husband in the Salt Lake Temple. She was here for over a week, but since she was staying in American Fork with a senior couple from my mission, and Karissa and I both work, we had to make some special arrangements in order to spend some time with her. On Tuesday of last week we had work off because we went to the airport to see Karissa's cousin Josh come home from his mission. That night we also planned on going the the Oqquirh Mountain Temple open house. Karissa happened to book the reservation for more than we expected, so it just so happened that Ruby (the convert) was able to come with us to the open house. It was really great being able to see her again after a year of being home, she is one of the strongest converts I have. That experience on Tuesday was cool, but it was nothing compared to the miracle we saw on Friday. We drove down Friday afternoon so as to be to the Salt Lake Temple by 2:45; I had to be early because Ruby had asked if I would be one of the witnesses. Now, when we had seen Ruby on Tuesday, we told her that my former mission president (the one I had when she was baptized, and the one that sealed my wife and I together) was a sealer in the Salt Lake Temple. She hadn't known that, and had scheduled somebody else to do it. When we arrived at the temple on Friday, as we spoke with the gentleman at the recommend desk, Karissa leaned over, and looked at a paper on the desk and said "Oh, so President Fillmore will do the sealing?" The man confirmed that this was true. I thought to myself, "Hmm, maybe Ruby changed it or something." But as she arrived, we found out that none of us had anything to do with it. We later discovered that the man who was originally supposed to perform the sealing had asked President Fillmore to fill in for him, only a few hours before the sealing was to take place. So that day, I had the privilege of witnessing my former mission president seal one of my converts to her husband for time and all eternity. I was allowed to see the ultimate goal of missionary work fulfilled, and I got to watch a man who has had a fairly large influence in my life perform it. Not only that, but everyone in the room had some connection to the Philadelphia Pennsylvania Mission, and it was almost a small reunion. It was definitly a testimony to me that miracles do occur in this day and age, and that the Lord is involved in our lives, sometimes in ways we dont even know.