time for a flashback

whoa whoa whoaaaaa!!!! okay fellow readers, my updates have been a little on the downhill side. i promised i'd be back in 4 weeks... in july... and it didn't happen. ha ha ha! if you couldn't already tell, i'm a little lazy at posting. i'm SORRY! to start this post off i'm going to announce:

I JUST FOUND OUT MY MISSIONARY WILL BE COMING HOME IN 14 WEEKS!!!! WHICH IS FEBRUARY!!!! WHICH MEANS HE'LL BE HOME (AROUND OR ON) FEB. 10TH!!!!!!!!!!! I'M FREAKIN OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT <333333333 AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I'M SO EXCITED!!!!!!

i realize i have also been slacking on my monthly pictures... the last i posted was #16, but i'm here to tell you - i caught up! here they are :)

seventeen months = chapter seventeen verse thirteen

this scripture basically sums up two years :)

eighteen months = eighteen pretty fall leaves

nineteen months = (october!) pumpkin carvings

twenty months = twenty questions in a jar that i will eventually ask Joe when he comes home :)

ladies and gentleman, we have also hit DOUBLE DIGITS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

okay, now, in order to inform as to what else has been going on, i had to flip to the front page of my current 182 PAGE journal to catch up from the last post. there is no way in heck i'll be able to detail everything... so maybe some bullet points? 

• started a new job at Deseret Book on July 29th
• got called to be in the YSA Relief Society Presidency

these girls are absolutely incredible! i love them so much

• my friend Kandis came home from her mission :)
• lagoon adventures

• sleepovers/hangouts/musicals/dinner/living... EVERYTHING with my new family.... basically.... - i'm at bae's house more than my own

poodle girl & lil red ;)

3rd row for Wicked 

like for real... is she not the cutest human being you've ever seen? ha ha ha! 

• started watching Netflix and became OBSESSED with ONCE UPON A TIME! oh my gosh. literally. i am in love. Captain Swan for life <333

the feeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeels <333

• went on a few dates and they made me miss Joe 100% :(
• started school at UVU, my 2nd year
• made some awesome new friends

• Relief Society meetings
• temple visits

• Gardner Village Witch Fest

• I WENT TO THE FREAKING KATY PERRY CONCERT. FRONT. ROW. KATY LOOKED ME IN THE EYES! i went with one of my besties and it was literally the best night of our lives. can i just tell you again how much i LOVE KATY PERRY?! i cried all night after the concert because it was over. ugh. 

she's a babe

this is where we stood all night... literally... next to the stage

queen Katy <333

• went to Sunday morning General Conference :)
• park city visits

my attractive NINE year old sister

• work, work, work, work, more work... oh, um... did i mention work?
• super awkward interactions with guys at school whom i never met before. so ridiculous. not even worth talking about, so i wont. but i felt so uncomfortable and harassed
• my missionary's litter sister got engaged! she's been one of my best friends for a long time and it's just crazy that she'll be married before me and her brother are. but that's okay :) i'm so so happy for them! he's a great guy! the wedding is Jan. 2nd. BEFORE Joe comes home. ha ha ha so sad

• the friend that i mentioned who came home from her mission, Kandis, also got engaged! her wedding is on Dec. 20th

life is moving so fast. there are only 3 more months until my Joe comes home and i cannot, absolutely cannot, believe it. i'm so jealous of all these girls getting married. i just want to see him and hug him so tight! 

i don't even know where to start with how perfect emailing and conversations are between us when we actually get to talk. i don't think i'll even give much detail... besides the fact that we both know we miss each other and what we hope the future holds. everything seems to be going just perfect :) I LOVE HIM! he makes me sooooo happy. i look forward to every single monday with a smile. if it all goes as planned... everything will be, *hopefully*, smooth sailing from Feb. forward. not gonna lie, i totally went ring and wedding dress shopping with my mom and grandma a few weeks ago. i may have found THE ring, friends. at least, one that i can show Joe for an idea ;) and also the dresses... i'm currently in the process of deciding between four of them. they are perfection, but i wont make any final decisions until there is a ring on my finger, ya know? that's just the way it's gotta be. we also went and looked at the place i wanted to have my wedding reception.... uhhhhh.... they said the estimated time for the completion of the building (because they are still in the process of actually making it!) is around Christmas time, NEXT YEAR! Mmmmmm, not gonna work. we always planned Sept. 2015 for our wedding. so, now we'll have to see what's gonna happen. 

what else? another story from just a few days ago maybe? i totally passed out at work because i was feeling so sick!!! so embarrassing. and then the next night, i went to the hospital because i've been having horrible horrible pains in my neck and head for the past, well, ever. my whole life i've had headaches and migraines constantly. and by constantly, i mean CONSTANTLY. i had to get some tests and scans done... luckily, there is nothing like a tumor causing my problems, but the muscles and veins in my head swell really bad. the doctor prescribed me some medication that, so far, hasn't worked :( it just makes me so sick. but, they gave me shots of medicine in the hospital (3 in my hips! OUCH!) and it was woooooonderfuuuuuuuuuuuuul :) ha ha ha i felt so high and floaty off the ground. it was the best. 

i also went to the chiropractor on Tuesday and today! he said my top vertebrae is completely out of place, which could partly explain the intense migraines. he popped it back into place today, and *hopefully* things will start getting better. he wants to see me at least 3 more times within the next 3 weeks. i'm praying he can fix this pain!! it's been the worst. 

anyways! such a random post filled with a million pictures... but i've been so bad at posting and i figured i had to post SOMETHING!!!! i would promise to be better, but let's be honest, i'll probably slack again ;) ha ha ha! thanks for reading <3 until next time.

i've got some catching up to do

*BULA FELLOW READERS! (....if anyone actually reads this, i appreciate you....) as you may have (or have not) noticed, i've been a little MIA for the past 2 months. i don't quite know how to fill you in on what has been going on in my life, but i will try my best because i've got some catching up to do.
i honestly feel like time is escaping me. i just read over the last entry i posted in may and it feels as though a century has passed since those things happened!! i am so grateful for the passing time however, and am very pleased to announce that we have hit the 15th and 16th month marks ladies and gents. oh yes, only 8 MORE MONTHS TO GO!!!! i know i know, i can hardly believe it myself. lately, i find myself day dreaming of his homecoming and imagining what it might be like to hold each other again or just to look into those big green/blue/brown/golden (yes, he really has all those colors) eyes and have them look back into mine with the same love, yet stronger. before i get into the details of what i imagine, i better sum up what has been going on for the past 2 months.

fifteen months = fifteen sand dollars from Fiji 

sixteen months = sixteen flags because it was 2 days after july 4th! 

(and sorry, i kinda just realized the flags are on the ground but i didn't mean it in a rude intentional way. i very much respect the flag and appreciate the freedoms we have by living in america. happy late 4th of july!)

JUNE:
*BULA = "hello" in Fijian
i went to NADI, FIJI :) i had the opportunity to serve the local school children and start the building process of a kindergarten classroom, office and bathroom. i cannot begin to describe the love i felt as i served the school children. my heart is so incredibly full from each experience in which i truly witnessed the love of Christ encompassing me through other people. because of this experience, i have come home with a different perspective. i have seen how the beautiful people of Fiji live, realizing that it does not matter how much you have, but WHO you have and how you spend your time with them. i knew this concept before, but understood it better after experiencing Fijian love. i have never met a more kind and humble people... we had to be careful with what we complimented them on because if you say something like, "oh i really like your shirt" they will literally take it off their back and give it to you. AH! the world would be a grander place if everyone had the heart of a Fijian. while on the work site, the little school children would yell our names from their classroom windows, encouraging us every single day because it was demanding work. for the 10 days we went to the work site, we would wake up at 6:45 am, eat breakfast, board the bus by 7:30. then we would drive about a half hour to the school, arriving around 8:00-8:15 am. our days usually lasted about 8 or 9 hours - working; shoveling, mixing cement, pouring, laying cinder block...etc. - and then we'd get back on the bus, head to the hotel, wash up, eat dinner, have a devotional/scripture study, go to sleep, then wake up and do it all over again. seeing the kids and being with them every single day made everything worth it though. as exhausted as we all grew to be, we knew that seeing a single smile from a child in Fiji would lighten our moods and uplift us in ways no one really understood. it's an indescribable feeling i tell you; how such simplicity can bring such joy. those kids have the time of their LIVES just playing rugby and netball! also asking for "chewing gum" ha ha ha! they literally swarm you for american goodies. i thought i was going to get trampled a few times. i had kids coming up to me and they always said, "you know my name?" and i would say their name and they'd say, "you remember my name tomorrow, so you can bring me chewing gum. you remember my name, okay? tomorrow. chewing gum." HA! just remembering all of this makes me smile ear to ear. i miss them very dearly.

**WARNING**

you are about to experience picture overload. #sorrynotsorry ;)

cutest kids from the school :)

every time you'd take a picture, the Fijian kids favorite thing to do was the peace sign

look at those smiles :D

swarming me for little rainbow looms that my sister made

**WORK SITE**

this started out as grass. absolutely nothing here!

we dug out all of the trenches with shovels!! 

cinder block foundation

had to pack down all the orange dirt to get ready for the cement pad pouring! we thought we'd be artsy and get a picture of the HEFY FIJI 2014 :)

getting ready for cement pad pouring

hand prints in the wet cement 

after the cement pad was dry, we began the cinder block layers for the walls

more layers

bathrooms

office space 

picture of the crew on our last work site day

**END OF WORK SITE PICTURES**

while in Fiji, we were also able to attend church in the Nadi ward for 2 sunday's and participate in FHE, ward activities...etc. the moment we stepped onto the church grounds, we were greeted and loved and hugged and i had never felt more at home away from home in my life. i really grew to love each member differently and consider them family, as they do to each of us. i can't fully explain what the feeling was like in the ward... so much Christlike love.... the Fijian's always explained it somewhat like this, "we are all family, we just haven't seen each other in a really long time" :) and i loved that! they completely accepted us as family and it was beautiful, just as Christ would. here are some of the cute girls that i fell in love with from the ward. I LOVE THEM SO MUCH!!!!!!!

(left to right) - Luisa, Erin, Vani and Aggie :) my beautiful beautiful girls <333

i was so blessed to travel to Fiji! i would go back in a heart beat just to visit with my new friends and family. however, i can say that if there were ANY OTHER WAY to get to Fiji besides plane, i would travel that way. the 12 hour flight absolutely killed me. i hate hate hate hate flying now because of this trip ha ha ha! 

on a different note, but still having to do with Fiji.... my amazing and wonderful grandfather Ronald Keith Thurman passed away on father's day in the states while my father and i were still in Fiji. this was not unexpected, yet still heartbreaking as we heard the news from a phone call early monday morning. my dad had actually been giving a devotional the very moment my mom called. he was explaining to the group how his father was doing and that we were just waiting to hear how grandpa was doing that day. as soon as he said, "we're just waiting to hear..." the phone rang. literally. my dad answered and sure enough, granddad had passed away. i loved my granddad. he was a man a little words, but GREAT faith. he fought long and hard, but i know he is in a better place. we returned home from Fiji on a thursday and granddads viewing was on friday and the funeral was saturday. for the funeral service, my grandfathers wish was to have each of his grandchildren and great grandchildren wear the jersey's he had collected throughout his lifetime. my amazing family fulfilled his wish that day and it was a beautiful tribute to him. :) we love and miss you gramps! 

because i was in Fiji, i didn't get the opportunity to email joe. on the last day though, our trip leaders gave us our phones back and i was able to check my email andddddd.... EMAILS FROM JOE :') i could hardly breathe! ha ha! he sent me the cutest, i just love him. he said:

"Querida Myranda,
How are you? How was your trip to Fiji?? I bet you were working a lot.
It is truly humbling to go to another country and to see how humbly
the people live. I am sure it opened your eyes. More importantly I
know that the Lord opened your eyes even more.
Myranda I want you to know that I love the Lord more than anyone or
anything else. I know that my Savior lives and that He loves me. This
is HIS eternal plan and we are just a part of it.
Myranda I heard about your grandfather. I know that you will see him
again. More importantly I know that you know. Don´t be sad but rejoice
the Lord is King he is our captain and he triumped over death. He
lives and he loves you. I want you to know that I do as well. If I
could I would triumph death, but I can´t, I would pay for your sins,
but I can´t despite my desire and love and burning concern for you I
would not be sufficente because of my own sins and weaknesses. However
know this. I would and will give my life for you.
I pray some of God´s love in this letter will touch your heart. Deeper
that I have ever before.
This is my wish and prayer.
More importantly this is my testimony that God lives and that he loves us.
This is my testimony in the name of Jesus Christ amem.
Èlder Cook"

IS THAT NOT THE CUTEST THING EVER??? oh my gosh. i am so in love with this guy! i ADORE HIM! he is perfect.
it's been a while since i've heard from him though. he is a zone leader and super busy, so he hardly has time to write me and when he does... it's just simple. yet i am still grateful he writes me at all to be honest. sometimes i wish i could send him a long email with every detail and description about how i feel... but... then i think, i don't wanna be that girl. ;) ha ha ha! i can't distract him. only 8 more months. only 8 more months. i just have to remember that! like i mentioned in the very beginning, i have been day dreaming SO much! i even had a dream the other night about him coming home and it was one of the best dreams. we got to see each other and hangout and he was hugging me and holding me and it was just the cutest thing. in my dream though, his mom came over to us and was like, "joe you have other family that wants to see you too... come on, come see them." ha ha ;) so he was spending too much time with me in my dream apparently. hopefully that doesn't happen when he actually comes home (as in, he'll get to spend as much time with me as he wants and not get pulled away by his mom). ♥♥♥♥ I CAN'T WAIT FOR HIM TO COME HOME ♥♥♥♥

okay, ALSO while i was in Fiji (i swear everything happened while i was gone) two of my best and dearest friends left for their missions! it was theeeee strangest feeling coming home and having no texts from victoria or ellie and realizing that i wouldn't see either of them for a YEAR AND A HALF :( i am so proud of them though. they are so brave for serving missions! i wish i was that strong. 

LOOK! THEY FOUND EACH OTHER :') :') :') this picture made my life 

JULY:

so july... we returned home from Fiji, stayed busy with granddads funeral service and what not and then we got to relax for a couple days. on july 6th, (joe's 16th month mark!) we flew out to st. louis for the week to attend a "Scentsy Family Reunion"/convention. it was great! we (my parents and i) attended some meetings and breakout sessions and we learned more about our businesses and what we can do to improve them. Scentsy had the band "train" and sara bareilles do private concerts for us, which was awesome! (i only went to train though!) i met a bunch of people that my parents associate themselves with and now they are my friends too! it was fun being around so many nice and enthusiastic people. i really enjoyed it. 

i have also been looking for another job this month! i went and gave my resume to deseret book in american fork, and am planning on giving it to the one in orem as well. i may give it to seagull book just to try too, but we'll see. 

anyways. i think that's everything? it's been so long i don't really know what to update on because i feel like i've missed everything. ha ha ha! 

sorry to post not on the 6th of the month... anybody else's OCD going to drive them insane when they look at all the post dates? yeah, me too. i was so behind though, so i decided to update today! thanks again for reading, but don't worry, i'll be back in like 4 weeks. let's hope something worth writing about happens by then ;)