Wedding in St. George

A lot of amazing missionaries graced my life during my investigation prior to becoming a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-Day Saints.  But among them all, two stood out - mainly because they were part of a then new initiative of church tours during an initial introduction to non-members of inactive members of the Church, but also because these two happened to be the two who baptized and confirmed me.  They were younguns when they taught me back here but now both are married!

We had the wonderful opportunity to attend the missionary who baptized me, Marshall Cox's wedding in beautiful and only 4 hours away St. George on Veteran's Day weekend.  I remember when these two boys taught me, they were slightly concerned for their own futures, wondering how they would get married because all these smart, handsome, and awesome guys in our Singles Ward were single (namely Andy, Jamison, and Quinn who were roomies that summer and all joking about how they should have married the first girl they could snatch after their missions). I still think they are awfully young when married (early to mid 20's) but I guess in the Momo world, most do marry young when they are dating to get married (and not to just hook up or have fun or sew their wild oats).  So....

he's married now!  

The other thing that made this wedding so special to us was that we got to see our good friends, the Knights and Wakatsukis (Lee and Banh - maiden names haha), from our Single Ward days.  Even more special was the fact that Lucy and I were both converts (we got baptized within months of each other) that Marshall taught and we were each others' answers to prayers about whether all this stuff was real or not.  It was so fun to be at Marshall's sealing, to sit there and witness his sealing, knowing he was at mine and that he was a huge reason I am where I am today.  It was so surreal and yet so absolutely touching and emotionally spellbinding.  I certainly felt the Spirit testify to me that this was a good thing and something to be super stoked for.  

Following the sealing, we hurried back to grab our kids, who were having a blast with Becky and her husband.  Jordan would run with Jesse and Becky would hold Bubba, but when Becky told Jesse to hold Bubba so she could run with Jordan, Jordan simply said... "no, you hold Bubba, you run with me."  It was so funny to hear Becky recount Jordan's shenanigans.  He really enjoyed the Knights' mansion of a home.  He loved walking down and up the stairs, running around, and yelling for "Jesse? Where are you?!" because it really was easy to lose someone in that huge house.  

And then off to the luncheon we went.  It was pretty much ALL family with the exception of the two Asian girls sitting at the back table with their Hapa husbands and my energetic 2 year old running around.  
The setting was so cute - they had apple cider with cinnamon sticks and brown sugar and it was just delicious - we drank enough apple cider for a table of 10 (we had the four of us plus the kids).

And then we went back to the Knights' home and everyone slept while I tried to do some work. 

Before the reception at night, we went to Bed, Bath and Beyond to get our wedding presents.  It was there that Lucy and I noticed how clueless we were before getting married around the house.  We went through their list, making our own decisions about what we should get them instead of what they requested.  In some instances, we got what we considered a "better" substitute, but in other instances, we just got him something not even on their list.  Hahaha.  We're so Asian like that.  

Once at the reception, we stood in line to greet the happy couple and their parents... ate a TON of wings, and then enjoyed our celebrity status as family members would approach us and tell us how fun it was to meet us, the investigators that they heard about in all his letters.  As the first person Marshall baptized, I was quite the celeb.  

It was really fun to talk with his family members, to share some of our "coincidences" from the good ol' days, and to witness Marshall so happy and with his new wifey.  I'm so glad we were close enough and that Andy was able to take time off so we could all go.  Good times were had!