Austin, TEJAS!

So,  I decided to move to Austin. I had never been there before, but was really excited about the adventure of it. I knew I'd be closer to my family, and there were three singles wards in the area, according to the church website. So that meant there was still okay odds I could find a hubby, and be able to visit my family. Plus I really loved Texas!! I love big trucks, country music, and the SUNSHINE!!!! There are three singles wards in the area, Capitol ward (downtown Austin), that starts at 10am, Mount Bonnell (the largest central), that starts at 2:30pm, and then Chisholm Trail (the most northern, and SMALLEST) that starts at 2:30 also. If I worked on Sunday, I'd drive down to Capitol so I could partake of the sacrament, and if I didn't work, I'd attend Mount Bonnell. (This is the best ward ever ps.) SO I was really hoping to make this kind of entrance into my new ward...but I'm pretty sure that never happened.

But can I tell you about my ward. It's literally perfect! There's EVERY single personality in this ward. If you've ever seen "The Singles Ward", you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about! Its just like that. And I've made some really great friends here! It's different than Provo for sure, we aren't friends because we socially love all of the same things. We're friends because we all the same church. And honestly that means we have A LOT in common. None of smoke, drink, or sleep with our boyfriends. We all attend church every Sunday, and try our best to keep God's commandments. Pretty powerful stuff from people in there early to mid 20's, huh? Kendyl a girl in my ward this past Sunday, bore her testimony about that exact thing. No one's moms are waking us up, making us attend church. We don't really have to go for anyone else, but we go because we want too. Sometimes its really weird for me to think that I'm part of that group. BUT we don't really focus on the stuff we DONT do, we still have TONS of fun, and LOVE life!!!

You're mormon. You should move to UTAH!!!

SO here I was a Mormon, in a really small family ward in North Texas. I LOVE Sherman 2nd ward, lets just say its filled with lots of colorful personalities including my brother, his wife, and now two children who still attend. The ward was so spiritual, and for most of the two years I was there, I sat alone. (Ryan and Keira were late or dealing with kids trying to kill themselves). Every single Sunday, I'd listen to this little wards testimonies or the talks they'd prepare, and I'd cry pretty much ever week. For me, still to this day, there was never a time in my life EVER that I felt more edified. Sherman 2nd, you rock!!!

I turned 21 in Sherman, and Elder Bowers kept telling me to MOVE TO UTAH! Theres tons of single LDS people there!! And now my ward was starting to think I needed a boyfriend. I hadn't really dated anyone since I had joined the church, and tick-tock, tick-tock....it was about time to get a HUBBY. So I packed everything I owned in and on top of my trailblazer...(well actually Ryan did it). Oh wait...can I just say I love my brother so much!! Not only did he pack my car for me, and check my oil, but he cried when I moved. Which you'd think he'd be super excited to get his little sister out of his house, because I'd always yell at him for being a stupid husband, and take his wifes side (sorry RYAN!:D)! But when I drove away he walked outside to the end of the driveway and watched me drive away...... :(............and I cried pretty much the entire 1st days drive.

I had never been to Provo before!!! I was really excited to make some friends!!! I moved into the Branbury, and as soon as I pulled in, knowing no-one, I started to pull off the ropes on my car, to get the boxes off, and sure enough a boy noticed and got three other boys to unload all my stuff!!! UMM HELLLLLOO UTAHH!!! :D I gave myself three days to unpack, and then started back to work up at the University Mall. I remember walking in the first time, and seeing Miss Staci. She was adorable, and being the manager everyone was asking her questions and she smiled big, and was like are you LEXI!??  I said yes, and she gave me a BIGG HUGG (which was kind of awkward because she had a cute little baby bump aka Alya Rose) I set my stuff down, and went back to work. It was soooo bizarre. I got introduced to everyone I was going to be working with, and thought "holy crap. these people are mormon too. weird". I was still doing my same job, only all these people were mormon. All the people I helped were MORMON!? I learned a lot there, not just professionally, but  mostly socially. I found myself there. I started to feel comfortable in my skin, and it became WAY easier to say, "I'm mormon". I wasn't worried someonew as going to try to hang me on the cross afterwards.

 I found some of my BEST FRIENDS FOR LIFE...Miss Chris Huang, Miss Katie Nelson, Miss Lisa Molyneux, and of course Staci Rae. We were the management team, and I really admired all of them for difference reasons. PLUS they were MORMON and I actually had LOTS of stuff in common with them. Staci probably did the most for me, she was married and older, but I could see myself growing into a person like her, or at least wanting too. When you're trying to find yourself, its important to have an example. I LOVED HER.

My first Sunday to a SINGLES WARD. (OMG). It was actually the 1st Sunday in September, so as tradition I bore my testimony, I had been a member 2 years now!!! After I bore my testimony I sat back, and watched all these super hot dudes do the same, and I thought...HOLY COWWW these people are ALL MORMON!!!!! It was sooo bizarre!!!! I had every Sunday off, THANK goodness, because I needed it. I made some really  REALLY good friends mostly all guys actually (you guys know who you are, and thanks for listening always being there for me) but I started to feel kind of weird. For the past two years I was the weirdo mormon girl, and now who am I? I'm common, and basically average?? WOOAHH. Basically I lightened up a lot. See when I joined the church, I wanted to be perfect and at 19, 20, and 21 it was really really REALLY hard to keep on the straight and narrow path. My friends in Sherman, didn't really understand me, and asked me lots of questions that I couldn't answer. Now looking back, I know that I was suppose to be there, because it really strengthed my testimony and made me choose to take a side. I studied my scriptures everyday, and prepared about two hours a week for my calling to teach BOM in a Sunday school class for the 16-17yr olds..(HOWD I GET THAT CALLING???) I worked full time, and went to school full time. To keep up, I ran every single day. I could run almost 7 miles straight and not die :D! Thats impressive!!!!!

I'm really glad I lived there, but after about a year I felt like it was time to do something with my life. I was going to quit my job and finish school, or take my own store and continue to progress at my job. "If I quit Buckle, what am I going to be??" I thought. UGH! Life choices!! I thought about doing Family Life Therapy, because it REALLY REALLY interests me, but pay for school, and then go to grad school?? Is that for me? I didn't know, plus I already have a job I really like, and theres a really good chance I could make more money doing this, and doing that? SO I stayed with Buckle, and even it was REALLY hard moving around a lot, jumping wards from Arizona, Oregon, and Logan, UT but  I did it!!! AND they gave the BEST store EVA. WHERE? AUSTIN, TEXAS here I come..............!!!!

HI!! I'm Lexi, and I'm a MORMON! :D

So honestly I never heard about blogging until I moved to Utah two years ago, and I love LOVE reading other people's but, never really thought about starting one, until just recently. I don't really know where to start, so here goes:

HI!!! I'm Lexi! I'm fun, bubbly, annnddd I'm MORMON! I have the best life story ever. I grew up in a super small town in Montana. Sidney, has about 4-5,000 people, and everyone knows everyone. Basically there was never anything exciting going on, except town drama, which was never anything more than relationship issuses amongst people. But I loved it, I grew up with some of the best people ever! We'd bon-fire pretty much every chance we got, or go fishing on the Yellowstone River. My cousin Chris was one of my best friends. He was small town kid, and grew up in Fairview (population 500). We made the best combo. I loved his friends, and he loovvedd mine ;).

Anyways...I wasn't always Mormon. My dad and mom were married out of highschool, and my mom took the primary role of raising us Catholic. My dad had came from a LARGE Mormon family, but had never really practiced a whole lot. One day I'll ask him more about his thoughts on it, but for now I'm not really sure how it all happened. Some of my dads siblings were really Mormon, and others just kind-of? I didn't really know, and knew not to ask a whole lot. Plus I didn't really care? I cared about my friends, boys, and parties!

So here I was 18 and all I really wanted to do was run from my little small town, and explore the world. (Have you ever heard of the song Wide Open Spaces by the Dixie Chicks? because that's my song, here.. you can watch it )

So I went to college for a year in Great Falls, MT. I had the funniest roomie ever. Sierra Linde, her older brother was my first boyfriend in 8th grade. I looveed Nate Linde. Nate was actually best friends with my cousin Chris. And I don't remember how Nate and I met, but when he told Chris that he thought I was cute Chris told Nate ,"UGH! Don't try to date my cousin, shes sooo weird!" (FREAKIN JERK!!!)
Anyways Nate never listened, and still would drive from Fairview to Sidney to see me, so we could jump on the trampoline, and take walks around town!! It lasted a long time too...almost 30 days I think!!SO randomly 4 years later his little sister, who was my age, need a roommate, and I volunteered. I worked at the Buckle part-time, and went to school for Dental Hygiene (which turn out to be hard, so I didn't want anything to do with it anymore). There was girl that did freight for us, LIZ, and she was MORMON! I thought WOW that's so interesting, my family's Mormon..tell me more!!! Liz was in her early 20's at the time, and I'd always try to get her to buy me beer, and she'd laugh and say NO, but she'd still want to hang out with me. So we'd go to the movies, and talk about life. She bore her testimony to me a couple times, and I never really thought much of it. Then my brother called me. HE TURNED MORMON! WHAT?! WHY?! HOW'D THAT HAPPEN? UGHH! SO what did I do? I cried. :'( LOTS. His sister missionary's knew we were super close, and they started writing me. They'd never talk about the church with me, they'd talk about school, my hobbies, what I liked to do for fun. And it helped me feel at peace about the whole thing.

Later that year, Ryan invited me to move to Texas. I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life, so I figured why not. SHERMAN TEXAS here I come. I had never been south of Kansas, and I remember worrying that my ghetto little red grand-am wouldn't make it through the SUPER STRONG rainstorm in KANAS (which I saw a real live storm catcher!!) I moved in with Ryan and Keira. Ryan was Mormon now, and so was his wife. WWEEIIRRDDD. Ryan wasn't saying the F word anymore, or drinking beer ever, but he was still my brother, and felt normal to me.

I worked with some of the best people in the most GHETTO mall ever (sorry Ang)!!! My car got broken into like 3 times. (They just knew I has a sweet sound system, and kept trying to steal it :D) WELL so, I was working one day, and two missionaries walked in! I was like HEY, my family's Mormon!!!! So considering all my life's recent events, I had tons of questions for them, but really needed to get back to work, SOO they invited themselves over. At the time I thought, "Wow, those boys are SOO friendly". Now I really know why they were so excited about me. Elder Bowers and Elder Parduhn, were so awesome. They taught me about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and really I was only looking to self educate myself, I couldn't deny that I believed everything they were saying. I hadn't planned on ever actually turning Mormon...so I thought "CRAP!!!". What did I do??? UGH!!!! MORMONS ARE WEIRD?! I cant become a Mormon!? Yet these two boys keep asking me to be!!? Elder Bowers approach was perfect, he didn't ask me really he just told me. He'd say things like "Lexi, you're totally going to turn Mormon, I know it!", and "You already are Mormon, because you've always known it was true". Pretty strong statements huh!!!? Well it was a HUGE SUPER HARD decision, but he was right, and I joined 6 weeks later!!!

YUP. I did it. I turned MORMON! shhhhhhhh.  dont tell ANYONE!!!!!!