2000-2009: A decade in review # 23

Just saw my aunt and uncle perform in a musical performance of A Christmas Carol. My uncle was Scrooge and was absolutely wonderful. Val was Mrs. Fezziwig and a member of the chorus and was just so cute and hilarious! I walked into the theatre and found myself waving left and right to family members spread throughout the theatre. I sat next to two cute girls, leaned over and said, "Hi! I'm Maggie." They looked at me kind of funny so I said, "I'm your cousin." That's the way it is in my family and it's nice to be back.

Also, as you are probably aware, I've had a healthy dose of snow in my life, and here in Utah, the snow is magically drifting down and sparkly on the ground. As Bremen said, "This is like stage snow." I agree. When I think of snow I must think of my Cleveland Browns. NOT the football team. But my very own Terry and Nancy Brown from Cleveland Ohio.

When: June 29, 2004
Where: Cleveland Ohio

This story begins with white and ends with white. While I was busy studying away in the MTC, Terry Brown was in Cleveland, setting up an appointment with two sister missionaries. December 23. Joseph Smith's birthday. That day Cleveland saw a record breaking snow fall. The sisters couldn't get their car out of the snow, but they weren't going to miss this appointment, so they trudged through the snow a couple miles to teach Terry. About a month later, Terry was ready for the sisters to meet his wife, Nancy. This time, Sister Christensen and I were the missionaries. It snowed that day too. For a time, it seemed every time we set an appointment with the Browns it would snow that day. It got to the point where, if it was snowing outside, they'd call us just to say hi and see if they were forgetting anything. We loved them. Oh how we loved them.

We were both transfered and elders came in and took over. We kept in touch with the Browns. I was in Kirtland, and they'd come out for tours. One day, Sister Christensen and I were in the break room of the Kirtland Visitors' Center and a call came in for us. It was Terry. We put him on speaker and he invited us to a pool party at the Westlake Stake Center. A baptism. For he and Nancy.

I cried for days after I got that phone call. I cried out of gratitude, but mostly I cried because I couldn't believe that the Lord let me be a part of this. There could have been so many reasons why I wouldn't have ever met them, ever gone to Cleveland, ever gone on a mission. But the Lord let me be there. I cried for days after the baptism.

I loved seeing my Cleveland Browns in white.