Elder Taylor Barry Olsen

Dear Elder Taylor Barry Olsen...

For the last 2 weeks, everybody but Taylor has been forbidden from even checking the mail. As a result, Ashlee, my mom and I would all post up at windows and look for a big white envelope to come out. Kez was the honored that got to walk out with him each day. Last Wednesday, that loooooong anticipated letter finally came!

I was at work when I got a picture text from my brother saying that it was here. I screamed! The residents family that was there, were luckily ones that I'm close with so they weren't too alarmed by it. I called to find out what time he was opening it and made arrangements to run home to watch.

When I got there, I was surprised at how CALM everybody was because I was freaking out at work. I went on a walk with Taylor and Keznee and Reina to try and keep Kez awake until he opened it. When we got home, Alan came over and we started skyping with Brittany and waited to see if Jake would wake up in time to skype as well. We called the g-parents and were good to go!

Even with watching some of my friends open their's, I've never had close to the feeling that I had watching Taylor open his. He refused to tell anybody where he thought he was going and hadn't thought much about where he wanted to go. I'd already been on the verge of tears since I heard that it came, but watching him slice it with his knife, I definetly got a little bit emotional. Glad to hear that Brittany did too :)

"...You are hereby called to serve as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints. You are assigned to labor in the Mexico Tijuana Mission...." He stopped there for a bit while everybody kinda gave their reactions. The first thing my mom said was "Thissss is gonna take some faith!" I don't remember who asked him but somebody said "Well Taylor what do you think?" I was really curious, especially after grandma's gasping, mom's crying and grandpa's spill on how marines went there for sex and violence. I was impressed when he said "Well, I told them I'll go wherever they need me and send me. That was the agreement!" When he said that, I suddenly had this feeling where I knew that he was going to be fine! (Despite my beloved friend who immediatly text me "What if he get's kidnapped or stabbed?!" Hey thanks! Not what I need to hear right now!) The Lord would not be sending him somewhere to hurt him and he'll have great protection while he's there.

He then kept reading through the rest of the letter. I remember that what stood out to me the most was when it said "...the Lord will reward you for the goodness of your life." Goodness. If I had to use 1 word to sum my brother up, that would probably be it! Not only that, but how it said life. It didn't say for the goodness of your last year, or your last 3 weeks; your LIFE! Taylor has always been an extremely Christ-like person! I'm pretty sure Heavenly Father only had to wait for his CRAZY, sometimes out of control, competiveness to die out of him or else he could have sent him years ago. He has such a good perspective on life. He understands that trials are to make us better. He's a perfect example of rising above and has taught me perfectly the "if some shall smite you on your cheek, turn and let them smite thee on the other also." He doesn't retaliate. He treats girls AMAZING! He's respectful and has ALWAYS honored his priesthood. He looks out for Tanner and is adorable with Keznee.

" I'm glad they called him on a mission! Now that he was grown past 6 foot 2!"

Dear Summer

Dear Summer,
I am sorry to inform you of this but you have officially been replaced. Don't get me wrong, I have LOVED our time together! The trips to the lake, the laying out for endless hours, shorts and tanktops, warm warm warm nights, bikinis and coverups and the countless pairs of sandles. Not to mention roadtrips, a lack of school and barbeques.

But I'm ready to move on now. I'm ready for sweaters and jeans. I long for that time of night where the air is warm, but almost crispy cause it has a certain edge of chill to it. I look up at the mountains and in the canyon, and am ESTATIC about the leaves changing colors to red and orange. Football season has returned. I know you may not believe me, but I am actually really enjoying school for the first time in a long time.

There's a lot coming up in fall! Football games, General Conference, weddings, B.O.B. concert, Dom's bridal shower, Hil turns 21, I turn 21, Halloween in Logan, missionary's coming home, Sunday dinners, carving pumpkins and probably another roadtrip to Geezy. I am soooo excited! I'm ready for all of it!

So Summer, it's been great but like I said, I'm ready to move on. For the first time in 3 years, I am going to be able to enjoy fall at it's fullest. Have a good couple months and I'll be seeing you soon enough.

Love, Chantel

Ohhhhh you make me smile :)

There is a girl in my volleyball class that is never nice to anybody. By anybody I mean even our teacher, the assistant UVU coach. Everyday, she ends up throwing a fit for one thing or another and STOMPS over to the wall where she pushes everybody else bags out of the way so that she can lay down, put her feet up and her ipod in until he says we're good to go. Today, Brandon got sick of it. He somehow forget to "calm down his hit" and it somehow hit her right in the stomach. Weirrrrrrrrd...................

I went to Wal-Mart today and was there for well over an hour. I bought a wedding present for a friend and looked at the 5 dollar movies. I smelled shampoos and body washes. I laughed as a little kid danced for over 15 minutes in front of a glass case and was so fasinated by his own reflection. I looked at 1,000 different things of makeup. I sampled a couple bakery items. I smelled candles that make me think of fall: things like cinnamon buns, apple crisp etc. I bought candy corn. I was in absolute bliss!

Brother and Sister Hoffman did our Devotional today. For those of you that don't know them (such as myself prior to today), they have written many church songs including "Remember the Lilies" or "Lilies of the Field" or something! (oops!) He told us the background story to how he came to write it and who he was thinking of. I felt the Spirit so strong I was almost in tears. I had never listened to that song intently before and I think it's beautiful now!

Taylor and Keznee came running upstairs with Taylor laughing and when they got to the kitchen we saw why! They both had HILARIOUS sunglasses/safety goggles on. Keznee was holding an old toy gun and Taylor was laughing and screaming about a stickup. Moments like this make me so happy to be back in the family scene.

I got to park in the "Q" parking lot today! Stillllll a 10 minute walk to the front doors, but a lot closer than I usually get :)

Dominique Uata, one of my "sisters", is getting ready to get married in December. Her and Losi are such a huge example to me and I just LOVE them to death! I saw her tonight even just for a little bit, and I of course was cracking up in a matter of seconds. That girl has changed my life. I could not be more excited for them and their temple marriage!

Taylor got his mission call! So happy about this one that I couldn't stop smiling for awhile! More on that later though...

General Conference is only 1 week away. Not only am I excited for Conference itself, but I have some friends from Geezy coming up for it! AND by putting the 2 of these together, the best part of the weekend is that I got tickets so my friends that have never been before will finally get to experience it live. Again...very excited!

After Taylor opened his call, my grandpa went on a little spill about how Tijuana is the place military went for sex and violence. They don't have sidewalks there. People get killed there (we felt the need to point out that cars are hitting and KILLING people in UVU and BYU parking lots so Tijuana might be better actually) The milk is bad and the tamales are too hot. He went on and on and on while we all sat there DIEING of laughter! I think I really may have peed a little.

Skyping with Brittany and the fiasco of it all. Dad had a hard time getting his words to come right. Kez kissed the screen once, confused while she always has to talk to everyone through a computer. Tanner has a sexy face. Turns out my web cam works.

I had one of those extensive/deep talks with Roni tonight. I LOVE her! The Uata girls are just extra family to me. We can always talk about anything and I feel totally comfortable to give my opinion on everything and anything. And we went to Wendy's. Of course.

We saw some of the "cool" boys from high school. Don't worry, they made it clear they are still the shit. :) Good to know! Little do they know how we talked about them for about an hour and just laughed and laughed and laughed...

Hilary Searle and I were able to text quite a bit the last couple days. Texting is lame, yes. BUT when it's your best friend that you haven't talked to in foreverrrrrrr it seems pretty cool! I miss the days where this girl was in my life on a daily basis. I look up to her in many ways (except for literally ;) ) and have all the respect and love in the world for her!

Shay and I also got to have a phone call today. Yes, A phonecall, not 6 within 2 hours! BUT right after getting off the phone with her this time, I ran into a kid from our last attempt and he still made fun of me for hanging up on her six times last week.

I got off of work on time.

Updated my itunes and soon to be my ipod

Pay period ended today and my endless hours will soon be paying off in the form of a paycheck

I was looking for a picture tonight, and I came across this one instead! The day before I left St. George, I turned on my ipod and went for a little drive around town to visit all of my favorite little spots. (An odd little ritual I really enjoy doing whenever I leave an area) This fountain has SOOOOO many memories at it and I started laughing super hard when I saw this picture because I had forgotten about it. Yes, it's 2 am. Yes, I'm sitting alone in my room. Yes, I am literally smothering myself with a pillow to keep the volume down.

I learned to longboard around this fountain. On Dare Night, we had to kidnap awkward Jeff Ledbetter and take him here. (He was on a date so we took Tim instead) There may or may not have been a kiss that happened here. I once tripped here on my way to class and the kid behind me went to help me up, then got an awkward look on his face, pulled his hand back embarrassed and kept walking. Jerk. On the day of my biology final I was going to be late so I ran through the fountain as a shortcut. Yes, a security guard/wannabe cop CHASED ME THROUGH IT! Then he made me walk back through it and go around. Was that necessary?! Absouluty not! This was the place of at least 2 dance parties. This is where I had my AWFULLLLLLL first day of college! Sorry, that's a secret and classified story but if you're one of the FEW who have heard it, this is where it all went down. I love that fountain! Lots of memories

Life is good my friends :) Life is good! :)

Returned with Honor

After 2 years of diligent service, Elder Kahea Clark and Elder Cole Warburton are HOME! :) :)

Cole returned from Florida in mid-August and the whole family headed down for a little trip to our good ol' hometown of Helper. He did SUCH a good job on his talk! He said how he's always been so nervous to speak in front of people, but you would never even guess it. I've known Cole pretty much my whole life because I can't even think to "before" knowing him. Brittany and I would always talk about how we wanted to marry him and both of us would probably say that our funniest times with him was dancing around in our room. Learning how to tango? check. But of course there were our countless jokes with/about our OTHER favorite Helper boy that never fail to have us cracking up.

Kahea returned from Ohio just last week. I met Kahea my freshman year at Timpview in Coach Scott's class. One of the FUNNIEST classes that I have ever had! We didn't really talk because we were on opposite ends of the room and he was the quiet, nice kid and I was the loud (possibly a little mean) girl in the corner. My junior year we both took physiology and even though we didn't have it the same period, we got a lot closer! By senior year he was one of my best friends. When his mission call came, I was in California with the girls and when I told them he was opening his call that night, we all agreed that he was going to be the best missionary. I remember when he called me after and I was so excited for him and just had this feeling that he was going exactly where he was supposed to be. I always think of the "what's the point" talk that we had when I think of Kahea.

Both of these guys are just INCREDIBLE! Even in their pre-mish days, they both have always been so focused. They have good perspectives in life and have no problem with seeing the bigger picture. Both have had struggles, but they've used them to better themselves. I can say that I wrote both of them fairly regularly and I was always so excited to get a letter back from them. Welcome home boys! You have definetly been missed :)

An easier way of life

Sometimes I sit and look at Kezy and I am a little bit envious of her! Life definetly seems to be a LOT simpler and easier for her!

**She doesn't have to worry about "being up on time" for anything. People pretty much revolve their schedules and LIVES around her.
**She is able to trash any room she wants and nobody seems to mind. They are happy to clean up after her.
**She has Ash there to always make sure she has matching, cute clothes and her hair done.
**She doesn't have teeth or wear makeup so "getting ready for bed" is an extremely simple routine
**She is free to jabber through church, prayers, meetings. Any kind of "quiet time" situation
**She has no idea about any kind of body images and what "looks good"
**She has no idea what boys are and once she does, they will have cooties
**She can have any kind of injury or pain healed with a kiss or an exaggerated smile and a simple reassurance that she's okay
**She has no kind of money worries whatsoever
**She is yet to go through the devastation of not feeling good enough for somebody
**She doesn't have to worry about what boys think of her
**She has a very black and white view of what is right and wrong. And any kind of decision she has to make in this field is usually only to the extent of whether to play the piano hard, or soft.
**She has never had a boy make her cry, only later to have him want a second chance
**She has never experienced heartbreak
**She's never been stabbed in the back by somebody that she thought was a friend
**She has no idea what it means to miss somebody
**She only has worries of which toy she wants to play with at that moment...

I LOVE this little girl to death! I can easily say that she is literally changing my life

The "New Boys" of UVU

So....there is at least 1 guy in each of my classes that I just L.O.V.E!

The first class of my day begins at 9 am: biology. The last few days I've sat in the same seat and "Biology Boy" always sits next to me, or typically I next to him since I'm always the one that is late. He's a freshman and is ADORABLE! He's a little on the chunky side so whenever I see his hands, they remind of little sausages but I love that. He's super naive and just doesn't have any idea what he's doing in life. He has this way of turning his head just right to where his eyes look HUGE and has the funniest facial expressions that it's everything I do to keep from laughing. He's like a precious little brother to me. And the old testing center guy from Dixie? Yes, he sits on the other side of the room. EVERY guy in this class brings their laptop everyday and everyday as I reach into my bag for my old school paper and pen, I chuckle to myself at how serious they all are. My doodling for the next hour makes me feel pretty cool too, who needs their laptop?!

On Tuesday and Thursday, I am then off to volleyball! This class is a blast! I am incredibly out of shape and practice and am sore everytime I leave, but I love it! It's only 50 minutes and I'm always way sad when it ends but there's another class right after ours and he's pretty chill about letting us stay for theirs too if we want. "Volleyball Boy" is 6'8 and CRACKS me up! His sarcasm is a little bit different but it reminds me a lot of my moms so I always understand what he's saying. One day he was on a rolll with blocking this kid Corey and Corey was laughing and taking it and throwing crap right back at him. VB (volleyball boy) jokes about his heighth all the time and how we could stand on somebody's back to try and block him back etc. He is the definition of a GENTLE GIANT!

Math class has a boy that is kinda unique. To be honest, I'm still trying to figure "Math Boy" out! He's super smart, really nice, good to help explain things to me....but oddly serious. What do I mean by odd? Wellllllll, whenever he starts laughing, he blushes and immediatly tries to "sober up" and go serious again. He literally gets embarrased by showing that he thinks something is comical! Usually, when people don't match my large sense of humor, I'm almost annoyed by it, but he just draws me in more. I'm super curious about him. And to be honest I get quite a kick out of purposely making him laugh because the way he acts is so worth it.

Best for last...."Institute Boy"! You know those boys with the adorable smiles that you immediatly think "He is so full of himself!" Well "IB" has a b-e-a-utiful smile with the best personality! He, like the others, has me laughing on a daily basis! The first time we talked, he told me about how he wrecked his bike: shattering his foot and flying 30 feet on 9th east...not a slow road! The second time we talked, he asked if I wanted to go for a ride sometime. It was one of those moments where you try REALLY hard not to laugh because you aren't sure if they're serious or not. He has such a good feeling about him and is just a genuine, great guy! I think. I obviously don't know him very well, but he seems amazing! Super nice, lights up talking about his mission, great singing voice, always laughing and cheerful, volunteers to help with things, and may or may not be related to my FAVORITE apostle :) (Elder Holland) Maybe my project for this week will be to creep on him and try to find out!



Brother Sacket ended up being at the luncheon I went to today and even at my table. At some point, dating and relationships came up. :) That poor man had no idea what he was getting himself into! John Bytheway is coming on October 1st and I am SOOO excited! I hear he's incredible :) Happy Saturday everybody!

oh snap

Sunday March 7,2010 "Chantel, even though it is NOT a good place to be in, there's nothing that I can do for you. It has to be you that makes your own realizations and decisions on things. But I honestly believe that one day soon you will 'wake up' and change your views on it again. A charming, amazing guy that you deserve is going to make you fall hard and fast and you'll open up to marriage again...."

Wellllllll Bishop, it may have started to progress to happen a little bit more the last couple of days! In my first ward, I had a little day dream. In my second ward, my insides literally melted and became really warm. It's like I could literally feel a little bit of my monsterous wall caving down.


Hope everybody else had the incredible Sunday that I did! I'm glad I wrote about meetings with my Bishop, even if it does just prove that he's always right :)

Feliz Cumpleanos!

J. Farns. (aka Jessica Farnsworth) has been one of my best friends for the last 3 years. We knew of each other a little bit when I moved here in 8th grade and we started to get to know each other a little bit in 9th grade with Suthy's english class. Through volleyball, mutual classes and mutual friends, we got to know each other. The end of Junior Year I decided to run for Student Government (as did she) and we suddenly got really close, really quick.

I quickly learned that Heavenly Father knew exactly what he was doing with putting her in my life, and having her become such a big part of my life, at the time that she did. Jess walked in right as all of my other friends were getting ready to graduate and essentially leave me. She was there when I literally had no one! When I went to do this post, I started looking through pictures to use and realized how many we have and how much we've done and gone through together. I have a couple hundred on my laptop alone, not counting the probably 1000 on my other computer. In those 3 years, we've had countless photoshoots (much to her dismay), over 20 birthday dinners, sent off missionaries, roadtripped to Geezy, a few formals, at least a dozen crying/venting drives, a load of inside jokes and whole heaps of laughs.

To those "had to have been there" and Kodak moments: "Vaughan and Villi....VAUGHAN AND VILLI!"

To our many many many drives: the crying, the venting, the laughing, the blasting, the screaming and the hysterical laughing. Sometimes all in one drive!

To the mischievious "doings" nights: Veeks flying down stairs, spreading kindness to the fams and of course.....HAM anyone?

To second chances: teaching me to see the best in people

To random adventures: dance parties......EVERYWHERE, driving to Heber for shakes, creepin in the boys locker room, sunsets in church parking lots, Scera Park and scooter rides that nearly kill us

To your incredible taste in food: Macaroni Grill, Wendy's (only when CHRIS was there of course), and Sherbet nobody else would eat with us.....up until you threw it up :)

The the California trip from hell: "Please bless that we may all be niiiiiiiiiiiiice to each other!" "Let's keep a tally of how many texts Nicole gets on this trip..." "....oh we don't need a tally we just need a hand!" "GET IN THE CAR! WE ARE GOING TO GET SHOT!" "Back off me best friend" "Jess I prayed that you would fall asleep" .............. at least we got some great laughs out of it. After we got home and a couple weeks later that is :)

To Graduation 2008: Weeeeeks of anticipation and excitement leading up to it! Me finally having it hit me and breaking down in the student parking lot the night before and booking it to Mad's, crying so hard I can't talk and you sat there in panic. Being nerds and stillll so excited to go to our last yearbook day. Last day of school lunch at Maddies'. Re-assuring me that I'd be fine to speak and listeing to me practice it over and over in the 2 days before that I wrote it. That feeling of finally getting to walk. And of course....... the "PALM SPRINGS" chanting.

To all of our missionary boys: driving with the windows down in the middle of winter ( I know you know what I'm talking about!), "Just sit down and don't look at him", trying not to laugh during "tender" moments, CJ being grown up and walking allllll the way to say bye to Jon :)

To our beloved friends: "Ummmm don't you want to change first?" "You can't say homegirl on SUNDAY!" (And alllllll those times that we looked homeless-because we know we've had our share of those days!)

To those WTF nights: secretly picking up Mike, F words in the parking lots, yelling at Villi and Nique, awkward parties, Wendy's runs in Jeeps, new BYU girls going after the boys

To the "ARBY'S 3 FOR 5 DEAL": "I call Channy and I just get all three of you! It's like the curly fries, fish sandwich and chocolate shake deal!" hamming, bagging on Ben, HITTING TREES!, old men in Springville walking their dogs on lawn mowers late at night, assembly rehearsals and working on elections.

To the parentals: Tan hiding from your dad and sucking up to my mom. Lisa almost passing out/falling over/running away from us.

To the boys you honestly miss and secretly love: Giggy J, Tanner A. as a stripling warrior (still on my desktop slideshow haha), writing for 1 year then dreading the letters coming, birthday surprises and hilarious videos.

To the girls end of "Farewell Days": early morning breakfast making before, afternoon breakfast making after, Armies of Heleman while listening to Armies of Heleman, walks around the temple, AVOIDING the temple, booking it to be on time, crying crying crying crying, stuck on ice after leaving Clayton's, gearing up to go inside, matching ties all connected with the LONGEST opening prayer ever known to man.

To our many many many macaroni Grill trips: I can not even begin to cover everything that had happened there! 2 words: chicken tuscani.

To all the times you've been embarrased and tried to hide or claim you didn't know us: see all stories above, and all stories below :)

To all of our spontaneous nights and odd food obsessions: chocolate Frosty's or frozen hot chocolate can make everything seem a little bit better.
To learning how to grow up: graduation, crazy boyfriends, sending off missionaries, fixing friendships, medical dilemas, trying to like quality boys, sad anniversary's, moving me to St. George, visiting and hard talks in St. George, friends getting married and finding out who we are and what we want to be in life.

To all these things and SOOO much more, you're the friend I'm thankful for: making a music video of Nicole locked out, tricking Clayton into dancing for a video, Uber grouchin with Tan, collapsing in a volleyball game and you taking care of me, jumping on the tramp in our PROM dresses, frosty's right before China, awkward Haunted Houses (that you really did stick to your guns and refuse to go to), funny stories of funny boys, late nights talking for hours, Ben singing to us going to HOSA, ditching our PROM dates, countless sleepovers, "A boy named Max and a dog named Chris.", Girl Talk with Jonny boy, making the boys mad, ripped down posters and apology cards,partying it up at Senior Ball, calling 911 on senior ball, being ATTACKED by all of men's gov at Jon's house, stalker runs and dance parties on the range, and the Draper Temple open house


J. Farns: thank you for all the great times we've had! I honestly can say that I do not know where I would be without you in my life. You're an amazing example to me and have had a huge influence on me. I still have the "It's lame I can't just talk when you call...." letter and I re-read it allllll the time! You are a great example, an amazing person and an incredible friend! looooooooove you!

P.S. This doesn't count as a late posting because we haven't done your dinner yet :)