Jensen House

 I begged Brody to come home for Christmas in 2022. I didn't want to be apart and I wanted him to experience Christmas the Leavitt-style. It was his first Christmas since being home after his mission, so I was pretty sure that wasn't going to happen but I still hoped.  On December 20th, the night before I left for Christmas in Abbotsford, Brody picked me up from work. Our plan was to make sweet potatoes and watch The Santa Clause . When we got to his house, he disappeared almost immediately. I ended up in the kitchen making sweet potato casserole with his mom while Brody was nowhere to be found. I was happy to spend time with Anita, but I had also been looking forward to being with Brody since I was leaving the next day and wouldn't see him for a week. After I put the casserole in the oven, Anita told me that he was downstairs in the basement getting the movie ready.  As I turned the corner down the stairs, I saw that the lights had been shut off. There was a path of twin...

It was like Brody and I had always been together. I was so in love with him, and it felt amazing to say it out loud and in person. I brought him home to Abbotsford with me to meet my family. They had met him as "Elder Jensen" when we had done a Zoom lesson with him, but this was the first introduction as my boyfriend. They instantly loved him and welcomed him into the family with open arms, ending the trip with family photos and a birthday dinner for me. The birthday prior to this, I was sad. I thought about how I would never find someone to spend my life with. This feels silly now because I was only twenty back then, and it is completely normal to not be married at twenty. Anyways, the family felt complete now that Brody was there. This was my first time being in Abbotsford since I moved out, and it could not have come soon enough. Even though I was so thrilled to be with Brody, I hadn't been able to shake that homesickness. I cried almost everyday, longing for my parent...

 I woke up and had garlic toast for breakfast. One of the most important days of my life, meeting my potential future in-laws and I had garlic bread for breakfast. My lips were still chapped and I was having major body dysmorphia. But that wasn't going to get in the way of this day.  I was meeting Brody’s parents and Tyler at their house before we all headed to the airport together. We were all dressed in orange, his favourite colour. I hadn’t been able to speak to him in a few days while he travelled home. After major delays caused by a hurricane in Florida and an overnight stretch in Toronto, he was finally on his flight to Calgary.  I was also meeting two of Brody’s brothers for the first time: Andrew and Kenrick. I was especially hoping Andrew’s wife and kids would be there too. I’ve always loved being around kids, and I was excited and honestly a little nervous to meet my future sister-in-law. Out of everyone, she was probably the person I felt the most anxious to me...

 The day I arrived in Calgary with my parents and Luke, we decided to pitt stop in Banff. My mom was so excited and we had never been before. My feelings of dread about saying goodbye the next day were masked by moodiness and irritability. It's something I still feel guilty about; she wanted to have a good time and I just wanted to leave. It was getting harder and harder to stuff my sadness down. I felt like I was supposed to be thrilled about being in my new home, but I was just so stressed out.  It didn’t help that I couldn’t talk to Brody. While I was travelling to Calgary, he was finishing up his time in Guyana, and in just one week, he would finally be here with me. That same week, though, he would begin his four-day journey back to Canada while I was starting my new job. His mom had invited me over for dinner in the middle of the week, to which I accepted. I had met her about eight months ago (story told in part 33) so it was nice to have a familiar face. I was also movi...

 The time had come. It was the second to last week of September and I was moving out.  My grandpa helped me buy my first car, a classic Honda Civic. I could hardly believe it was mine. I could just get in and drive wherever I wanted, whenever I wanted. As I pulled away from the dealership, my grandpa followed behind in his own car. On the freeway, he passed me and gave me a thumbs up. I returned it, beaming, feeling like a real adult in my new car. He sped ahead to catch his exit while I stayed behind, driving more slowly and a little nervously. Just as I began to relax, I noticed a strange, unpleasant smell, the kind you recognize instantly when something is burning that should not be. I glanced down and saw the coolant gauge in the red. Then smoke started rising from under the hood. I pulled off the freeway into a parking lot, my excitement fading as it became clear my car was in trouble. Ethan came to my rescue and my grandpa came to pick the car up. He was going to take i...

 The summer of 2022 had such a fun feeling. I was officially preparing for my move to Calgary and Brody's return home in September. The James family had agreed to let me rent out a room in their home, and my grandpa was helping me find my first car.   It was an exciting time of life, but sometimes I would get really sad thinking about how I was moving away from my family. The sadness was just a bit less than the amount of excitement I had about seeing Brody again. We took a trip to Bothell to see family for my mom's birthday, and it is still one of the best weekends of my life to date.  Jill graduated high school in June and went to prom looking so grown up and beautiful We took a trip to Veranda Beach. It was our first one since the pandemic and it was so fun  I was finishing up my Cosmetology and Barbering program and was supposed to graduate in August, so I could get a job hairdressing in Calgary. The program had been full of great highs and lows. The school ...