Long Time No Hear

OK, OK I'm sorry that it has taken me so long to post again. Obviously you knew it was coming because of my last post (a few months ago), but still it's been too long. I will try to do better.

First, I love being married to the most amazing, incredible, beautiful, wonderful, cute, smart, spiritual, gorgeous, intelligent, hard working, and did I mention Gorgeous woman in the whole wide world!!!!! I wish I could spend every second of every day with her. It was wonderful starting the most amazing marriage in the world off with a very wonderful honeymoon in Hawaii. The first two of many pictures you will get from my blog are shown here below.

This is from Oahu, where we spent the first few days and visited the Polynesian Cultural Center. This photo does not do Hawaii complete justice, but you can tell, it was beautiful. Almost as beautiful as the woman I married!

Now, in this picture to the right you can see me with some of my new Polynesian friends! Notice the tattoo; I was living on the wild side as soon as I got married ;). That is until I got home and it washed right off and then I was back to the mild-mannered conservative guy I've always been!

Of course we went one place that means more than almost the rest of the trip. It wasn't the reason for the trip and we didn't get to go inside because of time constraints to catch our plane but this picture below shows the LDS Laie Hawaii Temple.

Now, before you think that I only am talking about the architecture or the beauty of the grounds let me explain. Part of the splendor and beauty of the honeymoon to celebrate and commence my marriage to the most amazing woman in the world is because it is a fun, vacation to get some alone time to get to know the other person and be together. A bigger part of the special aspect and crucial part of the wedding is shown in this picture. The wedding would just be until one or the other died if not for this building shown behind us and hundreds like it around the world. The temples are the house of the Lord; the only place on earth were specially called and ordained men can marry and/or seal a couple/family for time and all eternity. God did not intend that the true love and adoration that we should feel for our spouses stop at death. He ordained that as long as we live righteously and keep his commandments we can qualify for marriage and/or sealing in a temple and then, if we keep doing those things, we can stay married for all of eternity, not just until death do us part. That is why this picture means so much to me. It is the reason Christina and I are holding each other so tightly; because we know we can be an eternal family thanks to the plan the Lord has ordained for mankind. I love Christina with all my heart, and that is made stronger because of my love for heavenly Father and His love for us!

Busy, Busy, Busy (but no Beavers, sorry)

OK, so planning a wedding and reception and honeymoon keeps you a little occupied. I'm sorry I haven't been able to post in awhile but, as you can tell from the previous sentence (where the "you" was figurative for everyone and literal/specific for me) I have been anxiously engaged . . . in a good cause as well as a real engagement (bonus points if you can name the scripture I'm referencing).

I think Christina and I are getting everything to come together and able to do so at a lower cost than we thought possible. We've had a lot of help from friends and family and the Lord. It's amazing and wonderful to watch everything come together in ways that you would never have dreamed possible when the Lord wants you to get something done. I guess it's a real life story of the example of Nephi going to get the brass plates and telling his father "I will go and do the things the Lord has commanded; for I know the Lord giveth no commandment unto the children of men save He shall prepare a way for them to accomplish the thing He has commanded." When the Lord wants two righteous people to get married He prepares the way, especially when those people are getting married in the Temple. I have been blessed and humbled by this experience, even with how hectic it is. Another witness that the Lord watches over all His children in their daily lives and activities; truly He is omniscient and loving and kind.

So, I have explained what is going on in my life and why I haven't posted in awhile and now will post some pictures to keep ya'll entertained until my next post (which again, might be a little while seeing as I'm busy)

This was in Miami, not our engagement pictures. It was actually before we got engaged, but you can read more about the trip on Robbie's blog.

I just like this picture. She is so beautiful, too bad there is that guy in the picture ;)

The Greatest Story of My Life, So Far

I want to tell you all about the greatest event that has ever happened to me so far in my life. I offer a warning though, this post has pictures of the most beautiful, amazing, spectacular, wonderful, pretty, funny, and smart woman I have ever met. That's a warning because she is engaged to me, and no one else can have her. I am going to work the hardest I can for the rest of my life to make sure that I never do anything that will hurt her, alienate her from me, or offend her with words or actions. Now, that being said, lets get down to what actually happened.

I had known for awhile that Christina was one of the most selfless, hard working, dedicated people I had ever met. She always takes care of her family and does whatever they need. This picture below is just one example, babysitting her neices all day (they're cute kids though)

I knew that she had been busy helping prepare for the upcoming ward activity. She also had been helping me get ready to move to a smaller one bedroom apartment after my cousin, Robbie, moved down to Miami. I also knew that I could use this same business as a smoke screen for what I really wanted to do. So on the Saturday before, while shopping for some much needed items, I casually brought up that since it had been busy and the coming week was sure to be even more busy why didn't we go out for a relaxing, romantic dinner one night. Then, the day before we went out, I happened to bring up the fact that I had gotten reservations at a nice restaurant and we would have to dress up. In Christina's own words "So, if I recall accurately, which I ALWAYS do ;) Wednesday came along and Russ mentioned that I needed to dress nice for dinner Thursday, since it was more upscale then I was apparently use to, and that I may even have to potentially purchase a new outfit (buy something new? And I am forced to? No problem!) But he reassured me that wasn’t necessary, darn! And that church attire would suffice. Thursday comes along with not much of anything out of the ordinary, other than Russell informing me that it will be fun just to go out to dinner because we can." She didn't know what was coming!

We went to dinner at a restaurant called Christini's, it was not only one of the award winning restaurants in the area but I also liked the play on her name. Dinner was good and the conversation with her was even better (as it always is). My goal throughout the evening was to very specifically list some of the reasons why I loved her so much. I would try to mention something she had done, preferably recently, and how that made me realize the wonderfully amazing person she was and why I loved her for it. After explaining why I loved her I planned to surprise her. Once again I will quote Christina becuase I think she says it so much better than I do. ". . . Russell got up to go to the bathroom. . . So imagine my surprise when he came back within like 60 seconds. Apparently the bathroom was very close!? We ate our dinner, and then Russell again had to excuse himself from the table, this time because he really was going to the bathroom and ran into the waiter earlier. (That’s his story and I believe he is sticking to it.) Needless to say, the behavior was a little off, but all seemed fine. Russell returned and we were talking and he continued with his nice, kind, sweet words on why he loved me…. and then he kind of paused and looked and said, “So really, there is only one question left”. At this point in time the waiter sets a beautiful plate down with a rose, petals, and a ring with the writing, Will you marry me? I look up and Russell is just like, “Well?”. I am sure I was laughing/smiling nervously and then he asks, “Will you marry me?”. Of course I said yes! I was so caught up in the moment that Russell had to point out for me to listen to the song the accordion player was playing for us. It was Josh Groban’s, When You Say You Love Me." It was a great evening that was very romantic and special (even if the AC was turned on full blast and she was freezing cold, hence my jacket on her in the pictures). I have a few more pictures posted below, and after looking at them you will realize that I am the luckiest, most blessed guy ever!!!!! She said Yes, to me. It doesn't get any better than that! Until she actually says yes the day of the marriage, but I'm not worried about any other answer that day either ;)

Engaged!!

It's true, finally. I found the most incredible, beautiful, perfect for me, wonderful, dedicated, kind, intelligent, friendly, smart, and spectacular woman ever. And for some odd reason she said "Yes!" when I asked her. Yes, Bishop Purcell, TLM is finally getting married (how Luke Bitton got married before me I don't know;), just kidding Luke) but I'm very happy. There will be more information and pictures to follow in the next post.

Change

OK, it has taken me this long to figure out something to write for my new post, and I don't know if I even have it down coherently enough to make sense to anyone reading this (probably even myself, when I go back to read it). For those of you who may not know I don't like change very much. Oh, I don't mind little changes and of course I want to change myself so that I become a better person and become what my heavenly Father wants of me, but I don't like other things to change much. Of course this presents a problem for many people in their 20s! Changes come in the form of going off to school, changes come when you realize that your major isn't right for you and you have to change it and your classes (sometimes multiple times!), changes come when you are blessed and privileged enough to go on a mission and change the way you act and think every second of every day. Then, when you graduate from college and think you know what you want to do with your life changes come because this is the real world. You may change your job (and it may have nothing at all to do with your degree or the classes you took in college) or your roommate (though if your married you shouldn't and hopefully never do change that!). And that's what started me on this diatribe about change.

My cousin Robbie has been one of my favorite cousin roommates of all time (he's tied for 1st with Chris Porter and Jared Laney (and for those of you who know, Jared is not technically one of the cousins but we have adopted him as such so he counts!)). The other two are married (to wonderful and beautiful women) and I am happy for them, but I was very excited when I had the opportunity to live with Robbie again. Now he is going down to Miami and I am left without a roommate, and without furniture, and without the 42" LCD HDTV hooked up to the computer . . . I mean, without a roommate, yea, that's what I meant! I am happy for Robbie though, this will be a much better job for him and he seems excited about it. Of course the fact that he got an answer to go makes a world of difference too! I will miss having a roommate with crazy antics and jokes, someone to talk to late at night about life, the gospel, and girls. Before I go too much further let me just stress that I have just such a person that I can be with and talk to about all of these things, a best friend, she just can't be my roommate ;) ! So, basically what I am saying is that I will miss Robbie a lot but I wish him luck in his endeavors and work. And to all the ladies in south Florida, watch out! He's a catch!!

Super Hero Quiz

I figured I would join the bandwagon and do what everyone else in my related end of the blogosphere is doing.

Your results:
You are Spider-Man

Spider-Man 85% Superman 70% Green Lantern 70% Robin 60% The Flash 60% Catwoman 45% Iron Man 45% Supergirl 40% Hulk 40% Wonder Woman 25% Batman 15%

You are intelligent, witty, a bit geeky and have great power and responsibility.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test

Mothers

With yesterday being Mother's Day I just wanted to say a few words about mothers. I am feeling particularly grateful to my mother and wanted to share that with everyone. I do apologize for everyone else in the world, you just don't have as wonderful, incredible, amazing, loving, friendly, nice, helpful, loved, beautiful, and all around great Mom as I do. I don't mean to rub it in, but my Mom is pretty much the greatest Mom in the world!

But enough about how lucky I am to have a Mom like mine, I just wanted to spend a second talking about the things I have learned from my Mom. One of the most important things in the world I have learned from my Mom, how to get, have, and keep a testimony of the God the Father and our Savior and his Atonement. That is the most important thing in life. Everything else stems from that. I learned from an early age, thanks to the wonderful and helpful example of my Mom, how to pray and (perhaps more importantly) developed the faith to know that God is listening to my prayers and that He answers them. What a marvelous blessing that is, to learn from my Mom how my heavenly Father is listening to my prayers and answering them. I learned the importance of scripture study; and I mean study, not just reading to get through a number of verses or chapters everyday, but really studying out what the prophets and the Lord are telling us and how to apply that in my life. I have seen my mother readying and studying the scriptures too many times to count in my life. I know she loves the scriptures!! And I therefore want to love them that much every day. I learned so much from, and am ever grateful for, the gospel Q&A sessions we would have as teenagers about once a month with my parents. My Mom's knowledge of the gospel is incredible and motivating to me. I could, but won't, go on about how funny my Mom is (she has a great sense of humor and there have been many nights where we would have family time that would leave us kids rolling on the ground with laughter), how dedicated to her kids she is (I learned a long time ago that my Mom will sacrifice anything for the well being of me and all her other kids, and that is an incredible amount of love!!!), and how dedicated and serving to others she is. All around I guess I am grateful that the Lord placed me in such a great family with such a wonderful, amazing, incredible mother. I love her so very much!

Here's a picture of my family from a couple of years ago when I was still in college. This was taken before my younger sister was married (the one with glasses) and back when my brother was still shorter than me:)