June 6 = 5 years

June 6th marked the 5th anniversary of the day I started my missionary service in Southeastern Idaho. June 5th was the 3rd anniversary of my return. Can you believe it's already been 5 years since I started?! I guess I've accomplished some pretty important things in that time: graduated from McGill, got engaged, got accepted to 6 great grad schools, and volunteered 2 years as YM Pres. I really like this picture of myself with Elder Mullaney (from Tonga) in June 2003 when I was zone leader over parts of Pocatello, including most of Alameda. Both sets of my grandparents used to live in Pocatello, my mom was born in a near by hospital and as a little girl lived in this house which my Bingham Grandparents built. I'm told it was remodeled a lot since they moved out. I am so glad I was a missionary for many reasons. Working in Idaho gave allowed me to connect more deeply with my personal roots, and it gave me a chance to work tirelessly for other's happiness. It was an amazing experience to be apart of so many people's lives as they were going through life changing experiences. Now that I've been asked to be a ward missionary, I feel more connected to missionaries in the area and hope they're well taken care of and having similar life changing experiences. Have you done something nice for a missionary lately?

Montreal Temple - Aug 26th @ 11am

Our wedding date is set and I hope you can all make it: Saturday Aug 26th at 11am in the Montreal Temple!!! We're going to have a reception in church building in LaSalle that evening and look forward to celebrating with everyone. You might be thinking, "I thought they were gonna get married in January?" That was the original plan, but as you can read in the next post, there were so many immigration and scheduling issues that pushed it to Aug 26th. Truth be told, I'm relieved it's a lot sooner. While it will be a lot of work to get everything done in the next 11 weeks, I am so tired of being apart from Sarah and look forward to being able to see her everyday in our new apt in Ottawa. Ottawa you ask? Read the next post for clarification. The stress of planning the wedding seems manageable to me because at least it's in our control. The immigration requirements have been so overwhelmingly confusing to sort through it makes everything else seem so much easier in comparison.

Perspective on Life Decisions

Sorry for the delay between posts, this has been an incredibly busy time. I've been working two jobs (Accounting and Intern in Congressman Rangel's district office), have a new calling (Ward Missionary) and have been traveling to Montreal and Ottawa. Oh ya, I'm engaged! There have been so many details to sort through as Sarah and I have tried to navigate the legal aspects of a Canadian/French citizen trying to marry an American and live in the US. I'll spare you all the details, but we had no guarantee that we could live together in the States as husband and wife for quite some time, so we've decided to get married sooner than expected, move to Ottawa and immediately apply for a US spouse visa for Sarah, so that it will arrive by the time we want to move to Carolina in Aug 2007. I am deferring entrance to UNC until that time and am currently looking for work and french classes in Ottawa. Je pense que il sera meilleur pour nous si nous pouvons habiter ensemble. While it has been a humbling sacrifice to put aside grad school for a year, especially after the countless hours of working on applications and traveling to interviews on overnight buses, it feels so good to recognize that Sarah is my #1 priority. While I was sitting through my graduation, I made a list in my journal of all the major decisions and actions I've done since moving to Montreal in Aug 1999 and the impact each decision on getting me to this point. The realization I had is that the decision to marry Sarah was by the far the biggest and most important, and all decisions from now on have to be made in reference to that decision. In other words, with every option I will have in front of me, I have to consider how it will affect my marriage with Sarah, and no matter how good it would be otherwise, if it has a negative impact on our marriage, then it's not the best option for me. This might seem like an obvious realization, but to actually live through it by calling UNC to defer and calling "our apt" in NC to get a refund on our deposit is a bit humbling and exhilarating. Je t'aime Sarah!! Merci pour ton amour.

Graduation

I graduated on Thursday June 1, 2006!! I was so glad that Sarah and Amy could come. In many ways it was fitting, since Amy was the woman who took me under her wing when I first moved to Montreal in 99, and Sarah is the woman taking me in her arms as I l've left Montreal in 2006. Many thanks to my parents who made this wonderful day possible. You can watch the webcast of me walking accross the stage. Click here and click on the stream for June 1st, part 2 (pm) and then scroll ahead to about 1 hour 36 minutes and wait. You can right click on it, select zoom, and watch it in full screen mode. Enjoy!

Ottawa

I went to Ottawa a couple weeks ago with Amy's family, and got to spend a couple days there with my lovely fiance. I then spent the week in Montreal. More details to follow.

Blue Angels

While sitting at my desk at work yesterday morning I suddenly heard a really loud airplane fly by. It was alarming enough that 6 or 7 of us immediately stood up and asked each other "what was that?" We went to the window and watched a large plane fly right by our building so low that it was at eye level (I'm on the 11th floor of a 40+ story building) within blocks of wall street and ground zero. We watched as it flew away from us over Brooklyn, but then started making a huge loop heading towards the Statue of Liberty and right over our neighborhood again. As it got closer someone recognized it as part of the Blue Angels. Apparently this is a Marine Corps arial stunt team that was either having a show or practicing. Maybe I was alone in this thought, but I didn't really enjoy the experience! The top picture is the plane we initially saw, the other pic is of the 6 fighter jets we saw during the second loop. For the record, I did not take these pictures, but it felt like I was about this close.

Our new apt

I went to North Carolina last week to spend time with mom while she attended an event for her doctoral program. While there, I spent most of my time apartment hunting. I saw 12 apts in two days, and through much consultation, Sarah and I decided on this great two bedroom apartment a few minutes from campus, easily accessible by bus. It's cheaper than some of the two bedroom apts we saw and will be a great place to start our life together. I'll be there on my own until she gets the paperwork to come to the States. I can't wait! Here's a picture of the apt complex and also of the model apt's living room.

Sheffield Down

Dad and I went to a Yankees game a couple weeks ago, but I'm late with this post up cuz I've just finally uploaded the pictures to my camera. We had great seats in the loge, my favorite section to work when I was a vendor selling pretzels at the stadium. Gary Sheffield got injured in a crazy play at first and I got some nice pics. The Yanks scored in every inning and won big.

Engaged!!

You heard it here first (unless you already read her blog), Sarah and I are engaged! I can't believe it's really happening but it feels fantastic. We basically made the decision last Tuesday in the Manhattan Temple, but it wasn't until Monday morning on the grounds of the Boston Temple that I gave her a ring and we decided to go public with our decision. Because there are some immigration issues to be worked out, we're not sure exactly when it'll be, but we're thinking it'll take clear until the end of the year to sort it all out, so we're considering a January wedding. Govern yourself accordingly (I guess Kent and Sarah will be the only people laughing at that line). What I mean is you should start thinking of your gifts... I mean travel arrangements. Seriously though, drop me a line sometime to let me know what you think. I love you Sarah and can't wait!

Elder & Sister Jones

Sarah and I stayed last Thursday at Bonnie & John's (and Liz and Grace's) house in Bronxville, NY before heading to visit my Jones Grandparents on their mission in Boston for the weekend. I couldn't resist posting the bottom picture which Sarah took of B&J's pug. Elder and Sister Jones are working in the Mass. Boston mission office, taking care of the cars, referrals and supplies as well as a myriad of other tasks. I'm so proud of them and am so grateful for the incredible example. It was a blast to spend a weekend with them and to introduce them to my sweetheart.

Sarah in NYC, again

Here are some pics from Sarah's recent trip to NYC last week. The top is from a wonderful day we spent with my dad at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It's an ancient Egyptian Temple brought over in the 1960's. The next one is after the wonderful conversation we had about our future on the 6th floor of the Manhattan Temple. During the dedication of the Temple in June 2004 I was serendipitously at the cornerstone ceremony and got to put mortar to help seal the stone in place. Here I am pointing out the spot I spread my mud. The bottom picture is in my bedroom the day after our trip to the Temple. In the midst of a very intimate conversation we noticed that the sunset had made the entire sky red and orange and so we took many great pictures. If you've already read the above posts, then you know what the conversation was about, if not...