Soooo, I'm getting married. And this is why.

Can I tell you a story? 

Me and Jeremy :)

Once, I was seventeen-years-old. And Jeremy, my best friend in the whole world, was turning eighteen. That's because he is older than me by a month; he loves to rub that in. I'm mostly fine with it. When he turned eighteen, he decided to hold a birthday party. And, acting very much like he always did, he told me about this party three days before it was supposed to take place. I already plans, having committed to babysit for a family in my ward. But, I knew that I would have killed Jeremy if he missed my birthday, so I told him I would be there. Late. 

I just didn't realize how late. It seemed to me the forces were against me that night. I'm a Troff, though, and very stubborn. I got to the party so late that almost everyone else had gone home. To my surprise, there was kid there (who hadn't gone home yet) that I didn't know. AND he was really cute. 

This is the kid

So, this cute kid and I shared some discreet looks across the room, and shyly avoided each other until the party was over. We only talked once, while helping Brynndi get her shoes on. But he did push my car out of the snow. I found out his name was Benjamin Anderson and I fell asleep thinking of him. 

Ben had a crush on me after that weekend. He started doing things that kind of weirded me out a little. Ben now claims he thought he was being discreet. Ha. It was just little things, mostly through Facebook, but when a guy likes you and you don't like him, you can always tell. I decided that I didn't want to like him and mostly avoided talking to him when I could. 

After I turned eighteen, near the beginning of January, I was at work when Jeremy called me. He asked what I was doing on Friday, but then wouldn't tell me why he wanted to know. I knew it was because Ben was going to call and ask me out and I was right. I said yes, of course, because I was in the process of dating a hundred guys and he seemed cool enough, as a friend. 

That date was my favorite of my hundred. It was so fun. We made sock puppets, the boys put on a puppet show, we played this hilarious game, and we watched Psych. I just remember laughing my head off and falling for Ben. I fell hard that night. 

We were both shy, and neither of us was certain of the other's feelings. We didn't see each other a ton the next few months, but the more I got to know him, even back then, the more I was certain that Ben was the kind of guy I wanted to marry. 

Things were a little shaky during the summer and right as I was starting college. Ben even dated another girl for a few weeks. I had eyes only for Ben. After he broke up with the other girl, things between us started escalating and almost exactly a year after our first date (a few weeks after Jeremy left on his mission), Ben and I started dating each other exclusively.

We dated for six months. Those were both the best and the hardest six months of my life. It was the best because I was dating Ben and I have never been so happy in my life as when I'm with him. It was the hardest, though, because we were dating long distance and I missed him so much it hurt. 

At the end of June, we broke up. It wasn't because we wanted to, or because things weren't working. The Lord played a huge hand in the matter, because the timing was not right. The Lord needed Ben in Vernal, and He needed me in West Jordan, and that could not happen while we were dating. We also both needed some time to grow up. We didn't know at the time that our break up was just temporary, and so we both were trying to get over each other. That was hard. 

In October, I couldn't handle it. I knew I wasn't over Ben, and I was trying to date other people, but it wasn't working. So I talked to Ben and told him that. He answered that he wasn't sure, but that he wanted to talk again. And so, we did. In December, he let me know that he still loved me as well. By this time, I had my mission call to North Carolina, leaving April 3rd. Ben didn't tell me at the time, but his plan was to wait while I went on a mission and then date and marry me when I got home. 

Then, about three weeks ago, I sent Ben something that I had written. While reading it, he decided that he didn't want to wait. Ben wrote me a letter, telling me that. He said that if I felt I needed to go on a mission still, he was ready to wait a year and half. He just wanted me to have the choice. I prayed and fasted and went to the temple and did all the things that you are supposed to do when faced with a choice like this. And you know what? 

I felt like, if I went on a mission, God would happy. I also felt like, if I stayed here and got married, God would also be happy. When talking with my grandma later about that, she pointed out, that kind of answer makes sense, because both those things accomplish the Lord's purpose. 

And so, we're getting married. If you made it all the way through the story, congratulations. It was more for me than anyone else. There are a lot of details, a lot of promptings from the Spirit, a lot of reasons and meaning behind things, a lot of love and friendship and tears and a million other things that I left out. If I were to tell them all, I might as well write a novel about this. 

But basically, to sum it all up, we're getting married because ... 

He doesn't speed, even on the freeway.
He likes my eyebrows.
Our eyes match.
It doesn't matter what we do, we just like doing things together. And doing nothing.
He loves books.
We laugh until we can't breath.
He thinks that I have a pretty voice.
He eats oatmeal for breakfast.
He makes me feel like the most beautiful girl in the world.
We're in love. And have been for a long time. And will be for, well, forever.