Married Mormon Missionaries.

Thought that title might catch your attention.

Every once in a while I get this feeling that I should write a blog post relating to our faith as Mormons. It usually comes out of nowhere, but always at a time when I have a spare few minutes and can write a little. I figure I better follow the prompting and do it.

We both served Mormon missions and we loved it. Jon served in Rosario, Argentina and I served at Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah, plus spent 12 weeks of it serving in Houston, Texas. 

For those of you who aren't familiar with Mormons or the missions we serve (or both), here's a quick rundown. Girls serve for 18 months and guys serve for 2 years. You have to be at least age 18 for guys and age 19 for girls. Girls are called "Sister [last name]" and guys are called "Elder [last name]" and we wear name tags that say that, plus "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" (which is our church's full name). It is completely volunteer and unpaid, but us and our families have to pay to go which provides for our living expenses. (Church members help out when needed also.) We don't choose where we go, we just apply and get a letter saying where and when. We don't watch tv or talk on the phone to our friends and family, or anything like that. We turn that entire time over to God and teach people about our faith and about Jesus Christ.

It sounds crazy, but it's awesome.

Both of our missions were kinda the same, yet very different. Jon was in a foreign country knocking on doors, teaching people in their homes, learning Spanish, and dealing with various living conditions. It amazes me some of the epic stories he tells of living there and the wonderful experiences he had and people he met. I served in a more comfortable atmosphere with 100+ other sister missionaries (from every country you can think of) all in one area where millions of people from all over the world come to visit each year. We gave tours, taught our faith to several people each day, and had the backdrop of the beautiful Salt Lake Temple 24/7.

So, what am I getting at? What's the point of this post?

Mainly I just wanted to say it bluntly. 

We [Mormons] have got to be doing something right.

You may not believe in our faith or even in God, but getting two stubborn teenagers who were considering eloping in Vegas to put that aside for several years and only have communication via snail mail is a pretty amazing feat. 

We've seen the blessings of this gospel and of following the teachings of Jesus Christ. There's no other way to happiness and whoever you are, we challenge you to read and pray about the things we believe. Contact your local missionaries to teach you and they will ask you to pray about it. Contact us and we'll give you a Book of Mormon or answer any questions you have, even if they're tough ones. Mormons and missionaries only share the faith and God does the rest. This world is getting scarier by the day and we know there's hope in something bigger: it's called eternal life.

Here's some LEGIT sites for you.

www.lds.org

www.mormon.org

Do it. We dare you.

Love,

The Married Mormon [Returned] Missionaries

"Day after day, on your path toward your eternal destiny, increase your faith. Proclaim your faith! Let your faith show!" -Russell M. Nelson [Let Your Faith Show April 2014 General Conference]

Halfway Stop & We're Home.

We're back in California and things couldn't be better. We've been busy with work, family, and most of all buy being in loooooove! (Aw.)

It's been a great first week and we feel more at home than ever before. Things have fallen into place for us and we can hardly believe how perfect it is. We know for one reason or another we're meant to be here at this time in our lives. Although living with the parents isn't ideal, we know that if we're meant to stick around God will provide ways for us to sustain ourselves, and we're grateful for such supportive parents here and in New York. I've already got an amazing job and Jon has had some really cool opportunities too so it's only going to get better from here on out!

For a little late update, on our road trip home last weekend we stopped halfway at Quail Creek State Park near St. George, Utah for a good night's sleep before more driving. Sadly hardly any sleep happened with super hot and dry desert weather and a thunder storm that lasted all night. But we had a nice little date with some cider and sandwiches and enjoyed a short dip in the lake. It could have been cooler but we made the most of it.

In 2 weeks we'll be in New York with my family so we're excited about that! I'll be sure to take lots of pictures and blog all about it. I haven't been home for almost 2 years which is really weird!! But really California is my home NY was just temporary. But I can do visits. :) Excited to visit Jersey and some friends there that I haven't seen in far too long. Plus I can show Jon my high school stomping grounds! It'll always have a place in my heart.

Life is great for the Faldmos and we're excited to find out what living back in California has in store for us!

Yellowstone: Beauty, Bison, and Breakdowns.

What an adventure of a day! AND it's our 11 month anniversary! We decided since we're about to leave Idaho (probably not forever but for a while) we have to go to YELLOWSTONE! And surprisingly it's only about 2 hours away. How have we not gone sooner!? (Although we did travel 100+ miles to see stuff around the park.)

We started with the classic Old Faithful because it's like, American of us. And obviously we took a selfie with it. The best part was we got there, bought stickers (we're tatting up the Corolla/my guitar case with adventures), and managed to get there like 1 minute before it blew. We missed having to wait for 90 minutes! SCORE! Plus parking was totally on our side today.

We saw tons of other cool geysers along the way...

And the Yellowstone lake!

We were getting famished so we stopped at a cute general store place and OF COURSE I managed to find ICE CREAM! :) I will find ice cream anywhere, even in a forest.

Oh and the best part of this rest stop, as we were sitting out front enjoying our cones a freaking gang of Hell's Angels bikers came and sat down next to us. We were so close to asking for a photo but we decided we play the role of scared white people much better.

On the road to see the last few places we wanted to go, there were tons of bison everywhere! It was cool, but it was at this moment I realized I was terrified of giant animals in the wild. Like TERRIFIED. (This is foreshadowing another story I will be telling about the day...)

So after this we stopped to see a few more geysers, and we stupidly walked right in front of a bison (way too close) and it growled and almost started running at us!! People were watching and I tried to video walking by it, but I almost died of fear and it cuts out right before he growled at us! SO SCARY.

Okay so shaken up doesn't begin to describe it. 5 mins after this we went to see the waterfalls as our last stop, and there were two HUGE elk right at the entrance after we parked and got out. Park rangers were trying to navigate people to not get too close, and one jumped over a fence and ran across the parking lot. I'm not sure what happened to me, but I had an absolute breakdown! Full on panic attack and crying. I was like "we're leaving!" There ended up being one right in front of our car as I was forcing Jon to reverse and I was not even looking at the animal. Yeah, I think it came from the terrifying bison attack. And PMS.

So that was our Yellowstone adventure. I also found this clever book in the gift shop. WHO POOPED? I almost did. Several times today.

Tomorrow is cleaning, packing, and tons of errands day! Then Friday we start the drive to California! Since we have two cars now, we're both driving alone. It's a bit lame but we're going to do half tomorrow, camp for the night at a pretty lake, and finish off the trip Saturday. We're really looking forward to being home with family and friends for a while. And then to New York in a couple weeks to see my fam!

Thanks for reading and feel free to poke fun at my insane mental breakdown over elk.

(I felt like Lars from Heavyweights when he gets tied to that tree and sees a deer...anyone?)

We're Still Alive.

Life has been LOCO so we've been not so great about our blogging. We're sorry.

But school is out for summer (7 weeks!), we've both gotten A's and B's, and new adventures are beginning. This Friday we're headed back home to California with our new car, old car, and very little stuff. I'm going to be starting a fantastic new job like 15 mins from Jon's parent's house, so we'll be homebodies for a little while to save some money and enjoy the SoCal sunshine. And be close to family and friends and the beach of course! It's going to be great and we're really looking forward to it.

School will continue online for both of us. I'm a web design major so the transition shouldn't be too bad. We're hoping Jon doesn't mind it. Both of our degrees are offered online so they should be doable. We both love change and we're always up for new adventures and life experiences, and this is just what we needed! Rexburg is great and all but it gets annoying REAL fast. We want varieties of people and sunshine that doesn't burn your flesh after 3 minutes and GOOD food! It's coming soon. And we couldn't be happier.

Until then we'll be packing, taking a trip to Yellowstone, and trying to soak up a bit more of the good parts of Idaho summer before it's road tripping back to CA.

Rexburg, we'll miss you but we've got bigger fish to fry.

ARCH You Kidding Me?!!!!!

 This weekend was so much fun, we were sad to see it end! Drove down to Utah and spent Thursday night with our aunt and uncle who fed us lots of yummy chocolates as we watched Forrest Gump! Then Friday we headed down for a nice little camp out in Arches National Park and it was AWESOME!! Wish we had time for more than one night, but we saw a lot, hiked A LOT, and climbed LOTS of rocks!! It was really great. It was a nice kick starter for the spring and summer adventures, and a nice little break before spring semester! Which starts...tomorrow. (We're trying to stay positive and be grateful for school. Trying.) Ended with a fun time with our friends The Hughes for Easter and had a yummy dinner! Now we're back trying to sort out our school plans and the teachers that gave us homework before the semester started...but we're grateful!!

Here are some pictures! Try to find us by some of the arches...they were giant!

5 Reasons We Wish We Were Dauntless

We loved Divergent; book and movie! The movie far exceeded our expectations, and we had very few complaints in the end. It stayed true to the book while still keeping it within 3 hours and entertaining. Plus even the casting wasn't disappointing! Mostly unknown actors, but they'll definitely be known now. All in all, the Rotten Tomatoes rating is false in the critics' perspective. Losers.

We're now wishing we could be as awesome as Dauntless, and here's why.

1. Wearing All Black
Who doesn't love a semi-goth look...everyday? Black always looks awesome and hard core without even trying. Plus it's slimming so even if we don't have the Dauntless bodies, we fool the world in our black pants and leather v-necks.

2. Tattoos and Plugs
The main jerk of Dauntless, Eric, was probably the coolest looking of them all. Plugs, eyebrow piercing that doesn't seem humanly possible, and sweet neck tattoos. What could be cooler than that? And although the women were swooning over Four in the theater (loudly), we were kind of more in love with Tori and her sweet dreads.

3. Cardio More Hardcore Than Insanity
Apparently all it takes to get ripped is fighting people with little to no experience. Also knife throwing. We're thinking about starting an underground fight club so we can get ripped super fast! Sure we may end up in the hospital, but Tris recovered pretty quickly so why can't we??!

4. Four.
He's full of secrets, has a sweet back tattoo, and hits on initiates. He may pretend to be mean but he's just a giant teddy bear deep down. He even manages to hook up with chicks after throwing knives at them! Everybody needs a friend like that, including us.

5. Where's the Nearest Train Station?
Is there anything cooler than jumping on and off a moving train? Obviously not.

Don't you wish you were Dauntless now, too? Someday.

Steffany's Post-Surgical Rant.

A rant by Steffany. The gallbladderless wife.

Recovering from surgery is a giant bowl of lamesauce. I hate being home all day having nothing to do and not feeling good. I'm sure everyone feels that way. The day of surgery I was so numb everything felt great! Tuesday was painful, yesterday was nausea all day, and today is just exhaustion with a bit of incision pain.

All in all I think I'm almost completely recovered! Husband has taken such good care of me. He's gotten me food to try to eat when I feel sick, laid with me when I was in pain, he even bought me a pink road bike yesterday so we could ride soon which I'm super looking forward to. It was only $25! He's going to add new wheel tubing or something.

I'm ready to get back to work and not be a walking wuss factory. But I realize my body needs time to get back to normal so I'm trying to let it happen that way. Lots of reading and watching Netflix is making it possible. 

On another note a few things I'm excited for with the arrival of Spring/Summer...

-bike riding everywhere

-adventures

-school classes I'm interested in

-lake trips

-camping

-music playing outside

-warm weather

-4th of July

-trip home to California

-moving upstairs to the 2 bedroom apt

-getting out more

Just to name a few. :)

I'm grateful for the blessings I have and especially for my husband this week. He's a champ. I'm going to go attempt to make pizza before he gets home and see how long it takes this old lady version of me.

The Faldmo's HIPPIE Life.

The Faldmos are hippies now.

Just kidding.

We wish we could live out of a VW bus on the beach with no money, but it's impossible. At least for now. We did sell our tv yesterday though! Our living room is pretty big without a 50" plasma taking up space. Our desk is now being used as a desk and not a tv stand. Today we read and played music and took a nap and made dinner and actually talked to our parents. It was much more enjoyable than watching 100 movies.

Our plan is to save up some money and get some more adventures under our belt this summer. Because I mean honestly what's better, a giant tv or giant adventures?? Obviously adventures. YOLO! Haha...no.

Tomorrow Wife is getting surgery. Nothing big, they're gonna check around in her stomach and then possibly take her gallbladder out. It won't be the funnest thing ever but she'll survive. A few days off of work and some TLC from Husband will be great. Hoping for no complications and a quick recovery!

That's pretty much it for our update. Exciting things coming up with school and taking over the cake bites business and more photo shoots for Wife and pure good times.

Happy [almost] Spring! :)

Crazy Wife, Crazy Life.

It's been a crazy month for The Faldmos. Lots of work, lots of school, and lots of making plans for the future. It's a fun adventure but definitely can be stressful.

Marriage is so interesting. Two people, together all the time, trying to be better and make each other better. You don't realize when you're in the La La Land of engagement and dating that marriage will be hard work. But it is, and it's so worth it.

Love is the key ingredient to our success through all the stresses of life and each other's imperfections. We're best friends who are madly in love and are trying to make sure our goals are always the same. The results of that is that sometimes Wife is crazy and makes life crazy. Sometimes Husband is stressed out and makes life stressful. Sometimes we eat too much sugar. But guess what? We get over it and get through it one way and one way only: together.

Marriage is a team effort! Go Team FMO!

Michael Scott Loves Love.

To celebrate love and all things awesome, here are some examples of love from our fave show ever. #theoffice

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

And for all you singles today...stop being so crabby and eat some chocolate!