The Time Casey and Amanda Visited Utah

This past weekend our good friends, Casey and Amanda, visited Utah. They came to see Alison and I. We spent the weekend catching up and enjoying some of our favorite Utah summertime activities.

I met Amanda in 2010. At the time, I was serving as a missionary in the Stanford singles wards and Amanda was a student at Stanford. She met with the missionaries before I was transferred to the area. I was brash and persistent – calling her weekly, but she screened the calls. In one of my brasher moments, I thought it was a great idea to call using the *67 tricks to block the number. She answered and was understandably quite perturbed. She told me she was taking a break from the church, that she could call us if she wanted to talk, and not to call her anymore. Wisely I complied with her request. Weeks later my companion and I received a text from the mission office. It was a referral requesting a copy of the Book of Mormon. We were shocked to see the requester was Amanda. We dropped everything to take her the requested copy of the Book of Mormon. A few weeks later she chose to be baptized. As I reflect upon my time as a missionary I consider this one of the more faith-affirming, miraculous events I was privileged to experience.

Through the remainder of my mission and for a while thereafter we stayed in touch. Eventually, we lost touch. We were out of touch for a few years, until early 2018 when we reestablished contact. Since then we have been consistent pen-pals. When Amanda planned this trip Alison and I were excited for them to visit.

On Saturday morning, we picked up Casey and Amanda and headed up Millcreek Canyon. We intended to hike Mount Grandeur, but it did not go according to plan. We were so wrapped up in conversation at the start of the trail that we missed the turn for the Mount Grandeur trail and instead stayed on the Pipeline trail. It was fine. They had the opportunity to enjoy the mountain and see some beautiful overlooks, while we enjoyed spending the morning with them. We did not realize our error until we were out on the other side of the mountain. All told we ended up hiking about the same distance as we would have if we had gone the correct way, but with a little less elevation gain.

On Saturday evening we took Casey and Amanda to visit Temple Square. They really wanted to see the Salt Lake Temple. It was a beautiful night to walk around. By the time we arrived downtown, the day was starting to cool off. We walked around the Salt Lake City Temple and stopped at both visitor centers. We also stopped by the Conference Center, Tabernacle, and the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. There is a special spirit at Temple Square and we enjoyed showing Casey and Amanda this God-filled place.

Sunday, Casey and Amanda met us at our house and we walked to church. They marveled as many of our neighbors joined us on the walk. They are both converts and have never lived in a place where so many members of the church live nearby.

Later in the day, Amanda made us two delicious pumpkin cheesecakes. While we waited for the cakes to bake we gave them a tour of our house and they enjoyed getting to know our animals. Tex warmed up quickly, but CC never really got there, much to Amanda’s vexation. Then we took them on a walk through our neighborhood down to Daybreak Lake. It gave us a good chance to talk about many topics including Church, family, and plans for the future. One conversation I particularly enjoyed was hearing Amanda’s memories of her conversion process and sharing my own recollection of the events.

It was a delightful weekend. We are grateful we got to spend it with good friends!