A Heart-felt Valentine for Brittany Molina

In the following short essay, I have three important points to make about the hilarity of this Valentine's Story to show why BYU is weird...but not that weird.

At BYU, we all abide by the Honor Code, a code-of-conduct that students, staff, and faculty agree to live by while attending Brigham Young University. And when I say all what I really mean is a hopeful most. There are obviously people who for some reason attend BYU but HATE the honor code, which brings me to point number uno;

1. If you choose to attend BYU, choose to love and live by the Honor Code. If you hate and fight the honor code, maybe this university just isn't for you! The honor code is just the way Brigham Young University runs things. You can be a "good mormon" or a "good person" and have a beard. If you like being able to have boys in your apartment past 11:00 pm, choose to attend a university that doesn't care if you don't care. No big deal.

The Honor Code gets a bad rap sometimes. Certain clauses are hard to understand, (like the time when women were told to only have one peircing in each ear. Why must it be that way? We don't really know but we'll just trust,) which brings me to point number two;

2. The Honor Code states that women's skirts should be to their knees and clothes should not be form fitting. Well, super cute skirts with leggings is kind of the style right now but BYU has said on poster put around campus that a skirt above the knee with leggings just is not up to the BYU Honor Code standard.

I love her "I'm-modest-and-I-know-it. This-guy-is-crazy" look.

The only thing I can see about the ADORABLE girl's ADORABLE outfit is maybe the skirt and leggings is the thing that threw off this anonymous Valentine note giver. Britanny's outfit is really not immodest. Any normal person can see that. But yes, maybe there is a small discrepancy between her outfit and the Honor Code. (Again, the Honor Code calls for things that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints does not necessarily ask of you. ex. No beard.)
However, this guy should not have written what he did. The Mission of BYU is to "assist individuals in their quest for perfection and eternal life." In order to do that we simply must be more Christ-like, which brings me to point number three;

3. The Christ-like thing to do here would have been to get to know her. Become her friend.
There are weirdos at every university. Harvard attracts smarty pants, Texas attracts partiers, BYU attracts religous ZEALOUTS! Not every student is a smarty pants, partier, religious zealot etc. I like to think most people at BYU are just trying to get an education and be a good person. In order to do that, we should not judge, but seek to understand and love one another. 


I had a guy come up to me in the library once and tell me that I should be more Christ-like and leave the library if I insisted on whispering to the person next to me. It was a Saturday night. We were both losers for being at the library late on a Saturday but the rude and undignified way in which he attacked me was most definitely not Christ like.

I promise Brigham Young University has weirdos!
I also promise most people are normal and just trying to be a friend to those around them. 
If we could only understand God and Jesus Christ's infinite and unconditional love, and be able to love others in the same way, there would be none of these nonsense notes!


I hope the rest of Brittany's Valentine's Day was a little more cheerful, though it couldn't have been more entertaining :)

Suan Powell and Steven Koecher

We heard the tragic news about the Powells from Aunt DeAnne herself (Steven Koecher's mother), as we were calling to invite her to dinner. My dad, who was on the phone with her, simply said "You're kidding." My sister, who has two beautiful children of her own, couldn't hold back the tears. My elegant and composed grandmother slammed her palms to the table in disbelief, then slammed her fists in anger. I finally broke down and sobbed over my bathroom sink as I was getting ready for bed later that night.

We are so sorry for the Powell and the Cox family. From one family of a missing person to another, whose cases once were claimed to be related, we feel for you. To experience this on top of losing Susan must be heartbreaking, and it breaks our hearts as well.

On the drive back from Bountiful to Provo, Grandmother said, "It was no right of that evil, evil man to take away the lives of those two boys." Said the Pierce County Sheriff, "Let's not refer to this please in public as a tragedy. This was not a tragedy. This was a horrible murder of two little kids. Let's not dress it up, let's not sanitize it. Let's call it what it is, which is something deeply wrong, which is not a tragedy, which is something evil. This is going to hurt everybody's heart who's been involved. This is a horrible, heart-breaking situation."

We have been involved in Susan's case about as long as we have been searching for Steven and, as Pierce County Sheriff said, it has hurt everybody's heart who's been involved. We continue to hope for that which we have been praying for since December 13th, 2009--that we will be able to find Steven, and that the family of Susan will be able to find her.

Today

Psh. If you want to know about where I was 2 years ago, come look through my iPhoto. I'm done with this.

As fun as New Zealand was and as much as I learned about myself, I wouldn't say it was the defining moment of my life. It was a lot a amazing experiences and I spent many a solitary hike pondering about who I was/am and who I wanted to be. But it didn't define me.

As I left for New Zealand there was something much more defining going on in my life. Our dear cousin Steven Koecher disappeared without a trace. From that moment on, our entire family has been different. We were brought to our knees with sorrow and aching, we've been leaning on the Lord's arm, and we are stronger for it.

From this tragedy our family bonded like it never had. We have always been close but now we are one.

A year ago today our family was blessed with this little ray of sunshine! And we were again brought to our knees, but this time with gratitude. Jaela was only expected to live a few days and Today she is celebrating her first Birthday. We sure love her!

Another person who has had a massive influence on me is my husband, Robert. He celebrated his birthday on Tuesday the 24th. He has been my best friend for many many years (no that isn't a cliche, it is real. All you people claiming you're marrying your best friend, unless you have held a bleeding pig head between the two of you and you're taller than him, you have no idea.) Ok, maybe that isn't necessary. However, I can not say how thankful I am that he was born, that he moved to Utah, that he moved to my ward when we were 12, and that he loves me.

Love that guy!

Well I feel dumb. Mainly because I just looked back in my archives and found that I did indeed post about my New Zealand trip. I have no memory of doing that.  What I did not do was supplement those posts with a lot of pictures; The scenery was the best part!

Therefore, I will probably just post links to those post and update them with pictures. (Call me lazy, but I'm just busy, alriiiiight?)

A few more lame pics to day SEVEN, here.

Mount Doom

January 19th we hiked the Tongariro Crossing and went back to Discovery Lodge. That's it. No traveling or anything, just the hike. I actually posted about this hike here.

Seriously, I talked about hiking Mount Doom in detail in the above link.

Some point along the amazing Tongariro crossing.

The guiding Cairns.

Glow worms!

January 18th I woke up to this:

I petted a dear. Big deal.

Later in the morning we went to the Waitomo Caves. It. Was. Amazing.
We floated through these caves in wet suits and inner tubes with a small headlamp that we usually kept off. 

The light that comes from the glow worms is so pure that it really looks like you are gazing at the stars. Next to the car ride to Waitomo, the caves were the most beautiful thing I have seen.

After the caves, we made lunch and packed up camp. We hit the road to Mordor.

Ok, we were actually going to Tongariro. Discovery Lodge. We got to stay in CABINS this night! It was a good thing too because the next morning we would be hiking Mount Doom! Mount Doom's real name is Mount Ngauruhoe. Read here for mostly true information.

Thar she blows!

The adorable cabins we got to stay in.

 We had been doing all our own cooking but this night, when we got to the Lodge, we got to eat dinner in their little restaurant. I got some kind of Thai curry/rice/lamb thing I think? It was delicious!

 Oh, and I made a little friend on my way to dinner. Rude at first, but I eventually won his heart.