April 2016.

Dear (insert your name here), 

    I arrived in California with a letter waiting patiently for me. This letter awakened my deep love for snail mail, and reminded me why I aptly named this blog "Letters from Lauren" in the first place. There's something magical behind the art of letter writing. So, indulge me if you will while I make this blog post read like a personally addressed letter. Now that I'm at home, I feel like I'm writing these letters to friends still in Utah rather than to friends here at home. 

    For some reason, April feels to me like it was spliced in half down the middle quite like a fully ripe watermelon with one half being the ill-fated season of finals and the other half the carefree and sometimes idle-concentrated weeks of pure freedom. 

   The beginning of the month found me in St. George. Usually this red-rock rich town is merely a bathroom break on the journey between Los Angeles and Salt Lake, but on this occasion it was the destination. I went down to St. George for a school-related conference. While in St. George I had one of those it-truly-is-a-small-world experiences as I sat at a table with three men who had connections to my mission. In fact, I had served with a daughter of one of the men! 

April was very much a month of transitions. I reestablished contact with friends of former lives and celebrated with them the growth that had taken place during our months of separation. With my move to California, I was released as Relief Society president and spent many a shower pondering how I had grown in the course of a year. 

April was a month filled with more goodbyes than hellos. There were a few see-you-laters, but things will be different. It's more than just a feeling. There will be familiarity when we're all reunited again, but four months time changes people, changes perspectives. In four months time, we will all be changed, laced with stories of small adventures. I eagerly await that reunion!

^^My face at discovering what a young-almond looks like.^^

^^(L to R: Facetime with melhor amiga Shelly and her ADORABLE son; when your bishop is one of your best friends; Facetime with Lys even though we live less than a block away from each other. 

^^Last Sunday in Relief Society. I love the bright colors in this picture. Spring is here, y'all!

^^All the Relief Society Presidents in the stake. Our monthly meetings kind of reminded me of MLC on the mission, but minus the whole drive-to-a-meeting-with-a-companion bit. :)

^^A burn party. Where we lit things on fire to say farewell to things of the past. I love how horrible this picture is.

^^An improptu picnic party on campus after Lys, Kel, and I went for a taco run.

^^Chelsea's bridal shower. I hadn't seen this girl since before my mission! She was such a huge part of my life before the mission. This was all that I could hope for for a reunion. 

^^Scott took me to one of the most picturesque places in Provo (I'm convinced of it) for a picnic. It was beautiful! There were petals falling down with every gust of wind and deer frolicking a couple of yards away. Top that off with Bon Iver's Holocene as background music + laying in the sun on a picnic blanket and you have a scene out of a  Nicholas Sparks movie. 

😍😍😍

Lastly, JJ's wedding. Her fiancé husband's middle name is Compton, so I guess he's okay. 😉