Surprising Sister Aldridge.

Not gonna lie, one of the reasons I wanted to go to the temple while we were visiting DC was that I knew one of my best friends and college roommate was serving her mission in DC and had been at the temple visitors center for quite some time, and I was really hoping to see her there. We hadn't seen each other since Joey and I got married over a year ago, so my fingers were definitely crossed.

We got to the temple sometime around 10am and checked at the visitors center for Jenna, only to find that she wasn't there. I tried not to be, but I was disappointed. Luckily, another sweet sister wanted to help us out so she checked the schedule and told us Jenna would be at the visitors center later that afternoon! So we spent some time in the temple, went out and had lunch, did some shopping, picked up cupcakes at Georgetown Cupcakes (including a belated birthday cupcake for Jenna) and made our way back to the temple.

We explained again that we were looking for Sister Aldridge and another missionary went to find her. Apparently she was watching one of the movies at the visitors center when we arrived, and she wondered who on earth was interrupting her movie. Boy, was she surprised when she turned the corner and saw us standing there! 

It was so great seeing her again! It was like having a little piece of what life used to be like in Virginia. We sat down and talked for about an hour---she told us about how much she loves serving a mission and teaching the gospel in Spanish, and we talked to her about whats been going on in our lives the last couple months, and she had some very sweet words of hope and encouragement for us. We talked about how after her mission, she, Mallory, and I are going to have Skype dates so we can watch Nacho Libre and The Office together again---if you haven't watched comedies with Jenna and hear her laugh, you just haven't lived. Its so clear how happy she is right now and how much she loves sharing the gospel. And she sure did love that chocolate peanut butter cupcake we brought her---a long-time shared favorite of ours. Getting to see Jenna was hands down one of the highlights of the week!

We love you, Sister Aldridge, and can't wait to see you again!