July Fourth

Dear Diary:

Today is once again our nations birthday. God Bless America...and No One ELSE! He He...Just kidding. God Bless Taiwan too.

This has been the best Independence Day EVER! First we went to the Parade. They called it the Provo Grand Parade...and now I know why. Boy did they have some neat...stuff. Take a look.
So they did some pretty tricky things for this grand parade. Take this picture for example. They brought some really old dead guys back to life. The only thing I don't understand is why that Brittish Drummer boy is walking right along side some American Minute Men. It's not right but it's Okay. Maybe he is a spy or something. Yeah ...That is it. He is an American spy who was caught in his acts of espionage and executed. He didn't have time to change out of his clothing in the time before the Parade started. And who can blame him. It isn't that easy to find those kind of clothes today.

For their next feat, the Parade organizers performed something incredible. Days earlier they sent a message to the Rebellion Command Center galaxies away, asking for of few of their more famous soldiers to make an appearance. Boy did they ever have a good turn out. And again, enemies were seen walking together. Storm Troopers, and Rebels were seen on the same street. And they weren't fighting. Only on Independence Day. I tell you what.
Next they actually took a baby and cooked it. This is what came what happened to that poor thing. You can just tell that they are not happy to be in that pot. I don't believe it. But the baby made it and the object in the next picture was not needed.

But it is still really cool that they had a hearse in the parade. It kinda killed the mood though. HAHA get it....Killed the mood. Ok whatever.
The best part of the whole thing was the Scottish Bands. I don't know but I think that my Scottish ancestry lives on in my blood. I love the whole Scottish thing. The Celtic music, the cool accents. Even the word Gaelic sounds awesome. If I weren't American i would definitely be Scottish. Which makes me wonder. Why are Scottish bands such a large part of the American Independence Day?
This was cool. This kid would pedal and the prop would turn and the wings would flap. Cool huh?

The First Few Months...

"It's the Ms. Provost Elementary Pageant."

The Joys of Tag

Caught Red handed.

Beautiful.

Caught Ya, Brad!

Grass with Humans playing tag in the Background.

These Photos are mainly contributed by Breanna Meldrum.

OH CANADA!!!!

So...did you ever wonder how Canada picked its name? Well, when it was first becoming a country people just started throwing out letters, "C-eh-N-eh-D-eh!"... GET IT? :)

Anyways, if you don't know what we're talking aboot, our honey moon in Canada was to us, like vanilla ice cream is to a root beer float. Amazingly scrumptious. We forgot to try ketchup chips, but we did go to church in Vancouver on Sunday and lo and behold they had a Chinese Sunday school class. It was awesome to be able to be in contact with the Asian nation again, and they actually told us they wished we could stay in the their ward, we wished they could come with us....but you know how it goes.
The mountains were beautiful, and steep, and we while we were hiking up the mountain we started a new tradition that has stuck with us on every other mountain we've hiked so far...we leave our mark on the mountain with sticks/rocks/whatever we can find. So next time your hiking a mountain in Canada....make sure to watch out for the our initials!
When we got to Vancouver Island our college student wallets kept telling us we had no money, and luckily our hotel had a kitchen, and we realized all we really need to live was love and mac 'n cheese.
We stayed in this port town where we saw this guy rockn' out in a one man band...we thought we'd join in.

The Rest of the Story...

We have been married 2 months now! Life is great! But we haven't gotten any pictures back until now. So this is the rest of the story.

Life is A Highway...And We are Loving the View from the Window!

So we gone 'n dun it. Me 'n Miss Rachel Lou got ourselves Hitched the other day. An I am tellin' you... What a day!!! Whoooeeeee! Best day Ever 'n fact. I'd even reckon to say that it was pert' near the best day since Mr. Washington became the president of these here United States ( pronounced "you-knighted states")

Perhaps a few o' y'all out there are wonderin' to yer selves... " I say self...I'm a wonderin...How do those newly married folk are enjoyin' their newly found life?" Well I'll tell yer.

We Love It.

Life has handed us this quaint 'lil basement apartment that we are sublettin' from some friends. So we still have furniture. But in the fall that'l all change. 'M we're more excited than a pack of jack rabbits that've just seen a great valley full of jackrabbit berry bushes.

Yup. That's us. We're just living the dream. Workin' all day, and playing all the other times. ( it is great when you don't have homework because when you are done with work...you are done.)

Well there you folks go. Well put some pictures here soon as we can, so keep in touch.

Bradley and Rachel Meldrum

Another Taste of Heaven

Once Upon a Time....

We are sorry. In all of our excitement we forgot that not everyone knows out background.

So here it is from the start....

(Brad's tale)

The day I was born, it was very cold. It's like that feeling when you are swimming for a long time, and then you get out....and it is bitter cold. Yeah like that.

But skipping ahead. I was serving a mission in Taiwan Taipei, and was minding my own buisness when, the Lord sent me to train a wonderful Elder. I went to the training meeting then met my new companion. But not before I would meet my future companion. That is to say that me and my companion were one of the last to find out where we were going, because...as is always the case....ladies first. The sister missionaries found out their companions first. And one of the new sisters was...quite frankly...and lets be honest....drop dead gorgeous. I couldn't help but think that our paths would cross again. As it turns out...that was my dearest Rachel Smith.

Ok so I didn't really think that... but I did notice her, and thought that she was going to be a Fantastic missionary. We ran into eachother a couple of other times throughout our missions, but never served together. I always respected her, and enjoyed her testimony, at Zone Conferences. But there wasn't much contact till we got home. Which was about the same time. ( only about 6 weeks apart.)

Now for the better half of this tale.


If you want the truth...here's the history of it all in a nut shell. I (Rachel) winked at Brad...He Smiled at me... I fell in love with his face...and then I knew my life would never be the same again. It was love at first sight and I was a smitten kitten. :) j/k (but kind of not:))

Here it is:

So, there I was in 2005...a tough LONG ISLAND, New Yorker studying Broadcast Journalism at BYU. I knew what I wanted out of life and I was willing to get it...and a mission had never really been in that plan, but when I turned 21, I couldn't ignore the feelings the Lord was sending me to go and so a few months later I found myself "called to the work" in Taipei, Taiwan.

The next thing I knew I was in a "meet your trainer" meeting where they told us to eat as much of the Burritos we could because it would be our last "American" meal for a year and a half. So I met my trainer, and we start stuffing our faces with the very rare "mexican heaven" and I started talking to the people around me. I don't remember a whole lot, except I do remember meeting this really nice Elder Meldrum from New Mexico. This stuck in my memory because throughout my whole life I had only met like 4 New Mexicans, and they were all Super cool and really down to earth! At that time I was excited because Elder Meldrum fit the Stereo Type...and my pre concieved notions of New Mexicans was proving true. I also noticed that he had this glow of kindness around him, and I remember thinking, man, he is one good Elder. I could just tell.

Our mission paths never really crossed again, except maybe a few random times after that, but I remember in my last area a bunch of members were really sad one day and when I asked them what was wrong they said, "Elder Meldrum is returning to America today because his mission is over. He is the best missionary in this mission. He is so humble, so nice , so funny, and he really loves God" I believed them because of the way that I felt that first time I met him. Actually, the word on the street was that Elder Meldrum was the most Christ-like missionary in our mission.

But, missionaries in Taiwan come and go, and I was still on the lords errand until March 20, 2007 when I returned home to my families new found home in Smithville, MO. When I got off the plane from my mission my parents said, "Wow Rach, You haven't changed a bit!" And I was like, "What?" and I felt like I blinked and the next thing I knew they shipped me back off to BYU where Heavenly Father Brought Brad and I together first as "Tennis Buddies" and then as "Eternal Buddies"!

...and they all lived happily ever after.

The BEGINNING.

The Story Continues...

Life as a return missionary was going pretty well for the both of us. We both started the Spring Semester at BYU. We both also started to date people. But there we were one day, at a BYU devotional, where we first bumped into each other. We exchanged information as mission friends. And that was that.

Time went on and we saw each other occasionally on campus. The Spring semester ended and the summer semester found us once again anxiously engaged in the good cause of dating. So one day I got the great idea to ask Rachel on a date, just as friends. She was willing and committed to a Friday appointment. It was a fun date but we weren't progressing at that time. However, we had a base for a great friendship.

This friendship grew as we started to play tennis together once a week. We were still dating other people but we always counted on our fun uplifting friendship tennis date. This continued for the rest of that semester. I ( Brad) knew that I had special feelings for her, but did not feel that she reciprocated those feelings. And she didn't. But Prayer works! I knew that I had to tell her how I felt and was fully expecting her to tell me that we should just be friends, and I was ready for that. So I called her up to play tennis that week.

Little did He know that I (Rachel), who at the start of the summer really had no feelings beyond friendship, had started to take a liking to Brad and was thinkin, "Oh man, He's pretty cute!"

After a series of really special tennis matches and other experiences we began to date. As we began dating we both discovered our relationship was better than we ever could have imagined. It's been fun, uplifting, romantic, and exciting. We discovered that we both have the same goals and the same desires. Every day it seems to get better and better, and our love for each other grows stronger and stronger. On May 1st we are "making it official.". Now we can't wait till our 3,000th anniversary, in the Celestial kingdom. It is gonna be a good one. Me and Rach have already started to plan it. You are welcome to come.

It really is a huge miracle how it all happened, and we feel like our relationship is one of the greatest miracles that the Lord has given us. We are so grateful. We know where much is given much is required, and we cannot wait till we can serve Missions again someday, but this time as companions.

Sorry about the Delay.

You will all be happy to know that Murphy's Law is in full force. The Eagle has Landed, and our Blog is finally up and running.
The delay came because some blogger "Spam-Bots" got ahold of our newly created baby, and classified it as a "Spam blog type D" whatever that is. But never fear, devout invitation holders, and fans of Rachel. The Blog will soon be blossoming in all of its blogging glory.

Until then,

Blog Date 2008411
Captain Meldrum and Colonel Smith (almost Meldrum) Signing out.
Capitol Hill, Provo.