Matt and Nedra met through work about five years ago. Three and half years later they happened to run into each other at the wedding of a mutual friend and then several other times throughout the following year. They were able to visit and renew their friendship through these random meetings until Matt called Nedra in April to ask her out on a date. As most of you know they are both very involved in various endeavors and it was two months before they could find a date when they were both available.

Their first date was on June 4, 2008 and Matt took Nedra to a Cuban restaurant in Scottsdale where they enjoyed a fantastic meal and great conversation. Matt said he was impressed by Nedra's knowledge of politics and world events and the various organizations in which she is involved. Nedra was impressed with Matt's intelligence and the ease of conversation. Soon they found themselves spending more and more time together until it seemed they were inseparable.

This close friendship quickly turned into budding romance. Throughout their relationship they have created a bank of experiences to help get to know each other better and to build strength and substance into their friendship. Matt has always encouraged that they set goals for things they wanted to see and do and even better for ways to expand their knowledge and broaden their minds. They have created lists of activities and service they wanted to do and topics they would research and discuss. All of which have helped to expand the base on which their relationship is built. As trite as it may sound, they truly are best friends.

Sometime in September Matt suggested they go on a pic-nic and asked to schedule a date for this next adventure. They set the date for October 5, 2008, a Monday evening. Matt picked Nedra up a little before five, and mowed her lawn as is his weekly custom. Nedra prepared the pic-nic dinner, packed it up and they were on their way.

Arriving at Ussery Mountain Park at about 5:30 they began the easy assent to their destination. After a quick hike they finally laid out some blankets and unpacked dinner at nice little spot overlooking the beautiful sunset on Mesa. After dinner Matt pulled out his Atlas, as he loves to do, to go over the details of their upcoming trip to Boston. As is his super organized way, Matt had the states of interest tabbed; Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire. he began showing Nedra all the points of interest he hope to see while in Mass. and then he flipped to the map of Vermont and they talked about possible travel to Sharon to visit the Joseph Smith, Jr. Memorial. Then Matt asked Nedra to turn to the map of New Hampshire so they could look at possible road trips to see the leaves turning. She turned the page but the Map of New Hampshire was covered up by a Note that read "Will You Marry Me?" in hand cut out letters.

Nedra just starred at the note for some time reading over and over again, but it was not processing. Then finally she looked up and realized Matt had left her side and was humbly kneeling in request of her hand. It suddenly hit her "HE JUST ASKED ME TO MARRY HIM"! She leaped into his arms and responded with a resounding YES! YES! YES!, to which he replied in typical Matt fashion; "Is that a yes?" It was of course a yes.

Matt and Nedra then returned to Nedra's house where she found waiting for her a beautiful bouquet of roses and a wonderful card where Matt had written down his sentiments toward her. They immediately began discussing their wedding plans and by the next day they had a date scheduled with the Temple; January 10, 2009.

With the help of many wonderful family members and great friends Matt and Nedra are preparing to for the big day and looking forward to sharing with all the people who have contributed to their lives in so many ways. They hope you will join them in the celebration of this great new adventure called Marriage.