Brenda
and Matt’s Engagement
Memories
from the Pendletons
Becky
I was excited when Bjorn pulled me aside and
said, “Matt called and he is going to ask Brenda to marry him tomorrow!” We followed his sister’s instructions to meet
at a lake in Pleasant Grove to help with the big event. We enjoyed meeting Matt’s siblings and
hearing of their great love for Brenda while we taped “glow stick letters” on
our shirts! We rushed to be prepared and
then at the last minute before Matt and Brenda arrived, we laid down on the
opposite side of the lake to hide the “glow-i-ness” until it was time to
display our message! We were relieved to
hear a “YES” shouted across the lake in response to our displayed question,
“Will you marry me?” Brenda and Matt
walked around to our side of the lake to receive all 50 or so of our
congratulations! They both seemed so
happy! And we are so happy for them! We have been hoping for this to happen for a
long while!
Bjorn
From a letter he
wrote to Isaac: “I guess the big news here is that Matt proposed to Brenda last
night (Wednesday the 26th). Auriana probably told you about it in
her letter, so I’ll just touch on the main points. Matt called me on Tuesday
evening while the Shumways were here and told me he was going to ask her the
next day and wondered if we could help out. I told him we’d love to and so he
said his sister would call with the plan. Finally around 6pm the next day we
found out the plan and only told the kids about an hour before it was time to
go help. They were VERY excited. So we went up to a park in Pleasant Grove and
met many of Matt’s family and they had a bunch of glow sticks and we stuck them
on our chests and spelled out the words, “WILL YOU MARRY ME?” We were on the
other side of the pond from where Matt took Brenda. It was 10:00 at night as we
were all lying on the ground covered in blankets. As soon as Matt flashed his
cell phone as “the signal” we all stood up so Brenda could see the lettering.
Then we shouted “WILL YOU MARRY ME?” We heard a little squeal and finally a
“Yes!” They walked around to the side of the pond where we were and there were
plenty of hugs and tears and smiles and congratulations to go around. It was
pretty cool. I’m so happy for Brenda. Matt had a picnic basket and some other stuff
there and so they had a little snack together. I’ll show you the pictures when
you get home. I talked to Brenda today and she said she still can’t believe its
real. She’s very excited. I think they’re aiming for August 31.”
Auriana
I was downstairs in my room reading a book and my mom called all of us upstairs. I didn’t really think anything of it, but then my dad said we all had to put on dark clothes cause we were going to help with a special assignment. For some reason, I knew right then that we were going to help Matt propose to Brenda, but I was still shocked when my dad told us where we were going. We went and got ice cream cones to celebrate amongst ourselves, and then sat around at the pond for a little while before everyone else showed up. I got to be the letter U in the “you.” We had to lie on the ground for a really long time while we waited for Matt and Brenda to come, so that our glow sticks wouldn’t shine at all. It was pitch black outside, and I was kind of scared that a policeman or someone would come and reveal us right before it was time to do our plan. It was like a really intense moment when they finally got there and we were all waiting anxiously for Matt to flash the light on his phone. We were all so excited when we finally got to jump up and reveal our glow sticks, and Matt and Brenda were both so happy when they walked around the pond to say hi to us. It was really fun to help!
I was downstairs in my room reading a book and my mom called all of us upstairs. I didn’t really think anything of it, but then my dad said we all had to put on dark clothes cause we were going to help with a special assignment. For some reason, I knew right then that we were going to help Matt propose to Brenda, but I was still shocked when my dad told us where we were going. We went and got ice cream cones to celebrate amongst ourselves, and then sat around at the pond for a little while before everyone else showed up. I got to be the letter U in the “you.” We had to lie on the ground for a really long time while we waited for Matt and Brenda to come, so that our glow sticks wouldn’t shine at all. It was pitch black outside, and I was kind of scared that a policeman or someone would come and reveal us right before it was time to do our plan. It was like a really intense moment when they finally got there and we were all waiting anxiously for Matt to flash the light on his phone. We were all so excited when we finally got to jump up and reveal our glow sticks, and Matt and Brenda were both so happy when they walked around the pond to say hi to us. It was really fun to help!
Isaac
Isaac missed the event because he
was at a camp in Idaho, but he found out later in a letter from Auriana. He wrote back: “That’s so cool that Matt and Brenda are
engaged, they’ve been dating for like twenty years and then they pick right
now, when I’m gone, so I don’t get any glow sticks!
Natalie
My favorite part of Brenda’s engagement was the
glow sticks. We all got a few glow sticks and taped them onto our shirts to
form letters that spelled out “Will you marry me?” I was the Y for the “you”.
It was really fun… we made the letters and got in the right order then we all
had to lie down on the ground across the pond from where Matt and Brenda would
be, and get covered with blankets and wait for the signal to stand up, which
was Matt flashing his phone across the pond. When we got the signal we started
with the W for “will” and stood up one by one to spell out the message. It was
really cool and really fun… I am super excited for Brenda and Matt!!
Enoch
First of all…every time Matt has
come to our house in the last few months I have told him to ask Brenda to marry
him. I would say, “Brenda really wants
you to ask her!” I would even find him
some kind of a ring to use, but he never would.
I was glad when I found out he was really going to do it. My friend Kavin was over when my dad told us,
so he came with us. It was like 8:00
when we left. We went to Macey’s for ice cream first, and then we went to the
lake. When we got there we were the
first ones there, so me and my friend Kavin were skipping rocks on the
lake. Then people started showing up and
we cracked the glow sticks and taped them to our chest in letters. The letter on my chest was the first “L” in
Will. Then we all laid down on the grass
and then when Matt flashed the light we jumped up and yelled “Will you marry
me?” And Brenda yelled back “Yes” and
then Matt and Brenda came around the lake and we congratulated them. Brenda didn’t have her ring on yet, so I told
Matt to get down on one knee and give it to her! We went home and I went over to Kavin’s
house and told his parents all about it.
Then I slept there.
Miriam
It was about 9:30 at night, some of Matt’s
family was there and my family was there.
We were all taping glow sticks on are chests and Matts sister was
texting Matt. Brenda was cutting watermelon, while Matt was lying on the floor
pretending he had a stomach ache, but he was really texting his sister, asking
her if it was dark enough to go. Then
said we should go on a walk. Matt asked
which car they should take and so Brenda said hers. So Matt started driving toward Utah Lake, but
then Brenda said to go to her lake and we were all there. When Matt flashed his flashlight on his
phone, we would go up one at a time starting from “Will” and then we went all
the way down to the end of the stars, and Ellie and I were both a star. Brenda said “YES!”
Ellie
My favorite part of the engagement
was when we all stood up and it went one person at a time. I was a star, I had a glow stick star on my
shirt and I stood on the end with Miriam and I really liked it when they did
the fireworks too. Because we did it by
the pond and Matt didn’t even do anything, Brenda said to go to her pond.
