"Goin to the temple and I'm gonna get"...proposed to???

Today was interesting to say the least. Work was the same...busy in the morning and slow in the afternoon. We're meeting with Alison, our internship supervisor and contact at Alan Taylor about hours and what not tomorrow, so hopefully things will pick up and adjust a little bit. She's been really good and kept in contact about everything. So, it should be good.

I also have a National Conference call tomorrow afternoon, so I'll be getting out early and heading to the Wall Street area to meet at PRSA headquarters for the conference call with Provo and Kate in Washington. Should be fun.

After work today I went to the Manhattan temple with some girls in the internship program. It was the married ward's temple night (and they're in that ward) so I tagged along with them to go. It was amazing! I have church in that same building and you would never know it from the way that they've set it up. It looked absolutely beautiful and was totally cut off from everything outside of the temple area. It was beautiful! The mural in the beginning room was INCREDIBLE! I could sit in there and look at it for hours. It was a very small temple but amazing. I loved it!

However, I did have quite a unique and interesting experience, which was DEFINITELY blog worthy. I was in the Celestial room waiting for the other two girls that I had gone with, when this guy came up to me and kneeled next to me. He asked my name, where I was from, etc. He really liked my last name (uh, don't ask me why cause I personally don't think it "pretty" as he called it) and acted kinda weird. So in my head I'm thinking, this can't be happening. This guy is totally going to ask me out...trust me, the way he was acting you would have thought so, too. I asked his name and he introduced himself as Hermano Juan Rulfo...Pina. He delayed telling me his last name and said it was Pina, not like the fruit (a.k.a. pineapple in Spanish), but spelled the same way. Doesn't that still make it like the fruit?

Anyway, then he pulls out a Book of Mormon and asks me to share with him my favorite scripture. I felt like such an idiot. I totally thought this guy was hitting on me in the Celestial room (don't ask me why) and then he asks me to share a scripture. So, I open up to 2 Nephi 25:26 and have him read it.

"And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins."

He read it and looked at me. "Wow," he said. "You shared a good one with me. But I'm going to share one that is two times good." (He didn't speak complete English) So he opens up to the index to look up a word and I'm content sitting there letting this guy share a scripture with me. I figured he was a new member who had recently just gone through the temple because he seemed filled with such excitement the whole time. Besides that, he introduced himself as Hermano Juan Rulfo. Having served a Spanish-speaking mission, I've seen many new members introduce themselves that way. To anyone! Member or not.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see the Meridith had made it into the room, but that Melissa was still missing. He asked if I was leaving and I told him that we were still waiting on one more person. Content, he kept looking at the page in the topical guide. While he looked, he continued to tell me how beautiful the name Kunz was and how he wanted to make it his own. "You know that when people get married, they take the other person's last name. We could get married and I could take your last name. What do you think? We get married?" Uhh.....wow. Yep, there it was. I had been wrong. He wasn't asking me out, he flat out asked me to marry him. And oddly enough, he wasn't even kidding. He was full on serious! I smiled back at him and said, "No, I'm sorry." He looked at me with sad eyes, "You won't marry me?" Again, I confirmed his suspicions..."No, I'm sorry." By this time I had seen Melissa and Meridith come in and look over at me. I gave them one of those looks like, "OH DEAR! SAVE ME!" Hermano Juan was still looking for his favorite scripture. Meridith saw the desperation (I had been talking with this guy for nearly 10 minutes now!) and she came over. "We need to go. We don't want to be late," she said smoothly. I politely began to dismiss myself. "Wait!" he said. "I found it." So, he turned to Moroni 8:3.

" I am mindful of you always in my prayers, continually praying
unto God the Father in the name of his Holy Child, Jesus, that he, through his
infinite goodness and grace, will keep you through the endurance of faith on his
name to the end."

I'll admit reading the first 6 words of that verse was enough for me. I didn't even pay attention to the rest of the verse, I just scanned it back and forth to get out of there. I told him it was nice to meet him and wished him the best of luck. Meridith and Melissa were definitely anxious to hear about the story, but I waited until we got out of the temple...not exactly the place, ya know? Anyway...yeah, not just another Wednesday.

Well, that's all I've got for today. I'm working on getting some stuff done and completed for a phone conference with PRSSA tomorrow afternoon so I'm off. I'll be getting a camera soon and will start including my own pictures, so these will be a little less boring again, soon enough!

Love and miss you all!

-mk