This photo was taken in December of 2001, eleven months after I returned from my mission. Every lady pictured in the photo, including the bride, served with me on Temple Square. It's amazing how much time has passed and how much I have changed since then. My perspectives and subsequent expectations of relationships, marriage and education were so different then. Sometimes I wish I could go back and warn my former self, the woman in this photo, of the dangers that await her, or the better decisions to make that would yield happier results. They say that all things happen for a reason. I would like to believe that is true. I must believe that is true for it's one of the only explanations that provide a sense of meaning to otherwise senseless life-events. With all of the sealings scheduled for December I could not resist posting this photo for Flashback Friday in remembrance of a reception I attended long ago on a cold evening in December.