Happy Birthday Erika!

Here's round 2 of trying to get a birthday post for Erika up. I accidentally deleted the first one (story of my life). So here's my second try. Oh, and I don't know what the deal is, but I still can't post pictures.

Anyway, I met Erika in spring 2009. The first time I saw her, she burst into my new apartment W16, looking tall, curly-haired, and loud and said, "I lived here last year, we just wanted to see who had moved in!" Turns out Erika had slept in the very bed that I was sleeping in--she had moved out into another apartment in the ward a few days before I moved in. This encounter did leave me thinking that Erika was a little bit crazy, but it was the beginning of an amazing friendship. Erika and I grew to be friends and we attended several summer parties, went on a landmark St. George roadtrip, kept each other up late doing homework, kept each other up late avoiding homework,served in the Relief Society Presidency went on several late night Macey's trips, and took millions of pictures.

A few things I love about Erika:

-She is extremely self-sacrificing. She was my roommate Sarah's visiting teacher and probably the best example of a visiting teacher that I ever saw (except perhaps Sarah herself...but she learned from the best!) Erika was always willing to help Sarah out and would always drop by to see to whatever Sarah needed. When Sarah had a cold, Erika turned up with a huge carton of Sarah's favorite orange juice, and when Sarah had the swine flu, Erika was there to comfort her the whole time.

-She is dedicated and hard-working. She took classes spring and summer straight through and even though it seemed hard, she was always working to do well in her classes. She worked hard in her jobs and she was always on top of things, especially as a Relief Society President.

-She has an amazing ability to love. Erika was a wonderful Relief Society President but I think her ability to love was also defined by her choice of career. She is majoring in Elementary Education and Early Childhood Development (I think?) She has worked with autistic kids for a while, and she always speaks of them in the most patient, most loving way possible. She just got back from a great trip to Romania where she worked in an orphanage with some severely disabled children. Even though she was restricted in what she was able to do with the kids, she found special love for every kid that she worked with. The way she talked about them in her emails really made me see how much she truly loved those kids.

-Erika always takes lots of pictures!! She documented almost everything that we did, and always made sure to post descriptions on her blog! I always dislike carrying a camera around and making sure to get everything, but she always was ready with her camera. We had a good blogging system going for a while! We would post about the same event, but Erika would document with pictures and I with words.

-Erika often let me drive her car. Enough said.

-Erika is a wonderful and true friend. She always listened to what I had to say about things and even though she made sure to take my side at first, she would talk reasonably through things and help me to see different sides of issues. But she was really good at taking my side! :)

-Erika is a great example of faith and strength. She was baptized her senior (I think?) year of high school (the only member of the Church in her family) and now is getting ready to serve a mission. I will see her in July when she comes to Provo to go through the temple! I am so excited for her and she has so much to give. She will be an amazing missionary, I know it!!

Erika is one of my best friends and I am so excited for this next part of her life. I have loved being able to know her and to see the wonderful choices she has made. She is a great example to me and I know that she will bless the lives of a lot of people. I love you, Erika!