About Amanda
I was born in Los Angeles, California on October 20, 1978. I had one older brother, Tommy, to welcome me home! We moved to Mesa, Arizona during the summer of 1982, where the family grew by 2 more brothers, Spencer and Jesse, and 2 more sisters, Mirinda and Carissa. We lived in the same house until my senior year of high school, when we moved to Gilbert, AZ. (About 5 miles from Mesa!) After I graduated from Mesa High school in 1996, I headed off to Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.
I graduated from BYU in June of 2000 with a Bachelors degree in Family Sciences and a minor in Business Management. Upon graduating, I returned to Arizona and worked temporarily for the Apollo Group as a corporate operator. Later, I found a permanent position with Southwest Ambulance, where I had worked for a summer, as a Human Resources Assistant.
In November 2001, I left to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the Baltic States. (If you want to know where they are, follow this link: http://www.mytravelguide.com/travel-tools/maps/Europe-map.php ) I learned to speak Russian and lived in Vilnius, Lithuania for 4 months, Riga, Latvia for 6 months, and Tallinn, Estonia for 6 months. When I returned home in May 2003, I brought with me a great love and appreciation for the people and cultures of the Baltic States.
While I was on my mission, my family relocated to Orem, UT. Although I had been ready to leave Utah when I graduated from college, I was thrilled to head back after being away for a while. It was there that I met Ryan in September 2003. (See my “How We Met” section).
Finding employment after my mission proved to be quite difficult, but I finally found the perfect job in December 2003 and now work for BYU Broadcasting as an Office Manager. I had enjoyed working there for 2 years as a student, so I was very happy to return.
The next chapter of my story will begin when Ryan and I are married in the Mt. Timpanogos temple on May 22, 2004!