best friends

Hello, my name is Eliza Jane Monson. Richards is my maiden name. When I was young my family moved next door to the Hale's family. I was young when Chelsea passed away. We had spent a lot of time with their family, being neighbors and in the same ward. My brothers were close to her age and carpooled to school together. I remember my brother and Chelsea went to a dance together, and she looked to pretty. Chelsea was always known for being so fun, energetic, down-to-earth and my brothers adored her! As everyone did. No one could ever say a bad thing about Chelsea, she was so kind. I always admired her. I remember when she had gone to Africa for a humanitarian trip and promised myself that I would do something like that. Her stories that she shared about her experiences with the kids there were something that I wanted to experience.

What I remember most about Chelsea is her friendship she had with Emily Cook Bullen. Emily's sister Eliza and I are best friends, and when my family moved next door, Eliza and I's first thought was how ironic that Emily and Chelsea are best friends and you and I are best friends and you live with Emily, and I live RIGHT next door to Chelsea.

Eliza and I always compared ourselves to Emily and Chelsea. They were such good friends and perfect examples of what best friends should be to Eliza and I. It was perfect, Eliza and Emily have blonde hair, and Chelsea and I had brown hair. Whenever Eliza and I went to Kmart and took those famous "kmart pictures" we always did poses that Eliza told me Emily and Chelsea did. We admired and mimicked their friendship.

When Chelsea died I saw how hard it was for the entire Cook family; especially Emily. And of course I naturally thought about what if Eliza died... When Eliza and I talked about it, it was hard for us to grasp everything, but we understood that Heavenly Father needed Chelsea.

As I grow older and my friendship with Eliza only grows too I feel so blessed to have her be apart of my life, and I cherish our relationship. We bacame friends in first grade and like anyone we had our hissy fights but we knew like Emily and Chelsea we would stay friends because they had too. Throughout the years I have gotten to know Chelsea's family as I swam with Hannah and Sam. And they are two of my most favorite people. Hannah and Sam only brought fun and happiness to swimming practices which I'm sure Chelsea did too! I always LOVED spending time with them. And when I was in young womens I had the opportunity of have Karen as a teacher when I was a mia-maid I think. I remember our lessons were so well thought out and put together and we always came home with the most darling trinkets! I am so grateful for the Hale family and for their good examples to me. Thanks for everything!