LDS Podcast "Latter-Day Lights" - Inspirational LDS Stories

An LDS Marriage "Arranged" by God? Who knew!: Stan & Eryn Gibson's Story - Latter-Day Lights

• Scott Brandley and Alisha Coakley

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In this episode, Stan and Eryn Gibson share their funny, heart-warming love story that defies the odds.

They affectionately joke that they had an "arranged marriage" by God, but there's no doubt that when you hear their story, He definitely had a big part to play in it.

Their journey serves as a reminder that moving forward with faith, not fear, can lead us to unimaginable blessings.

*** Please SHARE Stan and Eryn's story and help us spread hope and light to others. ***

To WATCH this episode on YouTube, visit: https://youtu.be/EGGumVkryAo

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Also, if you have a faith-promoting or inspiring story, or know someone who does, please let us know by going to https://www.latterdaylights.com and reaching out to us.

Scott Brandley:

Hey everyone, I'm Scott Brandley and I'm Alisha Coakley.

Alisha Coakley:

Every member of the Church has a story to share, one that can instill faith, invite growth and inspire others.

Scott Brandley:

On today's episode, we're going to hear how an arranged marriage taught one couple to follow the Lord's promptings and trust in His plan. Welcome to Latter-day Lights. Hey everyone, welcome to another edition of Latter-day Lights. We're so happy you're here with us today and we're really excited to introduce two guests to you, a husband and wife, stan and Eryn Gibson. How are you guys doing today?

Stan Gibson:

Great Doing, really well.

Alisha Coakley:

Awesome. Well, we're pretty excited too, because this is going to be a part one of a two-part story with Stan and Eryn. They have two awesome stories to share with us. This first one is going to be pretty light-hearted and kind of fun, right yeah yeah. And then the second one. We're not going to give any teasers to the second one here, but you guys will just have to watch it. It is just full of miracles. So, before we get into that, though, hey guys, how did you guys come across Latter-day Lights? I always like asking our guests like how did you find us?

Stan Gibson:

That's the story. End of itself, right? Because we talked before how we were both night owls and so I happened to be up in the middle of the night and I actually listened to why I Believe on the Mormon Channel, for it's one of my favorite programs, so I had been listening to that. And then I looked on the internet and I saw your podcast and it was very similar, right. So I listened to your podcast one of them and it was like two in the morning, whatever so I listened, felt inspired by it, and then I had to go eat, of course in the middle of the night. So about as I'm eating, the spirit just comes in and just goes. You got to go. You know you invite people to, you know call. So the spirit just told me, oh, go. And I was like okay, okay, okay, I'll do it. So I went and emailed you the stories and that's it.

Alisha Coakley:

Awesome. I love it. The only thing that that story was missing was Taco Bell. You needed your 2AM next right I mean.

Eryn Gibson:

I'm sure the chips were involved. I don't know. We're in mission.

Alisha Coakley:

I don't know the next thing is just isn't good, and Taco Bell isn't even good. So it is true, but at 2AM I mean.

Scott Brandley:

Oh yeah, not much else open.

Alisha Coakley:

It's a little tastier at 2AM, I guess, when you're tired right now.

Scott Brandley:

That's probably why they advertise that yeah.

Alisha Coakley:

Right, exactly Cool.

Scott Brandley:

So why don't you guys tell us a little bit about yourselves?

Stan Gibson:

Go ahead.

Eryn Gibson:

So, stan and Eryn Gibson, we live in Oxford, michigan, we are in the Ward. We have five awesome sons and one little daughter she's at the end, she is 13, and our oldest is married here, lives in Flint.

Stan Gibson:

So that little girl, I mean Aaron when she was a little girl, when Aaron was a small girl, she had this dream about this little girl. So every one of our boys have been called Rachel.

Eryn Gibson:

And you know we're like, oh, that's our Rachel girl.

Stan Gibson:

So she finds anyone we've ever done right. So the sixth one is a charm.

Eryn Gibson:

So we have the boys on missions all at the same time. And then just last week, last Sunday, our third son the one the story's about went, came home and gave his homecoming talk and then sailed right back out again to work this summer.

Scott Brandley:

Yeah.

Eryn Gibson:

So we have a few kids at home Two still on missions, two in high school next year and two one married Wow.

Alisha Coakley:

Oh, one of them.

Stan Gibson:

Yeah, yeah.

Alisha Coakley:

Well, I've had a couple of guests before that have talked about having multiple sons, and so I'll just tell you. I don't know if you know this or not, but there's like an automatic entry into heaven when you have multiple sons, so you don't even have to try.

Stan Gibson:

Oh, here we are. Good, I just think you didn't know. Thanks, they had three.

Alisha Coakley:

They had three at the same time, that's like oh well, I know, but five Right, Total right yeah.

Stan Gibson:

Three at the same time. Holy cow, that's a while.

Alisha Coakley:

Yeah, you win you, you just Lottery.

Eryn Gibson:

But people at the post office know us so well.

Stan Gibson:

Oh yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah Okay.

Scott Brandley:

That's fun.

Alisha Coakley:

Awesome. Well, guys, we are very interested in hearing the part one of your story, so why don't you guys take it away?

Stan Gibson:

All right. So I usually start this story by telling the way back machine. Right, so I. I. When I was younger, I seemed to always serve the young men. Right, I was, in fact. I got off my mission, I was served in the young men's program a little bit before my mission. Then, after my mission, I came back and they immediately called me to the young men's program in my ward Now my ward is this is terrible for me to say, but it was newlyweds and nearly deads, right, I mean, it was in central, which is Well newly, like every ward in Ogden.

Stan Gibson:

So when I came back although there was a, when I was a young person in the that in Ogden, I was really the only priest you know you're supposed to be in a Utah ward, but really I was the only priest, the only Deacon teacher priest I had a few youth that come in, so I guess they didn't know the youth program very well, but I certainly got to know after my mission when they called me to be in the young men's program.

Stan Gibson:

So I was never the young men's president, I was always a counselor and, like I said, it was newlyweds or nearly deads, and it was always a newlywed that came in that was called as the young men's president, right. So we did have a few youth in the ward and every year, but Eventually I mean, the newlywed would come in, I would get called as a counselor, and then that newlywed would finish his school and go off and then they'd call another newlywed and that happened, I don't know, like four times or something like that. So at the end, you know, I became a menace to society, right, you know, I was a little bit older right and I was like, okay, it's time I need to get on the stick and get married, right?

Stan Gibson:

So I thought about it. So at the time I was working oh, I was working three jobs and it was I didn't know really about the institute program at all. I mean, just call me stupid. Yeah, I am stupid. So I didn't really know that there was an actual area that I was supposed to go to and award up at the college. They had 20 wards right up there that were all meeting all day long, had like two chapels and at Weber State. So anyway, I just knew that I needed to do something, right. So I was still in down beds calling. So I had other callings in the ward, I was playing the piano and the priest and whatever.

Stan Gibson:

So I worked this job at. Working at the newspaper, I was delivering papers one of my jobs, right? So I would go to work at seven o'clock at night and there was two runs of press runs so I'd have to actually drove up to the Idaho border and then came back and then redid it again. So usually I got home at like seven in the morning or so after doing that and then I would quickly go to the church, do my calling, do all the. It was busy on. You know, young men's callings are pretty busy whatever I was in, and then I'd crash in the afternoon and then go to school early in the morning on early morning classes for college Monday morning. So that became a little bit rough for me to keep that up. And then. So I decided I said, well, I've got to do something. So on top of that schedule right there I added in going, just picked out one of those wards, didn't know anything, just went up there and went to award there.

Stan Gibson:

So I guess I should pre say the story a little bit more, because our story is not typical. So I mean I would say, don't use us as an example of anything. This is just our story. I mean you just have to follow and take what you can out of it. But anyway. So I would say, like I said, the theme of this whole story might be you can plan out the best you can with when you're doing a lesson or doing your life or whatever. You can plan out the best you can, you should, you should prepare all you possibly can, but when it comes to it you just have to rely on him, the father to make it happen. So anyway, given that little preface I just said, I'm just going to do all I can to Get married get married right.

Stan Gibson:

So I went up to the college.

Eryn Gibson:

You made a plan. I made a plan, I made a half, so I made a plan.

Stan Gibson:

I was attending college. I said, oh man, this is too much, I just can't keep up this schedule, right, the three jobs, the full time in school and whatever. So one day the bishop just called me and he called me all the time for anything. We owned a truck. Right, we're the family in the ward of the truck.

Scott Brandley:

I've been that guy.

Stan Gibson:

Because we owned a truck, called me. All the time I was always, you know, going to widow's house is the nearly deads and helping them out, right, or whatever, in the newlyweds, in the newlyweds, move out, move out, the newlyweds, right. So anyway, I didn't move out any nearly deads, though, thank goodness. Oh, anyway, okay, so it wasn't a big deal that he would call me to to come in, right, so, because I just thought it was another thing, so I walked in to it was a Tuesday, I think. So I walked in, he met with me and he said well, stan, we wanted to call you as young men's president, and I went oh all right and I said well, you know, I was really shy, I mean, I'm not shy, he was so shy, painfully shy.

Stan Gibson:

When it came to girls, I was like, so I tell the bishop, you know, I'm like, well, you know, bishop, I like to get married sometime, you know, you know. And he's like, well, yeah, whatever, you know, Carl. And then another thing the guy that had one of those newlyweds right had just been called, like like a month previous to that, and I said what happened to that guy Right? Well, what's the deal? And so I don't know, I can't remember what happened to him, but anyway, he wanted to call me as young men's president. I told him, well, I, I had made this decision, I had already made a decision to leave the ward and come up, to go up to the youth Young single adult Young single adult wards.

Stan Gibson:

So he's. I said I can't give you an answer right now, right, so I left him and that it was just a week of torture for me to to have this experience. So I went up to the college and happened to be taking a marriage and family class at the Institute, also in in in college classes. So the his name was brother hall and brother hall if you're watching this you can remember this story. He doesn't know me from anything. He didn't know me from anything then and I just felt inspired that I needed to go talk to this brother hall.

Stan Gibson:

So, about this situation? Right? So I went to the college and you know I'm all shy and whatever, and I didn't. I don't talk about dating life or anything. So I was really nervous. I had to find his office and, oh man, my nerves are all shaking. I found his door and I went to knock on him and he wasn't there. I was like, oh man, right, so I went back to college and later in the day I came back and and I heard his voice, I was like, okay, I got to, I got to do this, I got to do this now.

Stan Gibson:

So I walk around the corner, I meet him in the hallway and I say, hey brother, how can I talk to you for a minute? Right, so he's assured. Right, so we step into his office and I tell him my situation and then he starts pulling out these scriptures and saying you know, well, you do got to take care of yourself, you have to look after yourself first. And he just put all kinds of scriptures to bring out the point that you know, you do have to go find a wife at some time. But as he, as he, was telling me those things, the spirit came into the room just really strongly and we both knew at that moment he said I needed to go serve those boys. And he actually said go serve those boys.

Stan Gibson:

And we I can think about it now, I always think about that moment, you know, in the spirit is it was just really strong and so I was like, well, okay, right, and go serve those boys, which I did, right. I went back to the bishop and I said you know I'm thinking, oh, I had a big spiritual experience, right, the bishop's going to know, right. And he just said, yeah, of course you're going to take that calling, of course, right. So, whatever, I took the calling and I did my very best, I put the work in and, well, there were several boys who took them to scouts or whatever. But in that thing, now, this is something that you just don't normally do. You tell Heavenly Father what you want, right.

Scott Brandley:

And they tell me well.

Stan Gibson:

I'm this and this and this. So I said I met a compact with Heavenly Father. I said, you know, since I'm serving the young men's, I and there's no, nothing, no chances here at all, you've got to line something up. So I said, by this date I want to be either married or on my way of being married. I gave him a date. Wow, okay, yeah. So I went along and so I and, like I said, our ward was kind of dying and, matter of fact, there wasn't enough. There was a few youth, but there wasn't enough people in the ward. So we had missionaries called from North Ogden to come in and fulfill callings.

Stan Gibson:

Our, some of our bishopric was called the servant award, and my first counselor happened to be called the servant award from North Ogden, and so he had a bunch of connections with girls all over the place and so he set me up with girls, right, and some of them worked out. None of them worked out, but thank goodness. So there was one girl that I went and dated. She just happened to be. If you know where South Weber is, she was in South Weber. She was a great girl. She was I actually yeah, I can't remember it was. It might have been that guy, yeah, anyway. Okay. So she sent me a. He sent me up with this girl. I went out with her. I met her family. It was, if anything you'd ever want, they all were strong in the church, which is a requirement, musical, everything, everything that I was looking for, right.

Stan Gibson:

So I left that date that evening and I drove up South Weber Drive. And as I was driving up South Weber Drive, I just knew who I'd marry. I thought of Aaron, right, and I knew I needed a friend. And so I got up to that stoplight, I mean at the Highway 89, right there I can remember exactly where I was Came, drove back to my house, I plucked out this, I wrote this a letter and in the meantime, aaron's going to tell you here shortly. But I wrote I had lost track of Aaron. I met her I'll tell that part, she can tell that part. But I met her and I didn't know where she was. But I wrote her a letter and I said this is the terrible part. But I said, if you can remember who I am, why don't you come out to Utah and see if you want to marry me?

Eryn Gibson:

That's in quotes. Those are the words used in the letter. You don't have to get a word saying that. Oh.

Stan Gibson:

OK, so I knew what kind of letter that was so. I didn't mail it initially. I kept the letter for a month and I later looked it up on the computer again and I looked up and I read it over. And you know, when you write letters or write anything, you always go back and you edit and change it, because it's when I looked at it. It was perfect. I didn't. I was so impressed.

Eryn Gibson:

I was like, oh, it's perfect.

Stan Gibson:

I didn't know. Eryn happens to be the world's greatest editor. When she went to BYU she edited for many professors and whatever, and this probably I mean maybe an oppressor, but it impressed me. On the bottom of the letter I said I didn't add a single. I wrote this thing a month ago. I didn't take a word. I thought that an oppressor impressed me. So you can tell.

Eryn Gibson:

So I was really shy too, and definitely not a dater. I had been at BYU and I went on my mission and I was, I guess I was about halfway through my mission when I got a new missionary from the MTC and your companion and I was her trainer and her name was Sister Gibson and she was darling and gung-ho for the work, but she just had one thing on her mind when she met me and she kept saying you're going to marry my brother.

Stan Gibson:

That was the very first conversation she had when she picked her up from the car. She got in the car and said oh, you're going to marry my brother.

Eryn Gibson:

Yeah, and I said, gibson, you need to get your mind on the work. A couple of months later, we were doing the work, we were in the New Mexico Albuquerque mission and we were assigned in the Four Corners area in Utah in a little tiny place called we were south of Blanding, called Montezuma Creek, and so we were working there and Christmas came and she got to make her phone call home for Christmas and she actually said on the phone Stan, I want you to talk to your wife, and handed me the phone.

Stan Gibson:

And I go to the other end and go hello. So I was kind of scary.

Eryn Gibson:

I was like hello brother of Sister Gibson.

Stan Gibson:

I'm from the Republic, yeah, america's Republic, yeah, that's what she said.

Eryn Gibson:

But she was determined and I finished my mission, went back to BYU and when Lali got off of her mission she they lived in Ogden and I was in Provond. She invited me up to meet her brother because of course we were meant to be married, and so so I met him and he was too shy to speak to me and they, like made, they took us to this. The whole family took me to a play and everyone sat there and they intentionally put Stan and I next to each other and then he intentionally moved over.

Scott Brandley:

I feel like.

Eryn Gibson:

I was like, oh, this guy. But so I got engaged to someone else and Lali was very upset with me, told me I ruined all her plans and that. But the fellow broke that one off and so I went away and Stan and I right after that, we, we went on maybe two or three dates.

Stan Gibson:

My sister got married and Aaron Aaron came up for the wedding and didn't have anything anybody to take care of her, so I took care of her that day. He drove me around, I I played the piano for her. She liked that, whatever.

Eryn Gibson:

So I was done, graduated and moved to Midwest to prepare for graduate work. And that's when I got this letter. I had a best friend and we would spend the weekends when we weren't working, spend together, and we were talking about how can we get, you know this, our love life's going, how can we get some kind of social life going? When we were both in Arkansas and not very many LDS people in Arkansas, but we did everything we could with the youth there. And finally I was Colleen I can't even remember what birthday 26, 27. And I said, heavenly Father, I really, really, I'm gonna let this go now. I've put my effort in and I'm gonna let you. I don't want just a good guy, want a great guy, the best guy on the planet, the one I'm supposed to marry. And the next day I got this letter in the mail.

Stan Gibson:

So she she was nannying at that time, so she would read letters.

Eryn Gibson:

Oh well, I didn't know I never got letters. So the dad came in. He was an obstetrician. He came home from work and he had picked up the mail and he's like Aaron, it's a boy. I had my little one around me and he's like just teasing me and so of course it turned red and I was like no, it's Stan, we're friends, it's my friend's brother and I don't know why he's writing, but we're just friends.

Eryn Gibson:

So I opened it up and I started reading out, allowed to prove that it wasn't a love letter, and I read if you still remember who I am, come to Utah and see if you wanna, mm. And they were like okay, kids, come out of the room, come out of the room, I'll leave you alone. So I was devastated. I thought what kind of a guy who was such a nice guy, the nicest guy I had ever met in my whole life, such a good friend, and I thought why would he ruin everything by wanting to get married? And looking at my type, I didn't even know what my type was and but oh golly, and he wasn't even done with school and I was like, look at this guy.

Stan Gibson:

So you have to say so. Aaron's friend, what's happened to be an area authority? Not that that matters or anything but.

Eryn Gibson:

And his daughter was in medical school.

Stan Gibson:

Yeah, so she went down to him and said how do I let this loser down right? Well, I wanted to know how.

Eryn Gibson:

I didn't wanna hurt his feelings because he was so nice and so I had a blessing. I asked him for a blessing and Heavenly Father said you know, you really need to go out there and talk to him. And I was like no, I was crying, my friend was crying, Her dad was crying. We were like, wow, that's terrible, Not in a good way. We were like oh no, yeah, yeah. So I got this. I made an excuse that I was really busy at work and I said, listen, I'm gonna get in on an airplane out of Little Rock and I'm gonna be in Salt Lake about and I'm gonna do this after work on Saturday evening. You pick me up early, well, Friday evening, Pick me up early Saturday morning like two o'clock at the airport and drive me home, and I wanna be back on the airplane Sunday afternoon. So I said I'll give you a couple of minutes on my time here.

Stan Gibson:

So when she came out, her sisters lived out here, right, did that first time.

Eryn Gibson:

Yeah, I was super irritated. So I had a sister who was serving a mission on Temple Square and a couple of sisters at BYU and one married in Orem, and I'm like I'm gonna use this opportunity to get him to just take me to all you know, visit all my sisters, and we did.

Stan Gibson:

So I dated her sisters. I never had her alone. I dated her sisters and her.

Eryn Gibson:

I don't know why, I had this like I was irritated with him. I don't know why, but I thought-.

Eryn Gibson:

Well, cause I wrote this letter, that was I'm gonna test this and I really wanted like something super romantic, like Jane Austen or Right, you know. And he's not romantic, and so. But turn out that sometimes kindness and love and true love, is a lot deeper and more important than just these ideas of how sparkly somebody is or how pretty their relationship is. So I put him straight to the test and, wow, he passed. It was beautiful. He went to Temple Square.

Eryn Gibson:

We found my sister and her missionary companion and the mission president. Let them go to lunch with us. He was just beautiful, he-.

Stan Gibson:

I'm earning points right now Whoo.

Eryn Gibson:

So when I flew back, I was you know, they were asking me, of course, this family that I worked for was like so, and I'm like, maybe I was starting to think of him in more of you know, I started to realize, oh, maybe there's more to this.

Stan Gibson:

So finish this out a little bit here. So she had Christmas off and so it happened to Christmas in Arizona. Her family moved to Arizona. So I said, oh yeah, I'll fly to Arizona, We'll meet your family. She flew to Arizona so I would spend a week there, and so I, when Sunday, or I think it was a Sunday we flew out, but anyway I flew in and I immediately met her extended family and her other and I was like, okay, this is this, is it's interesting, right, Meeting extended family and I think, some of those family members that she hadn't even met, right, I mean some of them.

Eryn Gibson:

No, they would just extended, like you know, extended cousins. But the important thing was was that I'm the oldest of seven girls in my family that I grew up with my. We have an older brother and then me, and we were close as sisters, really, really close, and so if I figured since I wasn't any good with guys if they liked him, then that would be the thumbs up for me.

Stan Gibson:

Oh, there you go.

Eryn Gibson:

And so I made sure that they did a lot of interacting.

Scott Brandley:

We were so shy, and here we have other girls.

Eryn Gibson:

He's interacting with teenagers and one of them was married. He was visiting but he just did beautifully.

Stan Gibson:

They all came back and said, yeah, yeah, so the first part of that week it was just kind of we met her sisters and whatever. As the week progressed, we went from not knowing each other to getting married. So I actually knew, since I had made this deal with him and father right, I want to be married, or on my way to being married by this time, whether it was Aaron or anybody else, I was thinking there I went out and bought a ring right.

Eryn Gibson:

You should know that that letter came on the day of his deadline to the Lord. That letter came to me.

Stan Gibson:

Let's see, he was kind, he's very, very kind. So anyway, I had this ring and I brought it with me and it was a week progressed. I said there was a time, said, Aaron, do you think we could walk alone without your sisters? Once or twice I said we did. And Thursday, friday, we did that and by Saturday we had grown really close and I had many. We won't have to get into that, but we had many spiritual experiences there. I mean, I did.

Stan Gibson:

There was a time that I we were sitting in the family, lived in one place and they just got me at a separate apartment and we were sitting in my little apartment and I could have just reached across and grabbed that ring and proposed her right there, but I didn't. I held back right. So I said, hey, do you think you can, you know, meet me again tomorrow and let's do this again. So we, she did, we met and I said well. So I happened to be a huge fan of airplanes and this was on an old air. He's her father was in the army, military, so he had this base housing. We were on an old Air Force base so they were just closing it down but they still had planes out on the tarmac.

Stan Gibson:

So I said let's go down on that tarmac. And they had it all lit up For me. It's beautiful for a plane out there shining up, right, not very a romantic, I know, but I thought it's the best place I know. So do you think we can go down there? And you know we'll talk down there. So I snuck this ring inside blankets, I'll sneak in and say, well, it's a little cold, let's you know, I throw these blankets in the back of the car and I sneak it down there and so we drive down to this airfield and as we're talking in there and I and I just I can't remember the whole detail, but I'm so stupid and so shy that I said you know, aaron, I'd marry you if you want me to right. What kind of crappy proposal is that? Really cruddy proposal.

Eryn Gibson:

But there's a stand-nose that the Lord speaks for him through the spirit. Lucky, I mean, and I felt that I did, I felt the spirit of that and I didn't judge him for it.

Stan Gibson:

Well, when I said that Aaron started crying right and not because I proposed to her, but because she felt the spirit and she had previously had Crying now Crying now, but she had felt, had this other engagement that she was involved in right and that it just never felt that same. It was wrong and it never felt good. She was just dating, she was just. She actually said to herself I mean, you could say that.

Eryn Gibson:

Well, yeah, I just wanted to get married. I didn't want to graduate from BYU and not be married and go back home to New York and find, you know, there's just no people. And I thought this is my Utah pool base of LDS men. What will I do if I leave here without being married? And that was living in fear, and that's not the right way to go, and she did.

Stan Gibson:

she just said, well, maybe we'll die or maybe whatever.

Eryn Gibson:

I was like I'll marry him, maybe we'll have kids, but maybe he'll die early. He's quite a bit older than me. Oh no, oh no.

Stan Gibson:

So when she said, well, this, he actually said back to me well, this is how it was supposed to feel, right. And when she said that, the spirit came and testified to me that it was right, and so I said I actually went to propose to her, and it was kind of funny.

Eryn Gibson:

I had to get back to her she said hold on, hold on, hold on.

Stan Gibson:

We had to go back to the apartment. She had to go.

Eryn Gibson:

I didn't want to get proposed to her and get a ring when I was like I really couldn't even sit. Still I was like I don't know. I was like I don't know.

Stan Gibson:

I was like I don't know. So she came out of the bathroom and I proposed her and she accepted. So I mean, here's one last little thing I have to say when we did get married, oh, when we were dating, I actually flew back to Arkansas once with her and we were-.

Eryn Gibson:

Had to meet the family that I was working for.

Stan Gibson:

Yeah, and I helped them with her building. They were adding onto their place. Anyway, when we were out one evening, aaron and I, we had a feeling that we knew each other before we were born, right, that we knew we were up in heaven. It just came to us that that was the case and when we got sealed in our ceiling, the sealer actually said you knew each other. We just looked at each other. We know that right.

Eryn Gibson:

It's not something we don't know.

Stan Gibson:

But the fact is, this whole story is just like I said you can plan all you want in your life, right, and it's ultimately Heavenly Father's plan. Now, this is an arranged marriage, and we say it's arranged because it's arranged from heaven. Right, it's arranged from God. I mean my dad. When I got married, when Aaron came back, she said, well, when do you want to get married? Right, I proposed her. And what do you want? She got a commitment for this For work, for her work. She had a date in August.

Eryn Gibson:

I had to be there till the infants turned two. So, I was there when they were first born and they wanted to keep a nanny with them who would be consistent till they were two Right.

Stan Gibson:

So she said, well, the day after I'm like, oh, she got off. And my dad to say, well, when she gives her, don't you want to get to door?

Stan Gibson:

for a little while and Aaron says, well, if we know it's right, it's right. So she got back and we got married and boom, boom, boom, boom. Here we are 20, 30 years later, whatever it's been. But, like I said, it's also the family fathers plan, and I mean ours isn't the typical love story. You normally don't write letters and say, hey, come marry me. I don't know.

Stan Gibson:

There's some cool stuff, but it's not a typical thing, but it's beyond the veil, is there, right? It's just family fathers there and he loves you. He loves two crazy people, right?

Eryn Gibson:

I think that he meant for us in heaven. It was meant that we have our family unit and that we start in our work on earth and that our family has a work to do. And we didn't know it then and it was scary, waiting and graduating and not thinking that I'm just knowing. I am so shy. If I didn't date at BYU, then where am I gonna date? Like literally that's a whole other story. But so I was scared that I wouldn't get married.

Eryn Gibson:

But I always felt like I really needed to be married and have a family. I felt like that was supposed to be in my life's journey and so it was a real blessing to pray about it and have heavenly fathers his stamp of approval on our marriage. It helped through hard times because every marriage has hard times and when we went through hard times we could always say well, we didn't pick each other, so it's not like we made a mistake. We're put together on purpose and that's not a mistake and so let's just power through this. And always we were able to get through the hard times that way.

Stan Gibson:

Yeah, and you would like to say I don't want to live in fear and Aaron doesn't want to live in fear. You just have to go forward and trust you can plan the very best you can. I'm just repeating myself. But you can plan the best you can, but you have to do what Heavenly Father has to do. I mean, he wants you to be happy, right? He wants us to be happy right.

Stan Gibson:

I mean, like I said, ours, not the typical, you can't just say, because there's lots of opinions that don't have blessed the way we were to have that kind of experience. But Heavenly Father does know you and he does want you to have happiness and you just have to be willing to follow it. Follow his advice right as close as very, do it All right. So there you go.

Eryn Gibson:

Following this plan hasn't been easy. Like I said, bringing our kids into the world they came really quickly and we started our family force and I guess we can talk about more of that in the next video.

Scott Brandley:

I think your story is super fun and it's really interesting to see what God has in store for each of us, right? So what? Do you have any last thoughts? Or maybe, alisha, do you have anything you wanna say before they share their last thoughts?

Alisha Coakley:

Actually, yeah, it's funny because, okay, I don't know if you guys have seen one of our very first episodes with Cameron Daly, right, Scott, you know I'm going with this, you guys. I'm not gonna spoil any of it or I'm gonna tell our listeners too. If listeners, if you guys, have not listened to Cameron Daly's story, after hearing your story, I was thinking about so many similarities and how specifically how, eryn, you had to pee and you held off on the engagement, right?

Alisha Coakley:

Cameron took a whole different route. Oh, cameron took a different route, whole different route. So you guys have to go. But it's funny because you actually said, when it's right, like why would you wait? Right, and that was something that kind of reminded me of Cameron's story too, of his love story too was they had all of these other circumstances where they were going to wait for an extended period of time before that he'd get married in the temple, but they were given that same advice If you know it's right, why are you gonna wait? You know?

Scott Brandley:

like.

Alisha Coakley:

Do you think that the blessings are gonna come any differently to you for following the promptings that you've got to go ahead and to get this marriage, you know, sealed and ready to go or not sealed. But you know what I mean to put it in a place, even though maybe everything is not exactly the way that you think that it should be right. And so I just I love that you said that, because it's almost like it's just like this affirming teaching from Heavenly Father you know, like when you know it's right, don't wait, and I think that-.

Stan Gibson:

I was already a minister of society, so I mean-.

Scott Brandley:

Time's ticking.

Alisha Coakley:

You know, yeah, in my situation and I don't know about you, scott, I don't actually know you and Darla's story, so I'm gonna have to ask you about that in some of the future.

Scott Brandley:

So I actually broke up with her because I'm like I still wanted to date and then I realized I was an idiot.

Stan Gibson:

So then I-.

Scott Brandley:

You're a turd, so then I You're a turd, then I. We got back together and I, yeah, so.

Alisha Coakley:

Wow, I'm gonna need to-.

Eryn Gibson:

I think this topic is fun now and it's timely now because of Elder Oaks' recent talk with the youth of the church, the young single adults, last Sunday and really to boil down what he said was get out there, start having dates, date more often, date intentionally, get married, don't wait, have children, bring your family to earth, and all those things are all scary, they're all things that our youth like now. Having four grown sons who are marriageable, and not the ones on missions who are ready to get married and when married and ready to have kids, those choices are difficult and to be made, absolutely to be made, with the spirit. Only. Everyone's got to have their own revelation right. Like President Nielsen said, we will get through this these last days with personal revelation.

Stan Gibson:

Yeah, just move forward with faith, I mean, and not fear, right and trust in Heavenly Father, because he wants the best for you.

Alisha Coakley:

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Alisha Coakley:

And I know, even in my own marriage I got married pretty quickly when I met my husband and he wasn't even a member of the church and we had a really rocky 13 years starting out, almost got divorced and, through a series of events, now we're sealed in the temple together with our kiddos and he holds Mel Kessler Priesthood and we talk about all of these churchy things that I never knew how it would work out.

Alisha Coakley:

But had I waited you know what I mean Like I would have missed out on a lot, but because I had inspiration to move forward and to go ahead and marry him, even though the situation wasn't perfect, you know, I think that we both were able to grow a lot as individuals, but also together, and now we have a lot of substance in our marriage. You know, like we have a lot of things that we can fight for. I really love that. You kind of go back on the whole hey, like you knew that it was right then right, so you're gonna keep fighting for it because it still makes it right now right, and so I really I appreciate you guys' insight on that. I think that that's-.

Stan Gibson:

You put up with me, right?

Eryn Gibson:

Yeah, you put up with each other. I love clothes and, like you said, there's a lot of substance there. There's so much. There's so much in our marriage and in our friendship. So our friendship always grew. We were always good friends and that has just grown throughout. How many years? 25, 26 years.

Stan Gibson:

Something like that we're old, I'm just saying so how old were you guys when you got married?

Alisha Coakley:

You said about 26 or 27?.

Eryn Gibson:

He was. I think you were 28 already. And I was just turning 27.

Stan Gibson:

Really really almost a menace in society. Really close yeah.

Eryn Gibson:

That I you know, and I would do For the standards of the world today. But for me, growing up in an LDS family and Stan also in my mind I was seeing everything pass me by and that was really. That was really hard for me and it took a lot of food and eventually I think it was Heavenly Father was waiting for me to learn, to give everything to him and trust, and that set up my whole life for what was to come with the kids, because that's required ultimate trust in the Heavenly Father.

Alisha Coakley:

You know what else I love, eryn, is? You said that you're kind of annoyed because he wasn't your type, right, like you're like seriously, like Heavenly Father, like I wanted the romance and the things, and then I just get this really great, incredible, nice guy. It's so funny because we women we do that right, like we're like we just want to be romanced and we just want everything to be puppies and rainbows, and sometimes it's just hey, I switched the laundry out for you or something you don't even like.

Alisha Coakley:

sometimes it's just like hey, I hung out with your family, with you a whole bunch.

Eryn Gibson:

After a couple of years of marriage. Really, those things that stick around the laundry and putting up with my sisters, that's what makes a lasting marriage, because we both get old and a little chubby and that's going to start.

Stan Gibson:

I mean look at this face. He keeps up with this.

Alisha Coakley:

OK. It's OK, though, because our eyesight gets worse too, so we can't even really see each other in that state. It's totally fine, Like Darla looks at Scott and she's convinced that he's got a full head of hair right. Oh boy, You're a little Scott-less. I don't know.

Scott Brandley:

I just tell her to take her glasses off all the time. We're good.

Alisha Coakley:

Exactly, just walk around, just be blind, it's OK.

Stan Gibson:

They do say love is blind right.

Alisha Coakley:

So there's that. So the older you get, the more blind you are, the more in love you get. To be right Makes sense.

Eryn Gibson:

Yes, yeah. Aw and blind is a really big part of the next part of our story.

Stan Gibson:

Oh yeah, there you go, so yeah, Awesome.

Alisha Coakley:

Well, we're going to ask you before we go into the next part of the story. We'll go ahead and just ask you guys do you have any final thoughts for this episode, anything that you'd like to leave with our listeners?

Stan Gibson:

No other than just that simple thing just trust in God and he will. He ultimately will make you happy. Life is tough, right, and you're going to face many challenges and trials, but just be faithful through them all and know that the eternal Heavenly Father's got the eternal view for you. You just have to trust and don't let fear rule you. Let faith rule you. Right, yeah.

Alisha Coakley:

Yeah, yeah, aw. So, there you go.

Stan Gibson:

I mean, I still need to learn that question, I still need to learn that it's a life-long lesson.

Alisha Coakley:

It is.

Eryn Gibson:

It's easier said than done, right, because as soon as you learn to have faith in this level, then he gives you this level of trials, Then you have to learn to be here and then you're here.

Stan Gibson:

But just do it, just trust, wait. A final thing the Emperor's New Groove is one of our favorite shows.

Scott Brandley:

The.

Stan Gibson:

Emperor and he's falling over there. They have the look and they say waterfall ahead, sharp rocks at the bottom, well bring it on. Right, that's what you have to do, right.

Eryn Gibson:

That was a perfect way to end this part and start the next part, because that was our motto for moving into life together. It's not easy. Bring it on.

Stan Gibson:

We'll show you a few of them. Awesome.

Alisha Coakley:

Oh, so cool.

Scott Brandley:

All right. Well, thanks for being on this episode To our viewers. Stay tuned for part two of the story, and it has to do with one of your sons on his mission and it's pretty intense. So we really appreciate you being on the show and if you have a story that you'd like to share, go to Latter-Day Lights dot com, just like Stan and Aaron did, and let us know, so you can be on the show and let's share your late with the rest of the world.

Alisha Coakley:

Absolutely, and you guys we're going to call you out Make sure you guys spend five seconds and just do your five-second missionary work. Click the Share button on this episode. Go ahead and get Stan and Aaron's part one story out to the rest of the world so they can share their light with everyone else and kind of put a smile on the faces of those who are able to tell us to it. With that guys, stan, aaron, thank you for being guests right now. We're excited to hear your part two, which we will be airing next week. So, listeners, be sure that you guys tune in for that. Anything else, scott, think we're good.

Scott Brandley:

No, I think we're good. Ok, we'll talk to you guys next Sunday. Till then, take care. See you, bye.

People on this episode

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Scott Brandley

Host
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Alisha Coakley

Co-host