Leah Rangel

Leah (said Lee-ah) was born and lived in the San Jose/Fancisco area of California. She lived here until she was 10 years old. She LOVED it! She loved how beautiful everything was, how there were so many things to do, the beach and she loved how close she felt to her ward and stake. Even though she has lived most of her life in Utah, she still considers herself a California girl.

While living in Palo Alto, her mother would take Leah and her 5 siblings (3 older boys and 3 younger girls – Leah is the middle daughter) somewhere new and exciting every week. They would go to the zoo, parks, colleges, tour downtown San Francisco, museums, the academy of science, ride trains, go to the beaches all along the coast, explore the Redwood forest, etc. Leah loved the busy energy of the her life and definitely enjoys the city.

One of Leah's favorite memories of growing up in California were the ward and stake road shows their ward would put on every year. These weren't not like the road shows we are used to having in Utah. They weren't always competitions between wards. Sometimes they were full on plays. The thing Leah loved was everyone participated including non-members and it brought their ward close. Some of the shows they did were, The King and I, Bye Bye Birdie Music Through the decades and Brigadoon.

When she was 10, her parents decided they wanted to buy a house and ended up moving to Provo and buying her grandparents house. It was quite an adjustment for Leah. Things moved a little slower in Provo than the Bay area of California. But other opportunities came along that she may not have had in California.

Leah was incredibly close to her older sister and wanted to be just like her. When her sister went into middle school, she joined the ballroom dancing team. She would come home after practices and teach Leah the moves. So the next year, and following in her sister's footsteps, Leah also tried out and made the team.

This opened up an extensive part of Leah's teenage life. This was no ordinary team. They traveled all over the western United States performing. Leah was blessed to be very talented. She won a the National Dancesport Championship for her division when she was about 13 or 14 and continued on with ballroom dancing for BYU's youth program. At age 16, however she was recruited by UVSC (at the time) to be on their ballroom dancing team. They travelled all over the world competing and performing. When she graduated from high school she continued at UVSC due to her dance scholarships.

When Leah was in high school, her older sister participated in the Miss Provo pageant and won. Leah, at the strong suggestion of her sister, decided she too would enter for the scholarship money. So during her senior year, as a novice with no other pageantry experience she too entered the Miss Provo pageant and to the surprise of everyone, won!

Leah ended up leaving the dance team. It was time for a new chapter in her life. She continued to attending UVU for about two years, participating in their school news program. She started out as a reporter then got promoted to anchor and then executive producer. Her most memorable interviews were Sheri Dew and Steve Young!

For Leah though, her interest in school was waning. She wasn't sure what she wanted to do with her life. She ended up taking a job full-time. For a single person it was fun to have a job with good pay and too much fun to spend her money, so she just kept working and school was off the radar. She has held a variety of jobs growing up. One interesting one being a lash artist. She learned how to apply lash extensions but never got her license so she occasionally does it for just her friends.

She eventually began working for a real estate direct selling company. This company hired motivational speakers to come in and coach their employees one on one. Her first coach was a man named Joe Rangel.

Leah At this time was going through some hard challenges (as most of us do in our 20's) She was trying to figure out what she wanted in life and who she really was. They enjoyed spending their time together and Joe really valued Leah as a celestial spirit.

Over the next 5-6 years Leah and Joe continued to build their friendship. He continued coaching her and they started casually seeing each other. Joe knew quickly he was in love with Leah, but Leah held him at bay. However, Leah couldn't deny she liked the way her life worked with Joe in it. He made her happy and she liked the idea that a life with Joe would be completely committed to the gospel.

For a long time Leah contemplated over the idea on whether she should enter a serious relationship with Joe and even consider marriage. Finally, she took it to the temple and felt good about marrying him. After she made the commitment to begin pursuing a life with Joe, the romantic love she had been holding at bay came and came quickly. Joe and Leah were married in May of 2013. They started traveling together right away and have been to many international destinations together.

Leah had always dreamed of a big family. It just came to her in a different way than she had expected! Joe already had four children! Christeena and Brandi are in their late twenties living in Oklahoma, Alex, 22 is living in California and Alyssa (17) lives in Lehi with her Mom. Only a year and a half after Joe and Leah were married, it seemed by divine design that Joe’s great nephew, Jermayah, would come to live with them. Joe and Leah took Jermayah in and he is now part of their family. They love this little 8 year old boy and consider him their own. Leah still dreamed of having her own biological children and the blessing came to her just last year. Leah gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Evelyne (Eva-leen) Elizabeth. So now Joe and Leah have six kids! Jermayah and Evelyne are the only two living at home with them.

Unfortunately for Leah there complications with her delivery. The feeling in her legs didn’t come back and after the birth had two very serious falls due to her legs not working. This created quite an extensive recuperation time. It took her about 3 months to walk unsupported and she still feels a little numbness and pain here and there. She said if she had to do it again she wouldn't have the epidural. She had no idea this could even be a problem.

After living in the Millcreek area of Salt Lake, Joe and Leah decided they'd like a bigger home and like to live somewhere that they could have a home with Leah's parents. They chose Kaysville because leah’s two brothers live there and Leah’s parents wanted to be close to their grandchildren. So they were led to the home they bought last spring on Thoroughbred Drive.

I hope you will take the opportunity to get to know Leah. She is a very easy person to talk to. She has led an exciting life. She is open hearted and non-judgemental and very open minded. Her life has been very interesting. She says surprisingly, she's a little shy at first but loves talking with people. She is also so grateful for the prayers of the ward in her behalf and feels they have strengthened and helped her heal from her complications.