Candace Waters

 

Candace Waters is not your regular born and reared Utah Mormon girl. Despite only being 25, she is a young woman of experience and adventure. She grew up all over the United States with her family moving about every two years. She did however, live in the state of Texas the most (although not over consecutive years). Her father was an executive vice president in the banking industry. During the late 80's and into the 90's when Candace was growing up, big banks were consolidating little banks. This combined with better career opportunities created the need for multiple moves for their family. Candace said mainly, for her, moving was an adventure. She didn't mind it at all, although that was not the case for her mother or all of her other 3 siblings.

Candace was born in Monterey California, however the family moved when she 6 months old. She does someday want to visit there and see it. The next place they lived was Michigan, but only until she was 2, so again she doesn't really remember life in the sub-zero zone.

From here, Candace's family moved to Dallas Texas and then to Charlotte North Carolina. This is the time period where Candace's memories started coming into play. She remembers the family having a pool and splashing and spending time together. Candace is also the youngest among her siblings with the closest in age being 6 years older than her. So by the time she was 3, her oldest siblings were in high school. Therefore she remembers being very busy attending football games ( for those who don't know, when a son plays football, it takes over the family schedule). Her mother also taught early morning seminary at this time and their family was very busy.

While living in Dallas, Candace started playing soccer. She remembers her dad working with her and running drills, which she loved. Candace also really started to embrace her inner tomboy at this time in her life. She wasn't interested in singing (her mom and sister did singing so it seemed « girly » to her) or anything else girly. She loved adventure and action. She loved swimming and playing Nintendo 64.

 

From here Candace's family moved to New Jersey in Clinton Township in Lebanon city. They lived in New Jersey about 1 ½ years. Although they only lived their a short time, this was a very difficult place for Candace to live. This was the only place she lived where friends didn't come easy. Although the girls here were mean, Candace learned a lot about who she wanted to be as a person. At first she also tried being mean, but quickly realized that wouldn't bring her the happiness she was used to feeling. So despite the unkindness of the girls at school and the lack of warmth at church, she decided she would be kind.

 

This shortage of friends however, did have an upside. Candace's oldest brother, who was now home from a mission, took a special interest in her and they became very close. He would take her to the library and they would study interesting things. In fact, one day , without her mother knowing it, he took her out of school so they could go study Socrates. He also took her to Pennsylvania and Washington DC. He taught her to play chess and bought her a science book. She loved all of these things.

Candace also became very good at gymnastics while living here. She mainly worked on floor work doing back hand springs, tucks and floor routines.

From here the family moved to Castle Rock Colorado while Candace attended the 7-9^th grade. Despite the fact that she had to work to get rid of her New Jersey accent so the western kids could understand her, this may have been her favorite place to live. There was quite a big community of LDS kids her same age. The first week there, she entered the young women's room and waited to see where everyone would sit, not wanting to take someone's seat. A girl their said to her, « You can take a spot. » Candace was thrilled to be invited and felt and immediate warmth toward this girl. They became best friends and for really the only time out of everywhere she lived, she had a group of LDS friends that would all hang out together. This was the first time Candace didn't want to move when the time came.

After Colorado the family returned to Texas, but this time they lived in Houston. In Houston again there were more LDS friends to choose from and Candace made two good friends. Although she still missed her friends in Colorado, it was good to have these two gals to do things with. The best thing she said about living in Houston was getting her drivers license. She loved driving even though mainly it was just running errands for her mom.

Candace also joined the track team in Houston and although she wasn't the fastest runner, she worked hard and did alright. She also became more focused on her grades and took some AP courses. In fact, she became so focused that during her Junior year she approached her school counselor wanting to know what it would take to graduate early. They talked about it and that summer Candace did her first semester work on-line. That made it possible for her to graduate in December and begin college.

Candace really wanted to go to Texas A&M (agriculture and mechanics). However, even though she had a 3.7 GPA, she wasn't in the top ten percent of the state, so she wasn't immediately accepted there. She ended up enrolling at Blinn College for 2 semesters and living away from home. That worked out well because her parents were moving again. Blinn College had a great institute program and she ended up rooming with some older LDS girls who took her under their wing.

After the two semesters, Candace was able to transfer to Texas A&M and fulfill her dream of attending that school. She absolutely LOVED it. Texas A&M is steeped in traditions and rituals. A lot of which stem from way back to when it was an all military boys school. Chivalry runs deep and whenever she was on the bus a man would offer her a seat and doors were always opened for her. She also said the people were so nice.

Football games are taken to a new level at Texas A&M and become a highlight of all the students. Candace never missed a home game. Her institute group would meet together every Friday night and would go over to midnight yell practice. What is « yell practice » you might ask? Well apparently at their football games they don't have cheerleaders, they have yell leaders they tell the spectators what yells to call out. The whole student body practices these yells on Friday night so they are all in sync with one another. Also, during a football game if someone leaves the game early or if they don't stand the entire game, they are called a 2 percenter and yelled out. But maybe the most fun tradition is after the game is over all the stadium lights are turned off and if your with a date, you are expected to kiss them. If you don't have a date, you hold up a cell phone/lighter and go find a date to kiss. Candace says she didn't ever go find a date but it was still fun.

After graduating with her degree in English, Candace was on the fence about law school. So she decided she would try working in the field awhile to see if she liked it. She went back to Blinn College and got her para legal certificate. She then moved to El Paso to work for a great firm.

One of her former roommates had moved to Provo and Candace decided to go visit her. She asked her friend to set her up on some dates while she was there for a week. Her friend found a guy named Gayle Waters for Candace to go out with, so before she came out to Provo, she gave them each other's phone numbers and they started talking. Their first date, was supposed to be a double date, but her roommate's date got sick, so Candace and Gayle went by themselves.

They did a hike in Spanish Fork up to the hot springs and had so much fun. Laughing and joking was so natural between them. They went out 4 times during that week and by the 4^th date they really had started to like each other. They talked about what they should do and decided they would just keep talking. For the next 6 months they would Skype every night and then Gayle came out to see her. After that, Candace decided she would move to Utah. She moved here in June of last year and they were engaged by July and married in September.

Both Candace and Gayle were more interested in their wedding being about the marriage and not the party. So they had a very small temple wedding in the Manti Utah temple. They went to lunch with some family and friends and then went to the temple for the ceremony. That was it, no reception or big fanfare. They loved it. They saved money and felt like the day was just about them being married forever.

After that they moved into Peterson's basement apartment on Equestrian Parkway. Candace adores her husband. She loves how he is so even tempered. He doesn't allow himself to get stressed. She loves his adventurous spirit. He works as a firefighter for Farmington city. They don't know where life will take them right now, but are just enjoying being together and newly married.

I hope you get a chance to sit down with Candace. She is fun and easy to talk too. Her views on life are so interesting and she is unique. We welcome her openly to our ward.