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Uplifting interviews, light-hearted discussions, and a sprinkle of humor—Holy Banter invites you into joyful, faith-filled conversations that inspire and entertain. Join Christina Steele, Associate Director of Adult Evangelization at St. Alphonsus Liguori Catholic Church in Zionsville, Indiana, and co-host Andrea Simpson, Coordinator of Middle School Ministry and Outreach, as they explore real-life faith stories, share spiritual insights, and occasionally laugh a little too loudly. Whether you're deep in your journey or just curious, there's a seat at the table for you.
Welcome back to another episode of Holy Banter. This is Christina Steele.
Andrea:And I'm Andrea Simpson. We are here with Logan and Lauren Gauker. They are St. Alphonsus parishioners for the past five years. Proud fellow Boilermakers.
Andrea:Although we would love to have
Lauren:some Hoosiers on the podcast We're not biased.
Andrea:No, we're not. Promise. Won't hold it against you.
Christina:You might not know. Went to IU.
Andrea:Oh no. Technically I went to IU law school, but we don't talk about it.
Lauren:Also avid travelers, just like father Travis. So welcome guys. This is Lauren. I am a pharmacist. I work currently at the IU Simon Cancer Center downtown.
Lauren:So I do largely operational. I help get cancer, medications compounded and delivered to patients safely.
Logan:My name's Logan and I'm a project manager at Rolls Royce, So for aerospace engines, mostly in defense. Did start in engineering, so namely Purdue, and also worked at Caterpillar for a little while, but yeah. And just got my MBA from Butler.
Christina:Oh, you finished.
Andrea:Yep. Congratulations. Wow.
Logan:Very good.
Andrea:This is your celebration.
Logan:You'll catch us at Butler and Purdue games.
Christina:Oh yeah. The Butler games are fun. Lauren, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself growing up and your faith journey?
Lauren:I grew up in Kokomo, Indiana. I am a cradle Catholic. I am the middle of five children. I was actually homeschooled all the way through growing up. Yeah.
Lauren:So if you want to get really technical, it was actually a distance learning programs. There's a number of these that, they're accredited schools that are registered in different states. So the one I did was Mother of Divine Grace, and it's located out in California. So technically I graduated from high school from California, but my mom was an engineer by trade. So she did all the math and science stuff.
Lauren:The history and literature, she asked other people to help us with that, which I feel like still shows up to this day because I am such a bad writer, but I'm really good with like math and science. So hey, pharmacist.
Andrea:Could be genetics. Yeah. It could be your mom's fault. Could just be how you
Lauren:were born. Yeah. My dad's also an engineer. I'm a child of two engineers. Yeah.
Lauren:So you had no hope. No, no, not really.
Christina:And you were cradle Catholic.
Lauren:Yes. I was always very devoted to my faith, even as a young child for a long time. I really just wanted to be a religious sister. That's really what I saw as like the pinnacle of Catholicism and the faith. And that's where I wanted to be.
Lauren:So, later through more detailed discernment with the help of my spiritual director in college, we were able to determine that was not the path I was called to, but it took a lot of steps to get me there for sure.
Christina:Well, and you'd mentioned that having an uncle who's a priest kind of inspired you to consider that.
Lauren:Yeah. My uncle, father David Hemmer, he taught me liturgy of the hours growing up before he became a priest. He worked as a middle school science teacher.
Christina:When he was on our podcast this Yeah.
Logan:I have to go back and listen to that.
Lauren:I was maybe four or five when this started, but about once a month or so, would come into town. Then he'd spend the night at my parents' place and we'd hang out in the weekends. And apparently I wanted to learn how the sisters prayed. So he taught me how to do that. And he says he has memories of him sleeping like on the couch in our living room.
Lauren:And I would come wake up real early in the morning and just stare at him. Absolutely believe because I watch all my nieces and nephews do the same thing now. That's really cute.
Andrea:Yeah. So when you were four or five that early on, you decided you wanted to be a sister.
Lauren:That's what I thought I wanted for my life. Yeah.
Logan:Lucky for me, she changed her mind.
Christina:And did you guys meet in college?
Lauren:We did. Yeah. My parents and my older siblings all went to Purdue. So I've kept the family tradition. I broke a little way away from tradition and then I chose pharmacy and not an engineering or hard, hard math, kind of field, But I was very excited, very determined, and it's an interesting thing because we talk about vocation and initially me feeling very interested in religious life because I just saw that as such a good and holy thing.
Lauren:I really felt like going into pharmacy school and becoming a pharmacist was a vocation too. Sure. And it definitely is something that has evolved over the years. But when I went to school, I wasn't sure what I was going to end up doing with my big V vocation, but I knew that I was called to be a pharmacy student. And so I kind of put my heart and soul into it.
Christina:You mentioned that part of your inspiration was your dad.
Lauren:My dad had when I was a freshman in high school, he had a stroke and it was pretty severe. He has since recovered quite amazingly. When it first happened, he couldn't talk to anybody. He couldn't move anything on the right side of his body. He was a big inspiration because I wanted to figure out how things worked and how it could have either been prevented or fixed.
Lauren:I feel like that was something that my family kind of dove into for him once he had the stroke was a lot of intercessory prayer for him and unfortunately no miracle, but he does have a lot of things that the doctors are still shocked to this day that he can do. So, example, they didn't think that he would ever be able to talk again just based off of his MRIs. He has just a little bitty sliver in his brain that basically is what's allowing him to continue talking.
Christina:Wow.
Logan:Fact that
Lauren:that is there is kind of amazing.
Andrea:That's definitely amazing. You said that you talked with a spiritual advisor to Determine your vocation, whether it be pharmacy or the religious life. That's kind of amazing to have a spiritual advisor at that age. What made you do that?
Lauren:We were very blessed at Purdue. Her name's Dee Bernhardt. She was one of the campus ministers there. She was amazing. She was just very holy and very inspired kind of person.
Lauren:And she worked a lot one on one with students. Like, I think she really drove the campus in the spiritual lives of a lot of the students that were there.
Christina:So you're the science person that you play the cello and you sing. Where did that come from?
Lauren:So that's also going back to childhood. The way my parents actually met was through the choir at St. Tom's at Purdue. When we were all growing up, their rule for us, once we hit seven or eight years old is that we had to play a musical instrument from that point until we graduated high school. I haven't played formally since I was 18.
Lauren:So we're talking like, this is like twelve, thirteen years ago.
Logan:You did play for a wedding a month ago. Yeah. You can't hear for the masses.
Lauren:Yeah. Sometimes. Yeah. My mom had the voice. So we kind of all inherited that from her.
Lauren:So me and my sisters, we sing a lot. And for my brother's wedding, me and my two younger sisters, the three of us all sang together.
Christina:Aw, that's wonderful.
Lauren:It's really pretty. I think we did really well.
Andrea:They would hire you again. They would hire us for free. Logan, we need to get to know you. How was your faith life growing up? What was that like?
Logan:It wasn't like that. As
Lauren:a young woman.
Christina:Dan, where'd you grow up?
Logan:So, I grew up in Carmel and grew up non denominational. Going to Northview, but interestingly enough, my dad grew up Presbyterian and my mom grew up culturally Jewish. Interesting. My mom didn't actually get baptized or convert to Christianity until I was six. So, I remember her getting baptized.
Lauren:Very cool.
Logan:And then, that's when Northview kind of exploded and became this multi campus
Christina:Yeah, I'm driven by it.
Logan:And so, I grew up at the original one.
Lauren:Okay.
Logan:And, my sister and I got baptized when I was 13. Once that happened, that was kind of it. So, we grew up doing service and things like that, but didn't continue going to church really after we checked the baptism box. So, we would go on Christmas and Easter, and that was kind of it. I wouldn't say my faith life just kind of fell out of existence.
Logan:It was still there. Mhmm. I think I had touch points here and there, like when I went to Camp Spring Hill and Camp Tecumseh, I would get a little fire in me and then be this well behaved child and want to embrace my faith and things like that, but we weren't, as a family, doing anything. And so, it would kind of burn out. And, I grew up with a really Catholic friend.
Logan:My best friend Nick Moss, he and I grew up together, I've known him since I was two. And his family is super Catholic, so occasionally I went to Mass with his family. If I spent the night at their place on a Saturday, we would go to Mass in the morning. Didn't know what was going on. Mhmm.
Logan:But I experienced it here and there. I remember when I was six or seven, Nick was telling me, I'm doing first communion. How's yours going? I said, I have no idea what you're talking about. Sounds cool, I guess.
Logan:But what really kinda spurred movement from there was my parents sent me to Garron. And they did, to an extent, let me choose, so I shadowed at both Carmel High School and at Garron. But I did like Garron quite a bit more, so I was fortunate enough that they could send me there. I liked that it was small, I did like, my friend Nick was going there, really it just felt right. And from there was really where I developed my faith substantially.
Logan:I wouldn't say there was this all of a sudden conversion, but there was like multiple moments that really I can highlight, and so going and experiencing daily Mass was unique, because I had experienced a few Sunday Masses here and there, but when I was really little, and don't remember them as well. So, now I'm going once a week to mass with my study hall, they called it Kairos, and I thought this is pretty cool. When going to mass, I always noticed that the sisters would receive the Eucharist very reverently. Sometimes they would receive on the tongue, which I always thought was a little interesting. But there was at least one sister, I think it was Sister Rosie Maria, who would receive on her hands, but would then make sure there wasn't any left on her hand.
Logan:I was like, this is interesting. Why does she care? You know, truly, because I didn't know. And so, that sparked a curiosity for me, and we had to take theology classes and things like And so, for me, was the first time learning any of it, really, ever. Because I always joke with Lauren as that Mhmm.
Logan:I thought the Bible just appeared in a field, you know, Book of Mormon style. Yeah. Really. I had no idea because nobody told me different. So, where else would it come from, you know?
Logan:Somebody found it. Obviously not. I know about all the church history now. Council of Trent, all that good stuff.
Christina:Yeah. You basically get a masters of theology when you graduate from Gary. Yeah. Know.
Logan:It's crazy.
Lauren:I just
Andrea:find that mind blowing to go from zero. You went zero to a 100. Really? This feels right.
Logan:We're True, doing And so, yeah, I have to credit the Holy Spirit for giving me that curiosity. I'm a very rational person, like logic comes to me naturally, and so, as I learned some of these things in theology class, I just thought, oh yeah, that makes sense.
Lauren:Like,
Logan:I don't know why it wouldn't be that way. That's a blessing to a certain extent too,
Lauren:with the
Logan:grace of understanding, and from there we had to do service hours at Guaranty. So, easiest way for me to do service hours, being attached to a parish, was through the fall break mission trip. My sophomore year, we went to Jerusalem Farm, which is a sister to Bethlehem Farm. They had us work on a lot of homes for people that either couldn't take care of their homes, so cleaning them out or just going in to a soup kitchen and helping people. While we were there, the sisters who they had partnered with for some of this service invited us to their church that used to be their convent.
Logan:They had a big reliquary and there was a splinter of the true cross in it. That just really hit me. And I said, wait, like, we know where the
Lauren:cross is?
Logan:Holy cow.
Christina:Like, this is actually real.
Logan:It really, yeah. Made it feel real. Yeah. And so that really struck me to think, know, because I remember having conversations with my dad about all these Old Testament prophecies came true, so the Bible must be true. I said, okay,
Lauren:I guess
Logan:that's cool. But then to see the relics and things like that, to say, oh, these things really did happen, that really struck me. And so, that was probably the biggest conversion moment I would say. I remember telling my friend Nick then, I think I needed to learn more about this, like truly. The theology classes are cool and everything, but that was different.
Logan:Something's different now. Then as a junior in high school, I could drive. So, I started going to churches and seeing which ones I was interested in. So
Christina:Like different denominations or Catholic churches? Really Catholic churches. Okay.
Logan:I had been to Seton before because that's where my friend Nick went and it was kind of dark, is the only way I can describe it. It just wasn't really for me and even though Nick was my best friend, he was kind of my only friend that I knew there. And so, I definitely went to Our Lady Mount Carmel as well, was a little overwhelmed as a 17 year old by myself, so didn't keep going there. Ended up settling at Saint Margarette. And that was because I knew a lot of people from my band class
Christina:Oh, yeah.
Logan:At Garin who went there. That one felt like home for some reason. Finally then had to, you know, get the courage up to tell somebody in my family. Actually, I think maybe I told Nick's mom first.
Christina:Did I mean, like, that you were going to
Logan:to become public. Yeah. And, because I didn't know how to do it. Mhmm. So, which was also ironic because they had RCIT at Garen through Our Lady Mount Carmel, but nobody told me.
Logan:And, so, I thought the only way to do it was through RCIA, like, at a parish. Mhmm. And, so, that's how I figured out that's what I needed to do, and that's what I did. And so, I told Nick's mom because I wanted her to be my sponsor. We say now that, you know, she's my godmother.
Logan:So, now Nick's my god brother as
Lauren:well too.
Logan:So, that's fun.
Andrea:That's sweet.
Logan:Yep. And told my mom after that and I think maybe on the same night as I told Nick's mom either way.
Andrea:We're gonna tell her it was like within minutes. I think
Logan:I I do. Because I remember when I did it, it was the night of one of the shows at Garen that I was helping out with in like sound or stage crew. But either way, when I told my mom, she was actually really happy for me. She cried. Was it was beautiful.
Logan:It was honestly really supportive. That weekend, because that was a Saturday, so the next day, my mom woke up and said, hey, got something to tell everybody, right? And I said, I guess I do. So, I had told my dad and my sister, and my sister was very supportive, my dad was very hesitant, to the point that it was almost bad. And so, he, even though I was only 18 at the time, he was worried that I was gonna potentially marry somebody who wasn't Catholic.
Logan:Concern for me was if I were to become Catholic, what would I do if I ended up marrying somebody who's not Catholic? For anybody who's curious, it's not that big a deal as long as they're baptized. But, I'm married to Catholics. Yeah. I'm very happy.
Christina:Problem solved.
Logan:Exactly. But as I then continued that conversation with my parents, my mom then thought it would be a great idea for us all to go to Mass together. And I was like, yo, this really going places. So we do, and so we go to St. Mary Grady and go to Mass, and we get there, and everybody's standing in the lobby in the Narthex, and we're like, What Well, is going it's Palm Sunday, and they do the gospel and do the procession and everything, and we go to Mass, and it's great.
Logan:We get out of there, and my dad and mom, like I may have said, Did they do this every week? I told them, I'm like, I don't think so, but I don't know. That was really funny.
Lauren:Find out, imagine this. You grow up your whole life as a Presbyterian, not really very pro Catholic, And your son one day tells you, I want to become Catholic. And so your wife and your whole family go to mass and it's into Palm Sunday, one of the most intense.
Logan:Exactly, yeah. So that was hilarious.
Christina:You're all yelling crucify
Lauren:him and they're like,
Christina:what the
Logan:heck? I
Andrea:mean we're in, let's just go all
Lauren:the way.
Logan:I guess so. After that Mass though, I did hold back and talk with Father Kevin, and he asked him, like, hey, wanna be Catholic, what do do? And he was like, well, you're a little late because it's Eastern It's in a week. Yeah. And so, but he told me, he said, you know, there's no reason you can't keep coming back, RCA will start in August.
Logan:And so, did get involved that summer with a lot of like the youth group and high school stuff, and really enjoyed a lot of that, and I even joined the Knights of the Holy Temple, which was hilarious because as far as I can tell, I was the first non Catholic to join, which means I could do all the service things, I couldn't serve at Mass. So, would help set up for Mass, but I couldn't altar serve, because Interesting. I wasn't Catholic
Christina:But what was appealing, was it the Mass, or just prayer, or the intellectuals part of it?
Logan:All of
Christina:Yeah.
Logan:Honestly, I I think the biggest piece was the Eucharist.
Lauren:Mhmm.
Logan:It's hard for it not to be, I think,
Christina:for a lot reaction when you've heard why we're so reverent to the Eucharist?
Logan:For me, I thought, yeah, that makes sense. Because I was like, well, it's Jesus before. If it's really Jesus, then yeah, everybody should really know what it is before they receive it. Because that was something my dad struggled with was why can't everybody receive? You know, because at our church, at Northview everybody could receive.
Logan:Well, it wasn't Jesus, it was symbolic. And so here it is truly a sacrament. My dad understands that better now, story short on that is that he's actually very supportive now. He could see the positive that it was bringing to me, and to our family. Honestly, think he was just glad that I was going to church.
Logan:Yeah. I think that was really what it came down to. And so, he's been very supportive ever since really that one bad moment. It took him a few months, but I think truly, once I got involved with all the youth group and bible study and everything, and he saw that I was getting out of the house and not just playing video games, I think he was okay
Christina:with That's pretty common. I I mean, I do our RCA here.
Logan:Mhmm.
Christina:And you know, a lot of times parents just have these Mhmm. Preconceived notions of Catholics that they grew up with and they don't know any different. Then once they learn then
Logan:Exactly. RCAA. It was interesting because even though I had, you know, taken theology classes at Garrett, I still felt like I was learning more stuff. Infinite God, infinite things to learn. It makes sense.
Logan:But it was, yeah, it was really enjoyable and it was fun going through with, I know nobody can see it, but I'm wearing my RCA cross.
Christina:Oh, that's a nice And so,
Logan:still wear that one. By the time the Easter vigil came around and I came into the church, the funniest part was, is that, like I said about the Knights the Holy Temple, I couldn't serve until I was Catholic. So, all the guys were saying, well, you gotta come in the morning and serve, because now you can. So, I did. Easter Sunday?
Logan:So, I went to the vigil and then woke up in the morning and went again and served the mass that next day. I could show any of the pictures, you can see the smile on my face and it was very noticeable, just how joyful that whole thing was. But then I had to step into living the faith on my own, because I was going to Purdue the next year, so that was really different and unique in the way that I had to figure out, okay, I've been on this Jesus high now from converting, but how do I then transition that into real life? I did have a spiritual director at Garen, it was Father Han when I was converting. He actually helped me a little bit with discernment of priesthood too, which is apparently really common.
Logan:So, if you're a guy that's college, high school aged and you convert, you're probably gonna think about it. You know, that's natural. And so, it's good to do it, it's better to think about it than to ignore it. And, he really helped, and honestly, the best advice he gave me was, you know, the best priests would also make the best dads. And, they have to have the same charisms and grace to do that on either side.
Logan:And, so, you live it out very differently, but if you don't tap into those graces and work on yourself, then you can turn out bad either way.
Lauren:Yeah, that's true.
Logan:That was really good when he said that, because, you know, while I'm going through this conversion experience, I'm thinking, priesthood, priesthood, priesthood. But, as I kind of got more into that real world of like, okay, I don't know that I really am called for this even though it's beautiful and that's, the church is drawing me, but I'm not, I don't think the church is drawing me to priesthood anymore. And so, that was really cool to have him help me through that, honestly. So, had a couple other priests along the way help me out with that. Father Aaron definitely tried to rope me into seminary, unsuccessfully as it would seem, but I'm still very close with him too.
Logan:By the time I got to Purdue, I was pretty sure called to marriage at some point, but was figuring it out. Ironically, the opposite side of Lauren, I initially was interested in a woman who ended up going to the convent and is still there, far as I know. I met Lauren my freshman year of college and then we got to know each other a lot better my sophomore year. Lauren is two years older than me, but also a great ahead in school because she's smart.
Lauren:Yeah. So we knew each other. We were friends. So it was my last year on campus. It was pretty busy.
Lauren:I wasn't really looking for anything cause I'm not going to be around next year and I don't really want to start a relationship right before I leave.
Logan:And then we decided to go on a spring break mission trip together.
Lauren:Yeah. When I talked to my spiritual director, was like, well, they still need drivers for the New Orleans trip. And I was like, well, I'm old enough to be one of the drivers.
Logan:And I had already decided to go. And so and the rest is history, not exactly. I remember when she came in for the first, you know, planning meeting. I didn't really know anybody else who was going on the trip that well. And so it was really exciting to see her her come in.
Logan:And so we went on the trip and I rode in your car and I just remember that whole week just enjoying being with you.
Christina:Yeah, guys just spent a lot of time together.
Logan:Yeah, we got to do some service with Habitat for Humanity. So we got to help build a house. I got horribly sunburned, as you would expect if you could see me. The red hair did me in. But we got to know each other really well through that, and then when we came back was the Boiler Awakening trip, and Lauren was on talk staff, so she was giving one of the talks.
Logan:And I was on the prayer staff. I got to spend a lot of time with her again then on that retreat. After the retreat, we went back for mass that evening on Sunday. I remember after that mass, just hearing God being like, you gotta talk to her about this. Like, you guys are spending a lot of time together, don't let it slip away.
Logan:So, I asked her for a ride on the way back, and then in the parking lot, like when we both get in the car, we both kind of just look at each other and I just said, hey, let's talk.
Lauren:I'm getting ready to leave campus in another four or five weeks, I think is all we had left in the semester at that And I am not really coming back. He still has two more years of school left. So for me, I was very hesitant to engage with it. And my prayer was just through the weekend and everything was God, if you want this to happen, then he has to say something.
Andrea:So before he said anything in the car, I've been thinking about it. Yeah,
Lauren:like the whole time during the retreat at one point during adoration, I just was like praying for the desires to go away for like, because I just was like, it's not fair to him. He's got two more years of school left. His soulmate could literally, he can meet her next semester.
Andrea:But he already did
Logan:it. Surprise.
Lauren:Oh, there's very few times where I feel like I've truly heard God's voice speak to me. And at that point in time, I just heard God say, when are you gonna realize it's okay for you to be happy?
Logan:You're really glad I said something.
Lauren:Kind of a shock to me, to be honest, because it's not often, you know, that you feel like you really hear a very strong, very specific phrase, Why usually is general
Christina:do you think you're saying that?
Lauren:Well, it's a long story, but my family has a long history of mental health issues, and so I am one of those sufferers. Because of that, I tend to prioritize other things over that. It was just really impactful to me at the time, and really stuck with me. And I wasn't sure where it was gonna go. For me, I just couldn't see how it could work, especially if, you know, I'm leaving campus a matter of like a month of a relationship.
Lauren:Then, you know, you're long distance for probably the next two years. And it just was big shock. You know, you just really don't know where your life's going to go in the next couple of years.
Logan:And so we prayed a novena to St. Gianna about it.
Christina:He talked in the car?
Logan:Yeah. So for the next nine days we would get together at St. Tom's and pray the novena prayer for nine days, which I will admit, was like, man, I'm really excited. I would like to take her out as soon as possible, but this is probably the right thing to do. And so, so we did.
Logan:So we prayed the Novena and then went on our first date. The place that we went to was apparently a place that the priests like to frequent as well. We have a nice dinner, but on our way out of dinner, all three priests are sitting at the door and you can see Dominican friars Yep. And you so you can see father Cashion, who was actually with us on the mission trip, who he was kinda piecing it together. He said, okay, I think I know what's going on.
Logan:Father Timothy totally knew what was going
Lauren:on. He's
Logan:sitting over there nodding his head. He knew. And then father Patrick is like, oh, we we would have paid for your dinner if we'd known that he's he has no idea. And so I told him, you know, it was kinda the idea for me to pay. So that was very funny seeing Alphonso Yuri.
Logan:That's funny. From there, kind of made it work. I would visit her when I could. Thankfully, her rotations were all in Indiana. And so, she had a few down south in Evansville.
Lauren:Yeah, I stayed with my extended family and kind of, so he got very well acquainted with my grandparents. They were great. Sister and
Logan:her Down in Jasper. Yep. While you were down in Beech Grove.
Lauren:Yeah. Wow. So he got to, he was introduced very quickly. It's in the midst of things.
Logan:It was great. They're all lovely people.
Christina:So how long did this courtship last?
Logan:We basically dated for two years long distance. And then after you were done with residency, I graduated from Purdue and I started working at Caterpillar in Lafayette, but remote because it was during COVID. So I moved back in with my parents and then you got a job at Community East working nights. That didn't last very long. Nights are brutal.
Logan:So but she got an apartment over in Whitestown. So, I ended up buying a house over in Walker Farms.
Christina:Mhmm.
Logan:And, that's the house we still own, maybe for a few more weeks. We'll see. Hopefully, it sells quickly.
Andrea:If anyone's looking.
Lauren:You just contact us. Yeah. I'm sure
Logan:it's beautiful. We have redone the kitchen. Yeah. It it's nice. Yeah.
Logan:So I bought that house over there, and Lauren still had her apartment. And so we kind of talked about it. And you'll you'll see this is a recurring theme of I was the more excited one and wanted to get engaged, you know, quickly because I figured, oh, we're finally in the same place, this is great. Lauren being the prudent one thought we could use a year to truly discern now that we're in the same place. Have a year to live our lives together in the same city rather than traveling all the So we then spent that one more year here in Indy just living life together.
Logan:Still living on our own, but getting to experience what does parish life look like together? What does working look like together? And it was really good. I think we both really needed that to understand what is it like living as an adult and outside of a college setting and outside of just a travel setting, seeing each other. We took a trip down to Gulf Shores, Alabama and I proposed down there on the first night because I didn't want to wait.
Logan:Like I said, recurring theme.
Christina:Then you're also worried you're gonna lose a ring anyway.
Logan:Yeah, well, I faked her out because, you know, I typically have a lot of like keys, wallet things in my pocket. So she couldn't really tell that the ring was in my pocket because He I
Lauren:spent his whole dating career building this up.
Christina:Apparently, yeah.
Logan:I was able to hide it. I gave her the whole spiel and told her how much I loved her and why and then proposed down there. Yeah.
Lauren:I was crying while he was giving this nice speech.
Logan:And laughing.
Lauren:And then all of a sudden he opens the box and it's upside down so then I just start laughing.
Christina:That's cute.
Logan:Yeah. So that was fun. So then then we enjoyed the next day just to ourselves. We didn't tell anybody. And that was something that some friends had told us actually was to keep it to yourself for a little while.
Logan:Enjoy just being engaged for a day when nobody knows. And so that was fun. And then we told some friends and family the next day and just enjoyed our trip and then came back and started planning the wedding. We did our marriage prep here at St. Alphonsus.
Logan:And so it was a full circle moment for me, especially because Father Travis was at St. Mary Gretty when And he came into the so now him being a pastor here was really cool. But Lauren's uncle, who we mentioned and has been on the podcast, is up at the retreat center. And so Lauren thought, especially it would be really cool if we could get married there. And so father Travis was like, yeah, you guys are totally good.
Logan:Go do that. And so we did our marriage from here, but got married at the retreat center. So
Christina:by father Hummer.
Logan:Yeah. And Deacon was there too.
Lauren:Deacon was there too.
Logan:Yeah. We love you. So Deacon Perry, he's he's one of our favorites.
Christina:Did you know him at Maria Goretti? Yeah. But not well. Would've just been a
Logan:He does remember me from there. Parishioner. Yes. I was also kind of a full circle moment with him too. So he's been really great.
Logan:He blessed our house, the one in Whitestown.
Christina:He I have to begin to come your new house.
Logan:Just a sales pitch. He will bless the new house inevitably once we've fully moved in.
Lauren:So the house comes pretty blessed.
Logan:I like that. Exactly. We did our marriage prep here. One thing we would probably both say about that was that the marriage prep here was not easy. It was tough.
Logan:For good reason, you know, marriage is a sacrament and you should really know what you're getting yourself into. We did sponsor couple and we did the family counseling as well, and NFP. It was difficult, especially the family counseling was difficult, you know, dealing with like family of origin things.
Christina:Yeah.
Logan:And things that you don't even know you don't know that you It haven't dealt was really hard, but really good. I reached out to Deacon Perry about to get some counseling at some point because of a little bit of it. And it was really helpful because he's been through a lot and he knows a lot. Definitely one of the more challenging things we've done, but it really helped prepare us for a marriage and, you know, has definitely shown its fruit.
Andrea:That's great. I think it's really great how you guys have done so much discernment in your life pre meeting each other then also together and just really thinking about and being purposeful about where you want to be and what you want to do. Cause I think a lot of people that are younger or, you know, in college, that's not really, they're not thinking that far ahead or they're not taking that time to pause. That's really cool that you made him wait so that he would discern, you know?
Lauren:We took, I think our first big trip at the end of my residency as a celebrate you're no longer living in residency, we went to Niagara Falls. I think that was when we started having a lot more of those serious conversations about what do we want things to look like going forward, what were our goals, You know, what long term things do we have that we really want to accomplish that may or may not be compatible with each other?
Christina:It was our hard conversation.
Lauren:Yeah, it was. It was like, I mean, I think it was a good time to have it because I was finally moving out of a student and learner mindset into my first real job and moving to a new city and everything else. I think it was, it was a, it was a journey for sure.
Christina:And you guys went on the Italy pilgrimage
Logan:this
Christina:past October. What was that experience like?
Logan:That was really cool. We had never really done a trip with 30 people
Lauren:before either.
Logan:And so, that's an experience. Father Travis would probably tell you as much. But it was really fun. Know, we got to meet a lot of people from the parish. We've been here for five years.
Logan:We just really fell in love with the community. It just felt like home for us. And so getting to then meet a lot of people on the pilgrimage was really cool in a unique way in another country. Getting to experience Rome, Lauren would probably fly back tomorrow if she could.
Lauren:I would. To go
Logan:to Milan was really cool too. And so, got to see, you know, the main Duomo there in Milan. And then we actually had a day trip out to Turin, which I think Turin might have been one of our favorites as well. Because we got to see Saint John Bosco and Saint Pierre Giorgio for Sadi and we didn't necessarily see the shroud, but we saw the shroud shrouded.
Lauren:Mhmm. Right? So it's
Logan:kinda funny when it's covered. But yeah, getting to see everything out there was really cool and it it kind of, again, like a full circle moment because Saint John Bosco's feast day was yesterday, I think. So, cool that we're getting to talk about that again after having seen him at Saint John Bosco's. Cool, which is, and still in use, was really cool. But it was just probably the most peaceful part of the trip.
Lauren:I got to see some of the nails and the piece of the true cross, is cool. Cause I didn't realize that you had seen a different piece of the cross
Logan:a
Lauren:long time ago. So that's kind of a full circle moment. Rome is a city that I could spend probably five years in and still not feel like I'd seen everything.
Christina:Oh yeah.
Lauren:Cause everywhere you go, there's this ancient Roman wall. We walked to St. Clement of Rome's Basilica. Yeah. When we took that walk, there was this ancient Roman walls that they were like, this one's probably like 2,000 years old, casually just lining the streets while we walk by some kids playing soccer.
Lauren:It's so mind blowing how the city has lived through so many different, centuries. But I will say the one thing that I think is a little bit sad is that it's almost like the churches have become more like museums. Sometimes you even have to pay to get in to see them.
Christina:Or pay to light up a painting.
Lauren:Yes, or pay to light up. There was one that had this mirror that would like project it out the ceiling and they would pay, you would have to get in this long line of people and then pay for them to turn on the light so you could get a nice picture from a mirror. When I'm in those places, I like to take pictures, but I also like to just Some experience of the churches that we went to that had either partial remains or little side chapels or were the burial spots of certain saints that my dad and my uncle are big fans of. So I was able to take pictures of those and send those pictures to them just be like, just prayed for you at Saint Robert Belmeir's So it was fun.
Logan:And then we actually stayed another day and a half really after the pilgrimage. So we stayed one extra day to go on a train ride in Switzerland.
Lauren:That was Nice.
Logan:Which was the most last minute thing we've booked ever because that was the day that it was scheduled for everybody to leave. So, we realized that we said, oh, there's nothing planned to this day. Let's do something. And then, the final day we did have planned, was to go up to Lake Como. And so we went up there because we're big Star Wars fans.
Logan:And that's where they filmed part of episode two. Nice. And it was great. Recommend going to Lake Como in the fall because there was nobody there. So, but usually it's
Lauren:very mild weather. Was really nice.
Logan:St. Peter's was packed partly because of the pilgrimage year. Was also always packed.
Christina:Yeah.
Andrea:So other than your pilgrimage, how have you kind of plugged in at St. Alphonsus since you've been parishioners here?
Lauren:Yeah. I've done a couple of things. Did called and gifted last time. It was lovely. Really enjoyed that.
Lauren:And then I, cantor slash cello for the choir.
Logan:Yeah. And then, I help out with Confirmation, so I've been a Confirmation mentor. Done that this year, still doing it.
Christina:Got a I couple really more
Logan:like it. And, I did it when I was at St. Tom's too, actually, Purdue. Getting So, to help out with it a little bit here again is really fun. I've done it twice now.
Logan:I took a year off last year while I was doing grad school, but had done it the year before. So, it's nice to get back involved with that. I've also helped out with the P3 Sanctus ministry for young adults. I helped out with like the planning committee on that for a little while. And Lauren helped put on the young adult retreat a couple of months Yeah.
Logan:And I just became a Knight of Columbus.
Andrea:Oh yeah. That happened. In Yeah. Time for the fish fry.
Logan:Exactly. We just really enjoy being here. We've got a couple friends who go here as well. Of them who lives in Walker Farms also. Other one who is they're, they're both in graduate school, one in medical, the other in dental school, but they go here.
Logan:We call it the Zionsville Polo Club, because apparently the first time that we did it, all of the guys wore polo shirts to
Lauren:dinner. So,
Logan:it's just three couples of us that are fun. But we know a couple more that are here too, Some of them through the young adult group and some of them just from, I know one friend from high school who's, who's here now too, who went to Saint Mary Grady with me. We just really like the community and honestly, I know, I think we've talked to this too, we really like the church building, even though it's relatively new building, the stained glass and everything that they've done in here, it's actually a beautiful church compared to, you know, not every church is built the same way, but we came from Purdue where the centerpiece is a brick wall. You know
Lauren:Yeah, it really is.
Logan:And so having the stained glass and everything here is really nice. We'll see what else we get involved with over the years. Cause I always feel like different ministries call you at different times. And so right now, those are kind of the things we're involved with, but it's just a nice place to be. And, and like I said, I think we talked about this before the podcast and a little hinted at it that we're selling our house, but we we just finished building our home here in Zionsville.
Logan:So now we feel like we're even closer because physically, maybe we can pick up an adoration hour or something.
Christina:Yes. Please do.
Andrea:Christina, I can help you find lots
Lauren:of more.
Logan:So we do pop in, but we don't have an assigned hour yet.
Andrea:I think it's awesome that you do confirmation, especially since you made that decision in those like formative years of your life to become Catholic to then assist the kids that are sophomores making that choice. That's really neat.
Logan:Yeah, think it's all, especially for those younger kids, I think it's just all about letting them ask the questions that they want to because the worst thing you can do is shy away from something. Like if somebody doesn't know what the church teaches on hot button issue, then they're gonna go find the answer somewhere else.
Christina:Exactly So,
Logan:it's really good to have them ask those questions. So, we just had our confirmation class this past weekend, and the guys were asking questions about some ethical things. Guy felt like it was a stupid question, guess, but I was like, there are no stupid questions. And so, just feel free to ask and let's talk about it.
Christina:That's awesome.
Logan:Yeah, it was really good.
Christina:Wonderful. Well, we really appreciate you taking the time to It'll talk to be fun to watch you guys as your journey of faith continues in the parish.
Andrea:Yeah. Thanks for letting us get to know you.
Logan:Yeah. Thank you so much for having us.