And so the story begins...

Where to begin where to begin? 

IM ENGAGED!!!!! Woah that still feels weird to say. 

Let me start off from the very beginning! In December I met the man of my dreams. Is it crazy to say I knew it the moment I saw him? Yes, that's crazy. But I did know there was something about this boy that was different. I met him at linger longer (dinner after church) just through mutual friends and the luck that he sat at my same table. I was in awe by his good looks in his very dapper fitted suit and black skinny tie. Looking handsome as ever. I went home after finishing eating to get ready to go to the Mesa temple to see the lights. I went with a group of friends that honestly I don't even remember who they are. While me and this mystery group of friends were talking to a missionary from France,  see the same good looking, clean cut boy I talked to earlier that day. I don't even think I remembered his name at this point, but I had to get his attention. And I did, and we stood there and talked until the christmas lights went off. I pulled a bold move and gave him my number. I never do that, but boy am I proud of myself. I invited him to a missionary farewell I was going to that same night, even though he didn't end up coming, we texted for days to come. I was casually going on dates with one of his close friends around this same time, and to my advantage, going on dates with his friend meant that I got to see him more. This pattern continued for the first month. Until Michael finally got up the courage to ask me on a date, and I SAID NO. Which in the long run I think is a good thing. I said no because I knew I was moving the next week, and I just wanted to spend time with my close friends and not meet anyone new. Also I DREADED dates. My mom sometimes offered to pay me to go on dates that's how much I got anxiety from them. 

So it came time to move. I moved to Idaho to go to school the first of January. But that's okay because he was leaving to the army January 7th. I didn't think this would be a big deal to me, until it creeped closer. Until I realized that this amazing guy that I could talk to for hours would soon be without a phone. There was about a week that he had called reception, a waiting period in hotels. I am so grateful for that week. That's when we really started to FaceTime and realize how much we were gonna miss talking to each other. 

I made a comment that it would be like he was back in the mission field but without the letters, and he said "oh no I can get letters!" 

And so the story begins. We wrote letters for three months. Everyday I eargerly checked the mail, with each letter I fell harder for this man. 53 letters later, I knew without a doubt that I wanted to marry this man.

So then comes Georgia. I knew there was no way I wanted to miss any opportunity I had to see him again. He graduated from basic training and I flew out there with his family [see previous post]. His family was perfect and he was perfect. Nothing more to it.

So I went back to Idaho to start a new semester of school, at this time he was in airborne school. To my relief, no more letters. He got his phone every night which gave us the opportunity to talk on the phone for ours on end. To record our longest one is from 7 pm at night to 9:30 in the morning. Straight. 

Thankfully after much anticipation and anxiety, he got leave to come to Arizona for Memorial Day. We weren't sure until the Thursday of, if he was going to be able to make it or not. But I thank The Lord everyday that he was. He met my family, and anyone that knows my family knows that if he loved me after that, we are as good as good. 

Saying goodbye to him after Memorial Day weekend was rough. I still didn't know when the next time I would see him would be. Living on a college budget doesn't really allow me to spend $500 on a ticket across the country every month. And with his schedule in the army, it's really limited on when I even could. He is entering a lot of training schools that he will soon be again cut off with no phone, and this time not even letters. The longest will hopefully be three weeks. 

What I was hoping was to go out there to North Carolina end of July after my semester, and that was a dream I wasn't sure when was gonna happen.