Anniversary Countdown Part I

Taking a cue from my friend Mindy who wrote a series of posts about how she and her husband met, I thought I'd do the same thing.

Friday is our 10th anniversary, hence the countdown ticker to the right. I've been thinking quite a bit about our love story. It's pretty rushed and, really, we started off pretty rough. But, since it's the Big 1-0, I thought I'd make it a theme this week. So, here it goes...

Preparing to Meet

In October 1996, a few months after graduating from high school, Josh's family moved from Tempe, Arizona, to Woodland Park, Colorado. He actually submitted the paperwork to serve a mission for our church from their previous home and his call to serve his mission arrived at his uncle's house in Colorado a couple days before his family did. He spent just a few months in Colorado before boarding a plane for Durban, South Africa, where he spent the next two years.

In October 1996, I was beginning my first year at Utah State University. I was in a somewhat frustrated state of life. I didn't really know what I wanted to major in and felt lost quite often. I mostly went to college to find a boyfriend, but that didn't pan out very well. And, all of my male friends from high school were all preparing for their own missions, so there went all of those options. I was pretty sure I was going to be a 19-year-old Old Maid. I began writing to my friends as they headed out on their missions. I was determined that even if I had to wait two years, I was going to secure a few dates. I sent letters to Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico. Czech Republic, and several other places throughout the world. At one time I think I had a dozen young men I was dutifully writing to (one was my cousin but that was just because he's my cousin--no date warranted there).

I barely made it through that year of college (special thanks to my dear, dear friend Tara!), and made a few hasty dating decisions during that time. I even said the "L" word to one boyfriend even though I knew I didn't. But, he said it first! It wasn't my fault and I came away having learned a lesson about love (and non-love). Because I was paying my own way through school, I decided to take time off until I knew what to study because I didn't want to waste money on indirection. I worked full time and the following February (1998) I decided to move with my family from Utah to Colorado. We ended up in Woodland Park.

Not long after arriving in Colorado my dad and I were asked to speak in Sacrament Meeting (in the LDS church the members of the congregation take turns addressing the entire congregation each Sunday). I got up and spoke and unbeknownst to me, my future mother-in-law received personal inspiration that I was going to marry her son. She immediately began plotting. She asked me if I would add her son, Joshua, to my list of missionary pen pals since she wasn't as consistent a letter writer as I was (still had a dozen possible beaus at this time). I told her I would, but he'd have to write to me first--what the heck was I supposed to write to this stranger about?

Back in South Africa, Josh was working hard and was in a meeting with several authority figures when the front office called back to the meeting and told him they thought there might be an emergency because his mother was on the phone (phone calls in the mission field are limited to Christmas, Mother's Day, and extreme emergencies). Josh worriedly answered the phone and was greeted with, "Elder Johnson, I met your wife today." After hashing out letter writing details with his mom as quickly as possible, Josh turned back to the rest of the room who were worried about what the emergency was. Josh told them his mom found his wife. They all breathed a sigh of relief and continued with their meeting.

Over the next few months Josh and I exchanged letters telling the other about ourselves. Josh told me all about South Africa and I told him all about my boring life in a small mountain town where the big thing was to hang out at the newly opened Safeway (true story). I definitely got the more interesting letters. Problem was, mail service to and from South Africa is very slow. It took three to four weeks for a letter to be delivered. Evidently he sent me a package for my birthday, but I never got it. I sent him a package for his birthday (complete with a whoopee cushion, fingerpaints, and a couple 3 Muskateer bars). I looked forward to getting mail from "The Johnson Boy" as my dad called him.

Around July or August of 1998 I decided I wanted to serve a mission also. I wasn't eligible to submit my paperwork for a mission for another few months (not until my birthday in September), but I let everyone around me know of my intentions. Somehow, before my birthday, Josh's dad asked me to commit to teach a religion class to high school student (Seminary) for the following school year and then consider a mission after that time. I say "somehow" because Josh's dad admitted later that he was trying to keep me around until his son would be home in January. There seemed to be a few conspiracies involved in all of this.

Near the end of his two years in South Africa, Josh served in the country of Swaziland. Because he was very isolated out there, his mission president allowed him to email (missionaries now get to email all the time). He was given permission to email me, specifically, once a week. By this point we had exchanged pictures (I devilishly sent him a headshot since it made me look like a hotty) and we emailed every Monday and wrote snail mail as regularly as possible.

December 1998, Josh was preparing to come home. His Visa expired the end of the month and although he would be short a couple of weeks of a full two years, extending his Visa was more trouble than it was worth, so he'd get to come home before Christmas. I was so nervous! Everyone at church knew we'd been writing and they knew he was coming home soon. All I knew was that I had spent several months writing to this guy that had a great sense of humor, a strong spiritual nature, and secretly excited me. I was very worried, but hoping, that this guy was the one.