Our Story

I don't think that I have actually written down the whole story about how Dan and I met. Sorry if this is too long, but I have to include the details and explain this very well so it doesn't seem like I was a crazy young woman waiting for a white guy to come get me out of my country :)
Everything began around November 1996 (we have known each other for a long time), we had sister missionaries in our area and they decided to take them out and bring elders in the area instead. One day they just showed up and introduced themselves. Dan did not talk much and I didn't make an effort since he didn't look very happy to be there. I didn't like him at first, he became good friends with mom in the next few months and with my brothers. It wasn't until my brother Nefi became very ill and my mom had to have emergency surgery that I got to know him and actually noticed that he was a great guy. He came everyday to check on my brother, he would sit by his bedside and give him blessings, I even saw him crying for him a couple of times. When my mom was gone they came to make sure we were OK, it was the simplest thing but it meant so much to me and my family. After that I decided not to be so mean to him and actually joked around and little by little I started to get excited about him coming over to my house, I would call every Monday from work knowing that he was going to be at my house writing letters to his family and the phone happened to be by the computer, he always answered the phone, after a while I stopped myself because of course that was just plain silly. One time I took his film to get developed and since I knew the missionaries didn't have a lot of money I didn't charge him and told him that it was fine. He just could not let it go and one day he brought me a bag of Skittles. I used to be one of the seminary teachers for my ward, and the kids just would not show up in the morning, I guess at some point I told him this and a few weeks later my students started to show up every day. I was so happy to have them there but had no idea what the change was, so one morning I heard some footsteps in the front of the house and after that a knock on my door, this happened every day, I opened my window one morning and realized that it was the elders dropping off the young men at my house and then they just took off running. I was so grateful for this great service and a part of me thought that maybe he was just doing that to impress me, but that is just the kind of guy he is.
When I realized that I was starting to have feeling for him, I decided to stay away from him, first because I didn't want him to see that I was interested in him, second because he was a missionary and there are rules and I just didn't want get in the way of his work and of course I was not going to tell him "Elder Brown I think I love you"... Anyways, I became colder and would not talk to them anymore, as soon as I got home I would go to my room if they were there. I guess after a while he got sick of it because he would do the same thing. One time I came back from work and he and his companion took off as soon as I came in the house. I was so sad because I really thought he disliked me. We still talked every once in a while but I tried to avoid him as much as a I could.
He finally ended up getting a transfer and we were all very sad, I thought it was for the best and just decided to try and forget him all together. My brother Nefi went on a mission and kept in touch with Dan for a long time, one day I got a letter from my brother asking me what my thoughts were about Elder Brown, I was in shock that my brother even brought it up, he said that Dan sent him a letter telling him about his feelings for me and since he was about to finish his mission he wanted to know what kind of hope was there, if it was even worth persuing some kind of relationship or something. I just could not believe it, my brother sent me the original letter and I probably read it a hundred times that day, I told my mom right away of course and she asked me what my feelings where, obviously I told her that I never thought he would be interested in me that way, but that I did have some feelings for him. I wrote my brother back and opened my heart to him, letting him know about my fears, my hopes and told him basically to tell Dan not to worry about the issue and just concentrate on his mission, to wait until he was all done an see what could happen. I spent the rest of the time daydreaming and at the same time told myself to put my feet back on the ground and realize that this guy was going to go back to home, to his country and would forget all about me. Well his mission ended and guess what, he came to my house with his parents, we had never talked about anything, we actually didn't even talk face to face the first time after he was released, his Dad was the stake president so he released him in Guatemala and he called me on the phone and he asked what I thought about what Nefi told me, he then informed me that my brother had sent him the letter I wrote to him in confidence, I felt like dying because I really had opened up my heart and told my brother in that letter everything. To Dan's surprise I also informed him that I had all the communications between him and my brother so we knew everything at that point. The next day they came to my house and I met his parents, I was so nervous but it felt good to see that it was not a dream and that he was really interested in me. We dated for a week, if you can call that dating, we were with his parents at all times, he could not propose, he would not propose to me out of respect for his parents but told me that he wanted to marry me and he was going to work really hard and come back for me. It was like a fairy tale, it was just perfect really.
After he left I was afraid he would not fulfill his promise, but he did, after a few months he sent a box with a friend and it had a little stuffed kitty cat, an engagement ring and a card where he proposed, it was so cute. I had to wait 9 months to see him again. He could not come back but he sent for me. I would never regret making that decision, I didn't think about anything else but seeing him again, we talked weekly and wrote to each other daily, thank goodness for the World Wide Web. There was never a doubt in my heart that he was the guy for me and the day I left home I was more happy than sad, I was not afraid for my future and was happy to make it all the way to Virginia on September 5th 1998. I will never forget coming out of the arrival doors at the airport and seeing him standing there talking to some guy and then when he looked at me he jumped over the metal fences and ran to me to hug me, it was just like in the movies. Then our journey together began. It has now been 11 years, I still get excited thinking about our love story and how everything developed, I am so grateful to have met him and that he served a mission, we are two pieces of a puzzle that just fit together perfectly and locked in place to never get separated again.
We have been through so much together and have grown so much together, we are not the same people we were 11 years ago, we are not wiser but we have learned so much and are proud of the things we have been able to do together. Our love is stronger and more special than it was then. If you ask me if we would do anything different a second time around the answer is no, not a single thing. So thanks again for all the wonderful years Dan, to all the people who didn't think we were going to last... we have definitely proved to them that we were meant to be together.