Wednesday, September 3, 2008

The girl I left behind

If you want to stay focused on your mission, the best thing is to carry around a photo of your girlfriend. Susan sent me this portrait of her so I would remember her while I was so far away in Peru.

Fortunately it was an 8 x 10 so I didn't have it in my wallet all the time. In fact I kept it in my suitcase so I wouldn't get trunky. On p days I would treat myself to a peek at it.

After a few months she joined me on a mission. Slowly our love letters turned into mini-zone conferences where we'd share our experiences and talk about what we were doing on our mission.

I came home a month before she did but wasn't interested in the other girls. We had dated each other for five years by then and I wasn't about to start over with someone else.

Still, we were afraid to commit to marriage until we discovered how much we had changed by being apart for two years. It didn't take long to realize that we had both changed but we still had a great deal to talk about.

The rest is history.

5 comments:

"The Landlord" said...

WOW - with that long brown hair I thought it was Em at first glance! So, how long WAS it after you both were back that you got married?

Que Sera said...

I love hearing little stories about your courtship with Mom. It's kind of sweet to think of you guys being so twitter-painted, although it's not like you aren't now...

D and S Heaton said...

My twitter has never been painted, RMHC!
As for the courtship I think I proposed about a week after she got home (around the 1st of September) and we were hitched January 30th. Five months!

D and S Heaton said...

Actually we were engaged 10 days after I got home from my mission. My favorite part was our 1st date after I got back when we must have covered about 10 miles walking missionary-rate while we visited.

The other part is that it took me a while to call him "Doug." When he pulled over to give me the engagement ring, I opened it up, threw my arms around his neck and declared, "Oh, Elder!"
OXOXOXOXSH

"The Landlord" said...

Totally Cute!
Joe's comment with regards to mom's "Oh Elder" was a nice laugh followed by his famous "Re-dic-u-LUS!" :)