How it began

Our story began more than 6000 miles from here, in a city called Curitiba, Brazil. We met each other while serving our missions there. BJ remembers seeing me first, randomly at different meetings, but we were formally introduced at a concert that the missionaries participated in. We were placed next to each other in the line to enter the stage, and stood near each other while on stage. In between rehearsals we struck up conversation, but made sure to keep it proper and professional, although BJ, to this day, still swears that I was hitting on him when I was just being nice. We didn’t see each other for several months, until mission reorganization placed us in the same district, we then saw each other several times a week at meetings. As fate would have it, transfers came, and we were separated again, me to one side of the mission, BJ to the other, neither one of us thinking we would see each other again. Until that is, two transfers later and I was packing my bags to go home, I make it into the mission home, and who should I find there with a hurt knee going home as well, none other than Elder Myler. Turns out that the area he went to was renowned for finishing off knees and ankles with its hills. So there we were, sitting next to each other on a long flight back to our homes. Neither one of us could sleep much on the plane, so we passed the time by talking, as well as playing dots (BJ will never admit that I beat him every time). BJ told me stories about the nephews and family that was waiting for him, as well as the things he was planning on seeing and doing when he got back to his home town of St. Louis, MO, especially a trip up to Nauvoo that he was planning on taking later in the summer. Hearing this piqued my interest, I had wanted to visit Nauvoo. Now I had the opportunity to do it with this fun guy I was sitting next to (the sister missionary in me was already wearing off).

Needless to say, a few months later, I and my younger sister Heather boarded another plane out to Missouri to spend the weekend with BJ and his friends, in Nauvoo. During this time BJ hardly left my side, as we toured the sites, as well as attended the temple. We talked a lot, mostly in Portuguese, and discussed how we felt since coming home. On the drive back to the airport, BJ told me that he really liked me, and asked if he could see me again while he was out in Utah for a friend’s wedding, I of course said “SIM!!”. Two weeks later, BJ was the one boarding a plane, and this time we would get to spend the entire week together, it was like a dream come true. Our relationship continued this way, one of us flying out to see the other, until a weekend in October when my Mom stopped by my work to visit. She said that there was a surprise for me in the back of the van, lo and behold, there was BJ, come to see me with a special surprise, BJ came into my work with a rose, and a ring. I of course said “SIM!!”. Seven short or long months, depending on who you ask, later, we went back to the Salt Lake Temple to be wed.