How It All Began...

Derek and I met Sunday, June 12, 2005. We were in the same single's ward in Albuquerque, NM. I had just graduated high school and Derek had just returned from his mission to Japan 6 months before. He was currently attending BYU, but took a summer to sell security systems with his friends. Thankfully, their group of friends were sent to Albuquerque, which is where our story begins.

Derek was asked to give a talk in church on Father's Day. In his talk, he mentioned how his dad would grill steaks for their family on Father's Day. As he said this, the girl behind me said, "Mmm, steak." Her comment made me laugh and at the same time I laughed, Derek shot a glance at me from the pulpit. I felt so bad that he thought I was making fun of him in his talk, so I was determined to apologize after sacrament meeting. As I approached him to apologize, he looked confused and said he didn't even hear me laugh. He left for Sunday School. After church, he came up to me and asked if I'd like to go to his friends' apartment to play games. All the girls in my group of friends were upset because Derek was the Golden Boy of the ward and somehow, I won him over. What I didn't realize was, Derek had his eye on me for months before, but never mustered up the courage to talk to me. When I apologized after his talk, he said he wasn't prepared for me to talk to him first, so he was nervous. But I guess that gave him the courage to ask me to play games later.

We dated until the end of the summer, when I left for Eastern Arizona College and he returned to BYU. We were devastated to be apart, but a long distance relationship wasn't really in the cards for us just then. We drifted apart for almost 3 years. March 15, 2008, I got a text message from a familiar number. It was Derek! He wanted to see how I was doing in life. I told him I was headed to BYU in the summer and he was thrilled. He dropped his plans of selling security systems in New York so he could be in Utah when I'd be there. We were married in the Mesa Arizona Temple on November 1st, 2008. We were meant to be together.