our story :: mel's version

Nine years ago, in the land far away called Mongolia, I met a young kid I only knew very formally as Elder Luangrath. We both served missions there, thank heaven, which gave us a great reason to find ourselves at the same table of a mission reunion four years after coming home. But that was three years ago, so between then and now is a pretty long story but here's a sum up:

While I was teaching at the MTC, I had two Mongolians in my class who were looking for "their missionaries." One of which was Elder Luangrath whose email address I looked up on the mission website (bless whoever it is who keeps that going). That first email finding his mailing address for the missionaries would be the start of a great friendship. For the first few years, our correspondence was pretty sparse... "hi, how's it going?", or "how's school treating you?"... every few months or so just keeping tabs. John was at UCLA, I was at BYU. Hardly the kind of situation for anything to happen further than casual conversation. :) Plus at that point, John was only into Laotian girls. As for me, my dating card was full of many many first & second dates and a few relationships.

Then in January of 2006, things started to change. I was still reeling from a mean breakup a few months before and John had just freed himself from a less than healthy relationship. He found out I was again unattached and made the first step by emailing me to see how I was doing, what happened and what I was plotting next. At that point, I was on my way to finding myself again and helping my little sister with wedding plans (bless her). Both of which spurned me on to make my sojourn of solitude for my 30th birthday to Hawaii. Lucky for both of us, the cheapest flight to Hawaii went through Oakland and since I hadn't ever been before, I created a 7-hour layover. I thought, "BART? Rent a car? I'll ask John his advice." Rather than advice, John and his sweet self took the day off to show me around his little town. And that started everything — May 9th which we fondly refer to as our first date. Eight months later, after many inspired packages, phone calls, emails and a New Year's visit (aka 4-day marathon date) the sparks flew and we knew this was definitely IT. We booked the temple for June 15, 2007. Who would have known nine years ago that Elder Luangrath would become John Dahling, my best friend who I get to marry and be with forever... FINALLY!