Heart of Life

I thought since it's Valentine's Day, I'd have Nate & I share our Love Story!  I feel like my blog is a non-stop gush-fest over Nate, so I'm going to have HIM answer the beginning questions for our post.  You hear plenty from me already!

Him: Nate

Her: Becca

Married: February 3, 2005

Mt. Timpanogos Temple, American Fork, Utah

Two Children:  Cameron (age 3)

Allison (age 1)

Our little interview, done on 2/7/10 as I plopped down on the sofa next to him:

B: Hey, will you answer some questions for me?

N: Sure.

B: Describe our marriage in one word.

N: Groovy

(I immediately crack up......)

B: What's the first thing that attracted you to me?

(we both laugh....cuz we met as missionaries!)

N: Well that's an inappropriate question.....just kidding.  Um...it was your eyeballs.  Just kidding.  Seriously, it was your eyes.  Then your bum.

B:  Oh geez, maybe this was a bad idea!!  Next, what's your best marriage advice?

N: Say 'I Love You' every day.

B: Oh that's good!

N: I love you.

B: I love you too.  Next....What do the two of us like to do in our spare time together?

N: (suspicious smirk....his eyebrows shoot up....)

B: No, not that....

(maybe this was really a bad idea!!)

N: We never do anything productive together.....we spend hours and hours watching seasons and seasons of 24 and LOST.

B:  Haha, you're so right.

N: And we like to play tennis, when we find the time.

B: Okay, that's it.  Thanks dude.

Okay....moving on!!

So here is the story of how we met.  I think it would be fun to hear BOTH of our versions....but today it's just mine:

Nate & I were both called to serve in the Korea Seoul West Mission for the LDS Church. 

Me as a missionary:

Nate as a missionary:

We both arrived in Korea in the summer of 2002, but didn't meet for a year.  When Nate first got to Korea, he was assigned to an area called "Boh-ng Chun".  There are usually 8-10 missionaries in an area. There, he became good friends with another girl missionary (called 'sister missionaries') because they both served in that area for 7 months.  Meanwhile, I was in other areas, and I didn't know either of them.  Every few months, all of the missionaries would get together for a big conference, so we all knew everyone's names, but unless you serve in the same area, it's not likely that you'll get to know everyone.

Here is all of us....can you find me & Nate?
I'm in purple, 5th in from the right.
Nate is 3 rows above me, over one to the left, kneeling.  He's the one in the suit & tie.....ha! We got to wear traditional Korean dresses for Christmas, it was really fun.

Anyway, fast forward about 8 months to Spring of 2003.  This sister missionary, who had served with and become close friends to Nate, she transferred over to my area, and we became companions (missionaries always work together in pairs of 2).  She would go on and on about "Elder Wood" and how awesome he was and what a wonderful missionary he was.

June rolled around, and Nate's birthday is June 2, so my companion suggested we get permission to take the subway to Nate's area and visit him....she also wanted to see some of the families she had worked with.  So on June 2, 2003, we rode the subway a few stops.  "Elder Wood", his companion, and a lady who they all had just baptized, met us there.  When I first saw him, I didn't think anything.....I mean, we were missionaries, I wasn't trying to check out the elders or anything!

We decided to go to Pizza Hut and bowling. I ended up sitting across from him at lunch, and I remember looking at him and sort of being hit with this feeling of:  "Wow, he is a really decent guy."  I thought he just seemed so nice and funny and sweet. We had a really fun afternoon. I'm a horrible bowler, and Nate tells me now that he thought it was adorable that I was so bad!  He got a few strikes that day, cuz he rocks.  We also all got stuck in the elevator leaving the bowling alley, it was funny (and kind of scary, cuz I HATE elevators almost as much as I hate airplanes!).

Nate trying to pry open the elevator door!!

So this is the fun part: That night, I wrote about our day in my journal, just like I did every night on my mission.  He did the same thing.  Here is what we wrote about meeting each other.

Becca's Mission Journal - June 2, 2003:

"Today was a fun P-Day.  Today is Elder Wood's 20th birthday, so Sister Pink & I went to BuCheon!  We hung out with their convert, and Elder Mattingly was there.  I had never really talked to Elder Wood before, but he is absolutely a gem.  I just loved the crap out of him - he's hilarious!  He's really shy and reserved, a lot like me, actually.  But he kept making these funny faces and saying these hilarious comments."

Nate's Mission Journal - June 2, 2003:

"We went to the station, and we met Sun Kyeong there, and Sisters Pink & Warner.  Then we ate at Pizza Hut!  They sang a song for me.  It was great!  Then we went to the bowling alley.  It was great fun!  Sister Warner is so cool!  I'm really glad I got to meet her.  She is so hilarious."

Can you believe that?  Straight from our journals, I swear!!  Yeah, I called him a 'gem'....I'm a nerd.

(By the way, P-Day means Preparation Day...once a week as missionaries, we had one day where we could dress down, do laundry, grocery shopping, sight-seeing, letter-writing, etc)

Here's proof:

So six more months went by.....we still never got assigned to the same area.  I think it's safe to say that we

both maintained a really high opinion of each other, but really never thought anything of it.  We'd talk at Mission Conferences, but that was about it.

I went home 6 months later, and Nate still had 6 months left.  He claims he thought about writing me after I left....but he had heard through the grapevine that I was dating someone, so he assumed I was long gone.  He was very wrong!!

Fast forward to June 2004. 

Nate comes home. He dates a little.  I'm very single. I date a little. I had sort of forgotten about him.

In July, that same mutual friend of ours invited a bunch of friends out for Korean food.  I lived in Salem, Utah and Nate lived in West Jordan, Utah...about an hour apart.  She invites both of us.  I arrive before Nate and am just hanging out.  Suddenly Nate walks in....um, hello Mr. Gorgeous!  I immediately had butterflies.  All I can say is that in the year since we last had hung out, he had really grown up.  He was SO HOT.  We weren't missionaries anymore, so I was free to check him out all I wanted!!!  So check him out I did...

We sat across from each other again.  We talked and laughed a lot....but he didn't know I was single.  And I thought he was WAY out of my league and assumed he'd never date me. (I was having some self-esteem issues at that time!)  Afterwards, we sort of lingered outside the restaurant.  He says now that he wanted to hug me, but was too shy. We go our separate ways.

A few weeks later, this same friend forwarded me something that Nate had emailed her.....so I copied his email address and wrote to him.  This gets fun because we have saved all of the emails we have ever sent from this point on!  They are hilarious.  Anyway, so I wrote him and was just all casual and "mission-buddy"-ish.  After a few emails, we quickly learned that we were both very single.  I still thought he was out of my league, but we set up a day to hang out in September.....me, him, and our friend.  The three of us, haha!  The day before we were supposed to all hang out, our friend cancelled.  I assumed the outing was off....but Nate emailed me and asked if I still wanted to do something with just him.

YES!!!

September 18, 2004:

Nate knocks on my door (he drove an hour down to my house).  I open it, and he's just so gorgeous, standing there smiling at me.  I still remember what he was wearing and just how yummy he looked. We went for a walk in the park, lunch, a movie, dinner, a BYU football game, talked nonstop about our adventures in Korea.....our first date was 9 hours long! 

We were engaged 6 weeks later.  Yep.  The details of those 6 weeks are pretty fun too.  But that'll be for another Love Story Sunday.

Here's an email that Nate sent to our friend about 2 weeks after we started dating:
"Things with Becca and I are just perfect. She is sooo awesome. The best! I just want to say thank you, cuz without you I don't think Becca and I would be together. I'm glad you invited me to eat korean that one night. It's kinda interesting, but that night changed my life. If I didn't go, I wouldn't have seen Warner, and she wouldn't have e-mailed me and we wouldn't be together. Thanks! I'm just soo happy!"

At a mission reunion, about a week after our first date.

Happy Lover's Day!
Go smooch your honey....I know I'm going to!!