a relationship six years in the making: Mark

I met Mark during my eight week stint in the Missionary Training Center. He and I both served missions in Buenos Aires and were stuck in the same hallway for two long months. We became friends quickly because we already knew a bit of Spanish and felt a little ahead of our peers. Mark is a fantastic person and a crazy adventure man, and I feel honored to know him. He married his sweetheart over a year ago.

Neither of us is really sure how we met. We grew up 10 minutes away from each other going to different wards in the same chapel. I went camping and did scouting activities a lot with her brother, who is 2 years older than me. I also saw her sister a lot, who is my age, at dances and combined ward activities. Her uncle was even my bishop of my congregation! Every now and then I saw Kristin, who is 2 years younger than me, sometimes at church, sometimes at dances, sometimes in front of her house when I would play street hockey with her brothers and some of  other the boys in her ward. We never really got to know each other and we never went on a single date. When she was 16 her family moved to Nevada. I was 18 and about to go on a mission. About 6 years later we ran into each other on campus a few times and she invited me to her 22nd birthday party where we finally got to know each other. The rest is history.