Waiting for a
Missionary

This pic shows more of our personalities than our engagement ones...hahaha jk ;)
I haven't submitted my story yet, so I thought I'd do so!!! It's "Lynds" your trusty website creator and I am proud to say that I am a success story. My elder left in March 2005. While he was gone, I dated a little here and there but realized that I loved him and wanted to wait. I started this website and the facebook group and it helped me so much. I made lifelong friends, and I realized that waiting for a missionary IS a positive thing! I am so grateful I decided to wait.

When Dustin got home, initially things didn't work out. But a few months later they came together so well. So I really can see all different sides of the perspective. We were engaged in September and married in December 2007 and had our daughter in October 2009!!! Life is wonderful and I know I made the right choice to wait. Thank you for supporting our site, and enjoy the other success stories. For more information about me or my family, you can visit my blog on the left or the "Meet Lynds" page as well.

Sean and I went to high school together. We were both Seniors in high school before he left on his mission. I wasn't a member then but he sure did invite me to church a lot. When high school was done I think thats when it really hit me that Sean was really leaving for two whole years! I wasn't a member and didn't understand the whole mission thing. I REALLY did not want him to go. But if it was something he wanted to do I wasn't going to stop him. He got me to take some lessons from the missionaries but I just wasn't ready for that step so I stopped taking the lessons. As time went on I started going to school and working and Sean also got a full time job. It was very hard on us both not being able to see each other between him filling out his papers and I having tests and homework it got to the point that we only saw each other about once a week.

Then his mission call came! He got sent to North Coralina, Spainsh speaking. It was very bitter sweet. We had 3 more months together before he had to leave. They were the best months before he left. He stopped working after he got all the money he needed for his mission and made it a point to see me as much as he could. Then the day came that he was set apart, I decided I didn't want to see him at all just talk to him on the phone. After a week his family drove him to Utah and out of my life for the next two years. I was heart broken but glad he was doing what he wanted. I wrote him every week and I also got letters every week no matter how busy his week was. He took care of me the best he could while he was away I am so grateful for that! While he was away I still had TONS of fun going out swing dancing and going to school. Oh I also became a member - best thing I have ever done other than spending forever with the man I waited for!! The two years went by in a flash and before I knew it he was coming home!! When he returned it was like a huge gap that was there had filled up. Nothing changed between us we were in love and no one could change it! He ended up asking me to marry him a month after he got home. We married 3 months after that then moved to Utah! Then 7 months after we were married I found out I was preggo! Our first child is due Jan 4th, 2011. We will be married for a year this coming August. So As you can see our life is in the fast lane! I wouldn't change anything for the world! I still love waking up each day to the man that changed everything for me!

2 Years Worth Waiting For

So here’s some background to set the scene: My mom use to do daycare when I was 3, Daniel was 4. We have pictures of us when we were little. He moved shortly after though and in 9th grade we meet back up though one of my girlfriends who was writing him a letter in history class. I said that his name sounded familiar and she told me he went to our school. I didn’t believe her cause I know a lot of people in our school. So she showed me him after class. Since that day we got to know each other better and eventually started dating later in the 9th grade. We dated all throughout high school as well. So we dated 5 years than he put in his papers and he decided to call it off with me so that he could focus on his mission and he didn’t want to hold me back from having a life and being able to date others. It was hard for him I could tell in his eyes. He was called to Seattle Washington .

The night he got set apart I went to his house and on the way home I could do nothing but cry. He left the following morning. I got a phone call at 4 am from him and he told me he had to see me and I was like you leave at 6 and you know your not supposed to see me. I gave in and went to his house when I got there he was all dressed and ready to go. He gave me a blessing of comfort and that is why he wanted me to go there. It really made the difference although still hard. I wrote him every week on his mission as well as some of his companion’s lol. He wrote me as much as he could some times I got one once a week sometimes I waited a month. I know that he was just focused and you girls need to remember that. The first 6 months and the last 6 months were the hardest. He talked about extending his mission and it hurt I felt he didn’t want to come home and he forgot about me but really that is their life when there out there. There just focused and scared. The time FINALLY came and he was coming home. He told me in a letter he wanted me at the airport.

He got home and I was at the airport with his family I couldn’t do anything but just stare at him I was so nervous but the same time my cheeks hurt from smiling so much. He gave me a handshake and we both got teary eyed. He got home at 9pm and the stake president said if we got to the church by 10 he could be released so we hurried there quickly and he made it in time. The spirit was so strong and it was hard for me to see him take his name tag off he cried. I got my hug of course after he was released thanks to his brother putting us on the spot. Went back to his house to help him unpack and he was all missionary still it was quite funny. I went camping with his family the following week they planned it to help him adjust more and sure enough I got my first kiss up there and he asked for us to be official. I had to wait longer than I wanted after he was home but it meant more to both of us instead of just rushing, we wanted to make sure feelings were still there and not just though letters. He got home Sept 5, 2009 and we got engaged on Oct 2, 2009. I felt bad cause he called me at work and asked me to go to temple square with him in Salt Lake . I said I really didn’t feel good and I was kind of being negative. He said we really needed to go and there was a reason why it was so important tonight so I told him I would. The whole way down I was kind of tired and didn’t talk much so he didn’t either. We walked around and than we were standing in front of the temple BEAUTIFUL at night and seeing the stars. He told me how much I meant to him and than said he wants to be with me forever. He proposed and I was like “your kidding right” he didn’t pull out a ring so I thought it was a joke. He was like “No, will you marry me?” I said “you know I will” I don’t think I ever actually said yes ha ha. He then pulled a ring out and put it on my finger and I started crying and he couldn’t stop smiling he hugged me and I said “is this for real” I thought I was dreaming. Daniel pinched me and said “yes it is real your not dreaming.” We got married 5 weeks later in the salt lake temple on November 7, 2009 and we have been married for 8 months now J We have had up and downs just like every marriage has or will but he has been worth every minute of my time. Hang in there girls you can do it! And sorry this is so long!

Preston and I met our freshman year at BYU in philosophy class in January 2006. We fell in love over the course of 14 months of dating, and by the time Preston left for Portugal, I felt pretty sure that I wanted to wait for him.

We stayed close over the 2 years of his mission. At times it was really hard. I doubted our relationship and I was terrified that it wouldn’t be the same when he got home. But my theory in life is that things are hard, but you just have to get over it. People go through hard things every day, and my trials really weren’t comparable to some of the things that other people go through on a daily basis. That was the key for me. I have always had a great life and honestly had nothing to complain about. I was happy for those two years. I just kept the feelings I had and remembered that Preston and I wanted to get married and this was an important step in making that happen.

Preston got home in April of 2009. Our first week together was overall great. The feelings we had were still there, and the whole week felt surreal. We never really had to “redecide” if we wanted to get married. We just knew that we were going to. It was what we both wanted. So in June, Preston designed the wedding ring, secretly flew down to my hometown to ask for my father’s permission to marry me, and completely surprised me with a proposal on the rooftop of his Grandmother’s house, a place that was special to us before his mission.

We planned a wedding quickly and got married on August 20th, 2009. It has been a great first year of marriage and I’m so happy we stuck it out through the two years of a mission. He still is my best friend, and I hope it always stays that way. I won’t say that waiting is for everyone, because honestly, a lot of times it doesn’t work out…and that is ok. I don’t really like the term “success story,” because I always knew that if it didn’t work out, it is not like I am a failure, or like we just weren’t strong enough. Things have a way of working out the way they should work out, whether it is with your missionary or not. I’ve seen many girls who go through really hard times because it doesn’t work out for them, but then I’ve seen how they pull through and how their life turns out just the way it should. If you stay true to yourself and learn to be happy without your missionary, you'll be fine either way. Do things your way, and don't worry about what others think of you along the way. :)

Marriage is wonderful, challenging, growth-promoting, and beautiful! I'm grateful we did it at the right time, in the right place, and to the right person.

OK so this isn't my success story because well I still have a LONG time to find out for myself... But my brother Ty met his wife Dani the summer before his mission. They dated all through the fall till he left in December. He left on his mission with them still together. She wrote him faithfully and visited us every couple months. We were all rooting for her but it was silent as we didn't want to put pressure on either of them. We thought she was the type of girl that goes off to college and is married by the end of the year. Well she dated but never found anybody as good as my brother. A couple months before he got home he wrote her and said that when he got home he wanted to date other people just to make sure... She was upset but still waited for him.

When he came home she wasn't at the airport because she was driving back from Las Vegas. That night she came over to our house to pick him up so they could go clothes shopping. When he saw her he gave a huge hug and kiss. Then he asked where her coat was (winter ha ha) she said she was so nervous she didn't need one! So they went on their excursion. He told me a couple days later that after five minutes of being with her he knew she was the one! She bugged him nonstop about when he was gonna ask her to marry him he would always reply when are you gonna ask me? ha ha So after 3 weeks of him being home BAM! they were engaged and then married 3 months later!

My assistant coach's wife's mom waited for her dad. He was from Missouri and she was from Idaho and they met at BYU. He served in London. While he was gone he bought a ring and shipped it back to his house in Missouri. His dad then flew out to Idaho (she was back home from school) and proposed to her for his son. Ten days after he got home they got married! They were married for 16 years before he passed away. Sad, but she said they were so happy! And she said it was funny cause she said that he didn't even know how to count American money or really speak English very well cause he has been in London for 2 years 9 months (he extended...holy long time apart!) anyways i thought it was so super cute!

There is a woman in my ward who waited for her husband and she has helped me so much. She has kind of a unique story, she was a few years older than her missionary and had already served a mission by the time he left. She told me that she didn't have support from her family and that everyone thought she should just hurry and marry someone else instead of wait so long. But she told me, "You just have to follow your heart no matter what anyone else says." Now they are married and expecting their second child :) A young women's leader I used to have also waited for her husband. She said she casually dated while he was gone, but she says "he always had my heart", and I think about that all the time!