Clearing the Air (Part 2)

Continuation of: Clearing the Air (Part 1) . . .

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I, with my companions, taught and baptized one of their uncles and helped him and another to stop smoking.  In addition, as a District Leader in the area, my companion and I were determined to bring sheep back to the fold by going through the ward records and contacting everyone that wasn't attending either church or activities to see if there was any assistance we could offer.  While going through the records, we noticed that not everyone in this family was there, including this girl and her little brother.

Her little brother was baptized soon after when he reached his 8th birthday.  From information I had gathered from leaders in the ward, they weren't sure why the daughter in this family didn't have any records.  They eventually determined that something had happened in the Samoan Ward years ago and that she would need to be re-baptized, even if simply to create a membership record number.  This baptism followed soon after at the same time I baptized one of her uncles.

Fast forwarding a little bit, I returned home and, while at a family reunion, I received a call from this family.  They were so excited to speak with me, which seemed normal at the time.  Eventually, their daughter came on the phone and acknowledged that she liked me and the things I said in the letter about her family.  I was obviously surprised as I had struggled with self-confidence my whole life.

Going forward a few more months, my parents and I went to New Zealand to visit the people I had had the wonderful opportunity of working with in all of my areas.  However, when we went to visit this family, their daughter wouldn't even say one word to me, so I didn't push it.  It took me almost a month later to realize nothing real is forced when individuals are involved and I moved on.  I was dating other girls at college and slowly trying to boost my self-confidence again.  I don't think many girls realize how hard it can be for a guy to say anything to them, but luckily I had roommates that I could exchange "date-failure" stories with at the end of the day.

One day, I received a friend request from a beautiful girl down in Ecuador . . . that friend request changed my life.  That wonderful girl said hello to me and it was amazing how we just seemed to "click."  As you probably guessed, she is now my fiance and we are looking forward to a wonderful future together.  I will explain some of the incredible blessings the Lord has given us in another blog.  I had never had anyone that I could talk to about everything and not have to worry about what they thought about me.  I was so used to being judged that it was refreshing that someone would just listen and then share their thoughts when I had finished.

As most people can probably imagine, this beautiful girl was not without interest to the guys down there.  There is an American citizen that served his mission in Ecuador, a different mission than the one my fiance resides in, although.  He was living down there with his parents trying to help teach English to people down there and had his eyes on this beautiful girl for a long time, but no matter how hard he tried, he just wasn't what she wanted or needed . . . wasn't what she was looking for.


Continued in the following Blog . . .