How We Met :)

On May 12th I left the United States with three of my best friends. We were headed to SWEDEN!!! Of all places... for the whole summer. We knew some LDS people that we could stay with for free, and nanny their kids once in a while. 

Our first week there the people we were staying with mentioned a birthday party we could attend, and meet some people that were LDS and involved in institute. Little did I know what impact this birthday party would have on my life! When we first walked in, we were surrounded by loads of fun people around our age. We had NO idea what to expect!! We had a lot more fun than anticipated. While we were sitting there eating cake and meeting people, in Joel walks. :) I reeeeeeally wanted to meet him.

Later that week (I had only been here for a little more than a week) I was chatting with the lady who I was staying with, Amanda. I asked her out of all the guys I could have of slight interest, who she would pick. Of course she picks Joel, and not to mention her family is family friends with his! We facebook stalked him for more than an hour.

We had been in Sweden for about four weeks, and I was able to officially meet him. I went with my friend to the institute graduation, where we heard there would be dancing afterwards! And of course Joel was there. I got to be the lucky one to sit next to him :) We chatted for a little bit, and might have flirted... nothing out of the ordinary. I do remember him mentioning he had four brothers, as I have four sisters.... Which is VERY rare in Sweden to have large families. Two is large and three is definitely pushing it! 

Nothing much happened after this encounter, and I decided there was not much interest and to just put it all to the back of my memory. 

Weeks past, and I kept on meeting people and having a fun summer! It was mid July by this point, and we were more than halfway done with our summer. I finally got the chance to really talk with him at institute on a random Monday! We talked about the differences and similarities between Sweden and the States. 

I get home later that night to an email via facebook from Joel!! And this is what it says, "Hey! I don't have a phone number to reach you so I suppose Facebook is the way to go! What are you doing Saturday? I just came up with a great idea for a date! (If you let me take you out, that is..) So what do you say? Around noon-ish?" You could say I was freaking out. At institute I wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary... was I? I was just talking with him, I was not trying whatsoever. 

We go on our date that Saturday. Oh, he knows how to date. He lives ten minutes away from the ocean... We road a boat out to one of the islands, walked around, flirted, ate the picnic lunch he packed, went swimming (and he happened to playfully push me in the water as well)... we just got to know each other. And we had a BLAST. Our first date happened to be 9 hours long, and I wasn't tired of him! A first date that was 9 hours long?.... Yeah. At this time in our relationship we were just friends. There wasn't any pressure to date seriously, or anything along those lines. It felt so natural, ya know? What could possibly happen in my last four weeks in Sweden anyways??

Well he asked me out again for that next Wednesday. I wasn't sure what he was thinking at this point with him asking me out again. Did that mean he's interested? What was he thinking?!

Our next date was even more interesting and fun! He cooked me dinner (he LOVES to cook. added bonus for sure!!), we talked, and walked to the ocean. Just getting to know each other better, once again. As we were sitting on some rocks watching the sunset it hit me how comfortable I felt with him, and I wasn't put in a weird position at all! Like I said before it felt incredibly natural to be with him. Little did I know I had missed my last train to go home, so we headed back to his apartment. All night we had so much fun, once again! Never a boring moment with Joel. :) And this date ended up lasting 12 hours! The next morning we watched the sunrise, and soon after that I caught my train at 5:30 a.m. After being with him for 12 hours I didn't want it to end!!!!!

That coming weekend I was headed to Stockholm (which is 6 hours away) with some friends to tour and shop, and surprisingly enough he was headed there as well for a weekend-long boxing camp.

During that weekend I started receiving texts from him saying how much he missed me, and wanted to see me again. You could say I was shocked!!! Was this incredible man really paying this much attention to me? This never happens.

His camp ended and we were going shopping on Monday. He invited himself to come with us!!! We were shopping for our families' souvenirs because we were headed home in a few weeks, and he joined us. During our 7 hour long shopping escapade he walked closer and closer to me, and eventually started walking with his arm around me. I was on Cloud 9. He didn't complain once about shopping, in fact we had too much fun trying on clothes for each other! Once it was time for him to leave he kissed my cheek goodbye. Now what on earth did THAT mean??!

The next day was Tuesday, and all the Young Single Adults in Europe and Scandinavia were invited to a week long camp called Festinord, and that lasted until Saturday in Stockholm. Festinord is nicknamed "the meet market" because it is known for the YSA's to meet their future spouse there, because LDS young single adults are scarce enough as it is.

Let's just say we were glued at the hip all week. And that Tuesday during the nightly dance we hopped the fence of an outside aquatic center and talked about our relationship, mainly where we stood. I was leaving in a week and a half...!! Luckily enough we were on the same page about skyping, and seeing how it goes... like whether or not we would missed each other etc.........

We were lying on the ground, and eventually though this talk we got closer and closer until we were cuddling.

Then he kissed me :)

It was so perfect, I couldn't believe this was happening to me. His mouth tasted soooo sweet, I didn't want the moment to end!

Days past, and he saw me off at the airport on August 6th at 6:30 a.m. I was bawling. I numbly got on the airplane, I have no idea how I did it. Oddly enough I was comforted, and I knew that wouldn't be the last time I see him.

We've been skyping 5-6 times a week, and eventually we started planning a day when he could fly over and officially meet my family. 

He flew in late in Sunday the 18th and proposed to me four days after he got here!! We are planning on getting married in June, because of time- mainly being able to get work off for him and his sweet family. 

Well, there ya go. That is our story :)