15 Years!! 12/29/08

This is our engagement photo...(the closest thing to a wedding picture I could find with all mine packed in a storage unit in Helena.) We celebrated our 15th Wedding Anniversary with a Chinese Food picnic on our bed & a movie on our computer. I know it sounds a bit low-key, but that's because we are planning to REALLY celebrate it when we go to New Orleans next month for the NADA Convention. If you want to hear my version of our story, read on.

We were both serving in the Ohio Columbus Mission. I was being transferred to my 2nd area, Lancaster, OH, to serve with a senior sister. All of the missionaries would meet at a church building in Columbus or Dayton and swap companions. That's when I met Reid. He was also serving in Lancaster. He came running up to me at transfers, threw out a hand to shake, & very enthusiastically said, "SISTER BRINGHURST!! NICE TO MEET YOU!! I'M ELDER GARRETT!!" It was quite funny & made an impression. We served there in the same ward for 2 months. We sisters had a car & the elders didn't, so we gave them rides quite often. We took them to do laundry & get groceries on P-Day. We had weekly dinner appointments together with ward members who lived 30 miles away. We picked them up for church each week. So we got to know each other pretty well. Elder Garrett had a girl waiting at home who was planning their wedding, & romance was NOT a part of our missions. I just remember thinking that I wanted to marry someone like him. He later said that he remembered thinking the same thing about me.

About 6 months after we had served together, my companion & I were visiting with Elder Garrett at a Mission Conference around Christmas-time. He was going home in February. He hadn't heard from his girlfriend in a couple months.

February transfers were right before Valentine's Day, so I sent a Valentine's card to his home address in Utah. Reid had arranged for a ward member in my area to bring me flowers for Valentine's Day after he was gone. The card said, "What do you think?" That's IT! It took me 3 hours that day to figure out how to respond, but we wrote weekly after that. He was a great support because he knew the mission rules & was determined to keep them. He always told me to "keep my mind on the work and the Lord will bless us".

We started dating when I arrived home to Idaho the last week in June, 1993. It was a bit funny at first because I wanted to stay an "arm's-length apart" & do Book of Mormon reading together since I knew his as a fellow missionary. However once I fell, I fell hard!!

Our first kiss was after attending the wedding of 2 fellow missionaries at the Salt Lake Temple. He was putting me in the car and leaned-in to kiss me. We missed...and I kissed his chin. He still says he wasn't leaning-in, but it will be an eternal debate. We had a good laugh, anyway.

He proposed to me October 23rd in front of the Seagull Monument on Temple Square, and we were married there at the Salt Lake Temple on December 29, 1993.

It gets better every year!! I love you, Reid!!