After I arrived home from the mission, I just waited and hoped.
Fortunately, I didn't have to wait long, because Best Friend emailed me the next chance he could. Summarizing the next 10 months, we exchanged emails and letters (letters were more me than him...I had more time, not being a missionary anymore! Plus his letters never really made it to me....they are STILL lost in the mail!). About halfway through those 10 months, it was cheap airplane ticket season, so I had to decide if I was really going to see him when he finished his mission or not.
It was kind of like standing on the edge of a cliff, not knowing if I'd make it down okay or not. Well, I jumped. We hadn't said anything too specific in all our letters/emails, but it was pretty obvious that we wanted to pursue this past just a friendship.
Best Friend got home from his mission at the end of June, 2012. 10 days later, I was at the airport, and he and his parents were there to pick me up. Well, almost. After I got my bags, I just kind of sat and waited for a little while. You know when you are so nervous for something, you are literally trembling? That was me. I was in the heat of BAHIA, Brazil, and shivering. It felt like I waited an eternity for them to show up. I'd had months to wonder how that first non-missionary moment would be, and had imagined probably 1500 different ways it could go.
When Best Friend did show up, nothing went according to a single one of those 1500 ways I had imagined. IT WAS MAGICAL! Better than I could have dreamt up!
I spent the next 17 days in BAHIA with Best Friend and his family; I stayed at his sisters' house, so I got to know them and their kids pretty well. We had fun getting to know each other in real life, not in a mission setting. We were back to being normal people, living normal lives, no longer missionaries. That's always an adjustment. We never did anything extravagant...we were both broke (still are! haha), and we were in a small middle-of-nowhere town that didn't have a lot of options or places to go. More importantly than that, though, we are both simple people and were just happy to be together. After spending 2 1/2 weeks together, I had return to the USA. I still had 2 years to finish at college. We decided that we would see each other at Christmas. Best Friend would get a tourist visa and then spend Christmas with my family up in the northern hemisphere. It was a good plan.
And yet, saying goodby that dreadful day in the airport was one of the hardest things I'd had to do. I'm not sure how long I cried on the airplane home....
(trust me, this story gets more interesting in the next part)
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