Due to the massive influx of e-mails/comments I receive asking how I managed to survive 2 entire years without Will I decided a post like this just needed to be done!
**I will not take offense if you don’t read anymore of this post starting….. now*Hahaha but really…. this is for those girls e-mailing me wanting advice!
So for those of you who don’t know Will and I met when we were 15 & 16 years old and always knew if we continued to date we would have to spend 2 years apart while Will served his mission for the church.
Obviously we didn’t care to focus on the idea of eventually being apart tooooo much.. We just took each day at a time seeing where our relationship would take us. While reading my journal a couple nights ago I saw that I wrote that my heart began to start breaking thinking about his mission in April of 2010.
Thinking that we were about to be apart for two years would make my stomach twist in a way that I felt physically sick.
He received his mission call on May 5th and was supposed to report to the Missionary Training Center in Provo on August 4th to begin his mission.
Oh and guess what?
I was moving to Provo August 4th too for college… so that made things suuuupa fun.
Yes there were days that I would drive past the MTC multiple times a day in hopes I would get a glimpse of him. Yes I would send him fresh Cafe Rio or Del Taco because he could get it within 1 hour. Yes I would run into his companions at the health center and hyperventilate knowing they would be seeing him right after they saw me. And yes I would write him notes telling him I would be right by the Provo temple at a certain time hoping we could see each other but we never did. To be honest I absolutely loved having him so close.
On October 4th he left the MTC and flew out to Argentina to begin his mission out in the field.
I was lucky enough to have him call me while he was at the Salt Lake airport on his way out and that was the last time we spoke for 22 months.
I remember being SO incredibly happy that he called me but as soon as we hung up I just completely broke down.
It was official.
He was gone.
He was about to be 5,766 miles away.
After thinking about this post for some time… I have come up with a list of things that I did to help me throughout those 2 years.
Take them or leave them… but looking back these 10 things truly did help me the most!
1. GO GET AN EDUCATION
(preferably outside of your hometown)
Getting a college education while Will was gone was probably one of my smartest decisions for my life. I was able to move to Provo, meet so many new people, and start my adult life the second Will left. I loved having him come home and me having less than a year left of school! (I graduated college in 3 years). It was nice to know that when we would be married I would already be in the workforce and making some money for us!
2. TRAVEL
Realizing these could possibly be the last 2 single years of my life, all I wanted to do was travel! I had always wanted to do a humanitarian trip in Arica so I saved up and went! Then I went to Prague with my dance team which was absolutely magical. I also did little trips here and there like St. George, California, Lake Powell, Bear Lake etc.! Looking forward to a fun little getaway is always healthy.
3. JOIN A TEAM
Whether that be a dance team or a kickball team.. join a team! It’s fun to look forward to something each week and you might even meet some new fun people that will be your friends for life. Cougarettes kept me extremely busy and I loved the friendships I made with all of the girls! And then Intramural Teams at BYU… ya I’m just awful at sports in general but it was still fun to be involved and see all my friends once a week no matter what!
I also obviously loved how horrible we were at kickball….
4. ENJOY SOME GIRLS TIME
Since I dated Will all throughout High School I felt like I had a lot of girls time to catch up on. I loved going on girls trips, having girls nights, and even getting to know more girls than I ever have before. So definitely do that! Having a good group of girlfriends is good for anyone.
5. EXPERIENCE YOUR MISSIONARIES CULTURE
Since Will was in Argentina I loved trying Argentine bakeries and other foods Will told me he was eating. It was neat to get a little more of his current culture in my life back at home. It actually even made me feel closer to him.
If your missionary is stateside… get clever! There are always things to do that represent different states.
6. SEND MEMORY CARDS BACK & FORTH
Hands down one of the smartest things we ever did was send our camera memory cards back and forth. He would load his with pictures of him in his apartments and accompany them with videos. VIDEOS WERE THEEEE BEST. Will & I never talked on Christmas & Mothers Day so videos were like our saving grace. I would just replay them on my laptop before falling asleep… pathetic I know.
7. FIND THEIR FLAG
First off, Karli deserves a big, giant shout out for this one. Every single time I saw an Argentine flag while Will was on his mission we would RUN to it & she would take a picture of me with it. And I mean ANYWHERE. On a car decal, with someone wearing a Argentina jersey (always equaled an awkward encounter… we would just crack up), on a block that someone painted in Prague.. I mean it, anywhere! It made it so much fun to send him pictures and find flags everywhere possible. Just a fun little way to pass time 🙂
8. SPEND MORE TIME WITH YOUR FAMILY
Easily one of my favorite things was getting closer to my siblings while Will was gone. My sis Isabelle and I went to all of the temples in Utah before she left on her mission, Eliza and I lived in Provo together so we were together every second we could, Mitchell would come hang with me in Provo, and Jensen and I started our tradition of donut runs when I came to SLC. Siblings are the best when you are feeling down & lonely!
9. DATE!
Some of you may disagree with this one but this is something I firmly believe in. I think it is super great to date other people/see what else is out there. On Cougarettes there were so many girls with missionaries and I loved seeing how each of them handled it. Some didn’t date AT ALL, some did a little and some did a ton! However.. only 2 of them actually even worked out with their missionaries… so that was a huge lesson for me! Just because I had dated Will for 3 years did NOT mean we were bound to get married. Dating is great to learn more about yourself, more about other people and figuring out if your missionary really is the one for you! And if he isn’t… it’s not the end of the world. Never feel obligated to marry someone just because you dated them for over 6 months…………………
10. SEND FUN PACKAGES
I always looked forward to sending Will packages. I would think so hard about what would be cute to send and enjoyed going through the process of actually putting it all together and sending it. Cute ideas are everywhere! Will said getting a package was like Christmas EVERY.SINGLE.TIME.
11. STRENGTHEN YOUR TESTIMONY
Think about it… your missionary is going to come home on cloud 9 on everything & anything relating to the church. Make sure you are doing what you need to be doing at home and strengthening your testimony of the church like they are. Luckily I was attending BYU so I had so many neat religion classes that helped me feel like I had advanced my church knowledge and helped me understand the church more. My friends and I tried to go to the temple once a week and that was seriously such a blessing in my life!
And there ya have it peeps.
Hope that answered some of your questions!!
Love, liv.
Oh and it’s just really necessary for this picture to be included.
His companion sent me this behind his back.
Adios. I’m dead.
