Written by Tonya in 2009
There may not be such a thing as “love at first sight,” because love is too deep and involved a phenomenon to happen all of a sudden out of the blue. However, I certainly believe that God can give us a little zing when we first meet someone, to at least get us started into that “crazy little thing called love.”
He zinged me when I first met Jacob.
The way it all happened was, once upon a time I went on a study abroad to Mexico and became very good friends with my study abroad roommate, Michelle. After we got back to Utah we started doing things together, and one Sunday I went with her to her church at Glenwood. After church and lunch we separated and did our own thing until we got back together later on in the afternoon.
As I wrote in my journal, “at 4-ish I went back to Glenwood for a potluck, which turned out to be the best thing of my life!” The reason, of course, was that I met Jacob there. Zing!
He seemed a really happy kinda guy with a good sense of humor, and I thoroughly enjoyed chatting with him as we stood around before eating.
Originally after we had our food and had sat down (he was on the couch opposite my chair), I was secretly hoping that Michelle wouldn’t tell him that I was leaving on a church mission in a month, because I crazily thought maybe something could happen with us, and if I went on a mission, I might never have a chance (even though deep down I was planning on going anyway). But to sink my heart, the first thing Michelle said when she sat down with us was, “Jacob, guess what! Tonya’s going on a mission in a month!”
Luckily, though, it turned out to be a good thing because Jacob seemed really enthusiastic about the idea, and we got into a good conversation about missions and such.
We finished eating and a bunch of us took off to a nursing home to sing for the residents; fortunately for me, Jacob went as well. My journal says “he kept grinning/smiling/turning to look at me while we were singing.” Except I couldn’t bring myself to look at him during You are my sunshine, because I was sure that when we sang “You’ll never know dear, how much I love you,” I would melt and turn bright red and he would think I was much too forward. Even so, as I wrote in my journal, “he seemed genuinely glad about me or something, so I just think he’s amazing and I want to be a good person around him.” Michelle and I apparently decided “we’re going to swindle him into marrying me next week, or at least have my number…”
That first week I told a couple people at work that I’d met the man of my dreams, kind of joking but kind of not. The following Sunday I went to Glenwood to sing at the nursing home, hoping he’d be there—but he wasn’t. When I didn’t hear from him or see him in those next two weeks, I decided maybe it was just a passing crush and I would just go on a mission as if nothing had happened.
However, a couple Mondays later, he called! I was tickled to death and hardly dared to believe it. He even asked me out on one date for a Wednesday, seven days before I was to report to the Missionary Training Center. Needless to say, I had a wonderful time. I remember thinking he was so cool about getting all excited about missionary work.
So I left on my mission and started getting letters from him, which turned into a regular correspondence. I never wanted to be too forward, seeing as how we had only gone on one date and I wasn’t sure how madly in love he really was. We wrote every couple weeks, somehow eventually getting into the pattern of writing every week; I would start getting sad whenever two weeks went by and I still hadn’t heard from him. I didn’t know how things would turn out when I got back, but I did know that every time I got a letter, I would always feel such a peace and happiness, accompanied by a thought like “I could marry this guy, I really could. I love Jacob, as much as you can love someone you’ve only been on one date with.” We never expressed our feelings for each other, although there were hints every now and again; he always wrote about what he learned or what spiritual experiences he was having, always inspiring me to be a better person and work harder on my mission. That was one thing I absolutely loved about Jacob.
A year and a half later, I got back from my mission on a Thursday, talked to him on a Saturday, and he asked me out to lunch on Monday.
That lunch appointment was quite exciting; I was so nervous before he came, I just sat in my room with my heart pounding, waiting for the doorbell to ring. When he finally came I yelled out “wish me luck!” before opening the door. There he was, the love of my life. Off we went to a taco place, where I was quite beside myself but trying to act as natural as I could. Luckily for me, he was excited as well, and after that first lunch date, we kept getting together almost every day, and I’ve been in lovey-dovey land ever since.
I swore I would never get all twitterpated and sillyheaded if I ever fell in love, and honestly I’ve tried to be reasonable about everything. The thing is, that’s been no problem at all because my head and my heart have always told me the same thing about Jacob: he is a happy, spiritual, smart, outgoing, humorous, caring, etc etc etc etc etc etc individual, in every way the person I can give to and love con todo mi corazón for the rest of eternity.
So of course, when we went on a hot air balloon trip in Eden “paradise” (a tiny town in northern Utah) it’s no wonder that I said yes I would marry him.
I love Jacob and am so grateful for him. I’m definitely the luckiest.