Brad was called to the Buenos Aires West Mission in Argentina and began serving in January of 1996. During that time, I was just coming to the decision that I also wanted to serve a mission. I put in my papers and got my call in early spring to... the Buenos Aires West Mission in Argentina. I began serving in July of the same year.
Shortly after arriving in Argentina I attended my first zone meeting. The zone meetings of the mission would always be directed by the zone leader and he would call on someone to share a spiritual thought and on another person to share a rule from the missionary rule book. I don't remember much about my first zone meeting, other than the fact that there was this elder who wouldn't leave me alone and wanted to take his picture with me and all the other hermanas(this was not Brad by the way) and that there was another elder who shared the mission rule about whom, from the redish/orange tinge of the white shirt that was worn, his incompetence with laundry could be clearly deduced. This was Brad. Yes, we were in the same zone. During this time, he was miserable due to a companion that he didn't get along with too well. And me, I was still in the unpleasant first stages of the mission where you are trying to understand the language and culture of the place you are in and you miss the United States terribly. To top it off, my first companion was latin along with the other two sisters who roomed with me so I had noone who could truly empathize with my situation. I was just trying to survive. Because of our overwhelming situations at the time, we had little interaction with each other. Normally had either of us been in more amiable moods, perhaps we would have formed a friendship. I had Elders who were my friends in my different zones and he had sisters who were his friends (being friends is legal on the mission by the way). No friendship was formed though. I remember only two interactions with Brad during my mission.
The first was when we were together in that first zone that I have already talked about. One of the things that I enjoyed doing (and brought home back to me) was playing basketball on my P-day when there was a court available to play on. In Argentina, many times, the chapels don't have basketball courts. They have soccer fields/courts but in my first zone the chapel had a court. I didn't care if anyone played with me or not (and usually no one did). I just wanted to shoot some hoops. A few weeks into my mission I was playing and my ball got stuck between the backboard and the rim. We didn't have another basketball with which I could bump it out and we didn't have a ladder to climb up to get it. My only option was to ask an Elder to lift me up so I could climb to where I could reach the ball. Brad was the first Elder I saw and so I asked for his assitance. He lifted me up and I was able to get the ball. I didn't think any more of it after that. Apparently, having not touched a girl in almost a year, this made quite the impression on him and I got mentioned in a letter home. Knowing Brad, it was probably more in a joking tone than a serious one as he had a girl "waiting" for him.
 |
| My first zone in the mission. |
The second was when we both received new missionaries to train. When a brand new missionary from the MTC came to the mission and was your companion you were to attend a special meeting where all the new missionaries got their trainer. Brad and I both happened to be called as trainers at the same time. After the meeting we were both leaving with our companions when we bumped into each other. Brad, feeling the need to speak with me for some unknown reason, awkwardly said, "Hermana, I see that your hair has grown longer." Not knowing how to reply to such a strange comment I replied a little sarcastically, "Yes Elder, that's what hair does." I had to catch a train and was in a hurry to leave, so no continued conversation took place and I left Brad standing there feeling embarrassed for having said anything at all. He's told me as much.
 |
| The trainers meeting where Brad and I both received new missionaries. |
That's it...there's no more...no romantic sighs, no love letters back and forth...no knowing (or even thinking for that matter) that he was the one I would marry one day...nothing. I don't remember seeing him any other time on the mission. I did hear about him frequently from the latin sisters serving in my mission. For some reason, they all had a crush on Brad. I can remember one in particular, Hermana Candia (she was in my first zone with us and is in the picture I have of the zone), who spent an entire evening speaking of him and how much she admired him and wouldn't mind dating him after the mission. I remember because I thought it was strange to think of the Elders romantically. Unfortunatly for her, those romantic feelings were not reciprocated by Brad.
Brad returned home December of 1997 and I returned home one month later in January of 1998.
No comments:
Post a Comment