Oh the mission decision...By K & J

Jake's Side of the story:

When I think of my mission story there are a few decisive moments in m life that really influenced me to go. Growing up as a member of the church, I always answered yes when I was asked if I wanted to serve a mission but all along I was never sure that I actually wanted to go. The overshadowing aspect of wanting to be a Division One athlete always loomed over my desire to serve a mission. When high school came around and all my siblings started to go on missions and came home, I saw the light that they came home with and the change in heart that their mission brought. This of course made the decision of playing college sports even harder , but in the end that was the decision I made. I agreed to play at Oregon State University for four years and with that decision came the thought that I would probably never serve a mission. Little did I know that within four or five months of being at OSU my decision would be completely shaken, making me unsure of what I wanted to do. The first defining moment that really made me want to serve a mission was the death of my mother earlier this year in January. My faith was shaken and when I was at the lowest point in my whole life, I turned to heavenly father for answers. I asked if the church was really true, and if I would ever see my mother again, and without any delay in response, I was given the answer that I most definitely would. I felt her presence around me constantly and after solidifying my testimony of the gospel, I decided that if I knew that I could always be with my family forever, that I wanted to tell others that they could always be with their families forever. I want to be very clear with this. My mother dying is not the reason why I am serving a mission, however the truth of knowledge and the strengthening of faith that I gained from her passing is what has pushed me towards having a stronger desire to go. As time passed and I headed home from my freshman year of college, my life plateaued spiritually and in many of the relationships I had made. It was hard being home where my mom had always been an due to this, negative feelings and depression crept into my life. I had no motivation to start my papers, and I had no one in my life that helped me want to become a better person. Then on July 6th 2014, all those things changed when I met Kortney Peterson. Her personality and her desire to live a wholesome lifestyle brought me back to reality and helped me refocus on what was important in life and why I really needed to go on a mission as soon as possible. This of course was a process that took place over time as I was home and as I attended BYU Hawaii in the fall. She is the person who has had the largest impact on me and my decision to serve a mission. The last thing that really had an impact on me serving a mission was attending BYU Hawaii and being around older men who are far more wise because they served a mission. Being around people who have the true light of Christ has helped me immensely.    

Kortney's side of the story:

After a while of Jacob and I hanging out daily, he had kinda talked about maybe going on a mission. And by him saying that, I was so excited! I love missionaries, and what they do for the world, and what they do for our church! It honestly makes me so happy! So to know someone that I cared about, was wanting to serve one, was so awesome to me!

But I could tell that he was kinda in the air about it still. I wasn't quite sure why, but I was going to do all I could to get him out on this mission! A few weeks into knowing Jacob, his older brother, Nate, called the home phone. He is in the air force, so he wasn't currently living at home. After he got done talking with his sisters, he asked if he could talk to me, So of course, I answered the phone! As he was talking, he asked my name, and a little about me, and then one thing I always remembered talking to him about, was me making sure I don't keep Jake from going out on his mission! And of course, I would never. But I made that promise to Nate. And ever since that promise, I made sure that a mission came up more in our conversations, and that we would go to church, and institute, and other church activities together to keep our relationship spiritual based. As time went on, and as we did those things, he really did start talking more and more about a mission.

When he left for BYU Hawaii for soccer, and I left for school in Provo, Utah, the long distance began. It was harder to talk because of our busy lives, but I always made sure that the mission was brought up as much as possible.

About a month ago, in October 2014, was the first time I really saw him begin to act on his mission planning. I could see his side of things to why he was having a harder time leaving. He's on full ride scholarship for soccer. Why would he want to stop that and go on a mission? He has so much going for him in the soccer world! But, he finally got down, and saw what he could do serving the people, vs himself. He explained how he wanted to serve. Even though it will be extremely hard. But also how he is now so excited about it!

Because of school and my business, I am not as able to leave on a mission myself as I would so very much love to. I talked to Jake about this, and he explained to me, that he is going on a mission for himself, the people, and for the Lord of course. But, he is also serving it for me. He told me how, without meeting me, he's not so sure if he would have gone on a mission. But because of my influence to try to get him out to serve, he is also serving for me. Each person he helps, each person he converts, it will be as if I was out there serving, and helping the people as well.

His papers are sent. His availability date is set at January 20, 2014.

My heart and mind are flying in so many different directions. It will be so hard loosing not only my boyfriend, but my best friend for two whole years. Limited to hand written letters, and once a week emails. But it is what is best, and what should happen. I am so beyond excited for him to go out and serve the Lord. I know without a doubt he will be great!


It will be hard. But it will be worth it. <3

Story of how we met...By K & J

Jake's Side of the Story:

8:15 rolls around and I hear the sounds of heavy steps coming down the stairs which could only mean one of two things; either Josh was walking down the stairs after eating breakfast, or it was my dad coming to wake me up to go to early 9:00am church with my family. Nothing sounded more emotionally draining than to go to the Ward I had grown up in with my family but without my mom. Last night was a rough night and I woke up three or four times in which my thoughts immediately turned to my mom. I wasn’t wanting to face the fact that my mom wouldn’t be at church with us the moment I realized it was my father who opened the door. He walked in and said “are you coming with us, because if you are, we are leaving in 30 minutes for church.” I rolled over with no response, having no motivation to even get out of bed and walk through the house that throughout my lifetime was constantly filled with the love that my mother had filled it with. Now the hallways seemed more like empty corridors and the kitchen seemed like an emotional dungeon. The living room felt more like an empty space without my mom’s decorations that she always put up and the way she constantly moved the furniture. Everything had changed within 6 months of her being gone. I decided to go back to sleep to avoid the rush of emotions that came when I was awake within the house. 

“Knock Knock Knock Knock Knock” I rolled over and looked at the clock, rubbing my eyes and focusing in on what time it was. It was 12 o’clock and Ariel was knocking at my door asking if I would go with her to singles ward because she didn’t want to go alone, being a newly returned missionary of a month or two.. She turned on the light and I covered my eyes, avoiding the light. In a muffled unmotivated tone I grumbled, “sure, but I get to drive”. I reluctantly rolled out of bed and went over to the closet, thinking of what I would want to wear to the singles ward. I was instantly frustrated when I realized my short sleeved white shirt was dirty from food I had spilt on it the previous week. I hesitated when grabbing my long sleeved white shirt because the last time I wore my long sleeved shirt was at my mom’s funeral, and the tie that my brothers and I had worn together in memory of her was draped over it. I thought to myself, “I really don’t want to be emotional all day, so I’ll wear something else.” I grabbed the goldish-yellow shirt hanging at the end of the closet, my black pants, shoes, socks, and a flower tie that was given to me by my grampa. I snagged the towel from off the door and took a quick shower upstairs. I got dressed and made my way to the kitchen with my tie in one hand and my scriptures in the other. What to eat, what to eat,........hmm I settled on my go-to breakfast that I ate every day of college last year. A pack of apple cinnamon instant oatmeal with a large scoop of crunchy peanut butter. I remember Ariel calling from the bathroom where she was working on her hair asking, “can you make me something to eat, we need to leave and I need to spend a few more minutes on my hair?”. I looked down at the bowl in my hands and then decided to just give that to her. I really wasn’t in the mood for breakfast anyways. So I handed her the bowl a few minutes later and we walked out the door to the van parked in the driveway and after I opened the door for Ariel, I climbed in and safely drove to church. 

We got to church right on time and we sat somewhere near the back, and I remember feeling odd because I was the only male in the whole sacrament meeting that wasn’t wearing white. Did I care? Not really. My reasoning was sound and other people’s opinions meant nothing to me that day. During sacrament meeting, I don’t really recall what was talked about but I remember looking around the congregation and reasoning with myself on why I never came to that singles ward. It was literally the first time I had been to that singles ward since I graduated high school and I knew that I wasn’t ever probably going to go back to that ward unless I wanted to sleep in again and go with my sister in the next month or so I had before I left for school in Hawaii. Sacrament was about to end and I was thinking about asking Ariel if I could have the keys so that I could drive home and then come pick her up when the meeting was over but I had a strong prompting that I needed to stay. I wasn’t sure why, but I decided to stay. Sunday school was very average and because the teacher that was assigned to teach that day didn’t show up, the sister missionaries took over and gave a half put together lesson, which consisted of them asking a million questions. That’s about all I remember about sunday school. Then along came Priesthood meeting and the awkwardness continued. The topic of the class was aimed towards returned missionaries who needed to get married so I remember sitting there the whole time thinking about how I have never even met anyone who I could ever like enough or love enough to even have any thoughts of marrying. I couldn’t wait to get out of that class and get to the munch and mingle that was announced at the beginning of Elders Quorum. Food was all that I could think about. 

As soon as Elders Quorum was over Ariel talked to some of her friends for a while so I had to sit and wait, so I pulled out my headphones and started listening to music, not paying attention to anyone who was leaving the building. Ten to fifteen minutes later when Ariel finally stopped talking I drove us to the Huckstep’s house across the street in the neighborhood where the munch and mingle was being held. We parked down the street a ways and walked fifty yards or so down the street to their house. We walked around back and I after briefly scanning the crowd, I found my friend Cody and went to talk to him while the line died down. He and I talked for a while and caught up on each other’s lives because it had been a year or more since the last time we talked so that was nice. When I asked him who he was dating or interested in he said, ” not really anyone at the moment.” After asking a few more follow up questions about girls and dating he said that, “there was a girl that randomly came today that he was going to try to talk to” and that I should be his wingman. I asked him where she was and he pointed over to a girl that I had never seen in my life that was standing with a plate of food in one hand and a cup of water in the other. I took one look at her and knew she was out of my league. She was wearing some bright teal six inch high heels, she had beautiful curly blond hair, and had on a flowy loose fitting top on matched with a pencil skirt. To top it all off she had on a flowery type headband that at the moment had pushed her hair up so that it made it look like she was a mushroom head. I knew just from the few brief seconds that I looked at her that she was way too good for me and to this day I still agree with that statement. I glanced back from her to the food many many times because of how pretty she was and thought to myself maybe I should go talk to her, but I couldn’t think of any good reasons to. 

Cody and I hurried to get our food in the line and as we finished up making two burgers each, I turned to him and said, “look man, she is sitting at that table and there are two empty seats next to her, you got this one, I’ll be your wingman and you can get her number”. So we went and sat down next to her. When we got to the table we placed our plates on the table and reached out or hands after saying hi and introduced ourselves to the beautiful young lady. I said, “hi, my name is Jake” and waited for Cody to finish introducing himself. From the minute I sat down to the minute I got up to answer the phone call 30-40 minutes later, I only took my eyes off her to make sure that my food was making it to my mouth. I honestly don’t remember much of what was talked about because I was so captivated by her beauty and especially her piercing blue eyes and her bright white smile. Everything about her seemed almost angelic. Although most of what was said in the conversations within that short period of time I didn’t remember, I do remember making a mental note that her name was Kortney and that she was from Nampa. The whole time we talked I was waiting for Cody to ask for her number, but in my head I was just thinking of reasons why I could get her number. During some part of the conversation, I asked what the the reason behind why she came all the way out to a Boise singles ward was and her response was “because she was getting tired of her singles ward back home and because she wanted to meet new people”. That was it!! I knew I had my in on how I could get her number without just asking for it because I was so intimidated by her beauty. A week earlier my friend Sawyor had asked me to go to his singles ward with him the following week and I had agreed to it. After finishing eating and talking for a while longer we all stood up as if we were ready to leave and I saw my window of opportunity quickly closing. I awkwardly pulled out my phone while making small talk to keep her around and acted like my friend Sawyor had just told me about his singles ward the next week. I said, “hey if you want to go to a different singles ward next week, my friend just invited me and we could go with me?” she surprisingly said yes and I said, “why don’t you put your number in my phone so I can tell you exactly when it is”, which was such a lie because I already knew when it was, I just wanted an excuse to text her. We said goodbye and hugged and she walked away and while she did I let out a sigh of relief in pulling it off! I got her number!! Ariel was ready to go after that too so we started walking around the house to the car and as we got out to the road I saw Kortney drive by and once again I felt a prompting that I needed to talk to her and get to know her. And I wasn’t about to ignore that prompting, especially because I already wanted to talk to her. A part of me felt like everything that happened that day happened for a reason. My emotions went from being depressed and downtrodden to me being the happiest most excited guy because I literally felt like I had just met and angel! That was the day I met Kortney Peterson, and that was the day that my life was completely changed and took a turn for the better. 

Kortney's side of the story:

On July 6, 2014, I woke up around ten, on a warm summer morning. Nothing to eat for breakfast, because it was fast sunday. I threw on a skirt and shirt,  I was in a hurry to get ready, so I quickly did my hair and threw a flower headband on to keep my bangs from going crazy all day! Finally I headed out for my weekly LDS singles ward in the Nampa, Idaho stake that started at 11:00. In my ward, the order of meetings went first, Relief Society, second, sunday school, and last sacrament meeting.

11:00 rolled around, and it was time for relief society to begin. As I looked around the room, I noticed that all of these people were the same people I have been surrounded by for years. I just graduated high school, and I was still stuck in it for still being surrounded by those who I have been for years. Eventually, this thought kept building and building in my mind. Why am I here? What am I doing here? Why have I been stuck in this little bubble for so long?

I couldn't handle it one second more. I quickly reached down to my purse, and got my phone out in the middle of relief society, opened my google app, and typed in "Boise LDS Singles wards"(Boise is about a 30 minute drive from my Nampa ward). To my amazement, a ton showed up! So, like I normally do while picking a decision, I looked up, closed my eyes, and had my finger roam back and forth over my phone, and randomly pressed down on one of the many singles ward links. This singles ward I had selected, started at 1:30! Score! "I AM GETTING OUTTA HERE!" Is what came to my mind! I asked a few friends around me if they wanted to leave with me for this adventure, and they all said no! So, with my strong willed, independent 18 year old self, I got up, went to my car, stalled for about an hour, and drove to the Boise stake center where the ward was being held at.

When I arrived at about 1:20,  I thought to myself, "PERFECT! I'm a little early! I will just sneak on into the back, and not be noticed." Well, turns out the website was wrong. Church started at 1:00, instead of 1:30. But it was fine, I decided to still sneak in anyways.

As I walked into the meeting room, things were just fine, until I look at the back rows...all full! So now I am late, the bishop is up bearing his testimony to get fast and testimony meeting going, and I'm walking through the isle, trying not to trip over my high heels, in front of everyone, I stumble, and then my SIRI goes off "WHAT CAN I HELP YOU WITH!?"...The bishop stops mid sentence, and gave me what I thought felt like the biggest glare that your mother gives you when you are in trouble. (We all know that look). Then I quickly shuffled into the bench, all by myself, with a pink face full of embarrassment. I felt so lame. Then of course...SIRI likes to ask "WHAT WAS THAT AGAIN?!"...quick glance from bishop again....Are you kidding me? Here I am, just so embarrassed, and wanting to leave. But I made the somewhat long drive to Boise, so I might as well just wait it out.

Sacrament got over, and I followed the biggest herd of people, to one of two Sunday school classes. During Sunday School, I met a few guys (whose names I have now forgotten) That invited me to go to the Ward "Munch and Mingle" to eat dinner after to break the fast. At this point, I wasn't really up for going to the bishops house to eat, when I felt I ruined all of anything during the first meeting, but I told them I would think about it. And I had already gone to relief Society, so I was just going to leave after sunday school. Especially because I felt like such a crazy lady still, from my siri in sacrament, I was not wanting to stay longer at all. But they basically gave me no choice and said "You are going! Meet us out front after the last hour of church!"....Well shoot. Now I had to go.

During relief Society, a bunch of different girls came up to me, inviting me in, and meeting me. Like they usually do in any relief society group. One girl in particular that I remember, named Ariel came up to me and offered for me to sit by her. So, I did. She made me feel very welcomed. In Relief Society, the lesson was full of us picking different songs to sing, and explaining how they help us feel the spirit most. I remember Ariel had a very beautiful voice! And grateful I got to sit next to her.

After church was finally over with, I met those couple boys outside, and we made our way to the bishops house. The bishop had a very beautiful yard that tables and chairs were set up in for our gormet dinner of hamburgers and hot dogs! As the two boys I came with, left to help flip burgers, I sat alone at a table, wondering why the heck I was there. So out of my place, I knew no body, I was just wanting to go home. But then the food was ready, so of course, I got up to stuff my plate! I mean...who wouldn't? Its free food!

I got my plate of food, and made my way back to the table. I was sitting there, when all of the sudden a few boys sat down, and began talking to me. One of the boys names was Jacob! A red head, with one of the best smiles around! He talked about his family, and apparently Ariel, from RS was his sister, how he plays soccer, and I talked about how I played soccer the past year, and we just began talking in normal conversation. I remember I could not even stop smiling while talking to him! There was something bout this boy that was special. The conversation eventually lead to him asking, "Sooo...why are you here in this ward? Visiting family? Or what? " And I responded to him saying something like "I am just from Nampa, but I got bored! And I wanted to start visiting other singles wards just for fun before I left for Cosmetology school in Provo, Utah in August." And he thought that was cool, and explained how he was going to go to his other friend's singles ward the next week as well, and if I wanted to come! *INSIDE I WAS PUMPED!* But of course, I had to play it cool, and answered a simple, "Oh yeah! that sounds fun!" BAM. He texted his friend Sawyor to ask time and location of his church. Well, thank goodness Sawyor is slow at texting, because the munch and mingle was over, so for me to know info of the ward, Jacob of course, asked me for my number! *FREAKING OUT*

THAT was the reason I went to singles ward that day! It then all makes sense. Everything leading up to it, was for that simple cause. For me to meet Jacob. For Jacob to get my number!  :) Without all those feelings leading to me getting out of Nampa, without those couple boys who urged me to go to the Munch and Mingle, I would have never met Jacob Daniel Szuch. I would have never known how he was about to change my life completely in the best of ways. I would have never known about this boy that could make me feel like a princess every day of my life. And THAT is where our story all begins.

____________________________OUR TIMELINE____________________________________

*Between these dates, were some of the most fun times of our lives. We couldn't stay away from one another. With each other almost 24/7. From sunrise, to way past sundown. Full of late night walks when he would pick me flowers along the way to the park, picnics on the bridge eating gyros over overland road, tickle fights that ended in tears of laughter, visiting our loved ones who have gone on before us while shedding tears together, inside jokes, river floating, spending time with each others families, cooking together, being crazy together, singing in the car together...Basically we just cannot get enough of one another. Looking forward to what the future brings! And making this time line go on for as long as possible. <3

JULY 6, 2014_WE MET_

JULY 18, 2014_WE KISSED_

JULY 26, 2014_ROAD TRIP TO THE MOUNTAINS_MCCALL,ID_

AUGUST 1-3, 2014_ROAD TRIP TO TWIN FALLS_

AUGUST 6-8, 2014_ROAD TRIP TO UTAH_

AUGUST 7, 2014_HE TOLD ME HE LOVES ME_

AUGUST 9, 2014_WE STARED DATING

AUGUST 11, 2014_HE LEFT FOR BYU-HAWAII_

___LONG DISTANCE FOR  124 DAYS___

DECEMBER 13, 2014_HE GOT BACK FROM BYU-HAWAII_

DECEMBER 21, 2014_HE OPENED HIS CALL TO FRANCE LYON MISSION_

DECEMBER 21, 2014-MARCH 16, 2015_ MADE THE MOST OF EVERY SECOND TOGETHER_

MARCH 18, 2015_HE REPORTED TO THE PROVO MTC_






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