It all started on Valentine’s Day 2009. We were both in the BYU Concert Choir, and we had both gone of up to SLC to watch the BYU Men’s Chorus have master class with the King’s Singers. Sarah kind of had her eye on this tall, blue-eyed baritone, and although we hadn’t talked much before, we sat together during the master class. Sarah said, “I got kind of excited inside, but I tried to not let it show too much.”
The next week Adam asked Sarah out on their first official date. Sarah was surprised that Adam asked her! It was a group date to the Space Center (where they do simulated space missions that make you feel like you’re part of a Star Trek movie). For the next two months or so, we went on a few dates, hung out some, and saw each other a lot in choir.
At the end of April, Sarah mustered up all the courage she had and asked Adam on a date to the BYU Singers’ Bon Voyage concert. Thankfully Adam said yes, and we had a grand time. At the end of the date, Adam asked if he could be “blunt”, which Sarah found rather refreshing. He told Sarah that he liked her, but he just wasn’t ready to start any sort of relationship right then.
Despite this conversation, Sarah’s mind was spinning when Adam asked asked her on a date four days later. Over the course of the next six weeks, we went on seven dates and hung out on the side. Finally, in June, we decided to start dating exclusively.
“The next two months were so enjoyable,” Sarah said. “I hadn’t ever had a boyfriend, and Adam was incredible. He was kind, proactive, intelligent, talented, a hard worker, sensitive to the Spirit, living the best he could, and attractive besides! I couldn’t figure out how a guy like him ever wanted to date me.”
For whatever reason (that Adam still can’t figure out), Adam broke up with Sarah in August. We still wanted to be friends, but heaven knows how often that works out with ex-boyfriends and ex-girlfriends. Adam was a confused mess and Sarah was heartbroken, but with time and the power of the atonement, she was able to accept what had happened and fully heal. The hard part was that we lived in the same apartment complex, and once school started, we saw each other in choir every day again. We had to get used to seeing each other often but not interacting like we had been able to do before.
In November, Sarah started to seriously consider serving as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. By December, she started the application papers, but she felt like she should wait until January or April of 2011 to serve, so she decided to put the application away for a year or so.
Adam started to get wind of all this mission talk through the magic of facebook (ahh, facebook). He got a bit nervous with all the talk and decided that he’d better figure out what was going on. He sent Sarah a message out of the blue that went something like this:
Sarah,
I saw that there’s mission talk on your wall. Have you started your papers?
Just curious,
Adam
Sarah reacted, “Wait, what? I was so confused. There was no way that Adam could have noticed mission talk on my wall without committing the crime of facebook stalking. Suuuuuuuuure he was ‘just curious.’” As confused as she was, she replied and told him that she had started her papers but that she was waiting for a year or so before she left. You can imagine how that made Adam start to think. He had already started considering trying to date Sarah again, and hearing this news took that feeling to a whole new level.
About this time, almost every guy Sarah knew decided to get back in contact with her and/or ask her on a date. One day after choir, Adam followed Sarah to the library. Along the way it seemed like she talked with 100 boys and Adam got more and more nervous. He stopped Sarah in the library and asked if he could take her out on Friday, but she already had a date for that night. He settled for Saturday.
Sarah’s head was spinning, but she tried to tell herself that Adam was just asking her out because we were friends. She told herself to not make a big deal out of it. Adam, meantime, was ecstatic! He had gotten up the courage to ask her again and it felt really good that she had accepted.
The date was so enjoyable! We went to Café Rio, Opera Scenes at BYU, and to an ice cream shop. We were able to talk like old times and just enjoy each others’ company. At the end of the date, Adam asked Sarah if he could take her out the next weekend, and she, completely surprised, told him, “Suuuuuuuuuure.” When she seemed to accept so readily, he also asked if she wanted to run up to his grandparents’ house in Salt Lake with him the next day, Sunday, and she agreed to go with him. Adam just thought, “Wow things were going great!”
Sarah’s head was still spinning. It seemed like Adam was interested in starting things up again, but she didn’t like being confused. She didn’t want to risk getting her heart broken again. She said, “I knew that I needed to ask Adam what he was up to.”
On the drive home from Adam’s grandparents’ house, she mustered up her courage again and said to Adam, “I’m sorry if this is a little blunt or awkward, but I’m confused, Adam. What are your intentions?” He chuckled and replied, “Well, I have intentions.” He went on to explain that he had realized a lot of things over the past several months, and he wanted to date Sarah again. When he asked Sarah what she thought about that, she said, “Well, I’d love to date you again, but honestly, I’m scared. I don’t want to get my heart broken again.” Adam bravely said, “I don’t want to manipulate you at all, but I can’t see me wanting to break up with you again.” …in other words, he was in it for the long run.
Sarah knew she needed to ponder seriously about what she wanted to do—and about what was the right thing to do. She brought up some of her concerns with Adam about dating him again, and she decided to let him know by our date on Saturday if she would date him again. Adam thought that was fine and was overjoyed that she even would consider dating him again. He thought that a week was really quick and would have been willing to wait much longer to let Sarah feel comfortable again.
Well . . . the whole one week thing didn’t work out so great.
Since we have choir together, we saw each other every day, and we talked every day after class. Sarah even went over to Adam’s apartment twice and talked to him. She could see that Adam was sincere in word and deed. After pondering and praying a great deal, she realized that she really wanted to date him, and she felt like it was the right thing to do, too! Adam was so excited when Sarah finally told him (on Wednesday mind you and not on Saturday), and Sarah was excited too. 
That Saturday (so two weeks after our first date the second time around), we had a choir concert in SLC. We were holding hands at the concert and got some slightly confused looks from the choir who had no idea that we were dating. After the concert, we went to Marie Callender’s for pie with his parents, and Adam surprised Sarah with a lovely bouquet of flowers. We chitchatted on the way back to Sarah’s home and marveled at how our time apart had helped us.
On this drive, Adam bravely brought up a risky topic: “So, if this were to go long-term…….have you thought about timing at all?” Sarah told him, “Yes….” (Sarah said, “I’m surprised I could even get the word out of my mouth! You see—Adam has an internship in Austin from May to August, and we both knew that we were in it for the long run…so if we wanted to get married soon, it would have to be in May, before going to Austin, or in August, after being apart all summer, after Adam’s internship, and right before school started. That was no bueno.”)
Through the course of our conversation, we realized that we wanted to get married—and in May. From that point we were “unofficially engaged” and decided to tell only our parents.
Three days later, Adam asked Sarah’s dad for his permission. Wednesday, we went ring shopping. Friday, we had a splendid date. That evening, Adam said, “I have something to show you, but it has to be in the morning…like early. Can I pick you up around 6:40?” Sarah, mostly unaware of what was going on, told him yes.
All bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, Adam picked Sarah up in the morning, and we drove to the Mt. Timpanogos Temple. We walked over to the east side of the temple grounds and had a lovely talk about all sorts of things, particularly about covenants, while watching a beautiful sunrise come over the mountain. After the sun rose, Adam had Sarah sit down on a bench. He knelt down, said some wonderfully romantic things, and asked her to marry him. Sarah ecstatically replied, “Yes!!!”
“I am thrilled beyond belief! It is miracle to me that everything has worked out so perfectly. Adam is the man of my dreams and more, and I’m so excited that he and I get to spend eternity together. We have been truly, abundantly blessed.” — Sarah
“I am the most blessed man in the world. I’m so happy that Sarah would even give me the time of day let alone want to marry me. I love her and I am excited to spend eternity with her. She is the most gorgeous girl in the world! She has prepared herself in the right ways to be a righteous wife and mother in Zion and for that I will be eternally grateful.” — Adam
We really like the movie “A More Perfect Union.” It’s really important to know about the founding of the country and what happened in the constitutional convention. Its not really associated directly with Independence Day because we’re technically celebrating the signing of the Declaration of Independence, but we figure it’s close enough. We’ll celebrate again on September 17th!
