At the start of a new semester, September 2003, Eric started out his Senior, and final year, at BYU. At the last moment he decided to stay put in his current apartment. He was tired of meeting new people and especially dating! Basically he had given up on girls! Sarah moved into the building next door to Eric's; their front doors where no more than 100 feet apart. She had come down a week earlier to start her second year at UVSC to find her apartment in shambles. After some long searching and helpful phone calls from her brother, the lawyer, she was able to find this new apartment living with her sister-in-law's sister. The room had literally just become available and Sarah felt impressed to take it. She had just ended a serious relationship and was feeling pretty jaded by guys and had all but sworn them off!
Sarah's roommate had been called to be in charge of their Family Home Evening activities in their ward. Their apartment had conveniently been placed in the same FHE group as Eric's apartment. Sarah had no intentions of going or meeting new people but her roommate begged her to go so she wouldn't be alone. At their first "meeting" they had the typical conversation; where are you from? what is your major? When Sarah found out that Eric was an Economics major she quickly realized that he could be of some help. She was taking an Econ class and was beyond lost! The teacher might as well been speaking Portuguese because that's about as much as she understood. Sarah thought he was cute, could maybe help her with some Econ homework, but pretty much left it at that. She later found out that Eric and his roommate talked and had called "dibs" on her and her roommate. Each week Sarah and Eric talked a little more and found out some common interests like their love for DisneyLand and The Beatles! Eric started randomly stopping by to visit Sarah at her apartment and Sarah found herself walking the long way to her car so she could walk by Eric's front window. Everything in Sarah's head told her it was not the right time to start a relationship, especially with someone who was SO different from the guys she normally dated, but her heart was telling her something else. On Halloween weekend Eric and his roommates planned for a bunch of people to go to a comedy show. Sarah went out and bought a new outfit so she'd look HOT in hopes that Eric would make a move. Nothing happened that night but he did tell her he thought she looked like Juliann Moore...she couldn't remember who that was but she was famous so that had to be a good sign! The next night, at Eric's apartment, he finally got up the courage to hold Sarah's hand! :) Once alone they talked about what they both wanted. Sarah explained that she had just gotten out of a painful relationship and hadn't been looking for anything but that she felt drawn to Eric in a way she couldn't explain. She wanted to see where things would go but hoped they could take things slowly. In her mind that meant, still date other people; in Eric's mind it meant, don't kiss her for a month. :) That night Eric knew that one day they would get married. Fortunately for him he didn't share that piece of information or it would have sent Sarah running for the hills! A few days later Eric was telling Sarah a story about running into an old missionary buddy and he was happy to tell him he had a girlfriend. Sarah was shocked to realize she was that girlfriend. At the risk of sounding stupid she just went along with it and from then on they were considered "dating".
After only 2 months of dating things were progressing quite nicely and they made plans to visit each other at their homes during Christmas vacation. Sarah's sister was getting married 2 days after Christmas and when Eric volunteered to come help babysit the 10 grandchildren her family knew he had fallen head-over-heels! Sarah still not willing to accept things were that serious tried to talk him out of coming and tried to talk her way out of her visit to Idaho. She wasn't successful. Eric had told her he wanted to marry her but Sarah just laughed and said it was too early to talk about it. Well, after meeting his family and spending time with him there she then knew it was time to discuss the possibility.
Once back in Provo Eric and Sarah decided it was time to fast and pray about whether it was right for them to get married. Sarah stressed for what seemed like an eternity for this eternal decision! She called all her sisters wondering how they knew when their spouse was "the one". She went back and forth, back and forth, desperately wanting to make the right decision. Meanwhile, Eric called and made a temple date. One day Sarah was sitting in her institute class and out of nowhere, and having nothing to do with what the lesson was about, she saw a future with her and Eric, married and teaching a Young Women's lesson about when they got married. It was then that Sarah had the peace she'd been searching for and knew that Eric was not only the man she loved but the man she was suppose to spend the rest of her life and eternity with. Lucky for her they already had a temple date!
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