Just after I put in my mission papers, I asked her if she’d wait for me. She very politely turned me down. She had a strong argument that it might distract me too much from my mission. I had a strong argument that having her wait for me would enhance my efforts in teaching the gospel. Her argument won out. However, we did grow closer than we had ever been.
Melanie didn’t want to be attached to someone while they were on their mission. I knew of at least five guys who were also madly in love with her. Melanie wrote to them, as well as me, on their missions. If they were like me, they read and reread her letters and listened and re-listened to her tapes. Once my sister, Karen, was talking to a group of her girl friends at school who all had brothers my age that were on missions. In the course of the conversation Karen said, “My brother is going to come home from his mission and marry Melanie.”
One of the other girls said, “That’s funny, I thought my brother was going to come home from his mission and marry Melanie.”
Another said, “That’s funny, I thought my brother was going to come home from his mission and marry Melanie.”
Still another said, “That’s funny, I thought my brother was going to come home from his mission and marry Melanie.”
Finally the last girl in the group said, “That’s funny, I thought my brother was going to come home from his mission and marry Melanie.”
Melanie wrote to me almost my whole mission. When she did get engaged she didn’t have the heart to tell me. Maybe she figured I would be too devastated and so she just avoided the issue. I could see it coming when she stopped writing to me. It was five months before I was to come home. My Mom went to Melanie's wedding reception nineteen days before I got home. When Melanie saw my Mom come through the line, she said to her, “Don’t worry. I’m going to tell him!”
Coming Tomorrow: “The Front Of My Throat Is Stuck To The Back Of My Throat”
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