My name is Madison, I was preparing to go on a mission, Covid hit, and I met my future husband.
Everything changed when Covid hit. I was part of the graduating class of 2020 when classes went online, social distancing was part of our vocabulary and nobody even knew what the Covid vaccine was. Once the news hit, my family and I moved to Riverdale, Idaho to be closer to extended family as they had originally planned after I graduated and was leaving for my mission.
Just a couple of weeks before I graduated, I had an older sister get married, (also a mutual success story). At her bachelorette party, she convinced me to download mutual to meet more people before I submitted my mission papers. In a matter of a week. I matched with Dallin. He was so cute; he had the most bright, beautiful set of blue eyes I had ever seen, and even though I hadn’t met him yet. He just seemed to glow. There was just something about him… We matched in May 2020, he asked me out, and I ended up giving him a raincheck because I plans out of town that weekend. I gave him my number and ended up deleting mutual during that weekend I was gone. I just didn’t feel it was worth my time and I so badly wanted to serve a mission.
When I returned, I got a phone call from a random local number, Intrigued I picked it up tried and it was Dallin. He asked if I was back and ready for the rain check. Our first date was on May 23, 2020. We got ice cream and drove to the top of a hill over Cache Valley and watched the sunset. We stayed out till 4 am just talking, getting to know each other and laughing from watching each other shiver so hard from the cold weather that May night. Just before our second date, I had such a super strong prompting that he was supposed to be in my life. I didn’t know what that meant, trying to myself deny all possibility that he might be the one but something felt different.
The following week, the bishop asked me if I wanted to submit my papers and my younger sister told him I was seeing someone. We laughed about it, and he told me that I should consider where this was going. He would hold onto my papers for what ever may come with time.
Since then, Dallin and I became inseparable. We would spend every weekend together. Watching movies, going camping, hanging out with his friends and family. Everything was going smoothly and we both knew that our relationship meant something lasting, (although he probably had more intentions than I did) We used to poke fun about getting engaged so quickly. Then on July 3rd, he brought me to an engagement store. I was never really one to wear rings and he said. “Although this part isn’t a surprise, it’s an easy way out to make sure I got exactly what I wanted”. We had our little secret, that we were planning to get engaged soon. His parents only found out two days before he was planning to actually propose that he had the ring and was setting everything up. He made a little lane down to my grandparents orchid with photos of us streaming the path to a gazebo where we shared our first kiss together.
Although Covid-19 caused so many catastrophes, distancing, anxiety, and economic issues all around the world. I wouldn’t have met the love of my life if it hadn’t occurred. The pandemic wouldn’t have sent him home from his mission in Columbia, nor would it have sent me to Riverdale. We both had to say a lot of goodbyes and our plans completely changed, but God was really in the details. To me, it’s one of hidden blessings in times of chaos. I can never look back and wish the pandemic didn’t happen. Just happening to be at the right place, the right time, the right international catastrophe, and the both of us with the right ideas. We definitely do have our disagreements from time to time, but I never felt so supported, safe, free to self-expression, and rooted in myself with anyone else than I do with him. Words cannot describe how happy and beautiful he makes me feel and I know if it hadn’t been for Covid, and small unseen hidden blessings. I wouldn’t be where I am right now. Thanks to Mutual and God’s hand, I found my bestest friend that I can have by my side for time and all eternity.
We were engaged August 1st, then married October 24, 2020. We had a small civil marriage in an cute, old, brown barn in Southern Idaho due to Covid. The same bishop who asked me if I wanted to submit my papers, was the one who officiated at our wedding. Once we got word that the Logan Temple was in Phase Two, we booked in immediately for me to receive my endowments and to be sealed on December 11th, 2020.
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