Our Courtship Story, Part One

In honor of out 20th anniversary this week, I'll be doing a series of posts about our courtship...

We met the fall of 1985, when Nels joined the 1:00 Team of the BYU Ballroom Dance Company. He was new to ballroom dance, and I’d had my first class back in the fall of 1983, and had been on the team for at least a year already. Elaine Grenko was our director. We never danced that whole year on team together, because he was one of the shorter guys, and they were paired with the shorter girls (for the Latin dances), and I was an average height girl (in mostly the international style dances). But we did have several team socials, and knew each other from practices, etc. He told me later that he watched me, but felt that I was “out of his league” at that point. Ha! Only in ballroom dance, that’s my opinion!

During that school year, I tried out for the backup tour team. I wanted in bad. I was turning 21 that summer, and I kind of made a bargain with the Lord that if I didn’t make the team this time, I’d go on a mission. I didn’t make it. The reasons I was cut were accurate, but I was disappointed. Nels was as usual doing his proper LDS returned missionary duty of doing lots of dating that year. At the closing team social for that school year, we went around the room telling of our summer plans. Nels told us he was engaged, and I told of my plans to put in my missionary papers (They broke up the engagement after only two weeks - that’s another story - but it did contribute to his being available later!)

So that summer I turned in my papers, continuing with summer school, work at BYU Mail Services and living down at BYU off campus my second summer at Riviera apartments. My best friend from high school & three year college roommate, Frieda Shell was transferring to Utah State, so we were separating...that was tough.

That was such a fun summer! I had the biggest surprise birthday party of my life - I was kidnapped and taken blindfolded to somebody’s cabin up in the mountain with probably 40+ friends there . Wow, it was fun. Some of my friends from that ward included Monte and Keith Garrett, we used to talk for hours, and their friend, a guy I dated a few times, Don Richardson, who didn’t live in the ward boundaries, my roommates, and others.

My mission call to the Philippines Davao Mission came to my Riviera address. I received my endowments in the Jordan River Temple on July 25th, and went several times that summer. I was to enter the MTC on the 8th of October. Nels was dating lots as usual, and by the time of my missionary farewell, he was dating Marilyn Fisher. He usually accompanied her as she performed for missionary farewells, but once in late September, he didn’t. That time he was disappointed when she reported that she had played the piano for Don as he had sung in a quartet for the farewell of Susan Howlett. Nels would have gone for sure had he known it was mine! So instead, he made a note of the date, adding eighteen+ months, and determined that if he were still available, he’d ask me out when I was back.
He and Marilyn came kind of close to tying the knot, but they never felt right about it. They broke up some months later, but he was always VERY careful to break relationships carefully, maintaining the friendship, and allowing for future friendly association. That worked to our advantage a couple of years later!!

...To be continued...