How we met…
Looking back, our love story seems pretty tame. At the time it happened though, it was full of highs and lows, lots of laughter, a few tears, but most of all friendship. We actually met at church. We were both attending a single’s ward – a congregation for unmarried members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The first Sunday Jason attended that church, Diana was speaking. He was immediately intrigued by her. Diana was caught up in theater at the time and wasn’t particularly interested in dating. So instead of starting any kind of romantic relationship we became friends.
We were paired up to be in charge of a family home evening group that met once a week. Since we were both in charge of a group we got to know one another even better than before. Jason seemed like a nice, laid back kind of guy. Diana was a busy, outgoing kind of girl. One night we were playing a game with a large group of people called “Questions only”. The rules of the game require you to only ask questions – if you answer a question, don’t say anything, or laugh you are automatically out. Diana was killing everyone at the game and Jason decided to eliminate Diana by showing his true crazy self. The next time a question was asked to him, he turned to Diana and with a completely serious expression asked, “Do these pants make my butt look big?”, while motioning to his butt. Diana was speechless. Who was this guy? Apparently there was more to him than she originally thought. He was the only one to kick her out of the game and that won her respect.
From that point on we started learning more about one another. Jason kept finding ways to spend time with Diana and Diana kept finding ways to keep things as “Just friends”. Although Diana wasn’t interested in a romantic involvement with him she was so impressed with the kind of person he was. He was so considerate of others and always trying to find ways to help people. When Diana’s car broke down over an hour away Jason immediately volunteered to come pick her up. He also befriended her younger brother and won his approval very quickly. Meanwhile Jason was impressed by Diana’s vitality and talent. He went to see her plays and musicals and was awed by her singing ability. He thought she was pretty cute too.
Eventually the time came for Diana to spread her wings and try to fulfill her dreams. She and a great friend decided to spend the summer in New York City. She packed up at the beginning of the summer and drove away. Diana had told everyone to make sure they called her and to keep in touch. A few hours into the drive Diana got a phone call from Jason. He merely told her she had said to keep in touch and so he was. That started a trend for the rest of the summer. We talked on the phone a lot and every time something exciting happened, Jason was one of the first people that Diana would call. Anne, Diana’s friend, even mentioned that she could see the two of them hooking up – to which Diana denied. Soon it was time to return home to Utah. Again the first person Diana talked to was Jason. We saw each other the night she returned and suddenly our friendship started to take a turn in a different direction.