The Branch Picnic

May 31, 2008 (Saturday)

It was gorgeous outside today. Perfect picnic weather – which was nice considering our branch picnic was today. It was a really good time except for a lot of awkardness. Us girls met up with Sera – I didn’t think he would actually show up, but he did. The girls had an awesome time with the entire situation. It was kind of uncomfortable for me. The entire time he was talking to me they were trying to sneak pictures. Plus he kept touching me while he was talking. I’d look back and they would all be in a group laughing and smiling at me. I thought when he came he would talk to everyone, or I figured some of the girls would come save me and join our conversation. Nope. I also thought I was just his target for flirting with for a couple of days. Wrong again.

The second we got on the tram he told me he liked me, and he wanted to know what I thought. I didn’t know what to do. I was not expecting that at all. I barely know him. I told him it would never work because I’m not allowed to date, I live in America and he is not a member. He kept trying to find ways around it. He has a really good heart, and he’s a good looking guy – but that isn’t the reason I came here. Then we had a discussion about the gospel for a while. He didn’t seem to understand why I would NOT date or marry a non-member. He kept saying that we both believed in God. Then he told me a story about how he changed from Greek Orthodox to Pentecostal and how at first he didn’t believe in their Bible, but that once he searched it out he did. That’s when I told him that he couldn’t say he didn’t believe in the Book of Mormon unless he read and searched it out. I told him if he would read the Book of Mormon and honestly search it and tell me it is not true I would never say anything again. To my surprise he agreed. I guess he has a Book of Mormon, but he hasn’t been motivated to read it until now.

I still think Sera has a good heart, but right now I don’t see how he could honestly really, really like me. When I asked him why he liked me the first thing he said was “you are beautiful.” Right after that I replied “wrong answer” – then he continued by saying I had a good heart and that I was open to other ideas. Then one of the times I tried explaining how long distance would never work and he was like “love has no boundaries.” Boys around here are way different than American boys. Very romantic – cheesy romantic. I didn’t know how to respond to anything. As I was talking to him I kept thinking man I got myself into a mess. How did this happen? I thought he just had a crush on me…I’m going to have to tell him that we can’t date. I hate doing stuff like that – especially when they are good guys. I’ve been told that I’m naïve when it comes to guys being interested. Apparently I am…

At the picnic we all had fun eating pizza and playing Ultimate Frisbee . I got a few good catches and throws, but Elyse was definitely our little star player out of the girls. She’s such a little stinker – when they were picking teams at the beginning she kept telling everyone to pick me last. She thought it was hilarious. So of course I was picked last – real fun. The elders all played as well. They were intensely competitive. Mindy and I were cracking up during the game because we kept saying how we needed to prove to our team that we were worth their time. I got a few good tosses and throws, but my attire didn’t exactly fit playing sports. Sera played Ultimate Frisbee – he was a good sport about it. Afterwards he had some welts on his arms though – apparently he is allergic to certain types of grass. I felt bad for him.

In the evening all us girls had planned to go see the Indiana Jones movie. Sadly only half of us ended up going. On the way to the tram half of us got separated from the other half. Annie, Elise, Mindy, MacKenzie and I got dropped off at the movie theatre, but we didn’t see the other girls there so we thought maybe they went home. We decided to walk home because we didn’t want to see it without them. We figured something had happened – this is a situation where it would have been nice to have a cell phone. Oh well. To our dismay us five walked back to the apartment and none of us had a key – of course. We were locked out for about two and a half hours. We went and got drinks, a loaf of franzela and a chocolate gogosi. Then we just sat out and talked about all kinds of things. By the end of the conversation we predicted the type of guy each one of us would marry, what he would look like, what type of house we would live in, something we wish our future husband would do everyday, our most embarrassing moment and our worst fears. It was quite the conversation, but I felt like we got to know each other really well. The girls predicted that I would marry someone tall and strongly built, that he would be a business major, and very goal oriented and organized in his life. They also said that they could see me living in a really nice, classy suburban area or somewhere in the city. I wonder how correct their predictions are going to be…haha… but I have to admit their prediction doesn’t sound half bad.

There was a common theme when all us girls went around and said our biggest fears. They all had something to do with a marriage not working out. These days good marriages are so far and in between. My biggest fear is not that I will give up trying in my marriage, but that my husband will give up when things get rough. I know that once I make my mind up that I want to marry him I will stick it out. I just hope he does. Then the thing I want my husband to do everyday when he gets home from work is to sneak up behind me from behind, wrap his arms around me and whisper something sweet in my ear. Cheezy I know….maybe Romania is getting to me.