Earlier in the summer, I had a old mission companion, Ashley Guerra (now Ashley Nagel), email me asking if I could help her out. She said her brother needed to meet new people and she thought we could be friends and maybe even help each other network. I said that'd be cool, but I'd be gone for the summer and get back with her when I was back in Utah. When I made my move to Draper, I emailed her back saying I knew that she was the one asking for a favor, but now I was the one in need of new friends since I'd just moved to a new place. She passed on my number (and a picture I later found out). It was a few weeks later that I got a text- "Hi, my name is Chad Guerra. Nice to text you." It was about a week of texting before he said he wanted to meet me. We set something up for a coming Saturday.
My first impression of Chad was that I was taller than him and that I probably outweighed him. But then I thought, 'Oh well, I'll have fun anyways'. And we did. We went and hiked Mt. Timpanogas and took the cave tour. During the hike I was impressed that he was easy to talk to, yet he was quick with a joke and could make me laugh. I wouldn't say I was completely won over at this point, but thought it could be fun to see him again, but I also thought that this date would probably be the first and last. I was suprised when he turned to me before leaving and said he'd like to see me again.
That would be the beginning of our "long distance" relationship. He lived in North Ogden and I in Draper. Although the hour between us was a pain, that didn't keep us from seeing each other every day. Over the next few months we did lots of fun things together- kayaking, singing, hiking, dancing, movie watching, attending each other's ward activities and meetings, eating out, cooking, meeting family, hot tubbing, working out, walks, talks, spending holidays together...and falling in love.
