Chapter 2: How 'RodRiel' Began

Ok, first I have to say that no one really calls us "RodRiel," although I have a feeling it will catch on. :] In this post, I'm going to fill in all of those who never heard the story of our beginning, or, for those of you who have already heard it, a reminder of how it started. :] (I'm also going to use Rodney's version of the story, because it makes my heart flutter :] Hahaha) (This picture is Rodney and my first picture that we took on the Laie Hawaii Temple grounds, and no that's not a tattoo on his hand)

Roughly two weeks after Rodney arrived in Hawaii, (April 2010) a couple of our friends who had just been married were headed to Tonga for six weeks or so. A bunch of people were up at one of the Tongan professor's houses to wish them off and to just kind of hang out with each other before they left. [Ok, here's where Rodney's version starts :]]

We (Rodney and some of the other new guys) pulled up to the house where everyone was and as we were pulling in a group of people started coming out from the house. In the group was you (Me) and a couple of your friends. I was staring and still remember that you were laughing with your friend and I knew I had to meet you. I was in the passenger seat of the truck and asked my friend, who was driving, if he knew you and told him to introduce us.

So our mutual friend called me (Ariel) over to the truck to 'meet some of the new guys.' So I walked over and kinda poke my head in the truck to say hi to them, but it was dark outside already and even with the light on in the cab of the truck it was hard to see them clearly. I had seen the 'new group' of guys from Tonga walking around together on campus but hadn't learned any of their names yet. Rodney was in the passenger seat and his cousin Ti was in the back seat. It was a short conversation and then we head out in our separate ways.

The next day was Sunday, and also the day that Rodney and I became aware that we were in the same ward....I saw him clearly when I walked into Sacrament Meeting and daaaaaang did he (and still does!) look fine! ;] Then I realized that my closest friend Amy and I were singing a duet in that meeting that day. I wasn't nervous until that moment and the twenty minutes or so before it was our turn to go up to the pulpit and sing, I have heavy butterflies that would not relax. Then it came time for us to go up, and as we were walking to the pulpit I whispered to Amy that if I looked at him while we were singing, I would forget the words. (Even with the hymn book right in front of me!) Amy told me to 'just don't look at him then!'

Amy and I sang the hymn Did You Think to Pray, and we did a wonderful job if I say so myself! :] That is until I looked at Rodney...siiigh....I couldn't resist. I knew exactly where he was sitting and tried my very hardest to avoid glancing his gorgeous way-ahem...haha...but, I just couldn't take it anymore. On the last line of the very last verse, I looked his way and found his beautiful brown eyes staring right. at. me! Aaaand then I mumbled something that sort of resembled the last three or four words of the song, blushed bright red, then walked back to our seat with Amy. :] (The picture to the left is Amy and I with mustaches..... :])

Rodney later told me that he couldn't look away from me as I was singing and was waiting for me to look at him. He still claims to this day that from that point and two months after that I 'ignored' him...It's an impossible battle, because i always comes back to "Well you ignored me for two months!" Hahaha :]
About two months later (hahaha) was when I started feeling myself questioning whether or not to stay in Hawaii. I had finally decided that I was ready to go home and be with my family again until I decided what I wanted to do next with my life. Word spread surprisingly quickly of my leaving the island but no one had really convinced me just yet to return, or stay on Oahu.

Two weeks before my flight was scheduled and paid for, I was in my room one night folding laundry and playing around on Facebook when none other than that handsome hunk Rodney came online and started chatting with me. He told me he had heard that I was leaving soon and that sparked a conversation that went from Facebook to Skype in a matter of minutes and lasted for over three hours...Side note here; We were both in our dorms which are less than 150 yards apart from each other. :] After a few more days of spending time together (in person, not via internet), we recognized that we were having feelings for each other, and I wondered if I was supposed to meet this man so that I would return to Hawaii.

My plane ticket had been purchased already and even if I had wanted to stay, I had no money and I wasn't enrolled in classes so the dorms were all filled up anyway. So we decided that we would continue to date over Skype for the next 4 weeks until I worked/donated enough Plasma to afford a plane ticket back to Hawaii as well as my first month's rent in an off campus house.

Night after night we would Skype each other (by the way we have promised each other to NEVER have to do that again...it sucked) And after 4 weeks, I realized I didn't have enough money so I had to stay another 2 weeks...also sucked. But! I finally boarded that plane and head back to that kind, gentle and cuddly man I realized that I LOVED. (The picture below is from the day I got back...Oh how i missed that man!)


So that is the story of our beginning....I'll make my next post about what happened in the months after my triumphant return to Hawaii......*hint* Marriage Proposal *hint* :]

We love you all, we miss you and we're so glad that we are blessed with the technology in our lives to communicate with our families and friends all over the world....quite literally all over the world! :]

Love,
RodRiel