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

Chapter 1

Ok. We, have a blog. Now I just have to be consistent with updating people on our lives here in Laie. :]


I was recently made aware that my mom refers to my husband, Rodney, as "That stranger my daughter lives with." Then she told me that soon enough he'll be "That stranger who got my daughter pregnant." :] All in good fun of course, but it made me realize that if my own mother hardly knows the wonderful man I married, then I should do my best to keep her (and our entire family, both his and mine) updated with our everyday lives as much as I can. :]

For all of those reading this who know little or nothing about my husband (which I'm assuming is most of you), let me intro
duce him to you. :]

Rodney was born and raised on the biggest island of Tonga, called Tongatapu, in the village Nakolo. This island is still smaller than the Hawaiian Island of Oahu, which is roughly 600 square miles. He is the seventh, and youngest, child of Melane and 'Isileli Sopu and was born on April 6th. (Some of you know why that date is a special one, apart from Rodney's birth :])

He went to the church school in Tonga and after he graduated from Liahona High School in 2004, he prepared to go on his mission. He received his call to the New Jersey, Morristown mission in August of 2006. He often tells me stories of companions he had, (he loved every one of them) and the people that he and his companions taught. [I'm so glad I married a man who looks back fondly on his mission and looks forward to the day when we can travel there so he can show me the places where his stories took place.] I'll have to have him write out some of his stories on here sometime. He has some pretty great ones!

He went back to Tonga after his mission in August of 2008 and soon after started taking college courses there. (During his mission he applied for BYU Hawaii but was denied.) Several months after he had been taking classes he received a letter saying that Rodney was now accepted to BYU Hawaii. (I told him it was inspired because I was in Hawaii ;]) In April of 2010, Rodney came to Laie Hawaii and prepared to start the Spring Term at BYUH. Several weeks later was our first meeting, (I'll tell that story in my next post) and several months later was when we started dating.

He has worked at the Polynesian Cultural Center since he arrived and is a dancer at the evening show there, Ha: Breath of Life. It is tiring for he and the rest of the dancers, and gets repetitive for them. However I have seen the show many many times and every time the cheers and absolute delight coming from the tourists proves to me that their hard work pays off and the thousands of people that come through everyday have a great experience!

Rodney is currently majoring in Computer Science but he may change his mind, who knows! :] He loves rugby, although I have yet to get to see him in action other than touch rugby which doesn't even compare! He is a loving and incredibly thoughtful man to me and he is the strong foundation of the Priesthood that makes our house a home. There is vast amounts of love between my man and me and I enjoy everyday with him! He is my real-life Prince Charming...

For all of Rodney's family that may be reading this, I'll introduce myself a little. :]

I was born and raised in Spokane Washington and I am the oldest child of a family of five. I love every memory I have growing up in my home with my younger siblings. I am close to all of them and try to keep contact with them as much as I can so the younger ones don't forget about me. It frequently surprises me how much they remind me of myself at their different ages and to see them transform into even more beautiful people every week. I love music and often immerse myself in it as well as my drawings. I am currently an Art Major at BYU Hawaii but may also change to something else :]

I worked at a daycare for the last years of high school and loved every minute of it. People often asked, when they found out I worked there, if the job made me not want to have children, but it did the complete opposite for me. I loved working there, and even with the challenges of spending hours on end with restless children who had individual challenges in their lives that made them so unique in personality and in emotional need. I miss working there and having that daily goal to get a child to warm up to me a little so I could understand their perspectives on life.

I am fascinated by a child's determination at every stage of their childhood to achieve and to learn new things. If only we could all retain that determination and feel that overwhelming feeling of excitement in accomplishing the things we set out to conquer. My youngest sibling is 1 1/3 years old and while he and I have to bond in different ways than I did with his 3 older siblings because of the distance between us, I still feel so blessed to be able to jibber jabber with him on the phone and hear the new words and sounds that he learns everyday.

I keep getting the question about when we will have our first little bundle of joy arriving, and while we haven't received answers that it is time yet, I can feel that the time is not far off at all. :]

We love you all and are sending prayers up for you all the time. We miss our families and look forward to being done with school so we can travel to see and hug all of you again. :]

ALL our love,
RodRiel