This Is Our Story

Once upon a time, there lived a 19-year-old girl in Boise, Idaho.

She was studying in the Nursing Program at Boise State University, living at home with her parents, and attending a local LDS Singles branch. Her brother had recently returned from his mission to Brazil and was attending the same Singles branch, when some of the members told them about an online dating website called LDSSingles.com. So they decided to make a bet with each other to see who could get the most dates by signing up for the website.

A few hundred miles away, there was a Returned Missionary from Arizona visiting his brother in Oregon during Christmas Break. They were discussing his social life, and his brother decided he needed to sign him up for LDSSingles.com so that he could find the right woman to marry. He showed him how it worked, even though he seemed a bit skeptical, but then they saw a picture of a cute girl from Boise, Idaho.

Curious as to why someone from Arizona would be looking at her profile, she clicked on his name.

"JohnnyBrazil"

He seemed pretty interesting, and he was obviously good looking, so she sent him a message.

"From Sunflowerchik"

And that's where our story begins...

January 16, 2005

"There's this one guy that I met on [LDSSingles] right around New Years Eve who's from Arizona. His name is John Critchfield. We've been writing back and forth about school, work, family, hobbies, etc. Turns out that we have a lot in common! :) So he asked for my number and called me while I was at Casandra's apartment last weekend, and we talked and laughed for almost an hour! He is such an awesome guy."

"He called me again tonight after I got home from branch prayer and I had the best time talking to him. He has free night and weekend minutes so we took advantage of it. We ended up talking for 2 straight hours!"

"He is so much fun to talk to, and he has a great sense of humor. We quoted 'Tommy Boy' and 'Napoleon Dynamite' like it was second nature, and he shared some awesome mission stories with me. It felt like we had been friends forever."

February 14, 2005

"Well, I finally managed to come down off 'Cloud 9' to tell you what happened today. I had the BEST Valentine's surprise ever! I went into work this morning and mom called me around 11:00 and told me someone had left a surprise on our doorstep for me. She wouldn't tell me who it was from or what it was, so I made her bring it in to the office. Let's just say I couldn't stop smiling and laughing for the rest of the day."

"John had a yellow rose delivered to my house with a note that said, 'It's still a mystery to me, I haven't got a clue how I got so lucky and found you. Forever your friend, John."

"I can't wait for him to get the Valentine cards I made him. I took a bunch of lines from the 'Napoleon Dynamite' movie and turned them into Valentine sayings..."

"I hope he likes them! I still can't believe he sent me flowers for Valentine's Day! I feel so twitterpated!"

Our First Date

February 27, 2005

"I was a little nervous as I walked up to the door [of his brother's house], but as soon as John answered he jumped out and grabbed me in this huge bear hug around the waist, lifted me up off the ground, and spun me around screaming 'DANA! You're HERE!' 

"Talk about getting swept off your feet!"

"We went to Applebee's for lunch and then decided to go mess around at a local thrift store for a little while. He was being so cute and we were joking around like we'd been best friends for years. He tried on these brown polyester pants with this multi-colored vest and button up shirt and did the 'cat walk' for me while I laughed hysterically. Then he found some moon boots like Napoleon Dynamite wore in the movie, so he bought them. (By the way, he totally loved my Valentines!)"

"His brother treated us to dinner at Goodwood, but we were still full from Applebee's, so we just shared a plate. It was pretty fun. His brother is hilarious. We met Jason and his date at Mom and Dad's and went out to a friend's house to play games. Then we cuddled up and watched another movie and held hands for the first time. :)"

"John helped me clean up and we drove home. He grabbed my hand as he was getting out of the car and kissed it gently and said, 'See you in the morning.' It was so smooth."

"The next day was my 20th birthday. I picked up John and we went to Subway for lunch. He saw that they were giving away Ninja Turtle sports bottles in the kids meals, so we both ordered one. We laughed about ordering the exact same sandwich toppings, because we've already established how many similarities we have and how ironic it is."

"He has 4 brothers and 1 sister (I have 5 brothers), he sings and plays guitar (music skills), he started working when he was 14 years old (been there, done that), he switched friends when he was in high school because they were bad influences (me too), and we quote movies all the time."

"Anyway, back to the story. We went to Ann Morrison park and ate our sandwiches on a picnic blanket and enjoyed the beautiful sunny weather for a while. Then he pulled out a gift for me. It was wrapped in Disney Princess paper! The gift was a book on CD called 'First Comes Love' by Douglas Brinley and Mark Ogletree. He had told me about it a few weeks ago and I told him I would love a copy. It was wonderful!"

"Then he pulled out his guitar and began to play some of the songs he knew. His voice was amazing as he sang along with his guitar to 'Tears From Heaven', 'Brown-eyed Girl', and my favorite from 'The Wedding Singer' - 'I Wanna Grow Old With You'. Everything was so picture perfect, I could've stayed there and listened to him all day."

"We packed up and went and saw 'The Phantom of The Opera' at the movie theater and it was fabulous! Then we went to mom and dad's for dinner, cake, and ice cream. Finally we headed back over to John's brother's house to play games for the rest of the night. We joked and laughed the whole night long. His brother and sister-in-law were really fun to hang out with. Brian was over there dancing and lip syncing to Celine Dion on the radio, and Angie was making fun of him during the game. They're really cute."

"It came time for me to head home, so John walked me out to my car and wrapped me up inside his coat with a huge bear hug. We stood there in each other's arms and I thanked him for making my birthday so incredible. As we slowly started to pull away, our lips came close, and he reached down and kissed me softly, and I just melted." 

"It was our first kiss."

"It was the perfect ending for such a wonderful day. I truly am falling for him."

"We made it to church on time the next day. John looked so good in that white shirt and tie. :) And he really impressed me in Sunday School when he volunteered to read aloud and participated in the discussion. He just had an amazing spirit with him. After church we went home and grabbed a quick bite to eat, and then sat on mom's porch swing and talked about the lessons that were shared in Relief Society and Elder's Quorum and what we thought about them. It led into this awesome conversation about the gospel. I wanted it to last forever; just that one moment when I was tucked closely under his arm with my head on his shoulder, listening to him talk about life and the gospel. I told him I didn't want it to end, and he agreed."

"I thanked him again for everything he had done for me this weekend, and how much I appreciated his gift, and his time and effort he put into coming up here. He said it made him feel good to know he was appreciated. Then he softly started to sing the love song from 'Phantom of the Opera' that Raul and Kristine sing together. It almost made me cry. When it came time to leave I grabbed my camera and had Jason take a few pictures of us together."

"He said goodbye to my family, and then we headed to the airport. Not much was said in the car on the way, because we knew we had to say goodbye soon, and I was reflecting on how much fun we had this weekend. I pulled up to the curb and watched him get all of his bags ready. He gave me one last hug and we said our goodbyes, then he kissed me softly and turned and walked into the airport. I smiled and drove home, and life went on as usual, but I still can't stop thinking about him. :)"

April in Boise

April 10, 2005

"John's plane arrived at 7:45 last night, so we tried to hurry over to the theater to catch the 8:00 show, but it was nearly sold out. We spent the rest of the night showing Cameron 'Homestar Runner' cartoons on my computer, then I took John home to his brother's house. He couldn't get the garage door to open, so he ended up having to climb the fence and throw rocks at his brother's window to wake him up so he could unlock the door. Always an adventure!"

"John didn't bring a jacket with him, so the next morning we went shopping for a sweatshirt at Old Navy. When he was finally warm enough, we went to the theater and saw 'Hitch'.

"It was such a funny movie, partly because Will Smith was in it, but mostly because John and I were having a contest to see who could laugh the loudest and most obnoxious. So we were cackling, and snorting, and giggling, and screaming, and probably scaring everyone else around us, but that's what made it so fun."

(Months later, John admitted to me that it was in that moment, when we were acting so ridiculous together, that he fell in love with me).

"I wanted to go up to the Boise Train Depot and take some pictures together, but there was a wedding reception going on inside, and the weather outside was windy and cold, so we didn't get our chance. There wasn't much else to do, so we pulled into the Institute parking lot and stayed there and talked, which was awesome because we talked about his mission and had this really great conversation about the gospel. There were some moments where the conversation died down and we just sat there in the silence, then he leaned over towards me like he was going to kiss my cheek... and he ZERBERTED me instead! I should have expected him to do something crazy like that, but it was totally random so I busted up laughing."

"We met his oldest brother Bill and his wife Jeana at Brian and Angie's house for dinner. We had a lot of fun, and Bill was asking me all sorts of questions... embarrassing John with a few comments like, 'You're really tall. That's good because we like to keep the height in the family,' and 'You two should get married before the family reunion so we can shack you up in the same room.' It was really funny."

"John played a few songs on his guitar for me in the front room, and when it was time for me to go we went outside and sat in the car and talked about how much fun we had. I thanked him for coming up to Boise and visiting me again, and I told him how much I appreciated him. With his arm around me, he squeezed my shoulder and said, 'I'm almost afraid to tell you how I feel about you... because of what it might mean. All I know is that you're really special to me, and I've never really felt this way about anyone before... ever!' My heart started pounding with excitement because I knew I felt the same way, and I told him that 'For me, it's not like one of those silly twitterpated high school crushes, it's more like...' and then he finished my sentence by saying, 'I know, it's something more powerful that I can feel deep down in my soul. Whenever I have time alone to think about you, my heart starts pounding, like it does in testimony meeting.' :) Wow! I had experienced the same thing!"

"In the morning we went to church together, where Jason met him at the door with a friendly handshake. I'm really glad that my older brother approves of John and that they get along so well. They treat each other like old mission companions. It was Fast and Testimony meeting, and John got up and bore his testimony about having the opportunity to teach the first discussion over the phone to one of his students at The University of Phoenix. The spirit was incredible, and of course I was grinning ear to ear. Relief Society went over time so we didn't have much time before we had to go to the airport, but we still got some pictures out in the yard that turned out really good."

"Driving to the airport wasn't as bad this time, because we know how long it will be before our next visit. I already bought my plane tickets to go down to Phoenix the weekend of Memorial Day, so we're both really excited."

DTR - Define The Relationship

May 7, 2005
"I was talking to John tonight and he was asking how my test went today (which I only studied for an hour before I took it - so not as well as I should have done). So jokingly he says, 'What kind of example are you setting for your children?' and I replied, 'Oh ya, one day I'll pull out my college transcript and show my kids my grades, and they'll look at this semester and say, 'Jeeze mom, what happened?' and I'll say, 'Oh, that was the semester I met YOUR.... Wait, I MEAN, This really awesome GUY that got me distracted."

"I couldn't believe I let that thought slip out of my mouth! My face turned bright red and my eyes started to water because I was laughing so hard from embarrassment. Lucky for me, John was laughing too. He sarcastically suggested that maybe we needed to have a DTR conversation (Define the Relationship), but I declined and told him we could save it for when I come down to Arizona for Memorial Day. Then we moved on and started talking about other things. Mom and I had a good laugh about it afterward, but now she thinks I opened the flood gates and things are going to start moving pretty quickly."

"A week later we talked on the phone, and we're both so excited for Memorial Day we can hardly stand it. I can't concentrate on final exams with all this excitement, and John made the comment a few days ago that he had a hard time getting his work done because of it. Then he told me he tried to get his mind off it by thinking what it would be like if things DIDN'T work out between us, and his mind went blank, like he physically couldn't picture what life would be like without me because it makes too much sense NOT to work out. So I guess you could call that a 'mini-DTR' if you wanted. I guess mom was right - I did open the flood gates with that little slip-of-the-tongue."
"I moved into my first apartment with my friend Mallory this week. It's a tiny studio apartment in downtown Boise, and it's only going to be for the summer while I'm taking my microbiology class. But I'm excited for the experience!"

 "On Thursday John sent me the best gift in the whole world. He made a movie of himself playing the guitar and singing, and he put it on a CD so I could watch it on my computer in my little apartment. It was so incredible, but it made me miss him even more!"

Postcard From Mexico

May 21, 2005
"John got invited to go Mexico this weekend with a few people from his Singles Ward. He said they got to stay in a condo, and he spent hours snorkeling near the beach..."

"...sleeping in his hammock..."

"...and thinking about me..."

"He sure knows how to make me blush!"

I Love You - Arizona

May 30, 2005

"It is so hot down here! :) John picked me up from the airport and we went out to dinner with his mom and her husband. She seems very nice and also has a fun sense of humor. After dinner we drove out to his sister Jana's house where I stayed the night. I woke up to the sound of Emily trying to open my door at 6:30 in the morning saying, 'Hey you! Hey girl! Are you awake? Open the door!' 

"She is such a cutie! I had a lot of fun getting to know Jana, and her girls were adorable. We ate lunch at the mall and then drove to the theater to meet John. We saw Star Wars III, and then he drove me up to see Canyon Lake."

"I was taking pictures of all the cactus out in the desert because I'd never seen so many before. We got to the lake just before sunset and it was absolutely beautiful. The colors of the sky and the silhouettes of the mountains looked incredible. I loved it."

"I met the Speirs Family that night where I'll be staying for the rest of the weekend. They are the nicest people! We hung out for a while before John had to drive home, then he kissed me goodnight on the porch and I came inside and went to bed. It's nice not to be the one driving back and forth for the weekend, because it's a lonely drive home!"

"In the morning John picked me up after breakfast and we went for a tour of his hometown. He showed me all the places he lived while he was growing up, where he went to school, and where he used to play. I had so much fun listening to all his stories. When we stopped at the old town houses where he once lived, we found a painted hand and foot print that was left by his brothers Brian and Steve on one of the beams of the carport canopy. He couldn't believe they were still there!"

"After hearing all his stories and seeing where he grew up, I felt like I'd known him my whole life. We headed back to his house where he pulled out his photo album from his mission and told me more about the people he met. Later that evening we went to play games with Jenn Speirs and her husband Jason. On the way there John asked me if I had ever seen the gun that he keeps in his car... I asked him what kind of gun it was and he said, 'A machine gun!' Then he pressed the window control button on the driver side door which made his window rattle like a machine gun. It was pretty funny!"

"We had a great time with Jenn and Jason, and when it came time to leave we stepped outside and could smell the moist Arizona dust from an oncoming thunder storm. I had never smelled anything so uniquely refreshing. John got excited and said we were going to the airport graveyard to watch the lightening show. So we drove his little Honda Civic through a bumpy dirt field with only the parking lights on (because technically we were trespassing) and I was getting nervous."

"John pulled his car up to the wing of this old broken down airplane so we could jump on top of it and watch the lightening storm. We stood there in the breeze for a few minutes and then he pointed out at some red lights on a radio tower in the distance and said, 'I heard that if you look closely at those lights they spell out a four letter word.' So I sat there staring at them and couldn't figure it out, so he said, 'You have to use your imagination...' as he traced the letters L-O-V-E with his finger in the air. So I smiled and turned toward him and asked him what he was trying to say. He wrapped me up in his arms and paused for a moment, then he said, 'There's something that's been on my mind for about a month or so, but I didn't really know how to say it. I didn't want to tell you over the phone, so I waited until you could be here in person... so I could tell you that I've fallen in love with you.' Those words never sounded so sweet until I heard him say it to me for the first time... so I made him say it again! :) He laughed and said, 

'I love you Dana.'

"My heart was pounding. He told me he'd never said those words to anyone else outside his own family, so you could say I felt extremely special. I knew I loved him too, and I meant it when I said it back to him. We both confessed that every time we said 'I miss you' on the phone we were dying to say 'I love you' instead. So there we were, standing in each other's arms on the wing of an airplane, while the lightening danced in the background and the breeze rushed against our faces. John softly began to sing 'More Than Words' into my ear while we danced. It couldn't have been more perfect. :)"

"We sat down on the wing and talked about what this new step in our relationship would mean. We know we're not ready to get married yet, and both of us want to finish our Associate's Degrees (which won't be for another year), so we're looking forward to spending more time together and getting to know each other better over the next few months. We could still be engaged by the end of the year, but we want to take our time and make sure it's the right decision for both of us. I admire John for being so rational and mature. I'm so grateful for his example and his friendship. I truly am in love with him."

"We spent Sunday with the Speirs Family, and today we went hiking up at Camel's Back Mountain."

"We took some fun pictures and sat on a rock and talked about his family and how his brothers met their wives. Then he took me shopping and we went swimming with his nieces. There were a bunch of other kids there that were ganging up on me with squirt guns, so John came to my rescue and fought them off with a super soaker. We hung out at Jana's afterward and then went to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory."

"On the way there we heard the song 'I Knew I Loved You Before I Met You' by Savage Garden on the radio, so John looked at me and smiled and said, 'This song is very, very appropriate for this occasion.'

"So that became OUR song."

"This four day weekend has been the longest amount of time we've gotten to spend with each other so far, and I have loved every single minute of it. It took me a while to adjust to the heat, but I wouldn't mind living here some day if things work out the way we want them to. I know it's going to be hard to leave this time. We had such a great weekend together!"

John's Trip To Brazil

June 19, 2005
"John left for Brazil on Thursday afternoon. He had some stressful complications with his flight plans at the airport, but he made it down there just fine."

"I'm using his phone card to call him while he's down there. It's weird having to go by a schedule, but they're 3 hours ahead of us, so if he wants to talk to me he has to plan ahead to make sure he's home in time to answer my call."

"He was staying with one of his convert families when he asked me to call at a certain time. I was worried about what I would say if it wasn't him who answered the phone, so he told me to just ask for 'Elder Critch-y-fielj'."

"Sure enough, Pedro's Sister-in-law Cleonise answered the phone when I called to talk to John, so I asked for 'Elder Critch-y-fielj' and she rattled off in Portuguese so fast the only thing I could pick out was 'Templo! Templo!', so I said, 'Okay....' and then hung up the phone. Apparently John had gone to the Temple and hadn't gotten back in time, so when he called me back he was laughing about my awkward encounter on the phone and apologized for not being there. It was pretty funny."

"Another convert family he got to stay with while he was down there was Josalita and Roseli. He had the special opportunity to go through the temple with them as well and said it was a neat experience."

"The relationships that John built with his converts on his mission amaze me. I've never experienced that for myself, but he talks about them with such love and admiration, and it seems they feel the same way about him. 

 I'm really glad he had the opportunity to return to his mission areas and reconnect with those people who had an impact on him. It sounds like it's been an incredible journey."