Three years later

It was only three Julys ago that Nic and I conveniently got home from our LDS missions within three days of each other. Luckily for me, I was the first one home--it gave me time to get a hair cut and color and some new clothes before I saw my ex-fiance for the first time in two years. (If only I could have left those extra twenty or so pounds in Mongolia with the rest of my unwanted baggage!)

Three years later, Nic and I still talk about Mongolia and Florida all the time. And though I have absolutely no reservations saying that we are both extremely glad to have our missions over and done with, there will always be a part of me that would, given the chance, drop everything and live in a ger in Mongolia forever more. (Florida? Not so much. But it is a nice place to visit.)

And so it is with much sentimentality that I share a few photos from the lives of Nic and Erin, 2003-2005.

Here's the day Nic went into the MTC. Little did I know these are some of my future in-laws.

Meet Ted, Mary Twone (I'm sure I spelled that wrong), and Tedrick. If I remember right they were the first Haitian couple Nic taught and baptized. Plus, they are super awesome and let us spend the night when we were in Orlando.

I have no idea which apartment this is, but even as a missionary Nic was still pretty cute. I'm just jealous that he had a cell phone and a car.

This is me bundled up in the city of Murun. The city only had one paved road but made up for that with lots and lots of horses and camels.

Proof that I nearly froze my tail off during the winter. My companion took this pic at about 9 a.m. on a typical winter morning when we were headed to teach English.

Here I am in Mongolia's capital, Ulaanbataar, a couple weeks before my parents came to get me. See that hideous jumper I'm wearing? I'm wore that beauty nearly every day for the last six months of my mission. Don't worry though, I burned it before I left the country.