Gerald and Leasa Celebrate 20 years

I “heard” about Gerald long before I ever met him. You see there were girls that I knew that had a crush on him so I got to know of him through them. He returned from his mission in the spring of 1988. He was invited to the Pima Jr. Prom by one of his admirers and I remember walking up to him and my friend at the prom and saying “So this is the guy we have been waiting to meet?” so I got to meet him a good year before we ever started to date. Since my brother was going to EAC, I asked him if he knows this guy named “Gerald Schmidt”? He had met him at institute and they had talked about horses together. Kirk came home one day and told me that he told Gerald that he should take out my sister. I grinned real big and said “You did not!” Gerald had gone to watch his cousin Jeanene Redd play basketball and she was playing against me! He remembers asking someone who I was and he put two and two together and decided to take me out. He called to ask me on a date and I said I would have to take a rain check. I was getting my Patriarchal blessing the next day and I decided earlier that I wouldn’t be out late the night before my blessing. I was way excited that he called me and hoped that he would call back! This was in February and it took him until the end of March to call BACK! Our first date was for his 22^nd birthday, April 1^st! We were together quite a bit after that. I graduated in May from high school and he was sure he wanted to marry me! We were apart most of the summer which was a good thing. This allowed me to realize how much I missed him and that I loved him too! We were engaged before the Fall semester at EA started. We had a longer engagement than normal as I was playing basketball for EA and I was busy with that plus we flew to Chile for Christmas break so I could meet my mother and father in law to be. We were married March 9, 1990, during spring break and just a week after the basketball season ended. That means we are celebrating our 20 year anniversary this month! WOW, how time flies! When you get married, you think you are in love, but now that we have been married 20 years, the love I have for my sweetheart is so much stronger that I can’t express it in words. I can’t imagine what I might say about our love for each other in another 20 years. He truly is my best friend and soul mate. Can I love him anymore than I already do? J