like a movie or something

Tonight I am thinking about my dearest Sister Leanne McDonnell, who is waking up in England while I am doing some pre-bedtime blogging in my American bed.

My relationship with Leanne is one for the books. In March, I was able to go to the Preston Temple over the weekend (my amazing trip to Chorley) and go to a free lunch for all the women in the stake (the stake: a region of the LDS church, similar to a Catholic diocese). At the lunch, two sister missionaries were handing out drinks. One of them talked to me for just a minute and we immediately hit it off. I have never done that before. It probably helped that we already knew that we were both Mormon, but really... It was like we had met before. Since she was wearing a name tag, I didn't bother to ask her for her name. To me she was just (the uncannily familiar) Sister McDonnell.

I've emailed her a few times since that Saturday and she has responded despite her crazy missionary schedule, and we know a little bit more about each other now, but I still feel like I know her a lot better than I really do. The only picture I have of her is the one on the mormon.org website, on her Meet a Mormon page (this is also where I found out her first name is Leanne). It's the weirdest sensation, to see her face and partly think she's a stranger and also partly think that she is one of my best friends. She is an amazing person. So positive and faithful. I can only hope that I am deserving of her friendship, and that we are able to keep up long distance friendship--the test of all relationship tests.

On that Saturday when we met, as I was walking out the door, we promised we would meet again. Our plan is to go see the Cliffs of Dover and romp along the beach like Emma (Jane Austen's matchmaking heroine), since we have never seen that beach before. I can't wait for that day!

I mean, I can. But I also can't. You know what I mean.