Book 1 Chapter 1

Beautiful. That was all John could think. There he sat, his hands shaking slightly. He hoped she wouldn’t see how nervous he was. The sun was shining, a brilliant blue sky shown, marred by only a few clouds. It was still a little cold out, but summer was definitely coming. As they sat a small rain fell. He looked up, the clouds were miles away. Chuckling to himself, he said “Enumclaw, the only place where rains falls from nowhere.” She giggled and moved in closer. John put an arm around her back. She pulled her hair behind her ear and looked up at him. They sat together, looking into each other’s eyes, as if trying to decipher what the other was thinking. John had always loved Rachel. They had met at John’s first stake dance. He remembered how he had asked her to dance, and then felt like a fool because he didn’t have anything to say to her. So, instead, he sang along with the song. And she sang with him. It was really a touching moment. I t took him 2 years to work up the courage to ask her out. And after that, a month for him to call her back; but since then, they were together all the time. Sitting there outside of the church, John felt as if his life were almost complete except for one last thing. This was it, then moment of truth… as he held Rachel close to his body, he leaned towards her, closing his eyes and pursing his lips. Rachel smiled to herself and, putting a hand on his cheek, raised her chin slightly and brought her mouth to his. Right there, on the lawn of the church where they had met, sitting in the rain, John and Rachel had their first kiss. It was beautiful.
“Hey! We’re begging the service! It’s time to come up for air!” Rachel’s mom shouted from the door. John jumped at the sound. He had lost track of the time. He looked sheepishly at Rachel. She gently squeezed his arm, and winking, whispered “Come on.” They stood up and held each other hand as they walked inside. From the chapel John heard his favorite hymn, Be Still My Soul being played. He knew that his mom must have been behind the keys. Bishop Clyde was waiting in the foyer with Rachel’s parents and John’s Dad who winked at his son as he came in the door. They were discussing some of the political turmoil that had been plaguing the nation. Bishop stopped the conversation and asked, “Have you seen Luke? We can’t find him.” He looked at John who shook his head. Rachel said, “John, why don’t you go check the bathroom. He might need your help doing his tie.” She smiled at him. John smiled back and turned to walk down the hallway when he realized that meant that he would have to let go of Rachel’s hand. He didn’t want to, so she walked with him. As they walked, John tried to imagine just what Luke was going through. The two of them had been friends since sophomore year when Luke stood up for John during a fight in wrestling practice. Everyone knew that John was a Mormon and some people liked to give him a hard time because of it. On that day, some seniors had hung some dirty pictures in his locker and when John confronted them, they ganged up on him. Luke, who stood a full foot above John stepped in and broke up the fight. John remembered walking home that day. It had been raining, as usual, and he was getting soaked, but he really didn’t mind it, but when Luke pulled over and told him to get in, he didn’t hesitate. The two became inseparable. During the summer before senior year, Luke had agreed to meet with the missionaries. After 4 months of lessons, he, and his family, were ready to be baptized.
John had wanted to call out when he opened the bathroom door, but he was immediately silenced. As he entered, he felt a strong presence compelling him to be as reverent as possible. Through the space in the door, he saw his best friend kneeling in prayer. John smiled to himself. Taking a seat on the counter he waited. After a few minutes, Luke whispered “Amen” and stood up. As he exited the stall, their eyes met. John smiled but Luke just starred and asked, “Can you feel that?” John kept smiling. “That’s called the Spirit. Remember when the missionaries talked to you about praying-” Luke cut him off. “Look, John. If I go through with, things are gonna change. My friends already think I’m crazy!” John stopped smiling. He hadn’t really expected this.
“While I was getting dressed, I was thinking...” He looked in to the mirror. “I mean, seriously John. Everything is going to be different. Mormons aren’t cool. If I become one, I’m gonna have to quit a lot of the things that I’m doing. Everyone’s going to expect me to be all religious all the time. Bishop says I might even have to be a missionary! John, bro, that’s just not me!” John felt devastated. What had happened to that awesome spirit that he had felt? Where was all this coming from? John looked at his friend in the mirror. “Luke, what were you praying about?” Luke sighed. “John, if you knew that something was correct, but that it would totally mess things up for you, would you still do what was right?” John smiled. “Luke, do you know that this is the true church of Jesus Christ?” Luke turned and looked John in the eyes. “Yeah, John; I know it.” “Then what else matters.” Luke smiled at him. “Well come on then! I’m late for my own baptism!”
As the two of the talked, Rachel was waiting outside of the door. She could hear parts of the conversation. She leaned back against wall, smiling. As she sat there, a car came squealing into the parking lot. Her friend Sarah jumped out of the passenger side, and the car took off.
“Hey, did I make it in time?” she called out as she rushed through the door. Rachel looked at her with her eyebrows raised and a look of disappointment on her face. “What? Aren’t you glad to see me?” Rachel smiled and gave her hug, and then started coughing. Sarah reeked of cigarette smoke.
“Sorry, Rach, Annie always smokes when she drives. Hey! Look at these new shoes! They are so cute. Annie let me borrow them.” Rachel’s smile faded a little. She and Sarah had been like sisters ever since she moved into the ward from Utah 4 years earlier. However, this past year Sarah had made some new friends and Rachel noticed that she was drifting away.
“Sarah, wanna go to my house after the service? You can stay the night!”
“No, Annie’s gonna pick me up. She’s so cool. While my Mom’s away, I’m just gonna stay at her house. Tomorrow we’re going up to Seattle all day. Just the two of us!” Rachel couldn’t believe her friend. She stared at her and slowly shook her head. “You forgot, didn’t you?” Sarah looked confused, “Forgot what? Oh, shiz, the song! Is that tomorrow?” Rachel dropped her shoulders. “Sarah, how could you forget? We’ve been practicing all month! Are you sure that’s just tobacco that Annie’s smoking?” Sarah grinned mischievously and hit her gently on the arm. “Look, Rach, I’m sorry that I forgot. I’ll just tell Annie that we’ll hang out later. See, problem solved. No worries.” Rachel took her hand, “But I am worried about you. Just make sure that you’re there tomorrow at 8:00. They young men will be serving us breakfast, and the conference begins at 9. I wanna try and practice a little around 8:30.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll be there.” Just then, John and Luke walked out of the bathroom. Sarah was glad for the distraction. “Look at you two!” She adjusted Luke’s tie. John winked at Rachel, but then noticed the distressed look on her face. He was about to ask her about it when Bishop Clyde hollered down the hall, “Hey, let’s go, the water’s getting cold!”
Once again, the only way that John could describe the moment was, beautiful. After the opening hymn and prayer, brother Gillman, the first councilor gave a short message about enduring to the end. Afterwards, they went into the baptistery. Luke’s little sister was baptized first, and then his mother. He and his father were baptized next. When Luke came up out of the water, John thought he saw tears rolling down his cheek. As they changed out of their wet clothes, John and his friends went into the chapel and listened to the Elders play hymns on the piano. John had his arm around Rachel. The two of them sat, surrounded by their friends. Sarah was next to Rachel and the two brothers, Andy and Pete were in the pew in front of them facing the back.
“So, Jon Jon, how’s Jack doing?” Pete asked, interrupting the silence.
“He’s good. His unit got activated, though. They ship out in two weeks.” John’s brother was a Marine. Only 5 years older than John, James had joined up after his mission in Colombia. He said that it was his duty to serve God and his country. When he got back from South America, John had that he had changed. He was really serious about everything. He had seen some pretty dramatic and frightening things, and felt terrible because he had been powerless to prevent them. Less than three months after he returned, he shipped out for basic training.
“Where do you think they’ll send him?” Andrew asked. He was starring right at Sarah who was busy texting. She looked up at him.
“Are you asking me? How should I know?”
“No, sorry… I…” Andrew blushed and looked down at the ground. Pete slugged him in the arm. Sarah’s eyes went wide, but then she went back to her phone.
“I don’t know, Andy.” John said, but only after Rachel had elbowed him in the rib, “Maybe Afghanistan, there hasn’t been a lot of fighting since the earthquake, but there still is tons of cleanup. James seems to think Israel.”
Sarah peaked up from behind her phone, “Why Israel? I thought the earthquake didn’t hit that far south.”
“Are you kidding?” Pete practically yelled it. John glared at him and Andy punched him in the shoulder. Rachel was amazed that Sarah had been paying attention at all. “Sarah,” she started “Israel was invaded last month.”
“By who?” Sarah felt embarrassed. It seemed like she was the only person who didn’t know. Pete just rolled his eyes. Andy quickly spoke up, “It’s easier to ask who didn’t invade. All of the countries around it just attacked it suddenly. It was on the news… you just probably didn’t hear about it.” Sarah smiled at him.
Rachel added, “Anyway, it’s been bad. Israel is asking all the western countries for help.”
“And James is going there?” Sarah was actually worried; she had a not-so-secret crush on John’s older brother.
“We shouldn’t even have to worry about it!” Pete immediately scooted away from his brother, expecting to get hit again. “We have enough problems right here. They had to send in actual army-men to stop that riot in LA! And the south is so ticked off from the election that they’re threatening to sucede!”
“Wait, what? Why?” Sarah obviously didn’t watch the news. John sat up and looked at her. Sarah was his friend, but this was the first time that he realized how lost she really was. He was just about to explain when Luke walked in. “Hey guys, let’s go! Dinner’s at my house!”