Hello, my name is Steve Jones, I am the second counselor in our wards Elders Quorum presidency. I am divorced and the father of two kids. My oldest daughter is 25 and married. My Youngest daughter just turned 20 and moved away to college. I live alone. I get along great with my ex-wife. We just could not live together.
For those who are not LDS (Mormon), each congregation has a group of Elders, (basically adult age men) who are responsible to visit and look after other members of the congregation. One of our focuses are to assist those without men in their homes, with anything they may need. With the Pandemic going on, ministering, or visiting these members has become a challenge. We cannot go in their homes, and so we have to call or use Zoom or FaceTime to try and build connections and see how everyone is doing. This is not so bad in general, but it is much harder when somebody new moves into the neighborhood and you have zero connection with them.
So my story begins when we saw somebody moving into the old Anderson home. The old widow who lived there died last year, and it took the family a long time to clean the house up and sell it. I saw movers moving things in, but with COVID, I did not feel I could offer to help. I had no idea who moved in.
Later the week, Bishop Smedley, our Congregational leader, called and told me that we had a new Widow move into the ward, and he asked if I could be their Ministering visitor and check in on her. He gave me a phone number, and a name. I knew nothing else about her. I admit, I was not very thrilled, I am very busy, I had just gone back to online university to finish my degree, and I was worried that this Widow would be very needy and take a lot of time. Not a very Christian attitude, so I adjusted my attitude and I proceeded to call us Sister Franklin and introduce myself.
Well the first call was kind of awkward, as you would expect. A total stranger calling a couple of days after moving in and saying I am here to make sure she has what she needs. I called and she did not answer, which I totally understand, since if nobody is in my contacts, I seldom answer as well. So I left a message saying hello and who I was, and then I also texted her:
"Welcome to the ward Sister Franklin, I am Steve Jones, your new Minister, and I live around the Block, I would love to make contact with you and see what I can do to help."
I got no response for a couple of days, and kind of forgot about her at the moment.
Then later that second night, I got a text, that was kind of late, and woke me up. It said:
"Hello Brother Jones, thank you for reaching out. I am new to this ward and this city, and I appreciate your offer. There is one thing you could do for me, I need to find an Electrician to fix some issues with the lights in my house."
Well this made me happy, it was a simple task that I could help with. I happened to know a good one and I shared the contact information with Sister Franklin. A couple of days later, on my morning run, I saw that the electrician was parked in front of her house, and that brought a smile to my face. So later that afternoon I texted Sister Franklin and said:
"Hello Sister Franklin, I saw the electrician there, was he able to help you? - Brother Jones"
This time I got a quick response saying:
"Yes, thank you so much Brother Jones, is it ok if I call you Steve? My name is Kristin and you can call me that."
This brought a smile to my face, I had never actually met Sister Kristin Franklin, but I felt good knowing I did a simple thing that helped her out. This was a simple break through, but it led to me texting her every few days, checking on her and her slowly opening up more and more to me. I found out she had been a widow for three years now, and that she had one daughter, who had just turned 18 and moved out to BYU a few months before, and she had moved to downsize from her bigger house, to a much smaller one, since she was now alone.
As the weeks progressed I started sending her jokes and humorous stories, since I know how hard it is to live alone. Kristin seemed to like them and would start sending me jokes and stories as well. We were developing a good friendship. The odd part of this friendship is that I had never actually met Kristin.
Well the ward decided to start doing Adult Sunday School using Zoom, since we have not been able to meet in person since March. This was the first time a lot of people had used Zoom and I was kind of amused watching a lot of the people struggling to figure it out. Most seemed to not understand how the mute button works. It also amused me seeing that a lot of people seemed unaware of what was behind them as they turned on their cameras. I could see their messy bedrooms and kitchens them. I find this a form of entertainment.
So as I was scrolling through the screens looking at all of the people, seeing who had grown pandemic beards, who had dyed their hair, I froze when I saw this stunning women I did not recognize. I looked at her user name and it said KFranklin. I was stunned, could this be the same widow Kristin I had been being friends with?
I had assumed she was an older middle aged Mom, it never occurred to me she was a stunning knockout of a women. She was a striking brunette, with bright hazel eyes. She had winning smile, and from what I could tell she had perfect makeup and was dressed very nicely. For some reason this totally changed how I viewed her. I was a bit mad at myself for making assumptions about her.
This was the first time I started to have naughty thoughts towards Sister Franklin.
Needless to say, I was pretty distracted all during Sunday School, I keep just looking at her in her tiny little window on Zoom and I was totally mesmerized. I wanted to acknowledge her beauty, but I was not sure how to do it without coming across as a creeper.
I spent a lot of time before I got up the courage to text her. I think I wrote it 10 times before I hit send.
"Kristin - I saw you on Zoom in Sunday School today, glad you were able to join and participate. I hope this does not sound awkward, but I must say, you are the prettiest Sister in our ward."
I sat there staring at my phone, wanting to find a way to delete it after I hit send. I was worried I had ruined our friendship.
There was not a response for a long time. Then finally I would see the little dots saying she was typing. Then they stopped. Then they started again, then they stopped. I figured she was trying to find a nice way of saying go to hell you creeper.
Finally I got a response.
"Steve, thank you for the nice compliment. It has been a long time since I have gotten one, and I am a bit flustered. I have not blushed in a long time."
I was so relieved she did not tell me where to shove it, or that she did not block me and call the Bishop. I felt emboldened by her response.
I responded with:
"Now I realize that this Pandemic has made me miss out on a lot, but not seeing you face to face. You truly are a stunning women. I look forward to when I can see you face to face in the same room. Sorry if that sounds to bold."
The same cycle started again of me wanting to take the message back, then seeing her type, stop and start again. Finally:
"You are not too bold. And I have not blushed this much in years. You are very kind, I look forward to when we can meet face to face as well."
My heart was beating so fast at this point. I decided I better stop for now before I scared her away. I was worried I would escalate too quickly.
I was thinking of ways that I could see her more, and then I thought of a simple, and kind of silly way. So after a week I sent her the following text:
"Sister Franklin, I would like to do a formal home (virtual) visit and give you a spiritual message. Can I FaceTime you Sunday Evening at 7:00 to give you a message?"
After a few minutes I got the reply:
"I look forward to it, I will see you on Sunday!"
I have to admit, this felt like a bit of a date to me. I had butterflies in my stomach, and I was looking forward to it.
That Sunday came around, it was was Sunday School time again. And yes, I spent the entire time watching her little window on zoom, and admiring her sexy face and not paying attention at all to the lesson.
I admit, when 7:00 rolled around, I was shaved, and wearing my best suit, even though it was just for FaceTime, hoping that would impress her.
Finally 7:00 finally came and I promptly put through the FaceTime call. Kristin answered right away! And when she answered, I was not disappointed! She was dressed up, her hair was done up nice, perfect makeup, and she clearly had on a nice dress. Being the idiot I am I said
