Her Story
Her Side
Natalie Noelle Bytheway -
I was born in December of 2001 in Salt Lake City, UT ! I’ve lived here ever since. When I heard about the mission age change by President Monson, I knew I wanted to go ! I got my mission call a few weeks before my 19th birthday, and was assigned to labor in the Tahiti Papeete Mission starting February 2021. I started the 9 weeks of the online MTC, and got a reassignment to Tucson Arizona due to the COVID pandemic, which kept the borders of Tahiti closed. On April 26th, 2021, I got to the field ! I loved Arizona, but I couldn’t stop thinking about Tahiti. I loved everyone and everything around me, but I kept feeling like I needed to go to Tahiti. It wasn’t looking good for a while. I didn’t end up making it to Tahiti until December, a mere 2 months away from the cutoff. If it had been two months later, I wouldn’t have been able to get in.
When I got to the mission, it was such a culture shock ! The mission had a Christmas party the day after I got there, and we got to talk to tons of missionaries! I vaguely remember seeing an Elder across the room and thinking, “I thought I was in Tahiti, not Tonga !” This Elder looked just like Kolipoki from the Other Side of Heaven movie, and that was the first time I remember seeing Elder Hansen. Throughout my time in Tahiti, I heard a lot more about Elder Hansen, even though I never served around him. We always seemed to narrowly dodge each other at transfers !
In my last transfers, I was serving in Maraa. I had been there for almost three transfers, and I was getting ready to go home, much to my dismay. Since I had gotten to Tahiti, I heard that Elder Soares was going to come to our mission and we’d have a mission conference. That day had finally come, a mark that it was almost time for me to go home from my mission. During some kind of zone conference, we were told that there was going to be a small choir for Elder Soares. I don’t remember exactly what happened, but the decision was made that instead of specific zones, the entire group of missionaries living on Tahiti would form the choir and we’d have a practice the p-day before the conference. At this rehersal, the cute Tahitian members got food for all the missionaries. After singing we all went outside and ate and mingled, it was p-day after all ! A sister living in my house said she wanted to talk to her old district leader, so I volunteered to come with her ! We stood under this huge tree just outside the church, and talked with Elder Hansen and his companion. I had known who Elder Hansen was my entire time in Tahiti, but this was the first time ever talking to him. In our very first conversation, we learned that we were both going home soon… to utah… to go to BYU… and that we both had reassignments in Arizona preceding our time in Tahiti. Woah.
The three following weeks, we didn’t see each other or talk to each other, outside of a glance or two at the mission conference. The day finally came, and we were packing up to go home. We were at the mission home bearing testimony, getting our personal phones back, signing transfer journals, all that stuff. Elder Hansen and I talked a tiny little bit, trying to keep it professional but also prying a little haha. The last two days before the flight, we just hung around because our areas were filled with new missionaries. We went to the market and bought our pearls, our ukes and whatnot. As we were packing up on Tuesday evening, we all talked a little bit more about going home, and Elder Hansen and I found out that we were going to be sitting across from each other on the airplane home !
Long story short, I cried a lot leaving Tahiti. I think we all did. When we were finally situated on the plane ready to go home, it was pretty late, but Elder Hansen and I talked a bit. It was hard to sleep, so instead we talked. And I have no idea what we talked about haha. After customs and whatnot in San Francisco, we had a 4 hour layover. We didn’t really know what to do, so we all just hung out together and talked. In sitting at the airport for a while, we learned that we would have a 2hr delay on top of our already super long layover. More time to talk ! This is really where Elder Hansen and I got to know each other ! And yet again… we learned that we would be sitting next to each other on the flight from San Fran to Salt Lake. We got home and saw our families, and I wanted to make sure to get pictures with the other missionaries. Unfortunately we didn’t have time before most of the other missionaries left. I saw that Elder Hansen was still there and told my mom “Hey wait before we go I want a picture with Elder Hansen!” We got a picture, and all went on our way.
After lots more adventures, many late night facetime calls, thousands of text messages, long drives, movie nights and food runs, we got engaged! Sam took me back to San Francisco where we really got to know each other, got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. And now you’re all caught up! I could not be happier with how it all turned out. The Lord absolutely knew <3
