Skip to main content

Young Love: Donnie and Saren

saren Donnie web.jpg

With her eyes closed, Saren Koch smiled and cooed, “His beautiful eyes are blue with a little bit of gray, like the ocean. But today he’s wearing gray so they look a little green.”“Aw, you,” replied Donnie Winter, opening his eyes to twinkle at his girlfriend of two years.This is what you get when you talk to people who are in love. Winter’s eyes are blue, but you won’t receive a simple answer like that from Koch, a sophomore in Peace Building from Ka‘a‘awa, Oahu, who just returned to her beloved after serving in the Taiwan Taipei Mission for 18 months.“It still feels like a dream that we’re together,” they said in unison. Winter, a senior in business from California, apologized, “It’s super cheesy, I’m sorry. But for real, it feels real and unreal at the same time to have her back.”After the mission age change in October of 2012, an influx of sister missionaries expanded the LDS Church’s missionary force and it seemed the phrase, “Dear Jane,” might have to be coined. “But he waited,” said Koch, holding Winter’s hand. After meeting in September of 2012, dating unofficially for months, and after their first kiss the day after Valentine’s Day, Koch left May 2013 for her 18-month mission. “He wrote me every week, and he was super careful in his letters. They weren’t filled with, ‘I miss you, I wish you were home.’ You rarely, if ever, wrote ‘I miss you,’” Koch said to Winter, nestled in his arms. “You never wrote hardcore, ‘I love you, I wish you were here,’ because you knew they were things that would distract me from the mission.” Squeezing his hand and smiling, she said “He knew how important this was to me and how much I wanted to serve my mission.”Winter explained, “I’ve always supported girls who want to go on a mission.” Although he was supportive, Winter found it hard to let Koch go. “[Before she left] I had actually kind of given up a little bit, but I just wanted to keep texting her, wanted to keep hanging out with her because I wanted to be around her. She was such a positive influence in my life. I was probably a little bit crazier about her than I realized,” he laughed.Winter’s feelings stood the test of time and distance, as did Koch’s. What kept them together, they agreed, were their letters of support and focus. Every letter ended with, “You’re amazing. I believe in you. You’re so cute. And then this hashtag, #smallkinewait,” said Koch. “It’s what he said, since way before I left. ‘Yeah, I’ll wait for you and I’ll write you on your mission. It’ll be really short—small kine wait.”’ Now that the wait is over, the duo is spending every spare moment they can together. “We go to the gym almost every morning,” said Winter. Koch laughed, saying, “I take him running.” They both giggled while Donnie explained, “I hate it. Remember on Parks and Recreation when Andy’s training for the police academy and he says running’s impossible and takes his pants off? That’s me.”Winter would do anything for Koch, he said. Even running every morning or waiting 18 months, because he’s in love. Uploaded Feb. 13, 2015
Writer: Alyssa Walhood