Mike Andrews

In 1989, Mike and I were sitting in the cab of his blue truck on a dark street in Stockton, California when instinct and intuition told me unequivocally that we were in danger. Before that fact was confirmed by other people, Mike openly questioned me about it, but I could tell deep down that he knew we were in danger, too.

Because of legal concerns, I can't continue on with that story, but trust me it is riveting and 100 percent true. And, to be truthful, it's not really legal concerns that stops me from sharing the whole story. It's a little thing called discretion, which was something I knew little about in those days.

I don't know if Mike's mom gets on the Internet or not but he used to have huge parties at his house when he was younger, the kind where police arrived and told all the hoodlums to go home.

After our stint together at Granada High School, I worked with Mike at Braswell's Construction. He was a hard worker, a good friend.

I parted ways with many people when I left on my mission, so I have to admit I felt some pride after my mission when I found out Mike had used a magnet to place on his fridge a picture of me swinging from a vine in my missionary attire.

Last week I learned from Jake Segotta that the woman Mike is engaged to is an inactive Mormon. I will now, from this day forward, proudly call him "Brother Andrews." I will wait patiently for the day when Mike, er -- I mean Brother Andrews, calls me up and asks me to come to California for his baptism.

Think that day won't come?

I know many people who married Mormons, spent time around their family, eventually then wanted to learn more and then became Mormon's themselves.

In my own family it happened to my step-mother, step-brother, mother-in-law, sister-in-law and brother-in-law. I baptized two of them.

Sure there are exceptions. I have another brother-in-law that feels comfortable enough to go to church activities and visits on an occasional Sunday, but he is happy with where he is at. I'm happy for him, too.

This developing situation with Brother Andrews is quite different, however. Every time I think back to our experience in Stockton, I think to myself, "I knew it before he did then and I know it before he does now."

I just hope that when he makes the decision to be baptized that he asks me to do it.