Parent question: What was it like dating your spouse?

Dating Kristyn was an amazing experience. I first met her when she was a freshman and I was a return missionary sophomore at BYU. We both lived at Deseret Towers. From the first time I saw her I was entranced. She was confident, poised, happy, and had a glow about her that drew me in. I was much less confident and figured I had no chance in dating her, so I didn't approach. I tried to date her roommate for a time, but her roommate was not interested in me that way. However, that afforded me the opportunity to get to know Kristyn a little better, as I would often ask her questions about her roommate. 

During winter semester the feelings of the Spirit overwhelmed my feelings of insecurity, and I started to try to date Kristyn in earnest. We found we enjoyed spending time together. That was the beginning of the Gulf War and people would often gather in the large television room of the Morris Center to watch the news. I have memories of sitting there with her, snuggling to CNN. 😂

My feelings for her grew stronger and stronger. We started dating exclusively. One night, I was walking home from school and crossing the quad between the Wilkinson Center and the Harris Fine Arts Center. I was pleasantly consumed with thoughts of Kristyn. As I reflected on her many amazing qualities, I thought to myself, "she's so choice." That was a strange adjective for me to use; not one common to my vocabulary and certainly not one I'd use to describe Kristyn. Then the Spirit whispered, "Where have you heard that before?" I immediately recalled a line from my patriarchal blessing, where I was promised the Lord would lead me to one of His choice daughters who would become my wife. It was then I knew that we were to be married. I think it was only a few weeks later that we were engaged. I've been the happiest man on earth ever since. ❤️

--Dad

I was determined that I would not be "one of those girls" who went to BYU their freshmen year and got engaged. I was coming off a high school relationship that I was anxious to be rid of and I was looking forward to dating lots of young men that were members. Well, I probably packed about 2 years worth of dating into the first semester because by February I was engaged to Dad!

I actually like Dad earlier in the year but he was busy dating--and pursuing my roomate. That was ok since I wasn't looking for anything serious but it did allow us to become friends in that time. Once we returned from Christmas break we started spending a lot of time together watching the news as the Gulf War unfolded. It was also a little complicated as I had started dating someone from back home during the break who would be leaving for a mission that summer. Dad was VERY nice and offered to drive me up to meet my boyfriend--which proved very awkward as we had developed feelings for each other. For a little while I wasn't sure what to do, but I knew I liked being with Dad. He was FUN! We had the best time together and could talk for hours. (It's still the same today.) 

As he mentioned one night he knew he was supposed to marry me. That prompted him to say to me "we are either going to keep dating and break up, or keep dating and get married. What do you think it will be?" And I just knew then that we were supposed to get married. We were engaged shortly after, right around Valentines Day. In April we both went home--me to Washington and him to California. We would write letters and then we called once a week for one hour! That seems so crazy now. I visited him for a week in May (we went to Disneyland with his family) and he came up for 4th of July weekend. Then we were married in August. Looking back, it's a testament to the power of revelation because we really didn't hardly know each other--but I just knew it was right. And it still is!

-Mom