Our Love Story--Developing A Crush: How Ward Prayer and Love Notes Really Worked

Once I was ready to seriously date and look for my eternal love, I wasted no time. I made a list of my potential dates and focused on these individuals by making any connections with them that I could. All of my attempts ended in failure...except one.

It really all started at ward prayer. Ward prayer is pretty common in singles wards. On Sunday nights all ward members get together and have a prayer, a short thought, announcements, maybe a treat, and (most obviously the main reason for the whole thing) mingling. You can make fun of it, you can think it's lame, but for me it worked.

My first conversation with Danny at ward prayer was exciting and fun. It was October 18, 2009. I remember we talked about Spanish and sign language and I was impressed that he knew three languages. He told me some funny stories, and I liked listening to them. He liked that I thought they were funny. I saw him interact with other people at ward prayer too, and I could see that he was friendly, kind, and well liked by others. All of these things made me more and more interested in getting to know him better.

Combined with ward prayer, my ward participated in a cheesy (but also helpful to me) thing called "love notes." Anybody could write a note to anyone else on a little slip of paper. You then put that paper in the slot for whatever apartment the intended recipient lived in, and then somebody took the notes around and delivered them to each apartment. I wrote a lot to my roommates or other girls in the ward to be friendly or to say "good job on your talk in church today!" or similar things. You could put your name on it, or stay anonymous. It was kind of like getting valentines every single week. Yes, it was cheesy. Yes, I have decided to write a book someday making fun of the whole thing. But, yes, it was also exciting and fun and I guarantee that almost everyone looked forward to seeing who had written them that week.

So, I started writing love notes to guys in my ward to try to make some connections. I had some interesting experiences with some of these other guys: creepy, boring, uninterested, no idea I existed, probably creeped out by me...dating is so awkward! But I only want to tell you about the one that worked out.

The next week, on October 25, I saw and talked to Danny again.

"Danny Davis sat by me at ward prayer, and I was so glad he did. I like Danny. He's so nice and just natural--total opposite of _______. We can talk just fine, because it's no big deal. He wrote me and my roommate love notes tonight. Here is mine:

"He wrote the Waldo thing because I didn't go to a ward service project on Saturday, and he asked where I was." (And made some joke about "where's waldo")

I was soooooo excited to get that note and to have him talk to me again at ward prayer. From that point on, we always talked at and after ward prayer and wrote notes. The only time I ever saw him was on Sundays at church and ward prayer. He was just starting the core accounting classes at BYU, and they were pretty brutal. He was studying all the time, so I rarely saw him (though I tried to keep my eye out for him!) at any other time. Slowly, I forgot about the other guys on my list and started developing a crush on just one.