In October 2022 during the General Conference sessions from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Bryanna sat and listened prayerfully to each speaker. As she listened, she swears that she distinctly heard "look forward to the next covenant." For Bryanna, this meant a temple sealing to a man she loved. The only problem was she hadn't dated at all in 6+ years. She prayed about how she was going to start this journey. Bryanna's lifestyle and career did not give her many opportunities to meet single men her age that also met her standards. After hearing so many horror stories, She was also very against using an online dating app or website. As the year went on, she continued to pray about how she would meet this man while also building her career and getting stronger mentally, spiritually, and physically. Then came January 28, 2024. Bryanna went to the young single adults ward assigned to her area. It was just your ordinary sacrament meeting when all of a sudden her ears heard a quote that would change everything. "Take a step outside your comfort zone for a chance at a miracle." Right then and there, Bryanna knew the spirit was telling her that she needed to start dating and it wasn't going to be the way she was thinking. She had heard about this Christian dating app from social media called Upward. She knew about Mutual (the LDS dating app) but knew that was the scariest one based on the stories so she figured she would try this other one she had heard of. So, right there in the chapel, she downloaded Upward. She made a profile and then started looking. She tried to narrow her search to what she thought she wanted, but to do it fully, she had to pay for the premium version and she wasn't going to do that. So, she decided to download Mutual to see if it might give her better results. It didn't. At this time, she did not tell anyone that she had downloaded any apps except her bishop because she happened to have a meeting with him that same day. Still, wanting to find her person, she went back and forth on both apps and swiped left and right and up and down. She quickly realized how new Upward was seeing as she would see the same handful of boys come across even after swiping them away. She found a couple of people that maybe had potential but she needed more information. One of these guys was clearly a Polynesian which, if you didn't know, Bryanna said she wanted to marry a Polynesian or a Southern guy and had been for years! When she came across Robert Taimi, she read his profile. One of Bryanna's requirements was that the potential man be active in The Church. Robert's profile read at the very bottom, "Member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints all day and a half!" This was an automatic green flag. So she swiped on him and it was a match. The only "problem" was that Robert lived in St. George... Almost immediately, Bryanna received a message from him. The exact words from the whole conversation are not recorded, but they talked for a couple of weeks and then Rob asked for Bryanna's number. They started texting each other basically every day. Shortly after, Rob asked if they could call. That started the actual talking. This would continue almost every night. They went from a phone call to a Facetime call. Pretty much every time, Bryanna would fall asleep on the phone. For a little while, Rob would hang up thinking it might be strange to sit there on the phone while she was asleep. That would change. One night, he didn't hang up, and then Bryanna woke up, apologized, and proceeded to fall back asleep. This is when the all-night calls started. They would start a phone call and then in the morning, they would wake up still on the phone. This continued until they started talking about actually meeting in person.After a month of all-night Facetime calls and talking almost every day, throughout the day, they made a plan to meet in person. On February 29, 2024, Rob drove to Lehi and booked a hotel. The next night, they met at Heber Hatchets. While Rob waited in the parking garage, Bryanna showed up and stayed in her car watching him pace from her sideview mirror. She finally built the courage to get out and meet Rob in person. If you know Bryanna, you will know that this interaction was quite awkward on her part. What do you do? Hug? Shake hands? High five? This was so foreign. Still, they enjoyed the night together. The whole time, Bryanna kept thinking about how amazing this guy was and how in person was just so much better! As the hatchet-throwing reached an end, they decided to go get some food. After the food, Bryanna figured it was going well enough that she could bring him back to her house and watch a movie. What Rob was not prepared for was meeting the parents and a sibling on the first date. When they got to Bryanna's house, immediately they were greeted by a smiling mother! Then a father with probably a slight smile, but nothing big compared to his wife. As they walked farther into the house, they were met with Bryanna's older brother sharpening a knife... Next thing he knew, Bryanna's dad came up with a bullet and a Sharpie. He told Rob to write his name on it knowing that if he did anything to hurt Bryanna, that bullet was meant for him. They exchanged pleasantries and then proceeded down to the theater room to watch their movie. Now, before you get ahead of yourself, they did watch the movie. Well, about 95% of the movie. But who made that first move? Shockingly, Bryanna did, which was a surprise considering where she was at in her dating life. After this, they watched the rest of the movie and then continued to talk for a few hours. And yes, I do mean TALK. This was a welcome change from Bryanna's previous relationships. They talked and then said their goodbyes not knowing when they would see each other again. The following day, Rob made his way back to St. George while Bryanna filled in all the necessary people with the details. Something to know about the Park family is that they treat birthdays pretty special every year. That being said, it gets hard when all of the kids are now adults and all their birthdays land in March and April. So instead, they started doing an annual birthday party for everyone. We had this planned for March 17, 2024 and Bryanna's mom offered to invite Rob even though it had only been one date. According to her, she hadn't seen Bryanna "smile like that in a long time.After a month of all-night Facetime calls and talking almost every day, throughout the day, they made a plan to meet in person. On February 29, 2024, Rob drove to Lehi and booked a hotel. The next night, they met at Heber Hatchets. While Rob waited in the parking garage, Bryanna showed up and stayed in her car watching him pace from her sideview mirror. She finally built the courage to get out and meet Rob in person. If you know Bryanna, you will know that this interaction was quite awkward on her part. What do you do? Hug? Shake hands? High five? This was so foreign. Still, they enjoyed the night together. The whole time, Bryanna kept thinking about how amazing this guy was and how in person was just so much better! As the hatchet-throwing reached an end, they decided to go get some food. After the food, Bryanna figured it was going well enough that she could bring him back to her house and watch a movie. What Rob was not prepared for was meeting the parents and a sibling on the first date. When they got to Bryanna's house, immediately they were greeted by a smiling mother! Then a father with probably a slight smile, but nothing big compared to his wife. As they walked farther into the house, they were met with Bryanna's older brother sharpening a knife... Next thing he knew, Bryanna's dad came up with a bullet and a Sharpie. He told Rob to write his name on it knowing that if he did anything to hurt Bryanna, that bullet was meant for him. They exchanged pleasantries and then proceeded down to the theater room to watch their movie. Now, before you get ahead of yourself, they did watch the movie. Well, about 95% of the movie. But who made that first move? Shockingly, Bryanna did, which was a surprise considering where she was at in her dating life. After this, they watched the rest of the movie and then continued to talk for a few hours. And yes, I do mean TALK. This was a welcome change from Bryanna's previous relationships. They talked and then said their goodbyes not knowing when they would see each other again. The following day, Rob made his way back to St. George while Bryanna filled in all the necessary people with the details. Something to know about the Park family is that they treat birthdays pretty special every year. That being said, it gets hard when all of the kids are now adults and all their birthdays land in March and April. So instead, they started doing an annual birthday party for everyone. We had this planned for March 17, 2024 and Bryanna's mom offered to invite Rob even though it had only been one date. According to her, she hadn't seen Bryanna "smile like that in a long time." Following the first date, Bryanna and Rob talked nonstop via text, phone call, and Facetime. They talked about him coming back up for the birthday party and a second date and it was decided that he would come back. On March 16, 2024, Rob and Bryanna went on their second date. They went bowling and got ice cream. While at the bowling alley, Bryanna brought up the fact that he would be meeting the WHOLE family the next day. So she asked him, "how should I introduce you?" To which her replied, "how do you want to introduce me?" Bryanna had never had the "will you be my girlfriend question?" asked before so she really wanted it this time. So she told him, "no, that's up to you!" He said, "How does boyfriend sound?" She again, responded letting him know he had to ask because he already knew what she wanted. He turned her toward him to look each other in the eyes and asked, "Will you be my girlfriend?" Bryanna gave him the biggest hug and according to him, he had never had a girl hug him the way she did. From then on, they were boyfriend and girlfriend. Bryanna made her way down to St. George to meet his family and loved them. She connected with everyone so easily and quickly. From then on, they would try to see each other whenever they could. They talked about the future and what they each wanted. They would continue to Facetime every night possible. They were connected even from 4 hours apart. At the time of their marriage, it will have been over a year of knowing each other and over a year of dating!
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