PhD 4

Since Daniel and I just celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary, I thought that I'd write a few things down about how we met.

How did you meet your husband?  Daniel was my manager when I was a waitress at Hooters.  Ha!  Just kidding!  We were both living in Pleasant Grove, Utah.  He was living with his brother Ben and I was living with my Aunt Elaine and Uncle Alan Bezzant.  We were in the same church ward, but I was working in the nursery (kids ages 18 months to 3 years old) so I wasn't part of the Young Single Adult class.  I decided to go to a single's ward, so I was released from the nursery calling.  After I was released, I decided to move back to Murray to live with my parents at the end of the semester, so I stayed in the family ward and went to the single adult classes for a month or two before moving back home.

Daniel remembers seeing me when I was singing with a group of girls during the Sacrament meeting program.  He told Jessica (his sister-in-law) that he wanted to go out with me.  After the song I sat down with Elaine's family.  I sat next to my cousin, Russell.  Russell and are the same age and we were good friends.  We teased with each other and Daniel saw us and thought that we were dating (since Russell's last name is Bezzant and mine was Willes and he didn't know that we were cousins).

A few weeks later Russell and Daniel were together and Russell said told Daniel that he should ask me out.  Once the relation situation was resolved, Daniel was excited.

Daniel taught the lesson in Sunday School that next week and we walked home together afterwords.  I told him that my computer had just died and he offered to come over and take a look at it.  He came over and worked on my computer while I sat on my bed and wrote a letter to my friend Larissa (she was on a church mission in Bulgaria).  I remember writing something to the effect that if Daniel and I were to marry, our children would have 20 sets of aunts and uncles (7 kids in my family and 15 in Daniels).  I really liked Daniel, but I wasn't anxious to date again at the moment.

The church group had a river rafting trip scheduled and we had a meeting to plan the particulars of the trip.  Wendy Robbins (the group leader) assigned the girls to the food and put the guys in charge of activities and other things.  Daniel was the only one to volunteer for an activity, so I opted out of the food group and joined him.

We went on the trip together and enjoyed being together, but we still had a wall up.  I wasn't sure if I was ready to date again so I kept my distance a bit.  I liked Daniel, but I wasn't ready to show it- especially not on a trip with my cousins and uncle there to tease me about it.

The day after the trip (Sunday), Daniel called me and asked me to go on a date for the following Wednesday.
  
Do you remember where you went on your first date? Daniel and I doubled with his friend Paul and Paul's fiance, Alyson.  We went to Paul's parents house for dinner and then went to the Hale Center Theatre in Orem to see a play called Kiss and Tell.   After the play, we went back to my aunt's house.  We sat on the doorstep and talked for several hours.  We felt so secure with one another.  We told each other things that we wouldn't normally talk about on a first date.  I called him the next day to invite him to see the fireworks in Salt Lake City on Friday for the 24th of July celebration.


How long did you know him before you got married? We met in late May/early June.  We went on our first date July 22.  We were engaged in mid September and married six months to the day of our first date on January 22, 1999.  I didn't want to get married in December because I was finishing my final semester of college (BYU) and I was working full-time.  I also didn't want to get married during the 'semester break rush'.