The time: August, 2002. I had let my membership with ldssingles.com expire, due to lack of interest and/or results. Occasionally I would get an email notice telling me that someone had sent me a message or a "flirt." However, I couldn't read the messages without renewing my membership, and none of the profiles of the girls that had messaged me caught my attention.

Later that month, I got a "flirt" (a little smiley face) from a girl named "oceanshell." I could see her profile, but I couldn't send her a message - I could only send a flirt back - without renewing. So I sent her a flirt. And she responded by sending me a message. I renewed my membership so I could read and respond to her message.

I learned from our messaging back and forth that her name was Valia Popkova, that she lived in Logan, that she was working towards a master's degree in marriage and family therapy at Utah State, that she was originally from Belarus, and that her native language was Russian. We messaged each other a few times before finally agreeing to meet in person in Salt Lake City on a Saturday afternoon, October 19, 2002.

She was staying in Salt Lake with a former mission companion's family. We went to the Gateway mall in SLC, a somewhat upscale outdoor mall built just before the Winter Olympics began earlier that year. I initially thought that the California Pizza Kitchen would be a good spot, but I learned from Valia on the way to the mall that she wasn't a big fan of pizza. So we went to the Samba Grill-one of those Brazilian places that brings meat around to your table.

We walked around, talked for a couple of hours, and then went and saw "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" (she'd seen it, I hadn't). The point of these details-we ended up spending a lot more time together that day than either of us had anticipated.

The second date: I drove up to Logan the following Friday night. We had a good time that night, and Valia decided to come back down to SLC the following weekend. She came down on Thursday, which was Halloween. We had our first kiss that night; it was our third date.

We pretty much saw each other every weekend after that. Gradually, Valia began spending more and more time in SLC and less time in Logan, only as her school schedule required. We went to visit my sister, Michele, in Las Vegas for Thanksgiving that year, and then we visited my mom, my two oldest sisters, Marianne and Monica, and my friends Scott Slusher and Ken Benson in March.

We got engaged on May 3, 2003. That night we went back to the Samba Grill for the first time since our first date. I had arranged with the owners to borrow the mic from the live musician (I had dropped off my guitar earlier in the day) and sing a song for Valia, much to her surprise. I sang a nervous rendition of "All I Want Is You" by U2, and then got down on one knee and proposed. She said yes, thankfully.

Valia's family still live in Belarus. We visited them in May, 2004.

Valia and I got married in the LDS temple in Bountiful, Utah, on August 30, 2003. We're presently living in the townhouse we're renting in Bountiful. We'll probably stay in Utah for awhile. After that, who knows.

Thanks for reading!