How did we meet?

Now that we do home church, our ward has been spotlighting a family each week in one of our newsletters. They have asked someone in our ward who is an author do the interviewing and writing, and it’s been enjoyable for me to learn a little more about each family that’s been highlighted. This past week was our turn! 

[“Okay, the recorder is on. How exactly did you meet?”]

Marissa: So David and I both went to BYU, and we both studied information systems.  I was getting a masters in it, and David was getting a bachelors. We didn’t have any classes together until after we met.

We met in Texas, in Dallas. We both had internships, but with different companies. Well, David’s internship was in Dallas. My internship was predominantly here in Seattle, but I had the opportunity to go to Dallas for a few weeks, so we met that first day in Dallas.

David: Before she came, she was like, “I don’t know what I’m going to do there.” Marissa’s mom even called the bishop…

Marissa: My mom told me, “You’re going to have friends; it’s going to be the best time of your life.”

          The Bishop helped me get a ride to church, and then I end up hanging out with someone who gave me a ride to their young adult family home evening. So I went to FHE, but the person I went with bailed on me the moment we got there.

I told myself, “I guess I’m going to have to make new friends,” and I just happened to be standing by David. We started talking, and we just hit it off. By the end of the night he got my number, and it worked out really well.

David: It’s a funny story. I had four roommates, and we were driving to family home evening. One of my roommates was a serial dater, and he says, “Alright, who’s calling dibs on who? We need to call dibs so we don’t step on each other’s toes.”

          He asked the other guys, and when he got to me, I said, “I don’t know. I’m not really interested in anybody.” The backstory is that I had a missionary I was waiting for at the time; I wasn’t looking to find a relationship.

          So as Marissa and I were chatting throughout the night; then my roommate comes by, and I introduce him to Marissa. They start chatting, and he says, “Oh, I want to work for that company you’re interning for. We should get lunch and talk about it.”

Marissa said, “Here let me give you my number,” so he got her number before I did.

After FHE, I ran up to my roommate. He was smirking at me… that smirk that says, “Ha ha ha. I got her number; you didn’t,’ but before he could say anything, I said, “DIBS!”

His face dropped, and he asked, “Can I still go on that lunch date?”

I said, “Only if you strictly talk business.”

They never went to lunch.

Marissa: I wasn’t at all sad about missing that lunch.

          So David offered to take me to a Neon Trees concert, but because he had his missionary, he kept shoving me off on people. I kept trying to talk to him so I could get to know him, and he’d say, “Oh, have you met this person yet?”

He kept introducing me to all of his buddies, and I thought, “Maybe I’m misreading this. Maybe he’s not into me.”

David: I was trying to be nice. She didn’t know anybody. I wanted to introduce her to people.

Marissa: I asked him, “Hey, do you want to give me a ride to institute?” and he said, “I was about to ask you that.”

David: She was in Dallas for three weeks, and we dated the whole time she was there; then we got back to school and picked up right where we left off.

Marissa: When we got back to school, that’s when we started dating more officially.

Then I got an offer from the business I interned with, so I made a list of companies in the Seattle area that I thought would be good for David’s career even though we had only been dating officially for maybe a week or two.      

The Twitchells live in Klahanie Ward, so you can guess how David responded to Marissa’s suggestion. They have two children, three-year-old Neil and three-week-old James whose birthdays are precisely three years apart... minus five days .

David grew up in Las Vegas. Marissa was born in Arizona, spent a few years in Colorado Springs, and then moved to Sammamish in time for high school.

David, who went to Taiwan on his mission, is very much the Chinese food connoisseur. Marissa says her favorite food is hot wings… though David says it might be cookies. Neil, their three-year-old, likes macaroni and cheese. James, the three-week-old, is indifferent.



How did you meet your special someone?