The dating landscape can be a mine-studded field of flowers, with bliss one minute and everything blowing up in your face the next. May these true stories give you courage and companionship in your cautious quest for love.

“I moved home the summer after my freshman year, and a guy in my new YSA ward asked me out. I didn’t really know him, but he seemed nice enough, so I figured ‘Why not?’ He took me to dinner at a place where he had previously worked, and his old co-workers kept coming by the table. His aunt, uncle and parents also ‘happened’ to be at the restaurant at the same time. On the way home, he talked about how much he looked forward to having a family and how much he looked forward to being a dad someday. I was 19 at the time and he was 25. Suffice it to say, there was not a second date.”
          Kaitlyn from Utah

“I’ve never had an issue being able to connect with anyone on a date until a few weeks ago. I went on a date with a guy where we went to go grab dinner, but I think it would have been easier to talk to a brick wall instead of him. There was no connection whatsoever. On the car ride back to my apartment he asked me about where he stood and his chances and I had to tell him that I just wasn’t interested, to which he replied that he was like fine wine, “the more you’re around him the more you’ll like him”, to which I said, ‘it’s a good thing I’m sober then.’ Hard pass.”
          Alison from Arizona

“So we went to Chip Cookie, and we talked for three hours and I had to start every conversation. But as we were leaving, there was a boot on this guy’s car. We called the guy to get the boot off and it took him 30 minutes to come. When he actually got there, he told us to wait for a minute while he put a boot on another car and then he finally took the boot off my date’s car.”
          Bailey from Washington

“I got home from my mission, and some guy messaged me asking how I was and if I was going back to school that fall. After I told him yes, he wanted to hang out sometime. A week into school, I got another message from him saying that he had been praying to find me on campus. Luckily he didn’t get very far.”
          Amanda from Virginia

“I’ve never had any overly bad experiences with dates, however, I did run into one problem while I was living in Salt Lake City. I had a class with a girl who caught my eye, and I later found out that she had followed me on Instagram. We began talking through Instagram and eventually moved on to texting. When it was time for the date, we decided we were going to go to a demolition derby (very Utah, she figured it would be fun). All was good until we had our first conversation in person and I found out that we did not speak fluently in the same languages. The date was fun, everything went fine, except for the fact that we could not hold a decent conversation because of the language barrier. Great girl, unfortunate experience.”
         Aaron from Minnesota

“We went country dancing on Center Street, which was great. But then we left right after the instruction, and I wasn’t sure why we actually went in the first place. Anyways, we went to go get ice cream after and while we were at the ice cream shop, he leans over and whispers in my ear, “Thank you for dressing modestly.” He then proceeded to give me a lecture on why girls shouldn’t wear leggings. Which is funny, because I wear leggings all the time.”
         Jessica from Texas

“I wanted to take out this girl because she seemed very pretty and nice. We went to my place to make dinner. I served my mission in Argentina, so my plan was to make milanesa sandwiches. We get to my apartment to cook the food and tells me that she doesn’t like tomatoes. She says, “I am too tired to chew and eat.” How can you be too tired to eat at 7:30 at night? Anyway, she helped me clean up the apartment and then we watched a movie. She kept on staring at me periodically throughout the movie, then asked if we could go. I took her to her place, and she asked if we could talk up in her apartment. She said that in the movie we didn’t touch shoulder to shoulder, and apparently that was a problem. We talked for a little bit more, but there was no chemistry. I knew it wasn’t going to work out.”
          Alex from Utah

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