It all started when Mariel was taking a class at her church, RealityLA, for Faith & Work. At the time her church kept promoting this class on their social media, so she decided to give it a try. The teacher who led the class was none other than the infamous Dr. Robert Covolo, who is also a pastor at Christ Church Sierra Madre, CCSM. At the end of the 3rd week of class, Robert asked Mariel if she would be interested in a "set-up". She thought it was hilarious, but she said "sure". A few weeks went by and Jeff, who goes to CCSM, and Mariel separately received a phone call from Pastor Robert to talk about the set-up & gave each other the stats on the other person. Both laughed, but said yes! That same day Mariel received an introduction text from Jeff saying "hi, is this Mariel?". They exchanged messages for a few days and agreed to meet for coffee that Saturday. They planned to meet at The Grove, in Los Angeles. They put together a plan to go in completely blind, not knowing how the other person looked and play "Guess Who", by texting yes or no questions on characteristics of the person to find the other person in this large outdoor mall. Mariel, who had home team advantage, got to the Grove first. Once Jeff got there, it was game start. Jeff sent over a message to Mariel saying "I'm here, we can only ask Yes or No questions". Mariel *immediately* walks up to Jeff, in person, asking, "Are you Jeff?" Jeff says, "Oh! How'd you know??" Mariel responded, "you look like a Jeff." They went to La La Land coffee shop, Jeff had his classic drip coffee, Mariel had her *super extra* strawberry matcha latte. They went to a Barnes & Noble afterwards, walked around sharing their favorite books. Jeff had another fun idea to read through a book together so they picked out Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. From there they kept meeting, eating, and reading. And the rest is forever!