Elijah and Yanina’s story begins with the motifs repeated throughout their time together - God and music. Elijah found himself wanting to improve his spiritual practice of worship, and as a lifelong musician, he figured he could focus more on his relationship with Jesus instead of the musicality when playing music in church. After weeks of prayer asking what it was that God wanted him to do, he found himself driving by the Brentwood School of Music. When he returned home, he impulsively wrote the school an email - he wanted to take vocal lessons. After a few months on a waitlist, Yanina sent him an email - they were to begin on Thursday evening. Elijah showed up and was surprised when the matronly old piano teacher he was expecting turned out to be a beautiful woman. Nervously, he told her that he wasn’t there to be the next big pop star, but rather to just be confident and competent enough to lead others in worship, because he was a Christian and was trying to put God first in his life. He apologized if that was weird and she didn’t understand. Smiling, she told him that she too was a Christian, and played on her church’s worship team. Over the next few months, they found themselves looking forward to their 5:00 lessons on Thursdays. And after a few awkward months of not wanting to ruin their lesson times, they found themselves spending more and more time together and eventually, dating. They quickly learned how deeply they loved each other and they started making plans to marry the next summer.