​In the summer of 1977 both Donna and my family moved to the same neighborhood in Orem, Utah. Because of this, we both attended the same high school and stayed friends until we decided to start dating during our senior year.
In the Spring of 1980, during graduation, I told Donna that I loved her. At this time I was planning on serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Things were uncertain, but I told her that, if she wanted to, I would like it very much if we could continue dating after I returned from my mission.
I was called to serve in Southern Texas. During this time, Donna and I wrote faithfully to each other until the last few months of my mission. The letters from her became less 

frequent and I knew something had changed. But I did my best to not think to much about it as I continued to serve my mission.
Returning home, my plane taxied up to the gateway at the Salt Lake City Airport. Over the com I heard the pilot announce to the entire plane, “Looks like there’s a special welcome for Elder Anderson.” Walking in to see my family, I saw the girl I had hoped would be there waiting for me. Donna.
A few days later, we decided to go to a park where we had liked to go before my mission. While we were walking around, Donna stopped and asked me, “When are you going to ask me to Marry you?” Since I had been planning on asking her before this question, I asked her right then. Luckily, she said yes and two months later we were married for time and all eternity.
At the beginning of our marriage, we struggled with money. I was going to school full time and working part time, while Donna was working as a Dental Assistant. We were very poor but very in love. During this time, our date nights consisted of a walk around the mall and maybe renting a VCR to watch a movie at home.
When I finally graduated from school, I got an engineering job at a semiconductor company. It was very exciting work but very stressful and volatile. The computer chip industry was either going straight up or straight down. I was either going to be working very long hours or wondering if I was going to survive the next lay off. During this time, we moved our family of 7 to Eagle Mountain in 1999. I had felt for a long time, that I needed to come up with a back up plan to my crazy job and was always dreaming up new ideas. Donna and I went back and forth on what would be right for our family and what we thought we could achieve.
Around 2002, we realized that there wasn’t a single restaurant here in Eagle Mountain. Our family loves food and we love trying to create new recipes. As Donna and I continued to talk, we realized that we could create the first restaurant in Eagle Mountain, a Pizza Place. For the next two years, while working our other jobs and raising a family, we started making our plans to open up Village Pizza. We tried different recipes, names, and menu items. During this time as well, we had started construction on Village Pizza.
Finally, in 2004 we opened Village Pizza. While working here, I continued to work at my engineering job. But, in 2015, my company decided to close our facility and moved their operations to Korea. Donna and I felt so blessed to be able to know that our family was going to be okay. As we continued to grow, we got to know many more people in this community as they joined our crew and became family.
It has been 37 years since Donna, and I got married. Our family of 7 has grown to a family of 13. The love I had for Donna during our senior year of high school, continues to grow, and I cannot see it ever stopping as we continue this life with one another.
We are so thankful to every single one of you as you have supported us as we continue to serve you.