What is the Twogether in Texas program?

It was nice to be motivated to talk about things that might be difficult or maybe even uncomfortable to talk about. And it was very helpful to have a list of topics of conversation that we might not have thought of. I think it helped to give our marriage a strong start by addressing all of these topics in guided conversations. - Carlos

The online marriage preparation course was actually pretty cool because it had some topics that I hadn’t thought of discussing with my partner. It also outlined some conversations that we could’ve had but maybe not as successfully on our own.  - Gabriela

My fiancé and I recently journeyed through and completed Rev. Dr. Frank Nelson’s Online Marriage Preparation course, and it was brilliant!

The thoughts and conversations that were ignited led to significant growth in our relationship. We faced honesty, reality and spirituality square in the face, and have emerged stronger and closer than ever. There were emotional conversations, when we recapped the initial reasons we were attracted to each other, and revisited the moments we progressively fell head over heels in love with each other. There were hard conversations about things we don’t typically break down into steps or questions with specific answers. I love the concept of these conversations that target each area of importance in order to have a successful marriage.

After completing this course, we are truly more grateful for each other and for the relationship with which we have been blessed. – Melissa and Brad

This course was very informative and I learned a lot more about my fiance as well as how to resolve conflict in a healthier way. I enjoyed the new conversations we were able to have. For new couples I’d suggest that you make a date night out of all the courses because some can become stressful and if you are more relaxed it will make it more enjoyable for y’all. - Jesus

I loved this course a lot! It asked questions that we had not discussed and I found them very helpful and interesting and they helped me and my fiance be more on the same page. For other couples I’d say make sure that y’all are both taking this seriously because it honestly helps bring you and your loved one closer together.- Markisha

I enjoyed this course because it was a pleasant surprise of reflection and diving more deeply into conversations we had not initially dove very far into! It was a nice reminder of good communication right prior to our wedding. I felt like the videos were easy to watch and concise, while the questions really made you think. I look forward to utilizing some of these thought processes for my vows and reflecting upon this information in the future! - Kelsi

I would recommend this course to all couples, whether engaged or even already married. The course is concise but touches on a wide range of important topics that are crucial for couples to communicate about. It keeps the important things in perspective. I look forward to looking back at our responses in the upcoming years to see how much progress we have made, as well as which subjects still need work! - Chet

I wasn't sure what to expect with this course, but I was pleasantly surprised with how helpful it was! I really enjoyed the "Before We Say I Do" module, and I really enjoyed the "Faith, Core Value and Beliefs" and the "Our Wedding Day" module as I have done all of our wedding planning. I think for other couples, especially those that haven't lived together before, this would be an especially helpful course! I would say to them that I wasn't even planning on doing any sort of counseling, but I'm thankful that I was able to squeeze this course in because not only was it helpful and needed to have these conversations, but it was actually fun to reflect on myself and learn a little bit more about my partner! I am really looking forward to using the "Conversation Dates" worksheet as we implement our weekly date nights! Thank you again! – Victoria

We found the experience to be useful and productive. With the stress of planning the wedding from far away as we are living in a different state now, this was a nice way for us to come together and affirm our feelings and promises to each other. It showed me that Tore and I have a very healthy relationship, because we have spent lots of time talking about pretty much all of this stuff already and are on the same page or confirmed our feelings about these things to each other. I would recommend this course to other couples because it will either 1) show them that they are making the right choice and are prepared to marry each other or 2) open up important conversations that they may not have had but that they need to have before getting married. Thank you for putting this course together! - Andy

This was truly an amazing experience. I hadn't done marriage counseling before getting married, but I am glad we found your course. We talked to each other in depth with every question, staying up to 1 or 2 o'clock in the morning not realizing time had passed. We answered questions about our families and past that neither of us had wanted to answer. I wasn't a believer before, but the simplicity of the course made this so easy and enjoyable. I definitely learned more about Rudy, even though I thought I knew him so well already. Would do this again in a heartbeat. - Joyce

I have to say I was shocked at the content within this marriage counseling.  I had done marriage counseling in the past, but it did not force the types of conversations that this one did.  So many of the conversations you asked us to perform are absolutely critical to understanding where we are each coming from.  What in our past has made up who we are today.  While we knew a lot of the things discussed about each other, we didn't know the depth to it all.  And as your conversations pushed us into the depths, we grew closer through the process.  I valued the conversations about family as well as about our sexual/romance life because I feel these two areas are incredibly important to me and historically, I have not voiced my opinions and/or feelings about these subjects.  With Joyce, I catch myself being very open and these conversations fueled that openness even more.  Thank you so much for the guidance you built into this counseling! - Rudy

Thank you so much for making this online marriage preparation course widely available and accessible to all. I thought the Issues session was the most helpful, and I hope to be able to use that template in the future to discuss any issues that are bothering me. I felt so much lighter and freer afterwards, not weighed down by my worries that I hadn’t had the courage to voice aloud to my partner yet out. Even though the issue isn’t fully resolved, I felt so much better just to talk about it openly and lay to rest some of my fears about how I thought my partner felt about it, which weren’t even true. Now I see how everything in a marriage really is about communication, like you said at the beginning of the course! I also enjoyed getting to learn more about my partner on topics we hadn’t discussed yet explicitly, such as money, our parents and childhoods. I was blown away when my partner wrote some really sweet things that we can use in our wedding vows during the ceremony. I would highly recommend this course to friends and tell them that even though it might seem unnecessary at first (like it did to us), it was truly helpful and set the stage well for a strong marriage moving forward. - Jessica

I believe the course was very informative. While we often contemplate how we’ll act in certain situations, writing them out and sharing our intimate thoughts with each other provided more structure, room to grow and learn, and a deeper fondness for each other. I now feel closer to my bride to be because we are now more intimately familiar with each other’s emotions, wants, and desires. While I cannot say that this program has created a definite positive change moving forward, it has armed us with better tools to deal with the problems and issues that may arise in our relationship. We are still not perfect people and our relationship is not perfect, but Dr. Rev. Frank has helped us to grow as couple and build a stronger bond. - Michael

The course was helpful because it provided a clear framework and insight question prompts to start important conversations. Several of the prompts were thought provoking, and they encouraged us to think about and share about new ideas, perspectives, and experiences that we hadn’t shared with each other yet. It was enjoyable because it was well balanced with prompts that encouraged us to express gratitude and share reasons why we love each other and what we are looking forward to. It was always fun to tell and to hear these answers during the conversation. This contributed to our preparation by helping us ensure all our bases were covered for the most important topics and gave us validation that we have a solid relationship and are ready to move forward with getting married! - Jamie

The course was very helpful. It started off very easy and fun and it really helped us to soak in the joy and happiness we have as we thought about our relationship and getting married. The next set of conversations were thought provoking and challenging at times, which means they were doing their job in getting us to surface things and to talk through them together. Having the clear instructions and the ritual (we lighted a candle every time we had a conversation) helped us to get through the difficult conversations. I felt pretty prepared prior to the course, but I feel even more so after the course. And I'm really looking forward to the post ceremony conversation and the anniversary conversations! We also enjoyed the additional couple checkup assessment! - Charles

This course was great and very valuable.  Since we are not a young couple, we are more comfortable having the conversations that make others uncomfortable, yet we were still able to get a lot out of the structured conversations.  Also, having been married before we were already a bit ahead of the game and had discussed many of these topics beforehand. I appreciated the "forced" opportunity to openly address these issues again to ensure that we were still on the same page and not make any assumptions.  We are both stand-up comedians, so we are pretty open with our feelings and don't find many topics taboo, while at the same time we are able to receive feedback without finding it devastating.  We both definitely see the value in these conversations and highly recommend this course to anyone about to enter marriage.  Too often, couple will make assumptions or "punt" their problems or concerns and hope to not deal with the, We have both learned from our previous marriages and relationships that you cannot exists happily by living that way.  We invested a lot in candles these past few weeks and had some very productive conversations.  We owe that to your course. We will certainly recommend your course to others.  I think it will be highly beneficial for anyone!! We both give it 5 stars out of Five!!! - Michael

I liked the course. It got more fun with each conversation.  I believe this kind of course would be a great and helpful tool in every marriage even after the wedding. Thank you for doing the work and supporting couples all over the world. Best wishes. - Anuska

I am so glad we did this course! We laughed, we cried, and it definitely enhanced our weekend date nights. To be honest, I'm a little sad we finished it, but we will continue setting aside time to have these intentional conversations. My fiance is a man of few words, so hearing him express himself so openly and freely made me fall even more in love with him. I can't recommend this premarital counseling enough- It was easy to do on our time, we didn't feel rushed to complete it in a certain way or time frame, and we loved the guided conversations! Thank you so much, Rev Frank! - Taryn

When Taryn told me she wanted premarital counseling, I was NOT excited. I didn't think we needed something like that, but I was wrong. We had meaningful conversations, and a safe space to share things we might have been hesitant to share before. I really liked that it was a no-pressure environment and in our own home. These are conservations I think everyone should have before getting married, and we plan to continue making time to talk about the big stuff going forward. - Mac

I really liked the course and enjoyed doing it with my fiance! I found the most beneficial items were the tough questions people tend not to ask because they are worried about hurting someone’s feelings. We got to talk about possible kids down the road, and what to expect out of both of us in marriage. Overall, it was a good project to do. I am glad we wrote our answers down on paper so we can revisit the papers in the future to remember how everything started. Great course and not too time consuming. - Mark

I liked doing the course with my fiancé because we got to know each other way better. I found it interesting talking about what we have written on each question. We had so much in common, few differences but we talked about it and made sure we agreed on both opinions. It is a great way for us to have some activity to learn about each other through this course. - Leslie

This course was extremely helpful and convenient for us to do as a couple. We realize our strengths and weaknesses and have a game plan to get stronger as a couple. - Montana

I had a good time taking the time to dig into my thoughts about how big marriage is and the communication topics were great and we had the ability to understand each other more and where we can grow more. - Johnathan

I feel the process of marriage counseling not only validated my choice and feelings for Rodney, but they also grew. I knew of my love for him, but hearing the way we loved each other made me realize I couldn’t wait to call this sweet man my husband. This was the most enjoyable part for me. There is not much we do not share with each other; however, the section issues were helpful in discussing a couple things we have not been able to solve yet. I am grateful for deciding to take counseling with my future husband, and will hold on to the lessons it has taught us during both the good and bad times. Amanda

Thank you for allowing us to open up with each other more through your easy to walk through course. The lessons were enjoyable. We shared tears, laughter, and our feelings with each other each step of the way. We were already open with each other before, but the course helped us touch on things that needed further discussion and attention. But moreover, the course helped me realize I was making the perfect choice on the person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. Forever grateful for what these lessons showed me and helped further prove for me. Rodney

The Online Marriage Preparation Course and Conversations was a great experience for Judith and I. It provided avenues for us to sit together often even in the heat of preparing for our wedding to discuss the essential topics your course covered. Your course includes very extensive thought-provoking ideas and questions which we couldn’t have ever dreamed of, if it wasn’t for your online marriage preparation course and conversations. - John

We are especially thankful to you for the course on Conflict resolution. Rev Frank, we take off our hats for you for bringing up such an awesome online marriage preparation course. It has put us in the driver’s seat for our life long marriage journey. We will always recommend your course to family and friends getting ready to marry. - Judith

Thank you very much for the course. We have been together for 6 years and were surprised to learn a lot of new things about each other. There are a lot of questions that help you understand yourself better (questions about love and what it means for you, about your childhood and your parents), questions that are extremely important, but you may have never asked them to yourself. The course helped us become closer to each other, learn how to resolve conflicts, talk and listen to each other. I think this course will be helpful to any couple (even already married) willing to learn about each other, build trust and grow together.  - Julia

I enjoyed the course and time spent with Julia during our conversations. The course is very well structured and consists of simple, but incredibly deep questions. Highly recommended! Thank you so much, Rev. Frank! - Roman

Thank you for providing this source for our marriage counseling! While Zack and I are luckily already great communicators, I found it was a great way to define how we already feel about the topics discussed in the course. It was also nice to have these conversations leading up to the wedding. The course was easy to follow. My only criticism is that I think that some of the questions throughout the course became a little repetitive, and I found myself writing similar answers for multiple prompts. Otherwise, it was a great exercise in getting ourselves ready to make the commitment of a lifetime and I’d recommend it to other couples!  - Veronica

I think your course was simple yet thorough. It was not difficult to follow along, yet gave leading questions that caused both me and my fiancé to think and express real points of view that were not superficial. I appreciate that they were filled out separately so one's ideas could be fleshed out before sharing, and I appreciate the topics being divided up to keep the conversations specific and on task. Overall, a great and helpful course leading up to our wedding. - Zack

Hi Rev. Frank, we completed the premarital course and it was an amazing experience that forced us to open up and be transparent. It allowed us to really grow in our relationship and prepare for our marriage. I enjoyed how we prayed with and for each other and our future together. I also enjoyed how we held hands during our conversations for a deeper intimacy. I would recommend this for any couple that really wants to prepare and feel more confident in their journey to marriage. It covers every aspect of a marriage and you as an individual. These courses are great in helping you recognize your trouble areas and things that need work in your relationship and on your own. I look forward to using the additional conversations to guide us throughout our marriage for years to come! Thank you for walking us through the process and helping us prepare for our marriage! - Charissa

Reverend Nelson, thank you for the time and commitment that you put into creating this wonderful program. My fiancé and I both benefited greatly from the thoughtful approach to the many segments of tangible and intangible angles that marriage encompasses. I found the conversations to be a great opportunity to really dig deep and go beyond surface discussions. Though in-person counseling allows for a constant dialog and real time input that is helpful, this program is the next best thing because of the modeling of the activities and. follow ups. We look forward to using the "Rules for Resolving Conflicts" as a guide to more graciously navigate the tensions that may arise when we are married. The fact that all of the material is Bible-based is something I do not want to fail to mention, as that is foundationally key to what made this program effective. Once again, we are thankful for the way that everything is framed in these lessons, it will allow us to continually examine our hearts, thoughts, and actions within matrimony. - Kellus

I enjoyed this course and found it very helpful. I have a difficult time communicating, so the worksheets helped a lot to get started talking about things we had never talked about before. I think we just figured we thought the same. We discovered things about each other and even had some moments of arguing about past hurt which lead to a feeling of healing and coming together. I would tell anyone who is getting married to put time into this course, because its worth it no matter how close you think you guys are! Thank you for creating this beautiful program. I am very grateful for the guidance/help communicating and learning to love. - Kaitlyn

Thank you for developing this course. Going through the material with Kaitlyn was informative and therapeutic at times. I think I've learned a lot about myself, Kaitlyn, and our relationship. We have decided to incorporate discussions like those facilitated by the course on a more regular basis, because we appreciate how doing so through the course has brought us closer together. Thanks again for the thought put into developing this course. - Barry

I really enjoyed the Texas e Course. I believe it helped Adam and I to talk about money, children, etc. that we haven’t had as thorough of conversations on. We set time each week to work on these courses which I think also made the course more enjoyable. It almost seemed like a serious conversation type of date night. I would highly recommend anyone to use this course in the future. We really truly did appreciate the course. We weren’t so sure about taking a premarital course at first but are extremely happy that we did! Thank you so much!!! - Kristin

This course was great, I really learned a lot about my future spouse. I didn’t realize how much we hadn’t talked about! The discussions we had during this process really made us a lot stronger. I was skeptical at first but this turned out to be a great thing and I would recommend it to anyone getting married. Thanks! - Adam

What a remarkable journey!  This has been a wonderful experience! We are both getting married for the first time and knew that we needed help in this journey.  This has been one of the most rewarding experiences and is highly recommended.  This course covers everything – it’s quite in-depth.  We liked the self-paced nature of the course and being able to come back and have deep discussions.  I will no doubt recommend this course to any and everyone that asks for premarital counseling.  And we look forward to the follow-up conversations weekly and annually.  Thank you Rev. Dr. Nelson! – Tristan and Carmelle

Devon and I were excited to do pre-marital counseling from the get-go. We recognize how helpful it is to be on the same page when it comes to our newly joint lives. I also was a little apprehensive – we’ve moved in together and have had a lot of hard, important talks and wondered what else we needed to go through. Clearly I was wrong, there was still a lot for us to talk about; a lot more we could learn about each other. We learned about the ways we think and more importantly the ways we think differently. We’ve learned about big things like our mutual disinterest in having children, as well as how seemingly small things were also important – like what chores we do or do not like to do. Ultimately, though; I think most importantly, we continued to learn how to be vulnerable with each other and how to respectfully have important, heavy conversations. Even the conversations we felt were easier were still nice. Just being together for a specific time where we could talk was wonderful. I looked forward to hearing Devon’s responses to the questions as well as her comments on my responses. This was a wholly appreciated experience and I was happy to have gone through it. - Bill

When Bill and I got engaged, I automatically knew that it was important for us to do some form of pre-marital counseling, because as someone who has lived with depression for most of my life, I knew I would need to do the emotional work to prepare myself and Bill for our marriage. I expected to tackle some difficult issues and learn more about how to resolve conflicts, but what I didn’t expect was to fall even more in love with Bill by going through this process over the past couple of months. It has been so important for us to have these conversations, especially as we’ve been struggling to plan our wedding during the pandemic, and I feel like we are about to start our marriage off in the best way because of the work we’ve put in. I will recommend this program to all of my friends, and I look forward to continuing to use the resources we’ve been given for years to come! Thank you for offering such a great program!! - Devon

Reverend Frank, I am so happy that we were able to go through your course. It has reminded us that this is a really big commitment and the love we have for each other has grown. We have been through many trials throughout our relationship and this has been a great way to reflect on those things and to realize what has gotten us through so far. I also enjoyed going over a lot of the things we had covered early in our relationship. Talking about our families and how those things have made us able to love in a relationship. I would recommend this course to all newly engaged couples as well because it has great tools to remind us how to keep an open mind heart and communicate. Thank you again for your advice and great course! - Maria and Ryan

Dear Rev. Dr. Frank Nelson, thank you so much for putting together such a wonderful marriage prep course!  The course was easy to navigate and with it being online, very easy to work in with our schedules.  The content was great and thought provoking.  We had great conversations and the course really solidified why we were getting married in the first place. Thank you!  – Anna and Quin

We had already discussed a few of these things such as religion, children, and finances, but I found the course helpful in going into more depth on those subjects and discussing things. I also really appreciated the issue resolution section to break down how to resolve conflict. The course helped us realize new ways to resolve conflict as well as potential situations that can arise over the course of our marriage. It helped us to articulate our feelings and have honest discussions. – Marie and Sean

We reached out to Dr. Frank Nelson, for our marriage only course and we are beyond grateful and excited for our next chapter of our lives. Taking this course with Dr. Frank has been nothing but such an amazing learning experience for the both of us and we can’t wait to sit down later on and see our growth from this course. We thank you so much Rev. Dr. Frank Nelson for the opportunity and the learning through this process. With love, Jennifer and Alexandria

I am so pleased with the experience and your working sessions for marriage preparation. We’ve been together quite a while now and time can start to go by without taking a moment to reflect. This was a great opportunity for us to look back on our time together and how that can prepare us for a future together and really allowed us to set focused time aside to solely work on strengthening our relationship. This is something I highly recommend for every couple, even if you are already married! We now even plan to keep doing sessions like these every few months. – Kayla

This course has prepared me for marriage by allowing reflection on many key items that are essential to a happy and healthy marriage. This course brought us closer together through conversation and communication. I feel like we are much more prepared for marriage and have better communication as a result of this course. – Charles

We were skeptical about taking a marriage course because we felt like we had very good communication and already had been together for quite a long time. However, we really enjoyed doing this course and learned new things about each other. It was a great way to prepare us for this next step in life together. Without it, we would not have taken the time to reflect on some of these big topics and ensure we are aligned on how we want to go through life together. Thank you for really helping to guide us! – Kelly

We really enjoyed the course. It made us discuss good conversations that all couples should have but do not think to make time for. These are things very important for a happy and healthy life together. We identified similarities and differences. It was a very nice experience to have together. Thank you! – Alex

I am so happy Joseph and I decided to take this course before getting married. Although we have known each other and been in a relationship for over ten years now, we had very deep and meaningful conversations about very important topics. It was so nice to share with each other our personal thoughts and emotions regarding our wedding, future marriage and shared life. We are definitely more prepared to take on life together! I feel we will be looking back at our answers to many of these topics in the future. The course itself was easy to follow and understand, and during these times, the convenience of it being online was necessary for us. I would definitely recommend this course to engaged couples, but I even feel it would be beneficial for already married couples! Thank you so much for this course! - Jen

I thought the questions in this course were a great way to communicate with my future wife about topics we wouldn’t typically talk about on a regular basis, especially for how long we have already been together. Even though we know each other very well, it was nice to learn new things about my future wife, and how we each view certain topics. I think that this course helped us grow closer together as a couple, and will help us succeed in our marriage. It was convenient that we could go at our own pace, and I loved being able to set up “dates” to tackle a few topics at a time. I feel so excited and ready to marry Jennifer, and I think being able to discuss all these important topics beforehand definitely contributes to that feeling. I would recommend this course to other couples. - Joe

This course has been very beneficial to me because it brought up subjects that I knew needed to be discussed. The questions provoked a great conversation for me to have with Jesus. There were lots of tears from me but in a good way. I hope that we will continue to have these kinds of talks in the future. – Sandra

Let me first thank you because I feel this has helped significantly. I learned new things about [Sandra] that I now know will further help grow our relationship. We talk often and well enough that I’m happy to say we have a very solid foundation. I feel this course is one more tool to add to our strong and still growing relationship. I worry you’ll think our responses are generic and not thought out. I would hope you understand the depth in which these responses were made. I can honestly say each answer was made with careful thought and consideration. – Jesus