Her beef with online dating, however, is how people can hide behind the Internet and easily deceive the other person. Riggs said she has been burned several times by going out on dates with men who said they were one thing but ended up being the complete opposite.

"It was a nightmare, a total misrepresentation," Riggs said. "Once we got going on the date I'm like, 'You're not anything like you said you would be.'"

Online dating works for some. Spark Networks, which owns LDSSingles.com and LDSMingle.com, boasts at least 250 "success stories" a year on the dating sites, according to Gail Laguna, vice president for communications. The company defines a success as a couple who is dating, engaged or married.

Even still, Caprene Thompson, 31, prefers meeting people in her day-to-day activities, rather than chatting online.

"It's worked for friends, but I am not comfortable," Thompson said. "I like to meet people." And she says the best place to meet available men is through friends or at an LDS singles ward.

Last year, the University of Utah 2nd Stake boasted about 450 marriages. In about 80 percent of those marriages, both people were members of the stake, said Bishop Michael Smith, who used to serve as the executive secretary of the stake and is now a singles ward bishop.

Smith said courting was simpler when he was young. "I'm lucky that I'm older because society in general is now so complex. There are a lot more decisions to be made."

Smith encourages singles in his ward to do service projects as a way to meet each other. He also counsels them to relax and not worry if they are 24 or 25 and not married.

"I think there is a real danger in getting married too young," Smith said. "But there is just as great a danger in not getting married."

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E-mail: ldethman@desnews.com, nwarburton@desnews.com