Family History Journal: My Spouse

Questions 25 and  27:  How did you meet your spouse?  Describe your courtship.

Alfredo and I met in a singles ward.  Alfredo was raised Jewish; his mother is of Jewish descent.  One day he met a guy (named Conrad)  at the mall who invited him to come play soccer with other guys from church.  He went.  Then Conrad called him every Sunday for weeks and weeks to invite him to church.  Alfredo always declined.  Finally one week he said yes, thinking that if he went, Conrad would stop calling each week.  But, of course, that isn't what happened.  He went and went again.  Soon he was meeting with the missionaries.  Not long after that, he was baptized.  I met him shortly before he was baptized but didn't really know him.  But after he got baptized, he attended the singles ward that Conrad and I were both in.  We had a lot of mutual friends, and so we often hung out in groups.  He would come to our Family Home Evening, held at the Bishop's house, and then most weeks, many of us would go to his apartment to watch movies or play games.  We became friends.  It was a year and a half after he got baptized that we began dating.  He often cooked me dinner and we went on lots of group dates.  He was very fun to be around...he is very social and has a sense of humor.  He was also very kind and respectful and made me feel so good about myself.  We dated for about four months before we got engaged.  I was 25.  It was my third year of teaching and I was being trained as a literacy coordinator for my school, so I spent a total of 5 weeks in California that school year undergoing training (spread out throughout the year.). He proposed at my apartment the night before I was leaving for one of these weeks of training.  He had planned to take me to a nice dinner, but I wasn't feeling well so we stayed at my apartment and watched a movie with friends.  After the movie ended, he got down on one knee and proposed.  We got married in the Salt Lake Temple six months later, on August 3.  It was a beautiful day...practically perfect...it was cloudy which made it cool...but it didn't start raining until about three minutes after we finished taking our pictures.  Then it rained most of the day, but since we were inside the rest of the day, it was okay.  I am so grateful for all that Alfredo does for our family.  He is a very hard worker.  He adores his girls,  and they love their dad.  He still has that sense of humor.  He is good at fixing things and does much of our automobile maintenance, home improvement projects, etc.  He is very organized.  He doesn't cook often, but he is a very good cook.  (And actually since I was called as Relief Society President, he has been cooking lunch on Sunday nearly every week.).  He is good at yard work which is something I don't enjoy.  He is good at many things that I am not, and vice versa.  I am grateful to have him in my life.