The love story of Joseph and I is a bit long and it is still ongoing. There are also many views and perspectives that can be added, after all when the bride is so young there are bound to be some complications. =) But since this is our story and I am writing it, I will tell it from my experience. A lot will be skipped in the telling (and still it is long!). The pictures don’t really correlate with the story but I couldn’t resist posting them.
To this day I’m not sure what made my parents decide to homeschool my siblings and I. All I really know is after 8th grade I was looking forward to starting high school, being in the band, on the drill team and various other extra curricular activities. Sometime in the summer my parents informed us we wouldn’t be going back to school.
I think this missionary had a little something to do with it.
Can you tell who that is? Yup. Joseph served his mission for our church in Georgia. That’s how we first met. Met is the key word there! Our branch was his first area of service. As you can see from the photo I was young, 13. He was 19 and focused on a serving a mission just as he was supposed to be doing. His family homeschooled, my mother wrote to his mother to find out more. I do know my mom wasn’t too keen on the idea of homeschooling, especially at first, after all she had been a public school teacher for so many years!
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| {{holy, humongous glasses!}} |
But regardless, my parents did keep us home. I sulked and cried trying to make them see what a terrible choice it was. That lasted for about 6 months. Then I decided to give it a try. And you know what? I LOVED it! I could complete courses at my own pace, I still played sports through church, and I had more time to read. 😀 I finished high school in 1 1/2 years (technically two if you count the 6 months of sulking around). Took the ACT once, applied to BYU and Ricks College (now BYU-Idaho), was accepted to both and had a major decision to make. Which one do I attend? BYU was a university, only an hour away from both sets of grandparents and uncles and aunts so if anything were to happen they could be there in a jiffy. Ricks was smaller (a plus in my book), but only a two year college, and four hours away from extended family. All logical reasoning pointed to my going to BYU but for some reason I felt I needed to go to Ricks. Looking back now I see exactly why the Lord was pushing towards Ricks College.
New dilemma for my parents. Who did they know was going to Ricks that could keep an eye on me? Oh, yes, Elder Wadsworth was there. So they called him to be my ‘babysitter.’ That’s how I thought of it anyway. Every day he stopped at my apartment to give me a ride to our classes in the Ag Building. Oh yes. I couldn’t get away from him if I wanted too! We were both in the Crop and Soil Science department. He was studying to be a farmer, I was taking basic classes to start me on my way to work in the Plant Biotechnology field.
I hated having a ‘babysitter.’ And I let him know it. I was not nice to him AT ALL. My roommates would get after me constantly, “If I had a cute guy picking me up every day I wouldn’t treat him like that!” To which I would reply, “I’m 15! I’m not interested in a cute guy coming to pick me up at this point in my life!”
To this day Joseph says he doesn’t know what pushed him up those stairs (I lived on the third floor) day after day knowing how he was going to be treated. Over time I realized he wasn’t so bad. He made me laugh, could talk his way out of any traffic tickets, and I became conscious of the fact that I listened for the roar of his ’79 Chevy coming down the road. And with all the time we spent together alone, riding in his big black truck, he NEVER ONCE tried to take advantage of me. I felt completely safe with him.
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| {{the ’79 Chevy we affectionately called ‘The Demon’}} |
We started spending more time together (by this time I had turned 16). He’d come listen to me practice the piano in the music rooms at the Snow building. I’d tutor him in his Ag Math class. One day we went to Idaho Falls. He took me to a music store as I was itching for new piano music. On the way home we stopped to eat at a restaurant. As we were talking I looked up at him and this feeling just hit me. I knew in that instant that we would get married. And it scared me to death. I couldn’t finish my dinner. I told Joseph I was feeling sick. He took me home. A few minutes after I came home my roommate walked in, looked at me and said, “You look sick, love sick! You have the same look my sister had when she realized she loved her boyfriend and they would get married.” Ha. Was it that obvious?
I never said anything to Joseph at that time. How could I? I was 16, he was 22, almost 23. In fact, I didn’t tell him until after we were married. Eventually over time (about a month, I think) the subject of marriage understandably came up. He was at that point in his life. He had completed his mission, was going to college, it was the next natural step.
And he couldn’t see himself with anyone else but me.
But, I was so young! What do we do? What does he do?
Letting my parents know about our wanting to get married went over like a lead balloon. That’s pretty understandable too. The main objection was of course, my age. My parents liked Joseph. They liked him a lot! When he served his mission my parents started a missionary hall of fame in our home. He was the first inductee. Only the best missionaries, those who were hard-working, dedicated, humble, obedient, etc made it into the hall of fame. My mom would create a page with the missionary’s picture and qualities and hang it up in my brothers’ room. My brothers were told, “These are the types of missionaries you should strive to grow up to be.” My sisters and I were told, “These are the types of men we want you to marry.” LOL, telling my mom, “Remember how you told me to marry someone like Elder Wadsworth? How about if I marry THE Elder Wadsworth?” didn’t go so well.
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| {{He would take surprise pictures for me to find when I developed the film}} |
Without going into too much detail, those things worked themselves out. . . .eventually.
One day in the spring of 1994 Joseph and I took a trip to his parents’ house in Fallon, NV. The main occasion was Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley was making a short visit and would be speaking in their stake. Joseph’s dad was the stake president at the time and is also Pres. Hinckley’s nephew. We have a video of Pres. Hinckley walking around the farm, looking at the equipment. It’s fun to watch (I was so skinny! I had curly hair!) because of what happened after the video was made. Joseph sat in the car with Pres. Hinckley and told him our whole story: his meeting my family on his mission, my going to college so early, our falling in love and wanting to get married. Pres. Hinckley gave him some advice and then told Joseph he completely trusted in our ability to receive our own answers from the Lord that getting married was the right thing to do. He also told him, “When you figure out a date, call my office to check my schedule. I’ll perform the marriage.”
And he did! It was a beautiful, slightly overcast, very cold day in December 1994. . . on my parents’ 18th wedding anniversary.
Pres. and Sister Hinckley even surprised us and came to our reception!
Several years ago we received this card in the mail from Pres. Hinckley’s son.
If you can’t read the writing it says, “Dear Joseph & Montserrat, When a general authority performs a sealing they are given a 3×5 card with the names and date. The enclosed card was found among Dad’s things. I thought it might be of interest. RGH” The enclosed card is also pictured. It’s a simple typewriter typed card with our names and the day we were married and by whom. We didn’t even know it existed. It touched us to receive this because it is something that would have been easier to throw away. We would not have known about it. Yet, he took the time to send us the card knowing it would be a small treasure for our family history.
Reflecting on my own love story has been eye-opening. I often think where I’d be, how I’d be if I hadn’t made the choices I did when I did.
Did the Lord know it would be hard for me to leave a career (my plans were to graduate from college, get a masters, obtain an ‘education,’ than start a career) in order to start a family, raise my children? Is that why HE sent Joseph my way to see if I would choose a better path, one HE knew was best for me?
One little choice.
The best one.
Wonderful story. Your mom’s response made me laugh. My mom also suggested I consider marrying “such a person”. So when we announced our desire to marry she was surprised and not yet ready. I remember telling her “Mom, I actually listened!” She threw a sock at me while she continued folding laundry:)Now, 19 years later and she is still amazed I listened.
Thanks for sharing, I enjoyed the trip down memory lane.
Great story! I can’t even imagine being married that young, but obviously it was right for you and you have an amazing family now. How neat to be married by President Hinkley. We were married by my husband’s grandfather which was really special too.
Thats such a sweet and beautiful story! :’) not too long at all, in fact i was itching for more 🙂 so cute!
Oh, there’s plenty more! But sometimes it’s nice to just keep things for “us” and our family history. =)
Great story! My husband is 6 years older than me too. And his parents couldn’t believe what was happening when we told them that we were getting married. Reading your story reminded me of my own…Thanks for posting it!
Oh, what a sweet love story! Thank you for sharing YOUR story. You have such a gift with words. I really enjoy reading every post you share.
great story 😉 Thank you for sharing! My hubs and I have 6 kids – have been married 26 years and were 15 and 17 when we married 😉 EVERYONE told us “it won’t last 6 months!” so there ya go 🙂
I LOVE a good love story!
Love story’s are wonderful.
How awesome to be married by the Prophet?! What a beautiful story to pass on to your children. (The card is also a true keepsake as well)
This was a lovely story to read, thank you for sharing.
Loved the post! Thank you for sharing your “love story”. What a great one!
This is a great story.
I have been curious about your parents reaction to getting married so young. You know they love you & just want(ed) what’s best. Thanks for sharing, since I had never been nosy enough to come out & ask. I love stories, especially my own. I do hope none of mine get married that young, but that is because they are all boys & need to serve missions first:)
Our oldest is 16. Every now and then someone will say “If Bon Bon were you, Mom, she’d be at college right now.” or “Can you picture Bon Bon being engaged right now?” EEK!!
Our children know our story and they also know it isn’t typical and that their lives will more than likely take a different path.
I’m having technical difficulties this morning. I already posted a comment, and it’s not here. Then I posted a link and it didn’t show up. So I did it again, and there were TWO. Sorry.
Just wanted to say I love your love story. And I hope it’s okay that I posted to my love story that I had already written.
I know why we started doing home-schooling! Maybe it had something to with with the fact that I read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn that summer as I was preparing to enter second grade… 🙂
Nerdiness does run in the family.
Awwww, I loved reading this! What a cool story! 🙂
This was so beautiful! Ahhhh, I love a good love story. 🙂
I absolutely loved reading your story– and I really enjoyed this writing challenge! You and I could have quite the talk sometime. 😀
~Rachel
What an amazing story! And being sealed by President Hinckley? I’m not sure anyone can top that! 🙂
so glad you posted! I’ve only asked a few times.. nosy me. I love that he looked after you for your parents.. he looked after you ‘real well’ I can just imagine how much they probably thought ‘great now we regret asking him’ nice that it may have seemed like a bad decision when in fact it was the right decision and perhaps THEY were lead by the spirit for this to happen?
I do believe my mother said to my husband when he visited my parents to do the ‘can i marry your daughter talk’ she said OVER MY DEAD BODY! Its fun to laugh about now but wasnt at the time. I was 19 he was 26. She says now it was very hard because I was the oldest. I still lived at home. She still thought of me as young because she still had little children at home.
All’s fun in love isnt it? (I think I would be concerned if my daughters do the same. Hopefully we can know when it is the right thing and when it is not? My mum was right about my sisters ill fated young marriage (she took off to america and married a guy from Dominican Rupulic who told her to get lost after only 3 months marriage…)but my marriage is strong and happy and I’m glad I did it even though we were only dating 3 weeks before he proposed and we got married 3 months later.
So fun to hear the ‘rest of the story’. I knew you had married young. Interesting that so many of the people whose blogs I read did marry young and are still very happy. There seems to be no magic age. When it is right, it is right.
Thanks for sharing your love story! I LOVE a good love story!
Like anonymous, I too was itching for more, but I do understand that some things are too personal and/or sacred to share in so public a forum!
It is so important to record these stories for our posterity, so they can draw strength from our past, when we were willing to stand and make decisions in faith that go against the ‘wisdom of the world’, in order to follow the path that the Lord has for us. They will be asked to do hard things as well, with our society becoming more and more wicked.
That said, I need to record my own ‘stories of faith’ for my posterity! 🙂
Such an amazing story! I cannot imagine how hard it was to be 16 and at college and in love. Such a special experience with Pres. Hinckly too! Thanks for sharing. I am linking up to my love story as well that I wrote a while back. So fun!
I have so enjoyed reading your love story and the other stories that were linked. I am grateful to have a love story that continues after almost 17 years of marriage and it is always wonderful to read of others who have good marriages too.
Judi 🙂
This is a great story! I love the photos
Ah! This is so romantic! 😀 And makes me think of my own awesome courtship with my husband (of now 26 years) – in which I also experienced “suddenly knowing” that I would marry this man. One of my little brothers told me that a guy named Miles was at the house to see me. Strangely, I was curling my hair at the time, when the knowledge just suddenly hit me, and I kept dropping the curling iron out of sheer shock as I excitedly repeated to myself, “This is the man I’m going to marry! This is the man I’m going to marry!” We hadn’t even been on a date yet. I was barely 18. He was 26. We dated for two months, then were engaged for two months, and married the day I hit 18.5 years old. My poor parents! Ah, but it was so worth it! 😀
Thanks for the reminiscing! 🙂
Corine 😀
It was so fun to read ‘your’ love story Montsie! I knew parts of it from different perspectives and knew that you were so young… yet I liked your fiancé when I met him. Love comes in many unexpected different places and many unplanned ways. You have a lovely family.