Finding Roger

I had been a widow for nearly 5 years when Roger Castro and his sister Angelica moved into the ward. His brother, Miguel (and his wife Nanci) lived with Nanci’s grandmother and had helped Roger and Angelica to come to the States from Bolivia so she could get new shoulders and knees. She had rheumatoid arthritis and couldn’t walk when she arrived. After a year and several surgeries Angelica was up and walking on her own. Roger cared for her that entire time.

A few weeks before their visas expired I paid Roger to do some work for me. He was a cute guy and I had seen how good he was with this sister, so I called my sister, Celine, and suggested she come to town to meet him. She was single at the time, but said I needed to get to know him a little better before she would come. I obeyed.

 I invited Roger and Angelica to play games. The language was a barrier, but I bought a Spanish dictionary and that helped some. We became friends and started spending time together. On the night of our first date he asked me to marry him.

We had less than two weeks to make that happen. We had to get permission from both of our countries and the Regional Representative for Bolivia. Roger had signed papers saying he would return home and there was some concern that his failure to do that might impact whether or not missionaries would be allowed in Bolivia. Everything came together in 10 days.

Of course, many people had legitimate concerns for me. The whole thing looked like Roger just wanted to stay in the country and get a green card. Heather was really upset. It had just been the two of us for years and she had had no time to adjust to having Roger in our lives. Obviously, we went ahead in spite of the concerns. We were married in the Idaho Falls Temple (civil marriage) and lived very happily.

How did I know it was the right thing to do, when we didn’t even speak the same language?

I wanted to get married again, but didn’t even know any active LDS men my age. I prayed that I wouldn’t have to date; that we would meet playing games. I also needed an active Priesthood holder. And, even though it sounds selfish, I wanted someone to take care of me this time around. Roger filled all of these requests, so I KNEW that God had heard my prayers and had prepared the way. There was no way I could ignore that. I had no doubts. (I never thought to mention that my future husband should speak English.)

Heavenly Father knows me and cares about me enough to fulfill my request, even when he had to bring Roger from halfway across the world.