Love and Marriage

When I was growing up, the story I heard most often and liked the best was the story of my parents meeting and getting married.

Dad had a dream before he left for his mission; he saw his wife and his family, and he knew that his wife would be from another country. My mom, Dolores, was born in Brasil; and my dad, Orlin, is from the United States. Dad served a mission in Brasil and, as Mom puts it, she was his souvenir.

But I'll just tell you the story the way we heard it as we sat around the dinner table (and if I get it wrong, Mom will just have to excuse me because I'm going entirely by memory):

Dolores was engaged to another young man in Brasil when she first saw Orlin. She says that she was walking along and looked up and saw a missionary on the steps of the church, and she thought, "I'm going to marry that missionary with the glasses." So she went home, and broke off her engagement to the unfortunate Brasilian guy. (This was the most frequently repeated, and my favorite, part of the story.)

Mom would say about that missionary with the glasses, "He was so good-looking, and he had lots of thick, wavy hair."

Later Dolores found out that another girl was also interested in Elder Johnson; this girl was even knitting him a sweater. So Dolores went to the nuns, who were great friends with her mother and her family, and asked one of them to knit a sweater for her—a blue one, I think. I believe Dolores' gift to the young Elder Johnson was finished first; and I believe it was many years before he found out that Dolores hadn't knitted it herself. But to make doubly sure the other girl didn't get in the way, Dolores told the mission president that this girl was very interested in Elder Johnson. I believe the mission president got the message confused and thought that Dolores was interested in Elder Johnson; either way, Elder Johnson soon got a transfer to another area in the Brasil mission.

Orlin recalls that one day another missionary was showing a home movie (maybe a gift from home?). It turns out that Orlin's family knew this other elder and so their pictures were in the movie too. Orlin says,"When I saw the pictures of Esther (his sister) I thought, 'I like Dolores as much as I like Esther.' "

Before Orlin went home he was able to visit Dolores' town again for a little while. And then he was off to the states again. Back home, he wrote to her and asked her to marry him! And she said yes! So her parents allowed her to go to the states, but to be sure everything was on the up and up they sent her sister, Helena, as a chaperone. They stayed with Orlin's family.

Because Dolores hadn't been a member of the church for a full year, and because of some kind of mix-up getting her records to the states, she wasn't able to get a temple recommend. Orlin was getting a little frustrated with the waiting because he would soon be going to Germany with the Army. Finally he told his mother (who, at the time, wasn't too excited about him marrying a foreign girl) that if they couldn't get married in the temple they would just go to Las Vegas. My Grandma Johnson didn't want that to happen—if they were going to get married, it would be in the temple! So she called church headquarters, and my parents were interviewed by President David O. McKay, and Mom got her temple recommend. They were married in the Manti Temple on July 8, 1953 (I think Mark E. Petersen was their sealer). Three days later Orlin went to Germany. It was six months (or was it nine?) before Dolores could join him. They had lots of adventures from marbles in the marble cake, to having their first baby, to seeing the sights in Europe before they came home to the states.

That was the start of everything. Now Orlin and Dolores Johnson have eight children, 37 grandchildren (I think Mom says it's 42, but I think that counts the children of our Navajo foster sister), and 13 (?) great-grandchildren. They have been married 57 years today.

about 1977

As a side-note: Mom's sister, Helena, eventually married Dad's brother, Norman. And Grandma Johnson did grow to love my mom; she died in our home with Mom right there (in Mom's arms, if I remember right).

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!