It was tough. It was tough from the very beginning. She was from the Roman Catholic…. She has her own beliefs and I have my own beliefs. But last—how many years?—nine years of our marriage, I have never forced her to join the church. And she never forced [me] to believe in her own beliefs as well. So that really helped us both to overcome the challenges actually. However, she has seen me, as at one point, I was a [branch] president, she has seen me and maybe seen some examples of what the Latter-day Saints, the church members, or my friends, played an important role in bringing her back. So eventually, she joined the church in 2019.
It’s a love marriage…. My parents were so excited, because they were thinking, ‘My son is getting married to a modern girl from Delhi.’ And then they were all excited. It was a love marriage. My parents never had a problem with anything. But my wife’s parents had a problem. Because our church and their church is like right in front of the gates, quite opposite our churches, actually. So … from our branch we can see their church as well. So their Roman Catholic pastors publicly announce in the podium saying, ‘Do not give permissions to enter those white shirt guys into your homes.’
I remember it clearly that my mother-in-law used to say that, but my mother-in-law was very … what do you say, conservative, as well. But she went and asked one of the pastors, ‘Hey, we are looking for a boy from the other church, which is opposite to the church.’ And luckily, or fortunately, that pastor, I remember his name is Mr. Amritraj. He said, ‘How does it really matter? Christ is one. And we are called into different [churches], Roman Catholic and Latter-day Saints. It doesn’t really matter if the boy likes it. If the boy feels comfortable. It doesn’t really matter.’ That really helped them. Otherwise, if the pastor would have been a different person, it [the marriage] wouldn’t have happened.”
