We met on June 7, 2017, when Miguel was helping as a translator for Rachel's summer missionary program. Miguel bought Rachel candy and was always hanging around with her team. We watched a lot of movies together that summer. By the end of Rachel's time in Choluteca, we knew that there was something special between us and that we needed to pursue it further.

Fast forward to the spring of 2019 and Rachel was now living in Choluteca, Honduras. We had been dating for almost 2 years. Miguel picked out a ring after receiving a lot of photos from Rachel and getting advice from her mom. He got together with our best friends in Honduras and planned the perfect proposal. On the morning of Sunday, May 19th, Miguel proposed to Rachel as our friends played Rachel's favorite love songs and others held up signs of Miguel's promises to Rachel as her future husband. Rachel couldn't stop shaking, and Miguel couldn't stop smiling.

We have had a lot of celebrations of our marriage due to COVID-19! On March 18th, 2020, we held our legal ceremony at Rachel's parents' house. We were married by Pastor Kevin Hartman. This ceremony was to sign our marriage license. Rachel's parents and siblings were there, and Miguel's mom and sisters watched through FaceTime. After seeing how the pandemic was continuing, we decided to exchange our rings and become married on May 2nd, 2020. We held this ceremony at Rachel's parents' house once again. Her parents shared words of love and wisdom with us as we exchanged our rings and began to live in marriage. We had hoped to still have a gathering with family and friends in the fall, but the presence of COVID-19 persisted. We decided that we needed to cancel that event, but Rachel still hadn't gotten to wear her wedding dress! So, on July 8th, we put on our wedding clothes and headed out to Burr Oak Woods to exchange our personal vows. Although this was not our plan, we have felt so loved and blessed through all our celebrations of marriage. Watch our wedding video on our Facebook pages: https://www.facebook.com/miguel.herrera14/videos/4189832831058301/ https://www.facebook.com/rachel.lock.161/videos/3116801281709912