Modern Miracles

You might recall a previous experience I had while on my mission in Juayua. It was an area that was really small and my companion and I got up on stage at the concert and spoke to the public…well rewind a few weeks and here we are at this story. My companion and I are roaming the streets again trying to find new investigators when we stumbled upon a man that just so happened to be the second in line of the Catholic Church leadership for the town. We of course didn’t know that until after I opened my mouth and started to talk with him about the Book of Mormon. We taught him how the book came to be and the blessings he could receive from its teachings and the restored gospel.

                He told us his position and profession of course within the church and how even though the story we just told him sounded good he couldn’t leave the Catholic Church. As a last ditch effort I made a compromise with him to just read Moroni’s promise and to pray and ask God what he should do. He agreed and we went on our way. The Catholic culture is very strong in Latin America of course and more so in the rural areas. The city is built much like Salt Lake City; everything is centered on the chapel and built outward. Just in their case things are built around the Catholic buildings and chapels. Every Sunday morning the bell would ring and the singing over the loud speaker would commence. Once the singing ended the speaker would say a message so the whole town could hear. We got used to it over time and rarely paid any mind to it, until this particular Sunday. As we were walking down the hill towards our chapel we heard the voice of the man start preaching, except this time we recognized the voice of being Jose, the man we taught earlier in the week. Then to our surprise he says let me open to the book of Moroni. We stopped dead in our tracks not believing what we just heard. Across the loud speaker came the small passage that we had asked him to read in Moroni 10: 3-5. He then asked the congregation if they thought this was true what he had just read, unanimously the crowd agreed. He then broke the news to them that it was the Book of Mormon that he was reading. He then took of course the message onto prayer and nothing more happened.

                For my companion and I of course we thought finally this dead area that has yielded 0 baptisms in years will now baptize the whole city! We rushed over to his home immediately after church and he related a dream he had the previous night. He was told by Heavenly Father himself he said that this book was true scripture and that its teachings were true. We continued to teach him the lessons discreetly and even told the mission president about him. For the first time in my mission President Call came and taught a lesson with us and eventually baptized Jose. Unfortunately we didn’t baptize the whole city but you better believe we got some referrals from it all.

                You never know what seed you plant that will have a life changing impact on someone. No efforts go wasted in the Lord’s work. Keep an eternal perspective in life and God will take care of the temporal things. I know the Book of Mormon along with the Bible contain the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Together we know how to make it back to live with our families forever. Let us share this blessing with everyone, no matter who they are so the blessings we enjoy on a daily basis can be had by all.

 Jose's Baptism with President Call and Elder Ramos.