Just Being a Helper

June 2, 2014

Just Being a Helper

I am SOOOO HAPPY to be back in Castilla.  I seriously love this area so darn much.  I have some of the coolest stories ever to tell you guys.  

One is about Juan Peña.  Remember the one who is a dad of a less active we were visiting, and we saw in a park and invited him to a lesson?  Well, he got baptized yesterday!!  It was the coolest thing!  Whenever we reminded him of his date, he would joke with us, saying, 1 de junio, 2015, hermanas.  He has two returned missionary active sons.  They both came.  The one came from Trujillo (that’s like 8 hours from here), and he baptized him.  The day of, the daughter who we were visiting who has started coming back to church, shared her testimony in sacrament meeting.  Juan’s wife, who hasn’t been to church in years, came to sacrament meeting and the baptism, and is so happy to be back.  Juan shared his testimony at the baptism, and it was so cool.  He was just so humble!  He has seriously changed so much.  He shared his testimony of Jose Smith and of the Church of Jesus Christ, and especially of how Christ atoned for him, and that this is the right path.  He is so cool!  Looks all serious, but is like the very sweetest ever.  He is always with his little grandson, Pachito (foto included).  And a ton of people from the ward were there.  Because they have been working with this family forever.  In consejo [ward council] this week, we told them that he was really getting baptized, that he had already passed his interview and everything, and the whole room broke into a cheer.  How cute is that?  That’s how it should always be.  They understood that a family had been saved.  And they were overjoyed about it. 

Juan y Pachito

 Photos of Juan's baptism day, with members in Castilla.

We gave the family a picture of the temple, and we said, remember how you always said junio 2015?  Well, that’s because that’s when you will be going to the temple to get sealed with your family.  And the kids were all bawling.  Even tough guy Jaier, who didn’t start crying at all, started bawling at that.  It was the coolest, y’all.  

AND yesterday Yony came to church.  He is this RM [returned missionary] who hasn’t been to church in like 4 years.  He had a kid, and just didn’t know how to come back.  But we saw him yesterday, and heard him pray, and he started crying.  And I saw for a second his relationship with God.  And it was so special.  And we just testified of how much God loves him.  Sometimes I am a little harsh with people, but with him, I just wanted to hug him tight and walk him into the church holding his little hand.  He was so scared of what people would say.  He said he would come to the classes.  But then, he walked in right before the sacrament, and I saw him and started freaking out.  And bawling. 

It’s like, that’s why Christ did what He did.  So Yony can come back.  So that he could be happy, and be embraced the way he was by the greatest ward ever.  He did it so that Juan could decide to be baptized and come back to his family and to God.  We would have no hope at all, stuck at our faults, without anything.  And instead, we have all the hope in the whole world.  I love Christ, and couldn’t be happier being His little obnoxious helper. 

Love,

Hermana J