My first missionary experience

About 3 months ago the missionaries approached us and asked to do a little lesson in our home. They said that they were meeting with all the leaders of the auxiliaries to teach a lesson on the Restoration and to find out if we knew of anyone in the area who could be taught. At this time Jonas had started teaching the young men in our ward and he told them of a boy that had been to a few activities and had wonderful questions about the gospel. We gave them that name and one other, and they were on their way. A month of so later, we got a visit from new missionaries now, who were wondering about this family. They asked if we would still be willing to help teach this boy, Jesus, if he was interested. We said yes of course, and that we could have the discussions at our home if they wanted. Well, that got the ball rolling into the first missionary experience that I have ever had. I truly had no idea what I was getting myself into. I have prayed for an experience like this and I am so grateful that I was finally able to go through this wonderful process.


Turns out that Jesus' mom Cristina also wanted the discussions! The only problem is that she only speaks Spanish and Jesus does not want to go to a Spanish speaking branch, so the only option was for me to translate everything. This has been such a trial for me as my Spanish is fine, but not excellent, and then translation is another story. It is very difficult to do. But I really have felt the spirit of the Lord helping me as I do this. There was one particular Sunday that was really special. It was fast Sunday and people were bearing their testimonies and I just felt like everything said was just what she needed to hear and it was so easy to translate, like the words just flowed out of my mouth with ease. It was hard to contain the tears and after a while I stopped trying.



Jonas was right about Jesus. From the beginning he amazed us with his desire to learn. He is at a difficult age (11) and I hope he can get through the trials of peer pressure and bad influences, etc. At the very first meeting, he told us that he loved his mom so much and all his life he just wanted to make her happy. How sweet is that? Well as time went on it became apparent that he was doing that very thing, because if it wasn't for him, we may not have found his mother. And now she has the tools to be happy forever.



So it has been a pretty amazing couple of months as we have all seen the light that has started to burn more brightly within them, what a wonderful thing to be a part of. Yesterday was the Baptism, and it was such a spiritual experience. Jesus' cousin Andrea was also able to be baptized with them as she turned 8 last year. I was able to give the talk on Baptism and translate for the rest of the time. It was wonderful.