Sunday, July 5, 2015

Memories

Coming to this part of Mexico has awakened memories that have mostly slept for more than forty years. Today was fast and testimony meeting. To give you an idea of how powerful the Spirit was, my wife cried nearly the whole time. We had people who were not even baptized giving powerful testimonies of the gospel in their lives. A young hermana bore what would be the last testimony of her mission before a ward and a very old hermano bore by his words the last testimony of his life. Though I hadn’t planned on it, I too gave my testimony.

I told the congregation that one of the first Mexicans that I had known really well was my mission president, Benjamin Parra. President Parra arrived in my mission when I was nearly through my two years. Almost immediately a great change took place. President Parra was a man of tremendous faith and love for us and his country. He inspired us all to do things that we thought were impossible. We worked incredibly hard, exercising our faith and the Lord blessed us. There were only eighty missionaries in a mission that covered a third of Mexico but the Lord blessed us to be able to baptize more than a thousand people in one month. We all looked back at what our faith had wrought in total amazement and gratitude.


Being here has awakened these memories so vividly. What a wonderful and inspirational time that was in my life. As I look back on the years that followed those eventful months I realize how profoundly they have affected me. I have made many mistakes in the ensuing years but because of the faith that President Parra inspired in us, and the power we discovered in it, I have never given up and never stopped moving forward. From that time and events in my life before that, I have always known that my Savior not only lives but loves and deeply cares for me as for all Father’s children. Over and over again he has been there for me when I have stretched my faith as I learned to do under my beloved president.

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