My dear family, friends, and anyone else who happens to read this,
Last
Saturday was probably the happiest day of my mission so far. Going
through the temple with the Beltran family was absolutely amazing!
They´re such strong people, and I´ve learned more from their example
than
possibly any one else´s in my entire mission. I love them so much and
am so proud of them! Just to remind some of you about them, they had
consistently been going to church for about 7 years, but for government
and other legalization issues, they hadn´t been able to get married
civilly, and of course without that, they hadn´t been able to be
baptized. They used to live in a larger city, Pachuca, and in 5 years
had been the main source of over 30 other baptisms! A blessing that they
so much wanted but were unable to get at the time.
Well, a little over a year ago up in Molango, Elder
Castillo and Elder Lucas helped them with all the legal issues and were
finally able to work things out, get them married, and get them their
long awaited baptism. I got to Molango just 5 days after their
confirmation. Within weeks, I was honored with the privilege of
conferring Hno. David Beltran the Melchizedek priesthood. After about 5
months of officially being a member, he was called as the 2nd counselor
in the branch presidency. Only 2 months after that, his wife Clara was
called as the Relief Society president.
While up there, they lived between 2 and 3 hours away,
depending on the mudslides and rainfall. They maybe missed 1 or 2
Sundays in my 7 months there. They both have such strong testimonies and
such faith and devotion. It´s incredible.
Now that you know a little bit about them it just makes
this last Saturday so much more special. President Hicken had gotten
there early to do their final temple recommend interview, (acting as who
would be their Stake President in that case). We got a nice picture
just outside the temple with E. Castillo and me, Pres. and Sis. Hicken,
and the Familia Beltran. Their 23 year-old daughter is named Paola and
has down syndrome. Due to some other unexpected legal issues, Paola was
unable to enter to be sealed to her parents, but the missionaries are
going to work things out so that hopefully in a couple months they can
return and have her sealed as well.
The 2nd Counselor of the temple presidency, Pres. José
Jiménez B. performed the sealing. It was so special. Tears were at the
edge of my eyeballs ready to fall out, but I was able to keep them up
there ha ha. Bro. and Sis. Beltran though had a hard time with that. It
was such a blessing to see some of the other branch members and be with my
great friend, Elder Castillo.
While we were waiting for the bride and groom to enter
in the sealing room, I think there was another little earthquake. The
chandelier was ringing and the floor started rumbling, and then the
famous
words from Joseph Smith came into my head, "No unhallowed hand can stop
the work from progressing...".
The Molangan missionaries explained to us that Don
Chucho, the dueño of the house we lived in up there, finally got baptized last week!
Wahoo! I love that place with all my heart and can´t wait to hopefully
take some of you back there sometime.
There´s so much I wish I could tell you, but just don´t
have the time, (and I´m sure you don´t either :) ). But, I´m sure we´ll
have some nice chit-chats here in the not so distant future.
Bert, congratulations! I´m proud of you and your family.
I
would love to sing in that choir! I´m sure if we let Linda know in
advance they can work things out over there... I hope :) But if it´s ok
with Linda, then sign me up! I do like the beach boys, that´d be great!
We have a lot of work to do still. On Wednesday, as we
were told just this morning, we´ll be in a trio because there are a few
Guatemalans that are coming in. Don´t worry, even if I wanted to I can´t
"die" early because we´ll be with a greenie, and I need to be a good
example for him. I´m actually pleased with that news. It should be a
good week and a half with him.
Thanks to all for reading this looong e-mail, just hope
it was worth your time :) I love you all and hope you have another
wonderful week!
Hasta la próxima carta! (y última :..( )
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