Coming to Christ Talk 11/22/20 Hunter 2nd Ward
Have you ever been to a salt mine? Sounds interesting, right? A few years ago while my son’s family was living in Austria, we took a trip to Salzburg (which means salt city). As we traveled along, we got a text from our daughter-in-law in the car ahead of us with a link to buy tickets for the salt-mine tour in Halstadt. That sounded interesting, so we bought our tickets online, sight unseen. (Sort of like going on a mission—sounds interesting, ya?) We arrived in Halstadt, a breathtakingly beautiful village in the Alps. Then, reality hit. Straight up the mountain to the mine ran a half-mile funicular tram. My heart stopped beating in my acrophobic mind. I tried to back out, but there was a lot of social pressure from my family. Up the mountain we went. My grandchildren exclaimed at the top, “Grandma, you did great!” I had not screamed at all. Paralyzed in fear, I prayed my way to the top. In fact I prayed my way across bridges, streams, and forest paths for another half mile to the mine. We all dressed in safety clothing and received instruction about salt slides within the mine (more praying), moving through the darkness (more prayers), and the trip out on a human bench train. Then, back down the mountain, across a clear bridge high above the village at the bottom of the Alps. My inclination was to scream and cry the whole way! But instead, I prayed.
That is very similar to 2020. It sounded like a good idea in January, but my inclination has been to cry and scream all the way. Instead, I have prayed. For three months we continued our missionary work in Laredo. We taught early-morning seminary every day, prepared 6-10 hours for the next day, prepared and taught two institute lessons a week, year-round, helped the young missionaries with transportation, teaching, baptisms, and music. Every week there were multiple baptisms; most were young adults and teens—so we were often working with new converts and those being taught in our classes.
How did our mission help us come to Christ? Every day in every way we were immersed in scripture study, words of the prophets and apostles, teaching, praying, feeling the peace of the Spirit, and watching the Church grow in Laredo and in the Texas-McAllen Mission. Our first December in Laredo, the first stake was formed with two English-speaking wards, two Spanish-speaking wards, and a Spanish-speaking branch—which became a ward just recently. The TMM is the only mission in the United States where all the young missionaries are called to Spanish-speaking. We taught in English—in fact, we have learned much more Spanish in the months we have been home. We attended two or three sacrament meetings every week. The Spanish meeting took intense concentration! Testimony meetings were filled with lines of people waiting anxiously to share how the hand of God was working in their lives. It was always a spiritual feast. Last October prayers were answered when the prophet announced a temple for McAllen, TX. It would take too long to explain all that that means to south Texas saints. The short story is that it opens up temple blessings for undocumented members who couldn’t pass the checkpoints going north to the San Antonio Temple.
We literally watched lives change as good people were taught and accepted the miracle of the Atonement of Christ. There were some sad cases, too. Victor wanted to be baptized, and the Sisters worked with him for months as he tried to conquer addictions. He attended church and institute though he spoke little English. In the end, he disappeared because the cartel would not let him out of their grip and threatened death to Victor and his family if he tried to end his drug running.
One sweet little family was baptized a few minutes following the parents’ wedding in front of the font. Their extreme commitment to the Gospel changed everything about their lives. They never missed church; they spoke at baptisms; they served. They had seen the example of Brother Vaca at work and wanted that life for themselves and their children. The Vacas threw the wedding-baptism dinner to celebrate, They had never thought that this family might be interested in hearing the gospel—they didn’t know the influence they were having by just living the gospel at work, at home, and at church.
I could tell you a hundred stories that we got to be part of. One young woman who came to Christ and had an immeasurable influence for good was Ingrid. When we met Ingrid, she had been a member of the Church for about 1 ½ years. She had always avoided the missionaries when they were knocking doors in her neighborhood, but one night in her dorm room on the top floor, the missionaries knocked on their final door of the night. Ingrid opened it and accepted their message. She never looked back. While we were there, Ingrid taught with the missionaries, bore testimony, received her endowments in the temple, served as Institute president, encouraged and supported YSA. She also graduated from TA&M at College Station. While no one else in her family has joined the Church so far, Ingrid has been a force of nature in bringing others to Christ.
One night Ingrid came a bit late to institute class after working with the Elders who were teaching Mayra. Ingrid reported that Mayra had cried, telling the missionaries, “Oh, why didn’t you find me sooner!” Mayra was soon baptized. Mayra and her children have changed their lives, actively bringing others to experience the joy she found when she found Christ.
Cindy is a dear friend who joined the church after her sister accepted the gospel. Cindy is quite a character, but she is completely devoted to sharing her new testimony. She is serving as a ward missionary, and always introducing others to the missionaries.
Most who were baptized, and continue to come into the Church, in Laredo come from little resources, loss, family issues, escape from difficult circumstances on the other side of the border. They come legally and otherwise to a country where their dreams can come true. The Lord blesses them with the gospel, the only source of peace. We watched how the Lord brought people to Laredo who could and would make a difference. One young bishop who is a dentist came with his family to Laredo after serving his mission there a few years ago. Another bishopric consisted of an optometrist and two federal immigration attorneys. One bishop was an FBI agent and other leaders were on border control. Leaders come from both sides of the border with talents and skills to help those who need it. The stake president grew up in the Mormon colonies where he learned both languages equally and now holds a position in a large trucking company. People are drawn to Laredo to be part of the great final gathering. As Jim says, “It is to fulfill the blessings promised to the remnant descendants of Lehi in these latter days.”
Often we would look at our institute class and see half returned missionaries and half investigators and new members. Our seminary classes were filled with students from faithful generations of Saints and brand-new converts. Like us, they would rise at 4:30 in the morning and travel to the church buildings for classes before school. We had some who could barely speak English, and others who were gifted students attending special high schools or early college. We watched them graduate with honors, go on missions, come to BYUI or other colleges, and enter the military. We saw institute students go on and return from missions, serve in the wards and stake, marry in the temple, and start their own faithful families. And that’s what it’s all about. Jim will tell you a few more of our favorite stories.
Our mission was a great blessing. We have never studied so much scripture! We taught the Doctrine & Covenants, Saints, the four gospels of the New Testament, and the Book of Mormon. We have never prayed so many times a day. Through technology we met with Cameron twice a day for scripture study in the Book of Mormon and family prayer. We love our 23 months of service that brought us nearer to Christ! It prepared us for 2020—so we would turn to prayer instead of crying or screaming! We got in the habit of studying together at home. We see the Lord’s hand in our lives in these times of crisis and chaos. We see the Lord’s hand in choosing when we would serve, where we would serve, and how we would serve. I am grateful for the Father’s divine plan for us and for sending Christ to lead us home. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
