FAN CHARTS AND FAMILY HISTORY STORIES

While the President is interviewing each missionary (once each six weeks) I have the opportunity of visiting with each missionary.  It is one of my favorite parts about being the "Mission Mom"!  Occasionally I ask the missionaries to share their family history fan charts and stories with me...and it has proved to be most interesting!

Frequently I ask missionaries if they know the first person to join the church in their family line.  In the case of Elder Walter, he told me about his grandparents - the story of how they met and of his grandfather "Tim"  joining the church.  I thought it was kind of fun...and taught me how we can live our lives with "intention" and that truly Heavenly Father is preparing people to receive the Gospel. 

His grandparents,"Tim" and "Elaine", had known each other through their friendship in the neighborhood, but began to date after Elaine broke up with her boyfriend.  (Tim prefaced this history with several details, including the fact that he had "started going to my old church again after having a miraculous experience that made me know there truly is a God".... but that " I had stopped going to church about a year earlier,  because I learned that almost all Christian churches believe in the mystical concepts of the trinity, but I was certain from reading the Bible that God and Jesus are separate beings".)

Now I would like to quote from the letter his Grandfather, Tim, sent Elder Walter about his conversion:

" On our second date--after going inside the house to pick her up--I discovered a book laying on a table in the living room.  Upon perusing it, I discovered it was a history book.  I love history, so I began reading it.  The next day I came a little early and was happy to find the book still there.  The book was about the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  It had been Elaine's textbook for seminary the previous school year.  Elaine noticed me reading the book, so she got later and later, while I was arriving earlier and earlier.  After a half dozen dates, reached the part explaining where Joseph Smith had his vision with God and Jesus Christ.

In my ninth-grade history class with Mr. Rex Thomas, we had briefly studied about Joseph Smith's vision and how Brigham Young settled the "Mormons" in Salt Lake City, Utah.  Now I had the rest of the story.  Elaine and I started discussing the Church.  I continued reading the history about the "Mormons".  One night early in September, Elaine asked if I would like to meet some nice older people, but she didn't tell me who they were until we arrived at the house.  She then told me that Ina Easton had been her seminary teacher, who taught her the "Mormon" history.

Now getting back to the event, we had a nice talk that night.  It led to Ina asking me what I thought God was like.  I said I wasn't sure.  She proceeded to explain how Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus Christ together and learned that the godhead consists of God the Father, His son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost.  Each of them is a distinct personage with God and Jesus each having a physical body and the Holy Ghost being spirit.  I felt that I had found the true church.

Over the next several weeks, I read the Book of Mormon, and many other writings about the Church.  I recognized how some facts included in the Book of Mormon were verified by others in ways that Joseph Smith was very unlikely to have known....

I was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on October 13, 1962."

Heavenly Father is preparing people all around us to find the truth, and join the church.  We each need to do our part - just as "Elaine" did, by intentionally leaving the book out in the living room, knowing Tim would be interested in reading it.  Also, that Elaine finally was ready to go on their dates "later and later" - because she knew he would be reading the book while he waited!

And Elder Walter is here, with his own testimony and desire to share the Gospel with the beautiful people here in Mexico City today because of this wonderful couple!

We each intentionally can share the Good News of the Gospel!  Say a prayer today for the missionaries and for the lost sheep, then move forward with love and faith sharing the Gospel!  Elder Walter and all of us here in the Great Mexico City Southeast Mission appreciate your being Member Missionaries wherever you are!