Hello Everyone!
It’s time to tell you about Lazaro--especially since he was baptized and confirmed yesterday! What an amazing adventure it is to be a missionary!
We first met Lazaro on April 17th, at Stake Conference. He is from Mexico, but has lived here for the last 22 years (he also has a good job and a car, which is AMAZING!). About two months ago, he was visiting a friend in Mexico. His friend is a member of the Church, but only decided recently to be active after about twenty years of in and out. While they were down there, they went to the temple and met some missionaries who gave them the referral center number. When Lazaro got back to the States, he called the number and we got the referral (since we are the only Spanish missionaries in the area). Well, if you will all remember when my companion Hna Gallegos got transferred and we were missionary-sitting another sister, that is when we got the referral! Suffice it to say, we kind of dropped the ball, because we called the number and when it didn't work we put it on the back burner to stop by later that week (imagine our embarrassment two weeks later when we finally checked the address and put two and two together!).
Meanwhile, God is not that patient! Two of our English missionaries, Elders Thompson and Hall, were visiting a less active member in the community where Lazaro works. Lazaro came running up to them and told them that he really wanted to take the lessons because he had learned a little in Mexico. Then, he saw Elder Thompson's name and said, "Hey, one of the missionaries I talked to in Mexico was an Elder Thompson too." It turns out, Elder Thompson's BROTHER is serving in Mexico and he was the one who gave him the referral number! Amazing! Of all the places in Mexico and of all the Florida mission areas and missionaries, these two brothers were the ones to find him! It was so cool! Like I have said before, God not only does nothing by accident, He also has a wicked awesome sense of humor!
At this point, we stepped in and took over the teaching, because it needed to be done in Spanish. What a powerful experience! Our first lesson was April 22nd. The spirit was so strong it was literally moving the walls of the church. We walked around the church building and taught the lesson using the pictures. We committed him to a baptismal date that first night and he cried. Amazing. Twenty-two days and some of the most powerful lessons of my life later (He ended up teaching us about prophets and had zero issues with Word of Wisdom, Tithing, Fasting, anything.) we had his baptism. IT WAS SO AWESOME!!!!! The last baptism in the Branch was in December and we had that convert, Jose, do the baptism. (Jose is on the far left.)
We were so nervous for Jose, but we should have been nervous for Lazaro! Jose got all the words perfectly, but Lazaro would NOT go down! He kept floating to the top and grabbing Jose's bicep. It was so funny! Everyone in the branch was laughing, but it was still so spiritual, and exactly what the Branch needed. Entonces ('so' in Spanish), yesterday was my first baptism. Lazaro, a man truly converted to this gospel and ready to commit to living by it's precepts for the rest of his life. I can honestly tell you that I did nothing. I fell like I was the paper pusher in this experience! Fill out the BCR, fill up the font and put together the program, because Lazaro taught himself and is a true disciple of Christ starting on an amazing journey. What an experience, and what an honor. That is what real missionary work is, when you are simply the tool getting the details in order, and the investigator and the spirit do all the real work.
It is a good time to be a servant in the vineyard, and I have never been more grateful for my calling as such. I always knew that the teacher usually got far more out of the lesson than the students, but I have never had such a testimony of that until I saw up close that the more I teach this gospel the more I fall in love with it and believe it with such surety that the powers of Hell could not convince me otherwise. What a gift I have to be a missionary.
I love you all,
Hermana Levanger
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