Date
February 7, 2018
Area
Mexicali
Companion
Elder Quijada
Week 23-What Happened???
Hey Guys,
So this time, my title actually does have a story.
Ok, so last week we visited a Reference that we had online in a church system. This is a reference at least a year old, so it's kinda ¨well let's go try¨. The reason that this Reference possibly didn´t get a visit is because it is in one of our further areas, about 15 mins on bikes going fast and hard. Well we get there and we were looking for a man named Rafeal Reyes. His daughter-in-law answered the door and was like, ¨um he is really sick, but I can ask if you can see him¨. So she leaves and comes back with his wife, and she asked us if we can say a prayer for him and we were like, ¨Yeh, ok¨. So we go inside and find this man, who is our reference, breathing really hard, super skinny, with his eyes almost shut, and they tell us he has cancer and has been like this for awhile. I can not lie, this man could barely breathe and move, he was on his death bed. And so they ask us again to say a prayer for him, and my companion beckons to me to say a prayer. At this point, you might think a miracle happened, but I said a good prayer for him and his family, we then talked a little while with them, made an appointment for this week, and leave. Fast forward to this week when we go back. We call from the fence (because you don't actually knock on doors here), and his daughter-in-law answers. As soon as we came through the fence, she tells us he died that very night after we visited them, and we were like, ¨Wait, what?¨ Then we started asking her how her family was and she said they were all ok, sad, and a little depressed, but it was a little expected. We then begin teaching her how her family is eternal and that her family has the opportunity to live with him again after this life. That this life is not the end of our families and death does not have to do-us-part. This has become my favorite lesson I have had thus far in my mission. And at the end she told us that she wanted to live together with her family after this life and that her children and she needed baptisms. Wow. I was like, ¨Did she actually say that? Does she actually understand what we taught and the importance of it?¨. I was blown away and humbled by this experience.
So we taught her and what I want each of you to understand. Our Families can be Eternal and forever and death does not have victory over us. This is the reason we, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons), build our temples, like the temple in Washington DC. It is so we can be sealed together as families for the eternities, not just mortality. I hope for each of you that you can find the path to the temple, so that you too can find the peace of knowledge that death of a family member is not an end. And this is my message for you all today.
I hope all is well on your side of the world, and that you feel the spirit a little everyday.
Your friend, and Loved one,
Elder Hineman