A New Chapter Has Begun

Sorry it's taken me a while to get this story written! It's short, anyway.

I had a marvelous July 14th!!!  Everything went so smoothly and I was just in a superb mood the whole day!  I got so much accomplished, and it felt great. :)  I woke up at 5:00 AM and ate breakfast and read my scriptures while eating.  Then I headed over to Provo to help a lovely patient I take care of at 6:00 AM.  After I was done there I rushed home and ran 8 miles with my aunt, and then I showered and got ready for the day and then took care of another patient.  When I was done, it was time for the baptism! Ahh! So exciting :) :)

A new chapter has now begun in Ruben's life. His baptism was beautiful, like pretty much all baptisms are.  There was such a wonderful spirit there, and I loved seeing him so happy. My mom and dad did the musical number. My mom sang and my dad accompanied her on the piano. ("My Soul Hungered" is the song they did. If you haven't heard it, I highly suggest looking it up and taking a listen cuz it is gorgeous! Brought me to tears.)

Anyway -- it was all beautiful to say the least. He was smiling so brightly after.

I got to go to his confirmation the next day as well. He is so happy that he made this big decision in his life, even though it took him many, many years.


Here is the before picture. We like to joke that you can tell he doesn't have the Spirit with him yet:

And here is the after picture!!! He was so so happy: 

I know that God is real, and that He loves each and every one of us and will touch our lives in so many different ways if we allow Him to.  If you really want to know of the truth, and you have an open mind and heart, He will manifest it unto you...always. That is what happened with Ruben, and he is so super happy! I'm grateful God allowed me to be a big part of his conversion process because it has been a testimony builder for me. 

And he's getting baptized!!!

Today I want to refer back to one of my very first posts on my blog (the 5th post to be exact):


"I just wanted to write about how much I love missionary work!!!! Oh how I LOVE IT!!!

At my job the past couple of days I have had the opportunity for some great missionary work. One of our newer resident's (Irma) husband comes to see her every day. He misses her, and the change of her being at the nursing home has been hard on him. They moved here with their daughter and son-in-law from California, but he and his wife are originally from Argentina. Anyway. So whenever I work I get to see him. We have become good buddies :) He's a way cute little old man! He's about 72 and his wife is 70, so they've been married a long time.  Irma mostly spouts off in Spanish because she's starting to forget her English, so it's nice when he is there so he can help translate for us. 


Whenever I take my dinner break I go and sit by them cuz they're usually chillin out in the dining room at a table. Ruben (Irma's husband) absolutely adores me! He says he always looks forward to the times when I work, and he dreads when I have to go off to college because he will really miss me, and the help I give to his wife etc, etc. He says I'm the best! He is such a funny guy.


So, it started yesterday. We got talking religion. Somehow I knew he wasn't LDS and later found out he is Catholic--well kinda cuz he's not active in that religion anymore. But we got talking and I told him about the plan of salvation and that families can be together forever, I explained the purposed of baptism. I told him about patriarchal blessings and the temple. I also explained a little about temple work. He asked questions here and there and I did my very best to answer as correct as possible. (Oh and btw his daughter who lives here is LDS and they've given him a Spanish and English BOM and he tried reading it years ago, but said it was really hard for him to understand and concentrate....) but yeah. We got talking about many different church related things. He seemed interested. And tonight was even more awesome! I brought my regular set of scriptures and also my mini BOM to work with me and I also found some scripture verses before work and on my dinner break we talked more and I had him read some of the scriptures I found. He seems really interested and said he thinks what it says is true. So that's a good start! He promised me he would read the BOM (at least try starting again) and he even took home my little BOM set to borrow until when I work Sunday! (The reason he took mine is because last night he looked for his, but realised he left them in Cali) I am going to start working on marking another BOM for him tonight to get to him by Monday. I'm hoping if I mark and write some things in different places that it'll be easier for him to understand and concentrate.

I got emotional partway through our conversation.... he said it was all just hard for him lately with his wife being gone and that he couldn't hardly ever eat from being upset. He just was having a hard time understanding WHY all of this was happening to him. I told him about Joseph Smith, and the scripture found in D&C about how all of our challenges are for our good. The Lord has a purpose for everything. Then I got emotional.... I told him maybe, just maybe the reason his wife was like this and in the nursing home, is so he'd get the chance to meet me. Maybe the Lord wanted him to hear the gospel again from me because I could get to him and teach it to him in a way his family hadn't been able to.. Later after we talked he thanked me, and sweetly said "I think you're my angel." Then he gave me a big hug. It was so neat!

Anyway. It was a really neat experience, and I just wanted to share it with ya'll. I'm excited to find out how far he gets in reading when I next see him Sunday, and I am excited to give him another copy with my testimony in it! :) :)"




So that is the beginning of my missionary experience with Ruben.  Actually, I just realized something neat; I just checked the date I wrote that post, and it's 2 years, to the day, from tomorrow (July 9, 2010).  


You are probably wondering the reason why I decided to re-share this post with you.  Well, over the 2 years I have known Ruben, we have become really close, my adopted Grandpa (as I like to call him).  He knows, and loves, my whole family as well. Anyway, Ruben is kind of a bit stubborn in character a lot of the time. If he doesn't want to do something, he won't. 


We still talk about church things frequently, and he asks questions. The biggest "battle" has been for the past 7-8 months I have been trying to occasionally invite him to come to church with me.  He wouldn't come because he said he was scared and doesn't like not knowing what to expect.  On a side note, about a couple months ago I think he started going to the MTC sometimes. He volunteered and was an investigator for the missionaries being trained. Since he's Argentine, he'd be able to help out by speaking Spanish with them. After going a couple times, he actually attended church with his daughter and their family, and it wasn't as bad as he thought, just like I kept telling him ;) 


Well.....I guess what I'm trying to get at is, this past week when I got back from vacation HE TOLD ME HE DECIDED TO GET BAPTIZED!!!! The baptism will be held this upcoming Saturday, and I could not be more excited. I'm really hoping they'll approve my day-off request at work because I can't miss this. Plus, Ruben was telling me he needed and wanted me there, because without me he wouldn't be the same. 


This whole experience has been a really neat one. It makes me excited to think that one day, whenever I'm able to be a full-time missionary for my Lord (as a calling), I will be having many experiences like this.  I just loved watching Ruben's faith grow over the years, and seeing that he was ready even before he knew he was. I just had to patiently wait until his fear subsided and he allowed himself to realize what I think he's known for a long time. 

(Ruben and I the before I left for college)

I can't wait for Saturday!!


:) :) :) :) :)