This morning in the devotional with which we begin a new week of work in the Area Offices, José Ruano shared a moving testimony. He told of gowing up in a Lutheran family and of attending the Lutheran church each week with his grandmother. One Sunday when he was 8 years old, the pastor recounted the story of Jesus' baptism in his sermon and of how Jesus said that he was baptized to "fulfill all righteousness." Brother Ruano recounted that after the meeting, he told his grandmother he wanted to be baptized like Jesus. She told him to go talk to the Pastor. He went to speak to the Pastor who was talking to a group of members. He approached the Pastor and tugged on his robe. The Pastor asked him what he wanted, and he told him that he wanted to be baptized. The Pastor told him he could be baptized when he was 30 years old. Brother Ruano said that he remembers crying all the way home from his disappointment that he would have to wait for what seemed like an eternity to an eight year old boy before he could be baptized. He then explained that two weeks after this incident, there was a knock at their door. When his grandmother answered the door, there were two missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints standing there. She invited them in and sat his two older brothers and him down and told them to listen. She then left the room. The missionaries taught them of the apostasy and the restoration. When they were finished, his grandmother came in and told him to ask them his question. So he turned to the missionaries and asked them if he could be baptized. He said the missionaries looked quite surprised, but they told him yes he could. He was excited and told them there was a font nearby and asked them if they could go now. They explained that there was a process, that he would need to attend church and receive the missionary lessons first. He asked them how long that would take, and they said probably three weeks. He was so relieved and agreed to do what they asked. Three weeks later he and his brothers were baptized and became members of the Church.
Brother Ruano recounted how he then wanted to serve a mission and as an eight year old boy he would accompany the missionaries in their work. When he was of age, he served a mission, and as a missionary had a similar experience where he was invited into a home and left by the parents to teach a young boy. He recounted how the boy and his family were eventually baptized and how he received a message from the boy through Facebook thanking him for coming to their home to share the Restored Gospel with them. The boy expressed his desire to be a missionary. Brother Ruano responded to the boy that he his thanks belonged to the young men who had come to his home years earlier to share the Gospel with him and his family.
This moving testimony caused me to remember a similar experience I had as a young missionary in Armenia, Colombia, when after sincere fasting and prayer, we were led to a young boy of 8 or 9 years of age who became the means for his family and eventually several other families in his neighborhood receiving the ordinance of baptism at our hands and joining the Church.
This is the miracle of this work. The Lord prepares his children one by one to receive the message of the Restored Gospel, and He inspires his servants and leads them to those he has prepared, many times even through a child, and they receive his glorious message one by one.
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