This week was a good one. I would, dispite the many miraculous experiences which I have seen and been a part of this week, like to focus on one particular story, that of Gastón and Belén.
The last week we asked a member, Marta, to come visit one of her neighbors with us ( we had contacted the neighbor the previous day and she told us to come back the next day). Marta is a single mother of four very young children and also a convert of a little over a year. So we went to visit her neighbor and surprise surprise, we got rejected.... or in other words: God had another plan.
As we went back to drop Marta off at her house, her sister in law was sitting outside and Marta began to explain to us that they ( her brother and sister in law) had moved in the day before because Gastón had lost his job and they had nowhere to live. Really they had nothing, so he came to live with his mother and his two sisters. Marta asked if we wanted to talk with them (as a missionary you never pass up that opportunity) so we accepted.
The lesson that we then had was ehhhhhh, not too good. Gastón was pretty much asleep and Belén was not extremely interested. With the help of the Spirit we still managed to commit them to come to church that Sunday. They came, and in that moment God changed their eternity. Gastón sat on the front row and for the first two hymns sat sleepily reading the words of the hymn. At the first testimony his eyes stopped drooping as much and he sat up a little straighter. Then the Stake President got up and looking right at Gastón or more correctly worded, looking into his soul he bore a powerful testimony directly to Gastón. From that moment on, to the end of the meeting, (he sang joyfully the closing hymn), I do not believe that the tears stopped rolling down his cheeks. After the meeting he was bombarded by hugs and by welcomes and kisses (Chilean style).
In the next class we spoke of the importance of making covenants with God the first of those being baptism. He latter told us that as he listened his soul desire was to enter into such a covenant with God. What's more, the very next morning (Monday morning) he received a phone call telling him that he was the new owner of a restaurant.... what the....???? God knows His children, and so it was that Gastón was blessed for his efforts to come unto Christ.
We also learned latter that he has had a very 'dark' past, and so Sunday morning before he came to church he said a prayer and told God that if he helped him to feel like it was true and that this was where God wanted him that he would change his entire life to put God first and the church would become the central point of his life. That is true intent and God did not hold back the answer, but rather responded as he often does, by the power of the Holy Ghost. He is committed to get married to his wife and baptized this coming month. God knows HIs sheep.
Elder Hutchins
