Hello Dear Friends and Family,
Today was probably the first day that I felt like a true missionary. We had 4 in-home visits with members. All were very productive but I will only describe the last one which was truly inspirational. Antonio and Berta Baltierra are an older couple, long time members with 8 children. They were married here in the USA at the young age of 15. Berta was introduced to the church and wanted to join. Antonio was attending the Apostolic church and wanted to join that church. They were at an impasse. Antonio had a problem since his youth, he could not read or write. At a young age his mother spent 7 years with him in Mexico at a primary school trying to teach him but to no avail. He just couldn’t make sense of the characters. Antonio felt very ashamed because of this disability. He did not want to go to any church fearing that he would be asked to read a scripture out of the Bible and he could not. As Berta and Antonio wrestled with which church to join, there was a member who lived nearby. He took an interest in Antonio and Berta by offering them rides to church. One day he brought a CD movie to show them. Antonio said he only likes action movies. The member affirmed that it was an action movie, which turned out to be “Joseph Smith First Vision”. Upon viewing this movie Antonio was overcome with the Spirit. He felt it in his whole body and desired to learn more. The good member offered to help him learn how to read by reading the Book of Mormon. Antonio said his mother tried for 7 years and failed so he doubted that he could ever learn to read. However reluctantly accepted the offer. This good member came over to his home and started every lesson with a prayer. Antonio said it was just like knowledge was filling his whole being. Within 8 days he was reading. He has read the Book of Mormon several times since. In relating this story tears came to his eyes. I could tell it was very special to him. I could feel his spirit of true conversion that happened 45 years ago.
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| Antonio and Berta Baltierra |
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| President and Sister Carter |
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| Here are the two zone of missionaries we serve with! Such amazing people. |
The Vista ward is a small struggling unit where we plan on spending most of our time. So you can guess, our second week we were asked to speak in Sacrament meeting. We modified our departure talks given in our home ward to Spanish. Luci wrote out her complete talk in Spanish and practiced it word for word all week long. I was proud of her and her delivery was right on. She is much calmer this mission in Spanish and much bolder to jump into a conversation with broken Spanish and force herself to be understood. She has always been such a perfectionist so making mistakes is not her natural comfort zone. She then bore a sweet testimony in Spanish. With that said, we talk with people, especially the youth, in English much of the time.
We are always looking for opportunities to serve in the community. So on the JUST SERVE website we found an opportunity to participate in the annual homeless count that they do one day a year in San Diego County. There are some 2000+ homeless in this county and getting an accurate count help with federal and state funding for their programs. So we arose early 3:30 am and went to the interfaith center in Escondido. There were about 80 volunteers that were divided into groups of 5. Each group was given a map with a specific area. I was the driver, Luci the map lady, Jose, an ex-marine was our person to awaken them and Andy another volunteer was handing out hygiene kits and taking surveys. We found mostly the homeless in our area living in cars or RV's. Jose would knock and speak loudly but no one would answer. We still added them to the count. We found one guy sleeping under a street lamp by a retail shop. He mumbled then went back to sleep. All in all it was an interesting experience and we got to know some of the community services where we can volunteer.
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| Interfaith Community at 4:00 a.m. Homeless Count |
As it says in the Book of Mormon, we can only write a hundredth part of the what we do during two weeks. At our age, just remembering what we did is a monumental task! So I think I will just share one more story. At this point we don't know all that many people in the wards. When we decide to go out to meet people we just have a long list of unknown members. The other day during our planning, I felt strongly that we should go visit Teresa. Not just a nudge but a clear prompting. So we tried for an appointment with no luck. So we just did a drop by visit, and had the most joyful interaction. She explained that she had never had children of her own, but raised the children of her non-member husband, who was against and religious teaching in their home. She stepped away from the church and that time with absolutely no contact with the church. Those kids are now grown and she has just recently become semi-retired, so when the sister missionaries found her while out tracking, she let them in and begin to remember those tender memories of when she was actively involved in the fellowship of the church. She went to church the very next Sunday. Her records had just been moved into our ward, and we followed this inspired visit and were warmly welcomed. She shared her story and her desire to bring her husband into the church. She wants us to meet him and try to help her introduce him to the gospel. Our connection was instant and we will definitely be returning soon to meet Feliciano. We try to remember everyday that God is in charge of this work and sends his angels to guide our steps.
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| Beautiful Oceanside Boulevard! |
Con Mucho Amor,
Los Fowers
That's the neatest story about Antonio! Thank you for sharing! And so cool to see Pres. Carter and his wife. Love reading the update, as always! Stay safe.
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