Picking just one lesson from this story for my title is hard. I learned several as a missionary, and I have learned many in the past three weeks since I reconnected with the Cespedes family--a family I found and taught on my mission. Sometimes the lessons learned on my mission just keep on giving.
Let me preface this story by saying that one of the main things that motivated me to serve a mission was the great love I felt for my family and peace within it. After studying at college and meeting roommates and friends and having my eyes opened just a bit to how lucky I had been to have grown up with the gospel in my home, I found myself really wanting to share that peace with other families. During my mission, my focus and hope and dream was to find a family to teach and baptize. I taught many people. The Bolivians were so faithful and believing. We had many baptisms as well. But I never did teach and baptize a whole family. I realize now that that was probably an unrealistic goal. Missionaries often work with people for a long time and often families join little by little and that was my experience for the most part.
My last area of my mission was in Cochabamba, in the ward just next to the ward boundaries where the temple was being built. The closer we got to the temple open house dates, the more blessed we seemed to be in our efforts to find people. One day, we were on the street, knocking doors, and we decided to each pray individually and ask where we should go. We would bow our heads and pray and before opening our eyes, we would point in the direction that felt right and somehow we always pointed in the same direction. That was our method that day and as we were heading down the street, we turned the corner, and a man opened up the door and saw us coming toward him. We greeted him and asked if he would like to hear a message about God. He seemed enthusiastic and let us in. He called his wife and together we set up an appointment to return.
They were golden! Arminda was enamored by the teachings of the gospel and felt the spirit strongly. Demetrio was a bit more skeptical but loved to have us in their home. They invited us on picnics and to dinner and we learned to love them and their three adorable kids. We loved this family and they loved us. I felt like they were the family that I had been looking for my entire mission. Sadly, my time in the mission was ending and I left before anyone was baptized. Sister Haglund kept me posted and I eventually learned that Arminda, Litzy, and Samuel had been baptized but Demetrio hadn't been. I sent them a wedding invitation and they sent me the invitation to their daughter's quincanera. They had copied the design of our wedding announcement almost exactly. I loved it! But then we lost contact. They moved and so never got a letter from me.
About three years later, my dad went to Cochabamba and spoke at the institute. Litzy wrote me a letter and sent it back with him. That was the last I heard from them. I looked on Facebook but it is very hard to find Bolivians there as their names are often different. The email address I had didn't work. Apparently I had given them my Spanish name, Sonia, and so they couldn't find me on Facebook. I never knew what happened to them.
Fast forward to three weeks ago. My mom called me one Sunday night and said, "A family from your mission is trying to reach you. They will call you--I gave them your number." And sure enough, the phone rang instantly and when I answered, to my great delight, it was the Cespedes family. They were in Utah for a vacation and they told me that they had come to find me.
What a happy reunion it was to see them! Memories of 21 years ago have been flooding back to me. My rusty Spanish has been put to good use. We had family night together the first two Mondays in May and last weekend I drove them to BYUI with their daughter to see the campus and understand how the church schools work. On Monday they came over during the day and we cooked "Sopa de mani" or peanut soup--my favorite dish from Bolivia. The conversations we have had have been priceless. Their enthusiasm for the gospel and their faith has given me new strength. Their gratitude to me for having served a mission has filled my soul and any doubt I have harbored about whether I did any good seems to be calmed. It feels like what heaven may be like when we meet people we have influenced but had no idea that our example or smile or love or whatever could have had such an impact.
Arminda and Demetrio have incredible faith. They spend much of the time we were together testifying to us of how the gospel has changed their lives and how they have been blessed with miracle after miracle. I could write a book and fill it up just with the stories they told over the past two weeks. But here are a few to give you an idea. They shared Demetrio's conversion story, how after 12 years of investigating, he finally felt he had a confirmation of the truth. They talked about their four kids and how they are all active and the three married kids are all married in the temple and active in the church and their grandchildren born in the covenant. Demetrio was recently released as bishop of their ward where he sent off 16 missionaries and grew their ward from 100 to 250 people attending each week. He told me about many miracles he saw as a bishop like the time when the Relief Society had asked him to speak to them in the temple chapel and the spirit insisted he talk to them about food storage. They were incredulous that he would give them a talk in the temple about food storage. A month later, COVID hit and these people, who go to the market every day, were confined to their homes. A sister later testified how following his admonition had saved her life. They told me story after story about illnesses, hospitalizations, accidents, pregnancies--each of which they came through thanks to priesthood blessings and faith. Everything in their lives they frame as a miracle. Even finding me.
While I certainly agree that our finding each other again was a miracle, I felt uncomfortable with the credit given to me....I didn't do anything special. Surely it was the spirit that converted them. Even though they claim they would be lost if Hagland and I hadn't knocked on their door, I feel sure that somehow they would have found the gospel. But at the same time, they are right that no one can hear about the gospel unless we share it.
I am so grateful that they found me twenty years later and I have kept to the promise that I made in my testimony as I left my mission--that I would not fall away, that I would stay faithful through my life. Hermana Hagland is also still very active in the church and even though she lives in Las Vegas and couldn't come to see the Cespedeses, our Facetime reunion was very sweet.
Here are a few lessons from this experience:
The seeds of faith we sow will be for good, even if we don't see the fruits right away.
Serving a mission will start a ripple effect for good--even if it feels like all you've thrown in the pond is a small pebble.
Faithful people recognize God's hand in everything.
Like Alma and the son's of Mosiah, there is so much joy in reuniting with a mission companion and people you've taught when you are "still [their] brethren in the Lord."
I should have kept up my Spanish skills better through the years.
Education is the key to lifting the Bolivians (and all of God's children) out of poverty. (That is from our trip to BYUI....this is a lesson for another story.)
The blessings of a mission just keep on giving.
