Missionary moment: 'Your work continues'
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The other day I was reading in the Church
News about a missionary in Venezuela and his experience of finding a
well-prepared family to whom to teach the gospel. I began to think of my
first baptism here in Colombia and how the seed for this family had been
planted many years ago, also in Venezuela.
It was my first week in my second area when I met Oliver and Jasmin. They are a young couple living in Palmira, Colombia. At the time, they had been visiting with the missionaries and going to Church for about five months. In this five-month period, they went through many afflictions and trials — health, occupation and spirituality. After enduring all this, they were finally baptized.
My companion and I made quick use of their new testimonies and invited Oliver and Jasmin to fellowship in a missionary discussion with another family. As we walked with them to the appointment, we talked about the effects Church members, who remember they are also missionaries, have on the world. Oliver related to me an experience that I will never forget. He explained to me why he was able to endure all those hard times and afflictions in being baptized.
When Oliver, who was born in Venezuela, was a young boy of about 6 years old, he received a small gospel seed from missionaries serving there at the time. These wonderful missionaries planted the seed in the heart of this young boy with a family home evening.
Years later and in another country, two missionaries knocked on the door of Oliver and Jasmin's home.
Speaking as a missionary today, it sure was nice to find that seed that had continued to grow all these years. I have been able to gather the fruit of a tree planted by someone else.
I'd like to tell those missionaries of years ago, I found your seed. Your work is still going on! — Elder Paul Daniel Greenwood, Colombia Cali Mission
Illustration by John Clark
