Decades of Church service yield personal growth
E-mail story
It's easy. Send a link to the story you were just reading to a friend. Just fill out the form on this page and we'll send it along.
Your name and e-mail address are transmitted to the recipient. Otherwise, it is considered private information; see Privacy policy.
GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala — It would be hard to begrudge Eva Bartales a little rest from Church callings.
A convert, Sister Bartales has served continually in various wards and branches for almost half a century. She's three years into her eighth decade and admits she moves a bit slower than she did when she accepted her first calling just days after joining the Church.
Still, Sister Bartales has no plans to retire. Church service, she says, is synonymous with personal development.
"Church callings continue to help me. The person who doesn't have a calling in the Church doesn't progress," said Sister Bartales, a Guatemala City resident.
She remembers when the Church was young in Guatemala. Sister Bartales belonged to a branch that met for Sunday services in a small house. All were expected to contribute if the local Church was going to thrive.
"Two weeks after my baptism I was asked to teach Sunday School. I didn't know where to begin," she said.
So she learned early to rely on Church-published manuals and tracts. Such materials have served her well in new callings and fortified her testimony.
"Now I have a genealogy calling from the stake," she said. "Family history is an essential part of the gospel. We need to do our own work in the temple, then do that work for the dead."
Besides her stake calling, Sister Bartales has spent the past 15 years working in the Guatemala City Guatemala Temple. Participating in the 1984 dedication of Guatemala's only temple was a highlight of her life. "It was so special to be able to shake (President Gordon B. Hinckley's) hand when he came to dedicate our temple," she said.
While Sister Bartales has fulfilled several formal Church callings over the past 50 years, she says missionary work has been a lifelong assignment. She has introduced many families to the gospel.
"I talk to everybody about the Church — at parties, anywhere," she said. "I don't care if people get upset when I tell them about the Church. I share my testimony because I know the gospel is true."
E-mail to: jswensen@desnews.com
