MANILA, Philippines — A young girl's love for storytelling led to a story of conversion that she loves to tell.

Photo by Greg Hill

Mary Ann Ojeda, right, and her mother, Cristeta Lavarro Ojeda, enjoy Manila Philippines Temple grounds. Mary Ann, who lives near the temple, loved to listen to storytellers when she was a young girl, and that led to contact with missionaries.

Living in Metro Manila, Mary Ann Ojeda enjoyed it when storytellers came into her neighborhood and, for a few pesos, told children stories. At age 12, she spied a pair of Filipino men and pegged them as storytellers.

She saw them at a neighbor's house. "They were wearing ties and had a big book," a flip chart, she later discovered. She waited until they were done with the neighbors and then asked them how much she would have to pay to hear their stories.

"They said, 'We will tell you stories for free if you can have your whole family there to listen,' " recalled Sister Ojeda, an attorney for the Church in the Philippines.

To her, that was no problem. Her parents — Joselito Asis and Cristeta Lavarro — loved her and would do anything for her to make her happy, she said, explaining with a smile, "I was the only girl in the family."

That is how she, her parents and three brothers came to be sitting in their living room listening to the missionaries.

"In short," she said, "the stories they told changed our lives. We were really touched by the story in the first discussion."

For the next "storytelling" she invited an uncle's family, and the one following that she invited an aunt's family.

The missionaries challenged this clan of investigators to prepare to be baptized on April 11, 1987. Sister Ojeda said she and her cousins were ready to be baptized.

"I told my cousins, who were younger than me, that we had to go ahead and be baptized so that we would be examples to our parents" who were still working through some of the missionaries' other challenges, such as the Word of Wisdom.

With their parents' approval, Mary Ann, her cousins and two younger brothers met the baptismal date. The example they set was followed quickly. A week later, her older cousins and older brother were baptized. The following week, her father and uncle were baptized. Four days later, her mother and aunt followed the same path. In that month, 27 members of the family were baptized.

The influence of the missionary "storytellers" remained strong for Mary Ann as she grew up in the Church. She remained active while pursuing her law degree at the University of the Philippines. Because she was working to help support her family, she had to take the night program at the university, a five-year program. That didn't fit with her desire to go on a mission, so she added classes at San Sebastian College of Law. She said that made her "very busy," but helped her reach her goals. She did so well at San Sebastian that administrators asked her to represent their school when she sat for the bar exam because they had never had a "top-notch" graduate. They told her if she finished in the top 10 at the exam they would reward her, including reimbursing her for the cost of attending the University of the Philippines and naming a room at the school in her honor.

The offer meant a lot to her because she needed money for her mission, to which she had already been called, and also to support her family while she was away. She had received her call to the Philippines San Pablo Mission and was to leave 10 days after the bar exam.

She did finish in the top 10 and, with special permission, returned to Manila for a day to take her oath as an attorney.

She completed her mission and returned to be a corporate attorney and taught part-time at San Sebastian College of Law before going to work for the Church full-time.

In the meantime, she remains a spiritual leader in her family, which continues to meet and overcome challenges. There have been more baptisms, and preparing for temple blessings remains a constant goal for family members as the family grows.

E-mail to: ghill@desnews.com