Lesson 26 -- "The rest of the story"

Another beautiful Sabbath day together spent learning about the early sacrifices of the Saints in Kirtland, OH. I would like to personally thank Sister Macy, and Brother and Sister Church for their wonderfully inspiring talks today. Courage, Remembering, and Learning are oh so important qualities that we must have to be true disciples of Christ, right?

So today we really took the ball and ran with it: only four short scriptures (D&C 42: 6; D&C 88: 81; D&C 112: 19-22; and D&C 18: 15-16), and then a string of inspirational missionary stories:

• Missions of early Ohio Converts (see Our Heritage, pp. 30-31)


• Mission of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (see Our Heritage, pp. 31-32)


• 1836 Elder Parley P. Pratt's mission to Canada when John Taylor is converted.


• Levi Hancock and Zebedee Coltrin and their mission to Missouri in the early 1830s


• The Power of One was discussed in relation to the conversion of B. Franklin Taylor in 1840 by Zebedee Coltrin (see previous blog posting for more on this subject).


• Mission to England by Heber C. Kimball and the Dedication of Jerusalem for the Gathering of the Jews by Orson Hyde (see Our Heritage, pp. 32-33; photo inset is at the Orson Hyde Park in Jerusalem).


• Brigham Young's defense of the Prophet Joseph Smith in Kirtland in 1838.


• President Thomas S. Monson's apostolic mission to establish the full temple ordinance blessings in the German Democratic Republic (otherwise known as East Germany) prior to the fall of the iron curtain in 1989. The Freiberg Germany Temple was dedicated in 1985 and stands as an amazing manifestation of the mission of the Twelve Apostles today as holding the keys to open doors for the preaching of the Gospel in foreign lands (see D&C 112: 16-17).
  

And now... "the rest of the story:"

For the first time this year, we actually covered all of the lesson material in class this week. However, I had still planned to open additional time to class members to share with us their personal conversion or missionary stories. With that in mind, I will share a brief missionary experience I had during my mission to the Arequipa Peru Mission in the mid 1980s. I invite each of you to similarly share a brief missionary story with us...

The conversion of Captain Julio Gonzalo:

The following excerpt is from my Missionary Journal, and dated December 5, 1986: "In November, we started teaching a captain in the Peruvian Army, Julio Gonzalo -- from the very first moment a very receptive soul to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Elder Curay would speak to him of the military having served in the Army before his mission." This is the first entry about Julio in my missionary journal. I next reported that he came to church on December 19, 1986. He reported to us that he had given up alcohol for good and was living the Word of Wisdom. Brother Gonzalo was golden. We expected baptism any day. Then tragedy struck. The very next time we called on his apartment in the military living complex there in Arequipa it was empty. When we called on the MPs assigned to guard the army barracks they explained that Captain Gonzalo had been transferred. We asked them for a forwarding address and were told that that information was considered secret and they could not give us any information about his whereabouts. That night Elder Curay and I said a prayer that the Lord would watch over Julio and send him the missionaries wherever he was now living.

Three months passed. Then in March 1987, I was transferred to Tacna, 400 miles south of Arequipa on Peru's southern border with Chile. I was there about a month when I received a phone call. It was Captain Gonzalo. He was also living in Tacna and said he would like to be baptized! He was not living in the zone I had been assigned to, so I quickly called the mission home and got permission to teach him outside our zone boundaries. With my new companion, Elder Pedro Alarcon, we traveled across town each week to give Brother Julio a refresher course on the six missionary discussions. In the nearly four months that we had been separated, Julio completed reading the Book of Mormon. The Holy Spirit had wrought a mighty change in this man. His faith had increased. His testimony now complete, he again asked to be baptized. Captain Gonzalo told us that he knew that our prayers had brought us back to him; he was baptized on the significant date of April 6, 1987.

I often think of Captain Julio Gonzalo and ponder about how wonderful it will be to see him again. The above story really happened and amazes me even today when I think of how powerful is the hand of the Lord to bring His lost sheep back into the fold where they will know the true shepherd and will have peace. I love this story and am grateful to have had a hand in God's missionary work among the Peruvian people.