Dia de Gozo, Luz y Paz: Echo of Glory!

This beautiful family is the Familia Sosa-Ibarra from Vera Cruz, Mexico. They are one of the miracles of my mission, and on 9/6/08 I had the privilege of being present for their sealing in the Houston Texas temple. Before I left for Houston in 2005, my Grandfather took me out for lunch and gave me some wise and sweet counsel regarding missionary work. He told me that if was a righteous messenger and bore pure testimony, I would have no idea the effect it could have on people, maybe even years later. He told me that there would be a feeling of glory that came to me whenever I taught a good lesson, saw an investigator progressing, or came home at the end of the day knowing I'd used every hour serving my Savior. He explained that the feeling of glory would reverberate through all the years in my life and echo back to me the goodness of God long after my mission was over.

I know that relatively, I haven't been home that long, but I felt an echo of glory so clear and powerful this weekend being at the temple with my converts! I never dared to hope too hard that this day would come because sometimes the path is so littered with disappointments, but the Lord granted me and Hermana Giles this treasured day to go back to Texas and go through the temple with this sweet family. One of the reasons their sealing meant so much to me was that the Sosas were never a typical golden family who accepted the gospel readily and easily. They had experienced some serious darkness and turbulence in their lives, everything from addictions to domestic abuse to jail time to infidelity to gang activity. Someday I want to unfold the whole story but it's complicated (and LONG)...What I really want to say is that I've never seen anyone change so much, unexpectedly and brilliantly, and if I've ever seen a light come into someone's face, it was the mother in this family, Maria Pilar. When I met her she was a Testiga de Jehovah and absolutely wretched to teach. She was hostile, abrasive, and disagreed with everything we said. She was also a First Vision interrupter, which I'm sure some of you can appreciate is highly intolerable. :) I felt defensive around her because I didn't think she was giving the message a chance. Then one night Giles and I were teaching about the Plan of Salvation and when I taught about the Atonement I felt a brightness softly flooding the room without me even anticipating it or hoping for it. I looked at Pilar and Wendy sitting in front of me on the couch and suddenly felt it thud in my chest how precious they were to the Lord. As I spoke with new tenderness I saw tears shining in Pilar's eyes and suddenly she grabbed my arm and said, "Hermana Morena, God is speaking to me through you right now!" I gulped and asked, "What is he saying?" She explained that something we had taught that night had answered a doubt she had always had, and then she sat back on the couch with a soft smile on her face and told us, "I am convinced." From that point on she not only progressed, but she became ravenous for the good news and everything unfolded smoothbeautifully. There were so many miracles with that family that must have shaken the heavens just a little bit...I know every missionary who ever taught them felt it. They were being strangled by roots of the world, lost in the wilderness and the Good Shepherd knew exactly where the find them. It was a gift being with them in those precious first days of learning and changing, and to be gathered together with them now under the wings that heal.

Pilar asked me to be her escort when she went through the temple, and that was glorious for me because I felt like her missionary again, explaining things and pulling her forward. There was one very sweet moment in the waiting room upstairs right before we went into the (Spanish!!!) endowment session. Pilar was explaining some thoughts she had had during the first ordinance and she was overcome with tears. Giles and I were sitting at her feet dressed in white and when we both reached out to her she clenched our hands and said she was so happy to be in the temple with "her angels." We sat like that smiling up at her with our hands all together and it felt like heaven. Right then her husband, Sixto came out all dressed in white and they smiled shyly at each other. Sixto, who used to run from the house when we came over to teach, who once put on a gorilla mask and danced in front of us during a lesson, who I once described to C-Mar saying, "His mind is like a kaleidescope," was reverent and loving with his wife and children as they stood in front of the mirrors and saw their eternal family. It was so incredibly beautiful. I'll never forget how it felt to be with them that day. I am so grateful for knowing this family and for the Savior who put me in their path and allowed me to teach them when I had no idea what He had in mind for them. I was so naive and prideful and distrusting, but He knew them and called after them, and they heard His voice. I have been given in good measure, pressed down and shaken together (Luke 6:38). I know the whole story has not been written yet so I'm not trying to imply a "happily ever after" assumption, but this was a day of marvelous light and an echo of glory. SERIOUSLY SOOOOO BLESSED!!!! :)