I promised this story last week so here it goes.
So some background first. Sister Clarita (or "Lola" which basically
means grandma here) is 84 years old, grew up in Bacolod and is a devout
Catholic. Her husband died several years ago and she never had any
children. She has been living with a member family for a year and has
been actually going to church for a long time, with most of the members
thinking she was already a member. But upon further inquiry we found
out she wasn't and asked her if she would be taught and she agreed.
Another
thing to add is that Clarita is very deaf, not completely though, but
enough to where we were almost "shouting" the whole lesson at her. She
was fine with being taught, but 84 years of Catholicism it pretty hard
to change, and she had a hard time grasping a lot of the concepts,
especially about needing to be baptized "again".
So now comes the
blessing story. One day we came by to teach her again, and she was not
in a very good state with her body. Everything hurt, and she said that
she was unable to rest all the night before and that her head was in
significant pain constantly. I remember very vividly as she told us with
tears how it was almost too much for her to bear, and that she was
praying to the Lord to just take her right then and just end the pain.
We taught her then about the part in 3 Nephi where Jesus healed the sick
and afflicted, and told them that it was because their faith was
sufficient. Now Lola's faith in Jesus Christ, all be it based in what
she grew up in, was very apparent and strong. So we offered to give her
a Priesthood blessing, and added that the Priesthood that we held was
an evidence of the truth of the restored gospel.
So we sat her in
a chair and my companion performed the anointing and I gave the
blessing. I was at first a little worried, since I knew that the chance
that Lola would be able to hear the blessing was small, due to her
hardness of hearing, but I felt the Spirit direct my words as I gave
that blessing in Ilonggo, and I remember adding something along the
lines of "your time hasn't come yet, your work isn't finished..." and
other things, and as I closed I knew that somehow she understood what I
had said.
After the blessing she grabbed both mine and my
companion's hands and with tears of gratitude thanked us for what we had
done. She said the pain in her head was gone, and she was so happy and
looked so much more at peace. She then said that she knew we were sent
from God and that she wanted to be baptized in our church as soon as
possible. I knew that as she was looking at us with such great love and
gratitude that it wasn't really for me, but she was looking at Jesus
Christ, and recognized the power that we held.
She is going to be
baptized this Saturday, and even though her health is still in decline
and she has a harder and harder time understanding the concepts, every
time we teach her she says "So when am I getting baptized? Soon?" Even
though I haven't known her for very long, I truly love that woman, and I
know that she loves us. Just another time where I have felt the honor
of being able to stand in Christ's place and show His love to others.
And
that is all for today! I love you all! About the baptism photos, I
sometimes perform the baptisms for the Sisters, and there was a big
stake baptism where our whole zone had their candidates baptized right
before stake conference. I am also kept very busy doing interviews for
our district here. I think if I were to estimate, I've probably
personally interviewed somewhere around 30 candidates since I've arrived
here.
I hope you are all well!
~Elder Butler
