A Unique Opportunity

This Thursday, I had a very unique opportunity.

I had the opportunity to meet John Wright, one of the missionaries who introduced my grandparents to the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.



In the Spring of 1968, my grandmother would wake up early on Sunday mornings to prepare breakfast for her family, and to get a head start on the day's chores.

Every Sunday morning, she would look out the window and see her next door neighbor dressed up in her Sunday best, with the rest of her family right beside her. They would begin walking down the street until they became lost in the horizon.

My grandmother always wondered where this family would go so early in the morning, and so neatly dressed. Sunday after Sunday. Week after week.

One Sunday, curiosity got the best of her, and she decided to step outside and ask her neighbor about their early morning Sunday affairs.

"Where do you always go with your family all nice and dressed up?" my grandmother inquired.

"We attend church every Sunday as a family!" her neighbor happily replied.

As her neighbor described the directions to the church, my grandmother began to look puzzled.

"But there's no Catholic Church in the area you're describing?" she remarked.

"We don't go to Catholic Mass, we are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," her neighbor proudly proclaimed.

The words resonated deeply within my grandmother, and she felt something strangely familiar stir within her.

They invited her to join them, but my grandmother, young and apprehensive, politely declined.

However, every Sunday morning, as she saw her neighbors head off to church, she would briefly chat with them. Each Sunday, a new question came up, and each Sunday, their invitations to "Come and see" (John :39) were politely turned down.

One Sunday morning, the neighbors decided to extend another invitation.

"Could we invite two of our friends over to your home? They can answer your questions much better than we can!"

...

After several weeks of teaching and encouragement, trials and obstacles, and ups and downs, my grandmother and my grandfather accepted the Elders' invitation to follow the example of Jesus Christ.

They entered the waters of baptism on March 24, 1968.


And here I was, forty-seven years later face to face with the man who forever changed the course of my family's history.

My own words could not accurately express the enormous feelings of gratitude that I felt for this man.

I remembered the words found in Alma 27:4, where Alma's converts viewed them as "... angels sent from God to save them from everlasting destruction."

That is exactly what this man represented to me.

Without his work, my family would never have had access to the enabling and redeeming powers of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. My family would not be Eternal, and I would not be able to live according to the "nature of happiness" (Alma 41:11). 

My father, myself, John Wright, and my grandmother on Thursday.

I am very thankful for John Wright. Every good thing in my life, has come as a result of missionary work, and I will be eternally grateful for this man's mission.

Daniel Torres.
9/20/2014