Elder Valdivia one of our returned missionaries
popped into the office today with his father.
They are visiting from Bolivia...
visiting both friends and converts.
President took them into his office for a visit.
He asked Elder Valdivia's father about his conversion
and this incredible sweet story was told through many tears.
Elder Valdivia's father said that his father left his family
when he was only five years old.
His father became a communist and an atheist
and was hardly ever seen or heard from.
When he (Elder's Father) got married and had a son... his father came back
into his life and said that he had a lot of making up to do
for his bad behavior and for his horrible example.
He said that he had found the truth.
He had studied and prayed to know what path to take
and he found the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
He introduced it to his son and his family.
For three years Elder Valdivia's father took the lessons and had
three different baptismal dates but never followed through.
Finally the missionaries stopped coming.
So the family completely stopped going to church.
For 8 months they had no contact with the church
or any missionaries.
One night, Brother Valdivia had a dream.
It was of the tree of life.
He was hugging the trunk of the tree
and didn't want to let go of this glorious feeling.
He looked up and the Savior was there talking to Him.
He told the Lord that he wanted this feeling always.
The Lord told him that he could have it
if he followed Him.
Then in the dream, Brother Valdivia looked up in the tree
and saw his infant son up in the branches.
He couldn't reach him
He was crying for help to pull him down to him
But the Lord told him
that he would come to him
when he followed the Lord.
He woke up in tears and knew what he needed to do.
He talked to his wife and said that they needed to call
the missionaries.
She said that she had felt strongly about calling them
for weeks. They were both getting ready
to go find the missionaries...
When there was a knock on the door...
It was new missionaries that were prompted to come
to their home.
Brother Valdivia and his family were baptized all together.
And now they have had their children serve missions
Think of all of the peoples lives that were
changed by just his one son here in Peru.
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Elder Valdivia was a fantastic missionary.
He touched many lives...
And now his converts are touching many lives
and their converts and the
chain goes on and on forever!
Thank you Elder Valdivia and thanks to
your father for this beautiful story
with such a happy ending.
We love you Elder Valdivia...
