Mission

Just a couple weeks ago I received an email from my first mission president who works at the MTC in Sao Paulo Brazil. In his email he told me about a new missionary who had recently arrived in the MTC who I baptized 12 years ago in Boa Vista Brazil.

Jose Laurindo de Sousa Filho was 12 when we met him and had such horrible eyesight he literally had to hold the Book of Mormon less than an inch from his eye and angle it up so the light would hit the page in order to read it. On our second visit to the family my companion and I were prompted to give Jose a blessing. From my mission journal: I turned to Elder Kendig and asked "Should we give him a blessing?" to which he replied "that's why we're fasting today, so we can cure him."

The words Elder Kendig spoke in that blessing have long since been forgotten, but the spiritual confirmation of the power of the priesthood will be burned in my heart forever. Jose was blessed that his eyesight would improve and he would lead a normal life. I dug up the pictures of Jose's baptism and you can see Jose standing directly in front of me in his baptismal clothes. At the time he was unable to catch a bus or even see a car coming down the road and now he is able to serve the Lord on a full-time mission. Jose's little brother Antonio has already completed a full-time mission to Rio De Janeiro.

To Elder Nathan Kendig, thank you for being in tune with the spirit that night in July of 1996. Thanks for a great month together.

To Jose, although he will probably never read this, thank you for accepting the gospel. Thank you for letting me be a part of your life, and thank you for building my testimony. May the Lord bless you on your mission and your family back at home while you are away.


Here Elder Kendig and I sit on the tires of a broken bicycle in front of Jose's home. The family lived in a very small, one-room wooden house with a dirt floor. Jose's father had left the family years earlier. Jose is in the white shirt between me and Elder Kendig.

Just prior to the family being baptized.