On the May 11, 2024, Elder and Sister Christensen were knocking on the door of less active member. Without response, they started to return to their car. In the accompanying house, a man was sitting on the doorstep. With hope in her heart, Sister Christensen made her way to inquire of the whereabouts of his neighbor. While asking this question, Sister Christensen felt the strong impression to invite this man to church. Though they didn’t speak the same language, through Elder Christensen and modern technology, they invited him to come to church.
Rafael, hoping for something that could cure his emptiness, decided to accept the invite and try it out. Rafael quickly started meeting with the local spanish speaking missionaries, Hermana Arnold and Hermana Berrett. After meeting with them the first time, he had a good feeling that led him to come to church. His experience there filled him with a peace, different than anything he had felt before. He related it to feeling the presence of God. He felt healed from his emptiness and distance from God.
Following his church attendance, he continuously met with the missionaries and felt a change begin in his life. He shared, “I started to have a motivating faith in God to be baptized.” His thoughts, once dark and depressing, became focused on scripture and God’s plan for him.
In the third lesson, he asked how he could be baptized and what he needed to do to make it happen. After learning the necessary steps, he readily and happily accepted a baptism date, the gospel, and all it has to offer.
His original baptismal day was the week prior. His work situation as a construction worker had been unaccommodating to put it simply. Days or even weeks would go by without being called into work which made it imperative to take any project he was offered. Imperative not just for his financial security but for the health of his son.
Before his baptism, his son had been ill in the hospital for some time, and the money Rafael made here was then sent in order to pay for medical expenses in Venezuela. The week he was originally set to be baptized, he hadn’t been offered any projects in over a week. That Thursday night, he received a call from his boss with a project in North Carolina. Taking this project would prevent him from receiving his baptismal ordinances.
Out of pure necessity, he left for North Carolina. The baptism was quickly rescheduled for the following Sunday. Rafael was not offered any jobs that week, but at the last minute he was offered an opportunity to work. Though he needed the money to provide for his family, with faith he declined the offer and was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on June 23, 2024. The empty hole in Rafael was eternally filled. He said “before I met the missionaries I was depressed, I used substances to cope, but now, I don’t have these feelings anymore, and if I do, I turn to the scriptures.” Since his day of baptism, the peace he received has never left.
Rafael was blessed spiritually and emotionally by the covenants he made with God, but God was not yet satisfied with his work. After working for the construction company for 8 months, he started looking for a job that would pay and treat him honestly. The day after his baptism he was offered a position at a company which requires him to work Monday-Friday, giving him the weekend off. He then received other news. His son, who had been in the hospital for a long time, was due to finally be released. Though the sacrifice of work seemed impossible, outlandish, and a bit irrational, in turn the windows of heaven were opened, and blessings descended upon Rafael and his family.
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