Thursday, October 12, 2006
O Relato de Branco
Every LDS missionary has a few experiences of people he baptized, but isn't very sure they'll stay firm. Branco* was one such convert for me.
Branco was the very last person I ever baptized on my mission in Brazil, in August 1997. He was dating a member girl and started taking the discussions mostly to please her. I never really got the sense that he was very much into things, but he kept answering all the questions right and kept saying he wanted to get baptized, so we went ahead with it. At the time, I didn't have much faith that he'd keep with it--if he did, it would be only thanks to his girlfriend.
Well, a week or so ago I got word that the girlfriend (now his wife and mother of his three kids) came through. Another girl I baptized in the same ward who has remained active in both the Church and in contact with me emailed me and mentioned that her family was having a get-together at their house for some people from church. One guy noticed a picture on their wall of the family together with the missionaries who baptized them (i.e., me and Elder Pires). He said he thought I looked familiar, and when they got talking about it, they realized that I was his missionary too. He had completely forgotten who had been the missionaries that had baptized him.
Turns out he went inactive for quite a while soon after his baptism, but at one point realized that something was missing and decided to go back to church. The bishopric met the challenge by giving him a demanding calling in the Young Men's organization, and he responded by building a testimony and becoming fully active. He's now the Stake Young Men's President and, as I mentioned, the father of three good Mormon kids.
Funny how so many people get baptized, fall away for a while, and only then make the effort necessary to be truly converted. I've known many people both in and out of my mission who have followed this pattern. Some people can remain faithful from the get-go, but others need to experience life without the light of the gospel, perhaps, in order to realize what it is that they have.
Anyway, I searched through my mission photos and found a picture of Branco's baptism. I emailed it to my other friend, who will forward it to him. For what it's worth, she thought that the great virtue of the picture isn't that I was able to give Branco a memento of the baptism he'd almost forgotten, but the fact that he's so much fatter now than he was when the picture was taken. She couldn't believe it was really him.
* "Branco" was a nickname. It means "white" in Portuguese. They called him this because he was a fraternal twin, and was the lighter-skinned of the two. His twin brother, of course, was called "Negro."
Branco was the very last person I ever baptized on my mission in Brazil, in August 1997. He was dating a member girl and started taking the discussions mostly to please her. I never really got the sense that he was very much into things, but he kept answering all the questions right and kept saying he wanted to get baptized, so we went ahead with it. At the time, I didn't have much faith that he'd keep with it--if he did, it would be only thanks to his girlfriend.
Well, a week or so ago I got word that the girlfriend (now his wife and mother of his three kids) came through. Another girl I baptized in the same ward who has remained active in both the Church and in contact with me emailed me and mentioned that her family was having a get-together at their house for some people from church. One guy noticed a picture on their wall of the family together with the missionaries who baptized them (i.e., me and Elder Pires). He said he thought I looked familiar, and when they got talking about it, they realized that I was his missionary too. He had completely forgotten who had been the missionaries that had baptized him.
Turns out he went inactive for quite a while soon after his baptism, but at one point realized that something was missing and decided to go back to church. The bishopric met the challenge by giving him a demanding calling in the Young Men's organization, and he responded by building a testimony and becoming fully active. He's now the Stake Young Men's President and, as I mentioned, the father of three good Mormon kids.
Funny how so many people get baptized, fall away for a while, and only then make the effort necessary to be truly converted. I've known many people both in and out of my mission who have followed this pattern. Some people can remain faithful from the get-go, but others need to experience life without the light of the gospel, perhaps, in order to realize what it is that they have.
Anyway, I searched through my mission photos and found a picture of Branco's baptism. I emailed it to my other friend, who will forward it to him. For what it's worth, she thought that the great virtue of the picture isn't that I was able to give Branco a memento of the baptism he'd almost forgotten, but the fact that he's so much fatter now than he was when the picture was taken. She couldn't believe it was really him.* "Branco" was a nickname. It means "white" in Portuguese. They called him this because he was a fraternal twin, and was the lighter-skinned of the two. His twin brother, of course, was called "Negro."
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