We belong to the Church of Jesus Christ and He is
directing this His church. He is the one that is directing every
detail of the work. When we are called to any position or calling in
the Church we are being called by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If
we accept each call no matter how insignificant we might think it to
be we are accepting a call from our Lord. If we will obey cheerfully
and enthusiastically and do our best in our part of that calling then
He will do the rest.
When He said, "My yoke is easy and my burden is light",
it seems to me that He was telling us that we will be yoked with Him
and that He will pull most of the load and lift our burdens by
carrying them for us. He spoke of the Yoke as being symbolic of being
yoked together in the same work. I know that in my life in every
calling that I have had the Lord has done all of the important work
and I have just been an instrument in His hands to help many of His
children and in a small way help His work to progress.
When Naoma and I were working as Stake mission
Presidents, I include her because she was with me most of the time and
was my support in every calling. We continued the work that brother
Cliff Whetten started when he was Stake mission President. He wanted
to expose his friends in Chuhuichupa to the Gospel by holding services
each Sunday in the old Chuhuichupa Chapel where he had been Bishop for
many years. I went with him many times and then when he was released
as Stake mission President I was called in his place.
We continued to travel to the mountains holding
services in Chuhuichupa and Garcia. In Chuhuichupa we had usually
about five families represented. Even though they were not members of
the Church they enjoyed participating in the services and taking part
in all that we did. Not all were baptized but many were baptized. The
Lord touched their hearts and they felt the spirit. Those that were
not baptized became friends for life.
All of the Burgos family were baptized except the
two oldest, Maria Cristina and Lalo, who were in the process of being
married and did not attend. Soon the desire for better schooling and
the desire to be in an organized ward in the church most of those that
were baptized moved down to Colonia Juarez to live.
Years ago when Elder Jerald Taylor was called to be the
branch president in Nvo. Casas Grandes he was struggling with trying
to activate the members and get the branch to functioning. He asked
the Stake presidency for help in his Home Teaching and I, as a member
of the high council, was assigned to help him. He assigned me three
inactive families to Home teach. I was eager to get to know these
families so we started visiting them often. One family was Pablo and
Genoveva Martinez and their three children, Yadira, Pablo and Diana.
When ever I would go and knock on the door I would here some commotion
then a pause and I would be invited in. Genoveva later told me that
the reason Pablo the father was never there was that he would go out
the back door as I would come in the front. He was a baptized member
but had gone back to his drinking habit that he had inherited from his
father.
Finally after visiting them regularly and having some
very nice classes and discussions with Genoveva and the children one
night Pablo stopped in the kitchen to listen then came in to join his
family. We visited long into the night and I found him to be very
intelligent and a good man that had the problem of Alcoholism. The
Lord touched his heart and after that he didn't miss any visits and he
began to attend church with his family. With the help of the Lord he
quit drinking and became active in the church.
When I was called as Branch President in Elder Taylor's
place I asked for Pablo to be called as one of my counselors. We
worked together in the branch for five years and he was a very
good counselor and we visited many less active people and got things
to going very well. When we started we had an attendance of 12 to 15
people.
In the process of working with the people I picked up
brother Jose Dolores Chavez on his way to work. He worked as a
collector for Andres Palma in his Furniture business. On our way to
his work I told him that we really needed him to work in the branch
and that we needed to have him ordained an Elder so that he could help
us in the Lord's work. He confided that he had to work on Sunday
because that was when he could do most of his collecting in the little
towns in the area. He asked, "how can I leave my work I need it to
support my family"? I felt impressed to promise him that if he would
put the Lord's work first he would receive the blessings of the Lord
and be able to better take care of his family. He quit his Job and
came to church with his family and soon he began to work for brother
Larry Memmott and became a great help to Larry and held a very
responsible position in his business. When he came back to church he
brought his coworker Heraclio Soto, who was also a member of the
Church. with him and they both became very active in the branch. When
we were released from the branch brother Chavez was made Bishop of the
New Casas Grandes ward. He was called later into the Stake High
Council then he worked many years as a counselor to the Stake
president. There are many such stories of how the Lord brought the
people back into activity and the branch grew in attendance and
activity to become a ward.
Brother Pablo Martinez was ordained Bishop when brother
Chavez was released. He has served three different terms as Bishop. He
has worked on the Stake High council and Now he is working as a Sealer
in the Colonia Juarez Temple.
We worked with the young people and got many non
members attending our MIA activities. I organized the scouts with
mostly boys who were not members but were eager to participate with
us. In recent years I have been surprised by meeting some of those
boys as grown men recently baptized into the church. I rejoiced with
then when they told me that they became interested in the church when
they were boys participating in our scout activities.
All of this time Naoma was doing double duty. She was
attending the branch activities as much as possible and attending our
Dublan ward Church with our children and all of their activities.
Soon after we were released from the Casas Grandes
Branch, President Jerald Taylor who was then the Stake president of
the Juarez Stake, called me to preside over the Enriquez Branch. As he
talked with me he said we want you to work over there until you can
prepare someone to take your place as branch president.
I was set apart as the Branch President of the Enriquez
Branch and Porfirio Alvarado was set apart as my counselor. He was the
only man in Enriquez that held the Melquizedec Priesthood. We began
to hold our meetings in a little one room Adobe house that had
been used as a Cantina. This room was on the property of brother Juan
Ramirez and I was surprised that he was my dear friend from our
Missionary days visiting Colonia Garcia. When we were visiting Garcia
he was a young man who had a wooden leg that he used very well.
He played the guitar and sang very well and we had spent some hours
singing and playing together in Garcia years before. He and his family
had been baptized into the church and were living in Enriquez
Our first meetings were attended by Naoma and I, brother Porfirio and
his wife and two daughters, Sister Ramirez and two of her young
daughters. When I asked sister Ramirez about her husband Juan she said
that he had the job of gathering up the milk in Enriquez and hauling
it to the Cheese Factory each morning and didn't get home until about
noon each day.
We began to work visiting the members and inviting them
to church and our activities. Soon sister Maria de Jesus Ontiveros de
Gomez started coming to Church with her children. Her Husband Baltazar
Gomez was not a member but he would drive them from Colonia Victoria
up to Enriquez and drop them off at the church. He then would go
on over to visit his brother in