ALERT: He came to our ward council
ALERT: Complimented me on my Spanish (probably being nice because I am white and can't speak a lick of it)
ALERT: psych only three alerts this week haha.
Hugo Montoya (A.K.A. a member of the 70 that spoke in this last conference CLICK HERE) came to our branch and shared many things with us. First, he offered a fireside on Family History. That was pretty terrific. He shared stories on people in his personal family line. Some of it was very interesting, but I was busy translating for the man next to me, so a lot of the content was a little lost on me.
He then came to our Branch Council. He sat, listening for a good long time, and then spoke up. There were some Less Active members of the branch that we were speaking about and we were troubleshooting some ideas of how to best serve them. He was pleased with this, but then asked who had given these members a priesthood blessing. When nobody could offer a response, he became a little frustrated. He went on to explain that the blessings that the Priesthood could offer should be made available to those people, and that somebody needed to go and do that quickly. A direct quote from him:
"Por Favor, USEN su Sacerdocio a bendecir los hijos de Dios"
"Please, USE your Priesthood to bless God's Children"
So that was pretty intense. Then, the council moved on to other issues. These included activities, projects, and other stuff. Elder Montoya was not having it. A good quote that I picked up from Bishop Jerry Eddington of the BYU 51st ward is [about ward council]:
"This Meeting is about People not Activities"
So, Elder Montoya basically said that to our Branch Council. They probably felt a little bit chastised, but that is the way that it has to be.
Lastly, he taught a class during the second hour about, well, a lot of things. He went on to tell a story. To save some time, I have pasted it below from an account that I related to some good friends of mine:
He shared his story of how he was kidnapped and held at gunpoint by sons of his clients at his tortilleria in Mexico. There were four of them: two holding them at gunpoint, one wandering around, and one in the doorway out front. From where they were, they could hear the one in the front yelling "Matanles, Matanles" (kill them kill them). He prayed in his heart that he would be able to live to provide for his family. His wife was held at gunpoint next to him. In the end, the thieves took his car and left after assaulting them. Scary. Then his wife goes home to be with the kids. So she's at home. He fixes things up at the tortilleria and heads home to find that his wife and daughter are at the hospital because the daughter's health has taken a turn for the worst. He goes to the hospital and his daughter is having an operation. He leaves the hospital and goes back to work, because he is about to be down a couple mil dolares and then while he is working without the usual assistance of his wife, two "angels" show up (his home teachers) and help him make tortillas. He said that they didn't know what they were doing, or how to make tortillas, or anything, but they said that they were there to help him. He gets home and all of his shirts are pressed and his house cleaned spotless and hot food ready and his truck recovered by police and sitting in front of his house. His daughter is fine and the three thugs' mothers came and apologized and then brought each of their sons in to apologize.
So, his story has two points, as I see it. One, in our church, in our gospel, in everything that we believe, our responsibility is to help each other. Without this, the infrastructure of the church would be nothing. When people fall, it is our duty to help them out. When we fall, others will be there to help us out. It is really an amazing thing. Secondly, the power of prayer is incredible. Those thugs had every ability to kill them. One of them even shouted to kill them from the doorway. But through the power of prayer, they were preserved, and he lives today.
Hey,
I hope that y'all enjoyed hearing what I so much enjoyed
Love y'all
Hit me back!
Elder Matthew Busi
