We have been working with a man called Joaquin Barba since about
December of last year, and this last saturday was baptized. He
suffered many many trials even before ever being baptized. He is a
taxi driver, and has 5 small children, age 7-0. His wife, Karin, is a
member, but was less-active. They are very very poor, and during all
this time suffered various health problems with himself, and with his
kids. About two months ago was when all the big trials started to
happen in his life. The car he drove wasn´t his; he paid rent, and one
day he had to take his boss to a meeting and his glove box fell open,
and there was his Book of Mormon that we had given him, and all of a
sudden his boss just started verbally abusing Joaquin for having it
there. ¨What are you thinking?? Why are you wasting your time with
religion?? Do you think God is going to give you money for your
family?? Work is all there is!¨ And other similar things. She ended up
threatening him that if he continued visiting with us that she would
leave him without work. So Joaquin was really concerned. There were a
couple of hard hard weeks for him, and the relationship between him
and his boss only got worse. We continued visiting him, trying to help
him see that this was a test of his faith. And the tests only got
worse! Right at the end of Carnaval, all the taxis of his boss´s line
of vehicles had some sort of party that was obligatory, and there
present was beer and alcohol and every type of horrible thing you
could think of. And they all pressured Joaquin to drink and do drugs
and just bad bad stuff, but Joaquin stayed strong and rejected all of
them, just drinking soda. In the end Joaquin lost his job, but he knew
that the church was true, and decided to be baptised. He now has a
new, and better, job! Yesterday he expressed so much gratitud that we
never left him through all the trials, and told us that he truly felt
peace, and happy now. Elder Jones baptized him, and I confirmed him.
haha i won´t even go into the craziness of this week preparing his
baptism. The Lord opened up all the closed doors and made a miracle
happen. How I love being a missionary!
Elder Evenson
December of last year, and this last saturday was baptized. He
suffered many many trials even before ever being baptized. He is a
taxi driver, and has 5 small children, age 7-0. His wife, Karin, is a
member, but was less-active. They are very very poor, and during all
this time suffered various health problems with himself, and with his
kids. About two months ago was when all the big trials started to
happen in his life. The car he drove wasn´t his; he paid rent, and one
day he had to take his boss to a meeting and his glove box fell open,
and there was his Book of Mormon that we had given him, and all of a
sudden his boss just started verbally abusing Joaquin for having it
there. ¨What are you thinking?? Why are you wasting your time with
religion?? Do you think God is going to give you money for your
family?? Work is all there is!¨ And other similar things. She ended up
threatening him that if he continued visiting with us that she would
leave him without work. So Joaquin was really concerned. There were a
couple of hard hard weeks for him, and the relationship between him
and his boss only got worse. We continued visiting him, trying to help
him see that this was a test of his faith. And the tests only got
worse! Right at the end of Carnaval, all the taxis of his boss´s line
of vehicles had some sort of party that was obligatory, and there
present was beer and alcohol and every type of horrible thing you
could think of. And they all pressured Joaquin to drink and do drugs
and just bad bad stuff, but Joaquin stayed strong and rejected all of
them, just drinking soda. In the end Joaquin lost his job, but he knew
that the church was true, and decided to be baptised. He now has a
new, and better, job! Yesterday he expressed so much gratitud that we
never left him through all the trials, and told us that he truly felt
peace, and happy now. Elder Jones baptized him, and I confirmed him.
haha i won´t even go into the craziness of this week preparing his
baptism. The Lord opened up all the closed doors and made a miracle
happen. How I love being a missionary!
Elder Evenson
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