“I Had Made the Right Decision”

A few years after moving with her husband, Giuseppe, and children to Australia from her home in Italy, Ortensia Greco Conte became concerned about her children’s religious education. Though familiar with many religions, she didn’t feel any of them were right for her children. One day in 1980, while watching her children play at the park, she turned to God for help. “I want to teach my children the truth,” she prayed. “If the true church is on the earth, I ask Thee to help me find it.”

Two days later, Ortensia saw two young missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Although she didn’t speak English well, she felt prompted to talk to them and invite them to her home. As the missionaries taught her, she felt her prayer was being answered. Ortensia was eager to be baptized, and though Giuseppe was more hesitant, he and their oldest two children also joined the Church.

A week after his baptism, however, Giuseppe met with friends who turned him against the Church. “He came home angry,” Ortensia said. “He said that the children could not go to services, and if I went by myself, he would not let me in when I came home.”

Ortensia thought about everything her husband had said and prayed for guidance. That night, in a dream, she saw Jesus Christ greeting her. “He told me not to worry, that I had made the right decision,” she said. The next Sunday she gathered her courage and took the children to church. When they returned home, they found the house locked and their belongings outside. “I was worried for the children’s sake,” she said, “but I also felt protected.” A young son, Luciano, crawled through an unlocked window and let them into the house.

After that, though there were difficult times over the years, Ortensia and her children continued to be fully active in the Church. Sixteen years later, as Luciano left for a mission to Italy, Giuseppe’s heart softened toward the Church, and in 1999 the whole family was sealed in the Sydney Australia Temple. “I have learned that Heavenly Father does hear our prayers,” Ortensia said. “If we have faith in Christ and are determined to grow spiritually, we will, in time, receive all the righteous desires of our hearts, whether in this life or the next.”