It Is Enough

By Jane McBride Choate

Based on a true story

“Fam’lies can be together forever through Heav’nly Father’s plan” (Children’s Songbook, 188).

Carlitos wiped the tears from his eyes. His mamá had been sick for many months. At last Papá had convinced her to go to the city, many kilometers from their small village in Chile, and see a doctor. After many tests, the doctor said that Carlitos’s mamá had cancer.

Mamá refused to feel sorry for herself. “I still have much to do,” she said.

One day, two young norteamericanos (North Americans) appeared at the door of their small home. “We are from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” one said in halting Spanish.

Mamá listened intently and occasionally asked questions. She accepted the young men’s message immediately. “It is the truth,” she said.

Despite the disease that caused her much pain, Mamá was determined to be baptized and confirmed.

On Saturday morning the family traveled to the small meetinghouse where Elder Metzer baptized her. She shivered as she stepped from the baptismal font.

“Mamá, you are cold,” Carlitos said and wrapped his arms around her waist. “You must go home and get warm.”

Mamá shook her head. “It is not enough. I will stay until I am confirmed. How can I be cold when the gospel warms me?” She was confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Mamá was not content with just that. She was determined that Papá and Carlitos learn of the restored gospel as she had. “If you will pray, you will know the truth of which the missionaries speak,” she told them.

The elders taught them the gospel of Jesus Christ. Papá would have to give up his cigarettes. Carlitos listened to the elders’ teachings and felt peace wrap around his heart. He began to understand the warmth that Mamá had described.

Within a month Papá had stopped smoking. Shortly afterward both Papá and Carlitos were baptized and confirmed. A few weeks later Papá received the Aaronic Priesthood. Carlitos would have to wait three more years before he could receive the priesthood.

Mamá was very weak, but she always managed to go to church and visit those in the village who were sick.

“We are members of God’s Church, but it is not enough,” Mamá told Papá and Carlitos one night.

“What must we do now?” Carlitos asked. He loved learning about the gospel and wanted to live it in every way.

“We must be sealed in the temple,” Mamá said.

The temple in Santiago was the closest one to their home. But they did not have enough money to travel there. Any extra money Papá earned went to buy medicine for Mamá.

So Mamá started a temple jar. She placed it by the door. The coins she collected grew until the family had enough money to make the trip. In the temple their family was sealed for time and all eternity.

Mamá glowed with happiness. “It is enough,” she said.

[Families Can Be Sealed]

“I know that the earth was created and that the Lord’s Church was restored so that families could be sealed and exalted.”
Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, “Nurturing Marriage,” Liahona, May 2006, 36.

Illustration by Dilleen Marsh