Area Leadership Message
Inspired Decisions Bless Posterities
An inspired decision is when individuals and families let God Prevail in their lives. I was a 10-year-old boy when we made the inspired decision to accept the Lord’s invitation to join His true Church. With my siblings Tomas, Nodel, and Victor, we followed our parents Francisco and Agripina into the waters of baptism on the morning of March 8, 1981.
My uncle Jacinto, my mother’s brother, was the first in our family to meet the missionaries and accept their message. After his baptism, he introduced us to the missionaries. My parents were members of a prominent faith, and going to church was a family matter and a priority to them. Growing up, I saw how they exemplified their faith by teaching us to pray daily as a family and attend church regularly. Though he had vices, my father taught us to believe in God.
An Invitation to Obey the Commandments
Because I was very young, I did not fully understand the things the missionaries were teaching us. My siblings and I were so eager to join our parents every time the missionaries visited. My father was a chain smoker and it was hard for him to give up his habit but that changed when Elder Richard Irving and Elder Kurt Trotter taught them the Word of Wisdom.
“Your parents were seriously listening to the message, and when we extended the invitation to obey the Word of Wisdom, your father agreed and committed to obey the Lord’s Law of Health and refrain from smoking,” related Brother Irving when we met 43 years later. “As an expression of his faith in the Savior Jesus Christ and his desire to follow Him, your father handed and surrendered to us the pack of cigarettes he had in his possession,” added Brother Irving.
This was truly a faith-promoting experience for me to know that my Father was willing to follow the commandments and change from being a natural man to a man of God. I recalled how Nephi appreciated Lehi for his great example to his family, and how with his example Nephi was able to follow in his footsteps and became a man of God.
The Will to Press Forward with a Steadfastness in Christ
Three years after our baptism, I was the only member of our family who still went to Church. My parents and siblings stopped going. Every Sunday my responsibility was to extend the invitation for them to come with me to Church, but I always received the same response: “Just pray for us.”
I set a goal to bring everyone back to Church, so I did my best to be a good example to them and to never be weary of reminding them and extending the invitation to come back. My prayers as a 13-year-old were answered by the Lord and everyone eventually went back to Church activity. Our family was sealed in the Manila Temple in 1992, but sadly my father passed away before he could be sealed with us.
Serving is a Blessing
I was in my last year in college when my father died in March 1992. Upon graduation, I had the desire to serve the Lord on a full-time mission. I labored in the Philippines Quezon City Mission from 1993–1995. I took the board exam before I served, and while in the mission field, I received word that I passed!
While in my first area, my mother and other siblings qualified to receive their temple ordinances. I was fortunate enough to have been allowed to participate. I was sealed to my parents in the Manila Philippines Temple. My third missionary companion was given the opportunity to proxy for my father during the sealing. It was a great spiritual experience for our family to receive unparalleled blessing from the Lord.
I believe we received those blessings in part because of my faithful service as a young missionary. Truly, the Lord kept his promise: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33). The Lord is always true to His promises as long as we put Him first in all that we do. No amount of temporal blessings can equal the spiritual blessings of families being sealed for time and all eternity.
The blessings that come as a result of inspired decisions benefit the succeeding generations. After my siblings and I served missions, many other members of our family also went forth to serve, including my children. They experienced the real joy that comes from serving God and our fellow beings. This would not have happened if it weren’t for the righteous example of Elder Irving and Elder Trotter, the two young American missionaries whose inspired decision led to our family’s conversion.
A Sweet Reunion
As a token of gratitude to the missionaries who brought the Gospel of Jesus Christ to our family, I did my best to reconnect with them. It was a challenge because the photos and letters they left with us did not have their contact information.
In 2019, while serving as stake president, I was prompted to search the Church Directory of Leaders (CDOL) for their names. I found 10 Richard Irvings in Utah serving as bishops. I decided to contact their clerks. The very first clerk that I emailed responded when I asked if his bishop served as a young missionary in the Philippines in the 1980s.
As I recall, the day that he received the information from his clerk, Bishop Irving was in a mutual activity with the youth of his ward, telling them stories about his mission and about the families he and his companion taught in 1981.
In short, Bishop Irving went back to the Philippines in November 2022 after almost 41 years since his mission. When he came, he brought a letter my father sent to him when he transferred from Tuguegarao to another area. In the letter, my father expressed his joy and his spiritual experiences as a new member, including the joy of receiving the priesthood in a district conference he attended. He expressed his great joy in joining the Church with his family with which no amount of earthly possession can compare.
Blessing Others and Being Blessed Beyond Measure
As an Area Seventy, I have countless opportunities to minister and bless the lives of the people I meet. I am also blessed with experiences I never thought I would have, like attending General Conference and working with prophets, apostles, and other chosen servants of God. While in Utah, I was also blessed to reconnect with my companions in the mission and the family of Bishop Irving. We went to the Jordan River and Provo City Temples with our wives, and the first time we did he whispered “I never thought that this could happen, I was with you in your baptism in 1981, and 42 years after, now we are here together worshiping in the Temple.”
I testify that God lives. He will bless us beyond our expectations if we choose to put Him first in all that we do. As President Thomas S. Monson taught in the April 2002 Conference, “Each of us has the responsibility to choose. You may ask, ‘Are decisions really that important?’ I say to you, decisions determine destiny. You can’t make eternal decisions without eternal consequences.”
I am eternally grateful for the inspired decision that my father and mother made when the missionaries extended the invitation to follow the Savior Jesus Christ. It has truly blessed me, my family, and my posterity. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.