April 2005 Ensign - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

70
The House
That Faith Built
By José Luis da Silva
On the eve of my wife’s and my
baptism in 1996, family members
and friends tried to prevent
it. We endured persecution from
relatives who severely criticized our
family, saying we had traded our family
for the Church and they no longer
loved us. Eventually our friends completely
abandoned us. Then came
difficulties associated with unemployment
and with illness.
On the other hand, my family and I
felt better with each visit to church. At
each class the Spirit was stronger. The
members were supportive, and the
bishop visited and encouraged our
family. We knew from our own experience
that people who criticized the
Church were wrong. The Church was
doing us much good. We learned
about Jesus Christ. We learned to love
and serve. We gained an eternal perspective.
In spite of the appearance
that everything had turned against us,
nothing could change the fact that
we had asked the Lord about the
truthfulness of the gospel and He
had answered our prayers.
Once, when we were still new converts
and were living in my father’s
house, the bishop came to visit. My
father threw him out. He said he did
not want members of the Church in
his house. The bishop was inspired
LATTER-DAY SAINT VOICES
to call us in for an interview. He said
that members and missionaries were
not going to visit us in our home for
a while so as not to antagonize our
family. He said that we needed to be
strong and that we would receive
many blessings if we continued on
the strait and narrow path.
We could not move to a house of
our own due to my employment situation.
I could not find good work as
I had done before. I worked a little
at jobs that didn’t pay much, but we
managed to pay our tithes and offerings,
attend church, and buy the food
we needed. The Lord multiplied our
blessings, and we were truly happy.
On the day of our temple sealing,
when I saw our two sons—Luigi, who
was then two, and Lucas, who was
then one—entering the sealing room
and placing their hands on ours for
the ordinance to be performed, I
wept out of happiness. I cannot
forget the beautiful scene, the
wonderful spirit, and the feeling
I had that it had been worth all
the effort.
The trials did not cease, but
some things improved. My
father and our aunts and uncles
stopped criticizing the Church,
and our grandparents
respected our decision. By
our example we tried to
show that the Church
was transforming our
lives. The support we
gave to each other was
very important. When I
taught seminary and served as a counselor
in the bishopric, my wife always
sustained me.
The year we were baptized a
friend bought a building lot for his
family and ours by loaning us part
of the money. We began to dream of
having our own house. Eventually the
Spirit prompted us, and we started
calculating the cost of labor and
materials. We felt that we would
somehow manage to build a house
where we could raise our children in
the gospel, do missionary work, and
receive visits from members.