Carlos Benegas

Some of you have already heard this story, but some of you haven't. Since I want reading this blog to be an edifying, uplifting experience, I figure I need to include more entries like this. This comes from Elder Whitaker's last email. (Reposted here, along with another story.)

I would like to share with you today the conversion story of Carlos Benegas. Carlos is 54. When he was 8, he started smoking. When he was 13, he left home to start working for his own support. 35 years later, he found himself sitting on some steps, mentally beaten and destroyed from his bad habits. He wanted to stop smoking and drinking, but he didn’t have the will-power. He needed someone or something to give him a little push. As he was sitting on the steps, two young women came by and said hello. They introduced themselves as missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He was sitting on the church entrance. They asked if he would be interested in learning about the Gospel. He accepted the invitation, and the two Sisters went by his house. He accepted the commitments, and they continued visiting him. After 4 or 5 visits, the Sisters taught him about the Word of Wisdom. That was just the push he needed. After the lesson, he threw his cigarettes in the fire, and ran to the next city and back (about 15 miles). Since then, he hasn’t smoked one cigarette, and he hasn’t tasted one drop of alcohol. All of that happened before going to church once. One Sunday, he woke up early and it was raining. He didn’t have anything to do, so he decided to go to church. He enjoyed it, and kept going. A few weeks later, the Sisters came by looking very depressed. He asked what was wrong, and they told him that one of their investigators who was going to get baptized on April 5th didn’t want to hear any more about the Church. He said, “That’s okay. I’ll get baptized on April 5th.” And he did. Now Carlos is the Elder’s Quorum President, and he runs marathons. I guess people really can change…

Carlos is on the right.