Oct
22
Luca, in his mission, found the son of the missionary who found me…
October 22, 2008 by Giuseppe Martinengo | Filed in Luca Martinengo's mission, Martinengo's Family, Mormon Missionaries
Elder Luca Martinengo and Elder Burton, the Younger
This is really a very interesting experience that happened to my son, Luca, while in his Mormon mission in Boston, Massachussetts. He found the son of the missionary who found me more than 20 years ago in Italy.
These are Luca’s words to me in one of his recent emails (in parenthesis are my comments to help understand what Luca is implying)
I don’t know why I had it, but it was interesting and a testimony builder to me… this is what happened…
I had asked you to give me Forbes’ email (Forbes is one of the two missionaries who taught me the gospel more than 20 years ago in Italy) and you did so. That week I wrote to Forbes and asked him to tell me a little bit of the story about how they found you in Italy and what happened… Forbes wrote back the following week and I read the email kinda fast, printed and put it in a backpack, not really paying much attention to it.
Well, I usually pray every morning to find out what the Lord wants me to study and for some weird reason I was not getting any idea, I did not get my answer, so I got frustrated and just almost gave up, until a thought came upon me, to open my backpack and look at what was inside, which I did and I found that email from Forbes. Then I felt inspired to pull out your conversion story that I had printed from the internet, so I decided to read those 2 papers.
I think I read your conversion story first, then I went and read Forbes’ email, and I read it all the way through but nothing special came, until i decided to read again and pay more attention. When i did that again, I noticed the name that i saw on the email was BURTON, who Forbes told me was the one that found you, and at that exact time I saw a missionary’s face in my head, who was trained by my good companion in Pittsfield, right as i came to the island, whose name is also Burton…
I had about 10 different questions pop in my head and the thought of him being the son of the missionary who was with Forbes when he found you…. Because Forbes told me that Burton got transferred right after they found you. So I called Elder Payne who was not serving with Burton anymore but I asked him a few questions, to see if maybe it would hint to that possibility, of this Elder Burton being the son of the Burton who found you in Italy. The Spirit that i felt was so strong that i could not really describe it. As I asked the questions Payne answered them and asked me why i was asking that, and I told him that maybe BURTON’s father was the one that found you.
So then i called BURTON and i asked him the same questions and he answered the same way and we both basically started crying and could not believe the Spirit that we felt. I don’t know why i had this experience, but…ya… so his son is serving 40 minutes away from me. I don’t know if you remember him at all or if he ever found out weather you were baptized or not…but that was an experience for me…
I do not believe in chance, but at the same time I do not know exactly why this happened, but at least it was another great experience that my son, Luca, had in his mission. Really Mormon missionaries do the work of God, and when they serve faithfully, they are entitled to many blessings, including this type of experience that strengthens their testimony of the truth of the gospel and of the importance of serving missions for the Lord.
Comments
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Thanks for sharing this experience, Luca and Giuseppe. God’s hand is in the details, and every experience like this affirms and increases our faith. Wow. Hope you’ll reconnect with the Burtons. Great witness.