Enrique Kidman

1978-1980

I met my wife Sonia when we were 10-years-old in Guatemala City before I was adopted by the Kidman family at age 12, the first time I left home. Thanks to my dad's work, we would move often, usually every year or every other year. This allowed me to visit many places like El Salvador, Utah, Brazil, Peru, and Bolivia by the time I was 18. After graduating high school, I began making plans to go to BYU. On one occasion my dad sat me down and asked me about going on a mission. I responded that I had never thought of it because I didn't think I was prepared to go. I told him that for me missionaries were holy and so spiritual that I never thought I could join them. Then my dad asked me a very important question: have you asked the Lord whether you should go or not? I had never brought this topic up in my prayers and I had to tell my dad that I had never tried to find out. He invited me to ask and to do what the Lord directed. This began a type of quest that I had never embarked in before that time. I began reading the Book of Mormon seriously, with real intent. My prayers also began a gradual change from the first one when I said, "Heavenly Father, you really don't want me to go on a mission, right?" (for which I got no answer) to "I will do and say whatever you command me to do", for which I got a definitive answer. I was so excited to go that I just couldn't wait! I never made it to BYU.

I mentioned in a post on Facebook that I was called to begin missionary service by President Chase Allred literally overnight which sounded good to me, so the following day I began my mission and left my home for the second time. I was already living in Santa Cruz for a year prior to starting my mission so I was very familiar with Bolivia, but had never been in the Altiplano. The mission taught me that when you embark in the service of the Lord, if you serve Him with all might, mind, and strength, you begin to know Him and to recognize the Spirit. I had to learn to fine tune those promptings and feelings and by the time I finished my mission, many things began to come naturally.

One experience that changed me happened at the very beginning of my mission when I was companions with Elder Rex Peterson in Pura Pura early in 1979. We had found a young mother of four girls that worked washing people's clothes. She allowed us to come to her humble one-bedroom home to teach her the Gospel. On that occasion we were going to teach her the discussion on the commandments. When we walked in, we found the four girls huddled together in the only bed they had and they were asleep even though it was 6pm, too early for them to be in bed. I found this strange right off the bat. However, as I began to teach the discussion, an overwhelming prompting came over me urging me to ask what was wrong in that home. I reasoned with me that I must have been imagining things and instead of following the Spirit's prompting, I plowed ahead with the discussion. When it came the turn for Elder Peterson to teach his part, I handed the flip chart to him and without hesitating, he closed the flip chart, leaned over towards the young mother and asked: "Hermana, what's wrong here? What troubles you?". When I heard him ask these questions, I immediately knew why he was saying these words, to which I added my own: "Yes, hermana, what is happening in your family?". The Lord had switched from me to my companion because I was not willing to listen and do as I was told. It was a painful lesson but I'm grateful that the Lord did not quit.

She began to tell us that she was perfectly fine and that she had no problems at all. I looked over at the children and asked: "When was the last time that you fed these children?". At that moment she began to cry and told us that since that morning she had not been able to scramble enough pesos to  buy them anything to eat, so she put them to bed early so they could forget their hunger. We both were touched at this exact moment when we realized that the Lord was keenly aware of it, that He had sent us there to remediate the problem, that He loved those little girls and their mother, and that He had provided the means to end this problem through us. I turned over to Elder Peterson and asked him how much money he had on him and I believe we both had something like 20-30 pesos. I said to Elder Peterson that instead of teaching about the Gospel, we were going to put the Gospel into practice. We woke up the girls and announced to them that we were going to take a trip to the store to get some necessary food. They got up and cheered, the mother was overwhelmed by the gesture, and Elder Peterson and I picked up a couple of the girls and set them on our shoulders and took the others by the hand and walked to that store. I still remember the girls: "Can we get some milk? How about some eggs and ham?". We were able to buy them enough food for the rest of the week. We returned them home, picked up our books and left to our home. We got home and got on our knees. I had to do a lot of repenting that night and promised the Lord that I would never again doubt the promptings of the Spirit. We were instruments in the Lord's hands that night and it changed us for the better. I thank the Lord every day for that experience. Since then, I've had many of these types of promptings but I have been able to answer each one of them as I have moved speedily to obey it. I have seen many miracles since then.

After returning from my mission, I went back to Guatemala where I found that my wife had joined the Church. We have had 36 wonderful years together and have had 6 children together: 3 girls and 3 boys. We currently have 2 grand daughters and are loving every moment.

It is my belief that we all got called to serve in that wonderful mission because we needed those experiences to learn about the Lord's ways. We met each other because we could be the best support system that we needed at that time. Look around you and think about your companions during that time. Can you see what a great influence they were for each of us at the time we had them? I love each one of you that served there and that gave it all. I consider you my brothers and sisters for eternity. I will be forever grateful for the challenges, the difficulties, the blessings, the privileges that we all enjoyed during that time there. It is a treasure that continues giving for the benefit of our souls into eternity.