"If you place one copy of the Book of Mormon, you never know how many families will come into the Church through that one book," said Dennis E. Peters of the Midvalley 1st Ward, Sandy Utah Midvalley Stake.
He found this concept to be true while serving as president of the Mexico Mexico City South Mission from July 1988 to July 1991.He related that late in June 1988, he, his wife, Kathryn, and family were preparing to leave for Mexico. Due to travel complications, their luggage was to follow them four days later. Thus, Pres. Peters found himself making a one-day round trip between Mexico and Utah to ensure the safe arrival of their possessions. On the return flight, he sat beside a man by the name of Fulgencio, who worked for the Mexican national archives in Mexico City.
"We had a good conversation and I gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon," recalled Pres. Peters. "He accepted the book, and I asked for an address so I could send the missionaries. He wouldn't give it to me. The only thing I could get was his work number."
Several weeks later, Pres. Peters and one of his assistants, Elder Mark Kershaw, visited Fulgencio at his work.
"While we were there, he introduced us to the director of the archives. Elder Kershaw presented her with a copy of the Book of Mormon and told her it was a book that contained 2,500 years of history of the ancestors of Mexico. She was cordial, accepted the book and we left."
Pres. Peters was never able to get Fulgencio's address and finally lost touch with him.
Then in early 1990, while attending a stake conference in Cuautla Morelos, Mexico, the mission president was approached by a man with a "big smile on his face." Pres. Peters recognized the man as Fulgencio.
" `I just wanted you to know that my parents, my brother and his family, and I and my family are all members of the Church now,' " Pres. Peters quoted Fulgencio as saying.
"We told our missionaries that we can count the number of seeds in an apple but not the number of apples in the seed," said the recently released mission president. "That was a motivational story for our missionaries to place more copies of the Book of Mormon. Some day those books may bring even hundreds of people into the Church." - Julie A. Dockstader
