An eager young missionary, Sister Flor Betsabe Serrano Cruz is evidence of the difference the gospel is making in the lives of its converts.
Sister Serrano, from the Valle del Mezquital Mexico Stake in Central Mexico, has completed studies to be a medical doctor and lacks only her internship and a year of practicing to be licensed. Like her older brothers and sisters, she interrupted her career to accept a mission call.In a telephone interview from Mexico City, she explained that her mother, a long-time member, and her father, baptized in 1973, were inspired by the gospel to set high educational goals for their family.
After their marriage, her parents searched for a way to pay the high costs of education. Her father was the keeper of a small iron works shop. Her mother was a full-time homemaker.
"They prayed about how to earn enough money to educate their children," she said. "Then they built several small homes and rented them out. The rent money helped a great deal." The children also worked to put themselves through school.
As the children started Primary school, "my mother was the strength behind them," said Sister Serrano. "She insisted they go to school whether they wanted to or not. Some of my brothers were sent even though they could not find their shoes."
The oldest six children are now an attorney, a certified public accountant, a school teacher, a computer programmer, an architect and a medical doctor. One of her younger sisters is studying computer programming and the other recently graduated from junior college. Six of the eight children graduated from the Church's Benemerito School in Mexico City.
"I am a missionary now instead of a doctor because I have a desire to serve the Lord in this manner," said Sister Serrano. "I want to pay something for the help He has given me, and especially to my family. All that we have is from Him and I think that any sacrifice on my part is small."
