Thank you to LDS.net for translating this powerful article, originally found in Spanish at MormonSud.org.        

My name is Carlos Gilberto Hernandez Elvir, and nine months ago I started to serve my full time mission in the Korea Daejeon Mission.

I would like to share with you a little about me. I have been a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for two years and my conversion story is very simple yet complicated at the same time.

From infancy I attended another Christian church and I was raised with Christian principles and good moral values like “I am a child of God.” I also understood that family was the most important part of life.

When I was 14 years old, my parents had differences in their relationship which led to a divorce. My mom has always been a hard worker. Like every Latina woman, she fought with everything she had to give us the basic necessities of life. She has been a woman of faith. She also had to put up with my rebellious nature; even as the oldest child I never helped my mom like I should have done.

The neighbors in my neighborhood affected me positively and they wanted me to change my life and follow Heavenly Father’s path. Even though they weren’t members, they encouraged me to listen to the missionaries. At this time of my life, I left to study with a grant to the other side of my country. My mother met the missionaries and after listening and accepting the gospel, my mother and siblings were baptized.

Read the rest of this article at lds.net