In 2017, the youth of the Austin Ward, with the help of parents and family history center workers, took the challenge to prepare one and only one family name to take to an unforgettable temple trip. Further, each youth was challenged to discover as much as they could about this person and then write a brief story of their life in an effort to make that person as real as possible to the youth performing the baptism. Before the temple trip, a devotional meeting was held highlighting the stories written by each youth and emphasized the importance of the “one by one” work of redemption. While there were many summaries, the written story of Jose Carlos is included below:
Jose Carlos, Youth in the Austin Ward for Geronimo Alejo Blas
Geronimo was born in 1864 in Michoacan, Mexico. There’s a reasonable chance he was a farmer. He lived at the time of the Mexican Revolution, which was fought, in part, to improve the lives of poor farmers. Geronimo married Bruna Lazaro. They had two children, Celedonio and Antonia. Geronimo died of pneumonia in 1924 at the age of 60. I know that Geronimo has been waiting patiently to get baptized because I can feel his comfort as I do his work. I’m grateful to do this as I get help from my ancestors.