Cultivating a Seed of Faith
In 1968, at the age of 15, Ana María Susano Coímbra began attending the missionary discussions in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. She identified with the Prophet Joseph Smith. “I was fifteen years old just like the prophet,” she thought. “If he can do it, why can’t I?”
Ana was the third of 13 siblings. Her mother told her that if she wanted to attend the Church, she had to take her younger brothers and sisters with her. When Ana decided to be baptized, her parents consented, thinking she would forget about the Church after a week or two. “I had promised the Lord that I would not betray Him, and I had to go forward,” she recounted.
In the mid-1970s, Ana began preparing to serve as a missionary. Initially, her parents did not support this decision. The turning point for her mother came when Ana suffered complications from a dental procedure a week before her departure. Ana remembered her father praying and her mother pleading with the Lord, telling Him, “If you let her live, then she will go on her mission, however, alive! I know I will see her then, but if she dies, I will not see her.”
When Ana survived, her mother told her that if she had such a strong desire to serve the Church, she should change her attitude while on her mission and become friendlier and smile more. “If you do not change, then this Church is not true,” Ana’s mother told her. Ana promised she would make the change, and she served her mission in her home country.
Shortly after returning from her mission, Ana was called as ward Primary president for six years. She asked the bishop of the ward why he called her to serve in the Primary with her younger siblings when she was struggling with her little sister at home. He told her it was so she could learn to love them more. Ana called the Cañoto Ward the seedbed of the Church in the area, recalling that many of the children she worked with became leaders.
Ana’s mother showed no interest in participating in any Church activities until 2008. When Ana’s little brother died in an accident, she found the courage to approach her mother again. “I told her that we should say a prayer. She never wanted to pray. She said it was okay.” Not long after this experience, Ana asked her mother if she would join in family home evening. “From that time until now we do family home evening,” she said, calling it a “great miracle.”
“I have a testimony because this gospel brings happiness,” Ana said. “Despite the things that have happened, I am happier than any other moment.” On her desire for a temple in Santa Cruz, she said, “We cried out for a temple in Santa Cruz. We must work very hard.” Her prayer was answered in 2020 with the announcement of the Santa Cruz Bolivia Temple.