Conversion Story

.

My Journey Towards Truth

Who am I but a wretched sinner? Who am I that I should have to tell how God in His sublime grace and mercy had incredible mercy on me being wicked as I am?

I was born on November 10, 1993, in the Province of San Juan in Argentina, the only son of a marriage with many defects, but also virtues that were instilled in me by a Catholic mother and a Protestant father, being baptized and named Rodolfo Andrés Silva.

Although they were not practicing, they did not instill any faith in me, so as I grew up I learned from people I will always remember with appreciation, for example, my aunt who taught me the value of the Holy Scriptures and, although I became a Pentecostal in my early teens, my thirst to know more about You, O Lord, led me through paths of light and shadows.

Growing up I had become involved with so many people and so many diverse groups around religion going through almost every branch of Protestantism to being a fervent Roman Catholic, but in between those valleys of death I had also become more of an enemy of God than I already was, embracing heresies like Judaism and Islam and even denying divinity altogether when I embraced atheism where I mocked You, God, my salvation and Your most sweet Mother who, in spite of everything, has always been with me. There was a time when I could not deny divinity, but I did not want to be God's ally so I joined Satanism where I thought I would indulge my darkest carnal desires and ambitions. What a fool I was for then, trusting in the Evil One to take from me already more than what even little I had being from a very low class family in society!

With time I returned to reconcile myself with God as a prodigal son and seeking Your truth, O Lord, You know very well that I found Your Church, but in reality it was one that had turned away from You, that preferred to ally itself with the world and, although they were a great majority involved in ecumenism and communism, they claimed to adore You and to claim to be Your Church. I thought I was lost and without hope because I thought that Your Church had succumbed to the gates of hades, therefore, it was not really Your beloved Church, but with the help of many people I learned that it was not so.

Then I knew that there was a faithful remnant, a small flock, people who had not bent their knees before Baal, I knew that they were far away from my land as well as the other Churches that claimed to be Orthodox. How could I, a sinner, without resources and barely supported by your mercy, be able to travel so far and more with the situation that my nation has been going through for years? Almost 5 years passed since I met that faithful remnant of the Orthodox Church and I dreamed of being able to someday by God's mercy to reach my so longed baptism and after those long years for hundreds of things, more than being personal, I can not capture in this writing, but if I told them many people could realize that God has control of everything in the life of one who believes, and that there is no evil that the repentance and love of God does not transform into even more abundant grace.

It was this year 2021 that with the help of people I was able to travel to Buenos Aires where I could finally be baptized, a journey of about 17 hours by bus was waiting for me to arrive, all that night of travel I did not sleep while I meditated, thought and fought with my temptations, having left on a Wednesday afternoon and arrived on a Thursday morning that same day in the afternoon. After settling in the house of a person very close to me, I was then able to go and talk to Father Alejandro, the priest of that church, or rather Cathedral. After talking to him and explaining the same things that I am putting in writing here, he agreed to baptize me. So it was that on Saturday afternoon, July 3, I was immersed in the waters and baptized as Andrew in honor of the Holy Apostle St. Andrew the First called and how merciful of God to have been the first called from my land of St. John to the true orthodoxy!

After that, the next day, on the Lord's Day, I received the Eucharist for the first time and I said to myself in my heart and soul: "Lord my eyes have seen your salvation for the glory of your people and you have fulfilled your promise for my miserable sinner, now if you wish you can dismiss your servant" - just as the holy old man Simeon once said, "O Lord, how late I loved you, you spoke to me and I did not listen, I was deaf to your voice", - I will always remember those words of St. Augustine.

Monday morning I joyfully returned to my homeland of Saint John.

I hope that one day my desire will come true and that by imitating the baptism of Russia, God will allow a revival in my land and a massive conversion of my brothers and sisters. I place everything in your hands, O Lord, save me and save us by your grace, amen. 

For the truth exists only in one person, in Jesus Christ.

http://remnantrocor.blogspot.com/2021/07/welcome-newly-illumined-andrew.html

.