The first patient I had in my medical missionary work was the presidente municipal (mayor) of the town. He had been treated by different doctors for a stomach trouble from which he had been suffering for more than a year. I recommended a diet for him, and gave him treatments, and the difficulty was entirely removed. He was very grateful, and became a good friend of mine. We arranged for an antialcohol campaign. This aroused the anger of some of the liquor dealers, and they threatened him with death.
In Santa Rosalfa lived a woman who made her living by selling liquor. I learned that her grandfather was suffering with a disease of the leg. I thought I would endeavor to help him, and in this way reach the heart of this woman. I visited the grandfather, and found that the trouble was eczema, and that his entire leg was raw with this disease. I began to treat him, and counseled him not to eat flesh meat and such things as chili (pepper), and prescribed a diet of vegetables.
The treatment was successful, and one of his daughters became interested in studying the Bible. Later the woman who sold liquor became so interested in the studies that her husband left her because of his prejudice. She decided that she would not sell any more liquor, but she did not know how she could gain a livelihood. Finally her son secured work, and with his help she entirely discontinued selling liquor. It would have been impossible to carry the gospel to this woman and her family in any other way than through the medical missionary work.
One day I visited a rancher, and while I was reading to a group of men an article in the Messenger regarding the evils of using tobacco, a man came to me and said that he had been trying to give up the habit for three days, and that he was feeling very bad. I asked him how many cigarettes he smoked each day, and he said, "Five packages."
I invited him to come to my house that night, so that I might talk to him about his sickness, and I decided that I would talk to him about the Bible. When I told him of the seventh-day Sabbath, he asked with surprise, "Do you keep the Sabbath? I -have been anxious to meet a person who observe § this day, because my grandfather taught us since we were children that the seventh day is the day that should be kept as the Sabbath." He was greatly pleased to know me. About two months later he came down from the mountains with a very old Bible to show me. It was written in Spanish, and was dated 1700. He would not sell the Bible to me, as it was his sister's.
When I took the Bible to examine it, he asked, "Do you not offer prayer before you open the Bible to read it?" These people in the mountains had found the Sabbath truth revealed in the Bible, and a company had been keeping the seventh-day Sabbath from the days of their grandfather.
