Serving with gratitude despite distance

Courtesy photo/Daniel Carrillo

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Daniel and Victoria Carrillo have been serving at San Felipe Parish in Wendover since 1999. 

WENDOVER — Doing everything they can for their church, Daniel and Victoria Carrillo have been serving in San Felipe Parish since 1999.

Both are originally from Zacatecas, Mexico. The couple met in Elko, Nev. and since then they have been working for their parish.

Despite the commute from their home in Elko to the parish in Wendover, and the fact that most activities at the parish happen on the weekdays so it has been hard to establish formal ministries, the Carrillos continue to serve the church.

"We are trying to create the ministries; we are doing this little by little," Daniel said. "Most of the community in Wendover have Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays as their days off because of the casinos."

The parishioners’ work schedules means that the Carrillos teach catechesis classes on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Every day the classes are full.

The couple also participates in the organization of different parish activities. For example, once a month they help organize a Mass for the children who are preparing for their First Communion. Also, they are working with Father German Umaña, San Felipe Parish administrator, to plan a monthly gathering of adults in the social room.

In addition to these activities, the Wendover Catholic community has a lot of plans for next year, Daniel said.

"It takes talent, time and treasure to build stewardship as a program and we are working on it," he said. "Beginning next year we are planning to educate more of our community about stewardship."

The Most Rev. John C. Wester, Bishop of Salt Lake City, has defined stewardship as being grateful for the gifts that God has given. Daniel said serving in the church is his way of showing gratitude for all the gifts that he and his family have received.

"I am very grateful to God for the transformation that He has made on me and that He keeps on doing every day," said Daniel, referring to the fact that until he was about 35 years old he was what he calls ‘a water Catholic.’

"Sometimes we are just ‘water Catholics’ – I mean we are just baptized and that’s it, we do not go to Mass, we do not do confessions, we do not serve. And that was me before I had my personal encounter with God," he said, emphasizing that everyone has a lot of treasures in the Church, but sometimes people don’t even know the treasure is there.

Everyone can serve in their own capacity, "it’s just a matter of wanting to," Daniel said. "We can do much more here in Wendover. We have walked a long way and day by day we are doing better. Our church has a lot of tools that we should use."

"Daniel and Victoria do a lot for our church," said Fr. Umaña.

"It’s important to participate in our church because it’s our responsibility," said Daniel.