SAN DIEGO — For Adam Alcantara, preparation and circumstance enabled him to help a friend find the safe haven of the Church.
The groundskeeper for the San Diego California Temple, Brother Alcantara said, "If the temple is the house of the Lord, then this is His front yard and it needs to look like paradise."
He is responsible for the plant selection and landscape design of the six-acre site. "It's my job to beautify and maintain the grounds such that they appear to reflect the sacred nature of the temple," he said.
Brother Alcantara first came to the temple in 1993 as a youth volunteering at the open house prior to its dedication. "We were in charge of shoe covers, wheelchairs and what not," he recalled. "Who would have guessed that I would be working on the grounds less than 10 years later?"
That would be after a mission to Argentina. "Every day was a National Geographic," he said in reference to the exotic beauty of the country.
Serving that mission prepared him in an important way to handle a sacred opportunity he experienced because of his grounds job. While living in Argentina he learned to speak Spanish fluently.
Upon his return in 1998, he spoke to a family friend who worked at the temple in hopes of finding a job in security. At the time, there wasn't an opening in security, but there was one on the grounds crew. He took that, remaining interested in a security position.
"I knew nothing about horticulture, so my responsibilities were the lawn, trees, shrubs, the painting and general cleaning," Brother Alcantara said. "I loved working with the crew and I got familiar with the equipment but it took a while to learn about all the flowers. I had to hit the books hard."
When a temple security job finally opened, he opted to stay with the grounds crew.
The Church contracts with a landscape maintenance firm to have two men help him on the temple grounds.
"Both men, who are father and son, speak only Spanish," Brother Alcantara said. "When the son, Lorenzo (Borja), started working here he loved the way he felt being on the temple grounds. Soon, he stopped taking breaks with the men who worked nearby for the landscape maintenance firm, instead staying on the temple grounds."
Brother Alcantara gave Lorenzo a Book of Mormon. Reading the book had such an impact on him that he began to attend the ward near his home. He accepted baptism quickly, but his family didn't. When Lorenzo got his wife, Esther, to go to church, she knew that it was right.
On Christmas Day 2005, Brother Alcantara baptized Lorenzo and four members of his family. They are in the Bonita 3rd (Spanish) Ward, San Diego California Sweetwater Stake.
"Since then he has become a good friend," Brother Alcantara said.
Besides employment, the temple has been a blessing in many ways for Brother Alcantara. He proposed to and married his wife, Eneida, there. His employment is enabling him to attend San Diego State University where he is studying foreign language and linguistics. Landscaping the temple grounds enables him to utilize his passion for art; gardening is an art and there must be polarity and contrast in colors, he says.
And with the language training and experience of his mission, while working on the temple grounds he was prepared to help a friend find his way to the blessings of the gospel.