By the time I was 17, my face had been covered with severe acne for as long as I could remember. It was so bad that people made jokes about it, and I didn't even like to leave the house.

That year I went to Mexico City to stay a week or two with a couple, who were close family friends. I knew that my friend (I'll call him Michael) and his wife belonged to a different religion from mine, and that Michael had a special job connected with his church. During my first few days in their home, I realized that his profession was healing people—he was a Christian Science practitioner. He read the Bible a couple of hours each day, and he spent a lot of time answering letters and phone calls from people asking for help. I began to wonder if he could help me.

For the previous six years, my family had taken me to the best doctors and skin specialists in Mérida where we lived. I also took pills and applied the harsh medications that the doctors prescribed, but the acne just became worse. The doctors told me that even if my skin improved, my face would be badly scarred and would require surgery. I felt that I looked like a monster. But somehow I knew that my friend Michael never looked at me that way. He was seeing something more about me than I did.

In my friends' guest bedroom, there was a pile of magazines called El Heraldo de la Christian Science. One day, I took about ten of them to read. Inside I found wonderful testimonials by people who prayed to God and found their health. It was such wonderful news for a young guy like me.

As a result of my reading, I decided to talk to Michael about my acne problem. He had a lot of love, and I knew he would help me. He talked to me for a long time about my relationship with God. That relationship, he said, was similar to a ray of light's relationship to the sun. There wasn't any darkness, blemish, or ugly spot in that ray of light (me) because I came directly from God.

After our talk, though, I felt kind of disappointed. I thought it was going to be as simple as my saying, "I want you to heal me," and I'd be healed. Instead, I realized I was going to have to drop years of mental baggage that I'd carried around with me: the baggage of believing that I was flesh and bones, that my skin was sensitive, and that everything in the air, as well as certain foods, could affect me. It wasn't easy.

From then on, I talked with Michael every chance I had. I didn't know what a Christian Science treatment was, so I didn't ask him for one. He was just always there to help answer so many of my questions and fears. At his suggestion, I began to read the New Testament. What I liked most was the story of Jesus healing the lepers, because I identified with them (Mark 1:40-45). And I began to believe that if a leper could be healed, then I certainly could be, too. That was a beginning for me.

After I returned home, I decided to stop using my bag of acne medication. I continued studying the Bible and kept in contact with Michael by telephone. Two or three weeks later, he came to visit me and brought a copy of Science and Health. At the time, I thought it was a huge book. I thought I would never be able to read it all. But as I read, a new world began to open up to me, and things began to change. I no longer saw myself as flesh and bones. I became completely aware that I was the son of God, and that I was spiritual, perfect. My thought was filled with light.

Within two or three months, the acne and the scars on my face completely disappeared. That was about ten years ago.

Nowadays, it feels great when people say to me, "You have beautiful skin." When I look at myself in the mirror, I sometimes feel that I'm living a dream. Then something inside me says, "It's not a dream. You're perfect."