Grace Shall Be as Your Day


This week has been one the most spiritual of my mission so far. I haven’t had many weeks but you gotta start somewhere. I’m not usually one who talks about miracles or who has a "God-made-my-day-this-way" kind of attitude. However, “grace was as my day” this week. 

The special family we've been teaching received a miracle after a particularly devastating week. My companion and I got ready to teach them with high expectations of laughter and spiritual experiences. But when we arrived, the father only greeted us with a quiet "Que dice?" compared to his usual bright smile. The father was prevented from getting a job because of some issues with paperwork and returned to some bad habits in his frustration. We tried to teach a bit about how we can never be separated from God's love, but it was a sad attempt to stir up hope. We received a message later that the father who had been progressing so much since my second day here no longer wanted us to come. 

Gratefully, the mother wanted us to come back. We returned again that Saturday with a bit more concern and fear. The father told us that he felt he didn’t have any faith. Everything we worked so hard on began to dissipate. We asked him "You have felt the Spirit before, no?" His attitude changed a bit, but at the end of the lesson they still needed money for food because they didn’t have anything for their kids. We gave them 80 pesos (about $4) and my companion told them, “You can either go and buy something now or you can use the money for the 30 minute travel to church and you will see a miracle.” 

I personally didn’t have much hope but I desired to have it. 

They ended up coming with us to church. I awkwardly greeted them and we went into the chapel. The father began to feel very bad and sick as the result of some problems. The Ward Mission Leader, my companion, and I went and took him to another room with an air conditioner. We talked with him for a long while trying to comfort him with our words of Christ. The meeting eventually ended and the 30 or so people all noticed something was wrong. The Bishop eventually came in and helped us give the father blessing. 

We went to visit him again later that day to see if he was feeling any better. When we came by we found two of the ward members there--one had brought groceries for them and one of them offered Juan a temporary job until he could get all the things he needed for the long-term job he has almost gotten that I’ve mentioned in a previous email. The member did this because he saw how distraught the father was at the church and because he had been in a similar situation a few years ago with his own family. 

What those two members did is the church. 

I am not a missionary to simply represent a building or an organized religion. That simple, grand act of charity that can change lives is the Church. 

He Sent His Son for us,                                                                                                                         Elder d'Evegnee

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