Milagros

Editors note: Tanner's update was delayed this week because the missionaries were allowed to go to the temple and had a different day to email. 

This week has been without a doubt one of the greatest weeks of my mission, if not the greatest. The GOAT, as they say back in the USA. Hopefully that’s still a thing. And not just cuz we had to chase/herd some actual goats through the street, which we did. And it wasn’t because we helped break some nice people, who had a little too much to drink, into their own house. It wasn’t the three straight days I had pupusas, the tortilla cooking lessons, or the futbol we played in the dirt streets of the jungle while knocking gates. It was kind of the day we got to help an old guy with only 7 fingers and one foot make fireworks in his tin shack factory. Definetely wasn’t the buses I had to hang out of with bags between my legs, the crazy rainstorms, the tarantula we killed with a chancla, or the doors slammed in our faces; the thousands of bananas that random people give us every other day; the grasshoppers the size of small dogs. 

 Most of that stuff was pretty great, but what made this week the best was the Milagros.

We’ve been trying to find a house here to start a little church group and we prayed extra hard Tuesday to find one. Right as we finished praying and hit the streets we saw a house for sale. Then this week we found 2 more places. Also Rafael and his son Marvin have been reading and praying a lot, they’re trying hard to change their work schedule for church. Three families came to church this week that haven’t come in months. The lady who taught us to make tortillas attended church with us for the first time and loved it. Another friend of ours, Tomas 'pic' came and loved it too. Just a side note that dude is great. Has 9 cats and the voice of a movie narrator. But the greatest miracle of all came on Sunday.

A couple months ago, some missionaries in California sent some info down here, about a person who wanted to hear more about our message. We got a first name, a city, and a house color. So the missionaries here haven’t been able to do much, but Saturday we decided to have a little faith and shoot our shot on Sunday. So we asked around and ended up on a bus. Over an hour later we arrive in a small little town called San Juan Tepezontes. Someone suggested we get in a pickup so we do, and head in the general direction of where someone thinks her little city/neighborhood might be. After a few minutes in the car we start praying. And as soon as we finish, the truck stops and we pick up some more people. Turns out one of them recognized the name and 15 minutes later we were sitting on her front porch. She turned out to be a very strict Catholic but that’s ok, we had a great lesson, got some more bananas and it was a special experience. Then we loaded back in a pickup but realized we didn’t have enough money to make it back to the town with the buses. Driver only charged us half price without us even asking. But the craziest part is this. . . we ended up back in that little town waiting and hoping for a bus. While there, a woman approached us and told us she was a member but hasn’t been to church for 14 years cuz she lives 2 hours away from the closest building. She has a 13 year old daughter who wants to learn more and I know us running into them was not a coincidence. She is, as far as we know, the only member of the church in that small town in the middle of the jungle and this whole experience led us to her.

Life is full of miracles and its amazing being able to see them so apparent in this country, on this mission, and with these people.

Ether 12:12 For if there be no faith among the children of men God can do no miracle among them; wherefore, he showed not himself until after their faith.

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Elder Moulton