Monday, December 1, 2014

The Small and Simple Things

¿Hola, persons in Los Estados Unidos!

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving this week!  I spent mine on a bus for 8 hours traveling to Quito.  Then, when we got there, we had saltine crackers and Coca Cola for dinner.  Made me more grateful when we have a real Thanksgiving dinner!

While in Quito, President Richardson took all the new missionaries to a monument in Quito called Panecillo.  Its a big statue of Mary I think, that over looks the majority of Quito.  It is so surprising to see how big Quito really is.  I have NEVER seen a city that big, and in a country that is about the size of Nevada.  Really cool view though.

This week I realized something.  I realized that the small and simple things that we as missionaries do each day may seem small and meaningless to us, but to those we teach or talk to, they may change their lives.  The following is that story.

Elder Gonzalez and I found a new family to teach right before we left to Quito this last week.  The Familia Querevalu.  We were walking down their street and we saw the wife, Paula, outside washing clothes.  We talked to her and she invited us in out of the rain.  We gave her a quick version of the Plan of Salvation, and left because we had another appointment to go to.  We returned the next day and gave the whole family (Father, Mother, three daugthers), the Restoration lesson.  Then the father agreed to come to church on Sunday, and see how it would benefit his family.

After church, he told us the most amazing story.  He said that the same morning that we contacted his wife, they had a major argument and that they wanted to separate.  He left for the day, and when he came back to start to gather the last of his things to leave for good, his wife told him that two young men stopped by and want to share a message with you and how it can help our family.  He reluctantly agreed to listen to us.  He even prepared questions and statements to be ready to argue or Bible Bash with us if he already knew the things that we were going to teach were true.  During the acutal lesson though, he said that everything he heard was clear, and gave him a good feeling inside.  We committed them to pray specifically to know if the message was true, and they followed through.

Paula is VERY pregnant and has trouble sleeping at night.  So in the middle of the night, she woke her husband Jhon and prayed again to know if our message was true.  She recieved a big feeling of peace and tranquility, and took that as her answer that this is true.  Jhon, however, didnt feel anything yet.  Also, after they prayed, Jhon said that Paula slept so well the rest of the night, he thought she was dead.  The next day something terrible happened.  Paula fell, and fell flat on her stomach, which means ON the unborn baby.  They hurried to the hospital to get her checked out.  When they arrived, there were two other women there with pregnancy issues as well.  They both has just been bumped in the stomach, not nearly as severe as Paula, but one woman lost her baby, and the other had to have an emergency C-Section at only 7 months of pregnancy.  When it was Paulas turn, the doctor was dumbfounded to find that her baby was 100% fine, and that nothing was wrong.  Miracles do happen!

Jhon proceeded to tell us that his answer that this is all true is that us missionaries showed up right when his family was hanging by a thread.  He had been praying to find a way to make his family more united, or if he should just leave.  Elder Gonzalez and I showed up almost literally at the last moment, and now they have great desires to continue investigating the church and unite their family even more.  

We had transfers this week, but no one in my district got transferred.  We were all waiting in the casa of the ZL anxiously waiting for the call from the Assistants.  When we were informed that we were all staying (we all wanted to stay here REALLY bad), the place errupted.  We then tackled our DL to the ground and tickled him in celebration.  It was a good day.

I hope you all have a good week, and hope to hear from you soon!  The Church is true.  The little things we do everyday that may seem meaningless, can change someone else´s live for the better.  So always strive to be like Jesus Christ is all that you do.  Till next week!

Con amor,

Èlder Lomeli


Elder Lomeli overlooking Quito from Panecillo 

Zona Oriente Norte with our Zone T-Shirts we had made

The statue at Panecillo

Typical neighborhood and afternoon in Lago Agrio

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