270 Milagros

Querida Familia,

Sometimes I wonder how they did it.
Brand new to the church and yet brimming with fiery faith--faith strong enough to impel them to leave behind their homes and families, all their earthly possessions, and sometimes even their home lands in order to travel thousands of miles on foot and join with their fellow Saints in Zion.
I wonder how they pulled their handcarts, how they went without food, how they walked barefoot over the frozen ground, leaving behind bloody footprints in the snow and their loved ones whom death had stealthily, silently claimed. 
I wonder where they found the strength to keep walking...to put one foot in front of the other...even when they were starving and freezing and falling apart.
I wonder how they did it.

You know that thing they call mid-life crisis? When adults realize that their lives are half over and lose their sense of purpose and all that? 
Sometimes I have days when I feel the same. 
Sometimes my heart gets tired, or my ears get tired of hearing "no," or my back gets tired of carrying heavy scriptures without teaching any lessons. 
Sometimes my smile gets tired...and sometimes my Spirit gets tired. 

But Heavenly Father is so good and merciful, and, Happy Hump Day to me, He whispered in my ear, "Study Mercy. Study Grace." 
So I did.

And then, miracle of all miracle, we watched 17 Miracles on Friday night. I don't think there has ever been better timing in the history of Noches de Rama. Or in the history of movies. Not really sure which is longer.

Sometimes I wonder if the pioneers ever suffered from a mid-journey crisis. Sometimes I wonder if Ammon did, too. Perhaps when he hit his 7-year anniversary in the mission field, he sat down on a rock and said, "Man. I'm tired. This is kind of rough." In his own words, his heart was so discouraged that he was about to turn back. Samuel the Lamanite was about to return to his home after having been thrown out of the city. Alma the Younger, too. Perhaps the pioneers sometimes felt homesick, missed the luxuries of their casas or their friends overseas...missed their warm beds and warm food and warm clothing. 

But in each of their moments when God's prophets and pioneers must have been right about to turn back, He sent them a miracle. Manna in the wilderness, or a soft voice from heaven that spoke peace to their soul and commanded them to keep moving forward. That is grace. The power that enables us to do more than we could ever do on our own--to be more than we could ever be on our own. And somehow, He loves His children enough to continue blessing them with miracles and continue spurring them forward every time they, in their weak and mortal state, sit down on their rocks and feel again like giving up.

Heavenly Father blessed us this week with a family. A true, real life, modern-day miracle--manna in a wilderness of four solid months without baptisms or even progressing investigators.

Johana and Leo moved to Chile from Colombia with their two children two years ago, and they are absolute angels. We found the family about a month and a half ago through Karen, the 10 year old daughter, and a few weeks later were finally able to teach her mom, Johana, about the Book of Mormon and then the Restoration. She ate everything up as fast as we could teach it and began immediately to read the Book of Mormon. We had been praying so hard that her husband would be receptive as well so that they could all progress together as a family. On Wednesday night, we were finally able to teach them both together, and it was an hour and a half of the most spiritual Lesson 1 in which I have ever participated.

Everything made perfect, complete sense to them. That God loves us, that He has always called prophets, that He sent His Son to establish His Church, the great Apostay, and the Restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ through Joseph Smith. The entire message was so logical...and they asked such GOOD questions and shared such profound thoughts and experiences that we knew they had been prepared by a loving Father to receive His missionaries for a long time.

In response to their questions, we taught them about the Holy Ghost, baptism, and finally about the Book of Mormon, explaining that each of these are tools that God gives us in order to help us make good decisions and one day make it back to Him. We bore testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and the huge source of guidance that it has been in our lives, and Leo exclaimed, "Well, if there's a book out there that contains all the answers to our questions, we're going to have to read it!"

We excitedly explained to them that we can't teach everything in one visit but would love to continue coming back to keep teaching them, and they both, thrilled, invited us back for the next lesson.

Sometimes God sends manna in the wilderness. He may not be able to fight our battles for us, but He is perfectly aware of the battles we are fighting, and when we sit down on our rocks and feel like giving up...He sends miracles.

I know that God is a merciful God, full of grace and truth. I know that He is a God of miracles. And even though serving a mission is, without a doubt, the absolute hardest thing I have ever done, I know that He has been there with me all along, every single step of the way, sending little tender mercies each and every day to help me keep the faith and keep on pulling my handcart. I am so grateful for the past nine months that He has given me to serve Him. And I am grateful for the grace with which He has enabled me to do so. 

270 days.

270 miracles.

Con todo mi amor,
Hermana Sanford

March Consejo de Lideres

Happy Hump Day to Me

Hermanas Lopez and Sanford