Overcoming Adversity

Overcoming Adversity in Italy

                One of the most difficult things that I had to overcome while living in Italy was actually learning how to speak Italian. In high school I had become pretty proficient at speaking German, and I must admit that I thought Italian would be just as easy. But in the first 3 months of my missionary service, the Italian language still eluded me. I studied hard every day trying to learn new words and correct grammar. But it seemed that the harder I tried the worse I became. I couldn’t really express myself in a coherent way, and it was even more difficult for me to understand things that were said to me. Every sentence that I heard sounded like one really long word. The worst part was that on Sundays when I would go to church (a place where I should have been able to at least recognize some of the vocabulary) I was just as lost as I always was.

                It was almost too much to take. I wasn’t used to having my honest efforts not be rewarded with success. I remember thinking that my best just didn’t seem like enough. It was then that I realized I need help. I began to pray earnestly for help and strength to overcome this trial. I still worked just as hard to try and improve my language skills, but I slowly began to notice that there seemed to be some tiny improvements in my capabilities. I began to start to kind of recognize some words. But it still wasn’t enough. I still was met with adversity and became depressed and frustrated when I couldn’t communicate with people.

                One night it became too much for me to bear. That night I knelt down and poured out my soul to my Father in heaven asking for help. I had worked so hard and had yet to see significant results. All I wanted to do was understand the people we were trying to teach and help them overcome their problems.

                The next day we were at church in the middle a lesson and I remember that one of the church members stood up to read a quote. Inexplicably as the quote was read I understood every single word. I was filled with joy. I turned to my colleague and said, “Did you hear that? That was a great quote!” He looked at me confused (because of course he had understood what was read). For me this had been a modern miracle. I had understood and entire sentence of Italian and it felt great.

                This is exactly what I had needed. I needed to see a modicum of success. Something that showed me that what I was doing was working. I know our Heavenly Father cares about each of us and is aware of our struggles and difficulties. He knows what we need to do to grow and just what we are capable of becoming. He loves us and for this reason we are allowed to face and overcome adversity.  

-Bradley Zentgraf

Overcoming adversity in Switzerland

                One great example of overcoming adversity that I witnessed on my mission was from one of my favorite families- the Kargbo family.  I’ve mentioned them a few times in these posts, but just a reminder they are the family that I had the privilege of seeing baptized in my first area of Winterthur.  They were a family that escaped from Sierra Leone to Liberia and then onto Switzerland where I found them.  They had amazing faith, and they were great examples to me.  Even while we were still teaching them they would bring their friends to appointments to be taught as well.  I remember some lessons where they would start teaching and bearing testimony to their friends about principles such as fasting or the Book of Mormon.  They were, and are, a tremendous family.

                That family went through quite a bit of adversity before and after their baptism.  I don’t remember everything that happened to them, but I remember that we would receive a phone call from them a couple of times a week because they were struggling.  Most of their struggles had to do with their family that was still down in Africa.  Shortly after their baptism, they got a phone call saying that Margaret’s brother was killed.  That was a hard night for all of us, but especially Margaret.  We went over to give her a blessing, and it helped a little bit; but those are rough situations. 

                I remember a couple weeks after their baptism, one day after church we were walking with the Kargbo family and I was talking with Augustine.  He was telling me of some of the trials they were going through. He would mention temptation to smoke, temptation not to go to church, and all of the stuff going on with their family down in Africa and he seemed to be feeling a little down.  He told me that it was hard, but that it was worth it if they were on the right path.  I was able to bare testimony about enduring to the end, and the blessings that come from it. 

                A few weeks after that, I was talking to him again, and he was telling me about how good he felt about having been baptized, and that they were living the gospel.  He said that he had never been happier.  That family had great faith that led them through the trials that they were having.  A great scripture is in the Book of Mormon, found in the book of Ether chapter 12 verse 6 where it says, “Ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.”  Our faith will be tested. We will be required to do things that seem hard, or that seem difficult.  But if we endure to the end, I promise that the blessings that we receive are worth more than the price that we pay while going through our trials.  The Kargbo family was a great example to me about overcoming adversity and sticking through it.  

-Ryan Hutchings

Fasting

Awesome Fasting Experience in Italy

                While living in Bolzano, a small city tucked between the beautiful Italian Alps, I had an amazing experience with fasting. There was a long time, older member who had fallen ill with terminal cancer. This man had lived an exceptional life full of service and love for his fellow man. He had lived a Christ-like life and been an example to many around him. It was sad and unfortunate that such an amazing individual would have such a trial in his life. The entire ward loved this man and their deepest desire was to receive a miracle that would spare this man his life.

                This man received many priesthood blessings from his sons and church leaders asking fervently for increased health and strength, but then one day a suggestion was brought forward from the congregation that we should fast for this brother’s recovery. It was decided that for a period of two weeks the members of the ward would fast, one person or family each taking the responsibility for fasting for one day. This was a wonderful idea. The members of the church in Bolzano were all unified in this cause. Each day my thoughts fell upon the person for whom we were fasting and also upon the person who was sacrificing for their brother and friend. The day that my missionary colleague and I had volunteered to fast turned out to be a blistering hot day. But we were stalwart in our desire to fast and pray for our brother and friend who had given so much to serve his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. My heart was continually filled with a silent prayer for this man. And it seemed that every spare moment that we rested from our proselyting work that day I couldn’t help but think about how I might be able to help this man who was in such great need of assistance. It was a very powerful experience to be so focused on helping someone else, and I could feel the love and compassion that the entire congregation had for this individual. We ended our fast after the 2 week period and left the rest up to the Lord.

                Shortly thereafter I left Bolzano to go live in another city in Italy. But several months later I met up with my colleague who had served in Bolzano with me and he recounted the amazing story of how this man had stood up in front of the members of the church one Sunday and informed them all that his doctors had discovered that his cancer was in remission. It was a mystery to these medical experts as to what had exactly happened. Inexplicably this man’s cancer had gone away.

                I was grateful to the Lord for letting me here the stunning conclusion to this story involving fasting. And I was especially grateful for the faith and prayers of all of the members of the church that carried such power and had helped save the life of such an inspiring man.

                                                                                                                                         -Bradley Zentgraf

The Power and Effectiveness of Fasting

                To be completely honest I can’t remember any particular stories that were “ensign worthy” about fasting.  Never did I fast for someone to pop up out of the blue as a new investigator and say that they wanted to be baptized which later came to fruition. My experiences with fasting were more of experiences that everyone usually experiences with fasting.  I do have a testimony of fasting. It works. It shows the Lord that we are willing to sacrifice a lot for an answer, or an extra need of strength.  There were many times on the mission were I needed a boost of strength, and fasting and prayer did the trick.  I remember a few times specifically where we had had bad weeks with teaching, and I didn’t have a lot of hope.  In these times I would turn to fasting, prayer and scripture study.  Every time, I would feel the extra strength and hope that I needed to get me through the challenges that I was going through. Fasting is also a way that one can gain a testimony of Jesus Christ and the truth.  This is a huge principle that has helped me with my own testimony.  I have had great experiences with prayer, but I feel that the moments where I was asking and desiring to know of the truthfulness of this gospel, my most firm answers came while I was fasting for the truth.  I know that this is the gospel of Jesus Christ because of prayer and fasting, and I have felt the Holy Ghost bear testimony to me that Christ lives, and that this is His church- led by a living prophet of God.  I hope that we can all fast and pray more fervently in our everyday lives to find the truth, and draw nearer to our loving Heavenly Father.

-Ryan Hutchings

Perseverance/ Enduring to the End

Persevering in Italy

                Most days in Italy we didn’t have a single appointment on our schedule. During these days we had a lot of opportunities to learn about ourselves and about persevering.

                It would have been so easy to get depressed and throw a pity party for ourselves since we didn’t have an appointment. Our lack of success and teaching could have been a source of contention and argument between me and my missionary colleagues. It would have been so easy to bend the rules and leave the apartment late in the morning or return home early. I remember how difficult it was to summon all the positivity and strength I had on a daily basis to overcome these setbacks and persevere, hoping that blessing would come and things would get better.

                Often times we didn’t see and tangible results from our persevering. I remember returning to our apartment at night on time, thinking, “Well, the only thing we accomplished in those last 45 minutes was get closer to hypothermia than we were yesterday!” But looking back on these tough and trying times I think that in addition to finding the frostbite thresholds of my body, I was taught about and learned better work ethic and character. These trials shaped my personality. They made me into the person I am today. 

-Bradley Zentgraf

           Enduring to the End in Switzerland

            When I was in my 5^th transfer in the field, or about 7 months I was emergency transferred from a city in southern Germany called Freiburg, to a small town in Switzerland about 10 km away from my first area, where I would become senior companion; the town was called Frauenfeld.  I was pretty excited to go back to that area of the country.  I knew a lot of the missionaries in the district and zone, and I was only going to be a 10 minute train ride away from Winterthur (my first area). 

            When I got there, I met my companion Elder Tingey, who was a tall, very skinny fellow with dark hair that was perfectly parted to the side. If he had glasses, he would look like a typical nerd you see on T.V.  I can say this, because we became good friends over the next 4 and a half months while he was my companion.  Having been in the same district as Frauenfeld before I got transferred to Germany 2 weeks earlier, I knew that they didn’t have many solid investigators- in fact, I couldn’t remember one solid investigator.  This fact was then solidified with Elder Tingey as I was talking to him that first day in the area.  This was an interesting situation I was in.  I get emergency transferred to become senior companion to an Elder who is 6 weeks out in the field and I’m in an area where there are no investigators, and my German wasn’t the best. I mean, come on, I was only learning it for about 8 months! I felt a little overwhelmed, and humbled to say the least. 

            With the situation not so ideal, Elder Tingey and I went to work.  We worked hard too.  I remember days getting out of bed, and I was barely able to move my legs because we had walked so far the day before, and then we would do doors or be on the streets all day to find anyone to teach.  It was an intense area.  To make a long story short our hard work paid off. We actually got to the point where we were leading the mission in lessons taught in the week. We got along great with the branch, and we were working with them awesomely.  We had investigators, and we were finding people too! I was enjoying the mission, and we were working hard to get it that way. 

            It came time for Elder Tingey to leave me and I got a brand new fresh missionary, Elder Fawcett. He was a great kid, and not really knowing how to train, I was just going to work hard like Elder Tingey and I had done.  We did this. We continued to work hard, however sometimes the Lord tests his servants, and within a matter of weeks all of our investigators we were working with (it wasn’t more than 2 or 3) told us they didn’t want to meet with us, or they moved out of our area. Even most of our less-actives started to not meet with us.

            We had to go back to finding with sore legs and all! Oh happy day! At this point in time, I was pretty discouraged. Everything that I had already worked for had just gone away in the matter of 2 weeks.  Unfortunately, over the next 3 months, it wouldn’t change either.  We were having a hard time finding people, setting up appointments, and just finding people who would talk to us.  It was a hard area, and I did get pretty discouraged. 

            At the end of my 7 months in that area, I was looking back at what I had done, and on paper it showed that I had done nothing.  We were teaching maybe 2 or 3 lessons a week, just as many as we were teaching 7 months ago when I came into the area.  It’s hard to think that the past 7 months of hard work were almost for nothing.  When I knew that my time was coming to an end, I started praying for one last miracle to happen before I left; if for nothing else, just to let me know that my time wasn’t wasted.

            One night on my last week in the area, I was feeling pretty depressed and discouraged about things and I couldn’t sleep. I decided I needed to pray…alone.  So, I went into the living room while my companion was sleeping. I started letting the Lord know my thoughts and my feelings about the situation, and just asked for one miracle to happen.  While I was praying, I had a great feeling come over me, and I was happy! I knew that the Lord was pleased with the work I put in that area, and that my hard work will count for something, and as long as I finished out strong He would provide the miracle I was looking for. It was one of the most spiritual experiences in my life! I felt good and great and confident about the work I had done.  The next day was Sunday, and the ward was planning on throwing a BBQ after church, so we used that as leverage to invite all of our investigators and less-actives and even people that we would meet on the doors to church. 

            That Sunday was probably one of the best Sundays on the mission.  We had an investigator, Ronny show up and he even brought his girlfriend with him! It was awesome! I was super stoked that they came because Ronny had moved out of the area and it had been a few weeks since our last lesson with him. We had invited him, I believe, through a voicemail.  I then remember sitting in the Sunday school lesson, and sister Klaumuenzner comes and taps me on the shoulder and says that there’s a guy here that we invited.  We invited a lot of people, so it could have been almost anyone off the street. I walk out to the foyer and see a man whose door we had knocked on a week or two before and given a Book of Mormon.  We had tried to get in touch with him a couple times after that, but he wouldn’t answer the phone and he was never home when we went by.  Talk about a miracle! Then I said good-bye to the ward, and they were talking about missionary work and how they could help us out. I made quite a few good friends in that ward, and I knew that I had made a difference, with the Lord’s help.  I knew that the Lord was always there with me helping me through the rough times in that area.  It taught me to keep working hard and to never give up on the Lord!

-Ryan Hutchings

Perseverance in Guatemala

            I’m sure many missionaries talk about the struggle of waking up everyday at 630 to exercise and start their laborious day until 1030 and how they endured that schedule for 2 years. However, even after I was privileged to work that hard for two years I could never compare to Q’eqchi’ people’s normal life. Everyday they woke up before dawn to go to their fields and work hard so that their family could eat. They would carry hundreds of pounds of crops daily to last them the year. However, what most struck me was their attitude. I would greet a man with more than 100 pounds on his back and he was always happy to see a missionary. They would be working in the exhausting heat but always have time to make a joke. They learned how to persevere. I always enjoyed the context people hear when they see the line “Endure to the End”. I used to see that negative connotation too. However, I don’t think that’s what it means. Like the Q’eqchi’s, our life is exhausting but it is incredibly fun. I would see men walk 2 and a half hours just for the Sunday meeting. If our life is the gospel then I wish I could learn from the Q’eqchi’. What we may see as tedious and ‘a hard thing’ that the Lord commands us then I think we haven’t quite learned what it is to endure to the end. We persevere the opposition, we persevere the temptations, and we persevere the world, but we take pride and joy in sharing the message of the restored gospel. I know that this particular doctrine is hard to see right away, but once we do we will realize why it is such a blessing to be a part of this church and a part of God’s eternal family.

-Will Valdez

Eternal Families

Eternal Families are awesome

                One of the best, and most important, parts of the gospel is the fact that families can be together forever. Our family relationships can continue on after we die. This is something that excites me quite a bit because I love my family. 

                My story for the week also did not happen on the mission, but as I mentioned last week my dad helped build a temple down in southern Mexico and we all lived down there for about 9 months.  One of the coolest experiences I had, happened towards the end of our experience there.  When a temple is completed there are a couple of days where they have an open house, where pretty much anyone can take a walk through the temple and see the beauty of it.

                Right before the open house on a Monday night, my dad told us that he wanted to take us through the temple as a family to look at the finished product.  When we got to the temple no one else was there! It was a Monday evening, and we were pretty much the only ones in the temple.  If I remember right, there might have been maybe 2 or 3 people doing some final cleaning; but other than that we were alone.  My dad showed us the different rooms, and the temple was extremely beautiful.  The end of our tour ended in what’s called the celestial room; a beautiful room representing the celestial kingdom.  We were in the room, just my family and myself, and I remember sitting there as a family (except my brother, unfortunately, who was serving a mission in Mexico City at the time) and just thinking how awesome it is that we can be a family forever.  I felt the love of our Heavenly Father, and I was extremely grateful for the family that he sent me to. 

                I know that the authority to seal families for eternity is found within this church, and needs to be done within the Lord’s temple.  I love my family and I’m grateful we can stick together forever! 

-Ryan Hutchings 

Eternal Families in Italy

                One of the core beliefs of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is that family bonds are eternal that families are central to God’s plan. It is within families that we can find true happiness, discover our true potential, and better understand who we are, namely sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father. I loved talking to the Italian people about families. I had the blessing of growing up in a home with a loving father and mother who supported and loved me. And so I naturally loved trying to share the joy I felt in my own family with others.

                 I specifically remember one day on my mission where we were talking with a man about how much God loves us, and that one of the manifestations of His love for us is that we have families that we can spend the rest of eternity with. The man seemed very leery of this idea. He said, “So let me get this straight. You say that living forever with your family is your idea of heaven? I hate my family! I really can’t stand them, and quite frankly that sounds more like hell than heaven!”

I was so taken aback. It had never occurred to me that someone would have had a negative experience growing up in their family and would subsequently not love being with their family. I understand that not all families are perfect. And don’t get me wrong, my family is far from perfect. We have our quirks and weird idiosyncrasies. But I wouldn’t change them for the world. A family provides security from the evils around us in the world. A family helps us learn how to work hard and reach our full potential. A family teaches us what love is and how we should show love for our fellow man. I firmly believe that a strong unified family and home in which love prevails, support is felt, and life lessons are taught would improve the world more than anything else. I feel that Satan know this too, and it is precisely for this reason that the family is under attack. Satan knows how important the family is to God’s plan. He understands what a wonderful thing a family can be, and this is why Satan is constantly trying so hard to undermine and destroy them.

                  I had a missionary colleague whose family were all converts to the church. He often talked with me about what an amazing experience it was for him to be able to go to the temple and be sealed to his parents and brother for time and all eternity. I can still remember the spirit that he brought whenever he spoke of and testified of families and their eternal nature. Seeing how the knowledge of eternal families had blessed the life of this mission colleague has had a great influence on my life. Hearing his testimony on this subject has helped me reflect on how much I too love my family.

                 Probably the most important thing I have learned from my family is that they love me. They love me in spite of my many short comings and imperfections. The love that they have for me is almost indescribable. This knowledge alone is probably blessing enough, but the fact that I know I have a loving Heavenly Father who has perfect love for me that is infinitely greater than the love that my own family has for me is almost too much for me to comprehend. I will be forever grateful for the lessons that my family has taught me, and I am also grateful that thanks to the atoning sacrifice of my Savior, Jesus Christ, I can be with them for all eternity. 

-Bradley Zentgraf

The House of The Lord

Temple Experiences from Italy

                Growing up I always knew that the temple was an important and sacred place. Living in Virginia, the nearest temple was in Washington D.C., which on a good day with little traffic was at least a 3 hour drive (one way), on a bad day it was more like 5 hours or more. I have to be honest that my temple attendance before my mission was sporadic at best. To me it was just too far away and too much of a sacrifice to go on a regular basis, or go at all sometimes.

                Oddly enough it was on my mission in Italy, a country without a temple (the closest one is in Bern, Switzerland), that I really learned to appreciate the temple and understand how important it is. The Italian people served as an amazing example to me. Their faith and diligence in attending the temple showed me that no matter the sacrifice, the reward of serving the Lord in His house is worth it. Some members would travel up to 18 hours one way to spend a period of time at the temple. Some would even take a flight to England because in some instances it was cheaper and less time consuming than driving to Switzerland. Once at the temple, the Italian people would try to maximize their time there. They would often stay for 3 or 4 days. They would serve, seek inspiration, and genuinely enjoy their time in this refuge from “the world”. I could always tell when members of the church had just returned from being at the temple. I could see how rejuvenated looked and feel the strength of their spirit.

                This was astounding to me! Comparatively I had grown up with a temple “in my back yard” and had not taken advantage of it like I should have.

                The members in Italy sacrificed, prayed for, and deeply desired a temple inside their own country. In so many ways having a temple is such a strength to the local members. It galvanizes the people. It is a tangible display of their faith and hard work. Shortly after I left Italy, the Italian people were blessed with the announcement that a temple would be constructed on a patch of land on the outskirts of the city of Rome. Friends I had in Italy told me that this was a day that they would never forget. They told me that when they heard the announcement there was a cheer that erupted from the members that made the chapel resembled more of a soccer stadium than a church building!

                After leaving Italy I was determined not to forget the lessons the Italian people taught me about the importance of going to the temple. No matter how big the sacrifice may seem the reward is always greater! And we can be blessed to find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures. 

-Bradley Zentgraf

Temple Experiences from Switzerland

                I love the temple.  It is by far my favorite place on earth, and I feel very blessed to have had the opportunities and experiences I have had in my life in connection to the temple.  I have had experiences that not everyone gets to experience.  When I was 12 my dad took the family with him to Mexico while he helped build a temple.  I was able to see the construction of a temple, and all the miracles associated along with that.  It was an amazing experience.  Then when I got home from the mission, I was able to volunteer as a temple worker for a few months.  It was awesome! I love the temple. I have had some of my most sacred experiences in the temple.  It truly is the House of the Lord; a heaven on earth.  The Spirit is stronger in no other place on earth.   I love the temple. 

                On my mission, I never had the opportunity to take a family to the temple to get sealed, which is the ultimate goal of a missionary (so I would think. Baptism is a great step! However, the gospel is about uniting families for eternity).  The work was slow in Switzerland, and in the majority of my areas I saw 0 baptisms, and very little other “successes.”  So, numbers wise, my mission wasn’t extremely successful.  I loved the mission, and I worked my hardest every day I was there and the lessons I learned made it all worth it, and in my opinion it was the biggest success of my life; although it would have been nice to have gotten a few successes on the numbers side as well. 

                Like I mentioned before, when I got home from the mission I was able to volunteer as a temple worker for a few months; and there was an experience I had as a temple worker that connected my mission experience with the temple.  In the temple we do proxy ordinances for the deceased, so EVERYONE can have the opportunity to receive all the ordinances of the gospel necessary to receive eternal life.  If the idea of proxy work seems different to you, then just think of the Savior standing proxy for yourself as he suffered for your sins. He performed something that we could not do for ourselves.  It’s the same idea in the temple, the deceased, although their spirit lives on, cannot perform the ordinances themselves if they never had the opportunity while in this life.  These ordinances are done in the temple, or House of the Lord. (If you have any more questions about this, please visit Mormon.org, or leave a comment here, and we’ll do our best to respond to it. Also read 1^st Corinthians chapter 15)

                While working at the temple one Tuesday night, I was helping some sisters during the endowment session and one sister came to me with the name of the deceased sister she was doing the ordinance for, and I noticed that the deceased sister had lived in one of the cities I served in on my mission.  It was a great feeling to know that I was helping people from my mission, although I was no longer in the mission field.  I could still help them, and others, receive the ordinances necessary.  And although I never spoke with those people, for whom the temple work was being done that day, I still felt a great connection to them.

                The temple makes it possible for us to do missionary work for those who are deceased.  We become as it says in Isaiah, “Saviors on mount Zion” as we do the temple work for those who cannot perform it themselves. 

                 -Ryan Hutchings

Temple Experiences from Guatemala 

            The greatest experience a missionary could have would be to see one of his converts go to the temple with their family and be sealed for all time and eternity. This was particularly difficult for me in my mission because the temple was 15 hours away. However, I was able to see many go on to the temple and serve missions. I never really recognized the importance of the temple until I was so far away from it. I was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts and the closest temple to me was the Washington D.C temple until the year 2000 when they erected the Boston temple in Belmont. Both temples weren’t really that far away. Although I was only able to go about 5 times prior to leaving on a mission I was aware of the difference I felt in such a holy place. On a mission, one would expect to live a higher quality of life and not really need that segregation from the world that the temple brings. Oh how wrong I was. I went approximately 18 months without going to the temple. It was just too far for me to go to on a P-day and we didn’t have the permission. I started to long for the temple because I had forgotten what that feeling was like. I guess I never really appreciated the blessing of having a temple so close. At around 18 months I was able to go to the temple because of a meeting my companion and I had to attend with the mission president and other missionaries. The spiritual experience was phenomenal! I remember feeling so good and so accomplished. The covenants and level of spirituality are so sacred there that ever since I have made it a goal to go twice a month. I exhort all to work hard to get to the temple. There are always obstacles that prevent us. Whether it be 15 hours of distance, personal unworthiness, or financial stability I know that if we make going to the temple a priority we will be able to feel a constant flow of confidence in the eyes of the Lord.

-Will Valdez 

Scriptures

Scripture Stories from Italy

                I never really was able to comprehend the true value associated with being able to study the scriptures on a daily basis until I went on a mission and had the opportunity to do so every day for two years. Every day as missionaries we had the privilege to wake up early and open up the scriptures and study gospel principles that would bring happiness and peace into a person’s life.

                In my first area I had the chance to learn how to use my time effectively and really dive into the scriptures and feast upon the inspired words of the prophets. I was always somewhat disappointed when the time would come for my morning study time to conclude and I would have to finish getting ready for my missionary day. I loved my time with the scriptures and each day I wished that my scripture study sessions could always be longer than they were.

                I distinctly remember that in my second area my personal scripture study time seemed to be for whatever reason much more productive and full of inspiration. I don’t know what it was! And it was something that I was never really able to ever replicate in any other city of my mission. Each morning I would arise and read from the Book of Mormon. I would write down thoughts and impressions that I got while reading in a study journal. I was nearly able to write a chapter-by-chapter analysis of the Book of Mormon from my point of view. I would read from and learn so much from Talmage’s commentary on the Savior’s life, Jesus the Christ (a feat that I am fairly certain can only be accomplished under the mantle given to missionaries and other general authorities of the church). I would even have time to study from Preach My Gospel or other church manuals. Each day I would seem to have an unlimited amount of time to perform my personal study. I really can’t explain why I was so productive and efficient in my studies. Maybe it was the clear mountain air, maybe it was the beautiful scenery that I could see from my chair in our study room, or maybe it was me just “catching my missionary study groove”. While I never was able to put my finger on the reason for my efficiency and productivity I soon discovered that the Lord knew that I needed the scriptural preparation. While in my second area I trained a missionary. He had a difficult time adjusting to missionary life and at times even questioned his reasons for being on a mission. I had to be a source of great strength, wisdom, and guidance during these months not only for our investigators but for my companion as well. It was a very difficult period of my mission. At times I felt depressed and alone. I had to shoulder the burden of our missionary work almost single handedly. I soon realized that the Lord knew that I would face such trials and had prepared me by providing me with the doctrinal and spiritual foundation that would sustain me in my moment of need. The scriptures became my refuge, my confidant, my source of peace and comfort. I learned to love the scriptures so much during this difficult time of my mission. I saw their true value, and I thank the Lord that He was wise enough and that I was teachable enough to learn from the inspired words of the prophets.

                Like I said before, I was never able to be quite as efficient and guided in my scripture study as I was in my second area. I know that it was because the Lord knew that I would need this added guidance and support. Support that we can only find in the scriptures and guidance that we can only hope to learn from the Holy Ghost. I love the scriptures. What more can I say?

-Bradley Zentgraf

Scripture Story in Switzerland

Finding just one story that teaches of the power of the scriptures was a hard task.  There were many experiences I had on the mission that demonstrated the importance and the power that the scriptures (especially The Book of Mormon) can bring into one’s life.  Whenever people had objections, concerns, questions, or if we just needed someone to feel the spirit, we would always bring out the scriptures and most of the time it was the Book of Mormon.  I remember one family that was going through some rough times so we invited them to read daily from the Book of Mormon.  After a few weeks of that they bore testimony to us of how the scriptures gave them the extra strength that they needed to go on. There was also one investigator we had who believed some majorly wrong interpretations of the fall of Adam and Eve, and with the Book of Mormon we were able to show her that through modern revelations we know the truth of what the fall was really all about. 

One story however, that proved to me that there is something special about the scriptures and what they teach about Jesus Christ.  We had one investigator who was an immigrant from Iraq, but he was already a Christian, which was good because we weren’t allowed to teach Muslim’s without special permission and about 99.9% of Iraq is Muslim.  So, this is one guy we could teach! But since his native language wasn’t German, there was the obvious language barrier, so we gave him a Book of Mormon in Arabic.  When we gave it to him, he had let us in and we were talking about the book, and we began to read 3 Nephi 11, the story of Christ visiting America.  We had him just read it in Arabic aloud, and we would follow along in German the best we could.  My comp and I had read that chapter quite a bit so we knew what was going on in the Chapter.  When our investigator came to the part where it describes Jesus Christ descending from the sky, he stops and just says, “WOW!” and he also had a shocked or a surprised look on his face.  We asked him about it, and he explained to us that the way that it describes Christ when he descends is very powerful, and that when he reads that description he felt something overwhelming that he had never felt before.  It was a cool experience to see how in shock and awe he was at the description of Christ.  The spirit was definitely strong at that appointment.  Unfortunately however, he didn’t show up for his next appointment, and we couldn’t get a hold of him after that.  It was a great experience to have nonetheless that taught me about the power of the Book of Mormon and the scriptures in general.

-Ryan Hutchings

Scripture stories in Guatemala

Scriptures are the word of God and the only way to learn what it is our Heavenly Father expects of us. His words have always been given by the prophets that he specifically elects whether it be in a mountain or in an adytum it is the same. Some people may not believe what would typically seem like cultural paradigm, but in my experience in Guatemala I can see why it is true. So many times I was able to share something spoken by a prophet centuries earlier in such a personalized way to someone in need of it that it changed the way they lived. I’ll give an example…when I was an in area called Carcha’ I had the privilege of teaching a man named Juan Carlos. Juan Carlos was an extraordinary man that…to be honest reminded me a lot of me and my attitude in life. As a prospective biomedical engineer I tend to rely a lot of facts, theories, and evidences that infer what little empirical truths we can acquire. Juan Carlos had to learn that the scriptures are a powerful tool when seen the right way. With so many different versions of the bible it is almost impossible to decipher who is right and who is wrong. With the Book of Mormon though, we can define specifically how we can interpret God’s words. He spent hours looking at the bible and trying to figure out what was true and what wasn’t. His knowledge far surpassed my own, but there was one thing he had to learn about the scriptures. It is that it has to be interpreted by the spirit of God and not by men. After an apparent internal struggle, he trusted in what he felt was right and decided to be baptized. I love how the scriptures were that tool necessary for him to see the path that God had prepared for him. I trust in God and in the prophets he has sent for us to hear. I know that they can be a huge tool for us to progress if we utilize it in the right way. I know it cause Juan Carlos taught it to me. 

Repentance

Repentance in Italy

Repentance is the changing of one’s soul that brings about a new attitude towards, God, oneself, and towards life in general. Repentance entails an obligation that one will distance themselves from and abandon wickedness and turn one’s heart and mind to God. True repentance is a natural result from our love for God and our desire to obey His holy commandments.

Repentance is a process.

True repentance can be very hard.

One of the greatest joys of being a missionary is that you get to help people discover what a glorious and amazing blessing true repentance can be. The changes that people often need to make in order to reconcile themselves to God can be very difficult and painful. Our personal vices and desires may appear to bring happiness, but this “happiness” is often fleeting and does not last. Happiness that the world promises will never satisfy; it will leave you empty. Only the gospel and the love of our Heavenly Father can bring us true joy and satiate our quest for happiness. This is both the blessing (I say blessing because the joy of success is almost indescribable) and curse (I say curse because it is a process that is not so easily accomplished) that we missionaries have to help our brothers and sisters throw off the natural man, be born again changed from their carnal and fallen state to a state of righteousness, being redeemed of God, becoming and recognizing their true potential as sons and daughters of the most high God entitled to everything that He has.

I would say that on my mission 3 individuals stick out as teaching me the most about repentance. These three persons helped me see how great and miraculous repentance can be when applied in our lives. Maribel was a Peruvian who had been baptized at age 16, but in her 20+ years living in Italy had lost all contact with the church. Silvia was a woman who had been found street contacting. She had an addiction to smoking and lived a very stressful and trying life. Diana was a mother of 2 who had learned of the church as a teenager, but had not joined for various family reasons. All three of these women changed before my eyes. Their lives all improved and became filled with joy as they embraced the gospel and repented of their sins. Silvia and Diana were baptized. Maribel returned to full activity in the church and had her 8 year old daughter baptized.

I loved these people with all my heart, which is why it is so hard for me knowing that each of these people also fell away from the church. Each took back up their old lives, returning to the things that they had known before finding the church. They had seen the positive changes the gospel had brought into their lives, and in spite of this they still decided to turn away.

Why?! I don’t have a good answer to this question, but I do know that even in these seemingly hopeless circumstances, there is still hope. For I know that repentance is a continual process. It is not a one-time event of “being saved”! It is something that we work at daily, and work hard at, daily! I know that these individuals can still be reconciled before God and return to Him, and that He will welcome them with open arms and say as the father of the prodigal son said to his son, “For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.” I know this to be true! 

-Bradley Zentgraf 

Repentance in Switzerland

                First of all, I want to write a quick two cents about repentance. Repentance comes with such a negative connotation, and I hope that this can change.  As the Bible says, we are all sinners and come short of the glory of God; and then it also says that God so loved world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever should believe on him should not perish but have everlasting life.  Although we all sin and come short of the glory of God, our Father in Heaven knew that this would happen and therefore prepared a way for us to be able to reach that goal of everlasting life. Jesus Christ suffered for our sins so that we can repent and become clean of our sins. Repentance is the only way that we can receive this forgiveness.  The invitation is given to everyone to repent, or to change, or to become a better person. That is all that repentance is. Changing one’s life to bring it back onto “the path” that leads to eternal life.  I love the idea of repentance, and I am very grateful that the Lord allows us to change, and when we do change we can receive the ultimate gift of forgiveness. Amazing! 

                This story is about a prime example of a family who repented, and the changes that were made in their lives and the blessings that came from these steps of repentance.  Last week I told the story of the Kargbo family, and when they made the decision to be baptized and this week I want to talk about the changes that this family made before they made that decision to be baptized. 

                When we first met the family, Augustine was a smoker. He didn’t smoke a lot, maybe a few cigarettes a week, but this needed to stop since it is a commandment to take care of our bodies, and more specifically not to smoke.  We talked to him a few times about this, and we went through a program and he stopped smoking! It was a great step.  He was a smoker and stopped. He had changed his life in that aspect.

                There were a few other aspects that the family changed in order to bring their lives into accordance with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  They started coming to church on a weekly basis.  I remember one week they told us that they were going to come to church and right before church started I saw Augustine and Thomas walking to the door in the rain and we could tell they were in the rain a little longer than expected.  They then explained to us that they missed the train and so they had to walk. What a great example of faith.  The town they lived in was a few kilometers away and they walked it in the rain to come to church.  They started to read in the scriptures daily, and they started saying their daily family prayers.  The changes were remarkable and we could notice a difference in their lives.  Then, as was explained last week, they decided to get baptized to cap off their repentance process. 

                I remember the day after Augustine and Margaret were baptized, Augustine showed up to church in a new suit wearing a white shirt and a tie, whereas weeks before he would come in a colored button up shirt with jeans. He looked nice the previous weeks; however it was no suit and tie combo.  When he showed up that day in the suit, and was talking to him and I told him, “Hey Augustine, looking sharp today!” and then he responded with, “I’m a new man!”  That day in church he bore his testimony about how the Gospel had changed his life.  I could tell that this man had repented, and he felt the wonderful feeling of forgiveness that comes after one repents.  Augustine had become “a new man” just like everyone one of us can become if we fix what needs to be fixed in our lives and live more in accordance with the Gospel.  

-Ryan Hutchings

Repentance in Guatemala

            One of the best gifts that our Father in Heaven regaled us with is the miracle of forgiveness. I think that forgiveness is so cherished because of the difficulty of acquiring it. Repentance isn’t a moment in which we enter water and become automatically perfect, but rather it is a change in lifestyle to perfect every moment we have. No matter at which angle we approach repentance we must take the acute or ‘strait’ and narrow path. God provided this way of escape from the evils that envelop this world. As a missionary this was the message that I brought to every Q’eqchi’ family imaginable.

            One of my favorite stories of repentance occurred in my second Polochik area called Sajomte’. A strong LDS man seemed to shine like one of the brightest stars in the jungle’s night sky. He was constantly making appropriate and inspiring comments during class and always willing to help the missionaries. One day I went to visit his house (he was reading his Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith book) and I heard his story and why he was so strong in the church. He was excommunicated when he was younger for a heinous sin he had committed in a time of weakness. He separated from the church but always wanted to return because he knew it was true in his heart. Instead of running away from this impeding step in his eternal progression he started to contemplate what it is he really wanted. He mentioned the pain and fear that we all know too well that accompanies sin. He didn’t want those feelings to engulf him in this life or the next. He started his attempt to return to the church. I may not be an expert in psychology of excommunicated people but I can only imagine the many opposing influences he faced. Whether it was the members who look down on sinners, other church influences, or the devil himself...he faced them all. His process was arduous but to this day he loves the decision he made that day and lives up to all of God’s standards. I even have confidence that that man will end up in the highest of God’s mansions possible. He is a true inspiration to me because I can see how the atonement has worked in someone’s life to where they are in a state of peace. I’ll always remember him and what I learned on the top of the Ch’ulak mountains. 

-Will Valdez

FAITH

Faith in Italy

        For the first 6 months of my mission I lived in the Piemonte region of Italy. In my 1^st area we were teaching a young man by the name of Samuel. He was about 12 or 13 years old, and I always saw him as the little brother I never had. This is probably why he was one of the most favorite persons I taught on my mission. When I first met him I learned that he had been listening to the missionaries already for about 2 years, but was unable to get baptized because even though his mom was fine with it, his dad was adamantly against him joining the church.

        I loved our appointments with Samuel. He had a real love for the scriptures. I remember him saying, “Anziani, I really want to read Alma 32. All the missionaries talk about what an amazing chapter it is.” But Samuel wouldn’t just read the chapter, he wanted to read all the preceding chapters and then he would read Alma 32. We helped Samuel make daily reading goals, and finally about at the half way point in my time in my first area Samuel finally made it to Alma 32. I remember our meeting with him that day. He went on and on about what a beautiful chapter it was. I could tell that Samuel really had felt the effects and blessings that faith in the Lord Jesus Christ brings into one’s life. I remember thinking to myself, “Why doesn’t God let Samuel get baptized? It’s a righteous desire. He obviously has faith, and I have faith that it could happen. So why doesn’t it come to pass?”

        About a year later in my mission, I returned to Piemonte to oversee 5 different areas as a zone leader. Samuel still had not been baptized. I had continued to pray (however, probably not as fervently as I had done in my 1^st city) that Samuel would get baptized. I remember that about a week after starting my work as a zone leader we got a phone call from the missionaries that were in my 1^st city. They said that Samuel was going to talk with his dad the next day about wanting to get baptized. The missionaries were asking all of us in the zone to pray that night specifically that Samuel would be able to soften his father’s heart and finally get baptized. I called all the missionaries in the zone. I pleaded with them that we all might unite our faith so that this righteous desire could finally come to pass.

          That night in my own personal prayers I wrestled with the Lord. I pleaded that He remember all of the times that I had prayed for Samuel and all the times that previous missionaries had prayed for Samuel. I remember saying that I had faith. I knew it was possible. I knew God wanted it. And I knew that it was right. I said, “Father I know that with Thee all things are possible, and Thou knowest the desires of my heart and of Samuel’s heart. If it be Thy will, let this wonderful thing come to pass that Samuel can get baptized.” I felt very calm and comforted, and I instantly felt that whatever happened would be for the best. Somehow I knew that the time had finally come, and Samuel would be getting baptized. I felt the added strength and faith of the missionaries in the zone. Together we were united and full of faith that this miracle would finally come. The next day we received the most wonderful news. Samuel’s dad had given him permission to be baptized. I was overjoyed. I had learned a valuable lesson about being full of faith, doubting not, and being ready to accept the Lord’s will in all things. For faith is not to have a perfect knowledge but to hope for things which are not seen but which are true. And eventually if you hold out faithful until the end God will bless you to see those things which you most desire which are in accordance with His will.       

                                                                                                        -Bradley Zentgraf

Faith in Switzerland

                When I was in my first city, Winterthur, we were teaching this awesome family from Liberia, the Kargbo family.  There was Augustine and Margaret, and their children Thomas and Dominique. They grew to become some of my best friends in Switzerland, and the closest thing to a family that I had over there. They are great people.  There is one night that we shared with them that I will never forget. 

                I first arrived in the city in June, and we were teaching them up until the end of September when this story took place.  For most people who served missions, this is a long time to be teaching one family who did not make any progress (come to church, read daily in the scriptures, or accept the invitation to be baptized).  I remember one time we thought about not going back to teach them because they just would not progress, and we needed to spend our time elsewhere, however, they started to read in the Book of Mormon every day, and prayed as a family every day. It was great! So we continued to teach them. 

                They were doing this for about a month, and Elder Bealer and I knew that they were ready for baptism, and to make that covenant with God.  We had brought up the topic with them before, and they were really hesitant about it.  One major concern was the language.  They were going to a church that spoke English (their native language) and we only had services in German, and they had responsibilities in their other church as well.   You can see why that would be a pretty big concern.  They believed in the Book of Mormon, and they enjoyed coming to church whenever they came. We really wanted to see them get baptized, so we decided to put God to the test.  We decided that we were going to teach them a lesson and then ask the father, Augustine, to say the prayer at the end.  We wanted him to ask God specifically if he and his family should be baptized.  The catch was that we didn’t want him to stand up, or get off of his knees, before he had an answer; whether it is a yes or a no.  We were putting our faith in God that he would answer their prayer! Kind of an ultimatum situation, but we knew that God would give them the right answer. 

                The night came to teach the lesson, and my companion and I were a little on the nervous side.  We showed up and taught a lesson about the plan of salvation. We also had Sister Sunke with us that night; a great member of the local ward. The spirit was very strong during the lesson, and my companion and I taught very well together that night.  Then, we talked a little about baptism again, and told them what we were going to do for the final prayer.  Augustine and Margaret, his wife, agreed to the situation.  So, we all got on our knees and Augustine said the prayer.  I was saying a little, alright, a big prayer in my heart that the Lord would answer his prayer.  He said a great prayer; he thanked the Lord for us missionaries, and for the Book or Mormon, and then he asked the ultimate question if they should get baptized into the “church with the Book of Mormon; The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!” As soon as he said this, I had a very calming feeling come over me, and I knew that he had his answer and that the answer would be yes.  Augustine then closed the prayer, and we stayed kneeling for another minute or two. I would occasionally poke my head up to see if anyone got up or not, and then Augustine finishes “in the almighty name of Jesus Christ, amen.” He then stands up and says, “We need to get baptized.”  It was a great night, and the Holy Ghost was definitely there.  It will be a night I’ll never forget, that’s for certain!

                I know that the Lord lives and that He answers prayers.  My faith in Him was definitely increased that night as I experienced how much He cares about His children. He answered our prayers as missionaries when he answered Augustine’s prayer in a way that he would understand, and know what he had to do. When you put your faith in Him, He always comes through for you. 

                                                                                                            -Ryan Hutchings

 Faith in Guatemala 

            Faith is not a passive belief in an ultimate being nor is faith a submissive attitude in the gospel. Faith is an action that leads us to believe. I was an area called Teleman when I met a man who was unsure of what to do. He was an inactive member who didn’t know what to do. I felt drawn to him since the beginning of my time spent there. I first met him when I had about 5 months in the mission. I was on a division with the zone leaders and they were trying to talk to him. He didn’t seem too enthusiastic about returning and so they left. When I received my transfer to Teleman I could almost hear the Lord hinting me to find him. That was one of the first things we did. We climbed the side of the mountain to find him (name censored for discretion).

            He was once a very strong member in the church. His brother was branch president and his father also held a position in the church. However, we all make mistakes and he made one of his own. I could feel his pain and sense the unhappiness and gaping hole that his mistake left in his life. I didn’t know what to say so instead I left the speaking to be done by the Scriptures. Isaiah 1:18 “though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” We prayed and prayed for him because he was such a great guy and deserved the peace and happiness the gospel brings to our families. That Sunday when we were arriving to church we saw him there walking his family into the doors of the chapel. I was so happy to see him there. We visited him constantly and I can honestly say he became one of my best friends. We worked and worked with him so that he could be worthy of his priesthood and take care of his family.

            After about 4 months he was restored to full status in the church and he was feeling really great. The sins that he overcame required so much faith. There is no way that someone who didn’t feel the strong promptings of the Holy Ghost would walk in the 100˚F weather up a mountain every week to hear the words of God. He didn’t just believe...he had faith. His story does not end here. He then helped us in that area to find the elect. He became the Sunday school teacher and enjoyed learning the lesson each week with us. He became as a missionary and was constantly wishing to be by our side. His wife was so much happier and they were feeling as sons and daughters of the Almighty. I love him and his family. They overcame the sins, distress, agony, and loneliness that wordly things bring to our lives. He showed me what faith was. 

                -Will Valdez

Miracles

Miracle of Italy

          A mission is a perfect time to learn about and actually live numerous miraculous events. Often times miracles are associated with baptisms. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard this story, “One time on while I was living in (insert South American Country here) on my mission, my companion and I were out street contacting and a man came up to us and begged us to baptize him. One week later, we did.”

Okay, yeah sure this would definitely constitute a miracle, but serving a mission in Europe this was not something that EVER happened. Towards the end of my mission I had an experience that taught me a lot about seeking out and recognizing miracles in my life. I was on exchanges with a missionary, Elder Harward, who I knew from the MTC. He was a very outgoing missionary who had never been called to any leadership positions, but this had not mattered to him. He loved missionary work and it showed. At the time I was a Zone Leader and was supposed to be “instructing” this missionary how to be a better missionary, but this day he would be the one to teach me.

          As missionaries we made daily goals about how many people we would find and how many lessons we would teach. Elder Harward informed me that he had started a new category of goal: how many miracles he would see. I was intrigued by the idea. I looked at his agenda and saw that we did not have many scheduled appointments. This was always my worst nightmare as a missionary. An entire day of aimlessly walking the cobblestone Italian streets trying to find people and constantly getting rejected was not my idea of fun or effective work. It was something I had done it too much in my two years of missionary service! But Elder Harward was so excited about his lack of appointments. He looked at me and showed me his “miracle goal” for the day, which was set at 2. He said, “Look at all this time in which we can find and have a miracle. And both of us are experienced missionaries. We know what to do, so I have no doubt that we’ll reach this goal!” I, on the other hand was a little more skeptical about our prospects of reaching this goal. Elder Harward suggested that before we go out we sit down and pray that our goals be met. We did so, and then were off about our daily work or finding some miracles.

          That day I was continually surprised as at every turn we found opportunities to talk to people who were willing to listen to us. We stopped and talked to a man who was outside working in the hot summer heat. He listened for a bit, and then invited us into his home out of the sun for a glass of water. We taught him and his wife about the restoration of the gospel and why we had dedicated 2 years of our lives to come and share this wonderful message with the world. We knocked doors of an apartment complex (my all-time least favorite activities) but we were let in to 3 houses and able to talk about the church. This one day total equaled the number of houses I had been let into on my entire mission. It was an amazing experience to see the faith of this elder and the love of our Heavenly Father as he led us where we needed to go and provided us with miracles at every turn.

          After this experience, I made the idea of setting “miracle goals” became standard in our zone. And I know that if we seek out and pray for miracles in our own lives the Lord with bless us with these experiences. We may have to sacrifice and we may have to look hard to see the miracles in our lives but I know that they will come!

Bradley Zentgraf

Miracle in Switzerland

On the mission we were asked by our mission president to look for miracles every day.  At the end of the day we would plan for the next day, and during this time we would also tell about the small miracles that we noticed.  The miracles would vary from being able to give a lesson, to catching a bus, to just having one person listen to us for more than our introduction.  However, the miracle I want to write about was actually one that didn’t happen every day. 

                I was in the city of Frauenfeld, and it was my second area.  Our investigators were scarce, but we were teaching one guy named Ronny Koch, and I’m pretty sure he was our only solid investigator. He was a cool, but somewhat weird, guy who loved music and played some awesome blues on his guitar.  He had had a rough past with drugs and what not, and was still struggling with smoking and drinking, with which we were helping him to quit. He was a lonely guy who had no family around, and his girlfriend lived in another town. His loneliness was probably one reason he didn’t mind meeting with us.  We became really good friends, and he would actually call us by our first names, which we didn’t mind at all. 

                One day, we were on exchanges with the zone leaders and I was the lucky one who stayed in Frauenfeld and Elder Stout came to me.  That night we had an appointment with Ronny, and I’m pretty sure we asked our Ward Mission Leader, Brother Mueller, to join us. When we got to his apartment, Ronny did not sound or look good at all.  We talked him into letting us meet anyways, just to give him some company if nothing else; and it was cold outside so a night of doing doors did not sound like a fun idea.  He let us stay, and he told us that earlier in the day he lit a cigarette and started smoking it.  Three puffs later, he said, he started feeling extremely sick. He was nauseated, he had stomach pains, and he was weak; in a nutshell, he was not feeling good at all.  We tried teaching him, but he would either fall asleep, or just was not able to focus at all and he would let us know. He would stop us and say, “Sorry Ryan, but I just don’t know what is going on right now.”  At this point in time, Brother Mueller told him about a priesthood blessing and that we could give him one if he wanted us to.  Ronny agreed, and asked that I give him the blessing.  I felt honored, but it was my first blessing in German, and I got somewhat nervous about messing it up.  I was only out about 8 months on the mission and my German was good, but not great.

                I put my hands on his head, and I was just hoping that I would know what to say, and awesomely enough words and phrases were just flowing into my mind.  I remember saying at one point that he would be healed quickly, or something. I don’t remember much about the blessing.  However, after the blessing I remember that almost immediately Ronny was in a better mood and we were able to teach him a lesson about faith.  By the end of the lesson Ronny was joking around, and he even showed us some of his music and was dancing to it. He was feeling almost 100% better.  It was definitely a miracle that we were able to teach him a lesson that we feel he needed. 

                As we were walking home from that appointment Elder Stout and I were pretty stoked about the lesson and the appointment.  Elder Stout turned to me and told me that my German was flawless during the blessing.  At that point I knew that I was just the conduit for the Lord to say what needed to be said.  Miracles do happen when we put our faith and trust in the Lord, that’s a fact!

Ryan Hutchings

Miracles in Guatemala

            I experienced a miracle in Carchá that I’ll never forget. I had been working in an area that I really did not want to be in. Carchá was half-city half-jungle and extremely challenging. I had about 13 months in the mission and I never really had a trial with any of my areas. Everything seemed to come extremely easy, but then I was asked to serve in an area that was like a whole new mission. I had to learn a whole new language as a district leader. Also, I had to be a senior companion to a companion that spoke the language better than I did. I had so much responsibility that I really couldn’t fathom how I was supposed to get it all done. I was so tired. I was studying extra hard to learn Spanish, while learning to teach in Spanish, and communicate with the people in Spanish.

            In Polochik, it is usually the senior companion that talks and the junior companion tries to understand and bear his testimony. Once you are capable of speaking and talking then you are called to serve as a senior companion and teach a new missionary the language. That’s just how the mission worked. I just started to do well because of the help my companion gave me, but then President David Torres of the Guatemala City North mission increased the load that he had previously put on me. He gave me a brand new missionary. A North American that spoke no Spanish and obviously no Q’eqchi’. I was really alone. I had to speak 3 languages, work harder than I ever had before, and lead a district to reach our goals while opening a brand new area that no missionary in Carchá had been to. As overwhelmed as I was, I simply said that God would not command me to do something and not provide the necessary path that I should take.

            In a brand new area, there are no past investigators nor any new investigators. I thought that I would not have any success in this area until my second transfer. I was wrong. On a Thursday (just the 2nd day of work) I met a young woman, Delia. She was cleaning the outside of her house and talking to her son, Selvin. To my surprise, she spoke Spanish extremely well but preferred her native language Q’eqchi’. As I taught her I could feel that she was extremely interested. I invited her to read from the Book of Mormon and that we would continue on another appointment on Tuesday. I constantly thought about that lesson and wondered what was it that I should have done differently. I didn’t feel as if I did what was necessary. On that Tuesday she said the key phrase that would make any missionary happy. She said, “Where were you on Sunday? I wanted to go to your church but didn’t know where it was.” I was so astounded that I didn’t know what to do. I promised her I would pick her up on Sunday and walk with her to church. The next Sunday I was going to bring her again but we also had another family that we were going to take. When i noticed, we were already 10 min late to pick her up. Church started in 10 min and I didn’t think we’d have enough time. As I started walking with my companion to her house we noticed her walking and all dressed up ready for church. I asked her where she was going and she responded, “To church! You were late. So I decided I’d go on my own.” The lessons continued on greatly and then she had some trials of her own. A fight between her and her neighbor who was extremely rude. Delia had committed some sins that she was not proud of. Her neighbor felt the need to remind of her of that fact. She struggled to hold in her pride but after such antagonism she fell. I spoke to her and told her that joining the church is a new life. We leave the older sins, follies, and problems behind. The kingdom is not fit for someone who looks back. She came with new determination. She was then baptized and set an example for the whole ward. She did great things and I still remember feeling that I’d never have success. She was a miracle because in a time that I doubted, God delivered. All i had to do was be obedient, have faith, and work hard. She was proof that God loved me and that he hadn’t forgotten the task her laid before me.

                                                                                                                                     Will Valdez