The Week of Miracles

Heavenly Father works in small and simple things. An every day miracle is when a concourse of small and simple things line up all at once. 

Maria was a miracle the first time we found her. When I came to this area, we walked her dogs for her twice a week. That kind of reoccurring service is not allowed in missionary work, however at the time, I didn't care. Though as I became more entrenched in this area, I started to have a greater desire to show God I was focused on finding people to bring unto Christ. On May 17th, the day Sister Friberg left for Spain, I was walking Maria's dogs with Sister Cordova, my companion for the day until Sister Romney would arrive. As we talked, I made the final decision to wean Marie off of our service and cease contact. As we returned the dogs home, Maria came out and talked to us for the first time in my 3 months in Centennial. She thanked us for everything we did for her, and offered to pay us. I declined, saying it was all part of being a disciple of Jesus Christ.

"Don't you guys like, talk about Jesus with people, and read the Bible and stuff?" Maria asked.

"Yeah of course! Our main purpose is actually to teach people about Jesus Christ. Would you like to do Bible studies and lessons together?"

"Yeah actually, I'd love that. I listen to sermons online all the time, but I don't really have anyone to talk to about this stuff. Please, come in!" At this point, Sister Cordova and I were both trying to hide our surprise and excitement. Having just run the dogs around the block, we were sweaty, hair disheveled, and altogether not the way we might have preferred to be for a first lesson. But when the opportunity comes, you take it.

"Oh my goodness, well this is awesome! Let us run and grab our scriptures from the car real quick! We will be right in," was my reply.

When we came back in, we sat together at the table and asked Maria about her belief in God and her religious background. We offered her the 5 lessons and she said she was interested. Then she asked what made us different. We taught the Restoration, and every principle was intuitive to her. She kept saying, "That makes sense," and "Well, right because in the bible it says...". Altogether, we were astounded by her openness. She shared some experiences with darkness/demons and Jesus saving her. We offered Priesthood blessings for both her and her home. She said, "Yes! PLEASE." She didn't have a church, so she wanted spiritual support. We invited her to church and she accepted. We set up our next appointment and committed her to reading the Book of Mormon and the Restoration pamphlet before we left. It was a miracle.

The day of our second appointment, Maria's cousin overdosed. We ended up having 2 more lessons with Maria before we decided to stop teaching her due to difficulty keeping contact, difficulty scheduling lessons, and commitments not being kept.

Some of Maria's experiences were so similar to mine, and her spirit was so sweet and open to the restored Gospel. When we stopped teaching her, that was a hard day for me. But I felt I needed to do it especially for my trainee, Sister Romney, to show her that we only teach people when they are willing to do their part. Regardless, I cried when we had to stop teaching her. 

Fast-forward to August, Sister Ingram and I were in quarantine. I tested positive for Covid, and got decently sick. Sister Ingram was required to be tested five days later and was positive as expected. Because of how our tests lined up, we ended up being in quarantine for almost two weeks. When I say we called everyone in our area book and sim contacts, I mean we called EVERYONE. Twice. And then texted. We set up oodles of member lessons and found several handfuls of potentials to teach. I had never had so many potentials in the area book in all my time as a missionary. We came out of quarantine and hit the ground running. The second day liberated, our zone had a "Finding Blitz", an activity where we gather on zoom at 5:50 to say a prayer, work as hard as we can from six to nine, and then regather on Zoom to share successes. 

In the early afternoon that day, we had a lesson with a darling elderly lady in our ward. She just so happens to live down the block from Maria. In multiple of our district councils people had mentioned visiting formers along the way to other lessons, so Sister Ingram and I agreed we should stop by Maria's. When we knocked, there was no answer and we realized she was most likely at work. At 6 pm, we started off our finding blitz by calling people from a park bench near our house. Unfortunately, we found no success. Then Sister Ingram turned to me and said, "Well, next on the schedule is visits, so do you want to go drop by Maria's again?"

Now, please understand, Sister Ingram ALWAYS knows what's next on the schedule. In 5 weeks with her, I had never once found she was incorrect. However, this time, visits were most definitely NOT on the docket. But I have never cared much for the schedule, much less had the mental capacity to remember what was on it. So I quickly agreed, and we wouldn't recognize this moment as a soft "redirect" from the Spirit until we opened up the area book later that night. 

Upon approaching Maria's door, the dogs were already barking as they do. So when we knocked, Maria was quick to answer. "Oh my goodness! Your timing is amazing!" were the first words out of her mouth. We talked on the porch for a minute and I stooped down to pick up a package on the front steps. When I handed it to her, she laughed. 

"I can't believe you are the one handing this to me. Do you know what this is?" We went inside and sat on the couches, and Maria opened the package to reveal a pack of bookmarks with the Lord's prayer on them, and a turquoise blue plaque with the same words. 

"I have needed more of God in my life so I ordered these, and here you are, handing it to me." As we talked, we went on to discover that different people in Maria's life had been telling her to "plug in", to go to church, and to be more engaged in religion. Maria listens to online sermons almost everyday, but had been feeling the need for something more. She was ready to progress. That weekend her mother was in the hospital, who had previously been an obstacle for Maria's desire to have a priesthood blessing and have the house blessed. So we told Maria that we would have someone over first thing tomorrow to give her a blessing and to bless her home. 

When we left Maria's house, we had been there for an hour and a half talking about the Plan of Salvation, the priesthood, and why church is so important. We walked the dogs- Maria took Sadie (the wildest one), Sister Ingram walked Stella, and I carried Molly (a 14 year old Pomeranian ) in my arms. We discussed reading the scriptures, and praying, and fellowshipping with other people who believe in Jesus Christ. When we left, I made Maria promise me a thousand times that she would open the door the next morning for the blessing.

That night we sped home and called Br. and Sis. Smith who we knew had just the right experiences to connect with Maria. The last time we were teaching Maria, I didn't even know the Smiths! But now, I knew who to call.

"I know this is last minute, but are you available tomorrow to come bless our friend Maria who we just started teaching again last night?" Br. and Sis. Smith agreed to come at 11 am Saturday morning. 

That night, I prayed harder than I have in a long time that Maria would be protected that night and awake that morning, ready to receive her blessing. God answered our prayers. We arrived at 10:30, and taught her about the priesthood, how a priesthood blessing is given, and explained the word Melchezidek and any other unfamiliar words we thought might come up. Then at 11 o'clock, the Smiths arrived. They talked and got to know each other. Br. Smith has an incredible story of overcoming difficulty as an investigator and a new convert, so he shared his story, and just like that Maria opened up as well. By the end of the visit, Maria had received a priesthood blessing of healing, strength, and protection. The home had been blessed to be a place of peace and protection, and that all who entered there would become curious about the peace and learn more about their Savior. 

Before we left, we asked Maria if she would be able to come to church. Her mom was being discharged from the hospital later that day, so Maria was afraid she wouldn't be well enough to be at home alone. I resolved to pray for her mom like the woman and the unjust judge (just in my head, though). Out loud, we said we would text her and figure it out. When we texted her that night, she said she was coming! We called her to make sure she was awake (at her request) and then drove to her house to caravan over to the church. She sat by us and the Smiths for sacrament meeting. I praised the Lord that whole meeting. 

After so many miracles, it was just up to us to keep the momentum going! 

Monday night we decided to go back to Maria's earlier than we had planned. We showed up around 6:30 and began reteaching the Restoration because it had been around 3 months since we had talked about any of that with Maria. As we spoke, Maria's roommate Nichole (who we barely knew existed and had never seen) came home from work. We briefly introduced ourselves and invited her to join us. She agreed, and after a few minutes with her dog outside, she sat with us. We were telling Maria about church activities. Maria was reluctant to commit to going. To our surprise, Nichole jumped in "Maria you should totally go to that! You would love that sort of thing. You're always talking about Jesus anyway, and in person is always better than the online sermons." We were so excited that Nichole would be so encouraging for Maria. We continued to talk and reading the Book of Mormon came up. Again Nichole was encouraging to Maria, and even asked her why she wasn't more open to reading it. It was amazing to see. Nichole described herself as non-religious and knew very little of the Bible. However when Maria told her about her experience with receiving a priesthood blessing and getting the house blessed, Nichole felt that was something she needed. By the end of the night, we had gotten Nichole's number as well and set up a time for her to receive a priesthood blessing the very next Monday.

Maria's knowledge of the Bible and firm testimony of the love and atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ was a huge aid to Nichole. And Nichole's stability and determination to follow through with commitments was a huge asset to Maria. Together it looked like they were going to progress.