Email cincuenta: The people I love

July 24, 2017 

I think that the monumental lesson that the Lord has tried to teach me for the past 9 months is that my faith will have to be pushed to the limit before miracles happen. This week was another good lesson on that principle. But instead of talking about my week in chronological order, I want to switch things up and tell y'all about all the wonderful people I have met here that mean so much to me.

 Hermano Benítez: he grew up in Honduras and his family joined the church when he was 12. After leaving the house and living on his own, he quickly fell away. When he was 26, he moved to Memphis, where he married a non-member. 5 years ago, some missionaries found him and his family, and taught and baptized his wife and two children. He is now the First Counselor in the Branch and the Benitez family is very strong in the Gospel. They love the missionaries with all they hearts, and especially love to feed them. On Saturday they took us out to Cici's Pizza and we had such a good time.

 L: he grew up in Venezuela and eventually went to college for 10 years and became very successful.

He became fairly wealthy and decided to travel Europe, and even lived in Ireland for a short time. After an unfortunate turn of events, he found himself very poor, and so he came to America looking for work. He was walking down the street one day in Bartlett, Tennessee, when he saw a large beautiful building that was completely white. On the front, it said The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Intrigued, he searched the internet, where he found Mormon.org. He requested missionaries to come by. He was baptized last February. Shortly after wards, he stopped coming to church. Then one day, he broke his leg while skateboarding, and unable to work, he was kicked out of his apartment.

The Benitez family decided to take him in. Once a rich who traveled the world, he was now poor, and confined to four walls and a bed for 8 months, but the missionaries came by to visit him again, and he started coming back to church. This week we took him to a park so he could get outside the house, and we talked to him about music and taught him some English.


Elder Sotomarino: you guys already know about him. He is from Peru, and trained me at the beginning of my mission. But man I love this kid. We are completely opposite people, but best of friends. I got to go on exchanges with him this week, and it was seriously amazing. He is such a good missionary, he is so good at talking to people. Peru will honestly always have a special place in my heart because of this kid.

D: he is 17 years old and a senior in high school. His family moved here from Venezuela a year ago, and they were all baptized 4 months ago. I got to hang out with him on Wednesday during the exchange with Elder Sotomarino because right now he is on a "mini-mission" with the East Elders. He is way cool, hilarious, and very converted to the Gospel.

Here he is wearing five suit coats

President Hansen: it took me about 5 minutes to gain a testimony that this man is called of God. We had interviews with him on Wednesday and holy cow, he helped me so much. He believes in me, and that is such a wonderful gift to have from someone. I told him and my goal is to baptize monthly for the rest of my mission and he says he believes I can do it.


R: last week, an older man named R from Columbia showed up to English class. He was super nice and very polite. On Sunday, he came to church, and so Elder Merrill and I went over and talked to him. He told us that it was a miracle from God that he had ended up at church. He said that one day he went to a store where he had never gone before just because he felt he should go there. On the front door, he saw a sign for English class, and he called the number. When he came, the sisters invited him to church.

He had attended the Catholic Church all his life but noticed that every service the same things were always taught, the prayers were the same, everything was the same. He wanted to learn something new. When he came to church, he was dressed up in a white shirt and tie. Everyone thought he was a member. He loved it. Hermano Tirado gave an incredible talk on the Plan of Salvation, and Riccardo heard things he had never heard before, and wanted to learn more. He stayed all three hours, and we set an appointment to visit him this next Wednesday. It truly built my testimony that the Lord prepares His elect.


I'm so grateful for all the wonderful people I have had the privilege of meeting here on the mission. I wouldn't trade it for anything. Last week I really felt like I was reaching a breaking point, where I couldn't go on any further. But once again, just when my faith was stretched to the very limit, then Heavenly Father blessed us with a miracle. It has built my testimony that without Him I truly am nothing. My heart is full of gratitude that He loves me enough to cut me down, so that I can become what He knows I can be.

I love all y'all. Have a wonderful week.