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The power of almost prayer

So many little miracles this week. Me and my comp have been talking a lot about miracles this week and I've decided a lot of it has to do with the eye of the beholder. As missionaries and a lot of times as members of the church in general, we are constantly surrounded by the spirit. It's sometimes hard for us to notice when it's there because it just always is. However we are really good at noticing the absence of it. A lot of times, miracles come when we recognize the spirit is speaking to us, whether it be before the fact or after, and we act on that prompting or thought that we have. On Saturday we had a día de encontrar with our district and hermana arscott and I were not having a ton of success out contacting in the streets. We basically just felt like we were wandering around aimlessly talking to strangers (which I mean is kind of our job description- the aimlessly part just had to be fixed). But literally nobody would even let us get two words out of our mouths (also could be because there were only spanish grandmas who are very catholic out at that hour but hey). So we paused in the middle of the sidewalk and thought for a minute. We decided to pray. Normally we'll just pray right where we are, but I thought hmm let's go sit on that bench over there to pray. And right as I turned around a lady walked past and I stopped her. And she was sooooo sweet! She asked for our number and was so grateful for the book we gave her. And can I just say, there is power in prayer :) even the thought to pray and God gave us a tender mercy. 

Later that day when we were out contacting again, we stopped to talk to this girl who is probably about 16 years old. She seemed slightly confused at first but as we started explaining the book of Mormon and that it's another testament of Jesus christ, she looked at us with big eyes and said "there's another? How come I didn't know that?!" and she was so excited when we told her it was for her. There really are people out there who don't realize they're looking for something until they find it. 

OK so this week we've seen some real great progress/ no progress at all with our friend Francisco! So we went and visited him on Tuesday and we had the most hilarious and the most spiritually powerful lesson ever! So we showed up and they fed us papusas and they had some friends over who asked us basically about every detail of our lives at lightning speed and it was quite a fun conversation. I also learned that there are 52 states in the US and that people from el Salvador get really excited when they hear the prophet talking about their country so much. But anyways, after some entertainment, we started our lesson (we were hoping we could teach the friends too but didn't quite work out, we did hand them a restoration folleto as we walked out though). We reviewed the restoration with Francisco and Vilma because we know he was having some doubts about the priesthood. And it all went dandy and fine and he seemed to understand and agree but he still said he needed more time when we invited him to be baptized on the 23rd of november. We talked about it a little more then we asked him if he coilhfd do us a favor and he said yes. We asked him to say the closing prayer and if he could pray right then about his baptism. And HOLY COW the spirit in that room was so strong during his prayer. I already used the thick as storebought syrup analogy so I think I'm gonna have to go with as thick as the 3 year old giant marshmallows we have in our cupboard. It almost brought both me and hermana arscott to tears and we were praying so hard that he could feel it as strong as we could. He finished his prayer and we looked up at him and smiled and he looked so at peace. And then his wife (who is a member of about a year and a half) started talking about how he doesnt think he needs to be baptized because he has been baptized in another church and he kind of went on the defensive and it kind of ruined the moment. So we still don't have full commitment from him. But we told him if he prayed and read the book of Mormon every day he would receive an answer. Still pending. And his grandson is sooooo cute. He's 3 years old and he loves us. The day after our visit he sent us a voice message (with the help of his grandma) begging us to come over and he started crying when we told him we couldn't until the next day. So cute. 

We also had a visitor this week! An hermana from the north of Spain missed her connecting flight to the Brazil MTC and so they had her come hang out with us for the day until they could schedule a new flight and she was so cute. Her name is Hermana None and she had been set apart literally a few hours before and we just threw her right in. She is a convert of 3 years and she only has two other sisters who are members and she was really nervous to be starting her mission. So hopefully we were able to help her out a bit. 

We can find miracles every day if we know where to look! And we can know the place to look if we're trying to discern the spirit. Loge you all! 

Hermana Pendleton 





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