Rain, rain rain, bike, bike bike!!

A few years ago, Elder Eyring gave a talk in general conference called "Mountains to Climb". I remember being at that conference session when he to,d us hat once he prayed for more mountains to climb, or more trials to learn from. And then Heavenly Father hit him with some of the hardest times of his life. Well, I read that talk recently and thought it would be a good idea to do as he did. Ha. I'll get back to this a little later on in the email.

We had the coolest miracle happen this week. Seriously.

His name is Lile.

So... Back story:

We had gone over to a members house to meet them and leave them with a prayer. Then we asked if anyone they knew could use one and they gave us their neighbors address. Then we went on exchanges, and sister day and Hermana Mathis went by that neighbor because she only speaks Spanish. Then that lady became the Hermanas new investigator. So they went back 2 days ago to teach her and on their way home they street contacted Lile and gave him a pass along card. Then Lile CALLED the headquarters number on the card and requested missionaries. Then we met with him and it was amazing.

We showed him "The Hope of God's Light" Mormon message and afterward he was quiet for what seemed like forever and then he said, "So... There's hope for me?" It was so powerful and so heartbreaking because this man had been living without hope for 25 years. But the best part of being a missionary is the testimony in which I am called to bear. I said, "Yes, Lile. I can promise you there is hope." And the tears came.

After biking 400 miles in the last 2 weeks, after all the rain, after all the rejection, after all the being yelled at, after all the hard times with Sister Day, and after all the times I just about gave up trying, Heavenly Father was still there. And He always will be. Miracles truly DO happen.

We met a super cool couple at church who both had served missions and let me just say, I'm so excited to be that couple. Also, everything that COULD have gone wrong this week pretty much did. So many people bashed us, so many holes in Sister Day's bike tires, so many lessons didn't work out, and so much rain poured on us as we biked. But you know what? Being a missionary is THE BEST. I wouldn't trade this for the world.

This week we invited to church a catholic priest who knows dallin h oaks, a Mennonite minister, several homeless people, a Haitian voodoo worshipper, and a deaf person. Along with countless others, of course, but those were the funny ones.

And to go along with that humor, I would like to refer back to the beginning paragraph ofis email and close with the last lesson we had with our "miracle" Lile. See photograph below.