¡Hola! from Oklahoma: Stories from Missouri

As most exchanges go with really important people, such as the Stake President, our appointments all fell through. After some visits to some people, I prayed and asked what we needed to do. I felt like I should ask the Stake President. He had a couple ideas and so we were off.

We stopped by a less active member who told us to visit his son. We were given bad directions to his son's house, but we got a referral to another person. We walked over there and found a little old lady raking leaves. Before my brain could process that helping her would be a courteous and kind thing to do, the Stake President was over there bagging up leaves. We ran over as well and by the time she told us, "You are going to get your suits dirty!", about thirty times, we had finished it and she invited us in.

Her husband had passed away and she had epilepsy which restricted her from going to church but she had some people come do a Bible study with her fairly often. We invited her to read in the Book of Mormon and she said she'd love to hear more. It goes to show, when you ask for help from the Stake President you'll end up raking leaves and finding a bunch of new people to visit.

We met a man a month ago who read in the Book of Mormon. When we first met him he told us about his family struggles and we offered him the Book of Mormon. We saw him again and he told us of how he felt peace come into his life as he read it. But lately, we tried by and his Mom would come to the door and while holding back crazy carnivorous dogs, she would say, "He's in Springfield, I will let him know you were here!" We eventually managed to give her a card and she said she would watch the video.

A couple of days ago, she answered the door and came outside. She said that her son hadn't come back from Springfield ever since we saw him last and that she had only talked to him on Facebook. She then told us that she had missed us passing by, which we thought was strange considering we had only talked to her son and she wasn't interested. After some talking she told us that her life was getting very difficult and with tears in her eyes she told us of the problems her son was facing with his ex-wife. We shared the Hallelujah video and the member we were with testified of the Savior. After, we shared about the Book of Mormon and how we can come to know God better by reading it. We left her with a prayer and she looked up crying and said the most sincere thank you I have ever heard. I am really glad to be sharing this message, that we all take for granted to often, with people and how humbling it is. Thank you for your prayers!

Adios, Elder Thomas