Milagros in Mexico

Me and my companion Hermana Warren

Last Wednesday, Herman Warren and I had one of the hardest days here in the CCM. We felt very frustrated with our lack of Español. After our lesson, I asked Hermana Warren if I could have just a minute to go into a room and pray. I walked in, knelt down, and poured my heart out to Heavenly Father. Tears streamed down my face as I tried to explain how I felt. After a few minutes, I figured that I had been alone too long and that I should go be with my compañera again. Right as soon as I opened the door, Hermana Warren was right there ready to give me a hug. I guess there was a crack in the blinds where she could see me. She walked into the room, closed the door, and we talked about how we felt. We felt like a soap opera as we sat down and cried. Hermano Silva, our teacher, came in to see how we were doing. He saw our distress and comforted us with his words. He said something that really stuck out to me. He said, ¨As missionaries, you represent Christ. You are there to tell investigators what He would tell them if He were there.¨ He was right. I thought about what Christ would want them to know. He´d want them to know how much He loves them and to know how much He wants them to live with Him again. Those words came as a great comfort and motivation for our next few lessons. 

The following day was an interesting juxtaposition to the previous one. We invited one of our investigators to be baptized and he accepted! Wow....what an amazing feeling. We know that our investigator is an actor, but if I could feel like that with just an actor, I can´t wait to have a real investigator and have them accept baptism. 

This week Hermana Warren and I got called to be sister trainer leaders! We are so excited! We had a new district come into our branch, and we are thrilled to set the example for them!

January 17 was the one month mark. I have less than one month left in the CCM. Crazy! I have learned so much, but still have so much to learn. The more I contemplate on the reality of the mission field, the more driven I become in my studying. I have set and accomplished so many goals this week in order to be more prepared to teach in New Jersey. 

I have the most amazing news....I have saved the best for last! During Sunday night´s devotional, Hermana Jones, an elderly missionary, announced that on February 9 the CCM is going to be DEDICATED and an apostle of the Lord will be here! AH! Amazing! I couldn´t believe my ears! What an amazing miracle! After the excitement of all of the missionaries died down to a hum, she then announced that she would need a choir to be selected for the dedication service! She said that the sister training leaders, the zone leaders, and the district leaders should pick 2 Hermanas and 2 Elders from their branch to be in the choir. You can imagine how many people came up to Herman Warren and I when they found out that we would be the ones picking who would be in the choir. Hermana Jones specified that they would need to be have a lot of experience singing, they would need to be able to hold their own part, and they would need to be able to learn music quickly. So, logically, Hermana Warren and I asked all of those who wanted to participate to write down all of their musical experience. We thought that we would be able to get a pretty good idea for who was supposed to be in the choir through looking at their resume. This idea didn´t actually end up helping. So, we went to our back up plan....auditions. This didn´t help very much either. We finally decided that we just weren´t going to make the decision......the Lord was. We wrote down all of the names on a piece of paper and asked all of the district and zone leaders to pray about each one. Hermana Warren and I prayed for 30 minutes before bed that night, but didn´t really feel anything in particular, except, the name of one of the elders in my district kept coming to mind. When I prayed about him specifically, a milagro, a miracle, happened. I saw the actual letters of his name. It was amazing. As for the others, I felt like I needed to sleep on it. The next morning, I woke up, prayed, and felt more strongly for others, but this elder´s name kept coming to mind. I knew I needed to tell him. I planned on telling him during personal study. Well, as soon as I got to personal study, he approached me and said, ¨Are you still deciding on who to put into the choir?¨ I said, ¨yes¨. He then asked that he no longer had a desire to be in it and asked for me to remove his name from the list. I was so confused. I thought that the answer I received was a confirmation that he was supposed to be in it. Well.....later that day, during evening personal study, our district received news that this elder was on the phone with his parents stating that he didn´t have a testimony of the restoration of the gospel. He had been in the office of the CCM presidency almost all day talking to them about it. Our teacher came in and asked us to pray harder than we had ever prayed before. We were to pray for a miracle. He pulled out the scriptures and read 3 Nefi 18:18 ¨And whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is right, believing that ye shall receive, behold, it shall be given unto you¨. Wow. That´s power. I have read that scripture before, but it meant so much more this time. I knew I could call on our Father in Heaven and ask for a miracle. In that instant, our whole district got on their knees and prayed. We prayed the most meaningful, heart-felt prayer and asked God for a miracle. We then prayed individually. As each of us rose from our individual prayers, you could see the concern for this elder in everyone´s faces. It was amazing how much love was in that room. We continued to go about our studying with prayers in our hearts until it was time to go to a different activity. Later on in the evening, this elder met up with the rest of our district with a different countenance. A milagro. A miracle had happened. He came up to me once again and asked if the decision had been made on who was going to sing in the choir. I pulled him aside and asked if he had changed his mind and would like to sing. His reply was, ¨yes¨. I almost cried, I was so happy. Heavenly Father had answered my prayer the previous night about who needed to be in the choir. HE DID. I knew it. He knew it. Miracles happen. I told him how Heavenly Father needed his voice in the choir. I wish I could explain the look in his face. Amazing. I love this gospel. 

What an amazing week of miracles. 

Sending much love from Mexico, 

Hermana Childs

UM....yeah....These exist!