Easter miracles

 Together with the two pairs of sister missionaries assigned to the Gonzales Branch we planned a 10-15 minute Easter message to be shared with all the branch members.  It was an initiative from the mission president, and they had done the same thing with a Christmas message last December.  The sisters live in Gonzales, and about 10 of the members live much closer to us, so we took those names that were in the northern part of the branch.

Several of these people attend church regularly, but many have not.  We found that some of them had not been contacted in years (unsuccessful attempts were recorded), and we were on a mission to find them!  We took several trips out to the countryside, and have managed to contact all but one.  We found that some of the people had moved, but the relatives were still in the home. But here is our Easter miracle.

A little background first.  The stake boundaries are very large, and they split it in two as far as Spanish speaking branches.  Our branch boundaries go from Kyle to Giddings, and almost to Elgin and down to Gonzales, including the towns of Bastrop, Dale, Giddings, Cedar Creek, Luling, and Waelder.  Bastrop, Giddings, Dale and Cedar Creek are closer to Lockhart than to the branch building in Gonzales, so that is where we traveled to.  There is cell phone coverage in Bastrop, but none in Dale or Cedar Creek.  So once we are out there, we can't send or receive phone calls, and we make sure we plug in the directions on our phone before we leave!

The furthest person away from our apartment lives in Giddings.  It is over an hour away, but we had an appointment.  We had tried several times to confirm the appointment without success.  On the way to her house we stopped in Cedar Creek with our Elders Quorum President, who had confirmed our appointment that morning at church.  We get to the president's house and he's not there!  So, we decided to head up to Giddings.  We were just outside of Bastrop when we finally connected with Betty in Giddings, and she said she wasn't going to be there, as they had traveled to another city for Easter.  So, since we were already in Bastrop we decided to go ahead and try to find the family that lived there, although past attempts with other missionaries were unsuccessful. 

We arrive at the address and there was a family doing a little barbeque picnic.  The member, Sarai, was in the house but not available, they said.  After we said who we were, that we from her church, they sent someone in to talk to her.  They came back out and said she wanted to see us and that she wanted  "something called a blessing."

Ends up Sarai was very ill, and we ended up not only having John give her a blessing, but we were able to show her the Easter video.  She was very touched and she was so glad we came.  After we went back outside, we showed the rest of the family the Easter video.  They were very touched, and one guy was in tears.  

Bastrop is almost an hour away. We weren't sure we were going to make it to that house, but because of the other failed attempts in Cedar Creek and Giddings, we were right there.  Sarai later texted John and said that we arrived exactly when she needed us.

She ended up having to go to the hospital and have surgery (we told her she needed to go to the ER!) and is now recuperating.  We gave a Book of Mormon to her husband yesterday.  I'm hoping this sweet family makes it to church.

This is the Easter video we shared:

https://youtu.be/8KCUs7oJxjc

Anyway, if we had known the appointments we had were going to fall through, we would not have gone all the way to Bastrop that day.  But we were needed in Bastrop, so we were sent by way of cancelled appointments! This was our Easter miracle.