Hey y'all! It was so awesome talking to you all last night on Christmas. The time flew by too fast. I just wanted to share a quick christmas eve miracle that Elder Davis and I experienced:
We completed our studies as usual on Christmas Eve. We had a quick lunch at the apartment and then grabbed our trusty steeds (our bicicletas) and went to work. It was freezing (it was only like 45 degrees but it felt like we were in antarctica) and it was starting to drizzle. We headed to two guys that we are teaching but they weren't there so our backup plan was to head to another investigator, a lady and her 5 kids, who lived on the very western border of our area. Normally, it takes about 25-30 minutes to get there but because of the wind and weather, we figured it would take about 35-40. We had a lesson with just a lady that we contacted many weeks prior at 3 so we figured that would give us enough time to get out and visit our investigator and then make it back to our 3 o-clock appointment.
So we began our journey...
The rain had really picked up so we were pedaling ferociously in the wind but we weren't making a whole lot of progress. We both wanted to visit this family so were determined to get there. We pedaled and pedaled and we kept our heads facing downwards because the rain was getting into our eyes. We got pretty far out there and had just barely jumped a curb and got back onto the sidewalk when I heard a loud hissing noise coming from my bike. At first, I though it was my tire rubbing against my brake pads and I thought "Oh man not this again." (I just barely got that problem fixed a couple weeks ago) and then I looked at the tire and I could literally see the air gushing out. I couldn't believe it. A flat tire? Again?! I had already bought the entire stock of tire tubes at Wal-mart this past month. We saw a bus stop ahead a little ways so we pushed our bikes and took shelter. We stood there for a minute or so thinking about what to do. I was sort of in a daze because I didn't feel like dealing with the problem. And then I thought of the pioneers and figured, "alright, we can do this." We decided to take our bikes to the Morales family who lived about a half-mile away and fix them there.
We came up to their house and none of the cars were there so we were just praying that somebody was inside because we didn't know where else to go. We knocked on the door and fortunately the daughters were both home so they let us use some paper towels to clean off the tire and then we were able to use their porch to fix my bike. After a good half hour or so, I got the bike all patched up with the bike patches I had bought at Wal-mart (Scouts really did teach me to be prepared) and we were all set to go. At this point, it was about 2:40 so we had to decided whether to still stop by our investigator real fast or just head to our 3 o-clock appointment. They both seemed important so we really didn't know what to do. We started walking and tried to decide as we approached the main road. I said a quick prayer and as we got to the road, we felt that we should turn right and head ALL THE WAY BACK to where we came from and go to our appointment at three. We hopped on our bikes and took off. Fortunately, the wind was slightly more in our favor heading back.
We pedaled as fast as we could and got to her house at 5 seconds past 3. We were both so proud. We are practicing our punctuality. We knocked on our door and when she answered, she told us that she was sincerely sorry but her son wasn't home (we set up the appointment with both of them) and that we should come back a different time. This was already our 4th or 5th time trying to have a lesson with them so we just told them to call us when they wanted us to stop by again. We did it in a polite manner but we both felt pretty frustrated. We got back on our bikes, tried to wipe off all the rain on our seats, and started to head by less active members that we had planned on going by for back-ups. We had an appointment with a member at 5 and we were really excited to finally get inside and warm up and have a nice Christmas Eve dinner. After about an hour with no success and still an hour until our meal appointment, we got a phone call. I answered and it was the lady that we had the appointment set up for 3 o-clock. She said that her son got home and they both felt bad that they weren't able to meet with us. They asked if we could come by on Tuesday to have a lesson. I set up a time for Tuesday evening and then we wished each other a merry christmas and hung out. Five minutes later, we got another call so we stopped our bikes and I answered the phone and it was the same lady again. She said that they both didn't want to wait until Tuesday and asked if it would be possible for us to come by right then. We said of course it would, and we raced back to her house. We got there in record time.
We had a great, spiritual lesson, and both are now preparing to be baptized in January. We got to the members' house a little late but we were all smiles because our prayers were answered. All we wanted was to teach the gospel on Christmas eve. I'll be honest, I was pretty tempted just to find shelter in the church or something because of the rain but we both knew that we needed to be diligent and work. We suffered for a bit in the rain and cold weather but we received many blessings later that day.
Afterwards, we went caroling to our investigators and less active families with the other elders in our district and had an amazing time. We had a great night and a great Christmas morning.
Sorry the story was so long! It was an amazing day and required many details.
Lots of amor!
Elder Brett
PS - I forgot to mention the part where Elder Davis wiped out on his bike and face planted into the mud. That was just another one of those trials before receiving the blessing of teaching the gospel.
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