A Miracle for Luz

Hola mi familia y mis amigos

A little bit of administrative stuff first. If you plan on sending a package or letter anytime soon, wait. On Wednesday, June 13th, we're having our next transfers and our mission is also splitting into two different missions, so I may have a different mission address and then it would take awhile for mail to get to me. On my first P-day (Preparation Day, or the day we email) after transfers I'll include which mission I'll be staying in (either Utah Salt Lake City or Utah Salt Lake City West) and the address that packages and mail goes to.

Now that the boring stuff is out of the way...

I know someone who is famous. Kind of. I don't know her well, but it's still cool. On mormon.org, there is a video profile of Anita Sthalasayee (hopefully I spelled that correctly). It's one of the third box on the right of the little profile pictures of people on the home page. She used to be in my ward (congregation) in Georgia and her mom still lives there. Apparently she's living in New York now as a journalist. Cool.

So here is the story of the week:

I don't know if I've told all of you about Luz yet. Four months ago, Luz hated missionaries because her son in law was a member of our church and then left his wife, who is Luz's oldest daugther. (Every religion has it's bad people, I won't even make an attempt at denying that). But then something changed. About three months ago, she had a dream about my last companion, Elder Torres. After she woke up, she remembered his face very clearly in the dream. That in and of itself doesn't seem very crazy, until you include the idea that Elder Torres and Luz had never met before. Elder Torres had never been to her house, only been in the area for a brief time, and she works 12 hours a day, 7 days a week in a restaurant far from us. And then the next day he knocked on her door. The problem is that Luz works on Sundays so she can't go to church. She hasn't been able to find another job (she's 65 and can't move very quickly so there aren't a lot of options for her). So for three months, Luz hasn't been able to come to church despite the fact that she wants to go extremely badly. We went on a tour of the chapel with her on a weeknight and she felt a warmth in the chapel that made her want to come back. But...work. And then something changed again. She had surgery last week because she had a kidney stone. Her doctor told her she couldn't work and her boss found a replacement for two weeks. But (and as I write this I'm smiling) her doctor said nothing about church. So Luz decided that she would come to church. And she loved it. She wants to come back. She wants to be baptized. She wants to start this new life that she knows will help her. But, next Sunday she has to go back to work.

And once again, this is the point that I need your help with prayer. Just do it. Please pray that Heavenly Father will soften the heart of Luz's boss and allow her to talk Sunday morning's off. I know it will work. Prayer has that power.

I love all of you,

-Elder Colton