Week 2: Spiritual Experiences

This has been a really spiritual week for me.  Sunday was our first and was Fast and Testimony meeting (last week we went to the regional conference broadcast from Salt Lake).  In Sacrament meeting, there was one testimony that really touched my heart, even though it was very simple and straight forward.  An older gentleman got up to the pulpit and bore his testimony in very plain, direct Spanish, without any "fluff" like stories or scriptures.  He simply said that he knows the Church is true, Joseph Smith is a Prophet of God, we have a living Prophet today, and the Scriptures are true.  I don't know why this stood out so much to me, maybe it was just because I could actually understand it, but I felt the Spirit so strong after his simple testimony.

On Wednesday, I had another very touching experience when I was in the Baptistry in the Guayaquil Temple.  Much to my surprise, there was an American missionary couple that was working in the baptistry that night, which I really needed.  This week was a little rough because I was missing home and feeling left out as my friends went off on other adventures.  Anyway, after meeting this sweet couple, the Christensens, I couldn't help but compare the husband to my Dad, his brothers, and my Grandfather.  As my thoughts turned to my Grandfather, who died when I was quite young, I felt strong, warm arms encircle me in a blanket of peace and comfort that I know was not only my Grandpa Hale, but also my Grandpa Thueson and my Grandma Hale who are also deceased.  This is one of only a handful of times that I have ever had such a tangible encounter with the Spirit and such peace and comfort.  The Lord knows what I needed that day and he sent 2 angels, the Christensens, to help me feel that love and Spirit.

Then, on Thursday and Friday, I had a bit of a missionary experience. In the community, we've been working with this organization that relies on volunteers to come and serve for 1 year to help with the programs they provide for the community.  There has been one volunteer that we have been working with for the past 2 weeks that has really become our friend.  Somehow, on Thursday, the subject of religion came up and he was asking a lot of questions.  There were about 4 of us, initially, that were answering his questions and trying to explain the gospel... but that was kind of getting difficult because we would often try to answer the question at the same time, or would try to add to another's statement, which just made it somewhat disjointed.  A little bit later that day, he and I began talking about the Gospel and Church a little bit more and he had a lot of questions.  Fortunately, I was able to answer all of them and, I hope, give him a nice foundation of knowledge.  He's a practicing Catholic and really likes to learn about religion, so I really don't know what will come from this, but he did accept a Book of Mormon.  :-D  However, the Book of Mormon was a little pocket copy that one of the girls in our group had been reading, so she put her testimony in it and "poached my investigator"  Haha.  One thing that's been really awesome about talking with this guy though, is that he's reciprocated by teaching me about Catholic beliefs and practices, at my request.  It's been a really great experience and I loved getting to talk about the Gospel with someone that was really curious to know as much as possible about our Church.