Helaman's Mighty Men . . .: Miracles, Miracles and More Miracles

Well hello there family! Always such a pleasure to write you all each week and let you know of the many blessings we receive as missionaries and the things I have learned. Every day I wake up and say, "It’s a great day to be a missionary!!" (Dad you’ll get that joke hopefully) haha, in reality it’s so true though. It’s such a great blessing I have to be serving the Lord here in El Salvador and to be able to witness the many ways the Lord works miracles in our lives. My companion and I don’t always have the best of days or the success one would like but we are always able to see the Lord working on our side and the help he gives us to grow spiritually. Here’s the weekly list of some of the stuff that went down...

So about the “family in the middle of nowhere” we found last week. They are named the Familia Bran and live in a place called Cuzamaluco that is 35 minutes away from Nahuizalco in pickup and a good hour and a half walking. We found them last Saturday and it was such a miracle about how we were able to come upon them. The bishop tells us that a family had come up to them Sunday outside the church to ask if they have a Bible or something they can use to study.... So he tells us we should go visit the Familia Bran in Cuzamaluco. Well, I had been there before and so I told him we would go and check it out. Only thing is, there is literally like 75 people in this town with the last name of Bran and I had no idea how we would find them. So we take the pickup in the morning to go see and as we get off the pickup and starting hiking the mountain to get to the town we realize behind us was a family walking the same way we were. So we starting contacting them, well you guessed it, they were the family we were looking for! It was such amazing they just happened to be in the same pickup as us and that we were guided to leave at the exact hour we did. So anyways, these past few weeks we have been going clear out there to teach them and they have some doubts about a second baptism but are reading the LDM (Libro de Mormón) and coming along great. All five of them were able to go to church this Sunday and it just made me so happy seeing them learning about the gospel there! We are hoping to be able to put a date with them to be baptized next month! Only sad thing is I’m almost sure I’ll be leaving Nahuizalco at the end of the month... Hopefully not though!

Random Things...

- This last week all of the missionaries were given cell phones and it’s just been the best thing ever to finally be able to call people when we are out and about and it’s been such a blessing to speed the work of the Lord here in El Salvador!

- Super random... I have had the biggest craving ever for Root Beer these past few weeks. They don’t sell the delicious beverage here in El Salvador and I miss it a lot.

- Thanks to all you guys for your prayers in behalf of my back. This week I was able to sleep the full 8 hours in the night for the first time in like 3 months. It’s so great!

- Elder Salmons and I (My zone leader) made at least 100 grilled cheese sandwiches for the Relief Society anniversary this week. Thanks to Mom’s good teaching the whole world loved our cooking abilities and all want to learn how to cook more American food. I just told them I would LOVE to show them and eat it sometime with them so we don’t have to eat rice and tortillas all the time, haha!

So another miracle that happened this week was with a little kid we have been teaching named Diego Alfaro. He’s a crazy little kid that loves playing soccer and his little play station but is super nice and always willing to listen to us. So Mom sent me a little Plan de Salvación picture set to use with investigators and it came to great use to help teach Diego and he totally understood his purpose here on Earth and what he needs to do to reach the Celestial Kingdom now. He will be baptized this Sunday if everything goes well and it’s made me so happy. In the last lesson we had we finished teaching and we asked him if he had any questions for us... He’s like, ‘No but I just want to tell you how much I love you guys and am really grateful you come to visit me. You guys help me learn about God so I can live with God again and my family. Please don’t ever stop coming because I love when you come.’ It just made me feel so great inside and I left the lesson with the biggest smile on my face. Last Saturday he asked me to baptize him and so once again this Sunday, as long as everything works out, I’ll be able to dress up in all white again! What a true blessing it is to be a servant in the Lord’s hands and help people do the things necessary to enter in God’s kingdom!

I could write for days about all the miracles I see every day but sadly I don’t have any time left but I hope all of you guys have a great week and are able to see the many miracles God works in our lives each and every day! Keep reading the Book of Mormon and everything will end up just fine!

Les amo mucho!!!

Elder Crump