Hermana Beutler in Ecuador: Week Sixty-three: Miracles & Prayer

IT WORKED! OUR PRAYERS WORKED!

I love this family!

Hola mi familia!

I know you guys read my email last week and helped me out with your prayers because Brayan's parents attended the baptism! THAT'S RIGHT! THEY ACTUALLY WENT! This is hands down the biggest miracle I have ever seen on the mission! The night before the baptism we went to do a family home evening with Brayan and we asked his dad if he was going to go. Well right in front of his son he said "No, I'm not going. I'm not going to do something that's against my will." And that was a blow to the heart for us but even worse for Brayan. But we didn't show it and we stayed positive knowing that the most important person was Brayan himself. His mom also had said no but that she wasn't too sure. So we prayed and prayed and left it in the Lord's hands, and He worked miracles!

So all week we made sure we were doing EVERYTHING that we could to make this baptism go off without a hitch. Come Saturday everything is going great. We invited everyone to show up at 5:30 (without telling them that the baptism itself started at 6:00.....Ecuadorians are SO not on time.) and everyone showed up a little before 6! It was perfect! But then SO MANY PEOPLE showed up that we had to move the service to the chapel. And then at about 5:59 they told us that his parents were on their way! It was crazy! So we told them that we would wait for them to start. We ended up starting quite a bit after 6, but it was the sweetest thing in the world to see his parents sitting up with him on the front row and seeing the whole middle section of the chapel FULL! I have never seen that at a baptism before on the mission, or anywhere! It was SO GREAT! The service was beautiful! We sang "I Like to Look for Rainbows" with the bishop's wife and it turned out really nice. I sang a section in English and I totally had a flashback to my baptism 12 years ago. I love that song! Then his brother baptized him who just got baptized 3 months ago. That was super special. After he was baptized he gave this AMAZING testimony thanking his family for being there and sharing his experience how he came to know that God loves him and that this is the true church. He said that the first time he went to church with his brother he felt the spirit SO strongly and he felt for the first time in a long time that Heavenly Father hadn't abandoned him. It was so sweet.

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY.

My favorite scripture this week is in Doctrine and Covenants 112:11 I know the church is true. Heavenly Father hears our prayers. He loves us. Never stop praying. Never stop believing that He IS THERE!

I love you all!

con mucho amor,

Hermana Beutler