Monday, August 19, 2013

The Miracle of Prayer - August 19, 2013


Below is a short email Jess sent me this morning that I wanted to share with all of you.  Thank you again for your prayers for our sweet Jess.  We all witnessed a sweet miracle. 

Thank you sooooo much mom!!! You´re the best! Seriously! There is no doubt that all of those prayers were the cause of the miracle I saw this last week. I’ll talk more about that miracle in the big email. Thanks so much! I’m doing great again! I’m not sick anymore thanks to all of those prayers. Yay!! Thank you" love you!

Now for Jess’ email this week

THE MIRACLE OF PRAYER

I had real milk for the first time this week since leaving the U.S... I repeat real milk! It was the greatest tasting thing ever. I felt like I was drinking a cloud! They have this milk here that is made to have a very long shelf life without refrigeration so that´s kind of sketchy. We try to avoid the milk here if we have the choice but we finally found cheap real milk. I was so excited because I have missed milk so much! Yay! Tender mercy!

This last week in Elche was something called Nit de Alba (it´s Valenciano and means Night of Alba). I don´t have time to explain what it is but feel free to google it. Basically the entire city shuts down for the week to celebrate. I´m not kidding you when I say that everything shuts down for the week. The only stores that were open this week were a few grocery stores. This last week was like the 4th of July, Pioneer day, and the Disneyland firework show on steroids. It was incredible! On the 13th of August they have this MASSIVE firework show across the entire city. We got to go up on top of one of the member´s roofs and watched a little bit of it. I can honestly say that I have never ever seen anything even remotely close to how cool this firework show was. Almost every building in the city was shooting fireworks into the sky. Absolutely incredible! Another thing that they do is they have firework wars...as in they actually shoot fireworks at each other for entertainment. You heard me. They SHOOT fireworks at each other. Haha. Let´s just say that we had a lot of protecting angels with us this week.

Speaking of everything shutting down. So for those of you who may not have known I was pretty sick last week. We´re still not sure what exactly happened but I got some kind of infection that just took down my immune system. I was so sick last week that I couldn´t even stand up without passing out and my fevers were so high that they literally burned the inside of my mouth and throat. I still can´t really taste anything hahaha. Our mission nurse came up to Elche to help out and we tried going to a doctor but just my luck, EVERYTHING was closed....including every doctor in the city. Yup. haha. Just my luck. Luckily the Lord knew that and he blessed me with a complete miracle. There is no other way to describe it than divine intervention because the infection left on its own and my foot is almost completely better.  They said I’m going to have a nice scar but other than that it´ll be good. The mission nurse told me to thank all of you, especially my family, for your prayers because I should NOT have been able to get better on my own without a doctor and medication. Yay!! Thank you sooooo much for your prayers. I have no doubt that it was because of all of the prayers from home that I saw a miracle this week. I’m doing fantastic again and I’m back to work :)

Cool experience of the week. I was reminded this week of the power of going to church. They´re not kidding when they say going to church is a great way to receive personal revelation. Sometimes we fall into the groove of just going to church and attempting to stay awake for all three hours. Let´s be honest, we´ve all had those Sundays. 
 
As missionaries we teach others that they can receive revelation through church attendance. This week I was really having a difficult time with....well, I won´t say who or what but I was praying to the Lord for help on what to do and how I can become a better instrument in his hands. Boy, did I ever receive an answer. I got to church and Relief Society was on charity. Sunday school was on charity. In sacrament meeting, every single talk was about charity and loving those around you. I actually started laughing a little as soon as the last speaker in sacrament meeting started talking about charity because it was SO obvious that the Lord was trying to tell me something. In my head I though ¨alright heavenly father! Message received. Loud and clear.¨ hahahaha. It was actually such an incredible experience for me. It is amazing to me how many prayers are answered just in those three hours of church. The lord truly inspires the people who teach or talk on Sunday to answer people´s prayers. The thing is that if you don´t go to church how are you going to receive those answers. How many times has someone else said something in church that is THE EXACT answer to your prayer. It´s no coincidence. The church is a dedicated building and for that the Lord inspires the people inside. Go to church next Sunday with a question in mind or a problem that you´re trying to overcome. Pray about this question or problem before you go to church and while you are there and I promise you that you will hear something or feel something that is a direct answer to prayer. Try it. I promise you that if you do it prayerfully and with faith that the lord will answer you.

Well I hope this email makes up for some of the shorter ones I’ve been sending off lately. I love you all! Thank you so much for the miracle you gave me thanks to all of your prayers. I love this work and I love my Savior.

Come what may and love it!

Hermana Israelsen

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