Our God is a God of miracles, of this there is no doubt. Though as stated in Mormon 9:21 we must "...believeth in Christ, doubting nothing..." And its when we show that faith that miracles happen.
Let me tell everyone the story of Diana. Diana is a 12 year old girl, who is part of a part member family (her mom and her 15 year old sister are members, she's not.) When Diana was 9 years old the missionaries tried to teach her, so she could be baptized, but due to lack of motivation on her parents part, all progress stopped, and the missionaries dropped her. When Elder Sheppard and I had gotten to Salida for the first night, we knew next to nothing about the area, and he felt inclined to go visit this house (as Diana was one of the people he had taught when he was in this area a year and a half ago). When we got to the house, the mother invited us in and called Diana out. Little 12 year old Diana came out on crutches, with her leg wrapped in bandages. Her mother then proceeded to tell us the story about how Diana had been riding her bike to school one morning when a car took a corner to fast and hit her. She was care flighted to a hospital in Sacramento. When the Doctors inspected her leg, they saw it was infected, and told Diana's mom that they would have to remove most, if not all, of her calf muscle, and they would have to perform a skin graft on her leg. They told her it would be a long time before Diana could walk again, and her leg would never be the same.
Diana's mom was crushed, and though it had been years since she had been to church, the first person she decided to call was the bishop. She called the bishop, and in tears told him what was going to happen, and requested a priesthood blessing for Diana. The bishop got in contact with missionaries in Sacramento, and sent them over the hospital, so that Diana could receive that priesthood blessing. I'll likely never meet Elder Walker and Elder Grashong, but because of the faith that they, and Diana and her mother had, what happened next is something truly amazing. The morning after Diana received her priesthood blessing, her Doctor came in to check on her leg, before this life changing surgery was to take place. The Doctor inspected her leg, and, finding no trace of infection, called in another doctor to double check. That Doctor called in another, and another, and another, until there were five doctors standing around Diana's leg, marveling. Finally the lead Doctor turned to Diana's mom and said "Ma'am, do you believe in Miracles?" Diana's mom (who was in tears at this point telling the story) then bore her (incredibly powerful) testimony, and said she wanted Diana baptized as soon as possible. Diana agreed, and she has a date set for April 10th. Way AWESOME!
She even showed us her leg, it looked sweet! I told her to give me a picture of it to send home. But now with Diana we've run into another problem, one that we need your prayers for. Diana recently visited with her Doctor, and he told her to keep her leg out of water until the 24th of April. Diana has been promised that if she prepared herself for baptism, her leg would not be a problem, so we need your prayers! Pray that Diana will be healed for her baptism on April 10th! Thank you!
So along with that, things in Salida are going great. We have found quite a few people to teach, all of whom we've committed to baptism! I wish I could say that this was because I'm such a great missionary, but I can't, because a lot of it is Elder Sheppard, who is infinitely more experienced than I am, and a much better teacher, but even more so is the spirit, the greatest teacher of all. Most people we teach don't remember a thing we teach them, but they do remember the spirit that they felt, and that is what is most important. We've just moved into our new apartment, so no more long bike rides to Salida from Modesto. Not to mention that we currently reside in the most expensive apartment in the mission. I am certainly far from complaining.
Thank you all for your love and support. Those who haven't, WRITE ME! I love you all!
Elder Keenan Monnett
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