Horrah for Israel!

You always hear that miracles still happen, but there's nothing better than when you see a sweet little tender mercy in your life — or in the lives of people you love, as the case may be.

I've sat through my share of mission farewells in the last year or two, and at every one of them a little piece of me has been sad to see the missionary go. Of course, I'd rather have my friends serving the Lord full-time than doing anything else, but it still hurts a little.

They say that sacrifice is giving up something good for something better. I felt like I was making pretty big sacrifices when two of my best friends were called to serve — Dave Page left for Portugal in June of 2007 and Nic Moseley went to Brazil a few months later.


(that's me, Dave, Nic and Laura Bessey [Sommer] back in '05)

But last Wednesday, a short e-mail threw everything into perspective.

One woman's life was changed because the Lord used two of his modern-day stripling warriors from Rexburg, Idaho to reach her. Here's the story in Elder Page's own words (complete with Portuguese influences ... When he spoke 100% English he was a much better speller):

"Italla is the daughter of Ivone, a long time investigator from Benfica that couldn´t be baptised because she was waiting on papers from Brasil to get legally married. Italla came to portugal to visit last winter and we taught her several lessons. At one point she got an answer to her prayer about the Book of Mormon and we marked a baptisimal date, but she wasn´t able to keep it because she decided she was going to go back to Brasil to study. She decided and left within a matter of 3 days and so we couldn´t do much about it. We mailed a reference card to the missionaries in Brasil but they never contacted her so eventually we had the mission office send and e-mail. Her mom, Ivone said that Italla still wanted to be baptised but couldn´t find the missionaries, and they never got around to finding her. We prayed for weeks that the missionaries would run into her but then I got transferred and it all just kind of fell through the cracks...What a tender mercy to hear that Elder Mosely found her."

Elder Moseley found her! Dave's dad gave me a little more background:

"When [Italla] heard Nick was from Rexburg Idaho she asked, 'Do you know an Elder Page who is serving in Portugal?' The rest is history!"

The tender mercies of the Lord really ARE over all His chosen people (see 1 Nephi 1:20), and He really DOES bless those people through "small and simple means"! He prepared Italla, and the odds of everything working out the way they did are slim — even close to none — and yet, they did. That's the miracle — that's my boys.

And suddenly, sending them a few thousand miles away doesn't feel like much of a sacrifice.