My Mistakes<God's miracles

Hola hola hola!!!

This week passed super fast, one of these days, I'll wake up and it'll hit me that I've been here in Spain for a year and I literally live in Barcelona!! Being on a mission messes with your sense of time ahaha

So like the subject line says, this week consisted of me making some rather big mistakes, and then God coming through with some truly incredible miracles!

As missionaries in a world-wide pandemic, we are using technology a TON now, almost all teaching is through videocall, and finding, through Facebook (or Instagram, if you're lucky enough to test that out). So of course, it's important that your technology works, right? It'd be important to have access to the internet, right?? Hmm.. who knew...?? Well right now, every companionship has a sim card with unlimited data so that they can work without problems. Now go back a few months, when the Area Presidency sent home 50 missionaries overnight, I'm sure you can imagine how crazy things were! Well in that process, And as many more have finished their missions the past 7 months, many SIM cards, still activated, were lost. So, I wanted to save some money and tried to track down every number that was still being paid for, (I wish there was a simple way to do it...). I made a lost of about 45 numbers that needed to be cancelled, double checked each number, knowing how bad it'd be if I messed up, and sent it in to our phone company asking them to cancel each number.

Well, I assumed everything went well, until the next day, we are on in the car, and all the sudden my google maps switches off and I realize my data was cut off. Both my companion and I's numbers were cancelled (which is pretty bad, concerning my phone number is on all apartment contracts, and things like that..). Finally we get somewhere with wifi, and my phone exploded with messages from other missionaries, saying that their SIM cards aren't working. Somehow an extra 15 numbers were attached to this list of 45 numbers to be cancelled! That ended up causing quite a few larger problems, and I was pretty frustrated throughout the week, I'm hoping it'll be able to be fixed soon...

But now for the miracles! God is GOOD! Even in these trials that are so hard, He is showing His hand and working miracles. "The wheat is getting wheat-ier and the tares are getting tare-ier!" We have two amigos that are truly amazing and love the gospel, and would love to be baptized, but have really struggled to overcome addictions. Our amigo Damian, who calls us two or three times a day, just to talk, and usually asks us to read him something from The Book of Mormon, called us on Saturday and was really excited! He was talking to Elder John's and was like, "Hey, is Elder Boden there?! I need to talk to him!" And he told me, "GUESS WHAT! I AM SMOKING LESS!!! I have only smoked two cigarettes today, and I promise I will only smoke one more the whole day!" That was incredible news! Later that night, we got a call and he was really excited to report that he had stayed really strong, and every time he wanted to smoke, he just remembered the scriptures we'd talked about, "I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me!!" He is so awesome, I have so much faith in him!

Another miracle, was Mari! She is in a similar situation, but with Coffee. She wants to be baptized, but for years, hasn't been able to give up coffee. Well we gave her some Eko, (basically stuff that tastes like coffee, but doesn't actually have any in it) and she said she try it out. Well last night we called her asking how she is doing and how she likes the Eko, and she said, "I love it! I don't drink coffee anymore!!" WE WERE SHOOK!!!!!!! Ahhh God works such miracles!!

Now here's a miracle that really left me feeling grateful for a Loving Heavenly Father who knows us and our situations so perfectly!! Basically since the quarantine started, Tonga has had it's borders closed. No one has been able to enter or exit the country. That means that there are many Tongans throughout the world that should have finished their missions six months ago, but have just continued going, without any idea of when they could go home. We have a Tongan Hermana who should finish her mission this transfer, but we were pretty doubtful that she'd be able to. Well yesterday morning we got an email from the area presidency explaining that it's possible there'll be a flight from Brisbane Australia to Tonga, and any missionary who should have gone home in the past six months or would have finished their mission in the next six, will be hopefully put on that plane, the craziest thing is that she will be leaving on the exact day she otherwise would have, if everything goes according to plan!

We also have another Hermana from the Philippines in the same situation! Yesterday we found out that we'd be able to get her home as well!

I don't know if these seem as significant to you as they do to me, but for me, my companion, and these missionaries, this is the beautiful blessings resulted from faithful prayers, fasts, and faith of so many people!

I could go on forever talking about the amazing work that God has been up to, but I'll just close this long email testifying that God loves us, He's aware of us. Even when there are big problems, and you feel like you've made a big error, God is there, and He will not be shy to make Himself manifest to you! God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and He is a God of miracles!!

I love you all, I would love to hear your experiences, big or small, of things you're struggling with, and also the just pure, good things that God has been helping you with!! I pray for you all and love you so much! Have a great week!(:

-Élder Boden

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