Amazing Grace‏

email dated 9/5/09
Amazing Grace how sweet the sound
That Saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found.
Was blind but now I see!

Twas grace that taught my heart to feel
And grace my fears relieved.
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed.

And when this heart and flesh shall fail
And mortal life shall cease.
I shall possess within the veil
A life of Joy and Peace.

My chains are gone Ive been set free!!
My Lord my God has ransomed me.
And like a flood His mercy rains
Unending love, Amazing Grace.

I would like to think I wrote that, but I do have it memorized and that is almost just as good. What I have accomplished is that I have come to know that that Amazing Grace of which we sing is very real. It is by grace that we are saved. One thing I have come to learn is that only God knows the heart of a person. Not even the person necessarily knows his own heart, but our Heavenly Father always knows. And our Savior Jesus Christ, having felt what we have felt, knows us better than we know ourselves. Jesus suffered our afflictions and pains, which are only inadvertently connected with sin on account of the fall, but truly are not consequences always of bad choices we make. Yet He suffered those specific pains anyway so that He could know us and love us. And that is why His grace and His love is perfect.

This week we met a woman in the hospital named Marinela Deluche. She lives in a little town called Chuy in the other mission. She had been in a motor accident and had temporarily lost her memory. She had lesions that haven't healed in 4 months and she had an eye surgery as a result of the accident. They found a brain tumor and are in the process of finding out if it is operable or what will happen to her. We had gone to the hospital to look for her to give her a blessing because a member who was in the hospital had called our offices and requested one. It turns out that the member wasn't even there and Marinela had no idea we were coming or who that member was. We stuck around anyway to talk to her. A woman named Rosa was also there. Rosa didn't know Marinela before her accident and is living here in Montevideo. Rosa is a good christian. I needed to meet her. She would frequently visit Marinela just so that Marinela wouldn't be alone. Marinela has a 14 year old son named Emiliano and an ex-husband. Well, for 4 months her son has been with her ex and she has heard not a word from him or her son. She very well might die and what she really wants is to talk to her son. I felt so helpless. She accepted the blessing at Rosas insisting that we could help. We have visited her twice there. She doesn't know her sons number or that of her ex-husband but she gave me an idea of where they might live. I called the missionaries that are serving in Chuy and sent them and they told me that they found it!! We are going to be able to get her a phone number to call and talk to her son. We haven't really talked to her about baptism at all, which is usually the main thing I have been talking about to the people I am visiting. It just hasn't seemed the need with her right now. I think Heavenly Father isn't done teaching me about Charity and I have quite a few lessons to learn. Visiting her and Rosa has renewed my faith and hope in the good people of the world.

I love you all very much! Take care!!

Andy