126 Days Until Malaga, Spain
My father was adopted when he was nine years old. Ten years ago, he found his biological family, one of which is an LDS member (his aunt). They didn't keep up a correspondence until just a day ago, when my dad messaged his biological aunt due to a personal family issue.
They were talking for a bit and he mentioned that I was going on my mission to Spain. He did not mention Malaga, just the country.
She told him that the Romero Family originated in Malaga, Spain.
I believe that Prophets, seers, and revelators assign missionaries to where they are needed under the direction and influence of the Holy Ghost. Elder W. Christopher Waddel shared the following story during the October 2011 General Conference.
A few years ago, Elder Javier Misiego, from Madrid, Spain, was serving a full-time mission in Arizona. At that time, his mission call to the United States appeared somewhat unusual, as most young men from Spain were being called to serve in their own country.
At the conclusion of a stake fireside, where he and his companion had been invited to participate, Elder Misiego was approached by a less-active member of the Church who had been brought by a friend. It was the first time this man had been inside a chapel in years. Elder Misiego was asked if he might know a José Misiego in Madrid. When Elder Misiego responded that his father’s name was José Misiego, the man excitedly asked a few more questions to confirm that this was the José Misiego. When it was determined that they were speaking about the same man, this less-active member began to weep. “Your father was the only person I baptized during my entire mission,” he explained and described how his mission had been, in his mind, a failure. He attributed his years of inactivity to some feelings of inadequacy and concern, believing that he had somehow let the Lord down.
Elder Misiego then described what this supposed failure of a missionary meant to his family. He told him that his father, baptized as a young single adult, had married in the temple, that Elder Misiego was the fourth of six children, that all three boys and a sister had served full-time missions, that all were active in the Church, and that all who were married had been sealed in the temple.The less-active returned missionary began to sob. Through his efforts, he now learned, scores of lives had been blessed, and the Lord had sent an elder from Madrid, Spain, all the way to a fireside in Arizona to let him know that he had not been a failure. The Lord knows where He wants each missionary to serve.
I do not believe in coincidences. I believe in tender mercies of The Lord. I truly believe that Heavenly Father is aware of us. He knows us, He knows where we are needed. Most of the time The Lord works through other people. President Monson said,
“The sweetest experience I know in life is to feel a prompting and act upon it and later find out that it was the fulfillment of someone’s prayer or someone’s need. And I always want the Lord to know that if He needs an errand run, Tom Monson will run that errand for Him”.
I would love to be a person that the Lord can count on. To be able to fulfill someone else need!
