Personal Miracle from Missionary

I have offered a prayer to my Heavenly Father that the Holy Spirit will guide me and direct my thoughts as I express the miracles that have taken place in my life. I have had the desire to serve my Lord and Redeemer to help bring his children unto him ever since I have been a little boy. For several months prior to my service to my Savior I had the opportunity of working full time as a newspaper carrier. Due to the location and the early hours of the morning which I worked I had the blessing of staying with my grandparents once a week. I am their first grandchild and I have a special relationship with them. As a little boy I would stay with them often so memories came flooding back from my childhood and I felt like a little boy again.
I am grateful for their love and the values they live. They have raised two beautiful children one of which is my mother. She was baptized at the age of seventeen and is the only member of her family. I have great respect and love for my mother. I have seen how the richness of gospel has influenced her life and because of her faithfulness I have also been blessed. I have also felt the struggles of her heart as she desires so greatly to be with her family forever. Seeing her struggles and her pain has also caused me to suffer. However, I cherished the opportunity I had each week to be with my grandparents and share a spiritual thought. It was very emotional telling them I would be leaving to Romania but the last commitment I gave to them was to read the Book of Mormon during my two year service and find out if it is the word of God for it has the unique mission of turning the heart of men towards Christ.
Shortly after entering the Missionary Training Center in May 2007 I was told my grandmother had melanoma cancer and would not live until Christmas. I spent long hours on my knees praying to my Heavenly Father and asking Him why this was happening? I begged Him to spare her life. At length I came to the knowledge that working full-time as a carrier was not only a blessing financially but also allowed me to spend precious time with my grandmother, who I loved so dearly. He taught me to be grateful for all things and my prayers became soul searching answers. I learned that in order to gain greater faith would not mean life would be good with few trials or obstacles but in order to obtain it – means exercising it by having the necessary greater trials that will elicit the greater faith that I am seeking. I began to pray for the Lord’s will to be done. I knew whether or not I would see her again in this life I would see her in the next life and I was given that promise every time I knelt in humble prayer.
My thoughts have been turned to my last night at home as I spoke to my mom at the top of the staircase. She began to cry thanking me for all I had done for her parents and trying to share the gospel with them. We cried together and we made a pact to pray for them while I was gone so they would gain a testimony. In her last letter to me she wrote “You and I can pray that while you are on your mission they will somehow gain a testimony.”
I have often thought of my grandmother’s suffering and I asked myself why does she need to suffer? Why can’t you heal her Father? I know that you have this power? I have learned that as difficult as these situations are, I know in my heart as wonderful as it would be for her to be healed or to be blessed that the cancer or disease does not spread – what truly matters most is that these situations move her and each one of us to have a closer relationship with Heavenly Father, to acknowledge the power of the priesthood and the power of prayer and to move us to search more diligently for the truth. After all, does it really mean anything if a person is healed or spared pain or death and the person has no closer relationship with the Lord and Heavenly Father? What good is this for the person’s eternal progression after this life? I came to understand that her being diagnosed with melanoma cancer was an answer to our prayers.
I know that we are in the care of an all-wise, all-knowing, all loving Father in heaven. I know He wants to wrap us in His arms of love. He has taken good care of my grandmother. The greatest gift I was given this past Christmas was the testimonies of my family. What my grandmother shared with me is a miracle. She said “I know Jesus is the Christ is the Son of God; I know Jesus lives today and is always there for me. I have always believed in Heavenly Father, His Son Jesus and the Holy Spirit since very young. My faith has grown stronger since my illness which was diagnosed in May of ’07. I know without a doubt, Heavenly Father lives and without Him I could not have gotten through these past eighteen months. I know all things are possible when you ask Heavenly Father through His Son Jesus. I have learned to ask, and even beg at times, for His help. This has been a difficult time for me but when I go to the Lord in prayer I get a sense of peace so I know He is there. I have learned a great deal about prayer but one of the most important things I have learned is to listen what the Lord is sating to me. I know He hears all prayers and answers all prayers. We may not always get the answers we want but I keep trying and listening.”
The doctors say she is a walking miracle. I spoke with her at Christmas and she looks forward to seeing me in a few months. I pray she will continue listening to the guidance of the spirit that she will enter the waters of baptism so she can partake of all the blessings her Heavenly Father has prepared for her. I know God has not ceased to be God that He is a God of miracles, for she is an evidence of this. I know that He has a living church and has called a living prophet. I know He has restored His sacred Priesthood. I know the Priesthood of God is exercised on a daily basis in leading His church and blessing the lives of individuals. I love my Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ with all my heart. I praise them and I look forward to the day I can kneel before them and wet their feet with my tears and thank them for what they have done for me, my family and my grandmother. It is in his sacred name I take and wear each and every day. I will always be grateful for Him and His sacrifice. It is His name I will glorify and always glorify is my prayer. In the sacred name of my Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ, amen.