The Miracle of General Villegas

We have alot more stories to tell, from a "road trip" we took with the "AP'S" this last weekend, but we'll start by telling the most amazing story of our trip.

We travelled by car to the town of "General Villegas" (pronounced Heneral Beesheagas), which is at the farthest point of our Mission boundaries (300 miles away, 6 1/2 hours by car, 8 hours by bus), and is a medium sized town of about 20,000 people.

We had heard this amazing, miraculous story from our missionaries, but the story "came alive" for us when we met the real people in the story.

Here's how it goes:

About 2 years ago, the former Mission President, Pres. Ramos woke up one morning and decided he needed to drive with his wife to see the town of General Villegas, because they had never before been to this town at the farthest point of the Mission boundaries.

Pres. and Sister Ramos hopped in the car and drove to the town. When they got to General Villegas, they only had a limited time to check out the town, because they needed to drive back the other way for a meeting in another town.

So, they parked their car and strolled around the city plaza for a few minutes. While walking, they met a young woman who was in a policewoman's uniform. She was extremely excited to see them there, and she told them she and her family were members of the Church (the mother had joined the Church many years previously, in Buenos Aires) and they had been praying for the past 17 years for missionaries to come to their town and start working to baptize people there, and eventually create a branch of the Church in General Villegas.

The mother of the family, Sister Cruz, had been teaching her children the Gospel and had been telling her children for 17 years that if they ever saw any people in their town with black and white missionary "plaques" on, they should run right away to get her.

When the daughter met Pres. and Sister Ramos, she ran to find her mother to tell her that missionaries had arrived in the town, but by the time the daughter returned with her mother to the plaza, Pres. and Sister Ramos had left for a meeting they needed to attend in another town. Of course, the mother and daughter were extremely disappointed.

However, the next week, President Ramos came back to General Villegas with his two Assistants. They opened the town for missionary work conferred the Melchizedek Priesthood upon Brother Cruz, and assigned 2 missionaries to live and work in the town. The Cruz family was thrilled!

Well, we attended Church last Sunday at the General Villegas branch and met Sister Cruz and her family! There were 28
people in attendance (a mother and father with 8 children had been baptized two weeks earlier, and they were all there) , and Sister Cruz taught a wonderful Relief Society lesson on strengthening the family, then a missionary taught a great Sunday School lesson on creating health through living the Word of Wisdom.

Sister Cruz invited us to her home for lunch after Church, and, after the lunch, she told us this same, amazing story herself, and she hugged and kissed me and told me (in part English and part "Castellano"), "Thank you for making the sacrifice to come to us."

The photo is of me and Evrett and the AP's with Sister Cruz (in orange) and her family. Sister Cruz, her husband, and her two daughters are all active in the Church, and the daughters are pictured here with their husbands and children. (The policewoman daughter is behind her mother's right shoulder.)

So, we saw and learned of "The Miracle of General Villegas" first hand!

It doesn't get any better than this!

Pretty amazing huh?