Another great week in Palm Desert!

Dear Family,

First things first…you should know that President Smart has asked me to extend my mission another transfer because there are a ton of new missionaries coming out, and he needs more experienced trainers.......I think it's what I need to do.  Let me know how you feel about this, but I already told him I’m in.

The rest of this week was great. We didn't have all the numbers we wanted, however, I felt the Spirit and was truly humbled. First sweet experience… I was on exchanges with mah boi Elder Tyler Romney. Yes, he's related to Mitt. We were out working and went out to an appointment we had at 11. It canceled, so we visited some potentials, and neither of them were home. So we went home and ate lunch. On the way to the apartment, the truck went off saying "low fuel." So we got home and ate and went out to fill up and set out to work. We get to the Chevron, card unauthorized. This has happened before because the account was empty, so I added up all the money we had spent on gas for the month and we were totally fine. So I swiped it again. Nothin. We head over to another gas station, the same thing. We head to another, we don't take credit. Head to another, I put the card on the counter at AMPM of the cashier and said I need $60 on pump 7. We don't take credit. So I grabbed the card, went out to the truck and had it in my hand literally the whole time. We head to Food 4 Less gas station. Go to grab the card out of the center console, and it's not there.........if you've never been to Food 4 Less it's kinda like Costco where everyone waits in line to fill. So we spend literally like 20 minutes tearing the truck apart looking for this card at the pump. Elder Romney and I have both said personal prayers. I knelt and said another....and nothing. So we pull out of the lane to stop looking like idiots and stop blocking everyone else. I call the AMPM and ask hey we're the Mormon missionaries do you guys have a credit card over there? Nope we don't sorry.....FETCH, now what?  We sat there for a while. Elder Romney asks, "Have you ever asked specifically for a miracle from God?"

"No," I said.

"Let's do it."

"OK"

"Ya"

"Cool"

"Esta bien"

"Buenisimo"

So Elder Romney said a beautiful prayer and we sat there for like 5 minutes in silence. I said, "What do you think we should do?"

"I don't know"

"What is your hunch?"

"I think we should go back to the AMPM and literally walk in there."  (keep in mind this is the same one I just called.)

"Alright"

So we go and we walk around where we parked when we previously were there.....nothing. I'm getting worried.

We walk in and both the cashiers look at us and don't say anything while they tend to their customers. If our card were there they would've handed it to us right as we walked in right? SO I was doubting even more. We wait in that line for like 10 minutes and they didn't say anything. We finally get there and ask. The guy just smiled and pulled it out of his sneaky drawer. Fetchin tears came out of my eyes and I know God answered our prayers. I have NO IDEA how that card got out of my hands. I clearly remember putting it in the center console. I know the Lord gives us experiences to try us. I hope to have more faith and not doubt so much in the future ones. It was soooo cool. I love the Lord. I love the mission. God works in EXTEMELY mysterious ways.

By the way, the card still didn't work so I just filled it up with my own money.

 SERVE MISSIONS. It's the greatest. The mission is the man.  I wish I could start where Elisabeth Allred is starting. I would TOTALLY drop everything and serve another one. I love you and you love me.

.-Elder Matthew Dial

p.s.  A big April Fools on the first paragraph!

p.p.s. He really had us scrambling and figuring out how we could make it work 5 weeks later....we could almost hear him laughing out loud in the library!!!!  He's a character!