DAY 2

“Una asignación no revisada, no vale nada!”

“An unsupervised assignment isn't worth nada!”

      When you hear the word Puebla, the first thing you need to think of is H.O.T.! By about 4:00 pm each day, we begin to see the students' eyes roll back into their bobbing heads as they try to fend off their incredibly exhausted body. However, despite the heat, these wonderful saints are doing their best to have the faith, the hope, and form the habits which will allow them to reach self reliance. It is such a beautiful blessing to be a part of this process.

      Perhaps the most touching part of today's lessons happened AFTER the class was over. Two brothers in the course came up to Lars and me and started to open their souls. They recognized that they had to overcome their pride, as well as their ignorance. They recognized that they have been living with immense amounts of fears in their lives, and that they have been acting out of fear and NOT acting out of hope, faith, or knowledge. As they shared their stories with us, tears began to fall from their loving eyes—it was perhaps the most humbling feeling that we have experienced thus far. There is nothing like having grown men recognize that they need to change, but it is even more special when they begin to act with HOPE instead of FEAR. This is what the curriculum of Creating Family Prosperity is all about.

      After an hour long discussion after class, Lars and I decided that we would follow this family to their home and have some pizza. Their new small business is selling pizzas—and they are absolutely delicious. We realized immediately some major mistakes that the family is making with their business: 1) they are not using the same amount of ingredients on each pizza, 2) they have no system to record their sales, 3) they are simply waiting for the people to come and order a pizza. When I asked them, “How many pizzas do you sell a day?” They replied, “We make 5 pizzas a day, we start to cook them in the afternoon, and we pray that they (the customers) will arrive.” They had previously handed out fliers and magnets with their phone number on it, and they are selling on average 4 pizzas a day. While they had great faith in making the pizzas, and with hope that people would come, they are getting further and further into debt each day.

      As we sat and ate pizza with them, the mother said:

“This morning I knelt and prayed for help. I told Heavenly Father that my husband was a righteous man, that he was doing all he could to provide, and that we needed divine help. By seeing you here tonight, and with the help of the curriculum that my husband is learning, I know that the Lord has showed me his tender mercies.”

      After we sat and brainstormed ideas, how to differentiate their business, how to increase sales, how to add different items to their menus, etc., I called Rebecca to see if she would be willing to call Alejandra, the mother, and share some of her pizza and dessert pizza “tricks”, as well as a system to have precise measurements to help Alejandra figure out the cost of each pizza; Alejandra set a price on a pizza, but had no true understanding of what each pizza was costing her to make. When I asked Rebecca if she would be willing to SKYPE with Alejandra today, she said, “YES!”. Tonight, after the class, we will go and see how their business is improving.

      As we spoke last night, all of us were in tears. When Sariah, the oldest daughter of the family, saw her parents crying, she ran to me and hugged me, wrapping her tiny little arms around my chest, and just didn't let go. I had never experienced that before, but it sure excited me to be a father. I told the young girl to go over and hug her dad, which she did, and I began to see just how much hope we are really giving to these families. For both Lars and me, this work is like being on the mission. Needless to say, we all felt the love of Heavenly Father through the Spirit. When we finished evaluating their business, we knelt in prayer and Samuel (the Father) ended our meeting with a prayer.

      Perhaps what permitted Samuel to see that he needed to make changes, was that he had, within 48 hours, converted a ROCK into $583 pesos. I mention these because $583 pesos is more money than Samuel makes in selling products for another business in one month! After he saw the difference, it was as if the rock hit his head and he realized: I can make MORE money selling rocks than selling health drinks all around the country.

      I want to express again the amazing support that Lars Hamilton has been. He is organized, detail oriented, humble, and incredibly creative. It is a blessing to have Lars here—for me and for the students. He is learning to teach the curriculum and he is getting better day by day. Being with Lars is like being on the mission—we have felt the Spirit each day and been humbled as we see that we are truly instruments in the Lord's hands and nothing more than messengers of knowledge and information which amazingly successful men and women have imparted unto us.