Tuesday Devotional with Elder Wilford W. Andersen

"Tuesday Devotional with Elder Wilford W. Andersen"

Elder Darrel L. Hammon

What a wonderful day today! It started off with our regular Tuesday devotional for the week. This was a special week, come to find out. Every second Tuesday, a member of the Area Presidency comes and speaks. Today, Elder Wilford Andersen came to speak to us. His Spanish is flawless. I was very, very impressed with his language skills. What was more impressive, however, was his ability to bring the spirit to the meeting. His topic was Cuba.

                The Area Presidency has been working with Cuban officials to have the Church become an official and recognized entity. It was been a lengthy struggle, but these men have seen miracles. Just a few months ago, the BYU Ambassadors were able to go to Cuba and deliver a wonderful program. The Cubanos loved it. One of the government officials was there and enjoyed it immensely. Elder Andersen said they have a solid friend in this person.

Elder Wilford W. Andersen

                A miracle occurred before all this happened. They had received visas to go to Cuba to begin the conversations, but they had to go to Miami to pick up the tickets because they didn’t deliver them electronically. To top it off, this was one or two days before they were supposed to go, and they were about to resign themselves to the fact they couldn’t go because of the time crunch and tried to find someone who could obtain the tickets. They called around about how they were going to get the tickets because that office was going to close in one hour. One of the people from the office, I think it was Rafael from the PR Department, said, “Let’s call Esteben de la Cruz. He knows lots of people.”

Rafael called Esteben and asked him where he was. As Rafael was listening, his face blanched. He turned to Elder Andersen and said, “He is in the Miami Airport.” So they made arrangements for him to go pick up the tickets. Elder Andersen said, “What are the chances of that happening? The Lord knew we needed those tickets, and he also knew we were not going to be able to get to the airport.”

                Just incredible! The Lord definitely has a hand in all things. And we look forward to hear more.