Episode Nine: A Ghana Mission of Miracles: Mary DeGraffenried's Trailblazing Journey
In this episode of 'Latter-day Miracles,' hosts Haley Hatch Freeman and Misty Smith welcome Mary DeGraffenried, the first American sister missionary to serve in Ghana. Mary shares touching stories from her mission experience, including her encounters with the Mcdavids family and their faith journey, as well as a harrowing yet faith-affirming experience with a local man involved in voodoo practices. Throughout her mission, Mary felt the presence and protection of her late grandfather. Her stories highlight the transformative power of the gospel, the importance of trusting in God, and the enduring presence of angels in our lives.
Mary DeGraffenried
Kokrobite, Africa
In Ghana, Mama Comfort with her grandchildren.
Special night with Mama Comfort and children.
Medie Ofankor
Prophetess’s children.
Fufu, an African dish.
Contact Our Guest
Instagram: marydegraffenried
Facebook: Mary DeGraffenried
Transcript
Intro: [00:00:00] Welcome to Latter-day Miracles, where we share true stories of angels and marvels. Get ready to enjoy accounts from everyday people that remind us of divine love, that we're never truly alone, and the power of faith in these latter days. I'm Haley Hatch Freeman. And I'm Misty Smith. Sit back, open your heart and prepare to be inspired.
Haley Freeman: Hi. Welcome to Latter-day Miracles. I'm so excited to have Mary DeGraffenried with us today to share some of her miracles from her mission. She made history being on her mission, and I'll tell you why that is in just a minute. First we're gonna have Misty read her introduction.
Misty Smith: Alright. Okay. Mary is from a small town called Kanosh, Utah.
There she and her six siblings were able to grow up working with cattle and also on their family dog business called [00:01:00] Kanosh Labs. After high school, she was signed to throw the javelin for the BYU Track team. She spent a year there before she received her mission call as the first American sister missionary to go to Ghana.
Haley Freeman: There it is. That is why she made history going there. She was the first American sister to go to Ghana. Isn't that amazing? My nephew actually went on her same mission. He was called to Acura mission there, and when he heard that she was gonna be the first American sister, he was a little nervous for her because he knew what kind of mission that was and the kind of dangers and different things there.
But, um, if anyone was going to be able to do it, it was Mary. She's a rock star. So we are so excited to hear some her miracles and some of her experiences. Another connection that Mary and I have, is we are both girls from Millard Utah, shout out to Millard. [00:02:00] And, um, we grew up there and I was actually friends with her mom.
We grew up together, uh, having fun, going on double dates and different things and sleepovers and all that fun, fun stuff you do as a teenager there. So I loved her mom. Jenell Freeman at the time, and it's kind of a funny little story. I actually met my husband because of her mom in kind of a roundabout way.
I started talking to my husband because his last name was Freeman. And so I'm like, are you related to Jenell Freeman? And he's like, I don't think so, but I got the ball rolling and the rest is history now anyway, so kind of a fun little story there. So I'm gonna go ahead and turn the time over to Mary. We're so excited to have her here, Mary.
Mary DeGraffenried: Well thank you. I'm actually so excited. It, it was sort of a surprise to get your call and, um, I am just excited to share about my mission. Um, like you said, I was a first [00:03:00] American sister to go over there, um, and there was a few others that came with me. And it was not what I expected, but I feel like my whole mission in general was just a miracle.
Haley Freeman: Yeah,
Mary DeGraffenried: for sure. Anyways, I've been praying about what I should share. Um, and I had a few very special experiences that, you know, I just felt like I needed to share. Um, and so probably the first one I'd like to talk about is this family is the Mcdavids family. And. They were in my last area. I was lucky with each of my areas.
I got to spend about six to eight months in each one. And um, my last area is called Kokrobite and it was right along the coast there. So it was a pretty poor area where. Everyone was fishermen and so we had a lot of incredible opportunities to go and do service carrying fish from the sea and helping these [00:04:00] old mommies, even though, you know, usually we couldn't speak the English with them because they were different tribes.
So some spoke Ga and Twi and Ewe like just a whole bunch. Um, but when I first got there, I had whitewashed, which means I had kicked the other missionaries out, and it's just me and my, uh, trainee. I got a new companion and she was from Congo, so she didn't speak any English at that time. And um, I remember one night it was right when we got there and we were on our way home and
where our home was located, it was on top of like a mountain sort of. So every night after walking all day in the Ghana heat, we'd have to walk up this mountain and um, it was a pretty late night. I remember my companion was tired and I was quite honestly tired. And we looked ahead of us [00:05:00] and I saw this really old woman.
She looked like she was probably in her eighties just trying to shuffle up this mountain. And, um, she had probably, I think there's five kids, this little kids from the ages 10 and around her. And then she had a baby that was strapped to her back. 'cause in Ghana, the way they carry their kids is they'll put the baby on the back and then with fabric they'll tie it.
And so she's carrying this baby and then she had a big bucket of fish on her head and she was just balancing that. And, um. I remember getting like, just powerful feeling. Like it just hit me. Just, you have to go talk to her. You gotta go help her. And so I turned to my companion I was trying to help her understand, so I'm like, let's go, let's go.
I don't think she had any idea what I was saying, but she was like, okay and start walking up this hill. And I come to this mommy [00:06:00] and she let me carry the fish on my head, and so we're just walking and one of the first miracles in this is that she could speak a little English, which was so touching for me because a lot of that older generation, they can't communicate because they've grown up with just their tribe.
And so she was able to speak. And all of these little kids, they're just amazed 'cause they haven't really seen a white lady before. And so they're all like touching my skin and grabbing my shirt and um, we started talking and this mommy, her name was Mama Comfort. And, um, we were walking to their little house and she told me, she says, I know you.
I don't know you, but I know your church. I'm a member. I haven't gone
Misty Smith: oh
Mary DeGraffenried: long. But she said, I used to go to your church, [00:07:00] and she began to tell us about her life story and. It was amazing how she was able to come to the church in the first place 'cause it was so new. But she'd fallen away and her son had moved away and gotten married and they had moved to Kokrobite where I was.
And so what happened was her son had nine kids and it was just him and his wife. And about, uh, I think it was a year. From the time that we had seen Mama Comfort, um, their mom had actually died and when their mom died, their baby that she was breastfeeding also died.
Haley Freeman: Oh.
Mary DeGraffenried: They were in really bad situation and they had two more kids die.
And so,
Haley Freeman: oh
Mary DeGraffenried: It left this father with six kids all under the age of 10.
Misty Smith: Wow.
Mary DeGraffenried: So Mama Comfort [00:08:00] had left and she came. And so from then I was just like, oh, I already love, love you so much. And, um, we got to their home and it sort of broke my heart because we went inside and, um, it was just a little tiny shack with just a dirt floor.
And, um, they had a, a piece of fabric that was on the floor and that was their bed as a family. And she told me that their father had sort of just left and it left her, Mama Comfort ,with these six kids.
Misty Smith: Wow.
Mary DeGraffenried: It
was pretty hard for me. Like it brought a lot of guilt sometimes. 'cause I never realized how much I was given growing up, you know?
Haley Freeman: Yeah.
Mary DeGraffenried: But just right there, just meeting them, seeing who they were and seeing her love for her grandkids. It [00:09:00] really just opened my eyes a lot to just how great, how great my life, all that I've been given. Um, but the greatest thing is she had turned to us and she said, I want to have joy. I want more light in my life.
And so we decided to sit down with this family and uh, we decided to have a lesson. And it was late at night and we were probably supposed to be at home because. It gets pretty dangerous, but I just felt like we needed to stay. And so Grandma Comfort, she went into like the corner, they had a little corner of stuff and she pulled out this little candle and, um, she lit the candle and drip some of the wax on the floor and stuck it there.
And so, and we all sat on that dirt floor with the candle just giving us light. And I didn't know what to share with him. And I just got the thought you need to teach them about [00:10:00] Jesus Christ. And we started talking about Jesus Christ. These kids didn't really know much and we shared with them about his love and which led to also talking about how we'll get to see our family again.
And that was really touching because their oldest girl, MaCausian, she was 10 years old and she just started crying. Just I get to see my mom again. You know, she was so, you know, and um, we decided to just sing, I'm a Child of God. 'cause that was one song that the kids knew.
Misty Smith: Oh wow.
Mary DeGraffenried: And so we sat there and we was sang, I'm a Child of God and
it was probably one of the most spiritual moments on my mission. Um, just singing with them. It was that feeling you get when you're in the temple where you just know you're where you're supposed to be. And I just noticed felt so much light and I really do believe that, um, [00:11:00] their mom and those kids were there with us.
And, um, anyways, we continued to come and turns out MaCausian the oldest daughter. And the one under them, his name is Prince Paul, they both wanted to be baptized. They said, we wanna be part of your church. We want to continue to come. We want you to keep coming. And um, so what happened was as time went on, uh, Mama Comfort and all of these kids, they would walk about two miles every Sunday to come to church.
And, um, they would come. And over time, I've never seen so much happiness. Like they're the happiest people I've ever met. And um, for me one of the greatest miracles was on Christmas we, my companion and I had felt prompted that instead of going and playing football with, [00:12:00] you know, the district and stuff, we felt like we needed to.
Try and find some rice and some foods so that we could put it together and eat with this family just to give them a Christmas meal. And, um, I had found a little baby football in my luggage that someone had given me and I had some necklaces from home. And so we wrapped them up and gave each one to these kids.
Misty Smith: Oh,
Mary DeGraffenried: that Christmas day was the most incredible thing, just to see how happy and grateful they were for just a bowl of rice with a little piece of fish on it, you know? And, um, eventually they got baptized. And just that whole experience, to see them from the beginning to where they were, even though they had probably the hardest situation I've ever seen, they were the most happy and joyful people.
And so for me, I [00:13:00] remember down my scriptures. The day that they got baptized was the greatest miracle is the gospel. And I really do believe that's true. I've had so many people over and over tell me, or ask me like, what can we do to help? What can we do to help? And doing like the, like the world stuff and the things the church does is wonderful.
But I really do believe that preparing our youth to go and be missionaries to go share the gospel. That's the greatest thing we could do. And so anyways, yeah, that was probably one of the greatest miracles for me at least.
Haley Freeman: You're right. The greatest miracle is the gospel. That's beautiful.
Misty Smith: Yeah.
That's incredible. I love that you shared just your promptings of strength. You felt of the spirit to go talk to them and [00:14:00] help? I think a lot of people second guess their feelings sometimes just because it's scary. It's scary putting yourself out there. It's scary talking to someone you don't know.
It's scary to sometimes just step out of your comfort zone. You did what was needed, stepping out of your comfort zone, talking to this wonderful serving grandmother who just gave her entire life to raising her grandkids. And I'm pretty sure God is really proud of you for listening.
Mary DeGraffenried: I hope so. Oh, I'm grateful he meet them. So, so grateful for that.
Well, um, yeah, I guess I can share another miracle that stood out to me.
Misty Smith: Yes, please.
Mary DeGraffenried: Yeah, I just, I love you, I love [00:15:00] sharing with you all my mission.
So, to give you a little backstory, uh, before my mission, like I had said in my intro, I grew up in a small town on a ranch in Kanosh And most of my life I was blessed to, um, live with my grandma and Grandpa DeGraffenried, not the Freeman side. The DeGraffenried
Haley Freeman: Both wonderful people.
Mary DeGraffenried: Yeah. Sorry. But I grew up very, very close to my Grandpa DeGraffenried.
Um, and right before I left on my mission, he had just randomly died from a heart attack. And I remember that was so hard for me 'cause I wanted my grandpa to be there when I went through the temple. When I was on my mission. I wanted to tell him everything that I was going through and the [00:16:00] miracles. And so it, it really broke my heart.
But, uh, I remember before I left, I got this feeling like, I know my grandpa's gonna be there to protect me.
And
there are many times, you know, especially when I started where sometimes men would grab me or different things that I really felt like there were angels there. Um,
Misty Smith: wow.
Mary DeGraffenried: The biggest experience I had was in my second area it was called Medie Ofankor, and um, this area.
It was interesting. It was amazing. Before it was just Elders and I don't know. My mission president felt prompted to send me over there with another trainee. She was from Canada, but she was Ghanaian. And I had to open up this new area and it was a very big Muslim community. And also there was lots and lots of [00:17:00] voodoo stuff, like lots of devil worshiping and voodoo stuff that happened and that's how it's with Ghana is they don't really have the gospel there. It's so new and so every street you go, you'll hear people chanting and you know, screaming and you know, just lots of things shaking and dancing with the tambourines and there's just tons of "prophets" everywhere.
Um, when I was with my companion, we were probably a few months into this area and I met this woman again, I'd felt prompted to go and talk to this woman and her son. And as I was talking with her, she was trying to bash with me a little bit and turns out she was a prophetess of her own church.
And so. When we went over to say hi to her, she lived in this sort of [00:18:00] small cement enclosure, sort of what you would imagine, like a racketball court, just sort of just like a cement building. And that's where people would come and they would come and dance and do their worship. And so as I talked with her more, I was able to share with her about the restoration.
Right as we shared about Joseph Smith, it was like something had clicked with her and she was just like, I need to learn with you guys because I know what you're saying is true. Like, this church is just what I made so I could earn money, you know? And from there she had stopped her church. She stopped and, we started teaching her and her son, but
her income was that church, you know? And so what she did to make up for that was she let this other guy come and live inside that little building [00:19:00] and we didn't really see him much. Uh, he was sort of scary. He'd come in and out and we just, uh, oh, it's, it's fine. You know, we'd invite him, but he just ignore us and we just figured he didn't speak English.
Haley Freeman: Yeah.
Mary DeGraffenried: But one day we were teaching and it had been pretty late in the evening, so it was getting dark and the mosquitoes were out and stuff. And we were sitting there in this little enclosure and I looked into the corner where this guy was living 'cause they all just put a, I don't know, a mattress or something there
a blanket and that's their side of the room. And by his stuff, he'd set up like these little, like a pot and then he had like bones and all these different like candles and different things everywhere. And it just, it looked strange, but I didn't really question it. And as we were teaching, he came [00:20:00] in and he started to light this pot on fire and he was doing these chanting and putting stuff in.
And I look back and I realized I probably should have left at that point, but I didn't really feel prompted to leave and I, we were in a really good lesson,
Misty Smith: right?
Mary DeGraffenried: I was like, I'm not gonna leave this, you know? And, uh, I don't know. He just kept getting more and more intense on these chants and these different things
I remember at one point he looked over at me and it was just like one of the darkest feelings I've ever felt just
Haley Freeman: scary,
Mary DeGraffenried: I dunno, just like I felt sick.
Haley Freeman: Evil.
Yeah.
Mary DeGraffenried: And then he turned around and he kept doing his stuff and the, the room was filling up with smoke and one of the miracles was while we were sitting there randomly out of the blue, our bishop
knocks on the door. Our bishop [00:21:00] somehow he just knew we were there and he knocked and he came in and he is like, I don't know, but I just felt like I needed to be here. And that was crazy. 'cause for him, in the week he lived in Accra, which is about a two hour drive from where we were and
I mean, you have to travel by Trotro, which is just enclosed, like 15 seater vans that have no seats in it, you know? But he'd came and we were still trying to learn, and then this guy in the corner just suddenly turned around and he just started screaming at us just yelling, threatening to murder us.
And
Misty Smith: Wow.
Mary DeGraffenried: It was just intense. Like he just, I could tell he was so angry 'cause he was trying to call these spirits, but I think he just felt like there was someone there with us. The spirit was there with us and he couldn't. And he just started coming at us. He threw our bishop's chair across the room and was just like, [00:22:00] so angry and just.
I don't know. I've never seen someone just explode like that. And, um, our bishop and everyone had tooken on outside 'cause he was telling him to get the heck out of his house and mm-hmm. Also murder us, but I don't know, I strangely felt really peaceful and so my companion had tooken out the door and our investigators and bishop had gone.
And I was left alone with this guy, and I remember he came at me like he was coming to hit me and right he was about to get to me. It was like someone had pushed him over, like he just stopped and he just couldn't come at me. And he tried again and he just couldn't. And at that moment I just knew that my grandpa Ed was there.
I knew it was my grandpa Ed, standing between me and him, [00:23:00] and, um, it really was a moment that I just was so, so grateful for him. For Heavenly Father for protecting me, and so I just bent down. I didn't wanna leave my shoes behind, so I strapped my shoes on.
Misty Smith: You're so cute.
Mary DeGraffenried: Then I said "God be with you."
That was just one of those times I was like, oh my goodness. I don't know what I did to deserve such incredible projectors, but I, I really just do believe that, you know Heavenly Father, he sent my grandfather to be with me at that moment.
Haley Freeman: Absolutely. For
sure.
Yeah, no doubt.
Mary DeGraffenried: That was a
little part of my mission for me, I guess.
Misty Smith: That's incredible. That's an incredible part of your mission.
Haley Freeman: Yeah.
Misty Smith: What did you learn out of that? Did your [00:24:00] testimony grow from that? You shared that you felt you grandfather I'm sure your soul, your testimony grew with the knowledge of angels and beings helping us.
Mary DeGraffenried: Oh, for sure. That was a huge testimony builder for me. I've always cherished like the temple and my ancestors, but I don't think I've ever realized how much they actually do for me.
Haley Freeman: Mm.
Mary DeGraffenried: Um, and so it's just that, that was one of the moments that I just realized how, like we're not alone ever.
And that carried on for the rest of my mission, just knowing that I was never, ever alone. And it's continued on throughout my life and so yeah, that was a big testimony builder for me on that.
Misty Smith: Love that. Thank
you.
Mary DeGraffenried: Of course.
Haley Freeman: It's beautiful. Yeah. I, I know for sure that our loved ones that have [00:25:00] passed away are watching out for us and are protecting us. I had a friend who, her dad passed away and the stake president said to her, he is gonna be able to do things for you now and your family that he could never do in life.
Misty Smith: Mm-hmm.
Mary DeGraffenried: I know. It's so true. It is incredible. I just, I feel like sometimes we're so caught up in the world that we have, that we forget like how incredible it is that God really does have these angels with us. Like we just forget that because we can't see 'em, you know? Mm-hmm. We're not there, and so I think that's something that
we have to be reminded over and over again sometimes.
Mm-hmm. You know?
Haley Freeman: Yeah.
And that their abilities to protect us and help us are even greater sometimes on the other side. So, yeah. That's crazy.
Misty Smith: That reminded me
well, it's actually from a friend, because I was, I was having a hard time and I was [00:26:00] talking to a friend about the spirit world. She said her mom had told her something that changed her perspective. I'm not sure if I shared this in another episode before, but, I'll say it again if I haven't my friend told me that she got a quote from her mother, um, that helped change per her perspective.
She said, we are spiritual beings having a human experience. And I, that, that helped change my perspective because so many times we're here in this world we think, how can we tap into the spirit world? How can we tap spiritually into God and feel this? We forget that we're spirits first and that we really know how to be spiritual.
What we're trying to learn is how to be human. And so I love that you shared your testimony and your experiences because [00:27:00] honestly, it goes to show like you knew it was your granddad, like. You knew that it was family loving you, taking care of you and I honestly feel like the more all of us work on tapping into our spirituality with the other side, the more we are able to feel that spiritual part of us , and forget so much about
being human and our human worries and all the troubles that we have. I have loved just listening to your stories because it helps me remember that life is hard, but you know what, it's just, it's gonna get better., It always is gonna get better and if it's not here, it will be eternities. God will make it.
Okay. So thank you so much for sharing those. I felt the spirit very strongly. Thank you, Mary.
Mary DeGraffenried: Yeah, thank you.
Yeah. I, I really love what you say about that. It's incredible. I'm just, [00:28:00] I feel like if there's anything I learned from Ghana mm-hmm. Just how great this gospel is, like the world's not gonna be easy.
It never will be. And that may be, you know, with some people, like with different families, maybe your situations are hard, but everything comes down to if you're willing to just continue to work to be close to God. 'cause no matter what you do, He is gonna be there for you. You just have to be willing to try to keep trying to search for Him.
And the light that comes from that it's, it's incredible. It's a strength that I don't think we remember sometimes.
Misty Smith: Agreed. Agreed. I love that you shared that, but you just like bent over and grabbed your shoes like,
Haley Freeman: God bless. I'm out.
Misty Smith: You're so at peace, I love that, I wish, I wish I could take that [00:29:00] into my turmoil you're like "God Bless".
You're so sweet, Mary.
Haley Freeman: True.
Do you feel prompted to tell another story
Mary DeGraffenried: I do have one that just like came to mind and it's really simple and short, but I don't know. It was on my heart lately 'cause I've been talking to some people back in my last area, Kokrobite . Right before I left I had been praying that I could find someone that would have a big impact on this community.
'cause this area, there was hardly any members. I think there was one or two, and I had ran into one of the members and he had introduced me and shown me where the chief's house was.
Each, um, tribe and area has their own chief. And so I got really close with the chief of the area. I probably shouldn't have just approached him so easily, but I did because, you know, when [00:30:00] people expect you to be different, I just embraced it. This was like, I'm gonna
Misty Smith: love it.
Mary DeGraffenried: And so I got close with the king and he allowed me to teach his nephew named Emmanuel.
And so we started learning with Emmanuel and after some time. He actually was able to get baptized. But the crazy thing is, was the chief, the king that I had met, was actually the son of that king that President Nielsen had talked about a while ago in a talk.
Haley Freeman: Wow.
Mary DeGraffenried: He talked about where he'd given him a Book of Mormon and he had said, I would take this over rubies and gold, you know?
Haley Freeman: Wow. Mm-hmm.
Mary DeGraffenried: And so there'd already been a little bit of that introduction. And so he was able to get baptized and received the priesthood. And just some of the biggest miracles was before I left, I talked to chief and I [00:31:00] said, chief, please, I beg you need to come to church. Promise me. And he says he will.
And the other day I got a text and a picture from from his son. And it was a picture of chief and all of his elders and his councilmen, he went to state conference.
Haley Freeman: Wow.
Mary DeGraffenried: And
he told me that because of the interaction we'd had and he was able to join the church the chief had told the church that they could build a natural church building, which is huge.
Haley Freeman: Wow. Wow.
Mary DeGraffenried: Where we're just meeting in barns or rented apartment buildings, you know? And so for me that was just like one of the greatest miracles lately. And I don't know, sometimes I just look back at it and I'm just like God is so good.
Haley Freeman: Isn't there some story about one of them wanting to marry you or something?
Mary DeGraffenried: Oh my goodness. [00:32:00] Every day I got proposed to without.
Haley Freeman: That's what I thought.
Yeah.
Mary DeGraffenried: Beautiful woman. I wanna marry you. Come.
Misty Smith: So much fun!
So, Mary, , what do you think came from all of this? You being the first American woman there, what have you contemplated or thought about? What came out of all this? Why was it necessary for you to be there? Was it your growth? Was it their growth? I wanna know your thoughts.
Mary DeGraffenried: Yeah.
Oh, that's an incredible question. I mean, there is so many things I've thought about. I mean, personally for me, it changed my [00:33:00] life. It changed my outlook on life and everything. I've never been more grateful for my life than I have until then. And I really do believe there was so many, so many reasons why I had to be there because
we were sort of the Guinea pig, me and the other few American sisters. We were the Guinea pigs. We were the trial runs to see if we could handle it. And pretty soon after, I'd say about six to eight months of us being there, they gave the go ahead to start sending more sisters. And I'll tell you when with Ghana, there is
so much potential. There's so many people that are eager just wanting to know the gospel, and because of that, everyone's recent converts, and so when you put a whole bunch of recent converts together, they're in charge of keeping it organized. But when you send people that maybe have grown [00:34:00] up in the gospel, a lot of these American sisters came and they're able to help form these words, help them to grow.
And when you put like African sisters together with the American sisters, they're two very different cultures, but when they came together, it just was magic. Like the mission exploded. Our sisters were just leading the mission because of that union and I, I think that's something that will impact generations just
Haley Freeman: for sure
Mary DeGraffenried: over and over again.
I mean, there's just so many things that God's hand is just in the part of having us go at that time. And I'll forever, ever, ever be grateful that I got to go to Ghana. I mean, anywhere in the world on a mission is incredible, but those people are so loving and they're just so humble. And for me, that is gonna be a strong point in my [00:35:00] life and my testimony, and I know it's something that will carry on for eternity.
Haley Freeman: yeah.
Misty Smith: Love that.
Haley Freeman: Yeah. When I heard you were going, I'm like, if anyone can do it, it's gonna be a ranch girl from Millard. That's right. I grew up in a ranch too. I know it, I
know.
Misty Smith: Yes.
I love that.
Haley Freeman: You did us proud, Mary.
Mary DeGraffenried: Oh, thank you.
Thank, I have a lot
incredible people to raise me up. Still working on it. I'm working in progress.
Misty Smith: Well, Mary, do you have any tips or advice for any, I guess, future missionaries or anyone
Haley Freeman: or anyone thinking about serving the mission or.
Mary DeGraffenried: Oh yes.
Go. Just go.
Haley Freeman: That's right.
Mary DeGraffenried: I love it so much. [00:36:00] Um, I mean this is, I haven't really talked about this, but I'd say for future missionaries, start your testimony of the Book of Mormon because the words in there will change you and be able to change the people that you are teaching.
And then over and over again, I have a journal where I wrote down my thoughts and from the beginning to the end of my mission, I think I wrote about probably 500 times to just trust Him.
Yeah, trust
Him over and over again because it was really hard first getting there, dealing with companions that
most of my companions were only a year or two in the church.
Haley Freeman: Wow.
Mary DeGraffenried: And just trusting him when it came to the wards 'cause for me it was really hard to get to a ward that didn't seem [00:37:00] like a ward. You know, they were just trying to survive, trying to grow their own testimonies individually. And so every step of the way, I just had that thought, trust in Me.
Just trust Me. As you trust in God, He is going to make you who He needs you to be. Not who you want to be, but who He needs you to become. And it will change you. You just have to calm down, humble yourself a lot, just have that trust. So yeah, that's what my advice probably would be.
Haley Freeman: I think that's a beautiful place to end.
Just trust in God. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Well, we have enjoyed having you. I could talk to you forever.
Misty Smith: Yes.
Haley Freeman: And I really appreciate you spending this time with us and your beautiful testimony. The spirit has been so strong with us today. So thank you for being with us
Mary DeGraffenried: thank you guys so much.
Outro: Thank you for joining us on Latter-day Miracles. If you have a [00:38:00] miracle story that you feel inspired to share, we'd love to hear from you. Contact us on our website at latterdaymiracles.net or message us on social media. Until next time, keep your heart open to the miraculous and may you feel the presence of angels in your everyday life.
