People love to travel right? They travel for the food, for the sites, cheap mojitos, hot ethnic tour guides (guilty) but one reason why I adore traveling is for the opportunity to go to church around the world. I'm always keeping my eyes peeled for our church buildings and let's be honest, you know one when you see one. We checked online to see if there was anything in Galápagos that we could attend. Now let me tell you, these islands were kind of hard to get to. We took a flight, to another flight, to a bus, then a boat, finishing with another bus. This ain't no easy commute, so you can imagine our doubt when searching for a Mormon church. Lo. And. Behold. We found it. Started at 9am and it was 5 blocks from our hostel. Gold. We mustered up the nicest clothes we had and set on our way.
We took bets as to how many people we thought were gonna be there. Heidi said 12, I said 10, both of us thought it was for sure going to be in someone's living room. I mean I'm pretty sure there are more animals than people on this island and we have yet to find a market just to buy fruit...it's pretty remote over here (just the way we like it). So of course we were thinking that Heidi was going to be playing piano and I would be conducting because it was going to be the smallest sacrament we ever attended. We turn the corner and see a beautiful steeple that looked all too familiar. We see people pulling up on bikes, scooters and walking up in church clothes. Heidi goes, "ok I'll up my number to 18" (she was always quite the gambler). We walk in to see a full congregation, missionaries and all. Galápagos does NOT mess around. We talked to the sister missionaries, who were total babes btdubs, and they said there were about 300 members in the islands. Our jaws dropped. Lesson learned, the church has got numbers, even in the middle of an ocean.
We took our seats and members came up to us kissing our cheeks happy to see us. People showed up that were all shapes and sizes. Some in colorful traditional dress. Some in jeans. Some in leather on leather. One little girl was in a Disney princess dress, she wins. Some people looked like they had a rough week and others looked like they had never been to church before. However, there was not one ounce of judgement passed in that room. And that's exactly how it should be. These people were beaming and they had so much light in their eyes. It didn't matter where anyone came from it just mattered that they were there.
And to be honest...it felt like home. It felt like every other time I've gone to church. Russia, Germany, Austria, New Zealand, El Salvador, Norway, Italy, Slovenia, and let's not forget Utah...it was that same feeling. That feeling of love and simplicity and bliss and happiness and peace and all of the above. It almost brings me to tears every time. For the past 7 years I've lived abroad training for the Sochi Olympics and it was few and far between when I was able to find a time, find a ride, yet alone even find a church to go to. It took quite the toll on me emotionally, spiritually and strangely enough, physically. It affected my races and at the end of every season, I was depleted in every sense of the word. So no matter where I am, whether it's the Galápagos Islands, the Olympics, or even just home in California, I jump at the opportunity to step into one of those buildings and feel the spirit. And with that, I'll never take it for granted.
For anyone reading this- if you ever just need a hug or someone to tell you how wonderful you are. Go find this sign on a Sunday. Write us back and tell us it wasn't the best decision you ever made.