From Lon Pearson: Because missionary work in Guadalajara had been so discouraging for so long, the sister missionaries (Montoya and Chichia) suggested that the missionaries hold a special fast to effect a change on the spirit of the people in the state of Jalisco. New missionaries also brought a special spirit. Elder Benjamin Parra, Jr. made a difference, as did Elder Clark Webb (currently a professor at BYU), even though at more than one time both their lives were at risk (see Lon Pearson PART I on the Hepatitis). [Benjamin Parra, Jr., was a grandson of Rafael de Monroy an early Mormon Martyr (see Gems CH Story 517; also on Elder Parra see Part 14 of Gems Mexico History).]

Soon attendance at church meetings soared to fifty and we had baptisms nearly every week. The Lord poured out his spirit on the converts, who then furnished the missionaries with additional contacts.

Satan worked in an unusual way to thwart the work, but the Lord blessed Elders Parra and Webb. [The following is an excerpt from Elder Pearson's missionary journal.]

Again as usual we got up at 5:00 am. Elder Parra related to me the incident that kept them out really late last night. Elders Parra and Webb were out tracting in one area, when they saw a car coming at them at high speed, just about to run them down and, because of the narrowness of the street, they couldn't get out of the way. Just when it was about to hit them the hood fell off the front of the car, forcing the vehicle to grind to a halt. Two boys jumped out of the car and ran away. When the missionaries began to investigate what had happened, they found out that the boys had stolen the car and just before they were about to run over the elders they had hit and killed a little old lady, causing the driver to panic even more. Elder Parra said it made them ill. (Lon Pearson, Missionary Journal, May 18, 1960)
We also discussed that it was the hand of the Lord which stopped the car from killing two of His servants who had surely been targeted for doom by the destroyer. Both of these missionaries went on to become counselors to President Harvey H. Taylor. Later they were both called as mission presidents and stake presidents, and they have held other important callings in the Church.