I will share with you a bit on how I started my conversion.  I will start by telling you who am I.  My name is Alina Morales (de Mattos), Panamanian, I was brought up in a Catholic school, but my family was not religious.  I went to London, England, as my parents were part of a Diplomatic Corps.  I studied at Marymount Int. School and also graduated at Pitman´s College where I got a degree on Higher Secretarial Diploma..  My best friend at Marymount, was a girl from Dominican Republic and I mention this to you because later on you will see how it relates to my story and the way the Lord works wonders.  I used to skip rosaries and used to go late to shower every night and also  my best friend Ana Matilde followed me with it. One day, the nuns waited for us until we finished our shower. We then started to pray the rosary with the rest of the girls. I remembered that night that I did not feel the rosary was as big burden after all, I even quite like the experience of praying it that night  (we used to kneel down, in front of Mary’s statue.)  I had felt our Lady´s presence for the first time I remember, at May Day which was celebrated in the school gardens, I felt smell of roses, a great joy that could not be explained with words, and this came back into my mind while kneeling in front of the Adoration of the Eucharist one day which so many things had been revealed to me after my conversion at different occasions on Eucharist Adoration. Then, at 25, I married, and had two children, Ritha who is now 25 and Jorge Enrique who is 19.  I am a grandma of a 3 years old boy. 

During those days, my life went through without any closeness to God; I used to go to Mass once in a while but was not too keen on going. As my upbringing was not religious, I did not grow up with any religious belief, but before I got married and had problems in my teens, I used to walk, and in a few blocks from home, there was a Church (where I got married and were I go nowadays to Mass, specially at 6:30 a.m. every time I can).  I went to pray to a small chapel inside the Church where they had our Lady of Fatima exposed. Then to speed things out, when I started to work with the American at the Canal of Panama, while working there, I received a letter from my best friend´ sister in law.  Ana Matilde was involved in a car accident; she died instantly and also her husband.  Her daughter survived only two days (she was also studying at Marymount!!). and the only survivor was her son.  A few months went by, I missed my friend terribly and felt pretty depressed. but I knew in my heart, that she was OK and in Heaven because she was an angel here on earth.  Life went on normally and before a year went by, I started to experience an urge to seek God.  I started to pray, go to El Santísimo, to Mass every Sunday and.amazing as it sounds, one of my coworkers talked to me about the Apparitions of Medjugorje and ever since that day, I got interested; the Queen of Peace conquered my heart and since then, she has guided me until this date. I have not mentioned to you that I used to have dreams, and experienced such as when I was going through hard times, our Lady used to make her presence known to me, I knew deep in my heart that she was always with me. I felt so comforted by her presence in my life. When I opened my hand one day praying at the chapel, I had them full of sparkles.  Also, I used to smell her essence of roses while I was very concentrated in my prayers. I also experienced an inner peace within me.  During those first years, I had felt Her presence in so many different ways and started to have some supernatural experiences.

A friend of mine gave me a name of a Priest, which you could confide and let him know your experience without been criticized or reprimanded..  Needless to say, later I found out he was my Confessor, the one that I always trusted without really knowing who he was.  So you can see how the Lord works and guides you. I also started to pray 3 rosaries a day (hm, when I used to skip them when I was at school), so that is what comes into my mind; I used to influence on my friend, Ana Matilde so she will not pray the Rosary and now that she is dead, and sure in Heaven, I believe she was and still intercede before God on my conversion.

I will share with you also one of my favorite experiences which happened  a few years back. I had a dream. It was snowing outside my house (it is a joke as Panama is a Tropical weather country!), but dreams are dreams.  Well, I asked my husband to run with the camera so he could take me a picture.  When he did so, it was not snow;  it was white rose petals and on top of me was Our Lady.  It impacted me at the moment, but soon I forgot that dream.  Years after, praying before our Lord, at  El Santísimo, something deep in my heart was telling me to look at Our Lady’s statue, and then all of  a sudden, white petals were falling down.  As a human I thought, ah, maybe the petals flew in from outside as the window was open, and then, Our Lady statue dropped a huge amount of white petals, confirming me something like I am the one who is giving you this vision.  In front of El Santísimo I have experienced lots of revelations that happened since I was a child and also as a teenager, and now I am able to understand it.  I will not number them as they are quite a few. Since my coworker mentioned me about the Apparitions from our Lady in Medjugorje, I longed to visit the place, but it was not the right time, and since then,  Our Lady gave me the opportunity to prepare myself first.  Then She gave me that beautiful present, thirteen years after.

The last year I spent working with the Americans, I did not have much work to do so, I started to navigate in the Internet.  I heard about Nedjo’s death and soon I felt an ardent urge to go to Medjugorje. I did not have money.  I expected my severance pay after the trip and I had to ask for a loan.  I run to the telephone and talked to my old mate who every year used to call me when they had tours to Medjugorje, and this year she did not contacted me as the priest told her, to stop calling people, let them call you this time.  When I phoned her she said to me that it was completely booked up, let see what she could do, wcounting me, we were already 52.  (it was the biggest group ever to leave Panama to Medjugorje, we were 70 at the end! and I have met many of the people that were going, plus some cousins with their family, and two of my cousin’s daughter plus their husbands.  A huge group of Radio Maria’s volunteers also joined in and I met new people who are now friends. You know how it is when we share the same belief.  On that trip I met a girl from Argentina and we made good friends also. I wrote on her on the second part of this story.

A week before leaving to Medjugorje, my son crashed my car, I knew it was "El Trinchudo" as I call the devil, and had to leave the car like that as my son was under age and had no license.  Needless to say the other kid did not have a license either so I had to pay the damage of the car after I came back from the trip, even though I have it insured.

I enjoyed my trip so much, sang like crazy, had a lot of fun too and I also visited England which I have not seen for 30 years, and spent eight days in London, and also visited my dear friend Ann and her husband Roberto and stayed with them for a whole week at her home in Kent.  So you see my heart was divided, half in Medjugorje and half in England more a sort of a pleasure trip, and our priest has warned us to concentrate in Medjugorje while you are here, do not think about where you are going afterwards.  (Many of us were staying in Madrid, some in Rome, other in Holland and a group in Miami.).  I was pretty upset because Father Jozo was not in so we could not see him.  (I had met him here in Panama when our priest who is in charge of Radio Maria, invited him.  (Same happened years before with Father Slavko and Marija).   We only saw Mirjana (another testimony I have on her), and in our way to Rome (back to England), in our plane was Vicka.  We catch her up and I called her (because nobody dared), "Vicka," and then she embraced me and smiled, with all the love she transmit when she talks to pilgrims, and then we Panamanians started to sing Ave Maria.  We took photos with her.  She was heading to see her doctor in Rome for a check up, as she underwent surgery.  About Mirjana, when I was in conversion path,  I was going to Mass to Queen of Peace small chapel that Father Francisco gathered a small group of believers (He leads Radio Maria and the one that headed the Latin preaches in September 1999), but that day it was pouring with rain. I decided to stay home, and closed the door of my bedroom, switched on the air conditioner and started to pray the Rosary.  When I was praying the third Mystery, I became so Joyful and felt as if I were in a cloud and told our Lady, "Please dear Lady take my hand and head me to your son Jesus".  All of a sudden I got interrupted by my daughter saying that the sun was shining and there was still time to go to Mass.  When I arrived there, Father Paco (Francisco) read the Message (was Mirjana´s birthday) that our Lady has given to her saying the same words, I pronounced while praying the rosary, I could not believe what Father Francisco was saying and soon tears poured as I became very emotional..  Soon after the Mass, my friends and a cousin started to console me  because they did not know what happened.  They even thought has to do with some particular problem so I gave them my testimony of what I had experienced at home.