Help Alexis Get on His feet

Hi my name is Ruben Arredondo and I live in Provo utah. Today I met Alexis in a restaurant while I was waiting for a take out order. He approached the owner wondering if the owner could speak Spanish. When the owner said no he looked around sheepishly and asked if anyone could speak spanish. I told him I could. He very respectfully came to me and said "I hate to ask, but I'm really really hungry. Is there any way you could buy me something to eat?" I said I didn't have any cash. He said that he wasn't looking for any cash and that he would be happy to take anything. I ended up buying him a dish of fried rice and asked him to sit next to me while we were waiting for his food. This poor guy has been through a lot. He said that he came from Venezuela walking, from Venezuela through Columbia through Panama all the way through Central America and to mexico. He said he came with a wave a few months ago of Venezuelan immigrants who were granted permission to work. However he said even though he was here legally and had permission to work, he had fallen on hard times.

I asked him about how he came here and he asked me if I had ever heard of the Darien jungle. Since I served in LDS mission in Colombia I had heard about it. He said that it was an amazingly difficult place and he said he was incredibly tragic. As he opened up talking, he was kind of emotional and he said "you'll never imagine that things that I saw." He said so many people had died along the jungle. He said that he saw pregnant woman and children dead in the jungle "bodies lying everywhere."

He said 4 days ago his roommate left for Wyoming in search of a better job and took the car with him. He said that ever since he's been sleeping on the streets. I don't have a lot of money but I ended up getting him a hotel for two nights on my credit card. And I bought him two nights worth of a dinner from the next door restaurant. As we were waiting for the hotel manager to give him his key he ran to the dumpster and got his one piece of luggage. He told me he had slept behind the dumpster last night and he was still cold.

He said he has a new job lined up in 2 weeks but in the meantime he has no place to stay no food and no car. Since he had been sending money home to his family, he had no more cash.

I don't ever do this but the guy seems so honest and heartfelt. He just kept saying how he was totally willing to help me do anything I needed to have done clean the house, cleaning dishes, painting , clean up, etc. As we chatted, he expressed so much relief out loud and kept saying "Praise God. God is good."

He kept thanking me for the two nights hotel and the food. I wish I could help more but can't.

I'm trying to raise $2000 to help him over the next two weeks. ANYTHING you can give will help. I'm donating all I raise, minus GoFundMe fees to him.

I'm traveling this week for work so going to leave this open for a week and give the money to him when I get back.

"For I was an hungered, & ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, & ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, & ye took me in"