Working with the Members

This past Wednesday, I felt like I was in an excerpt from the "Work of Salvation" broadcast because of the miracle that happened!! It was amazing! Our Bishop's wife invited us over to her home for dinner as well as her friend, Linda. Linda brought a friend named Helen. After dinner, we taught them the message of the Restoration and the Spirit was so strong. Bishop's wife's testimony was so powerful and I know it meant a lot to Linda and Helen because of the friendship they already had established. At the end of the lesson, we felt prompted to ask if they would be baptized and they both said "Yes, why not?!" Sister Berati and I were SO happy! :) We are excited to hopefully meet with them again this coming week! 

We also got to go on exchanges this week with our Sister Training Leaders.  I got to go to a different area and work with Sister Ball from Idaho. She only has 10 weeks left on her mission!  She was a great example to me and I learned so much from being with her. 

This coming week will be a crazy one, but I'm excited to meet new people to teach and continue to help people progress closer to baptism!

 

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Hastening the Work

The past couple weeks have been so great! With a new companion after transfers, we're settling in just fine! Sister Berati is my new companion from Albania! She's been out on her mission for 6 months and has been at the Visitor's Center, so this is her first transfer in the field. It's amazing how well we've been able to teach together in unity and with the Spirit. This past week has been great.  We've been working hard to find more people to teach, so there has been a lot of door knocking. 

We were so blessed yesterday to have 4 investigators at church!! 3 of them being Albanian! One of them was Esmeralda, who we have been teaching, and the other two came to help us translate.  We were able to get the other two guys' numbers and will hopefully meet with them this week to start teaching them the lessons. The other person who came to Church was Dave. He is a great guy! He also came to the Bishop's son's baptism yesterday and said he was so happy he came. He fits right in with the ward and we're planning to extend a baptismal date to him this week! Heavenly Father has been blessing us so much!  With the small miracles we see everyday as missionaries, it's obvious that Heavenly Father is definitely "hastening the work" and I feel so blessed to be a missionary, especially at this time! 

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Transporters

Transfers are coming up on Wednesday, or as Wade said in his letter "transporters." :) It was so nice last transfer to sit back and not have to worry about me moving or my companion moving, because I was being trained - which meant the odds of us moving were slim to none. But this week is a different story.  

We found out on Friday that Sister P. would be leaving me to head to Brighton to train another newbie, and I would stay here in the Kingston area.  I knew this type of change was coming, but it was still a shock to the system when we found out for sure what the changes were. I'm going to miss Sister P. so much!! Change is hard, but I've learned that you can't get too comfortable on your mission.  Sister Berati, a visitor's center sister, is going to be my new companion.  It is such a blessing because she is from Albania, so can help the Albanian family we found!!  She's the only one who could really help them progress towards baptism so I feel so blessed that she's coming to this area.  

Although we don't always know why the transfers happen the way they do, it's great to know that the Lord has everything under control.  As long as we have the faith that we're in the right spot, He'll strengthen us and help us grow.  I don't know where I heard the quote but, "Lift where you stand" is what keeps running through my mind.  I feel confident that the Lord has guided President to assign us where he has and I'm excited to see what this next transfer will bring.  

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Miracles

It has been a weekend of miracles I tell you. People said before I left that I was going to see miracles and the past couple months I saw little ones, but nothing like the past weekend. It started when our investigator from Albania - Esmeralda - committed to be baptized on August 27th!! Oh my goodness, I'm so excited for her! It's our first baptismal date in this area and we feel so blessed!  The whole process of finding and teaching her and now that she wants to be baptized is a miracle. A couple weeks ago (I think last week of July) we were waiting at the bus stop in the morning to go to our Zone Conference. I stopped this guy, just like anybody else, and shared the Mormon.org website with him and told him to give us a call. I didn't teach him any points of doctrine or anything special cuz he seemed to be in a hurry.  But the amazing thing is that he texted us that night!! He told us he's really busy with work, but we could meet with his wife Esmeralda!  They are from Albania and he speaks some English, but she doesn't speak any. So we just happened to have an Albanian Book of Mormon in our flat, and Sister P. just happened to know Sister Berati (VC Sister) who is from Albania.  When we called, Sister Berati just happened to be there, and now we've been able to meet with Esmeralda twice and Sister Berati teaches her through Skype in Albanian!! It's amazing how many little things came together and now she wants to be baptized!! I feel so blessed.  

Not only that, but on Saturday, we went to contact a referral from the office.  A lady named Bibian requested the Joy to the World DVD, so we went to deliver it to her. She told us she had received a little card through her mail box that had this little picture of Mary and Baby Jesus and had the number that you could call to request the DVD. She said she's kept the card by her bed for almost a year and she finally called.  Amazing!! She's a cute black lady (probs in her 40's) from Kenya and she willingly took our English BoM and Swahili BoM to read as well.  She has a strong belief in God and is trying to get work off this Sunday to come to church! Not only that, on our way out, she told us that she wants her daughter to meet us too.  She's doing missionary work for the church already and doesn't even know it by inviting her daughter! :) 

So on the way back to our flat on Saturday after meeting with Bibian, we stopped a man and gave him a Mormon.org card and he was in a hurry so I quickly told him to call us if he had any questions and he continued down the road.  30 seconds later he came back and said something along the lines of "Hey, for some reason I just feel really drawn to this.  I'm Muslim, but I just want to know the truth about all this..." Okay, so that was like music to my ears. I swear I could've taught him all 5 lessons on the street right there, but he was in a hurry to catch a train. I told him a little bit about the Restoration and he gave us his phone number so we can meet with him later this week!! My comp. and I just feel so blessed to have these people put in our path.  Seriously, the field is white already to harvest. :) 

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2 Month Missionary

It has been an incredible month!! I can't believe it's the end of July already! This past week was so great because we had Zone Conference with 3 other zones in our mission.  We all met together at 9:30am and stayed at the chapel til 5 in the evening. It was amazing to go and see the missionaries who I went through the MTC with.  The bond you share with people out here is unreal. You become so close to people in such a short amount of time, and all you want is the best for them.  What really was a confidence booster was to see all the "newer" missionaries there.  It was strange to realize that I was no longer the youngest person!! I was a 2 month missionary!! With this, I also realized how much more calm and confident I am with the work.  I'm still learning like crazy and nowhere near a perfect missionary, but I know that the Lord is with us all in this "work of salvation." We can have peace of mind that as we do our best to just share what we know to be true, He'll make miracles happen. 

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Week of the Baptisms

We had 2 kids in our ward this week get baptized!! Although they weren't investigators that we taught, it was still amazing to be there and to feel the spirit at both services. We're crossing our fingers and saying our prayers for our own investigators' baptisms soon! :) I learned a lot about being a missionary in a different way this week.  The baptism on Saturday was for the Ward Mission Leader's daughter and they invited so many of their nonmember friends!  It was so special for their family to be able to share the gospel in such a simple way.  These people that came to the baptism now have a much better knowledge of what the Church is about, and they didn't learn it from missionaries knocking their door or trying to stop them on the street, but by a simple invitation from a friend.  I learned this week how big of a role the members play in the missionary work, whether they're coming to teach on lessons or inviting their friends to church activities. :) I'm so grateful for the great ward and members I work with here! We couldn't do our job without them!

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6 Weeks!

First of all, I'm so sorry for the lack of updates! I'm going to do better from now on! And special shout out to Riley (FHE bro) for motivating me to post to the blog.

I can not believe I've survived my first full transfer.  My first three weeks in the mish felt like the longest of my life, but the time has seriously started to fly. I can not believe it's already July! We had our own Independence Day celebration by doing a district conference call!  We all sang the Star-Spangled Banner together! :) That night, I told my companion we also had to celebrate by having BBQ Ribs and mashed potatoes for dinner. I didn't realize how proud I am to be an American, until I left! While door knocking, we often come across a little yellow sticker in the front window by the door that says "We do not buy, sell, or enter into conversation at the door.  All uninvited traders, PLEASE LEAVE." Those stickers kill me because I know they'd let us in if they knew the importance of our message, just sayin'. :) Anyway, while door knocking, we found a house that had an American flag hanging from the window! They had a yellow sticker, so I was a little worried to ring the door bell, but when I did, the lady stuck her head out the 2nd floor window.  I said, "Hey, are you American?! I'm American!! Happy 4th!" :) She came down and opened the door and talked to us for a good 10 minutes! I found out she was from New Jersey and had moved to England with her husband.  She was so sweet and we were able to tell her who we were, why we were here, and she took a mormon.org card.  I felt so blessed to be able to make such a simple and easy connection with someone that we otherwise wouldn't have been able to talk to!  All thanks to an American flag!

I wish I had more time to share more experiences.  My comp, Sister P. and I have been blessed with some great people to teach, a great ward, and some fabulous weather the past few days. I actually got a little sunkissed on my face yesterday from tracting. Catching some sun in England, say what? :) More good news and stories to come in the next few weeks. The Church is true and missionary work is such a privilege! Love and miss you all. 

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