Time is back to its normal LIGHTNING speed. I guess God decided I passed His patience test?
Let me tell you about some of the beautiful things He blessed me with.
On Monday Yvonne texted us and asked if we could come over and teach her a lesson that night. No need to ask us twice! I love surprise lessons. We happily squeezed her into our schedule and planned a little lesson on the way since we hadn't studied/planned for her that morning. We were able to help our friend understand that even though she was baptized before in a different church, it is important to be baptized by the right authority. Yvonne has a lot of faith and she really trusts God. We invited her to be baptized by Christ's authority, and she said yes!!!!! She knows that if this church is true, God will let her know.
Sister P and I were just so happy that we practically skipped and frolicked to our next appointment with our atheist best friend where we had a little monday night FHE like always. After our lesson and a fun game of Scum it was time to go. I half heartedly invited him to say the closing prayer. (We've invited him to pray a billion times before.... and he always kind of laughs and says something like "why would I talk to a wall?") But to my astonishment.... he said ok.
And for the first time, he bowed his head. And closed his eyes. And spoke to God.
I've never felt so warm inside and my heart has never been so happy.
I've said it before and I'll say it again... The best moments of my mission have been moments I haven't actually seen.
One day we met up with our Bulgarian friend. We were teaching him about the plan of salvation, when he decided that he wanted to tell us his life's story. To put it short, it wasn't a very pretty story. His past is haunted by drugs and gangs and darkness. But none of that meant anything to us...
Mistakes don't define us. They refine us. Everything can be made right through the atonement of Jesus Christ.
Its not about where you've been. Its about where you are. And even more importantly- where you're going.
Its not about who you were, but who you are, and who you have the potential of becoming.
Its the most beautiful thing when you learn to look through heaven's eyes and see that you and everyone around you are children of God with the potential of becoming like Him.
Some other highlights from this week include:
- Learning how to strum "You are my Sunshine" on the ukelele and singing to people on the bus with Sister Wright in Odense.
- Feasting on bowls of CINNAMON TOAST CRUNCH at District Meeting. (It was quite obvious which missionaries had been out the longest based on the different levels of excitement over the American cereal that Elder Ockey's awesome mother sent....)
and speaking of delicious food....
- eating almost nothing but canned beans all week because teaching Yvonne on Pday was much more appealing than grocery shopping. It was a taste of my future as a starving college student/ young married couple.....
- Throwing a beach party and calling it missionary work!
(We invited all of our investigators to the beach where we read the scriptures while eating watermelon and potato chips, and then played soccer and had a water balloon fight! There are so many fun ways to invite others to come unto Christ.) - Our investigator saying the most sincere prayer. "Thank you God for Eminem. He is a great American who is spreading a lot of love. Amen."
Rado texted us and said "My prayer week is over!" (Last week we invited him to pray every day.)
So we asked him how his prayer week went...
And he said "Great! I prayed every day. Except for Monday. And on Monday I got hit by a car. Twice."
Poor Rado showed up to our appointment that night limping and sporting bruises and scrapes. (don't worry though! he's ok!)
Moral of the story: DON'T FORGET TO PRAY!
Have a good week everybody!
Jeg elsker jer.
XOXO
Sister Rogers
