08_12_13 Letter from Kari

We have seen so many miracles this week!

Miracle #1
Sister Baird and I sit down to go through the area books and find some
less actives to contact. We say "if anything is going to move forward
in missionary work in Bratislava, the members have to be working with
us." Hands down, Fact. Then, after a prayer and some searching, we
select 4 names of people we want to try and contact this week. Sister
Baird suggests "let's try visiting this one tomorrow!" We look at his
information. No phone number. Partial address. Looks
less-than-promising. but we decide to take a leap of faith anyway :)
We call our branch mission leader, his wife tells us which tram to
take, and off we go!
We ask for directions from people on the street and are told again and
again that his street doesn't exist. One man even GPS'ed it for us and
helped us try to find it. No luck.
We find a ponelok that looks promising, but it's under construction
and we can't see any house numbers. We have no idea where we are, or
if this man even lives here.
well, we decide, maybe we can tract this ponelok. Is his name on the
zvolnek? no. hmm. What now?
A man walks by us.
We are still waiting. Praying. Asking "what do we do?"
Hey, wait, a man walked by. That means he's going inside the ponelok.
We can just go in and knock doors.
Around the corner we go. The man stops us and asks "are you looking
for some one?"
"yes, actually we're looking for, I think his name is such-and-such?
but we're not actually sure if he lives here."
"Well, actually, that's me" he says. "and actually I don't even live
here anymore. I moved out of Bratislava, I just come in on Saturdays
sometimes to visit my mother."
This is the point at which Sister Baird and I go into shock. He had no
phone for us to call him, we didn't even know how to get to where he
lived, nor if he'd be home, nor if he even lived in the country
anymore. We were in the right place, at the right time. There no
logical reason why we should have been able to find him.
Thank you, God, for the miracle :)

Miracle #2
Sunday night. We finish studies. We have 30 minutes of work time.
Hmmm. Not really enough time to go out and contact, so what would be a
better use of our time?
hey, I just baked Zucchini bread. let's meet and teach our neighbors!
Oh, neighbors aren't home? well, let's try their neighbors. We can
come back and teach you next Saturday at 7? Super!
hmm we still have like 20 minutes. Well, it sounds like there is a
family upstairs and we still have an entire pan of Zucchini bread.
Family lets us in :) turns into the most awesome discussion with the
father, who happens to be very very very catholic. We give them a Book
of Mormon, and he agrees to read the intro but he will be "giving it
back next week" when we come to teach him more about Joseph Smith.
So cool!

Miracle #3
there is a violinist playing in stary mesto. We decide "why not go
talk to the violinist!" Turns out he's got quite the story :) We set
up to meet.
We met THIS MORNING :) and... dun dun dun... here's the punch line...
he wants to be baptized! It was super cool! We're teaching him about
prayer and Jesus Christ and baptism (well actually the Holy Ghost is
doing the teaching, we're just talking), when he starts asking us
about repentance. We go into the chapel, play some music, and ask him
if he will be baptized. "I can do that?" he says. "Of course, we say."
"Yes yes of course I'll be baptized. How long do I have to wait?" "not
a long time", our member says. "I was baptized after 2 months of
meeting with the missionaries." "And can I come to church?"
OF COURSE!!!
Sister Baird and I can hardly contain our
joy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! EEEEEEEEEE!!!!! It's so awesome
to be a missionary :)
Keep our violinist in your prayers :) we meet with him again Wednesday!

Miracle #4
So our investigator from Peru went to Germany, so he's gone for a
little while, but we met his sister today on the street!
There's no way that was an accident.
There are hundreds of people here, and she just happened to be on the
same street as us and we thought "she looks nice, let's talk to her."
Hello! We're missionaries. Oh, you're from peru? We have a friend from
Peru. He lives here. Oh, wait, you're his sister? wait, really? like
really really? NO WAY! Well can we teach you!?!? SUPER :)
Yesh, that's pretty much how the actual contact went :)

God is SO COOL. SO COOL!

Miracle #5
We have a meeting set up with our Less-active deaf member (oh yeah,
didn't you know I'm teaching in ASL? Cool right ;) and the lesson
falls through. Weird. He's normally VERY SOLID. ALWAYS shows up to his
meetings. We wait about 15 minutes. Okay, well back up plan? Oh dang,
forgot to plan one. What should we do. We're thinking thinking...
*ring ring*
mobil? Kto je? Oh the Nitra Elders? And you need us to meet you at
Ikea to help get stuff for the church building in Nitra? OKAY :) back
up plan in motion. code name: mini ikea mission. As we trek on over to
ikea, meet some super awesome people along the way. Then, we get to
try and take some chairs, and book cases, and tables via public
transporation systems and walking half way across the city. haha it
was quite the adventure. If you've never had to transport furniture
LONG distances by foot and via public buses, I suggest you highly
reevaluate how exciting of a life you're living currently. Live on the
wild side a little more ;)

I love you all :) Thank you for your prayers and for your love and support :)
There is happiness and joy that comes from being loved, but greater
joy and love comes from loving others!

LOVE YOU SO MUCH