06_30_2014

We hop on the bus and head to the library for some emailing this morning. A man jumps on with his 2 kids, and tries to pay the bus driver for a ticket. Unfortunately, this man doesn't speak slovak. So who gets to jump in and help? We do!

Then we start an awesome conversation with this man and his 2 kids. They're just here on vacation, but they're from malta (the smallest country in Europe) and they were so cool! Then, as we step off the bus, the second we get out the door, POURING rain just out of NO WHERE. So funny to watch people all of the sudden just scatter! Searching for shelter anywhere it can be found. Everyone is taken by surprise, and gets a good laugh. :) Best of all :) God probably loved watching all his children get surprised. Isn't it great to give surprises?

This week was CRAZY full of opposition and miracles.

We tried to visit a less-active member yesterday who had been allowing us over to her home previously. When we arrived she told us "dajte mi pokoj!" through the zvoncek, which is the slovak way of saying "go away!" what? we were so confused. Okay what now? Say a prayer and tract. We found a lovely lady who set up for this next week :) Then we headed back to the bus stop to go back into town (we were in a town called Saca). Right before the bus comes, we contact a man and his daughter, they get on the bus with us and we have a wonderful conversation. Mainly they're trying to learn english, but they accepted family proclamation brochures and we taught them part of the plan spasy. By the time we got off the bus together, we were hugging them goodbye and setting up a meeting. AWESOME! :) I love that you can literally become some one's friend in a bus ride of about 15-20 minutes and talk about something as special as plan of salvation.

We just knew there was some one to find in saca :)

met 2 really cool people this week as well during a singing display. Elders and sister Seninger were singing while I stood by and contacted people walking by. I stopped one man and started talking with him about his religion. Turned out at one point he wanted to be a catholic priest. Then gave up on that when he couldn't find the "right path" because he wasn't convinced. We talked about the book of mormon, how you can know truth through prayer, and we read some passages together. By the end of this 20-30 minute contact, the man had asked great questions and was still asking. I asked him to meet, but he said no. I asked him why, he said no reason. What are you doing sunday? nothing. So what's preventing you from meeting? what do you have to loose, only soooo much to gain? but he said no in the end. One of the challenges we face here in europe is that people are "content" and don't see a reason to change. I am shocked and awed by the older generation's commitment to christ. The kostels (churchs/cathedrals) are always SO full here and EVERYONE you stop to talk to on sunday is headed to a church. or even in the middle of the week. Mass is always going. What a blessing it is to be surrounded by people who already believe in Christ. The same thing happened with the family I spoke with. What is it that prevents us, as people, from trying something? What if there is something better to be had? What is it that lifts us from the plane of "good" to "great" to "even better"? I hope to be the type of person that seeks for my WHOLE LIFE to become better. Always learning, always improving.

As we taught one of our new investigators this week, she invited a friend to come over! She wasn't very open, but the cool thing was we were able to teach them, then as we were leaving, 2 more of her friends showed up and we talked with them for a while. One of them liked us so much she wanted us to come over "can't you come and stay the night or go with our family on this trip etc." haha we quickly explained that as missionaries we have a different purpose, and that we'd love to come visit her but to teach or serve, and that we don't have the ability to stay the night with her family on a weekend trip. But, we might be going to teach her which is cool. Refferals!

Here's the heartbreaker of the week. GOSH our hearts broke this week. We went to visit a woman we've been teaching. She has 3 beautiful beautiful little girls. Ages 13, 9, 3. As we went to her home, we didn't find her there. What? So we headed up the hill to find her. She was in the home of another woman, and they were sitting talking. As we came into the home we could tell the scene was a little "unsettled". What's up? What's going on? Her friend quickly told us to go away and that we weren't wanted there. We were confused. Our investigator wouldn't really look us in the eyes. Then she said "Look you sisters are nice, I'm grateful for what you've been teaching me, but I've decided to join a different church." What?? no no no no we were saying to ourselves. What happened? She wouldn't read and pray about the Book of Mormon. You can't force some one to do that. It's on them ya know? 

Then as we were trying not to cry, we grabbed our scriptures and got ready to leave to head to our next teaching appointment. Her daughters ran up to us pulling on our arms jumping up and down looking up at us with their BIG BROWN EYES "when are you comng back when are you coming back?" Sister Seninger started just crying (I myself was trying to stay composed - very hard) so we said goodbye and walked away.

Then we stopped for a few minutes and regained some composure :) prayed. Headed to our other investigator's homes.

miracles.

We met with them in their home. The spirit was sooo strong. Normally there are 6-8 children running around everywhere, people running in and out of the home, mom has to get up and do something, dad is in and out, the teaching situation is difficult. but this time, something was different. Dad stayed the whole lesson. Mom was in and out still, but we taught about family prayer and scripture study. The spirit was so strong. The babies calmed down, the children sat and quietly snacked on their potato chips. We were gathered around a small table, most of them were sitting on the floor. These are the most humble and christlike people I have ever met. As we ended the lesson we knelt with their family and said a prayer together. They pray in Roma so I don't know what they say, but the spirit was so strong. I LOVE watching the spirit work on people. It is sooo beautiful. They walked us out of the home and down the street. The spirit was still lingering.

But then, we had about 20ish minutes before our bus came. We headed down the road to go find some homes to tract. Sister Seninger and I were still pretty sad. and confused. God knew EXACTLY what we needed. I will remember this moment forever. The 3 little girls with some of their friends came out and talked with us. They wanted to know what "american dance was" and they showed us their cute little roma dancing "snapping their fingers and jumping up and down" way to cute. All the neighbors and family were watching to see how we'd react. We looked at each other. "what do we do? We're missionaries, we know people are watching us." I had a quick prayer in my heart - I knew that this was a decisive moment. We decided that we needed to let the neighbors see JUST how much we love them and their families. We just laughed and taught these little girls the chicken dance :) and a little country line dancing. Told them how much we love them and how much God loves them. The neighbors all waved goodbye to us, and kept asking when we're coming back to teach their families. I understand 100 percent why the savior teaches us all the time to be as little children. They are so full of light and the spirit. That moment saved us for the whole rest of the day. God knew we needed to be uplifted after loosing our investigator. I am soo grateful he knew exactly what to send us :) It is so good to be happy and to laugh.

Sister Seninger and I planned that we wanted to be able to teach a man (bench lesson) on the namestie. We headed out to the namestie, spoke with a few people, but nothing was really coming of it. Then we noticed a man sitting on the bench in a yellow shirt a block down. "Him?" I asked "let's do it!" She said. SO COOL. We sat down with him and taught him about God and prayer. He has never really believed in anything, maybe God exists but not really sure. By the end he wanted to pray and find out and was asking us great questions like "well don't  you ever question the teachings in the bible? like people stoning each other? how was that right? How can you know right from wrong? how can you know who God is?" The spirit was strong :) I LOVE being a missionary.

At English on Wednesday, a woman we had met on the bus showed up! She then stayed for our lecture afterwards with a couple other people. We taught the restoration to our english class, and the plan spasy for our lecture. People were asking great questions like "so what will our bodies be like in the resurrection?" lets turn to Alma 40. or "so what happens if we don't know about Christ in this life?" or "so what about the families in the other kingdoms, are there only families in that top one?" it was a great discussion! :) MIRACLES happening everywhere.

One of my favorite things is getting to play prelude music before sacrament. I looove just that time to feel close to my savior through music. There is such a special spirit in our little turquoise chapel :)

I wish you all an awesome week! I love you

I just finished 1 samuel. Trying to make it through the bible :) I am impressed by what we learn from Saul's obedience (or rather lack thereof). His disobedience led to his physical and spiritual death. He became vengeful, jealous, and eventually committed suicide, "falling on his own sword". I love how much the scriptures have to teach us about obedience. What a gift we have to learn in this life - to become obedient, and to obtain the blessings. I know obedience brings miracles! :)

LOVE YOU ALL! Have a wonderful week!