Heads up her Homecoming is October 19th at 11:00am
Wow. What a week it has been! We had an amazing week full of miracles! We were able to find 3 new investigators this week which was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO amazing. Most we've had all transfer (except for our first week we found 4 people). But isn't that great?
Also a boy we found at the beginning of the transfer is getting baptized this saturday! :) He's great. He was so funny on Sunday he got up and bore his testimony and then we ran into him later on in the day as we were out talking to people. He stopped us on the street and said "okay! I have a secret to tell you, but you can't tell the elders." Sister Seninger and I just look at each other and we're like uhhh oh no what could it be? He says, "I was just talking to president about being a missionary. I think I could serve a mission. Wouldn't that be cool?" THAT WOULD BE SO COOL! He's 19 so it's TOTALLY possible. And all because we contacted a man on the street, who referred 3 of his friends, none of them ended up progressing or keeping commitments, but one of those 3 friends brought this young man to church and since then he's been meeting with our elders and now they're going to have their 2nd baptism on saturday! Keep their investigator in your prayers please :) He's great.
Stories from the week:
As they sit on their humble porch, Maria says "do you see all those stars? Have you ever seen so many stars?" little Mario asks "how many are there?" She replies "so many that you can't even count them." He turns his little head and with a grin says "well, I will be the first to count them." Snuggles into his mom's arms and begins to count "1, 2, 3...10..20..atd."
This week I have been thinking about how beautiful it is to just take delight in the small and simple things. Life is sooo full of great moments if we only stop to savor them. Maria shared this story with us this week about her and her son sitting at their home after a long day of work. Her son's biggest satisfaction and dream was just to be able to count the stars. How beautiful is that? As we talked with her we asked how high he actually got :) She grinned and responded, "oh, you know little mario got tuckered out after reaching about 50" pretty good :) I'd say.
Then this week as we had a singing display we sang outside the opera house on the main square. A girl came up to Sister Seninger and I who we had run into about a month ago and taught her for about an hour. She came up and said "hey! Remember that day when we met? You two changed my life that day. I had been having a terrible day and I was so depressed, but after talking with you both I felt so light and had such a peace. I went home and I didn't have to call anyone, or check my facebook, I could just sit and be at peace." We testified to her about how that WASN'T us at ALL that did that for her, but the spirit. How she can get the gift of the holy ghost. How we would LOVE to teach her and prepare her for that. In the end she turned it down, but she will forever remember the experience she had with the missionaries and I truly believe she'll be more open at a later date and join the church. She's just such a spiritual cool lady.
As we were singing too these 2 roma kids (well not kids turns out they were 19 and 22 but looked like they were 12 years old) came up and just wanted wanted wanted to sing with us. They stood on either side of me and tried to follow along with the hymn book :) Sooo much fun trying to teach them hymns. We got a kick out of singing "usilujme sa v praci pana" (let us all press on) because it's soo fast :) and my FAVORITE to sing in slovak :)
usilujme sa vsetci praci pana by na konci mohla prist nasa odemena :)
v boji sa pravdu pozdvihneme mec ten mocny mec pravdy :) sooo
LEN vpred hoci vsmech pocujes. S vierou silou panovi najdes :)
ah the words are just so great :)
It was fun to watch people talking with the missionaries, coming up and asking us who we are and why we're hear, running into people from amerca (we have met soo many americans this month. So weird. Met a man from Alpine, and a man from Mapleton. Small world right?)
We ended up playing football on saturday with our new investigator (he plays on a team here in kosice) and the elders, their investigator, some members, and a little boy and his dad, it was so much fun! It luckily didn't start raining until the end :) It's so much fun to watch people just have fun :)
met a woman this week who had met with missionaries in the past. As she opened her door to us we had a friendly chat. Didn't have any further interest in meeting with us. Asked if her neighbors would benefit from our message? She said "not sure, we don't talk about that theme."I thought to myself wow. How sad it is that we have these people who literally live on the other side of our wall, and the only conversation we seem to ever have with them is "hey, hey how are you, nice weather? hot no? okay well bye have a nice day." We can have SUCH a bigger impact in the lives of those around us. I want to make a bigger effort to reach out to my neighbors and help them live the gospel, no matter who they are. Everyone needs a friend and to feel God's love. I think we should all spend some more time talking about the important things.
Another miracle! Hopped on the bus and just sat down with a woman. Smiled at her and we began talking. Found out she had lived in america for many years. Where? I asked. She said "necham to so sebou" I'll leave that to myself (roughly means). Then I said well I am from utah. "o my gosh she said, that's where I was married. Give me your phone number, I can meet at 3 today we have to talk this is a sign from God, I met with missionaries in the past."
WHOA. Miracles happen miracles happen miracles happen :)
Also got on a bus and sister seninger just complimented the woman across from us about her earrings. Then we were silent for a bit. The woman suddenly opened up and starting telling us about her neice who made them for her and how much she loves her and how great she is. Literally takes her earrings out of her earlobes and hands them to us and saying "chcem vam robit radost" which is an awesome slovak phrase means literally I wanted to make to you joy a.k.a. I want to make you happy. Sister Seninger showed her that she didnt have pierced ears and so she told the woman to keep the earrings. We invited her to church and praying she'll come :) Slovaks are the MOST giving people I know. They give everything.
ALSO OUR KONCERT WAS AMAZING! We had 19 nonmembers attend (great considering our branch consists of about 6 active members!!) We couldn't fit everyone in our little chapel, 2 people had to sit outside the door :) We played a series of songs about our "heros"and talked about what made them heroes. Then at the end we showed a video about christ (the resurrection one) and talked about why he is the ultimate hero. The spirit was sooo strong. I arranged a composition of "Praise to the man" which turned out really nicely (God helped me lots with it, just praying to help something come out of my fingers that would touch the hearts of those in attendance.) and then our elders did the coolest version of nephi's courage and talked about nefi as a hero. We did some things on the guitar with o my otce, and our sister trainer leaders also helped out. They made the concert sooo beautiful. :) Gosh it was great. Wish you all could have seen it.
I testify that there is great power in remembering Jesus Christ. Giving Him the credit for everything :) He's so great. Can't even begin to explain how much I have grown to love Him on my mission. I always expected to come help slovaks change. I never expected slovakia to change me. My feelings about my mission are starting to become quite poignant. Can't believe there's only 10 weeks left. Where does the time go! Gah. It's crazy. I feel like i JUST got to kosice. Can't believe how the time flies.
Please keep us in your prayers :) There are sooo many people in slovakia right now SOOO close to baptism, and there haven't been some solid baptisms here for quite a long time. We know the LORD is working 100 percent with us!
LOVE YOU ALL :) Have an awesome week! Enjoy the joy :) There's much to be had
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