Joy and Miracles

Sister Missionaries, Oct. 2012

In my mission call letter (which I received one year ago this week! Wow, time flies.) it states that greater happiness awaits me than I have ever before experienced as I embark on the service of the Lord. And this week I have realized how true that is. You all know that I'm rather a cheery person by nature, but I honestly have never felt such great joy as I have here. There is something deeply profound about the joy that comes from seeing someone accept Christ more fully in her or her life and making changes to come closer to Him. No other personal accomplishment or worldly endeavor brings such pure happiness. This week was a week of miracles, and I had the opportunity many times to feel that incredible joy that surpasses everything I've known before. Let's talk about some of those moments.

First off, last Monday we had our first lesson with Vika. (The eight year old whose sister was baptized a few months ago.) It was incredible! The entire lesson, I was either grinning or on the verge of tears with pure happiness. Vika is the sweetest girl you'll ever meet - always so excited to see everybody, and she has such a firm testimony already of the Restoration. She was excited to receive her own copy of the Book of Mormon, and she offered one of the sweetest, most sincere prayers I've ever heard (I kind of felt like my heart was going to burst out of my chest from joy throughout the whole thing - it was rather indescribable). We watched the Restoration movie with her, and I have never felt the Spirit so strongly during that movie before. It was tangible. At the part of the movie when Joseph is entering the grove of trees and the Tabernacle Choir is singing, the room was entirely filled with the Spirit. We could still hear the music and thumping from the dance studio on the floor above us, and I wondered if they could feel the power of the moment - if they sensed what was going on just underneath their dancing feet. (It reminded me of Dad's story of his mission in Korea. They'd watch the First Vision film inside a little visitor's center, and people walking past on the street would stop in and ask what was going on in there, because they could feel something emanating from that door. This felt exactly like that.) We set a baptismal date with her for November 10th, and she is so excited! As are we. She told us that her only problem is going to be picking which elder will baptize her, because she is such good friends with all of the missionaries. :)

Another miracle investigator is Nastia. I'm not sure if I've mentioned her before, but she was a contact from the elders three weeks ago. We were able to meet with her twice this week, which was wonderful! She had virtually no religious background, so ours was the beautiful privilege of teaching her how to pray. As the three of us knelt in a circle in that small room in the branch, the Spirit was again tangible. She was scared to pray, and we coached her along with her repeating after us the words and phrases. There is something incredible about being with someone as they speak to God for the first time - it's such a privilege to get to teach people how to talk to their loving Father in Heaven. She is a very quiet girl, and it's difficult to get her to talk about feelings, but she told us that she feels good with us and when she prays. And she said that she wants to prepare for baptism! So she is working towards being baptized on November 10th as well.

We were also able to meet with Anya this week! I haven't seen her for a couple months, due to her busy work and travel schedule. So when she walked in the door of the branch Tuesday night, I could have shouted for joy. It was like being reunited with one of you best friends after a long separation, and it honestly just made me so happy. She's still reading the Book of Mormon, which brought me even more joy. :) We had a really good lesson with her, and I really feel like she will get baptized. Hopefully soon.

There were nigh unto fifty million other miracles this week, and I wish I had time to share them all with you. But one of my favorites was meeting with Gifts. Wow. She is basically just incredible. We watched the Restoration movie with her as well. After it was over, we were talking about how the church started with only 6 members and now there are more than 14 million. She asked, "And I'm one of those 14 million, right?" We were completely shocked by that question, and explained that she was not yet a member, but had to be baptized by restored Priesthood authority. The next couple minutes were kind of tense, and I was worried that she was going to be offended and not want to be our friend any more. But after we shared some of our favorite verses from the Book of Mormon, we bore testimony of that book and of its role in gaining a testimony, and we boldly invited her to be baptized. She told us that it would be a privilege to be baptized, and I again felt like I was going to burst from joy or cry or something like that. She told us that we were being very bold, so it must be true, and that she can also see in our eyes and in our lives that this is true. Those few minutes as we talked about baptism were some of the sweetest, most powerful moments of my life, and I'll always remember that. She said that she wanted to pick her baptismal date herself and that she would pray about it. As we knelt and prayed together at the close of the lesson, the Spirit was again just so tangible. That whole night I just felt like I was flying. I love my investigators so much! And I count it a high blessing to have the privilege of helping them come even closer to the Savior that I love with all my heart.

--Sharisa