People Prepared

There's a line in the call letter that every missionary receives which states that as we serve with all of our might, mind, and strength, the Lord will lead us to those who are prepared to be baptized. That's something that Sister Bates and I have thought and talked a lot about recently. There are not merely people in Simferopol who are prepared to listen to the Restoration, or prepared to read the Book of Mormon, or prepared to be nice to the missionary who accosts them on the streets, but people who have actually been prepared by the Lord for baptism. There are people walking around here who are eager to enter into that covenant with the Lord. And that's something I've always believed as a missionary, but kind of in a far-off sort of way - yes, there are people somewhere who want to be baptized, but I don't know where or when we will see them, and until then we'll just work with the slowly progressing people we have. But this week we had an incredible experience that made me realize first-hand how true that statement from President Monson is. It probably necessitates a new paragraph.

If you recall from last week, we stopped by this family we found in our area book - the grandmother and the four grandchildren. Well, Monday night we went back and taught the Restoration.  As we concluded the lesson, we extended the invitation to baptism. As we were saying those powerful words that ask people to leave everything behind and come to Christ, Olya's face lit up, almost as if she had been waiting for years for this question to be asked. As there was a little bit of giggling and commentary from the other two teenagers and the grandmother, Olya quietly said, "Я хочу" ("I want to.") Excited, we talked with her about that and she agreed to be baptized in the middle of February. All three of the teenagers promised to come to church, and we're hopeful that, with time, Lydia and Sasha will also want to be baptized. 

As we walked away from that experience, I was filled with a sense of humility, gratitude, and a bit of awe. There truly are people here who are waiting to be asked if they will follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by one who holds the Priesthood authority of God. And I'm so grateful that Olya is one of them! She's such a sweet young woman, and she will definitely be a strength to the branch.

This week we had a lot of experiences where our plans changed, which was incredibly frustrating at first, but turned out to put us exactly where we needed to be to meet some wonderful people. It would take quite a while to go through all the neat experiences we had this week meeting people, but I'll mention a few. One was Nadia, this young woman who very quickly became our friend as we were contacting and she walked and talked with us for nearly an hour. Then there was Vera, who had an adorable dog and also walked and talked with us for a long time. (Haha - that's kind of a funny story. I walked up to her and said, "You have a good dog." (Well, it sounds a lot better in Russian . . .) And she replied, "Well, how do you know he's a good dog?" Which thing made us laugh greatly and then we talked for a while about her dog, and thankfully he did happen to be a good dog, so my first estimation was correct.) And then there were the couple women who want to start meeting with us. And the woman who told us that she loved us, after we'd only said a few words to her - that made us happy. And it was really interesting to note that most people this week commented on there being something different about us - that we are full of light. That's always really neat.

There's one story that probably deserves a separate paragraph and some more explanation. So it's been a little while since we've heard from Valery - he's been very busy with the holidays and with work, so he's told us that he'll call when he has time. Seeing as how Sister Bates and I love this little family with all of our hearts, that's been quite sad for us. Wednesday at district meeting, we were asking our district for advice on what to do, but nobody could really thing of anything except wait. So we sadly determined to keep doing that. That evening, we finished a lesson with a former investigator and started to walk home. Now, due to a series of (rather hilarious) events that only illustrate that missionaries are far from perfect, we had been about 40 minutes late for that lesson. As we'd been (finally) sitting on the marshrutka on the way to the lesson, I thought to myself, "Well, we better have a meaningful finding experience on the way home so that we can know that all of these mistakes were supposed to happen." And as we started contacting after the lesson, we met a really nice girl who was very excited about English practice and promised to come. I was content with that, grateful that we'd at least helped one person, and if we had to be late to our lesson to do that, I was fine. But as we continued, we saw a man coming out of the dark toward us. "Hello, sisters!" And that only means one thing on that particular stretch of road - Valery! We talked with him for a while, and he and his family are doing great. He's still reading the Book of Mormon, and we set up a day to come meet with them this week. It made all three of us incredibly happy to see each other. I just have to say, that I'm grateful that God knows when Valery goes to buy milk and that He uses the mistakes of His little missionaries to get them at the right place at the right time in order to help a family come closer to Him. I'm incredibly excited to teach that family in a couple days! I know that they are incredibly special to God, and I'm grateful that I get the opportunity to work with them.

Yesterday we went to the Bogotaye branch for church. I honestly love that little gathering of 15 saints! They are probably the most family-like branch/ward I have ever encountered in my life. There's a little bit of Zion in this tiny Ukrainian village. I quite enjoyed the opportunity I had to speak in Sacrament meeting about the baptism and ministry of Jesus Christ. (In honor of Baptism - the Orthodox holiday that had been on Saturday.) I'm so grateful that Christ came to earth to atone for our sins and give us a way to return to our Father. He truly was the perfect example for us, and I'm grateful that I can look to Him to know how to live my life. I truly know that He is the Son of God.

- Sharisa