Joy of the Gospel

This morning I asked my companion what she was going to write home about and she replied that she was going to tell her family about our "day of miracles." To which I replied, "Which one?" Basically, our entire week was full of blessings and miracles from the Lord for which I am incredibly grateful.

Monday night we'd set up a lesson with a girl named Hendrina. She is the roommate of a couple other Namibian girls that we are teaching and although she'd been in the room for one of those lessons, this was going to be the first time we would meet with just her. As we got to know her, we asked her why she wanted to meet with missionaries.

"I want to be baptized like Jesus Christ was," she replied.

There are very few words that can bring greater joy (or surprise!) to a missionary's heart on a first lesson than those. So we ignored our lesson plan and spent the rest of the lesson discussing baptism and the requirements to be baptized in the restored church of Jesus Christ. We set goals with her and made a calendar with her of everything she would need to do in order to be baptized. Reginald (a recent convert from Zimbabwe, and her neighbor) was with us on the lesson and did an amazing job of testifying and supporting Hendrina. They have very similar backgrounds, and I feel that Reginald is going to play a key role in helping Hendrina be baptized and stay active in the church.

Later in the week we had another lesson with Hendrina and Victoria, one of her roommates. As well as with Reginald, Peter, and David - it was like a little Sunday school class of truth-seekers, and the Spirit was incredible. Hendrina brought up a concern or two about baptism, and then was unable to make it to church yesterday, but we have faith that she will still get baptized very soon. Victoria is now also thinking about baptism, which makes me excited! After that lesson, Hendrina was walking us out and just started dancing and told us how happy she was. :) It always brings me joy when other people find the happiness that is available in the restored gospel.

One day this week we'd decided to go to a particular area of Simferopol in order to look up a former investigator, and we saw quite a few miracles in those two or three hours. Some of the first people we talked to were this older couple, and they were excited beyond belief to receive a copy of the Book of Mormon and they eagerly invited us to come talk with them at any time. So I'm excited to begin working with them. We then ended up finding that former investigator, which was a miracle considering that her teaching record was nearly ten years old and had no phone number. She was completely surprised when she opened the door and we knew her name, and even though she told us that she is Orthodox and not interested in meeting with us, she was very kind and grateful that we had remembered her after all these years. As we knocked on the doors in the rest of her stairwell, we met a very nice man. We did a door approach using the Book of Mormon and he eagerly accepted the book. He then surprised us by telling us the address of our church. And it came out that he had met the elders not too long ago and was planning to come to church this Sunday! I'm pretty sure that was a powerful witness to him that God is aware of him. 

Saturday was the day that Sister Burgoyne named our "day of miracles." It started out in a less-than-miraculous fashion with some of our appointments falling through, leading us to spend some time contacting in the park. We approached a certain woman and began talking with her. As soon as she found out we were missionaries, she asked if we could go sit on a bench and talk. So we talked with Lucina for a while about the Book of Mormon and she eagerly took a copy and agreed to meet with us next week to talk more. She is a wonderful woman from Armenia and is deeply religious. I'm really excited to get to know her better! While we were talking with her, we heard from our investigator Alice that she actually could still meet, so we joyfully went over to her place. She really opened up a lot to us in that lesson, sharing some of her hopes, dreams, and fears. She told us that she knows that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that the Book of Mormon is true!! She prayed about it, and she received her answer through a very special dream that she shared with us. She let us know that she wants to be baptized, but she isn't sure when yet, since she still has some obligations to her current church. But she received a priesthood blessing before church on Sunday, and I know that she will soon be able to be baptized.

After the lesson with Alice, we continued along our merry way along the contacting path we'd planned the night before. As we talked with one woman I noticed out of the corner of my eye that a man was standing nearby, watching us as if he wanted to talk with us. After we finished the conversation with the woman, we turned to that man and said hello. He didn't really respond, so we continued. A couple minutes later, we heard a voice calling behind us, "Girls! Girls!" We stopped, and this man caught up with us. (Combination of Andrei and Valyery, anyone?) He asked about church and the Book of Mormon and was very excited to take a copy. He promised that he would be in church the next day with his family, and we walked away incredibly excited. (Unfortunately, he didn't make it yesterday, but we'll continue to call him. And he'll come. :) ) Then that evening we had several other people stop us and ask us who we are, and that's always fun. 

Last night we had one of the best street conversations of my life. It was a cold, windy evening and there weren't a lot of people on the streets, but we felt like we needed to stick to our planned route. A few minutes after making that decision, we ran into a woman named Ira that we've talked to before and to whom we've given a Book of Mormon. We had a wonderful conversation with her, and she shared with us some of her fears and struggles. We read together out of 2 Nephi 4, and she was so excited to know that other people - including a prophet of God! - also feel overwhelmed by weaknesses and sins despite their desires to be righteous. We prayed together with her, and she was happier than I've ever seen her before. That's one of my favorite things about being a missionary - helping people feel the joy that comes from knowing we have a loving Father and Savior.

In other news, Patricia, the girlfriend of Tongai (the other recent convert from Zimbabwe) is getting baptized in a few weeks!! I really love that girl a lot, and I'm excited to get to help her in the process of preparing to enter the waters of baptism. It's inspiring to see how much she loves the Book of Mormon and the Lord. And it's also incredible to see how many people the Lord has prepared to receive His gospel at this time and place. I'm so grateful to be here right not and to get to participate in this great work of the Lord. I know that this is His true church.

- Sharisa