Hastening the Work of Salvation

Mine was the incredible opportunity yesterday to gather with a few missionaries and English-speaking church members around a small laptop and watch the Worldwide Leadership Training Meeting. The Spirit in that little room at the back of the Simferopol branch building was powerful and I was moved to tears multiple times. The Lord truly is hastening His work of salvation! I can't express how grateful I am to be a missionary at this time in the history of the world. I have personally seen a great increase in the pace of the work here in Ukraine, and I am sure that corresponds to what is occurring around the world. What an exciting time to be able to participate in spreading the restored gospel of Jesus Christ! I'm excited for the guidance given to church members in that broadcast, and I'm looking forward to the increase in miracles that we will see as full-time missionaries more closely coordinate their efforts with the members of the church. Simferopol probably has the best members of the church in the entire world, and they are all so excited about missionary work - and I'm excited that we are going to be able to work more closely with them to be able to help an ever-increasing amount of people come to our Savior.

(Note from Sharisa's Mom - if you want to watch this broadcast here's the link -)

http://www.lds.org/training/wwlt/2013/hastening/special-broadcast?lang=eng

Another spiritual highlight of this week was the mission leadership council in Dnepropetrovsk. Sister vanBruggen summed it up pretty well when she told us that we all better remember this meeting for the rest of our lives. I don't think I had ever been in a more spiritual meeting before that, or in one that was so completely led by the Lord. We discussed the needs and challenges of the mission and how we can best help our missionaries achieve the potential the Lord expects. I'm very excited for the increased focus our mission is taking on relying on the Lord. This truly is the work of the Lord - it is a highly spiritual work, and we as mortals cannot do anything without the guidance and blessing of Him whose work this is. It was a rich blessing to be able to take part on that council.

One day this week, we had an appointment set up with a woman we'd met a couple days before. She didn't have a phone, so when we met her, we arranged to meet in front of a store and then walk together to the church building. We showed up at the appointed time and place, but the woman was not there. Sister Esplin and I decided we would give her 15 minutes and then move on. And those were a miraculous 15 minutes! The woman never showed up, but within the space of 5 square feet and 15 minutes, we gave away three copies of the Book of Mormon. One of the women to whom we gave a Book of Mormon remembered having talked with us before. She told us how she doesn't usually get off at that bus stop, but that for some reason she did today. Another woman told us she remembered me from some months ago - it was 10:00 at night (don't worry - that's not breaking rules in my mission) and I talked to her. She even remembered the very words I used, and she apologized that she couldn't talk then, but since it was late and she was alone, she just couldn't. But now she could! It was really exciting to see how the Lord had prepared those people and then placed us in exactly the right place to share the gospel with them.

We also saw a number of miracles as we worked in Zaporozhye and Dnepropetrovsk this week. It's always such a joy to give copies of the Book of Mormon to people who are eager to read it, and even though I didn't get to be on any of the lessons we set up, I really love those people we met and I pray they will progress. In Zaporozhye, we met dozens of Americans who were on a cruise trip down the Dnepr river. I quite enjoyed talking with them. I had also forgotten that pretty much everybody in America has heard of the church before - but probably when the church has been in Ukraine as long as it's been in America, everybody here will know it as well. I especially liked the man from New York who has been to the Cumorah pageant a number of times and absolutely loves the Mormon church - his only problem being that he loves coffee. :) Anyway, it was just a delight to talk with those kind Americans.

We had a pretty great adventure trying to get onto our train in Zaporozhye to return home. After a wrong marshrukta, a missed stop, another  marshrutka, and running through the heat of the day with our backpacks to the train station that was farther away than I remembered, we made it to the platform 3 minutes before our train was supposed to leave. Unfortunately, there were no trains on any of the tracks and our train was not even listed on the announcement board. Slightly panicked, I started asking people if our train had already come and gone. Nobody knew. All of a sudden, I heard a friendly "hi" and turned to see a girl I'd never met. She was a recently returned missionary from L'vov who recognized our name tags and asked if we needed help. :) Our train had fortunately not left, and sweet Masha walked us to our platform. I was infinitely grateful that a loving God carefully placed a returned missionary to help calm down two stressed little Americans. It's experiences like that that remind me how God is intimately connected to the details of our lives.

The main reason I was so anxious to catch my train (aside from the obvious inconvenience of having to exchange train tickets) was that we had a lesson set up with Tanya for 20 minutes after our train was supposed to roll into Simferopol. So I was grateful we had made the train and could help our beloved friend prepare for her baptism. Unfortunately, the train engine broke in between cities and we were stranded for an hour and a half. But everything happens for a reason, and even though we ended up canceling both of our lessons for that evening, we were able to meet a lot of really great people on the train during that hour and a half. This truly is the work of the Lord, and even if we don't understand why everything happens, there is always a reason and always something we can learn. Needless to say, however, I was extremely grateful to return home and be able to once more walk my beloved Simforopolian streets.

We had a wonderful lesson with Tanya last night. She is already an incredible missionary, and it is always astonishing to me how much she loves the Church, the Book of Mormon, and us. I'm really grateful to be able to know her and work with her. I'm excited for her baptism in two weeks! I love being able to participate in the work of salvation.

-Sister Nay