Wow September already. In 4 days I will have been in Europa for 7 months. In 2 weeks or so means I have already been out for 8 months. It seems to short to really be so.
This week has been a pretty good week. We had a cool experience on Thursday. We were standing at a bus stop, having just visited Bruno (have I mentioned anything about him before?). A minute or so before our bus shows up, a lady walks out of her apartment to the stop across the street. And just as our bus pulls up, she yells to us "hey, can you two come visit me tomorrow around 2?" I was stunned. The bus was pulling up we had to get on, but yet I just couldn't let this slide so I sprint across the street, gave her a card with our number and tell her to call us, run back and just barely make it onto the bus. She didn't call us, and with our schedule we could only go by at around 1. We knew in which building she lived but not her specific apartment. So we spent about 10 minutes going through which apartments were likely, and we found it.
We go in, and actually sit out on her terrace. She is a Jehovas Witness, but mainly because of her parents, and she wanted to know what we believed. We started into a quick overview of the restoration (starting at Jesus Christ and his apostles) and we hit a few problems. One of which, was that we said that Jesus Christ gave his apostles power, priesthood power and Authority. She very quickly disagreed, at which point we invited her to open the bible to Matthew 10:1 where it says that he did. She opened it up (in her bible (Serbian)), grabbed our bible and compared it and said "they are the same". She sat down stunned and said something to the effect of "Jehovas Witness don't teach that".
After that, we had won her complete trust. She believed everything, I pulled out a Serbian Book of Mormon (I knew she was Serbian so I was prepared :-) ) and had her read the last two paragraphs of the introduction. She was THRILLED to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. She doesn't believe a number of thing that the Jehovas Witnesses teach, namely that dealing with death and the resurrection, and only 144,000 being able to go to heaven. (Which essentially would be the terrestrial kingdom by our standards, and the rest go to paradise, a telestial existence by our doctrine). So I gave her Alma 40 to read and pray about. She is related to Bru. Cukic (her sister is Bru. Cukic's daughter in law) and she knows him and his wife well, so this Thursday we will all meet together and teach the plan of Salvation! I am so excited! I have no doubt at all that finding her was NO coincidence.
The day before, we were actually with Bru. Cukic. Before he has really hesitated to do missionary work, or want to come with us on joint teaches. But the day before we found her he specifically asked if he could come with us and teach as often as possible!! I can't tell you how amazing the change with him as been. Had I not have been here to witness it, I would have never have believed it. We haven't been able to make any appointments that he would be able to come to yet, but we plan on involving him. Starting with Deborah (the lady we found). She has a real desire to know whats right, and is open to joining the church. We hope for a good lesson this week!
Another amazing thing that happened was with Isabelle. For the last 8 weeks she has been really putting off trying to quit smoking. For a multitude of reasons. One of which is that she believed that Heavenly Father would be patient with her, and that she still had time to change, and doesn't have to make all these changes at once. She has already gone 4 or so months without any alcohol or even being around any friends who were drinking. Which is absolutely amazing.
Anyway, a little over a week ago, I was studying in Alma 34 and I came across verses 31 through 35. And I sat and pondered about them, and I felt like I should give them to Isabelle.
31 Yea, I would that ye would come forth and aharden not your hearts any longer; for behold, now is the time and the bday of your csalvation; and therefore, if ye will repent and dharden not your hearts, immediately shall the great plan of redemption be brought about unto you.
32 For behold, this alife is the time for men to bprepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of cthis life is the day for men to perform their dlabors.
33 And now, as I said unto you before, as ye have had so many awitnesses, therefore, I beseech of you that ye do not bprocrastinate the day of your crepentance until the end; for after this day of life, which is given us to prepare for eternity, behold, if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the dnight of edarkness wherein there can be no labor performed.
34 Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful acrisis, that I will repent, that I will return to my God. Nay, ye cannot say this; for that same spirit which doth bpossess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world.
35 For behold, if ye have procrastinated the day of your repentance even until death, behold, ye have become asubjected to the spirit of the devil, and he doth bseal you his; therefore, the Spirit of the Lord hath withdrawn from you, and hath no place in you, and the devil hath all power over you; and this is the final state of the wicked.
And then later on in that same study session, I somehow ended up in Lehre und Bündnisse Doctrine and Covenants (LuB) (D&C) 19:15 -20 and felt likewise.
15 Therefore I command you to repent—repent, lest I asmite you by the rod of my mouth, and by my wrath, and by my anger, and your bsufferings be sore—how sore you know not, how exquisite you know not, yea, how hard to bear you know not.
16 For behold, I, God, have asuffered these things for all, that they might not bsuffer if they would crepent;
18 Which asuffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might bnot drink the bitter cup, and shrink—
19 Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and afinished my preparations unto the children of men.
20 Wherefore, I command you again to repent, lest I ahumble you with my almighty power; and that you bconfess your sins, lest you suffer these cpunishments of which I have spoken, of which in the smallest, yea, even in the least degree you have dtasted at the time I withdrew my Spirit.
But here is the thing, at this time Isabelle was going through a really rough time, and I didn't know when the time would be right, or if I should give her both. I talked to Elder Robins, and we decided that we would give her Alma 34 :31-35 to her as a reading assignment, but that LuB (D&C) 19 was just too much. Anyway, long story short, we end up visiting her on Sunday night with Bru. Vuissa. And the topic somehow comes up about smoking, and health etc. And she expressed the concern that she wasn't ready, it was too hard for her, and that right now she wasn't strong enough to do so.
We talked about that for awhile and I felt like I should give her the scriptures: 1 Nephi 3:7, Alma 34:31-35, AND LuB 19:15-20. I started to write it down, and I wanted to change it, soften it a bit, cut off verse 35, and verse 15. At which moment, I got the distinct impression that I shouldn't not soften it at all, and give her the whole sections. So I did so and added a note at the bottom of the card: "Sie haben doch die Kraft zu überwinden!" "You have the power to overcome!".
Walking out of there worrying that she would be offended, those scriptures don't beat around the bush by any means. But soon after I felt better about it, that it was right. 4 days later she called us and said that she wants to try quitting! We are going to meet with her on Wednesday, and present the stop smoking program!!!! YES!! I just goes to show how little I truly know, and the scriptures were written the way that they were for a reason. I learned a lot from that experience, and from stepping up a bit, not fearing how others will react, but present the truth as it is.
We had another great lesson with Alwin up in Egg (did I mention that lesson last week?). He still didn't see why he needed to read the Book of Mormon so we had another long discussion. Poor Elder Robins. Both Bruder Egger and Alwin speak somewhat quickly, and they were speaking in Walderisch. I understood everything completely, and was able to be fairly active in the discussion. Elder Robins was only able to catch the gist of things, and because the conversation was changing topics rapidly he was silent the whole time. After we left he expressed that he was really frustrated with his inability to understand. Any prayers for him, would probably be appreciated. It is not by any means easy to be in this area, just linguistically, if you travel far enough in any direction the dialect changes. Having been here for awhile, I understand it, I understand everything. Even Swiss.Which is really a huge blessing. But for new missionaries it is hard.
Other than that, its life as normal. Ups downs, fallen out appointments right and left ;-). Its hard, but there is a reason we make back up plans. :-) Sometimes cool things happened right as appointments fall out. Sometimes it means walking down empty streets in the pooring rain for a few hours... I have learned to just take things as they come and try to make the best of them.
We did some more service for Eugen this week, He is awesome, we invited him and his wife to church, and he wants to come, he is just so busy. He gets up every morning at 4, and goes to work for 9-10 hours, then goes to his lot and works for an additional 2-4 hours then goes home. He has a 2 month year (not sure if this is 2 month old or year old) old daughter, and she doesn't sleep through the night, so to give his wife a break, he gets up and takes care of her. Absolutely packed. And the only way that he can actually afford his house, is to build it himself, just him. So he will have roughly this same schedule till about new years. Then he hopes that things lighten up. But he really appreciates our hard work, I can't wait to hear what happens come January when he and his wife a little more time have.
Anyway, that ought to suffice for this e-mail, I hope all is well with you at home! Sorry, I have taken any pictures since last week... So no pictures this time!
Love,
Elder Ryan K. Christensen
1 comment:
Awesome letter!!!! Ryan you are amazing.
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