Aug 19

The weeks we live

 

This week was what I would describe as a typical missionary week. ie. Everything we had planned fell through, most of what we tried to do went terribly wrong, we had a LOT of unexpected occurances, and looking back at the end, it turned out to be a wonderful week. :)

 Over the last few weeks we've been very blessed in our finding efforts, and our teaching pool has become quite large, or so we thought. This week, most of the people that have welcomed us in the past, have mysteriously(how do I spell that?) disappeared, or told us to come back in September. :P So! The Lord gave us more Miracles to fill in the gaps. :)

To go through the list of everything I loved from this week would take much more time than I have, but I'll share a few stories!

First off, a family in our ward is from turkey, but no one has seen them since february. Two months ago, we tried to pass by, and discovered that the sister's non-member sister was staying with them, but the actual family themselves were on vacation in turkey, and the sister that was there doesn't speak much french (nor does her husband), so we weren't really able to do much with them. :P We've been passing by occasionally since, trying to get a hold of them, make contact at all, no luck. Saturday, we left the house with our plan all made up,and (as I mentioned earlier) most of it went wrong. We ended up driving back to a different street to fall on our ultimate back-up plan (knock on doors), when my marvellous companion said 'hey, we're near that turkish family. Want to pass by?' what followed was a wonderful meeting, with a wonderful sister with a wonderful testimony, who came to church the next day with her non-member sister. :) That's a miracle if I ever saw one! Did I mention the non-member sister's husband has read the book of mormon? Twice? Many prayers of gratitude have been said in their honor. :)

A very similar miracle happened to our senior couple, who stumbled across an inactive family, the father of whom is not a member. In their first lesson with him, he told them 'you know, I think it's time I get baptized.' :D Well, alright. If you insist. ; )

Those are just two of the many miracles we saw as a district this week, which are all linked (I believe) with the strengthening of the ward we're in! Our sacrament attendance is still on the rise, inactive members have returned to full activity, we've had baptisms, (Did I mention that a young man from france was baptized this wednesday? That was a MARVELLOUS experience! He left for youth conference the same day, and came back spewing forth angelic testimonies of the spirit of the youth of this church. :D) we've got a ward mission leader, and MOST importantly, ever single one of the members has started to catch the vision and get excited about missionary work! I have a testimony that when the members and the missionaries work TOGETHER to share the gospel, we all get one step closer to the city of Enoch. :)

Alright, one last miracle and then I'll stop. We had an inactive man named steve show up at church this sunday. Steve was baptized 20 years ago, and swiftly fell into inactivity, but never forgot the warmth and love he felt as a member of the church. Last week, he decided that he still deserves to feel like he belongs, and to feel loved, and so he went on mormon.org and ordered missionaries. He bore his testimony to us in Priesthood yesterday of the Love of God for each of his Children, and of the power that we have when we transmit that love to those around us. Missionary work, reactivation, fellowshipping of the newly baptized, it's all the same thing. And It takes love. Ask yourselves who you know at church, that has been struggling. That hasn't been out in a while, that always sits alone. Go towards people like that, make the decision, and the effort, to be their friend, and you will change the world.

Good luck everyone! Bon Courage! Thanks for all you do. :)

Love,

Elder Christensen