Preaching the gospel unto every creature (Mark 16:15)
June 18, 2012:
How precious we all are in God’s eyes
Well, this week was great as usual. We had a training [meeting] in Prague, and I love trainings. They always make you feel so ready to take on the tasks ahead. Sister Irwin asked us to start working on one Christ-like attribute we aren't very good at, and I chose patience :). I'll let you know how it goes.
[Our investigator] is coming along so well. We just got a text from him actually saying that he read Mosiah 18 and loved it, and that he reads the Book of Mormon nightly and loves it. Sister Dolinar and I are always talking about how blessed we are to be working with him. Such a privilege! Last week we taught him the Word of Wisdom, and he didn't understand the coffee thing, but then after the lesson he said, "Ok, I won't drink coffee anymore." And it was beautiful. He has SO MUCH FAITH. But please please pray your hearts out for him this week, because he really needs it. He is up in the mountains until Wednesday, the week before his baptism. Satan always comes and tempts the hardest when something great is about to happen, so pray, pray, pray. Please. Sister Tmejova showed us the pond [for baptism] last week, and it's beautiful and peaceful. The grass is a bit high, so we're going to see what we can do about that, but pray that everything will go through. [Our investigator] is so prepared, and the members love him so much. President is interviewing him this Friday.
How precious we all are in God’s eyes
Well, this week was great as usual. We had a training [meeting] in Prague, and I love trainings. They always make you feel so ready to take on the tasks ahead. Sister Irwin asked us to start working on one Christ-like attribute we aren't very good at, and I chose patience :). I'll let you know how it goes.
[Our investigator] is coming along so well. We just got a text from him actually saying that he read Mosiah 18 and loved it, and that he reads the Book of Mormon nightly and loves it. Sister Dolinar and I are always talking about how blessed we are to be working with him. Such a privilege! Last week we taught him the Word of Wisdom, and he didn't understand the coffee thing, but then after the lesson he said, "Ok, I won't drink coffee anymore." And it was beautiful. He has SO MUCH FAITH. But please please pray your hearts out for him this week, because he really needs it. He is up in the mountains until Wednesday, the week before his baptism. Satan always comes and tempts the hardest when something great is about to happen, so pray, pray, pray. Please. Sister Tmejova showed us the pond [for baptism] last week, and it's beautiful and peaceful. The grass is a bit high, so we're going to see what we can do about that, but pray that everything will go through. [Our investigator] is so prepared, and the members love him so much. President is interviewing him this Friday.
Other fun things we did this week were we visited an old 94-year-old lady in a nursing home who joined [the Church] during communism, and then we helped the Tmejovi with their house they are building in a neighboring village. Brother Tmej showed us where the nursing home lady lives, and there was just a powerful Spirit when we went in there to visit her. She asked us to pray with her, and it was beautiful how something as small as a heartfelt prayer can actually be something huge for someone who desperately needs it. Brother Tmej prayed, and then told her that she was ready to meet her Father in Heaven. She was close to blind, so she held our hands while praying and talking to us. I felt angels there that night. She will soon be one of them.
Picking cherries with sister Tmejova.
We have been harassing the Tmejovi so often about letting us go serve them, and it's kind of turned into a joke between us, but finally brother Tmej called us and said that he actually really needed us, because people were coming to plaster his walls, and he needed help wiping the windows and cleaning up a room. So we went over there on Saturday. So great. It was the best. And I think our laughs lightened sister Tmejova's burden. They have this GORGEOUS plot out in the country and are building a house, but sister Tmejova is anxious about it all, so anyway after our work she told us we could go get some cherries from their massive cherry tree, and so I went over there and invited Sister Dolinar to have a [cherry] pit spitting contest with me. I thought I was hot stuff until sister Tmejova came over! Good heavens, that lady can spit. I was laughing so hard, and she was like “It's because I'm CZECH!” Haha, I was dying. And so I got into a spitting stance, spit pretty well, jiggled a little, and said, “That's because I'm a FINKA! (Finn)” Hahah, and she was dying, and brother Tmej was laughing, and we just spit with sister Tmej for like 20 minutes, and it was glorious. It's amazing what the little things in life can do for people.
Our cherry earrings (Sister Dolinar and me).
The boys have fallen off the face of the earth. [Probably because] they have a new job. It's so important to really listen to people, and be led by the Spirit. And yesterday I was happy with how we taught. [One investigator] opened up with some personal questions. Questions that to be quite honest didn’t really hit me as what should hold someone back or as important really, but they were important to him, so we tried to answer them the best we could using Scripture. It is so important not to mock what is someone else's concern. Once we recognize how precious we all are in God's eyes it really helps with that. Love is truly the cure-all.
Oh, random other story. On the bus back to Jičín from training, there were so many people that we had to stand the whole way... well, I did. Sister Dolinar is just so gorgeous everyone offers their seat to her! So, she got to sit, and the man that stood up for her came and stood next to me, so I started up a conversation. It was incredible how when I slowed down and paid attention, the Spirit gave me words. For almost two hours I talked to this man in Czech. All Czech. Man, the Gift of Tongues is real! And at one stop we both were able to get seats when people got off, and he immediately started talking to the lady next to him, because our conversation had opened him up, given him light! When before our conversation, he was closed and didn't want to talk at all. But I kept trying, and it's sad to me how we ignore people around us. It is so easy to need our own "bubble" to feel comfortable. And missions make you have to go around poking bubbles. It's awkward but fun. Anyway, the lady next to him thought he was weird for smiling so huge and trying to talk to her, and I could tell that it shut him up after just a short nod of the head and turn to look out the window. Ah, broke my heart, but hey, it gave me a chance to lean over the aisle and give him my picture of Peanut [the goat] to look at. Which just cracked him up. Hilarious. He didn’t have interest [in our message], but we talked. He knows that when he talked to Sisters on the bus home from Prague one day he felt really happy. And that my friends is a seed. A beautiful little seed that might someday turn into someone else's [investigator].
Well, time is up. I love you all very much.
Warm regards,
Sestra Satu
Well, time is up. I love you all very much.
Warm regards,
Sestra Satu