Milagres Milagres Milagres!!

Oi todo o mundo! Tudo bem?

This last week has probably been the best of my mission so far. There have been so many ups and downs but the ups have been really up!! I can't help but say to myself every day "milagres milagres milagres!!!" Miracles are happening all around and every single day!

Sister S has been an incredible trainer and companion. She has taught me that exact obedience DOES bring forth miracles.

This week we gained 9 new investigators and 4 or 5 are progressing so well!! We have 3 who are so ready to be baptized!

Every day people are placed in our path or we are placed in theirs!

E and S:
Sister S and her companion before me met E and S while they were unloading the groceries from their car. They talked to them and found out E had been looking for a "home church" for she and her daughter. E asked questions like "Do you know where I can get a Book of Mormon?" "Where is the church located?" She had a friend who was Mormon and wanted to learn more.

We had our first lesson with her on Saturday. She had read a lot of the Book of Mormon already and had done lots of research on the internet from the right sources. She was so ready to learn. S, her 10 year old daughter was so excited about everything!

As we taught the restoration they accepted everything so easily. It was what they were looking for. As we targeted questions and explanations to S, E would say thing like "See S, this is the restored gospel with the Priesthood." She's incredible!!!

We gave S her own Book of Mormon since she's a great reader and they are going to keep reading together. They are going to pray together about getting baptized, but said they would see how church was the next day.

Yesterday church was so perfect! We had 4 investigators come! It was the primary program!! And it was so beautiful. The kids all sang and shared testimonies and simple truths of the restored gospel, like "I am a child of God." "My family can be together forever." And "The gospel was restored through Joseph Smith."  S got to go to Primary (We visited the primary as well to introduce ourselves, read comments from the members about the primary program, and to share a missionary message). E came to gospel principles with us and then relief society. Sister R, a member we had contacted and asked to help, was their personal guide and made sure to take good care of them both throughout the meetings.

After church, we asked them how they liked it. E said that about half way through the first hour, S leaned over to her and said "This is it!" while we were all standing there talking, E asked S, "So do you think we found it? Is this our home?" Sarah said "YES!" and gave her a big hug. E said, "this isn't how I expected a LDS meeting to be..but there is something about it.  It is so comfortable.  It just feels comfortable, like home."

I know that church is so special and so important! This IS the Jesus Christ's church and it DOES feel like home!

Fe and J:

We received these referrals from the other sister missionaries. This is an incredible family! Fe is the mother. She has cancer and is going through treatments. She is so kind and loving and welcoming, even while going through a lot of pain. Fo is her husband and is Muslim but super super friendly and open to us teaching his family. Fu is their daughter and is in 8th grade and super nice. Mu is their son who is autistic. They also have two other daughters who are not living with them. J is Fe's brother who came to help them. They are all from Sierra Leon in West Africa. J came just a few months ago to help.

When we went to visit, it was planned to be just service. The other sisters had told us it wasn't really a good time to teach because of her treatments, but that they said we could come do service. When we knocked on their door, they welcomed us in and had us sit down. We kept asking what service we could do, but they just wanted us to pray and share a message with them. It was Fe and J. We shared the tree of life. We hadn't planned a message, and I just felt like they would like the story. We gave J a Book of Mormon and gave him 1 Nephi 8 to read to get the whole story. Fe's eyes are not very good, so we asked J to read to her.

The next time we went back, J had read the story and shared with Fe and he had loved it! He talked about how he had never read the book before and that he learned a lot and liked the focus on Jesus Christ.  We taught the Plan of Salvation.  It is one of the most amazing experiences to see someone seeing the Plan of Salvation for the first time! Fe has met with missionaries in the past, and she loves the messages as well and accepts them as true, but it isn't new for her. It is so incredible to see how J listens so carefully and soaks everything in, and then he asks very thoughtful questions! After we explained it, he asked us to explain the Spirit World again. We talked about it until he fully understood. And I could tell that really touched him. The first lesson he had agreed to pray about being baptized, and Fe had agreed to pray as well. This second lesson, J agreed to be baptized. He still needed to pray about the date we gave him though, because he thought it might be a bit soon. Dec. 7th. Fo, the father, listened while taking care of Mu. He said that the Plan of Salvation was so similar to the Muslim beliefs. The only difference is our belief in Christ as the Son of God.

Another of the most wonderful experiences is to pray with your investigators at the end of a lesson and to hear them pray! Fo asked me to pray, so I prayed first as we kneeled, and then we had J pray. It was awesome. The Spirit is so strong in their home. They are so humble and receptive to the Spirit.

Another miracle about this lesson: We had been trying so hard to find a member that could come. Before the lesson we had dinner with the So family. Sister So and her 18 year old son volunteered to come to the lesson with us! So they were there with us for the lesson and it was so great to have their input and friendship for Fe's family!

The third lesson, we taught the Restoration. Fu was home too this time! She joined us, and also J and Fe had told her about what we had learned last time, the Plan of Salvation. They all were very receptive to the message of the restoration and the priesthood. We asked Fe if she would like a priesthood blessing some time. She said yes and that we could come any time. I could tell this message truly touched them, especially J. He listened so intently as we shared the first vision.

By the end of the lesson, J said he wanted to be baptized on Dec. 7th. Fu is also praying about baptism. Fu said the closing prayer for us, with the whole family.  Also, the Br family was there with their 3 month old daughter and they shared their testimonies of the restoration and the priesthood in their lives and the temple!  It was so incredible to hear Fu pray so sincerely after the lesson. Fe also wants to be baptized and come to church, but isn't sure when she can be baptized and wants to wait til her husband can come to church with her so he can care for Mu while there.

J came to church!  We had some members pick him up to give him a ride. And Ru (the 18 year old So) took him to gospel principles and priesthood meeting. We dropped by to talk to J that night and he liked church. And the primary program touched him. He's saving his questions for our next meeting on Wednesday!

I love this family!!!!

Q:

We contacted him from our potentials! We just knocked on his door, he was open and talked to us! He met with elders in the past and was open then, but he was more receptive this time to see that we were sisters! He didn't know that there were sister missionaries. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he said he would start reading and that he has wanted to come see our church but has to see when he will have a Sunday with work off.

Our first lesson with him:

His girlfriend was there with their son, so we could go inside. He had so many questions! He has thought so much about all sorts of religions. He grew up Christian, but now he thinks openly about everything. We were struggling to maintain control of the lesson. He was asking all sorts of far out questions. I felt impressed to ask him a question and bear testimony. We were teaching the restoration- at least were trying to, and we needed to get back on track. He had gone on a tangent about authority.

I stopped him and asked him how he knows that Jesus Christ is real. He thought about it and eventually stated that he didn't know for sure, but that he would like to believe. I bore testimony of the gift of the Holy Ghost. I told him that many people may claim to be teaching the truth, but that the only way to know the truth is through the power of the Holy Ghost. I promised him that God will always testify of what is true through the Holy Ghost, and that only God can give us peace, so we can know what is true by feeling peace. He became very quiet as I testified to him and he just listened so intently.  I promised him that if he focused and prayed to know if Jesus Christ is his Savior and is real, that he WOULD get an answer and could know! His girlfriend was nodding her head and smiling.  Haha:) I told him there is an answer to all of his questions but that we want to help him build a solid foundation on Jesus Christ, and that God teaches us line upon line, precept upon precept. He really took that to heart, and we were able to continue on and teach him about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ through Joseph Smith and priesthood authority.

He had already read about 10 pages of the Book of Mormon, starting in 3 Nephi 11 where we asked him to read, and now is going to go back to the beginning to read. He's a big researcher and reader so he is really delving into the Book of Mormon. We challenged him to focus on how he feels as he reads and to pray to know that Jesus Christ is real and that the Book of Mormon testifies of him. He accepted our challenge and the lesson ended really well. He prayed at the end as we all kneeled, and his girlfriend was so happy and surprised that he did!  She told us we didn't know how hard it is to get him to pray and go to church, since he considers himself spiritual but doesn't see a need to go to church or do some other things.

I later found out in the car, that while Q had been going on his big question tangent, Sister S had prayed that I would know the right thing to say, since we both didn't know what to do. That's when I had the impression to testify of what I did. Isn't Sister S amazing??? She's the best! She has taught me so much!!

Well, I'm running out of time! But I LOVE being a missionary! I can truly feel the Lord guiding us and doing his work through us! I just want to be a better instrument for him and the Spirit.

I love you all and hope you are doing well!

-Sister Greenall