Mission Miracle from Elder Benjamin Miles

Mission Miracle from Elder Benjamin MilesFebruary 16, 2009
This was a week of miracles and I didn't even have enough time to write them all done but here they are! So the first miracle. We had had this miracle finding experience on the train and we found this girl named Anda. Well she has been reading the Book of Mormon and has been really enjoying it and so she set up with us on Saturday and we arranged to have a tour of the church with her. And because she was a girl we had to find a member to come with us and so luckily the entire YSA (all the youth from Romania) was at the chapel and so we asked Elena ( a member from Bucharest to participate in the lesson) We did the tour and from just seeing the outside of the church Anda started to love it! So we did the tour, and you know the spirit is there when the lesson just flows and Elena (the member) was doing an amazing job about talking about being a member. She made it so personal. So we took her through all the rooms and we ended in the sacrament room and Anda went in and she just sat down on one of the benches and started to smile. She said, “This room is different. I feel a warmth here. I feel a really special feeling in my heart that I can't describe.” We knew exactly what that feeling was and so we went on to talk about why we come to church and bore out testimonies about Jesus Christ and about his atonement. The spirit was so strong and it was just wonderful to see how happy it made her. But the best part was after the discussion! Elena and her sister Ioana talked to Anda for 2 hours after the discussion and they were talking about meeting up during the week and hanging out and it just made me so happy because that is the way missionary work should be! I teach and the members fellowship! Elena did a great job ---she invited Anda to church and to activities. It was a miracle. Next Miracle I think it was Monday that I got a call from some of the Elders in our District and one of their investigators had gotten ill and had gone to the hospital. So they called us and asked if were could do an exchange because they had set up a lesson with some less actives and they didn't have time to do both. So I went to the lesson with the inactives and Elder Cantlon went to the Hospital to help the investigator. The less actives we were going to have been less active for about a year and they are really upset with the church. They don't come because they don't feel that they are spiritually fed. So we went over to their house and right from the beginning we said we are going to talk about the Savior and humility. We started the discussion and the spirit just took over right from the beginning. The minute we got in the door a feeling of comfort came over us that the lesson was going to go well! Usually these people just talk about how bad everything is going and so I was really worried that it wasn't going to go well, so on the way over I was saying a prayer in my heart to my Heavenly Father saying „ Please help us to speak with the spirit and to know what I need to say to help these people.” Heavenly Father helped me and we spoke to these people. I saw that their hearts were softened and they we just amazed how well they felt!! After everything we said they replied, “That is exactly what I needed to hear.” At one point, the father said, “ I haven't felt the spirit in years, but tonight I have felt it so strong.” He said I usually talk a lot in lessons but when you speak you bring such a warmth into our hearts that we just want to listen. Then he said, “Look at my wife she is beaming and he looked at me and said you warm up the heart of others and then he said the most amazing thing of the night. He told us that he had planned that night to tell us never to come back because he had had it with the church and that he was never going back, but because of the spirit with witch we had taught and because of our testimonies that he wanted to start to learn how he could come back. He said that because of the way in which we taught that they had been spiritually fed and it was so true! I have never felt the spirit so strong. But the best part is...I don't know what we said, we left their house and my companion ( who is a brand new missionary) looked at me and asked what just happened there? And I replied I'm now sure the spirit just took over. I have no idea what I said because I didn't say it. But the best part is that lesson not only helped those people, but it really helped me more! I have always wanted to see a fulfillment of my patriarchal blessing and in that lesson it came true! It was truly a miracle. I prayed and God answered and the best part in that is our message as missionaries. We ask and our Heavenly Father responds, he still speaks and helps his children. I will never forget the tender mercy of the Lord that was shown unto me that night. It was a miracle. Oh and the man told me to thank my dad for teaching me the scriptures so well. He specifically told me to thank my dad because at some point in the lesson he asked me how I knew to apply the scriptures and I said my dad taught me and he said to thank him for me.
Next Miracle Wow there are just two many miracles to write! So this week I had an exchange in Pitesti and we went down there to help them with contacting. We had some lessons through out the day and we had about an hour left and I really wanted to show Elder Johnson that we can have success contacting, so we went to the Block. I told Elder Johnson to listen to the spirit and to choose a direction and then a block. So we went into the bloc and I said a prayer in my heart and ask God for a miracle because I wanted to show Elder Johnson that bloc knocking is a good thing and once again God blessed us. We knocked on the first door and President Lundberg had asked me to try a new form of contacting in which you start out with you testimony! So we knocked on the door and a man opens it up and I just bore a simple testimony about the purpose of life or something...and he let us in we had a wonderful discussion with 4 people. We gave out 2 books Of Mormon and also got a return appointment! Yet another Miracle. Next Miracle, So we having been doing everything we can to find investigators! We stop everyone that goes by us and we do everything we can to share the message! So this week I felt like we should call up an old investigator that we had contacted last transfer named Riad. He is from Syria and so we called him up and he set up with us and we met him a the Hilton hotel. We sat down and he just started talking and he told us that he wants us to meet as often as possible and that he wants to get baptized. We set a date set up for a return appointment and talked about the nature of the Godhead, the word of wisdom and why we don't use the cross. It went amazing and he is the greatest guy. He told us he just wants to to what god wants and so we are really excited and we are going to meet with him on Wednesday! Yet another Miracle! Next Miracle , This week I had the honor of doing a Baptismal Interview for a lady that lives in one of the cities in our zone! I'm going to keep this short i just wanted to say that I felt the love of God so much for that lady and it help me to know how much he loves me and his children. Next Miracle, This is another one with the spirit! This Friday I was on an exchange and we had kind of a rough morning and so we were on the subway and I really want to constant contact and so I was looking for someone to contact and I saw this nice looking man next to me! Then I thought well how can I start a conversation with him and I was going to do the usual and ask a question that I already knew the answer to, but I thought to be sincere and that revelation came. The Holy Ghost told me to ask him how old the subway system was and I thought to my self, what a weird question. But I asked him and he say „ Funny you ask me that because I designed the Metro. I can tell you exactly how old it is.” I couldn't believe it! I was on the subway with a thousand other Romanians and I'm inspired to ask someone about the metro and I happen to be standing next to the man who built it! Miracle! Next Miracle! This is probably the best one of the week! This one was a church miracle. So for the whole transfer we( the missionaries in Bucharest) have been looking for investigators and it had been hard. This week the work payed off!! We have 10 investigators come to church. Every companionship had people there!! There was close to 100 people at church and there were about 5 or 6 investigators that had come back for the first time in 16 years to church. They didn't even know that a chapel had been built! We also had people come who I had give a Book of Mormon to in passing and they loved church! It was a huge miracle!! And we have had all these miracles because we are obedient! Also we went to Craiova last night and as we were walking through the station we ran in to these two people speaking English and we saw that they were having trouble getting their tickets so we offered to translate! And I was so excited because I love translating! We helped them get their tickets and get to a hotel and after we helped them get to a hotel they just said thank you and said that they couldn't have done it without us and they were just amazed at our kindness! I know that down the road Rob and Jessica (those were their names) will run into missionaries and will have a respect for them and know that our meeting was not by chance. It was a miracle! One more and the others will have to wait till next week!! Our Zone is a miracle!! Every city this week doubled their numbers and it Bucharest we had 10 investigators at church and 100 people at church and through out the zone the numbers doubled!! And not only did we have all our investigators come we had 27 new investigators found this week! I really can't explain in words how much the lord has blessed us! Wow there are so many other miracles to write but I just don't have time! Just know that God is a god of miracles and all those who keep the rules are entitled to those blessings!

Mission Miracle from Elder Benjamin Miles

I love teaching the gospel and where ever I am I want to be able to teach the gospel and I’m always looking for people that I can teach whether it be on the Metro, Tram, Bus or street. So this week after Zone conference we had to go to Craiova, a city in our zone. We got on a train on Thursday and headed down to Craiova. On the way down I was trying to write some letters and there was this girl sitting a row behind us, and when I first saw here I had the thought to talk to her. However, I just kind of pushed it aside. I continued writing letters while my companion, tired from working so hard, slept. I was just sitting there writing a letter when the girl asked me for a pen and I said to myself, “Talk about the gospel.” But it didn’t seem like the right moment and so I gave her a pen and I continued on with my letter, when she asked me if I had another one because the one I had given her didn’t work. I told her that I didn’t have another one but then my companion woke up and asked if she needed one and was able to give her his. I went back to my letters and she started taking some pictures of the train and some men who where probably drunk started making rude comments about those among them. She was disgusted at their comments and moved her seat and sat a row in front of us. After she got settled, she turned around and introduced herself to me. She said her name was Anda and thanked me for the pen. We just got to know each other and then she asked my favorite question, “What are you doing here?” And so we started explaining to her what we do and it was a perfect lesson. She it totally an elect person, as we missionaries like to say. We talked about haw she is a child of god and that she has great potential. We talked about how this knowledge was lost during the apostasy and she really liked and readily accept the idea that there needs to be one true church. We also went into the Plan of Salvation and talked about Adam and Eve, and she even before we talked about it said that she thought that the Fall was necessary because otherwise we wouldn’t be here! My companion and I look at each other and I said to myself that was straight from the Book of Mormon. We were able to testify about the Restoration and we found out that she was an Architecture student. We talked about how if she designed a house and she only had the blueprints, what would have to happen to rebuild that house? She responded perfectly. She said that you would have to have the original architect come with the blueprints and show how it was down and then we compared this with God and Joseph Smith. Then we were able to give her a Book of Mormon and testify of its truthfulness. She readily accepted a copy and we gave her a commitment to read it. We called her a couple days later and she said the she really liked it and it still reading! It was a miracle!

Mission Miracle from Sora Deborah Thompson

My companion and I decided that we will do every little thing President tells us to do, so we started marking every single door we knocked. Well, because we were so preoccupied with figuring out the number system in a block and marking everything in the book, we didn’t realize that we were block knocking the same block we had just block knocked. Well, we realized this when this nice lady with two boys opened the door who we had talked to several days before. I thought they had given me a dud phone number, but it turns out that I had just written it wrong and they were waiting for my phone call. We had an amazing discussion with them, got the right number and they came to church with us on Sunday. It was super cool. The Lord definitely blesses you when you are obedient.