Testifying First from Sora Kara Staley

April 5, 2009

We have been testifying to find, and though we have no investigators to show for it, it is incredible how much more willing people are to listen. There was a man on the street as Sora Benson and I walked by. He stopped and waited for us to meet him. We both noticed his odd behavior, so we began at once to testify about the restored church. We asked him if he'd heard of our church, and he said that ten years earlier he'd recieved a Book of Mormon from two missionaries in Italy. He was an italian man living here in Bucharest. He knew about Joseph Smith, and he said he was surprised to see similar missionaries here in Romania. Again, we testified and invited. We have an appointment with him on Tuesday.
I don't remember if I told you this yet, but a few weeks ago I felt a tug when walking past a woman on the street who I noticed was holding a Jehovah's Witness pamphlet. We'd already passed her when it hit me, but I needed to go back. It surprised my companion as much as me. I approached her with a book of Mormon in my hand and said, "Can I give you the real truth?" She looked confused of course, but took it. We began to testify immediately of the Book of Mormon. We asked to her read it and set up with her. Our lesson went well, and she had read some of the title pages before we met. She said she's anxious to read the book more now.

Testifying First from Elder Brian Foote

March 27, 2009

Sora Lundberg asked us all to send in miracle stories that happen when we jump straight to testifying. Not only have I found that we can talk to more people at their doors (because it shifts through the weefy people), but also it tells people exactly why we are there. We had an opportunity to talk to a preacher in another church later Sunday afternoon. He knew exactly why we were at his house and so when we tried to talk to him about the Gospel, he wasn't upset that we wouldn't listen to his bible verses that "proved" his church true.

Testifying First from Sora Caitlin McKnight

March 27, 2009

We both loved Zone Conference and are trying to apply all the new things we learned. We have been applying the Testifying principle as we contact. Okay, I'll be completely honest President. When you told us to testify first I was little hesitant. I am a lot like Sora Lundberg, I love stopping people on the streets and getting to know them first then try to apply the Gospel to them. But, we took your and President Kapishka's? Advise and began contacting people by testifying first. President Lundberg, it was a miracle. Not a single person has walked away from us since we have started testifying first...not one! No, Ma grabesc, no nam timp...just a smile then they listen. It is like an on and of switch. We stop them and they look a little annoyed, then as we testify they begin to smile. Not everyone has set up with us, but everyone has a least listened; which is pretty rad.

Mission Miracle from Sora Megan Richards

March 27, 2009

One cool "referral" story. We were waiting for the bus and a lady came up to us and asked us if we were the girls who had been knocking on people's doors. We said yes and she said that she had talked to her neighbor who had told her about us and said that she needed to talk to us. So the lady and her friend both gave us their phone numbers and addresses and are excited to have us over! So blessings come from being in your area...YOU get contacted!

Mission Miracle from Elder Zachary Bunting

March 26, 2009

So last night we went into the blocks and we said a prayer before that we would have a lesson. We planned to not spend any more time than necessary at the doors of people that were not interested enough to let us in. I said the prayer and it was basically a plea for us to find someone to teach in their home. I told Heavenly Father that we would knock those doors until 8 (because at that point everyone tells us it's too late), and that we would talk with everyone on the way home until we finally found someone with whom to have a lesson. I intended to ask Him to bless us with someone to teach, but instead of the word "cineva," as intended, I said "o familie." I don't know why, but it just came out that way. I can't really remember a similar experience where a different word came out than what I intended. Well we went to knocking and at 7:30 I realized how late it was and started to lose faith, so I said a quick personal prayer for that faith to be restored. The second door after that prayer, Elder Davis said, "We're missionaries from the Church --" and the man cut him off and said, "Come on in." Well, he let us in, and right when we started talking about the church, he called for his wife to come in (we didn't know she was there too), and then called for his 11 year old son as well. We were having a very good discussion about the blessings and happiness that we can enjoy in families, especially because of the restoration of the fulness of the gospel. After about 20 minutes their 14 year old daughter came home, and he called her to participate too. The kids were not bored at all, in fact the son was the most excited one to read the Book of Mormon. After describing the Joseph Smith experience, the Spirit entered so strongly, and we bore testimony of the truth, and helped them identify the peaceful feeling and the source of it. It was a miraculous answer to prayers. I know that God not only listens to prayers, but helps us to know His will. I've read several times in the Ghid pentru scripturi that the object of prayer is not to change the will of God, but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant, but that are made conditional on our asking for them. I know that last night He let us know HIs will -- for us to teach a family -- and that He prepared the way already.


I don't know that the father is willing to act yet on anything -- he seems for the moment like one of those people that just wants to find out for his own knowledge, but the son was excited (and he's a bright kid), and the wife was very sincere.

Mission Miracle from Elder Benjamin Miles

March 22, 2009

Saturday was also a really cool day. We had another really good day at English and after that we went out to lunch with some of the Elders from our district. They have had a really had time finding investigators and so as we are sitting there eating lunch and the thought came to me to have us go into their area and spend a day working. So that is what we did. We went to their area with the hopes of finding them some new people. God did some miracles and we ended up after 2 hours of work with three new people to call back and meet with and the people we met were really cool! The first one we met after we stopped this one guy who quickly rejected us and after he rejected us this other man came up and stopped us and asked us what we were talking to that one guy about! So we told him that God loves him and that he is our Heavenly Father and that he had a plan for all of us in this life. And then he told us how he was the world champion of drinking and how God had helped him to overcome his drinking problem and after that we talked to him about eternal families and we asked him if we could set up a day to meet and he was very excited to meet with us again and so we are going to meet with him. After that we went into a park and got rejected for the most part and then we got stopped by these three guys playing chess and started talking to them and then other people started to come and there were 6 people listening to us teach. We ended up talking to the humblest man that I have ever met and he was so excited to hear about the Book of Mormon and gladly gave us his phone number. Miracles do happen-- we came out of their area with 3 new potential investigators for them.

Mission Miracles from Elder Alden Campbell

March 22, 2009

testifying first experiences:

Saturday. Elder Platt and I basically had a whole day of contacting because we couldn't set up with anybody. In the morning we had planned to go to one of our vila knocking areas and go knocking there. As it turned out, we didn't knock any homes at all. We ended up street contacting people in the neighbourhood. We entered the neighborhood and passed by a bunch of workers...I had the feeling that we should talk to them so we came back around the corner and approached the group of workers. I asked if we could help and they said we could help shovel if we wanted...but it turned out that we just talked a while to this one guy that had come out of the house (under construction) while the other workers sat back and made fun of us the whole time. We just ignored them and kept talking / teaching this one dude that was listening. He got really excited when we asked him about his family. We then told him that the BOM has helped our families more than anything else and he took a copy. We got his number and are gonna set up with him later on (soon). Then we had prayed about what streets to contact and made a little a street route to contact on. As we were on those streets they actually were mostly empty but we just kept going on. On one of the streets there was only an old man and so we stopped him....that didn;t go anywhere but as soon as we were finishing up with the old man a younger man with his little baby girl on his shoulders came and by and we kind of stopped each other. He told us he wanted to draw closer to God and change his life. We told him about how the BOM helps strengthen the family and gives understanding to life and eternity. He took it and he also said that he would come to church on Sunday (which he did). Later that night we went to a return apt....we got bunged and so we left the street and started walking to a street that we had planned to go to if this were the case...and then the spirit told me that we needed to go see Mangu ( a lady that we vila knocked about a month ago and taught her a part of the purpose of life ). We had already gone a ways out but it felt rigth to turn back. So we did. We had tried to go see her a number of times but it was also in the day and she was never home. So, this was evening and I thought to myself...we've never tried her in the night time yet. We got to her house and she was home and so was one of her guy friends and we taught them the restoration. It was a spiritual lesson. She was feeling the spirit almost constantly. She is suoer humble and receptive...ready to hear the gospel. She told me that she was gonna come to church (she didn't). Saturday was a very guided day.


Dorin (the dude with the young daughter that we stopped on Saturday) participated and learned a lot at church. He wants us to teach him more.


Last week Elder Wilde and I went street contacting at 2030 after a lesson and the last person we talked to was a young family. We testified first and the end result is that he took a BOM (happens a lot anyway) and he wants us to teach them more. We had set up a return apt but we called before we were going to leave and he told me that he couldn't meet but that he talked with his wife about it and that they wanted to come to church and asked if they could bring their little daughter too. They didn't come but he is super humble and sincere and so we will probably meet with him this week.

Mission Miracle from Sora Kara Staley

March 22, 2009

This transfer I gained a testimony of SYL. We were sitting on a tram-vai on our way home Friday night, and we began talking about plans for English class the next day, in Romanian. I saw a family sitting near us and they were obviously listening. Finally, I heard the mother say something about our accents, and so I asked her, "Do I have a strong accent?" She smiled and said I do. Her husband asked where we were from. Their daughter who looked about our age began talking too. We found out that they are a very musical family. In fact, they were on their way home from their daughter's flute concert. The father teaches at a music university and the mother teaches piano lessons. They also have a son (can't remember his instrument). Sora Benson and I shared our deep love for music. When it came time for them to get off, we hadn't yet come to any gospel discussion or contacting. However, the daughter took out a piece of paper and wrote down her email address and telephone number. She asked us to call her, saying we were so adorable and that it might be fun if we could come to her concert some time. That's the first time someone has given us a number without us asking for it. Anyway, that would not have happened had we not been first speaking in Romanian. I learned it is important for us to try--not only to improve our fluency, but also to capture the attention of those around us.

Mission Miracle from Sora Nicole Sheperd

March 22, 2009

Sora Richards and I had a very zone conference moment about saying what the spirit tells you to say to someone so that they will listen. We've been trying to set up with an English student and she's kind of been all over the map. We were going to give up on her, but then she called us and set up last night. She came and kind of seemed distracted and just wanted to talk about English and we were really disappointed. Anyway, after trying random things about the Book of Mormon and Jospeh Smith to no avail, we started talking about a loving Heavenly Father. She just immediately took to it, said her grandfather had just died and all of this stuff. (It was like the role play in zone conference and her little paper said "your grandfather just died. Don't listen to the missionaries unless they testify of God.") Anyway, it was a good experience. Now we have a new investigator because we listened to her and the spirit. Missionary work is on the move. I'm sure Timisoara is about to have some miracles!

Mission Miracle from Elder Timothy Zemp

March 15, 2009

Last week the Elders here got a text message saying 'Call me here is my number 123456789 I want to talk to you" so they called the number and found out that there was a girl that was wanting the Book of Mormon. She talked about a vision or a dream she had had about the true church and that it would have a brochure about something called the Plan of Salvation. And on the back of that brochure there would be a picture of a book, and that she needed that book. well the missionaries ended up getting the book to her. She was busy at the time and was locked inside her house with her 9 month old child. So she told the missionaries to put it in the mail box at the bottom of the stairwell. So they did. She also said that she would come to church at 10. So these missionaries never saw her face but just knew that there was an amazing girl that had been prepared to receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Sunday came around and at 10:05 there were no investigators at church... we started with the prayer and song and had announcements and at 10:15 walked in a member with her husband (who is not a member) and a girl of about 19 years old. I had never seen this girl before but had come to the conclusion that the member had brought her because she was carrying a book of Mormon. I was very pleased as I saw them walk in and new that I had some one that I had to contact at the end of sacrament meeting. Sacrament meeting ended splendidly and this young girl found herself talking with one of the other members in a very fast and very friendly conversation about life and things going on in Alexandria. I leaned over to the member that I thought had brought her with her and asked "who is this?" She replied "I don't know, I was going to ask you!" I was happy but confused at the same time. I didn't want to interrupt the conversation with this investigator and the member so I got my things together to give the Sunday school lesson. Anyways after the lesson I rushed off to go meet this girl but found out that she was doing the same thing. I quickly introduced myself and pretended that I didn't know her situation at all. I came to find that this was the girl that had given the missionaries the text just a few days earlier. Things were great and we set up a lesson that same day for 3:30. We went and ate lunch at the Matei's house and when the time came we went back to the church. We wanted to be early so that we could pray and see if the Lord wanted us to set up a baptismal date with her. so we arrived at 3:10 and found out that she was sitting on the front steps with the Book of Mormon opened to first Nephi 19. I was THRILLED! we asked her how long she had been there. and she replied with... "ooh, only about 20 or 30 minutes!" my jaw dropped! I was so excited. This girl was absolutely drooling for the word of God. She had been reading, and then she not only came to the lesson but she came up to an hour early and was waiting for us and reading the Book of Mormon.
We got into the Chapel and sat down, had the prayer, things went great. and at the end of the lesson about the restoration and where the Book of Mormon came from I asked her, "Will you pray tonight to find out if the things we've talked about are true?" she replied with "yeah, I think I'll pray in May or June sometime.." my heart dropped a little, and my head started going crazy,... here we were sitting with the most amazing girl ever, after one of the best lessons ever, and she didn't want to pray....I was devastated. But I said to her, "Its really easy I can even teach you how to pray if you are scared!" she said "No, I don't want to rush it" then I really had the spirit come over me, I went on a limb and said "Are you saying that you want to be baptized in May or June?" Her eyes lit up and she said "Yes, of course, sorry I didn't know the word you used for Baptism in your church, Yes I think being baptized in May or June will be good...but when is the earliest I could be baptized?"
My jaw dropped, my heart exploded, and the spirit drenched me with his warm love, I was able to form the words "Basically whenever you are ready, if you are ready in two weeks you can be baptized then. but I would say a month would be good time." Her eyes lit up and she said "okay!"
but I still wanted her to pray and have the answer from God for herself. I really didn't want this to become one of those situations where she goes inactive after the missionaries leave. I urged her to pray, we talked about prayer and how to pray. Things went really well, and I am very grateful that I wast directed by the spirit to ask if she was talking about baptism instead sitting there thinking she was stubborn. It was a great tender mercy! I loved that feeling. I also loved the look in her eyes and how excited she got when we talked about having faith and works. and how Joseph Smith was a faithful person, but until he asked, and showed his faith to God was when he truly found his answer. Absolutely amazing!

Mission Miracle from Elder Nathan Moore

March 2, 2009

My miracle story this week comes from the train ride to Bucharest. We woke up in time to get off the train at the scheduled time, but it was running about an hour late, so we had some time to kill. I stood outside our cabin and had a nice conversation with a friendly Romanian girl.

I never tried to have any kind of gospel conversation with her, at the risk of making things awkward, and I felt guilty about it as we went our separate ways.

However, the Lord gave me a second chance when she stopped me to say hello at the train station as we waited for our train back home to Deva. I was able to share a copy of the Book of Mormon with her, a copy which I was reluctant to give away the whole day, with my testimony of the restored gospel.

The Lord, as it says in the scriptures, is capable of doing his own work. As long as we're doing what we're supposed to, he can work through us in many marvelous ways. I am constantly reminded of that time and time again.