Mission Miracle from Elder Brian Foote

May 29, 2009

My miracle for the week is last Monday I was feeling awful. We went to an Internet place close to the church so that I could print off a prescription then my plan was to go home and just sleep. I went to the church after I got my prescription so I could get a drink of water and take the first pill. When leaving the church the Zone leaders were walking inside starting a tour with a lady from the street. We decided to stick around with all the tables outside and to try and talk to people even though neither of us were feeling that great. We ended up talking to several people including an older lady and her friend. We gave her a couple of pamphlets and invited her to english classes the next day. She promised to come as well as to read the pamphlets. She not only came to english the next day but also had read all the pamphlets, told me she knew they were true. She said she knew the message inside them was true. Got online and ordered a Book of Mormon, but wanted to read one real soon so she also asked me for one right then. She gave us her address and phone number, and promised to come to english on Saturday, the fireside Saturday night, and church on Sunday. The sad news is that she seemed to drop off the face of the earth after Tuesday, but the miracle is that the Lord showed me and Elder Lainhart that when we are willing to go the extra mile, not make excuses not to work, and diligently choose the right, the Lord blesses us and will put His elect in our path.

Mission Miracle from Elder Andrew Boynton

May 25, 2009

Elder Barclay and I have been street contacting and working to look for people who would make great leaders and help firmly establish the church in Romania. Well, on Saturday, a man passed us on the street, and Elder Barclay said, "Man, we should have stopped that guy, he looks like a leader!" So I suggested that we walk around the roundabout that the man was walking on in the opposite direction and meet him on the other side. We took off and quickly half-jogged and when he turned left, we turned right and things worked out that we met right into him. However this time Elder Barclay randomly threw out a question, which puzzled me a little, and said, "I have a question, where is the city hall?" The man pointed us in the direction, and we said we had another question, but he was in a hurry, so we said we would just walk with him. Anyway, while walking with him, EVERYONE on the street was saying hi to him, he was greeting and talking with everyone, and Elder Barclay and I were thinking, "This is a leader, sweet". Anyway, eventually we stop walking with him, tell him who we are as missionaries and talk to him about the church, and asked if we could meet with him sometime in the future. He said, "yeah sure, you can find me anytime at the city hall." and we said, "City hall? Why are you always over there?" and he responded, "I'm the mayor of Deva". So we just contacted the mayor of Deva, and will be able to go and visit him sometime soon! We have a goal of meeting up with him again within the next couple of weeks. It was amazing how we were lead right to him, and that Elder Barclay was able to follow that prompting of the spirit to just throw out the first question, "Where is the city hall?".

Mission Miracle from Elder Brian Foote

May 17, 2009

Earlier this week, we were able to find a great new area to villa knock in. We went and found a group of teenage kids. They all come to the church and played basketball with us, but left before we got a lesson in. Later that night I saw them again in the villas and they talked to us. They started by telling us all about how we shouldn't be missionaries, it is impossible to have a living Prophet today, the Book of Mormon can't be true, and stuff like that. The story ends with us placing a Book of Mormon and telling them to read the book and to ask God if it was true. The miracle is first, I had been wondering how my testifying first was really making a difference and I saw that my simple testimony when I explained my purpose here in Romania and why I am here stuck in their heads and they had obviously thought things over. Second, even though it wasn't an official lesson, the Lord provided us with a teaching opportunity to a group of kids that we missed having one with earlier that day.

Mission Miracle from Elder Benjamin Miles

May 17, 2009

First off, one that really had a huge affect on me and my faith. This Wednesday we had plans to go street boarding with our district in the center of the town. That morning when we got up, the sky was covered in grey clouds and rain was looking like a sure forecast for the day. But we decided to grab our street board and head into the center of town. We got there and it hadn't started to rain and we waited and the wind started to blow harder. So I started to pray right there in the middle of Brasov. I prayed to Heavenly Father to hold off the rain so that we could do what we had planned. And while I was praying, I started to feel drops of my arms and then I prayed even harder and just kept believing that this rain could be stopped. But I kept feeling the rain on my arms and I kept praying. And then all of the sudden the rain stopped, and the gray clouds started to move over the mountains. They just came and went for the next two hours--- gray cloud after gray cloud and not one drop of rain. There wasn't one drop of rain until we packed up our street board and ended our activity there. To wonderful lessons reviewed: God listens to our prayers, god Answers our prayers, and That to which we pray is a God of miracles. This is my testimony that with faith anything is possible.

Mission Miracle from Elder Robert Davis

May 17, 2009

April 13 we talked to a lady named Dma. Nadejda on the street walking her granddaughter. We testified about the Plan and she said that she wanted to know more. We took her address but she didn't have a phone number. We tried going over to her house the first time and she was busy with Easter preparations. The second time we tried and someone started in Romanian but then when we said we were the missionaries they began in Russian (I thought that she didn't want to know anymore). This past week we had put her on Friday as a backup plan since we were going to be in the area- we figured that she was sincere on the street and we should at least try one more time. Friday came around we found ourselves walking home next to her apartment. We were going to go plan for English class and if we had time to begin weekly planning, but I felt like it would be good to see if she was home since we were there. We entered the front yard area and there were two ladies outside with some kids. We went up to one and began talking and it was Doamna Nadejda. We were able to talk to her for a little bit, as well as some Jehovah's Witness neighbors, and set up to meet Sunday evening. We got there Sunday and her daughter answered the door and immediately let us in. She had read the pamphlet with her mom and they both really enjoyed it. The first question that Valentina (her daughter) had was what is the Book of Mormon. We began with a prayer and about 45 minutes later we had discussed the entire first discussion and they loved it all. We didn't discuss it how it is written out in PMG ( I love how the Spirit directs us and when we follow, miracles happen) but we went from one subject to something else, and it all was explained and to our knowledge they understood it (it just goes to show what will happen when they have a desire and keep commitments, in this case they read the pamphlet). Valentina even said the prayer at the end and it was pretty close (she addressed most of it to Jesus Christ, but we talked about it aferwards). Another part of this miracle is that Valentina lives in Germany with her husband and was here mainly so that she could give birth to her (now 7 mo. old) daughter, and said she will have to go back soon. Of all the times that we could have picked we were able to talk to Dma. Nadejda and also talk to her daughter. They have a return appointment set up for Thursday, and they have a copy of the Book of Mormon in Russian.

Mission Miracle from Sora Deborah Thompson

May 10, 2009

So now to tell you about “miracle day”. The night before miracle day was Tuesday night and we went to go teach Ani (investigator who we have helped to get ready for a wedding and a baptism). When we went there we found out that she just found out that there was one more thing that had to happen before the Primarie approved their wedding. Her soon to be husband, Lica, had been married before and was divorced forever ago, and she had to got to the archive record building and get the papers of divorcement and turn it in to the Primarie by 5 pm the next day. So she was worried about it, but we decided to set her baptismal date in faith that all would be well, and we set it for this Saturday the 9th of May. Ok. So the next day (Wednesday = miracle day) we were doing lessons and interviews at the church, and of course we forgot our phone, which annoyed us at first (because it was kind of an important day to have our phone with us) but we kept going and in the middle of our interview with the Assistants, Ani came into the church and said that she couldn't get the paper. They said it would take them about 1-2 weeks to find the paper of divorcement and so they wouldn't be able to get married on the 7th and so they would then have to get more money and re-take the analysis that had been the speed-bump before and it was crazy. She said that she was disappointed, but that if the Lord didn't want her to get married right now than it won't work out, but if He did than something would happen. My reaction was “Of course He wants you to get married.” And we need to do something if anything is going to happen!” We were determined that there HAD to be something that we could do. We finished up with our interviews and such, and then tried to put our thinking caps on. And the answer came. Call our most useful resource, Gabi.
Gabi is one of the most amazing men I think I have ever met in my life. He's pretty much an eternal investigator who wants to get baptized and acts like a member, but can't get baptized for reasons only known to him. All we know is that he will do anything for the missionaries, and has the most random yet important connections of anyone I've ever heard of. So we called up Gabi and he said he would do what he could, just go home and he would call us in a little bit. Ok. We started praying and were ready to leave the house as soon as Gabi said “GO!” He called and then we went to the Archives place where Gabi found the “head-honcho” lady who didn't think it was possible to find but she would try any ways. We gave her the information and she couldn't find it because all the info we had was wrong except for his name. We didn't even have the correct year that he had been divorced. (Sora Karina and I were praying sooo hard!) But through Gabi in his snazzy suit and his great connections and business mind, and of course with the help of the Lord, she kept looking. And in 45 minutes, not the week they said it would have taken, the paper was found. Yay! But there were still more stops to go to. We went to the Primarie to turn in the paper and to make sure that everything was in place and there was a little bump because she doesn't want to take his name, she wants him to take her name. So we got that figured out, and by the 3rd stop we didn't even know what we were doing, just that Gabi knew what we were doing and that the Lord was hearing our prayers and so we just kept following him. Finally Gabi walked out of a room and said “It's done, I'm done, we're done.” And in the time frame of 1 ½ hours, just one hour before the Primarie wouldn't have accepted anything else and canceled their approval on the wedding, everything was settled and final! After thanking Gabi profusely for his help and being completely relieved and saying many prayers of gratitude in our hearts, we called Ani. I talked to her and said “Ani, on the 7th of May 2009 you will be marrying Mircea Banici at 1:30 at the Primarie in Arad. Are you ready for this?” She said Yes! And after an excited scream started to bawl on the phone. It was amazing.

Now time for perspective (because the miracle isn't over). At the beginning of the transfer, Sora Karina and I wanted to have some things happen in the work, and so we decided that we would do all we could do to get these things happening. One thing we decided to do was to pray in every prayer for three things: 1. for Ani and Lica to be married before the end of the transfer. 2. for Lica to quit smoking and 3. for Bogdon to quit smoking. We also had a special fast for these three things the weekend before all of this happened. Since we had given Lica the commitment to quit smoking he started smoking double, but on Tuesday (night before miracle day) we asked him and he had only smoked 5 cigarettes! Apparently since our fast, it's been hurting his chest immensely each time he smokes, so he had been smoking less and less! And Bogdon had started out with smoking 3 packs a day and had got down to 1-3 cigarettes per day. He went on a picnic with his friends who were smoking, and put a cigarette in his mouth, but couldn't light it. He said his desire to smoke had completely left him and he hasn't smoked since! And now with Ani and Lica being married, it took work, but the Lord performed miracles. And the neat thing is that the Lord allows us to be tried so that we can increase in our faith. The Lord knew that we wanted these things to happen (not for our benefit, but because we love these people and know their lives will be blessed through them) and that we would do anything to help them to happen. Which is what happened on Wednesday, our day of miracles. Something got in the way of what needed to happen for these people's lives to be blessed, and we did all that we possibly could in faith, and trusted the Lord that He would do the rest, and it happened. Now we are for sure having a wedding on this Thursday, and Ani is going to get baptized on this Saturday. I love it! The Lord's hand is in our lives and it can be seen at any time when we are striving to keep His commandments and do what He asks us to do. The blessings that come from it are amazing.

Mission Miracle from Sora Kara Staley

May 10, 2009

We met a really cool girl named Lidia on Monday. The person we went there for, told us she didn't want to talk because she was never going to change. So we went straight to contacting in the park. Lidia was sitting in the park, doing Sudoku puzzles. We immediately testified of God’s love for her, and how He called a prophet on the earth again so that we could have direction in life. After an hour of talking with her, she got chocked up and told us that she really needed us right then. She's been thinking about her life and purpose here. She said we were angels sent at the right time. She has called us a few times to talk, and last night she finally called us to set up an appointment on Tuesday. We are really excited to teach her more. She's read a little from the Book of Mormon as she finds time. She works a lot, but sincerely wants to know more. It's really cool that the Lord works with our schedules. The appointment we'd set in the park fell through, but there was someone else there for us to teach. That's how He works with us. I love it!

Mission Miracle from Elder Benjamin Miles

May 10, 2009

The first miracle we had at the beginning of the week. We had just finished are church presentation and Elder Van Noy ( a senior missionary) asked us if we could come with him to a lesson with a less active. We did not know this less active at all but we were free so we said that we would go with him. We meet and this lady was really friendly. So we meet with her at her hotel which she runs and we started to have a present discussion about her son who was recently accepted to a prestigious university in the United States. So we gave her advice on how to help him register for classes and so on and so forth. Then Elder Van Noy started on the spiritual thought which we didn't even know what it was going to be. He started talking about scripture study and it was absolutely a miracle because the spirit came so strong in to the room. And we were all saying exactly what needed to be said. And you could tell because she just got happier and happier and at the end she just kept telling us how happy the visit had made her and that we would have to come back as soon as possible. It was a wonderful experience and I'm so thankful to the spirit because he brought all the teachers in harmony. Because of the spirit, we could teach. Because of the spirit, we could convince.

The next miracle is our investigator Radu. I think I have talked about him before. Well he's doing great.He meets with us 3 days a week and is keeping his commitments! We just got to help him to not pray to Jesus. But that shouldn't be too hard.

Another miracle is more personal We went to visit this less active family out in the country (which was a miracle in itself that we could meet with him.) but the miracle was a lesson I learned during the lesson. We were visiting this family and the wife was talking about why they don't come to church but she said that she knew what church meant for her. And when she said that I began to think what does going to church mean and then the Holy Ghost went to work and I started to have all of these wonderful thoughts and Ideas come to my mind about church. The following thought process came to mind. A question came into my head. Elder Miles if you lived in Jerusalem 2000 years ago, would you have gone to listen to His Sermon on the Mount or any of His sermons? The obvious answer is yes. Then the questions came: how is this like church. Well we get to learn about Jesus. Then I thought, “But I can do that in my home with my scriptures.” Then the thought came, “At church we learn from Jesus.” Then another question came to my mind. “Who was always with Jesus when he taught.” I responded, “people.” The spirit responded “his authorized servants.” Then I realized we go to church so we can be around authorized servants to receive ordinances that can only be performed by them. But it is more than just this. I can hear about and learn about Christ in many different ways but I can only know Christ if I will come to where he is. If I go to the mountain on which he preached, which mountain is our wonderful chapels, we can come to know the savior---not just know about him. It was really cool.

Next miracle. Vasile! We took this eternal investigator over from the sisters because he lives in our area and he has been an investigator for a long time. I wasn't sure what we were going to teach him but we studied and prayed and all the sudden we had the idea to talk about service. So we set up with him for 7 at night the next day and planned a lesson on service. We got there the next day at seven and Vasile had been waiting at the church since six. We started the lesson and he said, “Elder Miles, I want to to tell you a story and I said let's hear it. So he told us that as he was waiting for us, a lady came to him and asked him what church this was and so he gave her the first lesson about Joseph Smith and told her that this is the true church of God and Chirst. Then he told us that this experience had made him so happy and had given him a never ending joy! Then I felt the spirit tell me this is the blessing of service. And we went on to have a wonderful lesson about this is what is expected of members and that when he is baptized he will always have this feeling because he will always have opportunities to serve. The spirit was so strong and he is definitely starting to feel the answer that he has been looking for. We are going to commit him to be baptized next week.


Another miracle. Out of the blue, an investigator of ours came to church. Inouti, our investigator, called me while I was in front of the church trying to invite people to come in to the service. He called and asked what I was doing. I told him I was going to church and I invited him to come. He came. It was really amazing and we are looking forward to meeting with him this week!

Mission Miracle from Elder Brian Foote

May 10, 2009

My miracle story of the week is just a simple little story, but all the same it is a miracle to me. We left the house last night determined to go talk to some people in the Vilas. Once we got there we spent about 15 minutes actually knocking on doors when some typical teenage kids came over and started talking loudly. Usually I would have just left them alone and ignored them, but I felt I needed to talk to them and maybe invite them to English class. We actually ended up talking with them for a little while, and have an appointment with them on Tuesday. We are going to play a little basketball and then explain what our reason is here in Romania. The miracle was just a little simple prompting from the spirit.

Mission Miracle from Elder Brian Foote

April 30, 2009

We were in an area trying to vila knock, and it just didn't feel right. We left the area and started heading home. The only reasonable place for us to go was the blocks, but again that just didn't feel right. We decided to do it anyways and just started walking over there. On the way there, I felt like I needed to talk to everyone that I could. Elder Taylor and I then proceeded to talk to lots of people. We ended up talking to one man, who seemed interested. He didn't come to church this week, but was sincere in his apology and desire to come another week. The miracle is just that we followed the Spirit and found somebody who we probably wouldn't have found anyways if the Spirit hadn't prompted us to talk to as many people as possible.

Mission Miracle from Sora Rachel Cannon

April 30, 2009

We experience more and more miracles every day. For example, we had 3 "friends" show up to church yesterday - 1 was a former investigator (with no work of our own since we haven't called her all transfer), another the mother of one of our English students (next step her and her daughter coming and staying for Primary), and a woman we had bloc-knocked into who said, "Come back after Easter." We came back on Saturday night and left a message with her daughter that we had stopped by and now the mom wants to meet with us and keep coming to church!

We had a pretty miraculous lesson the other night in the blocks. Funnily enough, it was the same block as the woman who came to church, but it had been pretty much a block of rejection both times we had been there. Anyway, she let us in for a lesson which was completely guided by the spirit. We both had the feeling that we needed to move more quickly than usual and use fewer scriptures. We were guided in other parts as well, like what commitments to give her. I don't know where it will go, but it was a definite testimony of the Spirit working through us and fine tuning our abilities to listen to and follow the promptings of the Spirit.

Mission MIracle from Elder Nathan Anderson

April 23, 2009

We had a neat experience yesterday. We were contacting in the evening on the streets Sunday. Being a holiday, everyone was with their family and wasn't too interested in talking to us. We kept trying couple after couple and kept getting rejected and rejected. Elder Porter suggested that we go into a nearby park. We went and talked to a younger couple on a bench. As we asked them how they were doing and told them that we had a message about happiness for them from God. The man chuckled to himself and told us, “I was just thinking how nice it would be to talk to some guys like you both.” We found out in the ensuing conversation that the man (Andrei) is disillusioned with his religion and has some very serious questions about religion. He was more than happy to accept a Book of Mormon and give us his phone number. I hope that it goes somewhere. At the very least, it helped my testimony that even when it may appear that there aren't that many people prepared to receive the gospel, Heavenly Father is preparing people out there. I am thankful for His continued support.

Mission MIracle from Elder Tyler Sorensen

April 23, 2009

I got a call last Sunday from some Elders in Spain, informing me that they had baptized a Romanian in Spain (there are over 1 million of them in Madrid alone). They said the husband and wife had recently been baptized and the wife would soon be returning to live in a small village named Casolti about 17 km away from Sibiu. Then Tuesday night, I got a call from who I thought was the member, requesting very excitedly a visit. I received permission from President and went out to the village by Maxi Taxi the following morning. The Maxi Taxi dropped us off on the side of the highway and we hiked an additional 2 km into the town. When we arrived, we asked for Anca and 4 or 5 people herded us to her house. Upon arrival, the door opened to 16 people waiting for us-- 9 adults and 7 children, all staring straight at us. I quickly figured out none of them were members, but had been congregated by the daughter of the parents who were baptized in Spain. I turned to Anca and said, “So you want to hear more about our church,” and she replied excitedly, “Yes, please!
So I proceeded to explain to these people about the restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ, which is kind of difficult being in a 6X6 room surrounded by people. People were in and out through the entire lesson with Anca and her niece listening intently the entire time. By the end we were discussing baptism and transportation into church, seeing that they are a poor Gypsy family, and can't afford to come in every week, but Anca and her niece said that they would do anything they could to come in and would be baptized upon receiving their answer about the Book of Mormon. Then she proceeded to tell her kids to go around town and invite anyone who would listen to come and be taught in her home. She finally got her Aunt who was Baptist to come and as we proceeded to teach her, Anca broke in and testified of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and how the book was written by who she called ancient Apostles and Joseph was a type of Paul or Peter-- an apostle in our days. That was truly a miracle and I am confident that Anca will be baptized, and she will come to church even if she has to hook up a horse to a cart and ride it into town!

Mission Miracle from Elder Brian Foote

April 23, 2009

My miracle story of the week is that we went vila knocking in our area earlier this week, and there was one lady who told us to come back the next day. It turns out that she wasn't home, but I was determined to knock more and have the faith to find. The first door we knocked on a man let us in and we talked with him for a while. He set up another appointment with us in about 2 weeks (because he is leaving town for a little while) and we hope things will work well. I have been working hard on expecting success and working diligently to find it, and this was just a "mile-stone" miracle showing me that the Lord will honor my faith.

Mission Miracle from Elder Thomas Porter

April 23, 2009

Elder Anderson and I were street contacting. We took 5 steps down this one street but then felt like we should go down the road that we just passed. So we go down that road
and there was only one old gypsy guy kicking a beer bottle down the road. We
stopped and talked to him and the first thing he said is that he has a question
for us. He went on to tell us that his son died two mouths ago and he
wanted to know where his son is.

We went to his house and had a plan of salvation lesson with him. It was
good and he told us to come back and talk to him the next day. So we went
back and finished the plan with him. He seems like a nice guy and his
daughter knows some of the sister missionaries that were here about 2 years
ago. I am really looking forward to the next lesson that we have with him.

Mission Miracle from Sora Kara Staley

April 23, 2009

This was a week of miracles! We could easily think of one for every day as Sora Richards and I reviewed our week. After an inspiring district meeting, followed by a fantastic zone conference, we identified things that we would work on to improve. We really want to call on the powers of heaven by doing EVERYTHING within our power.

This Saturday, we decided to spend our time doing missionary work, despite what others said about low chances of success and angry Romanians. In those hours, the Lord blessed us with great success. We set up for many appointments, received telephone numbers, and testified to others who weren't interested, but listened kindly. President, it was incredible. One girl I'm particularly excited to meet with was passing us with her brother on the side-walk when we stopped them. We took our turn testifying and promising blessings. They listened politely until Sora Richards held up a copy of the Book of Mormon. The girl's eyes got wide and she grabbed the book quickly with great enthusiasm. Before I knew what was happening she'd grabbed my companion and kissed her cheeks! She told us she'd been looking around for somewhere to buy that book and couldn't find it. When we offered it to her free she almost fell over. We set up to teach her more this week. Truly, the Lord knows us. He wanted his daughter to have a copy of that wonderful book and He knew we could give it to her. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to participate in sharing the "good gifts" of our Heavenly Father with his children. We were where we needed to be at the right time because we were being obedient.

Mission Miracle from Sora Kara Staley

April 19, 2009

We've been praying our hearts out for guidance--to be in the right place, in the right time. This week it happened!

As we pressed through the rejections of a busy sidewalk, I saw a woman up ahead with three small boys around her. Of course when it came her turn, we went straight to testifying. Roxana told us that when she saw us and our tags, she felt something good so she decided--even before we approached her--that she would listen to our message. If that's not cool enough, she was extremely anxious to set up with us and called us beforehand, just to make sure we were still coming.

Our lesson with her went well. She was humble and asked good questions. When Sora Richards pulled a Book from her bag, Roxana's eyes brightened and she exclaimed, "Oh! I saw this on the card you gave me! Tell me about this book." (We'd given her a card with a picture of the Book of Mormon on the street). The best is when we told her about Joseph Smith--how he was confused and searching. She responded, "He was just like me." She went on to explain how she was praying for more answers and begging the Lord to put someone in her path who could teach her more. "And then I met you two," she said.

Mission Miracle from Elder Nathan Moore

April 17, 2009

My miracle this week is my progress in the language. During our testifying first we have seen many blessings. We contacted a priest (we didn't know until after the fact), and he was sincerely interested in our message. In our initial approach we shook his hand, testified about the Savior, and asked him if he felt close to the Savior in his day to day life. That was the point where he pulled out his priest card. He concluded that anything that would bring him closer to God can only be good. He accepted the Book of Mormon and promised to see us again after his Easter program. I am not confident that we could have had the same response from him had we taken them time to introduce ourselves as missionaries, and asked him if he had a moment to speak with us.

Mission Miracle from Elder Landon Smith

April 17, 2009

Spiritual experience!!: So this week on Wednesday was the mission-wide fast. We started preparing ourselves a few days before as counseled. On Tuesday we had a kid stop us out of the blue and tell he is a member. He said he hadn't been active for two years and was ready to come back. He said that he knew he just did not have enough faith before and he wanted to try again because something was missing in his life. The next day on the fast we ran into two more members who said that they were ready to come back to church. One was a cute mom with a young daughter. So I'm pretty sure I really like fasting for miracles because they actually happen. We also had a couple other random people stop us because we "looked like good kids." I'm so excited to see the miracles that are to follow here in this city and in this country. Our zone now has four baptism dates and another kid that just has to figure out when he can get baptized. I really think our zone could start having baptisms every week next transfer, and hopefully starting this transfer.

Mission Miracle from Sora Tawnya Howard

April 17, 2009

We had a cool experience last night. We did 't get off the metro and close to home until about 8:25 and it was really chilly outside, but we had made a goal at the beginning of the transfer to not go home before 9 pm. So, we hit up the streets to do some contacting. We weren't having much luck with anyone, but at about 8:55, the last girl we contacted listened and took a Book of Mormon. It was a great faith builder!

Mission Miracle from Elder Benjamin Miles

April 12, 2009

Dan: This is the man from Bucharest that I was teaching before we left. I think I told you but about two weeks ago he told us he didn't want to listen any more and dropped us than on my last Saturday in Bucharest we invited him to church and he came a loved it and got answers to all of his questions! Then the next day why he was guarding the church we came and he asked us if we could start the lessons again and we said “ FOR SURE” and we had a wonderful lesson about how we can overcome weakness and trials and he loved it. In the same lesson Daniel shared a really cool experience with us he was telling us about how he wants to start to live his life like a member of the church and so he told us “ I really want to pay tithing!” and he told us how he has to work 12 hours a day so he can make 800 lei (about 250 dollars) a month. He told us that he has to send 200 of that (about 60 dollars) to his parents because his father got ripped off by the government and didn't get his retirement pay. So he told us that before he got his money that he made a budget and he put 100 hundred dollars aside for tithing. He told us in the day in which he put that hundred dollars away for tithing that his mom called him up and told him that his father had through a miracle found out that he was going to receive all of the retirement pay that he was supposed to be receiving and that Daniel would not have to send 200 dollars to them anymore. He looked at me and he finished telling the story and said, “ I believe in tithing. I haven't even paid it yet—I just thought about paying it and look what God has done. He has already opened the windows of heaven like he said he would.” This story strengthened my faith when I heard it.

Mission Miracle from Elder Robert Davis

April 8, 2009

Here are a few of the fun things and miracles that happened to us this week. With our new apartment we have had to get a few things for it so that we could eat and be at least somewhat prepared if the economy collapses (Elder Telford told us that it would be good to have food storage up and running just in case). A few things that we needed were a frying pan and a can opener. On our way home one afternoon we stopped in a store to buy some meat and cheese for lunch (we had hardly any food in our apt. when we got there) and talked to a lady in the store about a place to buy a frying pan. She told us where a place was and on Saturday while street testifying we went to the store and found a pan. Later on that night we went back to the same store with the lady and she asked if we found the pan. We said yes and asked her if she by chance had a can opener that we could buy. This was about 8:00 or so at night (we had been with Pres. Carausenco and had not had a chance to eat lunch that day so we were going home to have something to eat) and she said that she didn't. She said the store above her that might have one was already closed for the day, but she then handed us the one for the store and told us that we could use it and just bring it back on Monday (which we did). It was such a kind gesture on her part to help us out, and you can let Sora Lundberg that we consider her as one of our “people in our neighborhood” and are planning on developing a relationship with her and inviting her to learn about the gospel.
On Friday we decided that we would go try to visit a member family and surprise them with some oranges and a little message. We weren't sure if we had their phone number or not and the member list didn't have one so there wasn't many other options. On our way there we talked to a very nice older couple who were doing some work in their yard. We talked for a little and told the lady that we would love coming back and giving her a copy of the BoM. She didn't seem super excited, but we began a good relationship and hope to see them again and talk to them. We got to the members apt. and we found out the mom is in Ukraine working, one of the daughters was out somewhere, and there was only one other daughter there so we didn't get our lesson in but on the way home we talked one man who was very nice, there may be something there, and two other teenage boys STOPPED US and asked about English classes. It was a little miracle for us knowing that even if we didn't visit with the family the Lord had a plan for us and we were able to talk to those people. On Sunday we had a lesson with a member (who brought a nonmember friend) and after the lesson we had about an hour before 9:00. I felt like we needed to go down this one street. As we went down the street we said hello to three young men in their early 20s. We began a conversation with them and at the end we were able to set up a lesson with two of them (both brothers) for this Wednesday. We had been talking to people that day and had tried going to the villas a little with not much success, but the Lord blessed us and we were able to meet those young men and we are super excited to talk with them this Wednesday.

Mission Miracles from Elder Benjamin Miles

April 5, 2009

First, I went on Monday and had to give a baptismal interview and so I entered the room and the lady who I was interviewing sat down and usually I like to talk to the people that I interview so I can feel if they are ready to make a covenant with the Lord. But this time I sat down and had the impression that she was ready. In fact, I felt and knew all the sudden that she was prepared for baptism. So I talked to her a little bit and then I went through the questions and found her worthy for baptism. It was a really amazing experience.

The second one I had was while I was sitting doing my morning study and all the sudden I started thinking about this one missionary from my zone and I had a great desire to call him and talk to him. I called and when he picked up the phone the Elder with whom I wanted to speak answered the phone. I said hi and so did he, and he asked me why I was calling and I said "Well I really don't know why I called you, I just felt like I needed to." Then he said, “I’m glad you did because I really needed to talk to someone. I went on to find out that these missionaries had lost all of their investigators because their investigators had chosen not to follow the Savior and they were devastated and the senior companion really wanted to talk to someone. I was so thankful for the experience because God really does watch over all his children and he will work through many outlets to bring them comfort.

I had another experience with this in that even though we didn't find any new investigators we have been being led to people to teach. I just go where I want to and it is amazing. I ask God where to go and what to do and then he gives me wants and when ever I follow those wants I 'm led to success. So we had a really good week in the blocks finding people that we needed to find.


And then the most amazing miracle of all. I was sitting in my desk and it was Saturday night and I felt like I should invite people to church so I started calling the list of people that I had met with that week and then I got to one of my old investigators who had dropped us about a week earlier and I have the want again to invite him to church and so I called him up and we invited him to church and he just said that he would try to come and the next day I was sitting at church and in walked Dan. It was pure inspiration that we invited him because it was an amazing day at church. It was fast and testimony meeting and it was amazing. So many powerful testimonies were born. It was absolutely incredible. And the best part was that all of his concerns we talked about in testimony meeting and in Sunday School. Afterwards he came up to me and said thank you for inviting him because it was just what he wanted to hear and feel. Without the spirit we can do nothing.

Mission Miracles from Sora Deborah Thompson

March 30, 2009

So we have been working with an investigator Ani (A total of about 8 months). After a lesson with her last week we both felt the prompting that we needed to leave food on their door. Well we did it. Sora Simkins and I prayerfully decided what food we were going to buy (a total of 50 lei). Well we were running a little late and so we weren't going to have time go to the larger and less expensive store, but instead to Spar (more expensive). Well when we got to Spar, everything that was on our list was on sale, meaning that we were able to buy more of it. Things on the list included, juice, soups, noodles, bread, flour, oil, sugar, eggs, candy and hot chocolate. It totaled 52.50. Pretty good. The Lord was on our side. Well we then walked it over to her house (we were dressed in regular clothes so that we wouldn't stick out) and sneakily left it on her door step. Sora Simkins banged on the door (I mean banged- it scared me how loud it was) and we ran. We decided that it was the first time anyone in that neighborhood ever ran away from something for a good reason (kind of a sketchy neighborhood). Well the next day Ani asked a member if she had done it and the member asked us if we had and of course we denied.

So we then had a lesson on Friday with Ani. I don't know if I ever told you about her husband Lica (well boyfriend, but they have 3 kids and have lived 9 years together) but I guess when the sisters first started teaching her he was in no way interested. The week before I came he would almost sit in on lessons, but when I got here I was very bold with him and I invited him in, and gave him a Book of Mormon with my testimony in it. As well invited him to church and told him we would now be teaching him too. He really liked my boldness and we have had several really cool lessons with him. Well on Friday, he wasn't home, but I called him and told him to come home so that we could teach him too. In the mean time we gave Ani a lesson about Love at Home. We have been teaching her hymns to bring the spirit into their house. There has been a huge change in their house just since I have been here. More peacefulness in the house.

Well then Lica came home. We had with us as well Sora Mogos (the best member ever). She wanted to sing another song and she felt like we should sing Joseph Smiths first prayer. We had planned to teach him the gospel of Jesus Christ, but I didn't feel like it was right, and when she suggested this song I felt it was perfect. After singing it I told the Joseph Smith story. I felt like I needed to tell him that either Sora Simkins or I would be transferred on Wednesday. I also told him he needed to pray to find out if the story is true so that he could marry Ani, let her get baptized and so he could get baptized too. They then got off topic, but a few minutes later I pulled them back on subject. Sora Mogos pointed out that Sora Simkins hadn't said anything for a few minutes. She then bore a powerful testimony and I added to it. Lica then said, can I ask a question? Of Course! Him- is the church just in Romania? Us- no its all over the world. Him- even in Germany?- Us- yep. Him- When I lived there I met some missionaries with tags like that. Us- Thats cool. Him- And I got baptized. Us – WHAT! Are you sure it was the same church? We then asked him about a billion questions about how he was baptized. Two sister missionaries taught him, he wore all white when baptized, and was baptized by immersion. He remembered that church services were long too. We were shocked! Not only us, but Ani who wants so bad to join the church. Well, I haven't gotten word back from Germany yet if he really is a member but I m pretty sure he is. WE FOUND A LOST SHEEP! This transfer has been full of us teaching lessons about the parable of the lost sheep and we really found one! He said he recognized the tags the first time he saw the missionaries, but didn't want to say anything. I think that we reminded him of the sisters who taught him originally and we were able to get the spirit just right for him to tell us that he was a member. After looking at his story it is amazing to see how God has slowly been preparing him to find the church again and bring him back to the fold. It was the coolest experience of my mission.

They have been having a rough time because Lica just lost his job. I told them that they can now be blessed by paying tithing. Then Sora Mogos bore her testimony on tithing and then Ani went on to tell a story. On Monday night she heard this huge bang on the front door. The kids had just been complaining about how they wanted soup, but there wasn't any in the store. She went to the front door and there were two bags full of food that had a sign on them “Ani and Mircea”. She went to the street and there was no one to be found. She asked everyone she could think of if it was from them. In the end, she came to the conclusion with her mother in law, “God did it.” She said that almost everything that was in the bag, they were out of. That it was a blessing from god that he would know their exact needs at the exact time. She was in tears as she told us that she knows that God really does know and love us. Sora Simkins and I felt so good that we were able to be his hands. It was a really spiritual lesson and they all came to church on Sunday.

Mission Miracle from Sora Alicia Kimball

April 5, 2009

A man we bloc-knocked into last week took a pamphlet. When we went back he said he thought it was about 80% correct but he didn't recognize the Nefi references. We handed him a Book of Mormon and he said, "See you next Sunday at church." He wouldn't give us his phone number so we weren't sure. One week later to the day, he was sitting in the second row of the chapel when we arrived at the church Sunday morning with questions from his Book of Mormon reading. He took a conference schedule at the end of sacrament meeting.

Miracle from Elder Nathan Moore

April 5, 2009

My Miracle this week is a result of testifying early and right off. There is no one single experience that I can give a definite miracle with, but I can feel the workings of the spirit with which of the numberless things to testify about for each individual person. It feels amazing to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord. This must surely be his work. Also, this form of contacting has helped me to sift out of those that are going to waste our time much faster. We have been able to establish an appointment with an address every day this past week from street contacting. That is a first for us in a transfer and a half. Granted, not all of the information is correct, however it is progress. It is with those that come through that keep us progressing and moving forward.The work moves forward.

Mission Miracle from Elder Brian Foote

April 5, 2009

My miracle story this week was while we were talking to our progressing investigator Monica she confessed to us that she is afraid to pray about our message because she knows that she might get an answer. She says that she knows that she needs to do something if she receives an answer, and she isn't sure that she wants to. The miracle of it all is that she is slowly progressing towards baptism. She knows what our purpose is and is willing to keep listening to us. Her situation is good all around and we are just waiting for her to build up the faith to pray.