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.
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