Mission Miracle from Elder Zachary Bunting

June 21, 2009

On Sunday Marian set up a baptismal date for June 21, and I honestly had no idea if he could make it. He had only had one lesson, and leaves Monday morning 100km away to work for the week, coming home on Saturday night. Well, I think what happened next is evidence of "the Lord works in mysterious ways." On Wednesday night we were in the blocks and we got a phone call from Marian. He said that he was in Craiova and wanted to meet. So we went to the church and he told us that he had to return to Craiova to go to the hospital because his kidney stone became infected, and he couldn't work the rest of the week. We took advantage of this opportunity to meet every day, and he took advantage of the opportunity to read the entire Book of Mormon. He knows that it is true, and is so excited to be baptized. He said, "My entire family is against my decision. They say, 'We were born orthdox, and we must die orthodox,' but no one can keep me from doing this." He prays that over time they will change their opinion and open to the teachings he has learned. Now just the interview remains and he will be baptized on Sunday. I think the following two statements that he made will give you the best idea of who Marian is. One: "If we hadn't met in the park that day, I would never have learned these things or known about this church." The other, when we started to teach him about commandments, he said, "From the moment I started heading to this church for the first time I said to myself that I must keep God's commandments, and I intend to do that. If I hadn't made that decision, I wouldn't have come." He doesn't know when he's going to Italy (now France is in the picture too), but he is going to stay for three months at the most, and then return.

We also had a totally different type story. A young man we were teaching decided to hold off on baptism after having a discussion with his parents and a visit with the Orthodox Priest. Well, after I got off the phone with him right after church, I obviously was devastated and sad, to the point that I just wanted to mope around. But I knew that I needed to go out to work -- that I wouldn't get in a better mood by pitying myself or feeling sorry for us or for this young man, so we left. Being a Sunday, the streets are almost completely bare, but the first people we came across we contacted. This is what Elder Bednar talked about as a tender mercy of the Lord. When I was in dire need of a boost to realize that God has scores of prepared children here, he put in our path a couple. They were in their late 40's, and I said very briefly the message that we have, and I don't even remember the question I asked, except that it was about prophets. Ionel, the man, didn't answer the question I asked, but said, "We would like to know." Then his wife said, "We want to be on the Lord's side. When can you come to our home to tell us more? I have four children and I want you to teach them too; they are 23, 18, 15, and 1." Well, that single contact reminded me of the reason I am here; not for me, but for them.