Miracles! October 17, 2016

My companions for the day for Missionary Leadership
 Council! haha President Mansell told me just to go
down with all of the Elders...

Hola Hermanos!
This week has been great! Follow-up from last week's bashing- so remember my mistake of bashing with one of our investigator's husband, Javier, last week? Well, some good things came from it- hopefully! As we were talking with Petra last night, she mentioned that because I had said what I had and then invited him to learn that what I said was true through reading the Book of Mormon, he's started reading it. I hope he's reading it with a sincere heart! (I still won't bash with others again though!) Petra was at least excited about Javier reading though! Petra should also be getting a new job this week and start being able to come to church!! Yay! Miracles!
Also, Richi is getting baptized this week and he is super excited about it! We went over to his home on Thursday thinking that we may have to push the baptism back from Tuesday to next weekend because it just seemed rushed, but as we talked with him and helped him to see that he doesn't need to have the terms memorized or know everything, he felt ready and excited to be baptized this week! (He did end up changing it from Tuesday to Saturday though because he has work on Tuesday and it just wasn't plausible)!
Then on Friday, we got a text from a new investigator, Hilde, that we had texted asking if we could meet with her and her husband, Daniel, Friday evening and she texted back saying that she would love to have us come over! When Hermana St. Clair and Hermana McFadden went, Hilde told them that she had already read the ENTIRE Restoration pamplet, the Book of Mormon introduction, and testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith! She's awesome and so prepared! I love it here in Stillwater- it's the greatest!

So funny awkward moment of the week! For starter's it WAS dark and typically Hispanics do take a lot of pride in their nice cars. So, we had just left a member's home and this awesome lime green mustang pulls up with the bass turned up and the music blasting and they pulled up a couple spots down from us. I was struggling to get the keys out of my backpack fortunately so then I could still be outside to talk to whoever gets out of the car. Anyways, a younger, darker complexioned man gets out and I mention something about the car and start talking to him. He had a pretty thick accent (okay, I feel like I should mention here that I was SUPER exhausted and had almost fallen asleep during the lesson at the member's home), and after a minute I asked him in Spanish- assuming he was Hispanic- what his name was. Catch this! his response "What language are you speaking?"... "Uh.. Spanish." "I'm from the Middle East." "Oh! Awesome, what part?" "Dubaii".... Anyways, guess what his name was! You got it! Omar! Hm... that's totally a Hispanic name too, so I wasn't too far off, right? Haha anyways that was only one of the most awkward moments this week, I had several actually! It keeps things light and humorous though, that's for sure!

So, two more miracles that I want to share with you all! Wednesday was awesome! We went to go try Hilde and Daniel and they weren't home (this was before the Friday lesson) so we decided to knock on their neighbor's door. A lady who wasn't having it answered the door and wasn't down to talk with us. But we talked with her anyways just trying to get to know her and love her! Her name is Pat and we were just going to wrap things up and leave so Hermana McFadden said "Oh, were just in your neighborhood trying to get to know people since we're missionaries. Have you heard of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?" And guess what she said! That's right! She said "Yes, I'm actually a member." Wow! We ended up talking to her for another ten minutes and learned she just moved to town a month ago, hasn't been to church in 25+ years and she is open to coming to church sometime soon! By the time we left, we prayed with her and she knew that God had sent us there for her and she may have had tears in her eyes. God is so effective when and where He puts us! And we wouldn't have even known if we had just left!

The second miracle is we were driving back to our home to eat dinner for an appointment and we were approaching these two awkward men walking their bikes in suit pants and wind breaker jackets. Guess who they were?! The Elders! We awkwardly stopped in the middle of traffic and asked if they needed a ride, to which they didn't oppose. We turned and picked them up and learned that one of the Elder's bike tire had popped for the 2nd time already since being here (he's only in his second transfer and we learned that it popped again since Wednesday... sad day!). So we were able to drop them off at Wal-mart to get a new tire and continue on home! We were surprised we even recognized them, but God puts us exactly where we need to be when He needs us there, that's for sure! 

I know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that this is His work and it will be done in His way! We are the instruments in His hands. He is full of mercy, grace and truth! Come unto Him and receive the greatest of all gifts- eternal life! I love this work and I feel so blessed to have each of your prayers helping me out here in Oklahoma! Keep coming closer to Christ and seeing the miracles in your every day lives! I love you all! Chao!