We’ve had a few neat experiences the last several days and we continue to be blessed with miracles. Last night we were walking out of a dome after teaching a new lesson to a nice old bobka (the affectionate term for grandmother in russian) and we came across a cool kid who was riding his bike. We flagged him down and found a nearby bench and taught a clear and powerful first lesson. His name is Roman; he'š 23 and had read a little bit about the church before. Unfortunately we had just given away a book of mormon a few minutes before so we didn’t have a russian one to give him but gave him a pamphlet and got his number. He eneded up getting a call at the end and had to leave real quick. Russian people love to do that for some reason—when ever you call a wrong phone number they just say you didn’t get to the right place and then hang up. Hopefully it will work out for the best! Thinking back I’ve seen A LOT of miracles that don’t result in huge ”success” or baptisms. But itš cool to know that God is always willing to make things happen, even if he knows we'ŗe going to use our agency poorly anyway. I love that the gospel is perfect.
I’m trying to think of other good experiences. OH! Elder Patterson, (my buddy from the MTC who served in the army and was in Afganhistan and is one of my heros) and I went on an exchange last Saturday. He'š also serving in Riga right now but it was so good to be reunite for the day. We can also communicate with each other a lot less worse than we did in the MTC which was fun, MTC ”SpeakYourLanguage” is so classic. Elder Brown and I try SMyL, but it usually results in confusion and then English. But anyway Elder Patterson works in the area where I did at the beginning of my mission and so it was fun to teach some of the same members I’ve taught before. The first is a 14 year old kid named Misha who acts like he'š 25 until he'ļl break out in song and dance during the middle of lessons because "he knows everything”. Another one is Olga, an OLD lady who was baptized over 5 years ago but is somehow convinced she'š still a member of the Russian orthadox church and closes her prayers in the name of the father, son and holy ghost because “that’s the way she was baptized.” People are so interesting. But the cool/spiritual part of these stories is as we were teaching Olga, we both had a clear feeling like we should go back to center for the rest of the evening, instead of staying and knocking like we had planned. I remember the thought came to my mind and was so random/clear but I didn’t think much of it until we got out and he said he’d had the exact same feeling. Well, we went back and a few hours later ended up teaching a cool group of 24 year old-ish students and then later another man who had known the missionaries in Liepaja but was kind of stranded in Riga. We didn’t think about it much until the day was all over but it was clear that we were led where to go and what to do, while at the time we didn’t feel like we were doing anything special. Like Elder Bednar said (quoting, although not so directly from the email cami sent) ‘’Štop analyzing it, quit worrying about it, move on. Keep your convenants, keep the commandments, Be a good boy…and you will be guided. ‘’ I agree with him. Well I’ve got to go and sorry these stories today are kind of open-ended but that’s okay because it'ļl hopefully give something to write about next week!
I love you all, a lot!
Love, Elder Barnes #12
No comments:
Post a Comment