Monday, January 29, 2018

Coolest story from this week:  ____.

____ came to church last week and we didn't get a chance to sit by him because we had to play/conduct the music.  He couldn't meet with us until the next Saturday...Saturday rolled around and we had to cancel our appointment with him because we had to play the piano at a baptism for a special musical number.  He came to church again and absolutely loved it.  Babs spoke on prayer and he went up to her after and said how much he liked her talk.  He also asked her some questions.  He loved church.  We met with him later, and he said he had a couple of questions.

Question 1: How can I become a member of your church?

Question 2: Who is Nephii

HAHHAHHAHA we were so amazed.  He told us how our church felt like a family and he felt like church last week really made his week go better.  It was amazing.  We taught him the Restoration and after I recited the First Vision he sat there for no joke 5 minutes saying wow wow wow that's amazing.  They just appeared to Him.  Wow. Wow.  Wow.

He was saying this makes so much sense.  He read 11 chapters in the Book of Mormon last night.  He said we answered so many questions that he had.  I told him that the next time we meet we would talk about the Plan that God has for us.  He was so excited.  He said, "I knew it.  I knew God had a plan for us and we are here for a reason.  I was arguing with my friend about it the other day!"  He is amazing.  When I invited him to be baptised he said yes before I even finished the question.  He is amazing and so prepared to hear the gospel.  I have never seen someone so excited to be taught.  When we gave him the Book of Mormon he teared up and thanked us so much.  He even shook our hands expressing his gratitude.  So cool and so excited for him.  

EXCHANGE:  So fun.  it is always so fun to be with the STLs.  I was with Sister Kim and we had the coolest experience.  We taught a man named _____.  His friend came and joined us halfway through the lesson and we had just finished explaining the plan of salvation.  Sister Kim asked if he could explain it to his friend and he did the whole thing.  He was so attentive and was even defending our beliefs when his friend disputed them.  

Monday, January 22, 2018

It snowed in Dublin too!  On Thursday, for about 2 hours.  Luckily, it didn't stick (it never will) and we were inside teaching during the storm.  Sister Yu was amazed with it and I was just not impressed.  Not real snow.  But she was REALLY amazed at the picture of our backyard.  Friday it was back to rain and Saturday it POURED hahaha.

On Tuesday, we did get to watch the First Presidency conference for our District Meeting.  I wasn't really that surprised.  I loved the conference!  It was so fun to get to see them interact with each other because we don't normally get to see that.  And I love that President Nelson and President Oaks are best friends.  It's so cute.  


We had ward conference in Dublin too!  It was really cool because the counselor that did the sustaining pointed out that we were lucky enough to be able to sustain the President Nelson, his counselors, and the Quorum of the Twelve the first Sunday that they had been announced and organized.  How special!

We had a good week and the highlight was definitely Archie's baptism!  He was so excited and so happy after.  He was baptised with an Irish man named Conor, and a girl from the Canary Islands named Veronica.  They were all so excited.  Each of them made/brought food for refreshments after.  Veronica made a cake with the shape of angel Moroni on it and it was amazing to see how enthusiastic each of them were!

A lot of our lessons fell through this week, but that just means there are other opportunities to find new people to teach.  When one fell through this week I talked to a girl from China.  I asked her what made her happy and she responded "my faith!"  She told me she was Christian (very rare in China) and that she really wanted to be close to God.  We are meeting with her tomorrow and we never would have met her if our lesson hadn't cancelled on us!  Blessings come in all shapes, sizes, and forms!

Another thing that impressed me this week was that the Spirit does not speak a language.  We had met and taught a man from Brazil who spoke very bad English.  He came to church and we taught him once.  We decided that it would be best to pass him to Elder Valiati (from Brazil) so he could be taught in his native tongue.  Elder Valiati was the only missionary that spoke during the lesson, but the Spirit was so strong.  I understood the general idea of what he was talking about, but really had no clue what was going on.  The Spirit was so strong and he accepted the invitation to be baptized almost immediately.  

This next week we get to go on exchanges.  I will be with Sister Kim! They are always so fun and you get to learn a lot from being with a different missionary to see how they approach things, teach, etc.  

Monday, January 15, 2018

This past week was All-Ireland conference.  I love being surrounded by so many missionaries.  My favorite part was an instruction given by our Zone Leaders on the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  They compared the Atonement to a bandaid.  The bandaid doesn't do the healing, but it covers the wound and protects it from the dangers around it.  It does not heal, but it allows the wound to heal.  The same is true of the Atonement.  It will not heal us automatically, but it will protect us and allow us to heal.

This Saturday we had another baptism for our friend Kamil.  He is from Poland.  He was so excited and after he was walking around and talking to all the other investigators and telling them how what we had taught him made him so happy.  He will be an amazing member missionary if he keeps that up.  It was so amazing to watch him and to see him change.  He believed in God before, but didn't do anything actively to exercise his faith.  He now reads the Book of Mormon everyday, prays, and comes to church every week.  We are so proud of him and his decision.

We should have another good week coming up with another baptism on Saturday if all goes well with ____ keeping the Word of Wisdom.  If you remember he was supposed to be baptised my first transfer, but had some problems. We have been working with him and have him off of smoking, drinking tea/coffee, and now he hasn't had alcohol in a few weeks, even over the holidays!  We are so excited for him.

January 8, 2018

How was the new curriculum for the 9th ward?  It was interesting in the Finglas ward.  A member of the bishopric led a discussion on how we can build unity in relief society. There needs to be more unity between the people that have been in the ward for 30 years and the people who are new/newly baptised/visiting/etc.  I made the suggestion during the discussion that every week, starting yesterday, after relief society each person talks to two people they don't know.  Simply introduce themselves and it was amazing.  People actually did it and two people came up to me and talked to me.  Wow.  I didn't think what I said would do anything.  Hopefully it continues throughout the year.

Our friend Domagoj was baptised this past week.  He was so stubborn, tried to drop us telling us he was a "waste of time," laughed at us when we asked him to pray, refused to come to church, refused to even go to the church (not on Sunday) and now is baptised and wants to go to the temple.  It's amazing what happens when people go to church and pay attention to what is said and the Spirit that is there.  I met him when I had only been in Dublin for a week and now, three months later, he is a proud member of the Finglas ward!

This week we should have  another baptism for a man named ____.  He is from Poland and is super excited to learn.   We were nervous because the last lesson we had with him was on tithing and he was very hesitant, but church was so good for him yesterday.  All the testimonies were about praying to know if the church was true and receiving a witness, etc etc.  After sacrament Sister Yu asked if he thought having his baptism this week would be too early.  He said no and he wanted to be baptised this week.  He even took a tithing slip after church!

All-Ireland is this week yayyayay!  It is so fun and uplifting to be surrounded by missionaries!

Love you lots!

January 1, 2018

Christmas was so good to talk with everyone and see your faces and hear your voices. 

Christmas and boxing day (the 26th) we spent with Babs.   It was so nice and Babs is the absolute best!

The rest of the week was business as usual.  Our zone is on fire with baptisms recently.  We had three in our ward on Saturday and there were two in the other ward in Dublin.  Next week we will have a baptism for our friend ____.

____ is from Croatia.  He has been the most frustrating person to teach ever.  He kept saying "I hope this is true" for the longest time.  For a while it seemed like he wasn't progressing and I thought we would have to drop him.  Recently, he's been making leaps and bounds.  After the word of wisdom lesson he has been keeping all of his commitments.  He gave up coffee, which is huge because he works night shifts, he has been praying every day, reading the chapters we assign him.  It has been amazing.  He didn't want to be baptised... until we taught him the law of chastity lesson.  He was a little upset about it and wasn't sure he could do it, but then he looked at us and said "I guess I need to do this if I want to go to the temple."  He loves the idea of temples and he can't wait to go.  He is now so excited to get baptised on Saturday.

Last night (New Year's Eve) we went to a member's house and they fed us dinner.  All of the missionaries in our ward were there and we watched kung fu panda.  It was really fun.  Today we are at Babs' house with the STLs.  Doing the same thing as Christmas.  Watching movies, relaxing, eating food.  What a good time.