Week was full of some absolute miracles!

July15, 2013

Servus!  So this week was full of some absolute miracles.

The first one I will tell about has to do with Rebecca. On Wednesday she sent us a text saying she didn't feel like she was ready for her baptism in August because she didn't feel like she knew enough. We sent her a text back saying we felt she was more than ready for the baptism, but we could talk about it the next day during our appointment. On Thursday we met up with her and she told us about how she felt like she loved the Book of Mormon, but it was hard for her to remember names, that she has difficulties remembering certain points, and now because she hadn't read the Bible all the way through that she wasn't ready enough. I told her I hadn't even read the bible all the way through yet either, and then explained how her concerns weren't bad. We read about the qualifications of baptism in Doctrine and Covenants and about how it hangs on your willingness to follow God, your desire to keep his commandments and do good, and the humility that comes from seeking after that of spiritual worth. We also talked a lot about testimony and helped her realized that she really had a testimony and that was the fundamental key to her being baptized. It was the most spiritual filled appointment we have had with her up to this point. Up to this point I think she was concerned as to whether Heavenly Father was truly going to accept her, but she left more confident than ever before about her role as a daughter of God, and she came away with an understanding of just how happy he was for her, and joyful he was that she is working so hard to follow him and the Savior Jesus Christ. Her baptism is still on for August 11th and I think everything should continue to go well from here on. 

The second miracle that happened was with a new investigator named Ambrol. Ambrol was a referral from church headquarters and we went by on the apartment building where he lived, but there were no klingels (doorbell, speaker box things) that we could buzz to let him know we were there and we had no other way to let him know we were there. We started to walk away when this little kid walked up and asked if we needed to get in. He went and kicked the door open and we walked right in to this little courtyard area. A man ran up to us and introduced himself as Ambrol. He was busy, but wanted to talk to us for a couple of minutes. The building was a foster home that he owned for refugee kids. Anyway, he had started a year ago searching for the Truth. He was born catholic, but he felt like he was missing something. He started looking into other faiths and felt like he was being lead step for step. Eventually he saw a movie one day that mentioned the Mormons and it sparked a lot of interest in him. He started investigating on lds.org and came to the realization that the Mormons were the only ones who had similar beliefs to him and even had more beliefs that completely made sense. He had a spiritual experience that helped him believe that this was the right direction for him to go. He requested a visit from the missionaries and that's when we showed up. He was super excited for the Book of Mormon, the fact we had a church that wasn't too far away, and that we would take time each week to teach him our beliefs. He asked if there was any way possible if he could get baptized before the end of summer. He came to church yesterday and absolutely loved it. He even fasted so that he could fill the spirit even stronger and we hadn't even mentioned anything like that to him. He was a little worried that his little daughter that came with him might not like it, but she went to primary and made friends instantly and didn't want to leave at the end. He had to hurry home right after, but we are meeting with him this week and setting a specific date. I am super excited to really start teaching him. The ward has already clung to him rather fondly. His parents were Romanian and Serbian, but he was born and raised in Austria and is really more Austrian than anything. 

The third miracle we had was when we went by on a former investigator named Frau Hofmann. She is an older lady of about 80 and was just content with her church, but didn't mind hearing from the missionaries. We stopped by on her while we were in the area and she told us how she wasn't doing so well health wise as her legs were causing her a lot of pain. We told her we could come by the next day and give her blessing for the sick and she said that would be wonderful. We came back with a member and we did the anointing and gave her a blessing. She explained how she was wanting to go visit her family in Berlin because of summer break, but she didn't think she could make it because of her health. It would be the only time she could have seen them this year. She was praying as to whether God could provide a way for her and to see them, and then an hour later or so Elder Smith and I showed up and offered her the blessing. For her it was a great sign of Heavenly Father really looking out for her and showing his love.

The fourth that happened this week is we were to have a home teaching appointment with our new convert Liz at the library with the elders quorum president. As we got there a lady who was friends with Liz saw her and came up and talked to us. We asked her how she was doing and one thing lead to another and she ended up explaining how this had been a few hard weeks because of some things that were happening in her apartment building. I can't explain the situation, but it was pretty serious. She was praying while she was in the library as to whether she could talk to a close friend about this who could help give her advice, but that she didn't know who and that is when Liz arrived at the Library. She talked about her situation and she seemed relieved to get it off her chest and at the end she seemed to have an idea of what to do, but we also offered her a blessing of counse.l She said that she would try and call us this week about it and also if we could give her a spiritual thought. 

It was just really neat to be part of everything that happened this week. There were a lot of prayers of gratitude and some really strong testimony builders that happened. As you might imagine you can't help but just love the work when instances like these happen.

That is the extent of what happened this week. We were also able to do an austausch with the Wien 5 ward elders. I was able to work with Elder Sponsellar in their area. It's amazing that they live in the same city as us, but it still takes almost an hour to get from where we live to where they live with public transportation. Today for our P day we had a Lederhosen party and went to Stephansdom, the giant church in the middle of the city, with our roommates, both sets of Wien 5 Elders, Wienerneustadt Elders, and Wien 4 sisters. We got asked for a lot of pictures from Asian tourists.

I love you all and I hope you have a fantastic week.

Elder Bodily

Gott sei mit euch bis aufs Wiedersehen