Miracles

May 5th 2014

Hello all. I'm just going to skip to the best part of the entire week. Nina was baptised on Saturday! It was magnificent. Nina was taught by some of the elders. She's been investigating for a little while. She first found out about the church through our English courses. She's one of a group of youth that come to all of our activities, including at least the first hour of church. She is so fantastic. She's happy, talented, and full of life. Her parents, who are members of another religion, are fully supportive of her and her decision. They showed that support by being there at the baptism. I was very pleased that many of the youth also came and supported her. They were all so excited for her that they all said they wanted to cheer the moment she came out of the water. Others said it was beautiful, which it truly was. The spirit was so strong. Yesterday she was confirmed a member of the church and received the gift of the holy ghost. Once again the spirit was strong. It filled me to the point of tears. Sora Kneib (senior couple) mentioned how Nina was radiating, and I have to agree. What a sweet experience it was for me, and how grateful I am to have been a witness to it all. There was so much love and happiness, and it was just a further testimony to me that baptism really is what Heavenly Father wants us to do. It's the beginning of a new life. It's a promise to be more like our Savior. It is the gateway towards eternal life. It was beautiful!

I feel like we had a bunch of little blessings this week. We've been wanting to get better at contacting people. As we brought that to the Lord, we were blessed with little opportunities. On the way to a less active lesson (the woman with the egg eating cat) we sat in the back of a maxi-taxi (pretty much a big van) and were able to talk to two separate people. The second one wanted a Book of Mormon in Russian, so we took down her number so we can connect her with the Russian speaking elders. Later that day at English, we presented a prompt to try and get our students to do some of the talking. I don't even know how, but it suddenly turned into one of our students asking about the Book of Mormon. So the last portion of our class was dedicated to talking about the Book of Mormon. He also wanted one to read, so he took it with him.

Other sweet little blessings just came as we were able to visit a few less actives. We made chocolate chip cookies for them and I have learned that nothing brings joy to the face of someone else than a gifted chocolate chip cookie. It was so cute to me to see the faces of these woman as they received our "American cookies." It just filled me with joy. Along with those visits, Sora Sayre had her sketch done, which was pretty awesome. In another visit, we had planned to sing one hymn and talk about it's message and the power of music in our lives. We still were able to do that, but it turned into at least half an hour of us singing songs together. It was so sweet, and it was really appreciated as these sisters hadn't been able to come to church for a long time.

Another wonderful thing that happened 

yesterday is that we were able to go with two of the elders who were taking the sacrament to a woman who can't often come to church (I mentioned her before. She's the one with physical disabilities.). As the elder administered the sacrament to her the spirit hit me so strongly. How grateful I was that they were able to serve her in that way and that we able to be there. She is such a sweet woman with great faith. I'm glad she was able to have the sacrament and to renew her covenants.

We have an investigator we've started to work with. She found out about the church through English. We invited her to activities and she's been coming to almost everything. We gave her a Book of Mormon and she's been reading it on her own without being asked. We haven't had official sit down lessons with her yet, but after every activity, we walk with her part of the way home and answer her questions and ask her about how reading is going. She's a great girl who seems to be enjoying her association with the church. She said that she really likes how much of what she's read so far in the Book of Mormon goes along with the things that she already knows from the Bible. Hopefully we'll be able to have full on lessons with her soon.

In closing, I encourage you to look for the little miracles and blessings in your lives. Heavenly Father has a greater hand in your live than you realize. Thank Him daily for all that you have been given and your life will be filled with greater joy. Learn to recognize answers to your prayers. They come in many different ways, and they will always be answered. Heavenly Father loves each of us. He loves YOU! I thank you all for being a blessing to me in my life.

Have a great week!

Sora Adams