The last few weeks have been those in between, awkward temperatures. You go outside and it is almost chilly, but not really chilly enough for a jacket, but as you walk around you realize that it would actually be okay to wear one... Until you walk for more than 20 minutes, then it is hotter than the sahara (maybe that was an overexaggeration...)
The point is, the last few days have been warm enough to only need a jacket in the evenings. Which is heavenly.
Last week the Elders gave us a contact they had made and we were able to set up an appointment with her. That sentence wasn't an epic lead up to how amazing this woman is, but believe me, she is.
We got there and the first thing she says to us is, "I have been trying to read this book of Mormon and I feel good, but I don't understand it at all..."
We found out that she had been meeting with the Jehovah's Witnesses for several years, but every time she went to a meeting she felt like all the "good feelings" they had there were pretend.
This was such a neat experience because as we were in there, we started talking about our relationship to God, and how he is our Heavenly Father - which means that she is a literal daughter of God. I am not sure if she has ever understood that, but you could see the connection click, and her eyes light up.
And she told us straight up that she is on the search.
Then she committed herself to come to church next week, and as soon as she gets an answer to be baptized.
I submit that this is a modern day miracle. Well, maybe it is for me because I don't meet too many sincere, honest, truth seekers.
THEN. Thursday happened.
The day literally everything went wrong.
But you know? It was actually a great reminder that it is okay to laugh at the fact that you are a lowly human who makes extremely stupid mistakes.
Also, somehow, it all served a purpose.
Let me relay the events of this day.
As we were about to get on the bus to go to District Meeting, Sister Sykes looks at me and she says, "I don't have my bus pass..."
Not toooooo bad. We will just go back home after our meeting to find it. (This may not be such a big deal anywhere else, but in Berlin, that is our only form of transportation. To get ANYWHERE, you need to buy a ticket for the bus, bahn, train... whatever.)
Well, we couldn't find it. Not in our apartment, not in our cellar, not in our backpacks... Naja. This also wouldn't be a huge deal, but it's getting towards the end of the month. And we have no money.
We figured things out with the elders that if they bought a week ticket, we would pay them back.
So we walked out the door to go to an appointment. And you know what we forgot?
The keys.
We literally locked ourselves out of our apartment.
YAY...
So we made a billion phone calls trying to find out where our spare key was... Finally found it with the OTHER elders and planned to pick it up.
We DID have a lesson with the Herbst family (the family from Serbia) and that was okay. It's always a little hectic with 20 children running around... Any ideas on how we can reign in the chaos?
Then we got BAMBOOZLED by a 14 year old who looked like he was 25 (asked him if he wanted to come to institute... He said he would have to ask his parents... Um.. you have a beard.. This is so odd...)
And FINALLY got our keys once again.
But as we got home, the elders texted us a miracle! As soon as we left, there was a man that came up to them and asked if they were the Mormons and asked if he could learn more from them.
Everything has a purpose, right?
THEN. Friday happened.
The day everything went right.
I am not so sure what was so amazing about this day. Maybe it was because it was the day following a super stressful day and things were just better. The sun was shining, our appointments did not fall out, we met 2 people from Bethlehem, and we went to an Arabic Wedding.
Wait... what?
Yeah. You read that right.
One of our investigators from Syria was getting married and invited us to come. So, we showed up at the reception hall at 6... And we were the 3rd and 4th person there. Uhm...
So, I don't know if you know any Arabs. But apparantly in their culture, it is okay to be 2 hours late to a wedding...
Technically, the wedding started at 6, but didn't get underway until 8.
It's okay though, because Sister Sykes and I talked with a few girls from Algeria (if you don't know where that is, it is on the top of Africa next to Morocco... I had to ask, too) for those two hours and devoured a bowl of nuts.
Nadine and her groom finally got there and it was SO CRAZY. We took videos. They had this like... drumline procession and that traditional arabic music playing from a live band... It was awesome. We had to jet early because as missionaries we had to be home at 9:30... But I would have loved to stay until the end. Maybe one day I will get to go to another Arabic wedding...
We ran home (literally... Like sprinted) in order to get home on time, and the bishop's son had brought us a box of leftover pizza from their house. Hoorah! Love from members!!
We also schooled him on how wearing skinny jeans and crocs are a no-go. He'll thank us later.
We found several new people this week to teach (and some to come to soccer with us on Saturday!)
As Sister Sykes and I were discussing Jesus (again) and how to prioritize our lives, she told me a quote she found and I thought it was fitting.
"The main thing is to KEEP the main thing the main thing"
I think that as normal people, we find things that don't eternally matter seem to creep into our lives and become our center of focus.
Jobs, relationships, food, careers... And often we forget that focusing on the Savior makes everything else fall into place. But this also makes us realize that keeping the Savior the center of our lives is WORK. HE is THE main thing, but if we don't do our part to keep him the main thing in our lives, our main thing changes.
That is WHY we have daily personal and family prayer. That is WHY we have daily personal and family scripture study, weekly family home evenings, weekly church attendance, weekly activities, callings, etc... This all serves a role to help us keep our focus on Christ. When we forget why we have these things, they are hard to do. But when we remember that Christ is the only person who can help us return to the father like it says in John 14:6, we realize that he is the ONLY way.
I love you!
Sister Babbitt
No comments:
Post a Comment