This week was just full of miracles inculding two new members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and a new Bishopric of the Vienna 4th Ward. We sent around a list in our ward the last few weeks for members to sign up for joint teaching with us. We have seen miracles and were able to have 13 lessons this week with members present! We had only 19 lessons all together this week, but we are still going strong! I will just start with the baptisms since those are fresh on my mind. Ekarins was nice and simple. We wanted to keep it within an hour so everyone could have time for other things, but it could still be a spiritual experience. I sang I Believe in Christ and Sister Lind made up a beautiful accompianment. Liberty baptized him. That was my favourite part. Liberty joined the church about 6 months ago in Switzerland and he ist so strong. I learn so much from him. Many missionaries came that had taught Ekarin over the two or three years that he investigated the church on and off. I had even dropped him as an investigator a few months ago because he was not making progress, but he suddenly started coming to church on his own for a few weeks, we met with him and just told him he needed to get baptized and be a member so he can have all the blessings of the Atonement. He is a great addition. He is always smiling and happy and willing to share that with others. It takes a lot of humility to grow up with no God in ones culture or surroundings, then to come to a new country and learn about Him and let Him play a role in your life. Ekarin reads in the Book of Mormon in Thai and then tells us about each part. He has shared some insights that have really helped me. Amazing that each person can make a difference in others lives.
Binbin's baptism was huge! The whole Kapelle was full of friends, family, members, investigators. Also, we thought we were in charge of bringing food to the baptism and were not able to find support, so we asked many individuals to bring something. Just before the service started, several family members of Binbins came with lots of food for a buffet. Binbin was so happy to see food overflowing the tables after the service. So Binbin is from China and met Patrick in France where he was studying. His mother is french, his father is Austrian. He grew up a member but spent most of his life outside the church until about 4 months ago. Their first Sunday in our ward was my first Sunday, too. There were so many languages at this baptism--it was done in English. Many participated in the service ... so much that it was 2.5 hours long! But it was so wonderful it did not seem that way. Amazingly, though, Satan worked hard on the whole family this week--everyone got sick and Patrick and Binbin had it the worst. They thought about postponing the baptism, but Binbin could not wait any longer. They were both miraculously quite healthy the day of the baptism. I prayed so hard for them all week. When Binbin came out of the font, I wrapped her in a towel and she said, "that was easy!".
The next miracle that happened came also at Binbins baptism. I sat by Leo and Xiaoyen, two of our investigators from China. Xiaoyen already knows everything and is spiritually ready to be baptized. Leo showed no interest until 2 weeks ago. After the baptism, I asked him what he thought and he told me he felt a feeling of "pure" that he had never felt before and that it felt really good. We learned in our appointment that evening that the whole week was spiritually significant for him. He and Xiaoyen read nearly every day in the Book of Mormon together and Leo saw immediately that he had more energy, he was less selfish and was just more happy. Amazing!
ALSO I talked to a man named Parviz on the U-Bahn on Wednesday. He is from Iran and then Kiev (Ukraine) and composes music here in Vienna. He asked if we had a choir he could conduct ... we said, well ... sort of ... then when he came to our appointment at the Institute Center, Sister Lind and I were singing with a group of BYU Students by the piano and he was so excited. We met with him. When asked what he expected or hopes from our meetings, he answered that he does not just want to study the scriptures, but to do something, to help the church, the community and everyone. We invited him to be baptized on 6. August. ;)
Oh and we met our new Mission President on Thursday--President and Sister Miles. Bishop Mamouney was released on Sunday as he and his family are going back to Australia in September and Paul Jovero was called to be the new Bishop. As he spoke, I have never felt the Spirit so strong through someone else's humility. He is a great man and will make a great Bishop. I am really grateful that I have come to know him before he was called as Bishop. He was my first guess of who the new Bishop would be. Dean Messervy and Ed Garcia were called as counselors. I love this ward. I love being a missionary. What an honor to be in the service of the Lord.
--
Sister Carla June Carroll
No comments:
Post a Comment