Miracle Week

Hello and good afternoon! 

In case you haven't picked up the vibes coming from England, this has truly been a miracle week!

Oh man I can't even explain.  It is just the miracle week.  This week proved to be a miracle week on Tuesday and only continued to get better!  So of course Sister Shigekiyo and I named it Miracle week. 

We actually decided to call it miracle week on the Sunday before, but God is so good that He truly did bring to pass a miracle week. 

So what makes this a miracle week?  Thanks for asking. 

Before I launch into the blessed miracle week--it's important to know what happened before.  The week or two before is best described by reading Ether 12:6.  Yes a couple of trials or bumps in the road.  For those of you few that don't know, missionary work is hard.  Really hard.  And yes everyone warned me before--so don't worry I was semi prepared--but still, it's hard!!!  It's really hard.  I think one of the hardest things of missionary work is the love you have for your friends here.  You meet these people you would never meet if you weren't on a mission and learn all about their life.  You visit them and pray for them and think about them and talk about them.  You serve them and you sacrifice for them and you pray all the time for them.  And you love them unbelievably much.  You just want the absolute--absolute--best for them.  Which is in fact the gospel.  The gospel that allows them to be with their family for eternity.  Nothing better than that. 

However, we all have a wonderful gift of agency.  (Sometimes it's hard to accept this)  but we all can choose for ourselves.  So some people choose to not accept the gospel.  For one reason or another they choose to not see you anymore.  And wow, that is so hard.  SO hard.  It just breaks your heart. 

So yes a few of things relating to this topic did happen this past week.  And it was super hard. 

Nevertheless God is good (as my old companion would say) and has showed us His Hand every day this week. 

This is why we have called it the week of miracles :)

Favorite miracles of the week...

Zone Blitz: The London North Zone finds together for an hour.  In our areas, but at the same time.  Sister Shigekiyo and I stopped the first woman we saw and invited her to have a chapel tour.  She accepted and loved the church.  She asked if she could come to church next sunday.  Yes ma'am!  New investigator and a miracle.  :)  Also she came to church on Sunday and brought her 14 year old daughter.  Wahoo!!

My Brazilian companion: I don't know how it is possible but all of the sudden with wonderful Sister Shigekiyo we have found all of these Brazilian people. We stopped by an old referral and the family happened to be from Brazil.  Yessss. Instant access inside their home because they all speak Portuguese.  (I really need to learn Portuguese because we have had at least 3 full lessons in that language) 4 new investigators came of it!

Romanians: I love Romanians.  Especially the ones living in 19 Wilburforce Road.  Sister Cummings and I had tracted that door a while ago and had found a girl named Gina.  Nothing really came of it.  HOWEVER this week something definitely came from it :).  Sister Shigekiyo and I decided to stop by this flat and find Gina.  We didn't find her, but we found Flora!! Who speaks about 4 words of English but through google translate and the easter initiative being in Romanian, we got a return appointment!  We went back this week and met with her and her husband and her two sons, and the neighbour Julian downstairs.  The entire flat (consisting of 2 stories) are Romanian and want to learn about Christ.  So we found an entire new flat to teach?? What an incredible miracle!!  The lesson with them was incredible.  Here we are typing through Google translate and struggling to communicate and yet they are in rapt attention.  We gave them a Romanian Book of Mormon and Flora and her husband (Marian) were both huddled over it and reading from it's pages.  In no way could this experience have happened without the Lord on our side.  How truly blessed we were to be in that flat.

Absolute favourite miracle (so fantastic):  Emilia.  She is a former investigator of Sister Cummings and SIster Hibbard.  She has been reading the Book of Mormon since the missionaries knocked on her door about 3 months ago.  She has an incredible testimony of the Book of Mormon and knows it to be true.  However when we asked her to be baptized last week she said it was too hard to leave her current church and couldn't make the transition.  We explained that the Book of Mormon testified the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was the Lord's kingdom on the earth and explained the importance of the Priesthood power with her.  It's hard to leave a church and super hard to make a transition.  But this is for her eternal progression.  Of course it is going to be hard, because the reward will be so good.  At the end of the lesson Emilia said she would tell us next Wednesday if she would be willing to be baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints by the proper authority. 

Okay.  Fast forward lots of prayers, fasting, and counselling.  Lots of prayers.

On Wednesday we had a lesson with Emilia and taught lesson 3 (Doctrine of Christ).  Halfway through the lesson Sister Shigekiyo asked Emilia if she wanted the Holy Ghost to be with her always.  Emilia looked us straight in the eyes and said, yes.  And that is why I am ready to be baptized.

She said, I got my answer and I know how important it is to be baptized by the proper authority.  I can be baptized this weekend.

Wow. 

Wow.  Simply, a breathtaking miracle.  Wow. 

(I get chills every time I think about it) 

So can you see how we absolutely have to call this a miracle week? 

Also--the mission broke the year record of finding new investigators.

This is truly the miracle week!!

It's an amazing and humbling opportunity to be able to recognize how much the Lord walks by our side.  Experiences that we do not near deserve somehow get thrown into our lap, and somehow we get the astounding opportunity to witness the event.  Honestly it's nothing that we do.  It is all the Lord.

Moroni 7:33

Isaiah 52

The Lord walks by our side and watches over us.  Whether in the weeks of trial or confusion or an unexplainable week of miracles, He is truly there.

How grateful I am for this knowledge. 

LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL!

Sister Soulier :)

London North Zone Sisters

Sis Ojukwu, Sis Soulier, Sis Shigekiyo, Emilia