Guess what! This last week was amazing! Yup. And this next week is going to be even better. Why was it amazing? Partly because I'm a missionary, partially because things are looking up, a little because Lahti has Elders and mostly because Heavenly Father has been giving Sister Schellenberg and I miracles pretty much daily.
So, last week when I emailed it was a few days after we had reached rock bottom. I felt like no one wanted to talk to us, none of our investigators were progressing, we were never in our area long enough to actually do something good even though I was trying the best I could. In other words I felt like the wheels were spinning and I wasn't headed anywhere. Really discouraging. And then Saturday came along with the baptism, and afterwards we met a really cool potential, and I felt happy again.
Monday, after emails we had a dinner appointment out of town. Really fun! We got to play "Kuka pelkää musta miesta?", which is just like British Bulldog with the four kids. We missed one bus, but were able to catch the next one. After we got back into Lahti we still needed to do grocery shopping. And so we did. at like 8 o'clock at night. As we were checking out and bagging our groceries we heard this voice behind saying "Hey, it's the sisters!" (it was in english even!). We straighted up and guess who it was? It was our way awesome potential from the Saturday! So cool. We talked with him for a bit, found out he's trying to quit smoking and drinking. Say what? he then told us to text him sometime, as we hadn't yet. Sister Schellenberg and I were both really giddy walking away from that contact. But just think about that for a minute. In order for us to meet him "randomly" that night so many things had to happen. We first of all, were doing groceries at a WAY different time than we normally did, second, miss the first bus back into Lahti, and third forget to pick up cheese so we had to go back, so that he would be right behind us in line. And a few other things! Miracle? I think so.
Wednesday Elders arrived in Lahti! Elder Jeffries and Elder Call! Elder Jeffries is from Virginia, and is pretty much like a perfect model missionary. Elder Call is a greenie, is very loud, American and has an awesome testimony. They were picking up potentials by the bucket load the first day they were here! We are so excited. Elder Jeffries plays guitar, as does the potential that we met those couple times. And Elder Call is way good at basketball, which one of their investigators loves doing.
We were able to find out why one of our investigators was hestitant to go to baptism. Due to a bit of a language barrier she thought that to be a member of our church you had to wear Sunday dress all the time, you couldn't go to movies, listen to music etc. and she was worried that she couldn't keep all those rules. It was a huge relief because Sister Schellenberg and I had been way confused. We knew she had a testimony of the Book of Mormon, and Joseph Smith, and everything but couldn't figure out what her big concern was. We have a lesson with her this week to outline the commandments a bit better for her.
Also, a missionary got back home from his mission this week. He was serving in Finland, and has actually been in my zone for the past change. We're way excited to have him back in Lahti. First, he can really testify to the Finns that missionary work is really going forward in Finland. Second, guess who's going to be going on a lot of teaches with us now? Perfect member missionary! Hooray!
One other miracle I wanted to mention. Sister Schellenberg and I are terrible at asking for referrals. Mostly we're just terrible at remembering to do it. This week however, we started to get better. And we asked a lot more people than we normally do. Not quite up to the standard of everyone, but most people. And we did not get a single referral. Until last night at 9:30. We got a text from a member that said "Good News! Soittakaa minulle vielä ennen kuin menette nukkumaan!" (Which being translated is Good news! Call me before you go to sleep!) We called and this member has a friend, who asked if he could come to church next Sunday. We have a meeting with this referral Thursday! A fun note about this member. Half of his family is inactive, and we've never met with them, although we've been trying to get over to his house to do service for the last month. Even though we've never been over, it's my personal belief that he wouldn't have called us if it hadn't been for our efforts to try to help. Just cool to think about.
So before I go I just have one request for all of you. Look for small miracles in your lives! They're there!
Love you all!
Rakkaudella
Sister Kastedieck
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