Tuesday, August 30, 2011

6/6/11

Hello everyone!!
This week has been one of the craziest of my mission so far. So many things happened good and bad that one day would cover what normally happens in a week! I have witnessed miracles this week and it has been amazing, but we have also had some disheartening setbacks. We had an absolutely miraculous lesson with Ksenija this week! We had been trying to get a member on a lesson with her for quite some time and finally Maja kaplan said she could come. Then the day of the lesson Ksenija called us and said that she had a meeting she had to go to so she wasn't going to be able to make it and rescheduled for the next day. At first Maja said she was going to be able to change as well but then had to back out. We called everyone else we could and nobody was able to come. Then the day of the lesson Pres. and sister Hill came to the church and sister Hill helped us out with our English class lessons (she was amazing and the whole lesson turned into a discussion about the gospel!) After Sister Oakley was inspired to ask her to come on the lesson with Ksenija. It was amazing how it all worked out because when the time of the lesson came Ksenija said the opening prayer and immediately started crying. After the prayer she brought up a concern about tithing. We had planned a completely different lesson but it was amazing the way the spirit guided all 3 of us in what we should say. Sister Hill has such an incredible testimony of tithing. Her father died when she was about 14 and left the family in a lot of debt. Her family went without a lot of things like electricity and new clothing for a long time. But through it all her mother always paid tithing. Because of her childhood experiences it was perfect the way she was able to tell the story of her mother's strength and faith paying tithing in such financial difficulty. It was amazing and the spirit was so strong! The downside is that Sister Oakely and I went over the next day to explain a little about fast Sunday offerings and Ksenija said that Brita would probably not be baptized...atleast not on the same day as Ksenija because Brita is so busy with school and Ksenija doesn't want her to sacrifice school to get all the lessons in before the 25th. We can definitely see the wisdom in this...but it is a little disheartening especially when neither of them came to church yesterday. Ksenija said she would come FHE tonight though!

Anyway that was a huge update on Ksenija and Brita but we have been having a lot of other successes as well! Lucija Krajnik put herself in the psyciatric hospital which is a huge step for her in overcoming her alcoholism! We visited her yesterday and she is doing great! It was a little difficult trying to find it though! We had to take the bus clear the the end of its route and when we got there there is a huge field of tall grass with a little dirt path leading to the hospital. It was beautiful and made for a fun adventure!

We also had one of our English class students come to sacrament meeting! Her name is Elena and when we first met her our first impression of her was "epic hippy". But as we talked to her and prayed with her we found out that she believes in Jesus Christ and she loved the way we prayed and how we don't have crosses everywhere. We wrote a testimony of one of the members inside the Book of Mormon we gave her and she said the only thing she didn't like was how it said " I know that this is true" she said that she thinks it should say " I feel that this is true" When she came to church she told Sister Oakley that she felt like something had pulled her there. She absolutely loved church and said she understood how we could know truth through our feelings (it was fast and testimony meeting). We are excited to see where it goes!

This sunday I had another fun thing happen! There was a girl who was a music major at SUU at Church! Weird right? Her name is Bethany and her mom studied with a Slovene girl(Urška) in Utah. Urška just got back and they came to visit! I didn't know her very well before but it was so fun to see a familiar face and talk a little about home!
Ok there is so much more I could write but you'll have to wait until you can read my journal because I've already written way to much!

I love you all!
Love,
Sestra Powell

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