Elder Celestini and I are still buzzing off of last weeks miracle with Miyi. A member picked him up and he came with us to church yesterday. He really liked it and wants to go to Stake Conference next week. We told him that it was a two hour drive, a two hour long meeting and then another two hours of driving back. He replied, "No problem." Haha. He is awesome. We had another cool experience this week while finding. We were talking one morning about how cool it would be if we found someone that spoke Italian. And later that day we were street contacting people. About an hour in we stopped to evaluate how we were doing and then I jumped up and said, "Let's find you someone that knows Italian!" The very first person we talk to spoke Italian and Elder Celestini was able to speak with them for 5 minutes or so. He looked so happy! It was a great moment. She didn't become a potential but it was still a cool miracle. God knows His children! We went to Zone meeting in Llanelli and we talked about the Doctrine of Repentance. It a very good and the Spirit was so strong. I don't have much more to report on. Have a great week! Love y'all!
Monday, October 5, 2015
10/5/2015 This week was so cool. On Wednesday Elder Meier and I went to the mission home early in the morning so that I could be there to meet my trainee! I am the only Elder training so it was quite obvious that I was his trainer throughout the meetings. haha But my new companions name is Elder Celestini. He is from Rome, Italy. His English is way better than I expected it to be but there is still the occasional awkward silence when when don't understand each other. haha But we just laugh it off and keep trying. The drive from the Mission Home to Aberystwyth is just over 3 hours and he was mesmerised the whole journey by the green hills, sheep, and small Welsh roads. We arrived in Aber around 5:45 and the first thing that we did was stop by the Branch President's home. I love their family and it was so good to see them. We had a dinner appointment after that and did a few more stop bys to finish the night. On Thursday we drove down to Newcastle Emlyn for District Meeting. We talked about the Doctrine of Finding. Immediately after we drove to Aber, jumped out of the car, and started to street contact. After 30 minutes of finding I noticed that Elder Celestini looked very uncomfortable, as most missionaries are on their first full day, so we sat down and started to talk. After reading from PMG and encouraging him for a bit I asked if we could say a prayer. He agreed. So on a bench, with loads of people walking by, we said a prayer. We asked for strength, courage, guidance, and finished by asking if we could find someone that would be Baptized this transfer. After the prayer we both look up and there is a guy standing off to the left just watching us. I made eye contact with him and with a huge smile on his face he introduced himself. His name is Miyi and he began to explain why he was watching us. He said that he moved to Aber three weeks ago and that ever since he arrived he has been praying to find a church to join. He said that when he saw us praying the Spirit told him to stop and talk with us. He then said, "I Would like to join your church." It was a miracle. I was smiling from ear to ear. Elder Clelestini was in such shock and so grateful for this miracle that all he could ask was, "Can I hug you?" It was such a cool experience. It really got us pumped up for this transfer. On that day the Lord answered many prayers and I am so grateful to have witnessed such a miracle. I hope that everyone enjoyed conference! I gained a lot from it. I specifically liked Elder Anderson's talk of Faith. "Faith does not fall upon us by chance nor stay with us by birthright...The future of your faith is not by chance, but by choice." I definitely can't disagree with that one. Well I hope that all you have a great week! Love you!
Sunday, October 4, 2015
OUR RYAN COMES HOME IN LESS THAN 3 MONTHS!
9/28/2015 I have had such an amazing week! On Monday I was called to whitewash train for my last two transfers. I was kind of freaking out at first but now that it has sunk in I am super excited. There was a self reliance class on Tuesday for all of the missionaries that will be going home in the next 6 months. So I drove down to Birmingham with 3 other Elders in my zone to attend. It was very interesting. We took a test that will determine our interests and tell us what field we would be best in. We should get the results back soon. I am super excited to see what it says. On Thursday I had to go back to Birmingham for the Trainers meeting. I am the only Elder training this transfer. Crazy stuff. After the meeting I was pulled to the side by one of the Assistants, Elder Swinemar, and he told me that I will be whitewashing Aberystwyth again! wohoooooo! I am so excited to be going back! Not only that but I was told that my trainee is from Italy! He will be my first and only European companion. It will be really fun. We traveled a lot on Friday. In the morning we drove to Derby so that I could give training in their District Meeting. After that we drove back to Nottingham, ate lunch, and as we were getting ready to leave we got a call saying that we needed to go into Birmingham to pick up a knee brace for a missionary in our zone. When we got there we were able to meet President Leppard's son who just got off his mission the day before. He served his mission in Greece. Cool right? But after having a nice chat with all of them, we jumped back in the car, and drove to Derby to drop off the knee brace. We Made it back in time for us to set up the ward movie night. We watched 17 Miracles with members and investigators. It was great! I really love that movie. So this is where the week gets really good. We have been teaching Michal for the past 3 weeks and he is soaking up the Gospel. On Thursday he seemed really upset but didn't want to talk about it. He said that it was something that he would have to deal with. We were really worried because we didn't like the thought of him being so upset but we felt like we needed to move on so we continued to teach him about fasting. Anyway, On Friday he was supposed to come to the Movie night but never showed up... Again, we were really worried because we had no way of contacting him. His Baptismal Interview was scheduled for Saturday evening so we were freaking out because we were going talk to him about it on Friday and arrange it with him. But again we decided to keep the Interview scheduled and to pray that he would show up. And on Saturday evening he showed up! It was fantastic! And he passed his interview! The cool thing is that the miracles don't stop there. He was scheduled to be Baptized at 9am Sunday morning. And he told us that he would meet us at the Church at 8:30. But there was a problem. The Robin Hood Marathon was going on in the morning and nearly all of the buses were behind schedule or running different routes. So 8:30 rolled around and he was no where to be found. We thought that he missed his bus so we got together with some of the members and said a prayer that he would make it. At 9:10 we see a car pull up and Michal jumped out of it! He was Baptized yesterday and it went so well! It wasn't until after church though that he was able to tell us everything that happened. He was on a tram headed for city centre so that he could jump on the bus. But his tram got delayed. He saw that the tram wasn't going anywhere so he got out and ran nearly a mile to the bus stop. Michal waited there for 20 minutes but no bus came. He started to freakout so he just started to run for the church which is 4 miles away. As he was running he was praying that he would be able to stop someone and catch a ride but felt that wouldn't work so kept running. He was about half way there when a complete stranger pulled over and offered to give hime a ride! It was a miracle! The stranger saw him running in a suit at a dead sprint and wanted to help!! MIIRACLE!!! Even though everything was working against Michal getting Baptized yesterday he still made it. I have no doubt that the Church is True. How can it not be after something like that?
