A WEEK OF MIRACLES - LANKWITZ [ BERLIN ]

February 24, 2014

Dearest Family:  Dad, Mom, McKay, Heather, Nakita, Andrew, Hayden ÜÜÜÜ 

Guten Tag!  Today is a beautiful day here in Deutschland, and the SUN IS SHINING :D.  

So, pretty much this week was a week of MIRACLES.  

We met a small, young family on the street one of my first weeks here in Berlin.  They were from Serbia and since this initial meeting we haven’t had any success in meeting with them again.  They live in a Auslanderheim, which is where people live who have migrated here from other countries.  (Being a missionary has helped me to have so much more patience . . . :)).  I don’t even know how often we have been there and our lessons have fallen out.  

One day we were there, and surprise, our appointment fell out.  We were pretty discouraged, but we made the best of the situation.  We changed our attitude and determined that we would find a new person before our next appointment.  Literally right after, we walked into a young woman and her grandmother and brother.  BAM!  More people from Serbia!  They received the Serbian Books of Mormon.  

So . . . A few days later we find ourselves back at the original Auslanderheim.  Now we are trying to meet with the original Serbische Familie and the second . . . Unfortunately once again we didn’t make it past the grumpy old man at the front office once again.

Why do we keep trying?  Well, We are missionaries and that is what we do!! :)

So we went on. . . I had four books of Mormon in my backpack and they were all in Serbian . . . 

As we are walking along the road we start speaking to a man.  He spoke no German and no English.  But hey, the gospel of Jesus Christ is for EVERYONE.  He speaks Serbian!  Serbisch!  

We pulled out the Book of Mormon from my back pack.  We held it up to him and his eyes got so big.  He was so excited and so happy.  He only really understood our words when we said ''Jesus Christus'' or ''Jesus Christ''.  But we would come to find that it was not our words that would get to him.  He couldn't understand our language, only the language of the Spirit.  He almost started crying as we spoke to him. He held up his arms and showed us that he had goose bumps. I showed him the picture from a pamphlet we had (Also in Serbian!!) of Joseph Smith and his vision of God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son.


 He read the last two paragraphs in the Book of Mormon from the introduction : 

''We invite all men everywhere to read the Book of Mormon, to ponder in their hearts the message it contains, and then to ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ if the book is true. Those who pursue this course and ask in faith will gain a testimony of its truth and divinity by the power of the Holy Ghost. (See Moroni 10:3–5.)

Those who gain this divine witness from the Holy Spirit will also come to know by the same power that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, that Joseph Smith is His revelator and prophet in these last days, and that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lord’s kingdom once again established on the earth, preparatory to the Second Coming of the Messiah.''

This experience really showed me the power of the Holy Ghost in conversion.  Here was a humble man, who was open to the power of God coming to his heart and bearing record of truth.

Since this initial meeting we have been to visit him and his family.  (Again at an Auslanderheim, except  somehow this one actually likes us and the fact that we are from the church . . . ).  Picture a one room apartment with several beds surrounding the walls, a small table, and a tv in the corner.  Picture us sitting there not understanding anything one another was saying but understanding each other all at the same time.

We prayed together that we would understand through the Spirit what one another was saying.  At first the Father wasn’t even there.  It was just the mother and two sons.  The Book of Mormon placed carefully on the table.  The mother especially was so eager to listen to us.  It was obvious that she had talked with her husband.

We watched ''The Restoration'' in Serbian with them.  There was such an intense feeling of peace in the room.  I felt such joy that I almost burst into tears.  The man walked in right at the part where Joseph Smith is in the grove praying.  Then he is visited by God and Jesus Christ.  There was such a sense of excitement in the room among the members of the family even though nobody said anything.  

Then we watched the part where Joseph Smith Senior gets baptized.  At this point the mother almost leaped out of her chair.  She pointed to the tv screen and then pointed to herself.  She had such a smile on her face and then she pointed to her husband and at her children sitting around the room.  

They already know that our message is special and of great worth.  They have already received a testimony from the Spirit that what we have is in fact true, the word of God.

When we talked to them about church we pulled out one of our cards with the address on it.  One of them stood up and ran to a cupboard and pulled out another card exactly like the one we had.  It was a little crumbled, but you could see that it had been carefully placed in a safe spot.  It was the original card we had given to the man when we met him.

We went back to this Auslanderheim yesterday because we planned to meet with this family again.  We brought a man with us who can speak Croatian, great ol' Miroslav!!  I am starting to think that these languages are the most helpful languages because EVERYBODY in this auslanderheim has this language in common no matter who they were or where they were from or what their native language was.  So pretty much, we didn’t even make it past the front staircase in this apartment house because EVERYBODY wanted to hear from us and hear about our message.  So we will be going back tomorrow with probably bags full of books in pretty much every language we have.  MIRACLES.

Another incredible experience we had with J***  He has really been reading in the Book of Mormon lately. I think he is a classic example of someone ''feasting upon the word of God''.  He told us about the feeling that he gets as he reads in the Book.  ''It's like I am an empty barrel, and like I am getting filled with water. It is a special feeling.'' He described the overwhelming feeling that comes over him, like a cloud of feeling that surrounds him.  HOLY GHOST!!!  I just don’t understand one thing though.  He KNOWS that God is real, and that Jesus Christ is the son of God.  He has received a testimony from the Holy Ghost that the Book of Mormon is the word of God.  That our church is in fact the true church.  But he is still scared of baptism and the commitment because of his Chinese identity.  How can he overcome the fear that he has to be baptized?  I have faith though that he can overcome anything though.  Just like my phrase that has become a part of me . . . I can do all things through Christ.  I know that he can too.

I love you all!  I hope you have a great week!

Love,

Heidi