Monday, September 26, 2016

Instruments in his hands

Bonjour family & friends!

We had such a cool rendezvous with a new Ami that we found the week before. Her name is Nadjet and she is originally from Algeria. She was born into a Muslim family and was very practicing. After awhile she starting having questions and doubts that she realized couldn't be answered by her religion. Right now, she is "searching" for the answers to her questions. There are so many thoughts and questions she has that correspond with the gospel! We had a great lesson with her and introduce her to the Book of Mormon. She downloaded gospel library right there on the spot and said she is going to start reading the Book of Mormon. She isn't quite sure what she believes right now so she isn't even sure if there is a God. We asked her this week to pray to know if there is a God. She said she would do it! She already has shown a lot of faith by agreeing to pray even though she isn't sure if there is someone listening. We have another rendezvous this week and we will follow up!

We had a feeling that we should stop by a house of a new Ami. We had stopped by 2-3 times before and she had never been there. This time she happened to be home and let us in! We started to talking with her and she told us, "I'm usually never home at this time but today I felt that I needed to stay home a little longer." She said that this week had been especially hard for her and that it was a blessing that we stopped by and were able to share a little message. I'm glad we were able to do something to brighten her day!

This week we were teaching Flavie (the 11 year old who is preparing for baptism) and her grandma happened to be there. She isn't a member but decided to sit in on our lesson. After the lesson, she started asking questions about the Book of Mormon. She told us she wants to reads the Book of Mormon so she can know for herself. We told her we were more than happy to bring her one and then invited her to come to the family home evening that we were having with the them that week. Afterwards, we walked to the train station with Nene (Flavie's mom) and she was totally surprised by what just happened. She said that her mom has always been totally against the church and has wanted nothing to do it. At family home evening we were able to give her a Book of Mormon and commit her to read it! We are hoping we will be able to start teaching her as well. It's amazing how Heavenly Father is able to soften people's hearts and prepare them over the years to hear the gospel.

On Saturday, we went to a baptism the elders had for their Ami David! His conversion is actually a really cool story. When one of the elders that is here now was in his last area, he challenged a family to give away a Book of Mormon. They accepted and little while later they gave a Book of Mormon to their friend David that was living in Brussels. He started to reading and going to church on his own. This all happened during the time that there were no missionaries here in Brussels. A couple months later when missionaries were put back into Brussels, this same missionary who challenged the family to give away a Book of Mormon was transferred here and was able to start teaching David! He read the Book of Mormon 6 times before his baptism! There was no doubt that he is truly converted. This is a good example of how we can be instruments in the Lords hand if we listen to the spirit and its promptings. The longer and longer I am on my mission, the more and more I realize that the Lord is actively involved in the work of bringing souls unto him. "And this is the blessing which hath been bestowed upon us, that we have been made instruments in the hands of God to bring about this great work." (Alma 26:3) What a blessing it is to be one of those "instruments" in this marvelous work! Which each have the opportunity to play a part in someone's conversion if we choose to let ourselves be "instruments" in his hands.

Love, Sœur Johnson

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