What's kickin' in the hizzy back wif da home dawgs? Hey, it is so great to hear that everything is back to normal with the power and everything. I certainly hope that everyone is doing alright back on the home front even with all the stuff that went on.
Well, this week ended in a pretty similar way to last -- with some miracles. During Friday's weekly planning we talked about how we could get more people to church because, well, we have been getting our trashes kicked in that key indicator. And really, investigators coming to church is such a huge, huge thing because 1)the power of God is manifest in the ordinances of the Priesthood 2) it is an awesome to meet members, and members are a lot better missionaries than we are 3) and well, we just like to see them there, they bring a nice ambiance. So we thought about how we could do better with that and the idea that we decided on was to fast for it. So Saturday we started our fast and called a bunch of people. Sunday we had 6 investigators in church which is the most we have ever had so that was definitely an answer to fasting and prayer! One cool thing that happened in relation with that was that on Friday we were contacting and I met this mom and 9-ish year-old daughter (Nevila and Anja) on the road. Nevila said that she was looking for a good place for her two kids to come to church where they could be with other kids. I invited them to come and asked them if I could get a phone number to remind them about it which she said yes to. She came with her two kids, stayed for Sacrament Meeting and then left her kids for the next hour and then came and picked them up. Not exactly sure what the situation was there as I was focused on some other investigators a bit, but it was so cool to see them come and then say that they would see us next week at church!
So yeah, to continue on with that a bit, this upcoming Sunday will be Fast Sunday. Fasting is such a cool, cool blessing and principle and something that I know would benefit you to study a bit before, or as you fast. My favorite scripture about fasting is in Alma 17:2-3 about the sons of Mosiah, you should check it out.
Also, coming up on Saturday we looked at our lessons for the week and saw that we had to get 9 member lessons to achieve the standard once again, so we decided to do it again.
I think the coolest story that went with that decision came on Saturday morning. We had two lessons planned around 11 in the morning and had asked Motra Hanci (this awesome, hilarious lady in the branch who loves helping out missionaries and going to baptisms) to help us out with them. However, as we were calling the lessons as a last minute check a half-hour before, they both fell through on us. We called Motra Hanci to tell her not to come, but her friend picked up and told her that she had already left for the church. Well, we couldn't just let her come for nothing, so we started to call people. After a couple calls that didn't work, I said a little prayer and looked at the numbers and decided that we should call a guy named Ariol. He said that he would be a little late but that he could come, so that was awesome. Then we went and hit the street to see if we could get anyone to come in and learn about the Gospel a bit. We found this old xhaxhi who said yes and so we brought him in to have a lesson with Motra Hanci and us. That was a hilarious lesson, especially when he told us we had better Albanian tha Motra Hanci did (she has false teeth that make her speech somewhat incomprehensible...often I just wait for her to say "Ne emer te Jezu Krishtit, Amen" -- in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen -- and then say Amen back because she ends almost every sentence with that.) After the lesson with him our other lesson came and it was a good lesson with him.
But, we ended up hitting our goal again definitely with the help of the Lord. I think the biggest way to see that for me is that the good goals that we have might turn out in the end, but it is definitely in the way of the Lord and not of man.
Well, the Gospel was true last week, still is this week, and will always be...so live it! I love you so much and hope that you have a beautiful time over the Thanksgiving weekend this week and be grateful for a whole lot of stuff!
Love,
Elder Ostergaard
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