Well this week really was a week of miracles. I have never seen the hand of God more in my life than this week. I was reading through some stuff on gospel library and I stumbled across this quote that I absolutley love.
Elder Neal A. Maxwell “The submission of one’s will is really the only uniquely personal thing we have to place on God’s altar. It is a hard doctrine, but it is true. The many other things we give to God, however nice that may be of us, are actually things He has already given us, and He has loaned them to us. But when we begin to submit ourselves by letting our wills be swallowed up in God’s will, then we are really giving something to Him”
When we sacrafice our wants and desires and really try to follow God -- that is really the only thing that we can give him that is truely ours. Being on a mission has taught me that I just need to trust in God -- his will and his timing -- and try my best to align my will with his. This past week we have really been trying to do that, and it was been one of the most rewarding weeks of my entire mission.
This is probably gonna be really long -- but there are just so many cool stories from this week. So something we have been doing recently is every morning before we leave the appartment we pray about what langaguge of Book of Mormon we should bring with us and then also where we should go. Berlin is a big place, so we look at a map of the public transportation options and we listen to the spirit and pick out a stop where we think we should go.
We tried this on Tuesday for the first time. We felt like we should go to this one stop called "Mendelsohn Bartholdy Park" -- this stop is basically right next to the inner city and usually would be really bad for street contacting due to the busyness and the tourists but we really feel like we should go there. I also really felt like I should take a French Book of Mormon. So we are finding around there with very little success, but about 20 minutes later we stop this one guy, and he asked if we could speak english, and we chatted with him for a while about the purpose of life (ya really cheesy i know) and talked a lot about the spirit and how to find truth. I noticed as we were talking that he had an accent --- I asked him where he was from it it was France. I pulled our the French Book of Mormon and told him how we had prayed to know which langauge to bring and where to go. We told him how much God loves and cares about each of us and that God set us in his path because he loves him individually. The spirit was really strong and he really wanted to learn more. We gave him the French Book of Mormon and got his # and email to send to the missionaries in France.
Then we had another miracle in the same area about 20 minutes later. So this needs a little bit of background (which is cool in and of itself). So we have this friend named Issa and everytime that we meet with him he brings his friends to listen. It's so awesome. He invited two friends for an appointment later in the week who we hadn't met yet. But then as we were talking with this woman on the street it turns out that she is one of the friends that Issa had invited! Issa had told her that there were these 2 young guys that were talking about a new prophet and she was interested and out of the 3 million people in Berlin we stop her on the street.... it was crazy. There are no such things as cooincidences folks. We gave her a Book of Mormon and gave her something to read before we meet with Issa and her. These 2 back to back miracles were crazy. I know that we were just the Lord's servants and all we had to do was listen to the promptings and inspiration of the holy ghost.
The next day we also did the same thing. We prayed about where we should go. We choose another kinda wierd spot, and started contacting on the way to our appointment. As we were walking thorugh this park we stopped a man. We talked for a few minutes and then he told us that he was actually a member as a kid in Brazil but hadn't been to church in about 25 years. He said he had actually walked by the church building a few days before and was thinking about it, then we happened to run into him a few days later. We gave him the address of the church, but he didn't want to meet or swap #s --- which is code for: I'm being nice but not really that interested -- and so we thought it was a cool miracle but didn't think anything would come of it. But then on Sunday HE CAME! When he walked in a little late tbh I didn't really pur the pieces together -- I just assumed he was a member that I didn't really get the chance to meet yet, but then he waves at us and I was like "Bruhhh Elder RIch!!! It's the long lost member guy!!!" It was so cool. After the meeting we were talking to him and he wants us to come and teach him and his family! It is so amazing. It's such an amazing miracle. To all you missionaries out there reading this -- I would ask y'all to think about your will and the Lord's will and try your best to align them. Pray to know what the Lord wants you to do, but then most importantly: Listen. He is will speak to you in very specific ways if you ask him specific questions. I think in general we all get caught up in asking for general things "Help me to be better" and "Help me to follow the spirit" -- which is good. But even better is asking for specific direction in our lives -- sometimes even making a plan; like the brother of Jared with the stones --- other times maybe just listening to what the Lord would have us do.
There was another cool quote I stumbled across this week. It's called the Serenity Prayer.
God, grant me serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.”
I hope that we can distingush the difference in our own lives.
On some more fun notes. We cleaned the apartment of some less active members... The pics will explain themselves
We also went to a concentration camp today. It was cool and very eye opening.
Actually the pics will have to wait -- because we are now away from the church and they went send on data soooo ja.
Love yall
:)
- Elder Johnson
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