It started to snow like crazy this week, starting last monday. Then, when we were figuring out what was in our community closet thing, we found Christmas decorations and a small Christmas tree! So exciting! So we brought out our little tree, put it in a stand (a cylinder container which we filled with old rice and wheat #missionarylife), and decorated it! Then we put up the rest of the decorations, while listening to Josh Groban.
And in reference to Josh Groban, Mom, I got my package this week! So exciting. I put all of the presents under the tree. And considering that you can't listen to Christmas music AFTER Christmas (usually) and I already saw the two CD'S (they weren't wrapped), we decided to put them to good use. They are awesome!
I've never really listened to David Archuleta's Christmas CD before, but it was way good.
Man, you should have seen Sister B's face when I said that we had Josh Groban's Christmas CD to listen to. Her face lit up and she said, "I listen to that CD every year at Christmas time!!!" Yeah, we were psyched. Now I just have to exert self-control and not open any of the presents for another 25 days. Bah, the difficulties of the Christmas season. Hah
However, in regard to the snow, most of it has been melting (the best). It was freezing yesterday though. There were clear skies and wind chill. So yeah, a little chilly...
Barev President,
This has been a week full of a whole lot of everything.
It was crazy because on Tuesday, after District meeting, we were waiting for our member present to come to the church so that we could go to an appointment. Well, these two ladies just showed up out of nowhere, right into the church. They said that they wanted to know more about our church. Well, Vanadzor 1's investigator was being interviewed for his baptism, and so Vanadzor 1 was waiting for them to get done.
Well, we were running out to an appointment and so Vanadzor 1 were able to take them into a room, answer questions, and teach them part of a 1st.
Okay, that was so random. Miracle, anyone??
Anyways, that night, we're at M's and A's house, and let me tell you, that house was PACKED. The H's had met M by chance, realized that she was our investigator, and so they really wanted to come to our next lesson with her. So we invited them. We wanted there to be a member there too, and so we invited S glasses to come too. And then S glasses invited her friend (who's also a member--S) to be there too. So with A and M there (our investigators), the H's, both of us, S glasses, S, and then later another girl, it was altogether 9 people in an approximately 49 sq. feet kitchen. It was an experience.
Anyways, we get there, and A was saying that one of his relatives' daughter wanted to come over for the lesson. So she came (she was the girl I just mentioned who came in), and she was a really quiet and sweet teenage girl. Well, to compensate that there was a possible new investigator who hadn't heard that much about the church, we decided to teach about how Follow the Prophet and talk about prophets for a bit.
As the lesson went on, we found out that that girl had heard from A about the President Bennett meeting on Saturday, and wanted to go. She went, and loved it, and wanted to be baptized. Well, when we were getting ready to head out, we found out that she wanted to be baptized. Since she was underage (fourteen years old) and would need her parents' permission to be taught and baptized, we set up an appointment for Thursday (two days later) and got her contact information.
Okay, now after that appointment, we went to one of our tatiks' house for a lesson. We had a good little lesson on Tithing and Fasting, and afterwards we needed the phone for something. Well, we went to go and get the phone when we realized that the phone was missing. We searched all of our pockets and all of our bags, but it was nowhere to be found.
It was a pretty clean house, without any clutter, and so we realized that it wasn't there.
Super stressful. We went back to M's house, tried to knock on the door (more like bang on the door because she never hears her door), but there was no answer. So we had to go back home--phoneless.
The next day, we went back early to M's, and she let us in, but to no avail. It wasn't there.
Well, through a lot of series of events (and possibly going to the police station to see if it had been turned in), we called up A using the H's phone. And he said that he had the phone! The teenage girl with him (E) had found it.
Simultaneously, Vanadzor 3 elders called us. When we called them back, they said, "Hey, we found your phone!" We were super confused. We were all like, "Wait a second. What do you mean you've found our phone? WE'VE found our phone."
They said that the lady who walked into the church after district meeting had our phone. We were both super confused.
Anyways, they give us the phone number of the lady, and sure enough she says that she had our phone. She said that her DAUGHTER found it. We were all like, "Wait. Are you E's mom!??" She said, "Yeah, I am!!" It was CRAZY.
So instead of meeting with them all on Thursday, we met with them that night on Wednesday. Apparently the Lord wanted us to meet with them as soon as possible. And man, their family is so prepared. They had a baptismal date for January 10th, but then asked if they could be baptized on the same day as A, their relative (December 27th).
Okay, now I can tie all of the links together now. A is super close to this family. When we started teaching him and his mom, he went and was telling E's family about our meetings and about how there was going to be a meeting in Yerevan with President Bennett, and they got really interested. So Elise went to Yerevan, loved it, and came home and told her family all about it. They all got super excited and decided that they wanted to be baptized. So the following Tuesday, her mom came to the church, and then we met with E that night at M's and A's. Then the Lord, through our phone dropping our of our pockets onto the ground, arranged for us to try to get over to this family ASAP.
I know that this was super long, but it really is such a testimony to me that the Lord works through many different ways to accomplish his purposes. He knew that there was a super awesome, prepared family that needed the gospel, and he provided a way for us to try to get over there as soon as possible.
The mom (L) and her daughter (E), with A and M, came to church for all three hours. Plus, E's grandma E (who has the same name) has been reading the book of Mormon like crazy. She got all the way up to 1st Nephi 20, which is about 50 pages in the Armenian Book of Mormon.
They are going to do so good.
So that was probably the most exciting thing this week.
Also, we have been working with an in-active that we found out lived in Tashir. She is awesome. She hasn't been to church in about 5-6 years because they moved and fell through the cracks. She just has goodness coming off of her though. She has fallen into habits such as drinking coffee. She was drinking about 5-6 cups of coffee every day. Well, we asked her to cut back to only drinking about 3 cups of coffee every day. She said she would do it.
Well, the next time we met with her, she was really excited to tell us that she had done it--she had cut back to only 3 cups of coffee, on one day, she didn't drink hardly any! So then we committed her to only drink 2 cups a day. I could tell on her face that it would be hard for her to do, but she committed to do it. She has such a good spirit. She feels like an investigator because she's forgotten nearly all of the doctrine, and has some habits that we're trying to help her break. I love her so much . :)
Well, I am wondering how we can do better at finding, because we didn't get very many investigators last week. We hope that we can find some MORE awesome, prepared families. :)
P.S. I love Sister B so much. I've been SO blessed to have her as a companion!! (Tyler, future wife. Let's get this going!) Haha
By the way, S, one of our tatiks that we're teaching, is getting pretty close to her baptism. So exciting!
Well, love you all!
Sister Fielding
1. It's wintertime!
2. What we saw outside when we woke up the next day.
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