December 22, 2014

Hello friends and family! Merry Christmas!!

We had our Christmas party Iast Wednesday. Like last year, we went to an orphanage. I felt so much joy at the orphanage that we went to. It was SO powerful. It especially hit me when we were singing to them. When we were singing, I was suddenly filled with so much love and happiness. I realized later that that must have been the gift of charity that the Lord allowed me to have. All of it was such a special experience. As we were walking back, I was walking with another sister and she said, "Can you imagine? We were just in a room where they are all going to the Celestial kingdom." I realized that she was right. (They all had special needs, and so they were all innocent.) What a special experience to be with those special spirits. :) I love that feeling of doing something that the Savior would do. Going to that orphanage was the highlight of everything for me.

It was definitely very sad to say goodbye to all of the missionaries though. After they all gave their testimonies/said what they wanted to say, I ran over to Sister H because I needed a big hug. (I am so happy that the H's are here with us.)

On Thursday, we heard some super sad news. We were at an appointment with M, who will soon be baptized. When we sat down, she said, "Let me tell you what has happened with L (our other investigator/her granddaughter)." We asked what happened. She told us that L's former husband came up from Yerevan, completely drunk, had her come down from her apartment, and after a series of events, he hit her! He hit her in the face so hard that he broke her cheekbone, and part of the bone broke through the skin. She now has a terrible black eye. She went to the police and then to the doctor. Her eye was completely swollen shut, the day after it happened.

It explained why she had suddenly become more evasive that week. We called her up right then, told her that we had heard what happened, and said that we wanted to meet with her. She was embarrassed because she didn't want us to see her the way she was, but we insisted. We went the following day, and sure enough, she had a terrible black eye. We were able to have a really great lesson about the atonement, about how Christ understands everything that we go through and that we can gain strength through him. As she was saying the closing prayer, she thanked the Lord that we were able to come and comfort her. I'm really glad that we were able to go and visit her. We could see that she was hurting not only physically, but in many other ways (emotionally, etc.).

Speaking of that family, M and A were able to have their baptismal interviews this past Saturday, and they will both be getting baptized!! We are so happy for them. It was really funny because the next day in church, at least three times, said that she wanted to stand up in class and say how grateful she was to God that she had repented. It was so cute. She was simply beaming.

Tonight, we will be having a baptismal interview with E (she was part of the phone miracle that I talked about a couple of weeks ago). She really wants to be baptized with A, who introduced her to us. We were originally thinking that we had to push back her date because it was so hard to meet with her (with school and everything). However, we were talking to L (her mom)  about moving her date, and L said, "Do you know how sad she's going to be if you did that? She would cry. She's not going to want to ever come back!" I said, "Okay, then you have to make sure that we can meet with her both tomorrow (Sunday) and then on Monday for her baptismal interview. If we do that, then she can be baptized with M and A." So L said, "Okay, we'll make this happen."

So now she will be able to have her baptismal interview tonight. :) It's the best! I'm so happy that we were able to make this happen, because we literally were trying so hard to meet with her and it just wasn't working. (We'd plan up, and she wouldn't be there and those types of things.)

So many exciting things happening. :)

We also have found this amazing family this week. I have never met more humble and kind people. 

Since S tatik was baptized, S glasses felt that it was just about time to give us more investigators to teach. We tried to have her give them when we were teaching S tatik, but she said, "You wouldn't have time to do all of them! Let's wait until some of your investigators get baptized, and then I'll give them." 

So, she she feels like we would be able to have the time to teach more people, she has been referring some more families lately! One of those referrals was Z and M. They are such amazing people. They love Christ so much. Most Armenians believe in Christ, but with them it's more of a deep undercurrent of love and worship towards him that is not super common.

They loved us the minute that we walked in. M wasn't there the first time that we came, but Z was. We extended him a baptismal date for February 7th. The next day on Sunday, M was there. When we first met, she came up and gave me a big hug. She was filled with so much love. When we sat down, she said, "Sisters, when are we (she and Z) getting baptized??" We were thinking, "Woah, she beat us to the punch! We didn't even get to ask her." We told her February 7th, and she was really happy with that date.

It was such a miracle that we were able to find such elect, amazing people. There are so many miracles going on here in Vanadzor. I'm so happy!!

Can't wait to see my family on skype on Christmas (Christmas Eve for them). It's gonna be awesome!! 

Love you all!

Sister Fielding