GOD is in Charge! (Week 8)

Well this week has been different than the whole time I have been out here. Last P-day our district leader came into my area with my companion and I went into his area. We did this just for the evening. They went to this lady's house that Elder Webb (our district leader) had taught 1.5 years ago when he was in my area. They found her and she is interested in being taught again. Her name is Alaa Adam. She is from Sudan and has two sons, Taha and Isam. Alaa's first language is Arabic so we got in touch with the Persian Elders in the mission, and one of the Elders is from the Middle East and speaks Arabic. We had an English Class with Alaa and a lesson with her as well. The Elder who speaks Arabic handed the English class over to us, so now we are teaching an English class, haha. 

On Tuesday we had a lesson over the phone with this dude named Ecedro. He is interested and likes what we have to say. We invited him to Zoom church but he was driving home from Utah so we are going to try and get in contact with him again this week. On Wednesday, we had a lesson over Zoom with Francelia. She has been taught for a while now and ghosted us last transfer but we were finally able to set up a lesson with her and find out some of her needs. She says she doesn't really understand the Book of Mormon so we are going to start there with her and do our best to help her. 

Thursday we had our English class with Alaa and that was interesting for sure, haha, but one super cool thing that happened on Thursday was this: We saw these ladies moving stuff out of their apartment so we went and helped them move their stuff. Later, we saw them again and helped again. That night we noticed they were cleaning out their apartment and we decided to go over to see if there was anything we could do to help. The lady who answered the door said they were good but started talking to us and asking us questions. We told her what we believe in. We told her about the Godhead and we helped her understand that Mormons are Christians. She gave us her number and said she wanted to learn more about what we believe. We got back to the apartment and we're like, "We should give her a Book of Mormon." So we did and she was psyched about it and she told us that she wants to take a beginners class, haha. So after they move to wherever they are going, we will probably have a Zoom lesson with her and then pass her off to the missionaries in her area. It was super cool to give out a Book of Mormon during this time where we can't even approach people about the gospel. 

So many things happened this week and honestly it is because of God. He is helping us out so much. This whole past week we had other mini miracles and more contact with nonmembers. It has been super awesome! All of last transfer we had 2 lessons with nonmembers and just in the past week we had 8! God has really been helping us, and it is all on His timing. We were also able to visit and help out some other members in the ward and encourage them. We have been able to find ways to use our time more effectively. GOOD things have happened when we have humbled ourselves before God and prayed. ALL things that happened this past week that were good, happened only after we prayed. Not every time we prayed something good happened, but every time something good happened it was because we prayed.

The weekend was good and full of its own manifestations that God truly is in charge. Sunday was awesome. Brother Gali fed us breakfast. Like legit fed. We ate good, haha. Anyway, we also had a goood dinner from some other members. The coolest and most interesting thing was our lesson with Alaa. We brought one of the Priest's from our ward to the lesson to give him a little experience, haha. We asked Alaa about what she remembers from the missionaries that taught her in the past, and she told us she had previously been getting ready to be baptized but the missionaries stopped teaching her. So I asked her if she still wanted to be baptized, and she said yes. So Alaa is on date for September 27th! But there's more... We read 2 Nephi 31 with her and emphasized that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ want us to be baptized and that Jesus set the perfect example. Alaa understands that baptism makes us clean but I don't think she understands how we can become clean, which is because and through Jesus Christ. If you couldn't guess Alaa is Muslim. So she has some contradicting beliefs, haha. It is pretty funny. To keep it short, we have some things to work on with her and we are having her read the Book of Mormon everyday and will be meeting with her 3-5 times a week. Everyone please pray for Alaa. We are going to do our best to help prepare her for baptism. There is a little bit of a language barrier but that just proves the Spirit is the teacher!

God is in charge! He is in charge of the outcome of His great work, His harvest. He only asks that we labor diligently and He will take care of the rest (Jacob 5).

Elder Shockley