Čudež, Čudo, or Miracles... it doesn’t matter what language I say it in, I just want you all to know this week was a week of MIRACLES!!!!! Seriously such a good week!
At the beginning of this month, we set goals as a district. The numbers I was coming up with were much higher than what my district was comfortable with... they knew the area and I had been here for two days and I threw out numbers that we all knew would stretch us. I knew God would bless us to reach whatever goal we set, and they knew it too. We set some high goals... some were over double the previously reached goals... well, I am happy to report that we reached literally every. single. goal. Including having a baptism!! This last week we still needed to find about 15 new friends to teach and extend solid dates for baptism to a few people to reach these goals... but the Lord cleared every path for us to do it. It was such a huge miracle for me to see! It built my faith a ton to see God literally make all our goals possible. I love knowing that we can achieve anything the Lord wants.
Sister R. left me this week for an exchange. Sister W. came to be with me for the week. It was a really cool learning experience. While on exchange we went tracting (knocking doors) in a certain building. We walked up the 13 flights of stairs so we could work our way down... well after knocking a few doors, we heard someone a floor below us doing pretty much exactly what we were doing. Turns out, a different religious group had also felt prompted to knock that building and they were busy handing out pamphlets to all of our elect in that building haha. We realized we were not going to get very far following someone else’s knocking and decided to leave the building. There was a park on the front of it and that is my favorite thing because it means FAMILIES!!!! I walked up to one of the moms and started talking to her. In my broken Croatian, I kind of felt like my offer to do Family Home Evening with her and her cute family was not being accepted as readily as I hoped. I finally decided to just give her a card and ask her to look up our website. When she looked at the card she asked, “Wait, are you a Mormon?” I had read the verse in the scriptures that morning that says “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ...” so I very quickly responded with a big grin. “Yes!!! I am!” She got a huge smile on her face and opened up. She said “Oh my, I didn’t know you were a Mormon! I love you guys! You have such good beliefs!” This was the first time I have seen that reaction on my mission! It was so cool to see her open up once she not only understood who I represent but HOW. I belong to HIS church and I wear His name. It was such a cool experience for me. We will be teaching her perfect little family soon.
Almost everyone we taught this week had questions about the plan of salvation. I have grown a huge appreciation for our understanding of this topic. I loved being able to answer questions and bear my testimony on the truths that we know concerning where we are from and where we are going and WHY WE ARE HERE!!!! The plan of salvation is easily my favorite lesson to teach and study and it has been a theme of my mission. I am thankful for the added revelation we have concerning these questions. GOD IS NOT SILENT! He not only wants us to return to Him but He has literally given us everything we need to achieve that. The odds are stacked in our favor. I love His purpose. I love my purpose. I love our God.
Can I take a second and express my love for the gift of tongues. It is SO. REAL!!! I am in such a cool place to see that come true. This week, I taught 3 lessons in just Croatian. Slovene didn’t come out! My companion, upon returning from her week away from me, was FLOORED during one lesson when Croatian came out with each word… and it was correct. One investigator started crying during one of our lessons this week. I was bearing my testimony on something and she stopped me with tears in her eyes and said "That was perfect Croatian!" The help I have received with learning this second language is unreal. It is evidence to me that God really wants me to be able to communicate with His children here in Croatia. I love that. I love that He loves them enough to help me learn another hard language. It has been so cool. This morning I wrote down all the words I learned this week and it was well over 500. God is helping me learn quickly so that His work can go forward as He wants.
I love being a part of a work of miracles. I have seen His hand every single day this week. He leads this work and I love being a part of it!
I LOVE YOU ALL!
Sestra Higgins