1-12-15

THIS WEEK FLEW BY! Saturday came and I had no idea where the week had gone.  This week was great though! So many miracles! 

We had dinner with a member of our ward, Sister Lahaderne. She is from Italy and moved to America to marry her husband when she was 22. She has this gorgeous thick Italian accent and makes THE MOST DELICIOUS FOOD EVER! We went over on January 6th for dinner and she told us some of the Italian traditions.  Apparently they do the 12 days of Christmas after the 25th and Christmas officially ends of January 6th.  And that is the day where La Befana comes and gives all the good little girls and boys presents.  It's like the female version of Santa Claus.  But La Befana is a good witch that used to be a princess or something.  Haha, So on the 25th is when they have a family dinner and focus of Jesus Christ and on January 6th, the last day of Christmas is when they have all the presents and stockings and stuff.  She told us the best thing about La Befana was the stockings.  She always put the best gifts in the stockings.  So la Befana had come and gave Sister Storrs and I our stockings with Italian candies and socks.  It was so much fun.  

DANA MAY UPDATE! When we had thought we had everything under control we heard from some other missionaries that he had been talking about Sister Storrs to them and he even brought up to Brother Bailey that he liked her too.  OH GOODNESS.  But. the Lord is good, good, good.  We had a lesson with him and Brother Bailey brought him to the church to have our lesson.  Brother Bailey was aware of our unfortunate circumstances and spoke to him in the car while they waited for us. He told Dana that having those feelings were inappropriate and that Sister Storr's reason to be on a mission was not to date or get married but to bring people to Christ. He asked him why he wanted to be baptized and if seeing Sister Storrs was why he was meeting with us.  At the end of our lesson Dana said, "and I know I can't like Sister Storrs.  I don't want to get you fired or something."  hahahah WONDERFUL! He apologized and said that he didn't want to do anything to get us in trouble and wanted us to have a good mission.  Dana is getting baptized this Saturday! We are going to be seeing him everyday this week to follow up on Word of Wisdom and read the Book of Mormon with him, so that the adversary has no room to make any moves.  One of the biggest issues was his coffee.  He carries around this thermos type deal that he always has full of coffee.  He told us earlier that he was married to that cup and quitting coffee was going to be hard.  In our lesson we told him that he had to be clean from coffee and smoking a week before he could be baptized and that this week was critical for him to make his date.  I asked how badly he wanted to be baptized and he said he didn't want to be baptized but needed to.  I asked him if he had faith, he said he did.  So I asked him to give me his coffee mug.  He not only willingly handed over his coffee mug, but he gave us all his lighters, coffee grinds, and matches.  He emptied all his pockets and said, I will be baptized Saturday! Ain’t nothing going to stop me! It's Monday and he hasn't smoked for 4 full days or had any coffee.  We also gave him a challenge that whenever he saw a missionary that he had to go up to them and ask them to share with him their favorite scripture.  There are a million missionaries at the library right now and he is walking around to everyone telling them he is getting baptized and he wanted to know their favorite scripture.  I know Dana's love is to Sister Storrs, BUT I LOVE HIM! He is so ready! 

Dion, is another investigator we have who is friends with Dana. We met with him this week and he came to church with Dana and they both were wearing white shirts and ties! My heart melted.  It just melted.  I loved it.  Dion is on board and is loving church and reading the Book of Mormon, but the only issue is he is on probation and doesn't get off until October. :(  BOO! Maybe we can pull some strings...we shall see.

OKAY EVERYONE! Babi.  Babi Nakai is in our ward list as a recent convert. But no one knows who she is, where she came from or anything about her.  When I got here to Great Falls I added her on Facebook and messaged her.  I have been to her apartment 400 million times, but never had any success or spoken to her at all. Her name always came to my mind, never knew why.  But a could months ago I messaged her again, and this week I got a response.  She told me that she was a member and had been going through some difficult things and she knew it was time to get back to church.  She asked if we could meet up sometime and talk.  YES! We brought our Relief Society President and met with Babi.  She was baptized about 2 years ago in Arizona.  She had a little boy in Arizona and put him up for adoption and the family that adopted her son was LDS.  They invited her to church and Boom! She was baptized.  She has a little 1 year old girl now and told us that she knew she needed to go back to church and feel the happiness she felt when she was baptized.  And sure enough, she came this Sunday.  We are going to Institute with her on Tuesday. BOOM BABY! My whole time in Great Falls I have looked for her and here she is all ready and good to go.  I love it.  You just have to trust in the Lord's timing.  

This week at church between the Elders we share the ward with and us, we at 18 less actives and investigators at church. Can we just talk about that for a second?  18!  Let that number just soak in for a moment.  We worked our tails off to get people there. Penny Burkstrand is the most wonderful person on this earth.  I think I had written about her before.  But she gave us a key to her house.  She said to call and wake her up in the morning and if she didn't answer to come wake her up....so we did. It was probably the strangest thing I have ever done on my mission. But we went to her house and woke her up and got her car and clothes all ready for church. AND SHE CAME! It was a miracle.  She hasn't been in so long.  I was so happy to have her there.''

Also Penny Burkstrand's son's girlfriend took the lessons with Penny.  Her name is Myrissa and she stopped taking the lessons after a while and no one really knows why.  But she has lived such a rough life.  SO ROUGH.  And Penny's son is not much help either.  He is an abusive, drug addict and is just a terror.  Sister Storrs and I were with Penny this week and invited Myrissa to participate and she did.  It was really cool to hear her speak up and say what she thought. She is only 20 years old and has two kids and literally has the worst life I could ever imagine.  We asked her about her experience with the Book of Mormon and the church and she said she felt something when she read the book.  She offered the closing prayer and in it she said, "God, I know that I feel you when I read the Book of Mormon, and I believe it is true.  I know that when I feel your presence if must be from you and it must be good."  OHMYGOSH WHY ARE YOU NOT BAPTIZED.  We taught her the restoration later in the week and she said she wanted to be baptized and wanted to pray and figure out the day God wanted her to do that.  SO AWESOME! Sister Storrs and i have been praying for there to be some divine intervention when it came to her cray cray boyfriend.  And God answers prayers. He is in jail until the end of February. I am so excited to see what happens.

  

ANNNNDD! I had a come to Jesus talk with my main man Larry Albert.  I basically told him that God was giving him these resources and tools and it was up to him what he was going to do about it. I talked with him about constant progression and taking steps of faith.  He reads everything we ask him to.  He eats it up. But for some reason church is rough for him.  I asked him why he thought we asked him to read and to do things.  He said it was because we wanted him to grow with God. I asked him if the readings we asked him to do did help him grow with God.  He said it did that he felt so much closer to God than he had in awhile.  Then I asked him why he thought we invited him to church.  He got the idea. And I told him that I was leaving in 2 months and I wanted to see him get the priesthood before I left.  That I had been working with him for 4 1/2 months and I knew he was ready. I wouldn't invite him to do something he was not prepared for.  And Larry Albert came. I could have cried. I could have cried. His fellow shipper gave him a  ride home and told me later that Larry wanted to meet with him some time and talk about the Priesthood because he wanted to receive it.  Again, tears came out of my face. I love that man.  Sister Storrs thinks I am crazy, but as cheesy and creepy as it sounds I feel a connection and bond with Larry that I don't with most other people I work with. I know for a fact that I was supposed to meet him that he was why I was supposed to come on a mission and come to Great Falls.      

I have to run! President is in town to do interviews so I need to get out of here.  I love you all and LOVE this gospel.  I can't think of a better way to spend my time than doing the Lord's work. It is indeed the work of God. I feel his hand leading and guiding me in everything I do.  I love the people here and it is incredible to me that the Lord trusts me enough to entrust me with his beloved children. I hope and pray I am making Him proud. 

Love you!

Sister Molinsky