tender mercies

fridge from our vegan week.

Hi everyone! This was a week of tender mercies. I love the little things when I can see the Lords hand in my life and really feel like His servant. I am grateful for the times when I know that I can be humble enough and worthy to do His work--which is not always, but in those rare times when it happens, I feel so grateful!

We started this week and taught our wonderful vegan friend. She is stronger than ever in faith. She, this week, encountered some opposition with her father about baptism! Which, as scary as it can be sometimes, was actually wonderful. We would never want to baptize someone whose testimony could not endure a little wind in the storm. She has gone completely from not believing a god could exist to relying entirely on prayer throughout every day. The light shines out of her so brightly! We saw her mother in the grocery store this morning, and she told us how grateful she was for us, and that her daughter has completely changed and is really a light. I was so grateful that she recognized the light of Christ in her daughter as well! I am continuously amazed daily, hourly by how blessed I am to see this change in her.

ANYWAY so tender mercies.

We painted a playground this week, and though it was really going to rain, it stopped for about an hour and a half, just enough time for us to paint! We had a lot of success and I successfully also painted myself. I had flashbacks to the halloween when I spray painted my hair black to be Mulan when I was trying to scrub the wood stain out of my hair.

So, also, we had the most incredible experience wednesday, where we were trying to be really spiritual about when we were going tracting, and we felt like we should go in the morning (Which, was so incredibly inconvinient, let me tell you), and we just did it and followed it. On the way there, I was prompted to stop a woman on the way. She said, yes, you can talk to me, but I am in a hurry, so you can walk with me. Turns out, she is the sister of a young man serving a mission from our branch right now in England. I have only heard things about him and his family. She said their family considers our church a sect, and that it is a large burden and pain and embarrassment for them. They feel like they have lost him. We reassured her of the truthfulness of the gospel and that he is on a mission because he cares about his family! I felt the spirit so strongly testifying of our words. I think her heart may have been softened just a little more, and though she did not give her information or take a book of mormon, she took our card and agreed that if they needed anything they would call. Walking away, I could not help but start to cry because of 1) the love I felt for this missionary and his family and 2) The goodness of Heavenly father in answering probably countless prayers said by that Elder and others, and our humility and callings that allowed us to work through Him. I was so grateful! I hope that this family can feel the blessings they are recieving. I hope we can help them if we need to.

Tender Mercy: Sister Ross has seen Zorro and the Gay Blade.

Tender Mercy: We had a really delicious slovak meal, that was strangely yummy. Potatoes and noodles. TOGETHER

Tender Mercy: Slovaks help their neighbors! We really could not find this apartment we needed to go to, and we asked a man if he knew where it was, and he went completely out of his way, dropped everything he was doing, and helped us find it. He literally walked us right up to the door of this apartment and was like, ring this bell. I was so grateful that slovaks really live the law of loving their neighbor as themselves.

Tender Mercy: We ran into this really old deaf woman that sister eggers and I helped with books one time, and she was SO HAPPY to see us. I have never been hugged around the neck in such an aggressive, loving way! I was really just filled with love for this woman and could not help but have a huge goofy grin on my face the entire time I was talking with her.

Tender Mercy: We went tracting and talked to so many people! After only an hour, we had already given away four kniha mormonovas and gotten three return appointments. Some say it is the fantastic weather but I say that they are prepared and the spirit touched their hearts!

Well, that is pretty much all. I emailed later last week so it has been shorter. I am really enjoying the little stories and comparisons I am finding in conference talks. Here is one I found this morning

(From Elder Gibsons priesthood talk)
"My father taught me a significant lesson when I was young. He sensed that I was becoming too enamored with temporal things. When I had money, I immediately spent it—almost always on myself.
One afternoon he took me to purchase some new shoes. On the second floor of the department store, he invited me to look out the window with him.
“What do you see?” he asked.
“Buildings, sky, people” was my response.
“How many?”
“A lot!”

He then pulled this coin from his pocket. As he handed it to me, he asked, “What is this?”
I immediately knew: “A silver dollar!”
Drawing on his knowledge of chemistry, he said, “If you melt that silver dollar and mix it with the right ingredients, you would have silver nitrate. If we coated this window with silver nitrate, what would you see?”
I had no idea, so he escorted me to a full-length mirror and asked, “Now what do you see?”
“I see me.”
“No,” he replied, “what you see is silver reflecting you. If you focus on the silver, all you will see is yourself, and like a veil, it will keep you from seeing clearly the eternal destiny Heavenly Father has prepared just for you.”
“Larry,” he continued, “‘seek not the things of this world but seek … first … the kingdom of God, and to establish [His] righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you’” (Joseph Smith Translation, Matthew 6:38 [in Matthew 6:33, footnote a]).
He told me to keep the dollar and never lose it. Each time I looked at it, I was to think about the eternal destiny that Heavenly Father has for me."

In Slovakia they say that we need to have " Boh ako naše prve miesto", or to have "God as our first place". If we look at God first, he will not just show us a reflection of ourselves now, but he will show us a reflection of what we can become and of the peoples eternal destinies around us! This is something I am so grateful for (When I remember to do it). I love this work and I love the gospel. Every bit of it is true.

S laskou,

Sestra Abbott