"God answers knee-mail"
and
"A lot of kneeling keeps you in good standing"
Great stuff. Great stuff. Anyway, for those of you that have been keeping an eye on the weather here in Georgia and worried that I may have been buried in a snow drift, let me assure you, all is well. School was cancelled and Valdosta waited with baited breath for the "snow storm" that was coming. We woke up in the morning, looked out the windows and...... nothing. Nothing but wet roads, although it was mighty chilly. And then this week, I've been wearing short sleeves. 35 degrees one day, and then 80 the next. I really under-appreciated that weather app on my phone at home. Just another one of those things that I took for granted pre-mission. Along with being able to google anything, especially song lyrics haha. Speaking of music, all 8 of us missionaries (4 in each ward) actually sang in both sacrament meetings in church yesterday. It was a beautiful arrangement of "A Marvelous Work", with a violin accompaniment, and the congregation joins in at the end singing "The Spirit of God." It was so powerful. I am so very lucky to be able to sing and spend my time with such wonderful people. An amazing thing happened when we were performing. We had practiced this song in the chapel many times, and we all knew what we sounded like. At the very end of the song, the congregation stops singing, and it's just the 8 of us again. Well, when we sang it in church and it was just the 8 of us at the end, there were many more voices singing than just our 8. No one in the congregation was singing, but we were surrounded by more voices. It was beautiful.
In a change of pace, in case y'all don't know, there's a phrase in the Tifton Zone that we say to each other all the time. One day, as the other sisters were leaving the apartment, I raised my hand Spock-style and told them to "Live long and baptize." Since then, that's kind of been our motto around these parts and we even made district shirts with that written on them. The point of this all is that although E is not going to be baptized this week (it will happen!), we had a wonderful miracle occur. We have been working with V since we first moved to Valdosta. She's the C's niece who lives with them, and she had many questions about the church and doctrine. And things are made even more difficult because she speaks limited English and Bro. Calel has to translate for us. Well, last week we decided to watch the Restoration DVD with her in Spanish. And woweewowwow was that a spiritual experience. She had tears in her eyes the entire time. And at the end of the video, she turned to us and said, "That was my dream." SHE HAD A DREAM OF THE FIRST VISION PEOPLE! How amazing is that?? And she told us that she knew it was true, that nothing else had ever made her feel like that before. So, we told her to pray about baptism. When we arrived for her lesson this week, she told us that she had prayed and wanted to baptized on the 16th, her birthday. We were a bit taken aback, because that was in a week! But we were so excited. We suggested her baptism on the 15th, and then she could receive the gift of the Holy Ghost on her birthday? What better gift could you receive on your birthday than the greatest gift we can receive in this life?? So, V will be baptized this week, the very last week of the transfer. A true miracle. She is such an amazing and strong young woman. A single mom, 18 years old, in a new country, and ready to make this wonderful and important step in her life. We are so happy for her.
Heavenly Father placed so many people into our path this week. It felt like everywhere we walked, someone was there that introduced in talking with us. One experience that was especially awesome starred C and B. We had an appointment with a family, however they weren't home, so Sister Waddoups and I were standing in a nearby parking lot, trying to decide where we should walk next. As we were standing there, we heard a man hollering at us through a chain link fence. We looked over to see if he really was talking to us and he was indeed. As he didn't look particularly threatening or scary, we walked over. He then asked us if we had any pamphlets or anything that he could read with his wife. We answered absolutely, and walked around the fence. We then taught them a fantastic little lesson as they sat on their front stoop. They loved what we taught, and agreed to be baptized on March 8th! (My sister Sophie's birthday!) It was pretty wonderful.
We also ran into R, who was playing with her kids outside of her house one sunny day as we were walking to an appointment. We stopped and talked to her for a while and she seemed to enjoy what we said, even though there was a slight language barrier (have I mentioned how upset I am that I can't speak Spanish lately??), and set up a time to come back and teach. When we handed her a card with our number and and the appointment time, she started laughing and pointed to mormon.org. She then said, "Oh, you are Mormons?" with a chuckle. We responded yes, and she laughed and shook her head like she should have known haha. She said that she actually had quite a few questions for us. When we came back later in the week, she let us right in and we had a very spiritual lesson. She told us that she NEVER lets people into her house, but she was very curious about what we had to say and she said that she could see the love we had for people in our eyes. She is such a sweetheart and I love her already.
One final story: So I told y'all about the amazing J, who is finishing up his studies at VSU, then heading to law school, and just recently got baptized. He is the one that got up in testimony meeting before he was even baptized and bore his testimony about how good he felt about the church. He's so awesome. Anyway, on Sunday we had an appointment scheduled with a young guy we've been teaching and asked if J would like to be there. He and the guy are close in age, and we thought they'd get along great. Well, we got to the church (where we were having our lesson) with the other sisters in tow (because we needed more girls present), and A never showed up. However, J had asked if he could bring his friend B along, and we ended up having a wonderful spiritual discussion in the chapel. B has been going through quite a rough patch and is looking for peace and direction. When we walked into the chapel, he looked around and said, "This is beautiful..." Now you have to understand, B is a pretty intimidating fellow, a former boxer, with tattoos over every inch of him. And when he walked into that chapel, his whole demeanor changed. His shoulders that had been so tense before, instantly relaxed and he just looked... peaceful. As we were talking, he told us that "There is something different about this place." We are teaching him again tonight, and we could not be more excited. He's a great guy.
I am so happy to be here in Valdosta, and have loved my experience here thus far. Transfers are next week, so I may or may not be staying in Valdosta/getting a new companion, but wherever I am or whoever I'm with, I know Heavenly Father has put me there for a reason. He always has a plan for us. I'll know my fate by next week, and will update y'all then.
One last thought from this week:
Would you change something in your life right now if you were promised a deeper and stronger sense of peace? Would you? Because I can promise that that change is found in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Nothing else can bring you more peace. True, complete, all-encompassing peace.
I love you all, so much. Stay strong.
Sister Szilagyi
"A lot of kneeling keeps you in good standing"
Great stuff. Great stuff. Anyway, for those of you that have been keeping an eye on the weather here in Georgia and worried that I may have been buried in a snow drift, let me assure you, all is well. School was cancelled and Valdosta waited with baited breath for the "snow storm" that was coming. We woke up in the morning, looked out the windows and...... nothing. Nothing but wet roads, although it was mighty chilly. And then this week, I've been wearing short sleeves. 35 degrees one day, and then 80 the next. I really under-appreciated that weather app on my phone at home. Just another one of those things that I took for granted pre-mission. Along with being able to google anything, especially song lyrics haha. Speaking of music, all 8 of us missionaries (4 in each ward) actually sang in both sacrament meetings in church yesterday. It was a beautiful arrangement of "A Marvelous Work", with a violin accompaniment, and the congregation joins in at the end singing "The Spirit of God." It was so powerful. I am so very lucky to be able to sing and spend my time with such wonderful people. An amazing thing happened when we were performing. We had practiced this song in the chapel many times, and we all knew what we sounded like. At the very end of the song, the congregation stops singing, and it's just the 8 of us again. Well, when we sang it in church and it was just the 8 of us at the end, there were many more voices singing than just our 8. No one in the congregation was singing, but we were surrounded by more voices. It was beautiful.
In a change of pace, in case y'all don't know, there's a phrase in the Tifton Zone that we say to each other all the time. One day, as the other sisters were leaving the apartment, I raised my hand Spock-style and told them to "Live long and baptize." Since then, that's kind of been our motto around these parts and we even made district shirts with that written on them. The point of this all is that although E is not going to be baptized this week (it will happen!), we had a wonderful miracle occur. We have been working with V since we first moved to Valdosta. She's the C's niece who lives with them, and she had many questions about the church and doctrine. And things are made even more difficult because she speaks limited English and Bro. Calel has to translate for us. Well, last week we decided to watch the Restoration DVD with her in Spanish. And woweewowwow was that a spiritual experience. She had tears in her eyes the entire time. And at the end of the video, she turned to us and said, "That was my dream." SHE HAD A DREAM OF THE FIRST VISION PEOPLE! How amazing is that?? And she told us that she knew it was true, that nothing else had ever made her feel like that before. So, we told her to pray about baptism. When we arrived for her lesson this week, she told us that she had prayed and wanted to baptized on the 16th, her birthday. We were a bit taken aback, because that was in a week! But we were so excited. We suggested her baptism on the 15th, and then she could receive the gift of the Holy Ghost on her birthday? What better gift could you receive on your birthday than the greatest gift we can receive in this life?? So, V will be baptized this week, the very last week of the transfer. A true miracle. She is such an amazing and strong young woman. A single mom, 18 years old, in a new country, and ready to make this wonderful and important step in her life. We are so happy for her.
Heavenly Father placed so many people into our path this week. It felt like everywhere we walked, someone was there that introduced in talking with us. One experience that was especially awesome starred C and B. We had an appointment with a family, however they weren't home, so Sister Waddoups and I were standing in a nearby parking lot, trying to decide where we should walk next. As we were standing there, we heard a man hollering at us through a chain link fence. We looked over to see if he really was talking to us and he was indeed. As he didn't look particularly threatening or scary, we walked over. He then asked us if we had any pamphlets or anything that he could read with his wife. We answered absolutely, and walked around the fence. We then taught them a fantastic little lesson as they sat on their front stoop. They loved what we taught, and agreed to be baptized on March 8th! (My sister Sophie's birthday!) It was pretty wonderful.
We also ran into R, who was playing with her kids outside of her house one sunny day as we were walking to an appointment. We stopped and talked to her for a while and she seemed to enjoy what we said, even though there was a slight language barrier (have I mentioned how upset I am that I can't speak Spanish lately??), and set up a time to come back and teach. When we handed her a card with our number and and the appointment time, she started laughing and pointed to mormon.org. She then said, "Oh, you are Mormons?" with a chuckle. We responded yes, and she laughed and shook her head like she should have known haha. She said that she actually had quite a few questions for us. When we came back later in the week, she let us right in and we had a very spiritual lesson. She told us that she NEVER lets people into her house, but she was very curious about what we had to say and she said that she could see the love we had for people in our eyes. She is such a sweetheart and I love her already.
One final story: So I told y'all about the amazing J, who is finishing up his studies at VSU, then heading to law school, and just recently got baptized. He is the one that got up in testimony meeting before he was even baptized and bore his testimony about how good he felt about the church. He's so awesome. Anyway, on Sunday we had an appointment scheduled with a young guy we've been teaching and asked if J would like to be there. He and the guy are close in age, and we thought they'd get along great. Well, we got to the church (where we were having our lesson) with the other sisters in tow (because we needed more girls present), and A never showed up. However, J had asked if he could bring his friend B along, and we ended up having a wonderful spiritual discussion in the chapel. B has been going through quite a rough patch and is looking for peace and direction. When we walked into the chapel, he looked around and said, "This is beautiful..." Now you have to understand, B is a pretty intimidating fellow, a former boxer, with tattoos over every inch of him. And when he walked into that chapel, his whole demeanor changed. His shoulders that had been so tense before, instantly relaxed and he just looked... peaceful. As we were talking, he told us that "There is something different about this place." We are teaching him again tonight, and we could not be more excited. He's a great guy.
I am so happy to be here in Valdosta, and have loved my experience here thus far. Transfers are next week, so I may or may not be staying in Valdosta/getting a new companion, but wherever I am or whoever I'm with, I know Heavenly Father has put me there for a reason. He always has a plan for us. I'll know my fate by next week, and will update y'all then.
One last thought from this week:
Would you change something in your life right now if you were promised a deeper and stronger sense of peace? Would you? Because I can promise that that change is found in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Nothing else can bring you more peace. True, complete, all-encompassing peace.
I love you all, so much. Stay strong.
Sister Szilagyi
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