WHERE TO START! I just finished the best week of my mission, or at least one of them. I have to tell you about the biggest miracle this week. His name is Heny Micheal.
SO Tuesday evening, we were standing on the gleis waiting for our bahn and realized we still hadnt made out an appointment with anybody, so we walked across the street and Heny was the first guy we talked to, right in front of Kaufland. We said we were from the church and we had a book for him and we would love to bring it by this week, he was so funny and so friendly, he said of course! He was pretty excited and we were as well, but really had no idea how much the Lord was guiding us...
So Thursday came and we showed up to our appt a little late after coming back from hütte, we had called him and he said, 'oh no worries I made some food but Ill just warm it up when you get here.' So we got there and it looked like he had been waiting all day for us, he made some INCREDIBLE FOOD and basically told us his whollllllle story.
Heny is from EGYPT. (incase you forgot our bestest friends are Egyptian, Ola and Ahmed, our ward mission leader and best friend...key thing to know is that they used to be Muslim and converted to the church and no one can know that in Egypt or they are in danger) Okay, so we were already so excited about them maybe knowing eachother, and yes they did know each other but Heny had NO idea they were members, he assumed they were Muslim. But Heny is Christian, in Egypt youre either born Muslim or born Christian and Heny was born christian. SO . . anyway, too much to say and so hard through email, but he told us he has 3 kids and has been in Germany for 4 years. His wife is crazy and he lives in a separate apartment but his children are HIS LIFE. He is the best father and every day goes to their apt and picks up the kids, takes them to kindergarten (they are 2,3 and 4) and then goes home and then picks them up when they are finished, cooks for them and plays with them til bed and then spends the whole weekend with them. But other than his children everything in his life is horrible. He had a dream life in Egypt before, he owned a buisness which had a front door 15 feet away from the ocean. He had friends and was close to his family. He loves his parents and loved his life there. He had a girl he was in love with but she was muslim and that was that, they couldnt do anythíng. SO they ended it and he met this other German lady there in Egypt and she basically used him to get back to Germany. SO now he has three kids he is in love with but a crazy lady as a 'wife' no friends, no job and he hadnt gone to church. He just recently got back in contact with that girl he was in love with years ago and she also had gone through a divorce. SO Heny decided a month or so ago that he would slowly cut off contact with his family back home and convert to be muslim so he could be with this girl. He would have to cut off contact with is friends and family that he loved and basically have nothing but this girl. The day after he had gotten in a little arguement with the girl back home...WE TALKED TO HIM. He said he knew that what he was considering was wrong and that we were sent from God to him to 'smack him in the back of the head' to stop him from that idea and he said I know thats not what I want, I love my friends and my family and most of all I love the Lord and Christ, I need your help to get back to God. We were there kind of late and asked if we could teach him...and he cut us off mid sentance and said (with hand gestures) 'Im like your little hand bag, you can set me here, you can move me here' hahaha, he said he will do anything we say and believe what we teach him because he knows God sent us to him. GOLD RIGHT!?! So as we were leaving (this is all after the first appt) we said, oh we brought that book for you in Arabic, we will come back tomorrow and explain it to you...(basically saying, dont read it we will come back and tell you more about it) BUT of course after we left he read the 3 and 8 witnesses at the beginning and then typed the title in arabic into google....du duh duh
Well the story gets better (and I cant wait to tell you in person one day about it because this email cant do it justice) So we went to him the next morningn and he said I read about the book and your church, you dont smoke drink coffee or tea or beer? So I quit smoking today! and I was debating throwing the rest of my beer out of the fridge or just getting rid of the last of it, whoever comes over can have water or juice or can just leave! Hahaha, mind you this man is HYSTERICAL I was laughing the entire appointment, feel like his sister. Anyway, yes youre right we havent even taught the man anything by this point and he's already committed to the word of wisdom! He then said one thing did bother me a little bit....the whole polygamy thing. We then explained it is forbidden now and he said oh good...if you had told me that was doctrine I would be a mormon today! But God did create Adam and Eve, not Adam and EveSSS. hahahah, bah he is so funny. You'll love him. SO we started teaching him about God and families and then he immediately asked so what do you do about baptism? so we talked about baptism, the spirit didnt say to invite him to be baptized just then, so we talked more about prophets and started the Jospeh Smith story and he said, I really want to get this Joseph Smith story but I have to go pick up my kids so. . . when can you come back? (this was on Friday and he said he didnt have time on the weekends because he was with his kids, so we scheduled it for tuesday. We werent sure what to do about asking him to come to church but at the very last minute we said so what would you think about church? He said, where is it? what time does it start? Yeah I dont know if I can come this week but next week I will be there. . .
BUT the problem is we cant just invite him to church and have him walk in and see Ahmed blessing the sacrament! Doesnt work like that! So Ola knows him from this driving class and was praying a lot to know if she should tell him that she and Ahmed were members. She was going to see him Saturday morning and she told us that he just started talking to her about these two American girls that he met and he told her his whole situation....and long story short she told him by the end that she was 'one of them' hahaha, and he was so amazed and said he felt God so close, he felt that she was also another 'sign' that God was smacking him on the back of the head lol just guiding him and later that day we were at Ola's planning english and just going crazy wondering what is going to happen, so amazed that now he knows that Ola and Ahmed are members and then the doorbell rang...I said 'haha what if it were Heny' and IT WAS!!!!!! He came in and we were all laughing SO hard. He said, my kids are on the playgroud and I called you sisters and you didnt answer and I called Ola and YOU didnt answer, I WANT TO COME TO CHURCH tell me what time it is at! and we were all dying we were laughing so hard and he was like I have to go back to my kids what time is the bahn!?!? Bahh after he left I was rolling on the floor I was laughing so hard, such an incredible situation, and he is such a miracle. So yes. The lord has prepared people all over this world just walking around waiting for us to find them...
It was such an incredible experience Sunday morning meeting our neuebekehrt, Schwester Zimmer on the bahn, then seeing our other miracle Tamara get off the same bus as us, then meet Irena at the train station and watch Manfred walk up and then see Ola and Heny walking up the hill to the train station, all of us early in the morning catching a train to go worship the lord and go to church in Eisenhüttenstadt. It was so incredible, then sister Forsyth and I did splits and Irena and I went to a members house who had a car to go pick up Frau Hensel (our investigator with the baptisimal date, and one leg) We also had a lady from our English class show up at church and of course Bianke came too so we had 7 investigators at church! and a new member, Tamera who was the girl, Oh I DIDNT TELL YOU YET; we just talked to Tamera like everyone else we do on the street and she said, OH! LDS missionaries?! Im a member!! I was baptized in Kenya and ive been a member since 2008, but I dont know where the church is! So we invited her right there and she came and LOVED IT! Heny loved it too and bahhhh the Lord is just blessing us. IT was very nerve racking because I was giving a talk on that day....no pressure or anything! but the lord guided it...
I just talked about what heavenly father could have said to us as he held us in his arms and told us all the things he would give us, the earth, our family, our body, friends and somebody to help us know the exact path to return to him. I talked about how Christ is our perfect example.. if we just do our best following him then the Lord with bless us here and we will finally get back to our Heavenly Father and our families. I talked about how Heavenly Father told us that he will never leave us, he said something like 'I will always be right there my child, I love you so much and when you hear the truth I will let you know, I will give you a warm feeling inside and you will know it is from me, you will know you are doing the right things. SO we have found the right path and heavenly father will keep telling our spirits the little things we need to do to keep on the path, and once we hear the truth and know what we need to do, we need to DO IT. Just follow the sometimes uncomfortable promptings of the spirit and make the change we know we need to make because then we are showign our faith, whatever we are changing will make us better, more like Christ and we will be using the gift that Christ gave his life for, we will show our gratitude for this plan and for all the blessings we have when we make the small changes in our life to make us better. I know that that is true. I know the lord guides our every step and when we follow the spirit we are in his hands and we see miracles! I love this place so much, I cant believe all the success we are seeing and cant believe this email is so long, but you have to know! Its just so incredible being apart of this holy wonderous work, THANK YOU IMMENSELY FOR THE BIRTHDAY EMAILS AND LETTERS AND LOVE. Its going to be a grand week and we find out on Friday night about transfers, I must say I did not sign up for that side of a mission of having to leave these people who are in my heart, so I am praying to stay to see what happens here, to see the branch keep growing and growing, but I know whatever the Lord has in mind will be even greater! Hope you all have a fantastic week, and enjoyed reading this novel of an email :) Sorry, hope you can feel a little bit of the excitement and joy of MISSIONARY WORK! I love it here. I love being a missionary and highly recommend it.
Ich wünche euch eine schöne woche, bis später!
Liebe gruße, Sister Rasmussen
