May 23, 2016 P-Day #4

May 23, 2016 P-Day #4

Wow! I can't believe it's P-day again already! Craziness!!

This week has been great!! Lots of work! This week we only had two days in our area, because we went up to Gander for the weekend to do a service project for a less active member.  He has been having a hard time coming to church, and the Gander Sisters have been working with him but not having much success in getting him to attend.  So our Mission President, President Pratt called him up and asked him what we needed to do to get him to church.  Tim said that he couldn't attend church because he was just too busy with the houses he is renovating (that's what he does for work).

So President Pratt said "Well I'm going to get all the Newfoundland missionaries up to help you work on those houses so you can attend church!" So that's exactly what we did! We drove up Thursday night, and spent the evening with the Gander Sisters.  Then got up bright and early and went to work. We worked on the backyard, cleaning it up and the fence was falling apart.  So we tore it down and put up a new one! Which I thought was funny because when I got to talk to the family for mother's day pretty much all the kids had to talk about was the new fence that was put up.  So I totally now understand the joy of a nice new fence, haha!

Earlier this week before we left for Gander we had an amazing experience with getting some new investigators!

While I was e-mailing last week our phone rang and I answered it, it was a man who didn't speak English very well, wondering if we could get him a bible in Persian. We told him that we could, but that we would have to order it in so it would take a few weeks.  We asked if in the meantime we could bring an English Bible to him.  He agreed and gave us his address and we told him we would be by later that night.

So we went over to his house that night with the bible and a small scripture from the bible to share (People usually just use it to get free bibles, but aren't interested in the church so they won't let us share a message). We got to their house and rang the doorbell and knocked.  We could hear people in the house but they weren't coming to the door.  So my comp Sister Anderson said, "ahh they aren't answering. We should just go." But I just felt like we HAD to get in that door.  So I started to knock on the closest window (I later found out it was the bathroom window and I was knocking while the father was in the shower haha) We heard some yelling and then the door opened.  We explained who we were and why were there.  Then this sweet mom Hannah let us in.  She didn't know anything about the bible being ordered and was pretty confused because they don't speak Persian.  They speak Arabic. Then the dad who was in the shower while I was knocking on the window came out and joined us. He explained that it had been him who ordered the Bible and that it was for his friend at work.  He then asked us if we wanted to know how he got our number, and we of course did! He went into the other room and came back with a passalong card with our number written on the back! This is seriously a miracle! We walk around and pass out cards all day long and usually don't get any calls from them.  So the fact that he had saved the card, for over a month and then called us was truly the Lords work!! Without the diligent efforts of the sisters before us The Drgr family would have never found us and been able to be taught! So after hearing this we spent some time and got to know the family a bit and found that they were from Iraq and had been living here in Newfoundland for 2 years. They have three kids, Ranya (13), Ronni(7), and Rondi.  Although we have only met two of them (there oldest son, Rondi is 16, and whenever we ask about him Hannah tells us "he's just being a teenager right now". The kids speak perfect English along with Arabic and French.  The two parents speak a little English so Ranya helps with interpreting. Once we had gotten to know them, we told them about our purpose as missionaries and they said they really wanted to learn! So we started to teach some simple and basic doctrine about our church.  They are Catholic, so they have a strong understanding of the bible and Jesus Christ. Which is soo great! They have a lot of knowledge and understanding about things we believe as well. We just have to teach them all the extra things we have in our church(: They loved the lesson and agreed to have us back over the following Sunday. So I got to meet with them again yesterday! Everytime I see them I am just so filled with love! They are so sweet and truly have the desire to learn from us! Our lesson yesterday went just as well as the first.  The language barrier is hard, but we CAN do it! The most amazing thing is as we teach Hannah’s eyes fill with tears, and I know she can't understand everything we are saying, but the spirit is still testifying of the truth of our message. They are always so willing to learn and eager to set up our next appointment! We just happened to find two Arabic Book of Mormons in our church library that we were able to give them! So they have committed to start reading The BoM as a family everyday!  AND they told us they have some friends from Iraq, that they think need to hear this message too!! So they are going to come to our next lesson!! It's truly amazing to think that all of this has come from a pass along card! NO EFFORT IS WASTED! I truly believe this!!

This week has been super busy, but so good! We were able to do some sight seeing before e-mailing this morning and it truly is so beautiful!!

I also got to try Poutine this week, which is like a Canadian delicacy haha. It's basically french fries, with gravy and cheese curds...which sounds super gross...and if you look it up it looks pretty gross too haha but I swear it is SOOOO GOOD!!

I love you all and hope your week is wonderful! You're in my prayers always <3

Sister Hird

Canada Halifax Mission