Blessed

It is so wonderful to see the Lord’s hand in His work and to recognize that many times what we suppose is a coincidence is really His involvement in the work or our lives. Just recently we got on a bus and sat across from a young lady with silver boots. Viviane commented that she liked her boots and it turns out that the young lady, Alina, speaks very good English. We continued on the bus and conversing with her. When it came time for us to change busses, she also was changing buses and would be on the same bus. We found out that she lives in the same apartment building as we and we invited her to attend English Club with us. Last Wednesday she attended the meeting with us and stayed for the spiritual thought and games afterwards. We decided to walk home after the activity – about a 30 minute walk – and had a nice conversation with her. A few days later she came to our apartment with her little brother and we spent a couple of hours with them. While she was here the Elders needed to come and get scans of the new missionary’s passport and so they got to met her again (she met them at English Club) and she asked if she could meet with them sometime. They met with her on Mon. afternoon and introduced her to the Gospel. She and her family are not religious but are open to religion (her statement). We feel that she has been put in our path and will seek the Lord’s help in understanding how to bless her and her family’s life.

This is Alina and her brother Aidar.

This week we also met with a young lady who called us to talk about her trip to the USA. She visited New York, Orlando, and Salt Lake City. On her flight to SLC she sat next to a BYU humanities professor and enjoyed talking to him. Turns out she works for one of our Humanitarian partners and so part of her trip she went to Temple Square and also toured the Humanitarian site at Welfare Square. She came away from that with a determination that people in her country need to know what the Church is doing around the world and specifically in Kazakhstan. We talked with her and her friend for about an hour Monday evening and they invited us to do a ‘fireside’ (they would not call it that be we are) at their music club (before it is open to dancing etc) to which they plan to invite all their friends. They want us to talk about America but also specifically ask us to talk about the Church’s Humanitarian work.

You may remember us talking about the new Religion law here in Kazakhstan and that we are now prohibited from handing out religious materials on the street. This was one of the main ways the young missionaries had for contacting people to see if they would be interested in hearing about the Church. We have been praying that the Lord would open other ways for us to share the Gospel with these people. He is doing just that!!

We have many challenges here but are enjoying being stretched and challenged and the personal growth that it creates.

Alma26:36 “Yea, blessed is the name of my God, who has been mindful of this people, who are a branch of the tree of Israel, and has been lost from its body in a strange land; yea, I say, blessed be the name of my God, who has been mindful of us, wanderers in a strange land.”