Week 41  Book of Mormon Stand Magic!

Old Tblisis sketch

So the week is over and off to the next. We had a lot of meetings this week so I have some fun stories to tell. Monday we went to dry bridge which is like a flea market with a small art add on section. I love the art section of course, but hey what can I say it's in my blood. I talked to this one guy selling pins and he actually ended up giving me a free pin. He wanted my badge for some reason...I told him no of course and after a bit of talking he ended up just gifting me a pin. Also, talked to this artist there who had this AMAZING pencil drawing of Tbilisi. I talked to him and I don't think he realized that I was foreign cause he said that he wanted to sell the work to tourists so he wouldn't sell it to me (then again the price was 800 Lari so I wasn't gonna get it). So I wasn't mistaken as a tourist so that was dope. I get that a lot here, some people think I'm Georgian. Guess I look it or I hope that my accent just doesn't give me away. That night we called to set up a meeting with a guy we met last week, the guy who recognized us on the metro. I'll call him "metro guy" (since I can't write is actual name). We called and asked if we could set up a meeting for the next day but he couldn't. He said "well I'm in the park so does now work?" So we had a meeting with him right then. We explained more about the BOM gave him one and said we would love to talk more about the church. He said he was down so we hope to do a "pass of meeting" with the elders soon with him. Actually, the next day we had the same thing happen again. Called a guy from another BOM stand, met in the park that same day, talked about the BOM, said we would love to talk more about our church and again another yes! The next few days are pretty boring just a lot of knocking. You have some good weeks and some stagnant weeks. We followed up on a lot of people from last week but didn't get any new people this week. We had some contacts but no potentials sadly. Hey but God can't give success everyday or that wouldn't be an adventure. Friday we had a meeting with a lady who we helped a few weeks ago. She is the lady with with the two down syndrome kids who love English. She was in the village for a bit and would be leaving soon again, but she called us up and asked for us to come over. We hoped that this time she would ask about the church. She did! She still is faithful to her religion and that is ok, but now she knows who we are and that the church is good. She actually invited us to stay in her village on Saturday and stay the night tile Sunday evening. It took a lot of willpower to say no. She proceeded then to feed us a ton of sweets. I will include a picture of the table set up for all us of to eat the sweets. I have no idea why she thought we could eat that much. She put 2 of everything on the table. Saturday was great. It was zone conference and we got to meet our new mission president. President Picard and his wife are from France and are very sweet. Our president has family ties to the middle east so he is very close to home here. They told their stories and man talk about some amazing faith they have. They are still in their 40s and to give up everything to go on a mission with their family is just amazing. Sunday was great! Another one of the people we met at a BOM stand a while back came to church! He stayed for both hours and he loved it. A lot of the members stepped in and really made him feel welcomed. Overall a really good week, used a lot of Georgian this week. Actually used a lot of Georgish (Georgian but typed in English letters). Some phones here don't have the alphabet in Georgian so they use English letters to make up words. Example: gamarjoba rogoraxart? Me kargad var. Eklesiashi viyavi chems megobrebtan. Looks ugly in my opinion and so hard to type, stupid auto correct! Anyway great week and I'm excited for the next!

Spiritual thought: At our last Zone Conference of this transfer we had leaving missionaries bare their testimony. There was an elder who talked about something their dad said before going on a mission. He asked this elder why do you want to go a mission? He of course answered well it's a commandment and I would also like to help people come into Christ. Pretty simple and common answers but still very good. This dad turned to this elder and said those are all good, but can I tell you why I went on a mission. I went because at the end of the day I love the Lord. Because I love the Lord I went on a mission. All the things you said are good but they all fall under one thing, you do those things because you love the Lord. That mad me think for a bit and realize that I need to remember that in all my doings and especially on a mission. I'm doing all of this because at the end of the day I love the lord too.

Well that's the week, til next time!

- და ჯენსენი 

Dry Bridge/Flea Market