Week 51  ყაზბეგი!

Well talk about a week man. I am pretty exhausted to say the least. Monday was amazing! We got permission from our president to go to Kazbegi (ყაზბეგი) with all the missionaries. So we got in a marshrutka (taxi van) which we rented and headed there. 2 hours there and 2 hours back. It was so fun to be with all the missionaries and that the driver played some music. Made the trip! The mountains were so beautiful! I literally cannot describe how breathtaking the scenery is over here. There were parts that reminded me of Switzerland. We had a lesson this week with one of our investigators which went very interestingly. So she has dog and the dog loves us a ton...but can interrupt the lesson immensely because it will bark for attention and climb all over us. So that was happening this time and we were worried we wouldn't get through the lesson, but we kept pushing for an opening prayer. Once we said had the prayer and started to get into the lesson the dog stopped, chilled out and just sat there. We were able to get through the lesson just fine. We were going to give a baptismal commitment but it didn't feel right. I thought we could just introduce the idea so that when we invite her later in another lesson it wouldn't come out of the blue. Well I was about to talk about it but the dog started to bark again. It wasn't until we went back to what we were originally were talking about when the dog stopped and chilled out again. So the spirit wasn't exactly a quite whisper this time...instead sounded more like an obnoxious dog. But, I'll take it. We met with visionary man again and we got some more "prophecies". He told us to go to a street at a certain time to find a Georgian lady that we could teach. Well we went and but we didn't feel anything and the only time I did feel something was when I felt we should turn back and go the opposite direction. Well, because of that feeling, we met the old elder's investigator that had lost contact with the elders for a long time. Got his contact  information again and the elders are contacting him now. It wasn't exactly a lady but close enough. Still made for a fun spiritual experience. We had exchanges this week and they were amazing! I was with Sister Arutyunova and it was great to see her again. She has become a really good friend in the mission. Sad that she will leave to go home after this transfer, which is Russia so I wonder if I'll ever see her gain. Anyway, we had a quite the busy day. We went from meeting to meeting to meeting. First one was unexpected. We were originally going to go do a Book of Mormon  stand. We were at the church grabbing some BOMs when an old investigator walked in. We talked for a bit. She said she missed the church and now that she is back in country she wanted to come by. In that meeting we taught the entire plan of salvation. I will go into the meeting in the spiritual thought cause it was quite touching. After that we met with the Russian referrals since sister Arutyunova speaks Russian. I have to point out...I remembered how to get to her house the entire way. I've only been there once and in the dark, yet we made it! Woot! Later we went to the sisters area to help teach with the elders to a newly baptized family. Well the wife isn't a member. We taught the wife and she expressed that she wants to learn more. It was quite the meeting. Sunday yet another doozy...I translated for relief society. Yeah it was...well it didn't start out well but it got better later. What was funny is that the teacher would teach in Russian, then translate into Georgian for me and I then I would translate into English. Was it perfect...no. Did I make some things up sometimes...yes. But you live and you learn. Practice makes perfect. I still struggling with the language, its a hard one,  but hey at least my accent sounds good. People always think I'm Georgian so I'll take it. [parent note: her language can't be all that bad if she gets mistaken for a native]

Traditional Georgian hat

Spiritual thought: Ok,  so the plan of salvation lesson: She comes from a country that practices Muslim beliefs so when we would explain some parts of the lesson she would explain parts of Muslim beliefs to compare. Well, when we were talking about the celestial kingdom and what it would be like she kept asking what is heaven going to look like? What will I have? And that confused us but then she explained. She said that in her religion they talk about what heaven will be like if you are righteous. You will have a palace. You will have gold. Your husband or wife (or multiple if wanted) would be more beautiful then certain actors or actresses. And so on. I realized (and this is not ridiculing Muslim beliefs or anything) that they are still relying on material things to bring them happiness. They believe that those things make up heaven. They worry more of what heaven will be like and we worry more of what heaven will feel like. We don't talk about those things (palaces, gold etc) when it comes to heaven. All we worry about is how we will feel standing before God and who we will be with. No palaces or gold, just family. Heaven is heaven because family is there. True happiness, joy, is found from family and from God. Not from materialistic things but from love and relationships.

Well that was the week, til next time!

-და ჯენსენი

An investigator posted this on her FB page.