THE LORD'S WORK GOES FORTH
Our last Blog told you about how great and busy our missionaries are. Now I would like to share with you our PA (public affairs) campaign here in Moldova. Since we set foot in the Romanian/ Moldova mission last November one of our top priorities has been public affairs. President Ivory has the same vision Elder Ballard had-that there will be stakes here in Moldova. So our PA program is trying to bring Moldova into the light, not just for the people, but also for the church. President Ivory wants the church to take note of our little country- that against all odds it is trying to survive on its own. Some of the older people still want Russia to take over and just take care of them. But in the younger people we see HOPE, a desire for freedom and a need to show the world, "we are HERE, LOOK at us, we want freedom, we want a PLACE in this world, we want to SUCCEED" and with a little help they can do it!
Moldova has the most fertile, rich soil in the world. If you drop a seed it will grow and produce the best of what ever is planted. We have people who don't give up even after being held down by their corrupt government. They are strong and they want to be able to survive to leave land for their posterity.
Some of these little villages are ready for the missionaries, but the mission only goes into cities that have certain criteria. I know that we don't have enough missionaries to go into the villages, also the villages are so small they would have every person visited in a week. It is sad because we have met some of the sweetest, most humble people in the villages, but if they joined the church they would be hours away from the chapel. So many of these village people are already MORMON at heart, they just don't know it. Their values and way of life fit perfect with the church standards. We are praying that there will be a way to include them in the Lord's work!
Our English classes continue to be a great influence in spreading the gospel. Our second sign-up took place last week and we have another 450 students in our classes. Elder Bateman told us in our last district meeting that the missionaries taught as many lessons last week as was taught the whole month of February and right now they have 3 committed to baptism. We are truly blessed to see the Lord's work going forth.
Our first Self-Reliance workshop took place in Chisinau on the 7th and 14th of March. We took the advanced students in the English classes and 25 signed up. We found that these students were by far the smartest and most interested than any of our classes thus far. They all have a desire to be some type of a professional. We had various doctors, architects, media, event planners, general mangers and others. They asked questions and were interested in the whole presentation, they even gave Elder Cooley a round of applause at the end of each day. We are happy with the fact that they mostly wanted to speak English to practice so it made the days go smoothly.
Some of these little villages are ready for the missionaries, but the mission only goes into cities that have certain criteria. I know that we don't have enough missionaries to go into the villages, also the villages are so small they would have every person visited in a week. It is sad because we have met some of the sweetest, most humble people in the villages, but if they joined the church they would be hours away from the chapel. So many of these village people are already MORMON at heart, they just don't know it. Their values and way of life fit perfect with the church standards. We are praying that there will be a way to include them in the Lord's work!
Our English classes continue to be a great influence in spreading the gospel. Our second sign-up took place last week and we have another 450 students in our classes. Elder Bateman told us in our last district meeting that the missionaries taught as many lessons last week as was taught the whole month of February and right now they have 3 committed to baptism. We are truly blessed to see the Lord's work going forth.
We have 53 just in the one class of beginners.
Our first Self-Reliance workshop took place in Chisinau on the 7th and 14th of March. We took the advanced students in the English classes and 25 signed up. We found that these students were by far the smartest and most interested than any of our classes thus far. They all have a desire to be some type of a professional. We had various doctors, architects, media, event planners, general mangers and others. They asked questions and were interested in the whole presentation, they even gave Elder Cooley a round of applause at the end of each day. We are happy with the fact that they mostly wanted to speak English to practice so it made the days go smoothly.
Great Self-Reliance workshop group!
This self-reliance group is now in their 2nd week of the My Foundation lessons, which goes for 12 weeks.
March was filled with some interesting invitations. One of which was an invitation to attend a reception of the new U.S. Ambassador Jim Pettit. This was an informal gathering of many Americans at his home. It was very interesting to see his home and where our tax dollars are going. He lives in a 3 story home alone because his wife is currently the ambassador in Latvia.
They served some light hors d'oeuvres in a very large dining room. I loved the large table we could seat all 38 members of our family at it for dinner, wouldn't that be wonderful!
Couldn't resist having my picture taken at the pulpit with the Ambassador's seal.
We are Proud to be AMERICANS here in Moldova!
So Elder Cooley what do you want to drive to town today!
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