Expect Miracles

I want to explain something I feel very strongly about. I hope I am able to help you understand what is in my head. If you grew up in the Church like I did, I'm sure you have heard LOTS of missionary stories. We have all heard stories about how the missionaries decided to knock one more door and ended up meeting a golden investigator at that door, and of course they ended up getting baptized. Or there are stories about how the missionaries pray and feel very strongly to knock on that door or talk to that person and that person ends up getting baptized. These things do happen, obviously, but I want to make sure that you understand that those particular experiences may not happen to you. Nothing like that ever happened to me. And for a while it really bugged me. It is important to expect miracles - a mission is full of them. BUT they may not be the miracles you are expecting. While those particular stories never happened to me, other miracles DID happen. As long as I stayed busy and worked hard, I always had people to teach. I met some awesome people who were very open and willing to learn about the gospel. I feel like I was able to influence many lives for the better because I worked hard to spread the gospel. I know that I was led to some particular people, but mostly just because I was working hard and doing what I knew I was supposed to do. Heavenly Father trusted me and put people in my way that were open to receiving the gospel. I hope I'm explaining this well enough. I guess my point is: Expect miracles but expect lots of different types of miracles! Keep your mind and heart open and look out for all sorts of possibilities. Don't be disappointed if the well known miracles don't happen to you.

Here are some examples of miracles that DID happen to me:
- The phone number we got for a potential investigator didn't work, but we "just happened" to run into him on the street again. (He became a very positive investigator.)
- We talked to a guy briefly just as he was getting on the bus and invited him to church. He showed up to church and became a very positive investigator.
- We challenged a temple worker to give away a Book of Mormon. She had no idea who to give it to at the time since she spent almost all of her time with members, but she did indeed find someone to give it to.
- We met a 15 year old girl who had come to church with her friends. She told us she wasn't a member but wanted to learn more.  
- My very last day in Sweden, my train to Stockholm was late. Because of that, I "just happened" to run into a girl who I had taught once months ago (she didn't live in our area so we turned her over to the elders after the first lesson). I found out that day that she had been baptized. We have stayed in contact and to this day we are really good friends.

Don't underestimate the power of miracles. They will change your life.