The following is an experience shared by a church member -
Missionary moments can happen anywhere; recently on a cruise
to Norway with friends we had such an experience.
Going to breakfast in the morning we had a wonderful
waitress serve us, so we made a point to always look out for her table each
morning, after several days of serving us and asking if we wanted tea or coffee
she finally asked us why we did not drink tea or coffee. We told her it was because of our religion,
which was funny at first, and then she came back a few minutes later and asked
what church do you belong to.
We felt like badly prepared as we had no pass-along cards,
or anything to give her, so on a scrap piece of paper we wrote down the Church
website address for her and suggested she have a look at this to find out
more. We did tell her a few things about
the church and the Word of Wisdom (the law of health given to church members).
She explained that she had given up smoking one year ago and did not really
drink tea or coffee either and didn’t like alcohol.
We went out for the day around a beautiful city to see the
sites and while eating an ice cream we saw two missionaries, we charged at them
so fast they thought they were being attacked.
We asked if they had any pamphlets or a Book of Mormon, it was Monday and
they said they didn’t have anything, but that around the corner was the Centre
for Young Single Adults, so we followed them to it. There we met five other missionaries and two
church members in the centre. They had pamphlets
and a copy of The Books of Mormon; we asked if they had them in Bulgarian as
this is where our waitress was from, they looked but could not find any. After
talking a while one of the missionaries had another look and there in a corner
of the cabinet was a set of leaflets, when she looked they were in Bulgarian.
Very excited the next morning to see our waitress at
breakfast, we had put the items in a very nice little bag to give her as a
gift. Before we could do this however
she told us that all night she had been thinking of the church and she
remembered that some of her friends back home had joined the Mormon Church and
said she would have to talk to them. We
told her of the experience with the missionaries, and she said she believed we
had been guided to them. We gave her the
bag and when she looked inside and then realised that they were in Bulgarian
tears came to her eyes and she thanked us very much.
We only had a couple of more days on board, but we saw her
every breakfast and had a wonderful experience sharing some of our feelings.
Next time we go on holiday we are going to make sure to take
a Book of Mormon and some pamphlets so we can be better prepared missionaries.
Bill & Sandra Kimberling, John & Kathy Gore - York First Ward
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