Week 101

Dear Family,

Thank you so much for working so hard to make sure that I have a bed! It will be nice to have some place to call my own, without wondering if there are any bed bugs, cockroaches or other insects ;)

I would appreciate it if you kept a copy of those talks.

We are going to leave tomorrow morning to Deva (my old stomping grounds) and then down to Craiova until Thursday. We are actually meeting with the less actives who live to far away from the branches to be visited by missionaries. I am so excited, because it will be a great opportunity for  Elder C to grow a lot in a very short time. I really hope all the members meet up with us. We don't have phone numbers for everyone, so it will be a knock-and-pray couple of days. We are hoping to have sacrament in Deva on Wednesday, which will be such a great opportunity for all those members.

To tell you the truth, I had a pretty rough day this week. It was an accumulation of many things throughout the week, but Satan really hit hard on Saturday and Sunday. We had set up a lesson with J, just outside of where he worked. We talked about the Restoration and had a fantastic lesson! He even said the closing prayer and it truly was one of the best, most sincere prayers I have ever heard. Just as we finished up, a man walked up who seemed to know our investigator. He said hello to J, and seemed to know him. After they said a few remarks, I asked how his (the new man) day was going (in Romanian). He opened his mouth and began the down hill sermon straight from the devil. Honestly, I have never been more depressed, more disgusted or more angry than I was in those ten minutes (if it was even that long). He asked why we were there, then told us that no one wanted us here, that no one cared and that no one can be helped, because no one wants to be helped. He tried to say some other things before I told him that what he was saying was inappropriate and he needed to stop. We tried to talk to him about his life and faith, just to find out where he was coming from, but to no avail. To this day I still have no idea what his motives were. It just went on for a bit longer, until I couldn't listen any more and we left. I have been berated, yelled at, mocked and questioned, but i have never walked away with so much anger. Usually I am able to laugh about it, or brush it off, but not this time. After such a good lesson, you would think that we would be very upbeat, but it really killed me. It was hard. My comp really helped me out of the rut as we went throughout the rest of our day.  The positive to this story is the sermon I had afterwards. The next morning, as I was attempting to figure out exactly why I was still upset, a light blinked on. I realized that God will always win. I knew that before, but in that time I really knew it. God will always win. Every single time. Satan is fighting a losing battle, and he knows it. He wants us to be miserable, but he knows he will eventually lose. As I thought about all the things the sad man had said, I realized that I was so upset because I knew what he had said was so incorrect. Everything he said was meant to push us away from meeting with J. Satan had come into our path at such a critical time in our day, the time where we had just had our "spiritual boost" from a great lesson and he almost made us give up. I, however, have God, who has given me an arsenal against the adversary, my companion being one of them. As we were walking away, we walked up to J, who was working a little ways away. Elder C said "Hey Jude, do me a favor and don't listen to anything that guy says." I'm not sure why, but I feel as if that one sentence made the difference between us meeting with J. We have another lesson with J. We know he will be baptized and we know he will be a key player in God's army. God always wins and its up to us to decide which team we fight.

I love you all. I will see you soon!

Elder Ormsby