November 13

Hello all!
Sister Bingham and I had a BUSY week, but we were able to see many miracles. On Sunday, Mohy came to church. He’s from Sudan originally but lives here in Washington. He works for the State Department in the peace sector. I talked about him in my letter last week, but we were able to teach him and his friend. We met in DC and taught the Plan of Salvation. He told us that he knows this is true and we invited him to be baptized! He said he would pray about it and move forward with whatever his answer is. In testimony meeting this week when he came the speakers were truly inspired because he turned to me in the middle of the meeting and said, “this is really good!”  We have a meeting with him this coming Wednesday and we can’t wait! Another fun fact about Mohy is that he plays soccer for the university here and speaks 6 different languages!
     We got a referral this week for a man named Jean this week. He met with missionaries in 2013 and even had the Baptismal interview. He’s more than just “prepared.” He lives on the military hospital base called Walter Reed which means we don’t have access to him (easily) so we had the Military Relations missionary senior couple get him and bring him to their house. Jean explained his story and told us how frustrated he was with his life right now. That’s when Elder Chesamore said something that really touched Jean a lot. He said something along the lines of this:

“Jean, do you play volleyball? There’s a story I want to tell you about Nebraska’s college volleyball team. They lost 6 seniors last year making them the youngest team in the division. They weren’t expected to be good whatsoever but they’re doing surprisingly well. When interviewed to ask their key to success, the coach and players all said, ‘we play point by point. One point at a time. They don’t worry about the point before nor the point after, if they’re down ten points or up twenty, they just play one point at a time’. And that’s you Jean. You want to worry about the previous points and the points that lie ahead, but that’s not what’s important.
What’s important is here and now- what you’re doing now to win this point. And I know that meeting with these sisters will help you win the game because they have Jesus Christ on their side.”

Now we’re meeting with Jean every Friday!! Sometimes we just need to play for this point. It’s easy to get caught up in the mistakes of the past and the worries of the future but as we focus
on the now, we see that God’s hand is truly in our lives. He’s here to guide us along. (Moroni 7:33) Sister Chesamore mentioned one of my favorite quotes by Elder Holland. “The great thing about the gospel is we get credit for ​trying,​ even if we don’t always succeed.”​​​​
Miracles really do happen as we try our best. I see that every day out here as a missionary and what a blessing that is. I love you all!
Love, Sister Haertling