Claire's Mission in Armenia: "Come From Center"
To my nearest and dearest,
Greetings from Gyumri! Its a tad warmer here so we are taking the opportunity to thaw out a wee bit. We traveled to Yerevan this week for a training and it was warm and sunny, not to mention an amazing training, AND I got my dearelders and letters, thank you Sophie for the card and pics and garland!!!!!!! love it. We are heading back to the big city in 2 weeks so keep the dearelders coming!
So, our training. Well it was on the fundamentals from Preach My Gospel, which are amazing. just truly the heart of missionary work. One thing that President Carter, the most amazing mission president ever!, said was that to help our investigators feel our love and to invite the Spirit, we need to be sincere, he said it needs to "Come From Center," meaning that who we are in our deepest innermost soul must be what we convey to our investigators. We have to help them understand the why of our message, because as Nietsche said, "He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how." so no matter how hard it is to live the Gospel, when we know the why it becomes easy. So we must live the why and be the why and love the why. It was a great day and so fun to see all of my MTC pals, all becoming such amazing missionaries.
So I wanted to give you a little bit of the small knowledge I have about the Armenian Apostolic Church. The more I learn about it the more Jewish parallels I see. They still believe in a lot of the Law of moses, like animal sacrifice and the whole purification period after a woman has baby, they can't leave the house for 40 days! Ahhhhhh. Also they believe in Lilith, which I found very interesting. Basically their religion involves lighting candles as prayer and repentance. A very basic understanding I have, but as I learn more I shall aprise you of it.
Well so other news of the week. Arman missed last sunday so his baptism has been postponed, Too sad, but at least we will have more time to prepare. On the bright side, our investigator, Hranush came to church! It was great, though she was a bit figety, but she said she enjoyed it and we didn't have any fights this week so that was good. Arguments in church really add a new dimension, especially when you have a lady yelling at the top of her lungs that the Armenian Church is true. whooops.
The amazing thing here is that so many people are friendly to us on the street. They will generally all say Barev back to us and sometimes these little old ladies just start talking and talking about how they wish us well and that we have joy and our families have joy and the blessings go on and on. Really these people are so loving deep in their core, they just sometimes have a bit of a snarly look on their faces.
This week I have been studying a lot on light. The Scriptures are absolutely full of words about light and how to obtain it. I highly suggest studying it and being enlightened! One of my favorite verses that I have come across, I read today, Hebrews 12:29, "For Our God is a consuming fire" isn't that an amazing thought. its just like C.S. Lewis said when we want to be changed we can't just give a part of ourselves, we must give our whole selves to be consumed, refined and renewed .I love that.
Well I love you all. As it is P day I am off to the grocery store then home to clean and write some letters and perhaps take a wee nap. you all know how much I love those. From your pavement pounding, five layer wearing, smiley missionary Sister Haynie, until next week my dear ones.
ps. mum can you send some gummy vites in what ever package you send? I will be running out in the next two months probably, so no rush, just a thought
and sis, can you burn that Reflections of Christ CD? thanks!! So glad to hear you are all healthy again!!!
Greetings from Gyumri! Its a tad warmer here so we are taking the opportunity to thaw out a wee bit. We traveled to Yerevan this week for a training and it was warm and sunny, not to mention an amazing training, AND I got my dearelders and letters, thank you Sophie for the card and pics and garland!!!!!!! love it. We are heading back to the big city in 2 weeks so keep the dearelders coming!
So, our training. Well it was on the fundamentals from Preach My Gospel, which are amazing. just truly the heart of missionary work. One thing that President Carter, the most amazing mission president ever!, said was that to help our investigators feel our love and to invite the Spirit, we need to be sincere, he said it needs to "Come From Center," meaning that who we are in our deepest innermost soul must be what we convey to our investigators. We have to help them understand the why of our message, because as Nietsche said, "He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how." so no matter how hard it is to live the Gospel, when we know the why it becomes easy. So we must live the why and be the why and love the why. It was a great day and so fun to see all of my MTC pals, all becoming such amazing missionaries.
So I wanted to give you a little bit of the small knowledge I have about the Armenian Apostolic Church. The more I learn about it the more Jewish parallels I see. They still believe in a lot of the Law of moses, like animal sacrifice and the whole purification period after a woman has baby, they can't leave the house for 40 days! Ahhhhhh. Also they believe in Lilith, which I found very interesting. Basically their religion involves lighting candles as prayer and repentance. A very basic understanding I have, but as I learn more I shall aprise you of it.
Well so other news of the week. Arman missed last sunday so his baptism has been postponed, Too sad, but at least we will have more time to prepare. On the bright side, our investigator, Hranush came to church! It was great, though she was a bit figety, but she said she enjoyed it and we didn't have any fights this week so that was good. Arguments in church really add a new dimension, especially when you have a lady yelling at the top of her lungs that the Armenian Church is true. whooops.
The amazing thing here is that so many people are friendly to us on the street. They will generally all say Barev back to us and sometimes these little old ladies just start talking and talking about how they wish us well and that we have joy and our families have joy and the blessings go on and on. Really these people are so loving deep in their core, they just sometimes have a bit of a snarly look on their faces.
This week I have been studying a lot on light. The Scriptures are absolutely full of words about light and how to obtain it. I highly suggest studying it and being enlightened! One of my favorite verses that I have come across, I read today, Hebrews 12:29, "For Our God is a consuming fire" isn't that an amazing thought. its just like C.S. Lewis said when we want to be changed we can't just give a part of ourselves, we must give our whole selves to be consumed, refined and renewed .I love that.
Well I love you all. As it is P day I am off to the grocery store then home to clean and write some letters and perhaps take a wee nap. you all know how much I love those. From your pavement pounding, five layer wearing, smiley missionary Sister Haynie, until next week my dear ones.
ps. mum can you send some gummy vites in what ever package you send? I will be running out in the next two months probably, so no rush, just a thought
and sis, can you burn that Reflections of Christ CD? thanks!! So glad to hear you are all healthy again!!!
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