“I’ve Been Waiting for You”

When the missionaries knocked on Radmila Ranovic’s door, she greeted them with the phrase every missionary loves to hear: “Hello. I’ve been waiting for you.”

In Radmila’s case, a pen pal in New Zealand had told her she had some friends who would like to visit Radmila. Born in Yugoslavia but studying in Switzerland, Radmila welcomed the chance to meet some new people. However, when she realized the young men had never been to New Zealand and were therefore not personal friends of her pen pal, she told them she had no interest in their message. Before they left, however, they convinced her to come to a presentation at the local branch on the Book of Mormon.

When Radmila walked into the small chapel in the basement of an apartment building, the first thing she noticed was a sign that read, “The Glory of God Is Intelligence.”

“I was immediately impressed and moved,” she remembers. Radmila loved to learn. The presentation, which focused on the fact that she could learn for herself whether or not what she was hearing was true, also impressed the young student. She accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon, took it home, and put it on the shelf.

A few months later during the Christmas season, Radmila began to hear more about Christ. She wanted to know more about his life, and she remembered the Book of Mormon. She pulled it out, but the words were unfamiliar, and she didn’t understand much of what she read.

So she called the missionaries, and once again the elders knocking on her door were greeted with “Hello. I’ve been waiting for you.”

Although she still didn’t want to hear the missionary discussions, she agreed to study with the elders. Every week she would read ten chapters, write down her thoughts and questions, and then discuss them with the missionaries.

She eventually listened to the discussions, accepted the gospel, and was baptized on 22 February 1975 in Zurich, Switzerland. She later moved back to Belgrade, Yugoslavia, where the Church was just being organized. In 1981, she served a mission to Montreal, Canada; she was the first missionary to be called from Yugoslavia. Now she is finishing a graduate degree in physical therapy from Brigham Young University and also helps translate Church materials into Serbo-Croatian.—Kenneth S. Rogerson, Columbia, South Carolina