Pic 24/02/2014

Met this great sailor while street contacting in Weymouth - apparently he sailed on "The Bounty" which is the ship "The Black Pearl" is based off of in Pirates of the Caribbean. Amazing! The pin on his lapel pictures that ship.  We got a picture, he got a mormon.org card - pretty good swap if you ask me. :) 

Miracle in Weymouth

So I saw the English coast for the first time this week and it was BEAUTIFUL.  Seriously, it was amazing!  My love for England just keeps growing and growing, I may not want to come back in November... ;) We had Zone Conference on Tuesday, after which we did an exchange with the Weymouth sisters. 

I spent the day with Sister Draper and we were blessed so much! It amazes me how many miracles the Lord allows us to see on exchanges.  This is truly His work. Exchanges bring me a great deal of strength, comfort, support, and faith.  I'm so grateful for the other sisters' examples. 

While we were out contacting Monday morning, we turned down a little walkway with doors on either side of us.  There was a man sitting just outside his house.  We decided to go talk to him.  We soon found out that he wasn't too interested in our message because he thought all churches were evil...hmm. We talked with him for a bit, but then asked him who he knew that might be interested to learn more about our church.  He told us his partner might, and that she'd be home later that day. He told us she had studied theology and was really into religion and that we could stop by another time.  We thought that was great, but then he said, "Oh, here she is now!" He gave her the pass along card we had given him and we introduced ourselves to her.  She invited us in and we ended up teaching the whole Restoration lesson to her.  She LOVED it.  She said she had always thought about what Joseph Smith had and was shocked she hadn't learned about this before now!  She was so excited to have us there and was really eager to learn more.  She wanted to come to church and she was so grateful for the Book of Mormon we gave her.  She had two little girls that were adorable and told us how much they loved to say their prayers and read bible stories. It was a golden, miraculous situation!  We felt the Spirit and enjoyed being in her home.  The sisters in Weymouth will be back to teach her more in the coming weeks I'm sure. :) 

I know the Lord blesses us and His work is moving forward.  I'm so grateful to be a part of it.  

Scripture of the week:  "...That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls." -1 Peter 1:7-9 Read the chapter from the beginning! I love these verses!

These girls are Tammy's daughters who we met in Weymouth. How cute are they?! They wanted to be missionaries like us! :) 

Pics

 So this pond is supposed to be a field.  Can you believe the flooding?! We've had so much rain it's even slowing the roads down because of all the puddles!

Fwd: Pics

We got stuck in a downpour! We were SO WET! Our puffy coats soaked through! Gotta love English weather. :)

"Elder Clean..." :)

So this week was the big move! We arrived at our flat Tuesday evening and it is huge!  The kitchen is so big as well and has a gas stove! Yay! All the members were asking how the flat was and if the elders tidied up, and we just had to say, "Well it was elder clean, but we're making it sister clean. They did a pretty good job." :) I love it, absolutely love it. Not just the flat though, the whole area is great. Salisbury is such an exciting place! There is so much hustle and bustle which is great for contacting, and there are some great things in Salisbury that make it a fun place to live.  We have a huge cathedral in the center of town that has one of the highest spires in England (is what I heard...? Don't quote me on that :) and we have a beautiful view of it from our flat.  Also, Stonehenge is in our area now so we may have to pay a visit for P-day!

The branch is amazing here! They haven't had sisters in 32 years so we feel very blessed and privileged to be here!  We hope to strengthen the branch the best we can because they had a chapel groundbreaking just a few months ago and it should be finished in a year! The branch is very excited and eager to grow into a ward. There's lots of work to be done and they are so willing to help us.  I'm so grateful for the optimism of the members here and their faith in the Lord and His church.  They are a great example to me. 

This past Saturday I hit my 9 month benchmark.  I can't believe it!  So many experiences have helped me learn and grow over the past few months and I can't believe I'm on to the second half of my mission.  It doesn't change anything about the work, it just makes me sad that my mission actually has to come to an end at some point. Who would've thought right? :) It doesn't seem like it's ever going to end when you first come out and then you get goin', and the time just slips through your fingers.  I'm pretty sure everyone says that, but it's true! What a blessing it is to serve the Lord and His people here in England.  I'm so grateful and feel so blessed to be a missionary.  I'm happy I still have 9 months left to continue learning and developing my testimony and faith in the Lord. Good things to come. :)

This past week we met some great people street contacting and plan to meet with them again this week.  One in particular is named Michalina from Poland! She is 20 and she basically asked us for a return appointment! She's really curious and eager to learn more about the Book of Mormon! :) It's going to be fun teaching her.

Scripture of the week: 

"And it came to pass that they journeyed many days in the wilderness, and they fasted much and rayed much that the Lord would grant unto them a portion of his Spirit to go with them, and abide with them, that they might be an instrument in the hands of God to bring, if it were possible, their brethren, the Lamanites, to the knowledge of the truth, to the knowledge of the baseness of the traditions of their fathers, which were not correct...And it came to pass that the Lord did visit them with his Spirit, and said unto them: Be comforted.  And they were comforted." -Alma 17:9-10

The view from the flat (zoomed and cropped a little bit) - Salisbury Cathedral

Fwd: Pics

1st and last day in Yeovil ward. They are so nice! 

P.S. HAPPY VALENTINE'S THIS WEEK EVERYBODY!! LOVE YOU!

Fwd: Wanna play Pinball?!

Wednesday was transfers and those are always crazy days.  Pack it up, stuff it in the car, roll it into the chapel, eat lunch, and get on the road. The cool thing and blessing was that I got to see Stonehenge on the way to Yeovil! So cool! It's right next to the Motorway.  The trip down took about 2 1/2 hours and when we got there I unpacked all my stuff.  We went to work the next morning, but later Thursday we got a call from President Millar saying that he would need us in Salisbury instead. What?! Didn't see that one comin'. :) But, wow!! How exciting! We are switching spots with the elders there because the Salisbury branch has a lot of sisters who are returned missionaries and want to go out to teach with us! They also just had a ground breaking for a new chapel so there is a lot of excitement there for missionary work! It's going to be great! Today we're cleaning the flat and packing up, tomorrow we're off to Salisbury. Now you know why I feel like a pinball - but it's great! :) No matter where the Lord sends us, I know it's meant to be.

Sister Smart is my new companion and she is awesome! We have so many similarities! Both of us are 5'2", brown hair, green eyes, and we both love organizing and planning. It's going to be a great transfer. We are already off to a great start and have seen miracles already!

Yesterday morning before church, we were doing our personal study. To start, we always say an individual prayer and I felt prompted to ask Heavenly Father to help me find a scripture during my study that would help someone we would meet that day.  I found the one we needed in Mormon 9:20-21.  I marked it in the Book of Mormon and wrote my testimony at the front. For some reason, I felt like we'd be giving it to a young father with dark hair. After church, we went contacting and walked through the park.  We started talking to a young father with dark hair and his girlfriend as their daughter ran around. In my mind it clicked, "This is the guy!"  I pulled out the Book of Mormon and read the verse first to him and again to his girlfriend.  They loved it and it answered the exact question they had.  Ben & Fenn (his girlfriend) both agreed to a return appointment with the elders this coming week. Now if that is not the power of the Holy Ghost, I don't know what is!! It was a complete miracle and totally all thanks to the Spirit! I love being a missionary and being able to have the Spirit as my companion.  We can't do the work without it and this was a testimony of that to me yesterday. I'm so grateful the Lord allows me to be a part of His work and leads us to the people that are prepared. 

Scripture of the week: "20 And the reason why he ceaseth to do ^amiracles among the children of men is because that they dwindle in unbelief, and depart from the right way, and know not the God in whom they should ^btrust.

 21 Behold, I say unto you that whoso believeth in Christ, doubting nothing, ^awhatsoever he shall ask the Father in the name of Christ it shall be granted him; and this ^bpromise is unto all, even unto the ends of the earth." -Mormon 9:20-21

 Here's the proof in case you didn't believe me. :) 

Anything Can Happen

This will probably be one of the shortest blog posts, but this week is transfers so we only have a short amount of time to email today.  Hopefully we'll have a little more on Wednesday, but if not, I'll write a more detailed update next week.

 

I found out Saturday night that I will be moving to the Yeovil area in the Poole Zone on Wednesday.  Out West baby! President Millar has asked me to serve as a Sister Training Leader there.  I'm really surprised since I thought I'd be in Basingstoke for quite a while and I'll miss the people and Sister Brooks, but I'm excited for things to come. :)

 

Scripture of the Week:

  "For I ^acame down from heaven, not to do mine own ^bwill, but the ^cwill of him that sent me." -John 6:38