Great week... planting lot of seeds!!

"This has been such a great week! I really enjoyed it and had a great time!
This week I had another opportunity to go on exchange with my great friend Elder Coomes! I am always excited to serve with Elder Coomes as we were in the same District at the MTC, and so, our friendship, trust and faith just makes us see 1000s of miracles!

On Tuesday, our first day together, we spoke to a lot of great people! We were working in an area here in Shrewsbury called Sutton. We were tracting there, and guess what! We didn’t have a single door shut on our faces. In fact, everyone that we spoke to we were able to have a Gospel Conversation with. If our maths was right, we had about 25 quality gospel conversations in the space of an hour or so. I loved it! Even though we weren’t able to get any return appointments, we were able to plant a lot of seeds!

As we were approaching a car that had just pulled into the drive way, the phone rang so I took the call while Elder Coomes approached the man. Turns out that when Elder Coomes first spoke to him, the man actually swore at him and said he’d had a terrible day at work. Elder Coomes asked if there was anything that he could do to help at all, the man’s heart was immediately softened. By the time I actually joined in the conversation the was already smilling and having a great conversation with Elder Coomes.

Also, as we were street contacting in town, we met a lady. The Spirit completely guided our conversation with her. We were able to quickly find out about how she had lost her daughter and her brother, and her marriage had broken up, and how she had turned to Alcohol for comfort. We were able to tell her that she has a Heavenly Father who loves her and knows how strong she is. We gave her the hope that she can see her daughter again and be with her. As we prayed with her, I just felt so much peace and love from Heavenly Father. Hopefully as we visit her, she will want to learn more about the Gospel and take the necessary steps she needs to take to bring her life in harmony with Christ’s teachings.

On Wednesday we also saw a great Miracle together! We were once again Street Contacting. We were making our way to the flat to have some lunch. I just felt impressed to speak to a lady who was walking past us, so I did. She told us that she didn’t believe in God, but she believed in a life after this one. She told us that the only thing anyone can believe in is themselves. We told her about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon, but she told us she thought it was all false and that we could not convert her. As a final try, I bore my testimony of the Book of Mormon. I told her that I know life is not easy. I haven’t gone through the same things as she has, but that as a missionary, life is not easy either! Sometimes things happen, or people do things that demoralize us or just brings us down, but because of the Book of Mormon I have been able to find that Courage to keep going despite what everyone else says or does, because I know that I have a loving Heavenly Father. The lady, then said that maybe what she needs in her life is that courage, to what I said “We can help you with that! When can we come see you tomorrow?” She set up an appointment with us and she was in waiting for us and everything! :D"

District meeting and exchange!!

"So the week started with a great District Meeting from Elder Bunker! I loved it! He is such a great District Leader! I love how humble Elder Bunker is as he teaches the district, and yet at the same time, he is so knowledgeable. The most amazing think is that he already is such a great example of what a missionary should be like, and he is not even a year old!

After the District Meeting I was on an exchange with Elder Watts until Thursday morning. It was really nice to see how he works! He is definitely himself as he speaks to people! In fact, I was able to learn a couple of “tricks” from him to get people to stop and chat before introducing the gospel! It’s fool-proof! Whenever I use them, people always stop for long enough to have a conversation (even if only for about 10 seconds)

We were able to see quite a few miracles together. Last week I had been looking through the Formers in the Area Book and decided to try by a couple of them.

We also spoke to a Jehova’s Witness, and his next door neighbour. Because he was walking his dog, Elder Watts ended up speaking to him while I spoke to his neighbour. We both had really good conversations though! The lady I was speaking with has a son and has gone through some hard times in her previous relationship – that is the reason why she doesn’t believe in God. I pointed out to her that she was a lot stronger due to the experiences she went through, and her eyes kind of changed, almost as if she hadn’t realised that God HAD answered her prayers, but in his own time. I shared with her my testimony of how God answers prayers in his own time, and shared about how reading the scriptures helps me through tough times. The change in her eyes and face made it obvious that the Holy Ghost was working within her.

As for the JW what interests him in his religion is that, in his own words, “we are persecuted! In some countries we aren’t even allowed to speak to people!” I think that once he watches Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration he will realise that Jesus Christ’s real Church on the Earth has suffered even more persecution, as Satan really does not want anyone to know about the truth."

Power of prayer... I love miracles!!

"Although we had a bit of a rough week, it wasn't without miracles or positive events.

Going to the Temple was really refreshing for me. There is just so much peace inside that building! I love to do Endowments! But I have to admit that most of the time, what I am looking forward to, is that peace, quiet and love which can only be felt in the Celestial room. As I think about my feelings and desires, it also makes me think of it as a type for what life is truly about.
As we go through the temple we are reminded of what it feels like to live with our Heavenly Father, it increases our desire to return back to Him. As we go about our lives, there is nothing that we want more than to feel that sense of belonging that come from feeling God's love. Although we have ups and downs, joy or pain, what we cannot wait for is the love, peace and quiet that we will feel when we return to Heavenly Father one day.
I think that one of the reasons why the Temple had to be built, aside from the fact that in there we receive saving ordinances, is that God wants us to keep on having high hopes. He wants to remind us of why we are here, and where we are meant to get to.
I love the temple so much!

The other miracle is something that I am actually quite glad it happened as it didn't actually start as a miracle.
You see, after going to the Temple, the trains to Shrewsbury were all messed up and so we ended up staying the night in Crewe. That was a very long and cold night! I kept waking up because I was cold and because I was sleeping on an armchair. The following day, due to such a terrible night, I was in a bit of a grumpy mood, had a headache, and could not wait for 10:30pm to arrive so I could get to bed.
As we were street contacting, I approached a man in the nicest way possible despite how I felt, however the man took offense for some reason and started cursing at me. Because I was slightly annoyed I was annoyingly persistant even though I knew perfectly that he wouldn't accept the Gospel. After I left the man I just felt anger and tiredness. I'd let the natural man take over, and for that I felt terrible. I felt horrible for the way that I had acted! Whenever I wasn't talking to someone I'd be praying for forgiveness. At night, during my personal prayer I also added the plea that if I ever met the man again, that I would remember him and have the courage to apologise to him.
On Thursday, I was on exchange with Elder Bunker and we had a great day. We spoke to a lot of people and were having a lot of fun. At 9pm, as we were making our way to the flat, Elder Bunker stopped man ahead of us in the middle of a tunnel even though it was dark and noisy. When I finally got close to them, I realised that the man Elder Bunker was trying to speak to was the man who I had enfuriated the day before. God gave me my chance to apologise to him, so I took that chance. After all of that, it felt like a big weight had been lifted off my shoulders! The man actually told me he forgave me and even shook my hand - something he had denied to do the day before.
I just love the power of prayer SO MUCH! I love Miracles!

I am excited for this week! I am hoping to see a lot of changes happen."

Crazy tranfer's week!

"I realised at the beginning of this last week that all the District Leaders I’ve had so far have gone home! What a scary thought! Just shows how quickly a mission goes! But now that I have Elder Bunker as my District Leader, I know he will be here until two transfers before I go home!

Elder Desir and I had a great weekend! We have been trying to be more ourselves, and try different ways of doing missionary work.

On Saturday, we played some basketball with a recent convert and a load of his friends. They are all from the Philippines, and are really nice. Most of them had also met missionaries before in the Philippines so they kept asking us “Do you speak Tagalog? Because the missionaries in the Philippines do, and they are really good at it!” It was fun. We are hoping to play again with them this week, and while one of us plays, the other will be sitting down and teaching whoever else is sitting down. All of them also have families, so we really want to get teaching them and their families! It would definitely help the ward here in Shrewsbury to grow!

Then yesterday (Sunday) we had tea at our Italian Investigator’s home! There are ALWAYS other people there too! Now, everyone there was catholic besides us 2… But I think we did pretty well! At one point they were arguing about the big Cathedrals that the Catholic Church has, some of them agreed that they were necessary and some of them thought they were pointless. The investigator's son, asked us if we had any big buildings, and what our view was about it. I explained about how just like in the times of the Old Testament we have Temples, the House of the Lord – we even showed them pass along cards of the Salt Lake and the Preston Temples – and that the reason why they are so beautiful is because as an offering to the Lord from us, we build it with the best materials we can. The investigator then asked us if we really thought that God wanted such a building, so we used the Bible to reply to her question. I mentioned about how Jesus Christ, during his Ministry, drove the money changers out of the Temple because it was his Father’s house, and so we know for a fact that it is something that is important to God.

It was great! Whenever they were talking, there were multiple conversations going on at once, however, when we spoke, there was absolute silence, and it was almost unnerving to speak up because of how much silence there was!

When we were leaving, the investigator told us that she would like to come to our church in two weeks as she has never been to a “Mormon Church” before but ‘…would like to know what it is all about”.

This week should be really amazing! We are packed with things to do today – from spending time with one of the Priests, to an appointment-packed evening tonight – then there is the temple tomorrow!

Elder Desir and I are so excited to go to the Temple! It’s been so long since we have last gone in! I miss it so much! And now I definitely have a LOT more questions to take in with me than last time!

Can’t wait to feel of that Spirit and Love which can only really be felt at the Temple."

Staying in Shrewsbury with..... Elder Desir! :)

"What a wonderful surprise to be serving with Elder Desir for another transfer!

On Monday, after transfer calls, we went out to do some finding. What a wonderful day it was! We decided to pray and ask God to lead us to families. As we were street contacting, this man walked past us, with earphones in his ears, and Elder Desir spoke to him. We found out that he actually had a partner and 2 daughters. As we kept speaking to him, he told us that it would be a huge feeling of happiness to know that he could be with his family forever, and he set up an appointment with us, for the very same day. We taught a really wonderful Restoration lesson to him and his family. He accepted to read the book of Mormon and pray about it, and he told us he wants to read the whole book before we go over again. Thankfully he is a quick reader, so he told us he will have finished reading it in the next two weeks! We will keep popping by though just to see if we can help him receive the Restored Gospel into his life ASAP.

Praying for families has definitely been a huge help this last week! We have been seeing a lot of success from it! Prayer is the best thing ever! So simple, and yet so powerful! Elder Desir and I are really excited for this transfer, and we know that some good things will happen here in Shrewsbury!

I love being here in Shrewsbury! The people we work with are great! I love them to bits! And so does Elder Desir. I think that is one of the reasons why we have such great expectations for this transfer! These people will feel our love, and hopefully we will be able to feel their love too!

I am so excited to go to the temple next week! I miss it so much! It is such a special feeling to be inside it and feel of God’s love for us. Cannot wait!"

I love being a missionary!

"I love being a missionary so much! You just see so many miracles! It’s wonderful! Let me tell you about a couple of miracles we were able to see today!

So, on Wednesda, we had about 30mins to do some proselyting before our flat inspectors came to see how our flat was looking, so we decided to go out, into town – which we never do as town is always too crowded of “busy” people. Anyway, it was evening time, so there weren’t as many people out!

As we were walking through town, I saw a young man, with really long hair, Punk-ish look who looked sort of familiar, and both Elder Desir and I were certain we’d spoken to him before. However, I decided to approach him anyway as there is nothing wrong with a second chance! Turns out we had never actually spoken to him before. We had a really nice conversation with him about the Gospel. As we were trying to set up an appointment, Elder Desir said “I am sure you are very busy…” to which he replied “Not really… I have about 10 more minutes…” We were both shocked! But of course took this opportunity to sit on a bench and teach him the First Lesson. He was GOLDEN! He understood the need for baptism, and when I felt inspired to do so, I invited him to follow the example of Jesus Christ which he accepted! The only sad thing about it: He is from Yorkshire. We left him with a copy of the book of Mormon which he actually asked for, and a pamphlet of the Restoration. I am very confident that he will read and pray about it.

The second Miracle that amazed me happened on Friday. After we got out of the house, as we were going up the road, a man crossed the road to meet with us. So I approached him and told him about our message. He told us that we’d tried speaking to him before, but he’d been having a miserable day so just brushed us off, however, as we were walking in the same direction, we could share with him our message."

We ended up walking with him all the way to his house, he invited us in, we sat down and shared with him about our message, and before we left we set up a return appointment. He is a Baptist and so he kept asking us about being saved by grace and not works. He also spoke about the dead not having a second chance after this life, and when we mentioned 1 Corinthians 15:29, he said that he had never come across that scripture before.

 

I love being a missionary and meeting so many different and nice people! It’s one of the things I love most! Shrewsbury Ward truly is a great Ward! I love it! The members are really nice, and they really like the missionaries. There is nothing I love more than when members and missionaries work together!"

Following the promptings of the Spirit!

"What a week it has been!

It started with an exchange with Elder Coomes on Tuesday through to Thursday. Elder Coomes and I really had a great time! That was the third opportunity to serve with someone from my MTC group while out here in the field. What made it even more special was the fact that Elder Coomes and I were actually in the same MTC District! We were able to see a couple of Miracles while we were together, as well as some hard times, but I loved every single second of serving with him.

First Miracle was on Wednesday while we were finding. We were tracting a road, up to the point where we actually had knocked at all the houses on the left side. Also, we were running short on time as we had an appointment in 30mins. However, as I looked to the right, the last door jumped out at me and I thought “maybe we should try one last door…” Now, something that Elder Matute taught me, is that if we give ourselves time to rationalize, we will ignore promptings of the spirit and say they were our own thoughts, so as soon as I thought that – to try one last door- I did what Elder Matute told me to do, I turned to Elder Coomes and said straightaway “Let’s try one last door!”

What a miracle it was to follow that prompting! When we knocked at the door, a man opened the door and invited us into his house. He introduced us to his family and invited us to sit down in his living room. We had a very chat with this great man and his wife, and although they were not interested at all, it was a great opportunity to share our testimonies and invite them to get even closer to Jesus Christ.

The second miracle came on Thursday. It was about 2pm and we hadn’t had a single QGC yet! Everyone was being really rough with us. Throughout the morning, I’d at times thought to myself “Perhaps we should pray…” so I brushed that thought aside. However, when we finish tracting half the street we were on, in my head the thought “Pray!” just kept on popping up. So I told Elder Coomes we needed to pray. We moved onto a quieter street and quickly prayed for Faith to see miracles, and love for the people we were going to speak with.

After our prayer, we knocked at a door and a lady opened it. We had a great QGC with her, and we set up an appointment with her for next Thursday! She is married and has a daughter. Before we left, she also asked us if we had a Book of Mormon that we could lend to her, so Elder Coomes gave her his last copy.

I love the power of Prayer! I know that there was a reason why I was being prompted to pray. Maybe if we had not prayed we would have knocked at this lady's door expecting rejection, or maybe she wouldn’t have felt the love from her Heavenly Father as we spoke to her. Whatever the reason it was why we had to pray, I know that it was inspired of God, and that it increased both mine and Elder Coomes’ testimony of Prayer!

During our Companion Study, Elder Desir and I have been talking a lot about the fundamental “The Role of the Holy Ghost in Conversion”. I really believe that that is one of the most crucial fundamentals there are. We may be the best at quoting the First Vision with a lot of feeling! But if we have not the Spirit with us, or if the investigator does not feel the Spirit, nothing is being taught to the Heart of the Investigator.

We visited a Part Member family in the evening. They are from Romania, and so the lessons with them are usually a bit of a process as we try not to get lost in translation. We were able to recognize and rely on the Spirit as we taught about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The wife told us, in her broken English, that she wants to make a change as she has seen the blessing that the Gospel has been on her husband, but first she wants to read and know that the Book of Mormon is true. I love weeks like this! I love it when it becomes so easy to see Miracles even though there are also a lot of trials about! I love how much the Gospel changes people’s lives. I can’t wait for this brother to see his dream (his wife and son being baptised) come true."