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| These are the senior missionaries from last weeks meeting |
We have had a very busy week! In fact we are both kind of
stumbling around trying to get moving today because of it, but like I have
mentioned before it is much better to be busy than not! Tonight we will be
doing something that we have not had to do for 15 years! We have to turn our
clocks back! We come from Arizona where there is not Day Light Savings time.Good to get an extra hour of sleep, good for lighter mornings but
not thrilled about the days fading earlier as a result!
I think I may start my ramblings backward today. Tell events
more recent and then rehearse the beginning of the week. Yesterday afternoon
the Elders met with the two University girls here for a discussion. They were
teaching lesson 3: “The Gospel of Jesus Christ”. Georgia has remained very interested
in learning more about the church and even came to church last week. Monday
evening they came over here for another FHE and we had quite an emotional
discussion about the Church’s views on the Family. They each have some issues
with their own families. They really are great young women and we have grown to
love them and respect them.
Well back to last
night. The Missionaries did a very good job of teaching each of the points in
the lesson.The importance of Faith, Repentance and Baptism. When the discussion
turned as directed to the Holy Ghost we were able to witness a powerful moment.
We each had been bearing our testimony of the value of this gift in our lives.
I was just saying something about how I could not imagine how I could possibly
have been a mother without the daily guidance of the Holy Ghost. As I said that
Georgia said right out loud: “did you hear that? Am I the only one that heard
that?” She said her mind had kind of wandered and everything around her was
kind of blurry, not paying attention completely, and when I said ‘Holy Ghost’
they came into her mind as clear as if a scanner had pulled them up and
illuminated them before her eyes. Her heart started beating fast and she even
had Rebecca feel her neck to see how fast her pulse was.
Elder Preece and I and the two Elders looked at each other
in amazement. Rebecca said she did not feel anything but did not doubt that it
had happened. Elder Yu explained to her that one of the jobs of the Holy Ghost
is to testify so that when truth is spoken it can be recognized. Each of us
reassured her that this is exactly what had happened to her, the spirit had
testified to her that we were speaking truth. The rest of the lesson went well
and then we ate milk and cookies after (more about the cookies later). Georgia could not stop talking about the “scanner”
experience. She had previously shared with us a remarkable experience that she
had when she was about 14 years old and had prayed and asked if there was a
God. At that time she had had a very powerful witness that there was. She felt
that the experience yesterday was comparable, just not as pronounced. She
texted the missionaries afterward that she knows that God is mindful of her.
All good stuff!!!
Now to record the rest of the week. Monday we got
Preparation Day stuff done, laundry, house work and blog. Monday night as I
previously mentioned we had FHE with Georgia and Rebecca. Tuesday was a very
rainy day which was just as well because the car had to be taken into the
garage to get new breaks. We rode the bus down in the evening to pick it up
when it was all finished.
Wednesday I got up early and started baking cookies. We have
been asked to bring cookies to all of the Zone Conferences. We were going to one
on Thursday. We had to be in Bridgwater by one o’clock so needed to leave here
by eleven. Well these cookies, what can I say about them…they ended up being
miracle cookies. When I was baking them they did not look or taste right. I had
had to make my own applesauce to put in them since I have not found prepared
applesauce in the markets yet. I madly finished the process while I was rushing
around getting ready. Think I made
nearly 5 dozen, covered them and left them to cool while we headed out on our
errand. We did not return to our flat until after YSA dinner that evening. When
we got back they tasted normal now that they had sat for a while, whew!
Thursday morning we got up very early and madly prepared to
leave for our long day. We had to pick up the Elders from our ward at 7:30 am
to drive to Poole for a tri-zone conference. We were driving through the morning
traffic in Bath when Bill said: “Did you bring the cookies”? Big pause….. NO
neither of us had picked them up nor put them in the car. The second part of
the miraculous state of these cookies is that when Elder Preece went in the kitchen
to see if he needed to run off to the store to purchase some there was plenty
of food, the people who had prepared the meal had brought plenty dessert. See,
the Lord can compensate for you even when you make dumb mistakes!!!
The drive that morning was long and on little winding
country roads. It was first thing in the morning and mist was rising from the
lush green farmlands. It really did look like something out of Pride and
Prejudice!
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| You can see how I felt from my notes! |
What an amazing experience Zone Conference was! The power
and enthusiasm in that room full of Sisters and Elders is hard to describe. Too
bad it cannot be bottled!! We were all given wise council from our Mission
President. Sister Millar spent time teaching those young people about dressing
properly, being safe, being tidy and taking care of their health. She did so
very lovingly. At one point she was admonishing them to be sure they had CO2 detectors because none of their parents had sent them out on a mission to be
taken from this world by a Carbon Monoxide leak, and when she said this there
was a catch in her voice and a tears in her eyes.
The APs gave great council to all of us on following Preach
My Gospel more closely and making sure each new member has been taught the
essential doctrines of the gospel. One of the councilors in the Mission
Presidency gave a beautiful talk on Prayer and then the President lead a
powerful scripture study with them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ which is
Faith, Repentance, Baptism for the remission of sins and the Laying on of Hands
for the Gift of the Holy Ghost. Then we all stood and sang “I Stand All Amazed”
and the spirit was so strong that I felt it through my whole body!
The trip home was not so ‘enjoyable’. There are no real
motorways or official highways between Bristol and Poole. We had to go straight
to the Stake Center because we had to teach our institute class that evening.
We punched the address into the GPS and headed out. Well somewhere right at
first we missed a turn that none of us in the car saw and ended up on back roads,
small villages and narrow lanes that you cannot even imagine. Arrival time on
the sat nav kept getting later and later. Finally we found a petrol station and
bought some snacks for supper. When we did get on the highway we needed to take
us the rest of the way into Bristol we were behind a huge truck who happened to
be going exactly where we were going so we were stuck! All laughable now but
very exhausting at the time; it took us over three house to get back! Whew!
Here is a link to show a little bit of what our trip was like. It is a little blurry but you can get the idea if you click on the link.
Here is a link to show a little bit of what our trip was like. It is a little blurry but you can get the idea if you click on the link.
We are grateful to all of you for your loving support! We
pray for each of you night and morning. At Zone Conference we were taught that every
time we leave a teaching experience we need to ask: “Who else do you know that
could benefit from this lesson?” That simple invitation can open many doors. I
would admonish you to each ask that simple question often. The success is in
the invitation. We ask they decide if they want to hear or not! This really is
an amazing time we are living in. I pray that you all will understand the role
that you play as the work rolls forth!
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| Friday nite date night dinner |
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| Nice way to end the week at the Penny Farthing Pub |
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