Monday, August 29, 2016

Miracles at Mental Hospitals and Car Washes - July 25, 2016

Another week has come and gone here in the England Leeds Mission! It has been a weird week, but great nonetheless. It is always great being in the Lord's service :)

So on Monday, we had a lesson with Ephrem (I found out I've been spelling his name wrong this whole time...whoops.) about going to church, reading our scriptures, and prayer. He's left to go to London on Tuesday, so unfortunately this was the only lesson we could have with him this week. But it was still great!

Tuesday was a little more interesting. We had a lesson with Lavinia. She was having a really hard time and so it was good we were able to cheer her up! She cheered herself up by making fun of Sister Sovala. So it was an interesting lesson. Then our next lesson cancelled and so we had lunch with Pam and then went to try by this guy we found the day before who was upset the elders never brought him a Book of Mormon. He wasn't in. So we went to a member's house in the area. He was a little upset we didn't call him first. SO he sat us down in his front room and said "I'll be right back". Then we heard the front door close and HE LEFT US! He left us in his house, so we weren't sure what to do, and we didn't think we could be in his house without him, so we waited outside and had a lesson with Pam instead. Then he came back with cake. So we had a slice and retaught him The Restoration. It was really good! He just made us promise that next time we'd call and not just drop in so he could have something for us. 

Wednesday was way interesting. Nathan cancelled and then our next lesson did too. So we were street contacting and then decided to just go to the library and do mormon.org time. Then we ran into this really nice lady that Sister Sovala talks to all the time. She said she's really sick and so she lives at the hospital now and she had to go back. But she didn't want to take the bus because its too hot, noisy, and bumpy. So we offered to split a cab with her. Well we thought she lived at the normal hospital or like an assisted living center. no. She lives at the mental hospital. So we got to tour the mental institution and her carers were very suspicious of us. kinda funny. But it was great! We still had a great lesson with her and I hope we cheered her up a little bit...Then we had dinner with a member. Total miracle on the way back! So we wound up having to take a different bus than we originally planned on and a few stops later this lady gets on and asks me which ward I'm from. I was really confused. Like maybe she saw us at the hospital? Anyways I still told her Rotherham. She's a member in Sheffield and was visiting a friend that she wanted to introduce to the missionaries! And God sent her missionaries on her way home! It was so great!

Thursday we had district meeting in the morning and then came back and had a lesson with June and then dinner with Darren and Barbara. It was really good. we've still got a lot of work to do there, but slowly but surely he's starting to trust us more! We were supposed to have a lesson with Graham afterwards, but he said he forgot. Which was ok because the bus we were supposed to take refused to let anyone on...we're still confused about that. So we stopped by a few less-actives in the area who weren't interested.

Friday. We had branch correlation right after weekly planning. It took forever because the elders weren't prepared totally for the baptism they had on Saturday. So we had to help them with that for most of the time. Then we went door-knocking and street contacting and had a lesson with Belina. She's having a really hard time right now. She seems to get offended really easily. She's ok with us because she thinks missionaries are perfect (yeah, right) but she's having a really hard time with the rest of the branch. Then we had our lesson with Graham. We gave him a virtual chapel tour and invited him to church. He said he already had plans with a friend. So maybe next week. Slow progress. but progress!

Saturday was so great! We had a lesson with this guy named Carlo. He owns a Jamaican store in town, so we taught him at the store and he gave us free slushies! Then as we were leaving, we walked past the car wash and this guy always waves at us, and this time he asked us to stop. So we did, he invited us to sit down, and then ran into a store. WE GOT LEFT AGAIN! but he returned with drinks a few seconds later. He said he knows we work really hard and he feels bad that such nice girls have to always be outside in the heat (its been really hot this week and no rain! So weird) and so he wanted to buy us a drink. After double-checking there was no alcohol, we gladly accepted and set up a return appointment with him. Then we had a lesson with Nathan to help him write his talk for the baptism and then caught the train to go to the baptism. So the Elder's investigator, Abbie, got baptized! It was a little sad because nobody in the branch knew...so there were six missionaries, Nathan, the branch president and his wife, his first councilor, and her friend that introduced her to the church. But I think she wanted it to be really small...

Sunday was amazing! Abbie got confirmed and then right after church, she wanted her first thing she did as an official member be going out with the missionaries! So we took her out. It was a little disappointing because we had three lessons, and none of them were in. But oh well! So she went home and then we stopped by Graham's house. We had seen him Saturday night outside (he's basically our next-door neighbor) and he was really drunk. So we stopped by to tell him how disappointed we were and explained the word of wisdom a little bit more and then had a lesson with Livia about getting through trials with Christ's help.

So yeah! It was a great week! My thought for the week comes from Elder Henry B. Eyring's "Our Perfect Example"
"The message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ is that we can and must expect to become better as long as we live."
That is something our Branch President talked about and challenged us to each think of one thing we can be better at and make that change. There's always something we can do to go from good to better and better to best. May we all become the best version of ourselves :)

Love you all!

Sister Hope

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