Whoa. This week went entirely too quickly! We spent PDay in
Louth which was good because we barely got all the emailing, cleaning, and
shopping done. We decided to deep clean the flat a little bit each week because
that's what we're supposed to do all Halloween night and we determined if we do
a little every day and week, we will be able to party all evening. But let's
face it, that just means we'll probably go to bed around seven...anyways, we
had planned to meet with someone at a members house on Monday, but the member
cancelled. Then he cancelled. So we walked around for two hours. It would've been
three, but sister Manning had a cold and had taken some theraflu and was
getting really drowsy and couldn't walk in a very straight line. So we went in
and went through the area book and made plans to contact formers. So that was
loads of fun!
Tuesday we tried by
a few people in the morning and then went to try a few community service
organisations to see if there was anything we could do. There wasn't. So we had
lunch and then went to do street contacting to our lesson. About halfway there
I realised I had forgotten the phone at home and so we turned around and got it
and still made the lesson on time! Tender mercy! We went over the restoration
with him and it went pretty well. He just doesn't want to go to church because
he feels we don't need churches to be able to do good things. And I told him
church isn't a service opportunity. I was going to finish with why we go to
church, but sister Scott, the member who came with us cut me off because I
think she was afraid it sounded offensive. Don't think he took it
offensively...but we'll see next time I guess! So then we tried by a few more
people and had a lesson with one of the formers we had contacted. She still
wasn't interested, but we talked for quite a bit, so that was good! Then we
went to Ben's and read 1 Nephi 3:5-8 with him and went over the importance of
looking for Gods way to do things. He seemed to really enjoy it and was excited
to read the rest of the chapter to see how it ended! So that was way cool! Then
we had tea at the O'Grams and did 12 weeks! Then I made cocoa cookies because I
was really wanting them. It was about 10 o'clock when I started them, but I was
still in bed by 10:30!
Wednesday was pretty
long. We woke up early to get to district meeting on time. Had district
meeting. Then took lunch in town and got some very nice fleece lined tights
that I'm sure will be well worn when winter hits hard! Then we had a lesson
with Jackie and went over the Priesthood and Auxiliaries with her. Then we got
back on the bus to go to the Scott's house for tea. Then they took us to the
chapel for missionary coordination and branch council. We almost got in trouble
because we are supposed to be in at 9, 9:30 at the latest, and we got in at
9:25. Another tender mercy!
Thursday was quite
interesting. We went to the library to make Jackie's baptismal program and then
had lunch and then went to Sister Stephenson's house to meet a guy named Dene.
Dene had found our card and asked if we could meet up so we were beyond
excited. Unfortunately he wanted to meet up because he's basically a debt
councillor and wanted to know if we could get him in touch with any
clients...it was good though because we talked about prophets and how the
prophet councils us to stay out of debt and we showed him the self reliance manuals
and the Book of Mormon. He seemed interested and said he'd be in touch!
So we shall see what comes of that. Then we popped by a few people and then had
tea at the Fox's. They're such a funny family. Brother Fox dished me up and he
had been telling me earlier that my coat makes me look smaller than I already
am since it's so long. So he kept calling me a midget, which of course I'm used
to anyways. But then he dished me up and gave me one leaf of cabbage, one
carrot slice, two peas, and a sliver of meat. Then said "there that should
tide a midget over!" It was really funny. After tea with them we went to
have a lesson with Jane and Andy. We decided the best way to determine their
commitment was to teach them something they'd really have to act on. So we
taught word of wisdom. It actually went really well and they said they'd start
cutting down and try to live it! So that's really good!
Friday seemed so
short! We had a long weekly planning trying to get things ready for the baptism
and inviting people to it. Then we had lunch and went out. Jackie forgot we
were coming and was in town, so we went to see Josephine and talked with her
for a little bit. Then we grabbed our suitcases and headed to the bus station.
We travelled to Grimsby and then caught the bus to Hull. So that was a long
trip. When we got to Hull, we visited a member. Thank goodness Sister Manning
served there before because she knew them already! Then we helped ourselves to
the Hull Sister's food and had tea. Then we went straight to bed because we had
an early morning to get ready for!
Saturday! Oh
Saturday! So we had an all-mission conference with President Nelson presiding.
What a crazy day. We woke up around 3:30 this morning and got ready. A taxi
came and picked us up at 5:15 and then we went to the chapel and got a coach to
Huddersfield. It was great! We had about an hour to catch up with all the other
missionaries. It was so good seeing everyone again! Then the spirituality came
in. We sat in the chapel listening to prelude music for about half an hour and
they all came in. We had five General Authorities and their wives and we all
got to shake their hands. It was such a great meeting. Most of them talked
about becoming true disciples of Christ and how we could and should apply that
to our missionary work. It was really powerful and President Nelson blessed
each of us and our families as we give our all to this work. It was such
a powerful blessing and most people were in tears. Anyways, they had packed
lunches for each of us, so we each took a bag and ate on the coach back to
Hull. We got to Hull and caught the bus back to Grimsby. Then we waited 45
minutes and caught the bus back to Louth. We dropped our stuff off and had
thirty minutes left to proselyte until tea and 12 weeks. So it was a great day
but felt like it spanned about two or three days.
Sunday was a special
Stake Conference with President Hallstrom presiding. It was such a great
meeting as well. Unfortunately I wasn't feeling too well and so I didn't get a
ton out of it, but the Spirit was strong and that's what's important! So Jackie
was supposed to have her interview on Sunday, but her foot had swollen to about
twice its size and they have no idea why. So she couldn't walk very well and
decided not to go to the conference. So we went and visited her after lunch and
talked to her about callings and service in the church. She will have her
interview on Tuesday now and didn't want to mover her baptism date, so we
should be still having a baptism this weekend! It'll just be short notice for
some of the members...but she said she's been looking forward to it too long
and counting down the days, so she didn't want to move it a week. Then we were
going to have a lesson with Ben, but he wound up having some things he needed to
take care of, so we had a lesson with Josephine instead.
My spiritual thought
comes from my notes on our Saturday Meeting. "The first spoken word in
this dispensation was "Joseph" it was a name" I love that
thought! The first thing Heavenly Father said, the first thing He showed, was
that He knows us by name. We aren't just creation #626 or something, we are His
children and He knows us individually and He knows us by name.
Love you all!
Sister Hope
