Knowledge Is Power

Oh my, what a GLORIOUS week it has been! Full of mixed weather and adventures and best of all MIRACLES!!!!

A few weeks ago when Sister Allison and I were heading home we stopped a lady in the street named Natalie. She was amazed that we stopped her as she said she had just been praying while walking, telling God she wasn't going to give up on Him and then BOOM-we stopped her! True hand of the Lord moment. We have since been able to meet with her a few times and started to teach her and her daughter Cuba. They are so lovely. They have both been involved with many different faiths, but Natalie is so excited to learn about the restoration of the Gospel and how we know that this is the true Church of Jesus Christ. Every time we come to her home, the lessons are SO POWERFUL. The spirit just flows and envelops us. I try not to cry, but I am just a baby. Sister Allison says the longer you are on the mission the more spiritually tough you become and you don't cry every time you feel the spirit, so maybe there is hope for me. We shared with Natalie and Cuba about baptism and invited them to begin preparing. We left them with the commitment to pray to know if what we were sharing was true and to confirm their decision to be baptised. We stopped by the next morning and Cuba was delighted to share with us that she had had a dream about getting baptised. She said she was in all white and her Mum was there and everyone was smiling. She said she couldn't remember all the details but she knew and remembered how she felt. Her darling testimony gives me so much strength. The Lord really is preparing souls everyday. There are people everywhere in the world who are ready and waiting for the gospel and simply " know not where to find it".

Natalie was able to join us at church on Sunday. By the end of the third hour she was just about ready to jump into the baptismal font! She said she feels at home and so welcome. She sees how happy all the members are and she wants that for her and Cuba. She even mentioned wanting to become a missionary haha. We just love her enthusiasm and love of the gospel and more importantly her dedication to deepen her relationship with Jesus Christ.

Another miracle was with our investigator Billy, the 78 yr old violin maker. We LOVE Billy he is always trying to give us things and take care of us. Sweetest old man ever. Honestly he reminds me SO MUCH of Owen in 60 years. Just precious and kind hearted (p.s. can someone please get me a way to write Owen?!) Billy used to be in the antique car industry and he got invited to go to a show on Sunday. You could tell he REALLY wanted to go and when we came to teach him on Saturday he wanted us to pretty much give him permission. We retaught him the principle of 'keeping the sabbath day holy' and told him that it was a decision he needed to make between him and the Lord and that we promised he would know what to do. Sister Allison bore beautiful testimony and promised that when we sacrifice what we want to be obedient the Lord will always bless us. Billy came to church and stayed all three hours. :)

Something I have been focusing on in study is KNOWLEDGE. In D&C 131: 6 it says it is impossible for a man to be saved in ignorance. Spiritual knowledge really is POWER. I am trying to deepen my desire to learn and love learning. I have always done the minimum to understand something so I can get on with it but I am trying to really let my "soul delighteth in scriptures" so that "my heart pondereth continually upon the things which I have seen and heard" (Nephi 4:15-16) I want to FEAST upon the words of Christ and develop habits that I will have for my whole life. I understand more and more each day how sacred our personal study time is and I am getting into much more of a rhythm there, which is good. I realized something very important as we study. We must FEAST on the words, then PONDER on what we have read. We MUST take the time to digest what we intake so we can properly nourish our souls. If we just inhale our spirit food and go for a run it will not settle right. We cannot simply read and move on. We must take the time to record what insights we have. I am learning to spend a lot of time writing down my insights because the spirit teaches me AS I WRITE. Sometimes I look back at what I have written and think where did that come from?!

As we really LEARN from what we study then we can APPLY it. We must first understand something, truly and deeply before we can adequately apply it to our lives.

At church we learned about President Uchtdorf's talk on the 2 principles of any economy- LEARN & WORK (I invite you to read it!)

It helped me better understand that I need to love to learn and love to work. These are my goals not only this week but for the rest of my life.

I am so glad that Sun Valley was a good time. Thank you for sending me those pictures :) Send my love to everyone. HUGS from ENGLAND!!

Dylan- YES PLEASE send me pictures! I prefer them to be in the mail so I can keep them, but email is allowed.

My address: 

Flat 3 14 Burlington Rd

Withington, M20 4QA

England

I love you all!!!!!Keep smiling, keep praying, keep reading, and most importantly always remember that God loves you and Jesus Christ is your best friend!