Monday, October 22, 2018

So many good things are happening here!

Monday was lots of fun!  We hiked Kinoull Hill with our Branch President's wife before she moved back to America on Wednesday to keep her nursing license.  It was so pretty and you could see all of Perth from the top! 

On Tuesday we had a meeting with our zone in Dundee.  On Wednesday we had Scotland North conference in Aberdeen.  

I don't know if I've talked about this family, but there is a family of Romanians that have been taught in Perth for about a year.  They go back and forth with wanting to be baptised, but the 9 year old, ____, is constant.  He is at church every week and loves it.  This week when we visited them the mom expressed her desire to be baptized.  We set them both with a date and she is working on the paperwork for her and ____ to get married, so they can live the law of chastity. 

____  is 18 and has been taught by missionaries since about November of last year.  She is so interested, but has been scared to tell her mom that she wants to get baptized.  We met with her this week and set her with a baptismal date.  She told her mom this week and her mom supports her decision.  She'll be getting baptised on the 17th of November, Sister Rose's last Saturday in the mission!

Brooke's uncle, ____, that said the prayer at her baptism yesterday came to church yesterday!  It has been YEARS since that last happened.  He stayed for all 3 hours and said he'd be back in two weeks when it's not his weekend with his daughter.  Brooke is one heck of a missionary!

Also the Elders finally got a flat in Perth and can start working here!  Elder and Sister Edwards are finally settled here and missionary work is on the brink of explosion.  Perth isn't ready for all the miracles we're about to receive.  I'm so excited!!!!!!

Monday, October 15, 2018

Sister Rose is great!  She is from Utah, but she lived in England for 10 years.  We get along really well.  We've been working super hard and she doesn't want to leave the mission, so we'll have lots of fun this transfer!   Unfortunately, the Elders don't have a flat in Perth yet.  They stayed in our District Leader's flat all week in Kirkcaldy, but they came to church yesterday.  The senior couple, Elder and Sister Edwards, are AMAZING (and not just because they took us out to dinner this week and said we were their favorites).  They are so excited to be in Perth and the branch is so excited to have us all here.

This week it started to rain again.  I am not ready for winter.  We got absolutely soaked on Saturday.  We got lunch and our coats and backpacks left puddles in the restaurant.  We felt really bad.  My coat that was once waterproof is definitely not anymore.  We weren't expecting the rain that day and I wore my boots that I came out with.  They're still wet and I wish I was joking.  We came back to the flat halfway through the day to change our clothes because we were freezing.  

Church was amazing this week.  We had 6 of the people we are teaching there!  With the new missionaries, visitors, and people we brought to church there were about 15 people that weren't normally at church there. I have never seen the chapel so full.  It was magical and I almost cried walking in.  There were so many people attending Gospel Principles we had to move it into the chapel because our little classroom wouldn't fit us all.

Something I was thinking about this week is the importance of Jesus Christ.  I think all too often we go through church without emphasising Him enough.  That was made clear by President Nelson and his talk on using the importance of the Lord's name when referring to the church.  Another example comes from yesterday's gospel principles lesson.  It was on the Law of Chastity.  We talked about what it was, its importance, and that we can be forgiven from breaking the Law of Chastity.  The whole time Jesus Christ wasn't mentioned once.  I decided that needed to change and I bore my testimony on His importance and how He can take away all sin.  The lesson turned in a whole different direction and when we brought Jesus Christ into the lesson the Spirit was much stronger.  We can never emphasise Jesus Christ enough.  

Monday, October 8, 2018 - WOW WOW WOW

Conference was so good!  We watched the Saturday AM and Sunday AM live, with Women's Conference and Saturday PM on catch up.  We missed the Sunday PM, but WOW WOW WOW.  The work is hastening!  I loved Elder Bednar's talk about that.  I also loved Elder Rasband's talk on fear.  I loved President Oak's Saturday AM talk as well.  Oh and Elder Holland's talk!  Basically everything.  AND President Nelson's promised blessings for using the Savior's name in referring to the church.  WOW.  Amazing.  

We got to attend branch council this week and it was so good!  Sister Hammond and I were talking about the importance of getting converts to the temple throughout the week and we brought it up at branch council.  The branch has a temple trip planned for this Saturday and hopefully two of the people recently baptised in the branch will be able to go (including Brooke).  I love the temple so much and if I can't get there now I want to do everything in my power to get others there!  Also with the help of one of the members we were able to help Brooke get started on her family history this week!  Yay!

2 HOUR CHURCH!  My first thought was, 'that just got a lot more complicated to explain how our church services run on the street.'  As I thought about it more I thought of the great opportunity it is to make our Sabbath day more centered on the home, strengthening family relationships, ministering, serving and so much more.  I pray that we all take the opportunity to act on this invitation to repent!  

About 5 minutes before conference started we got our moves call!  I am staying in Perth!  Sister Hammond went to Greenock this morning (the poor thing had to travel alone and deal with all of her suitcases by herself) and I am here with Sister Rose.  We were actually in the same district when I was in Dublin.  This is her last transfer, so I'm going from having a very 'young' companion to a very 'old' companion.  Probably the most exciting thing about this moves call is that Perth is getting two more teams of missionaries!  There will be a senior couple coming in as well as a set of Elders.  The work here is about to EXPLODE.   This will be AMAZING for the branch.  I am so so so excited. 

Monday, October 1, 2018

I had to break out the tights and boots today.  Happy October.  I put it off for as long as physically possible, but today was the day :(  Here comes winter! 

PERTH SISTERS OFF THE GRID

On our way back from District Council we were walking to the train station when a man asked us to call a number for him to talk to his son.  I looked at our phone and it didn't have a signal.  I thought that was weird, but it must have just been the place we were in.  So we took our train back to Perth and still no signal.  We took the battery out and the sim card out and tried it again, but still no luck.  That's kind of an issue if you can't get a hold of anyone and no one can get a hold of you.  It wouldn't have been that big of an issue, but Sister Hammond was SUPER sick.  The next day, about midday, we called the mission home from the church and they explained that the phone company decided to close our number without telling anyone, so the mission had to get it back.  We got it back in a day and a half.  Sister Hammond was very very sick - she was out for 2 whole days.  I felt so bad for her.  We had to stay in the flat quite a bit this week, but that means I got some more time to study and go through the area book!

We had exchange in Aberdeen this week.  I was with Sister Allred and we had a bunch of fun.  

On Sunday we were headed back to the flat for lunch when we got a text from our investigator asking us to come over.  When we got there they had food ready for us and we got to teach their family.  It was so nice.

I also really liked a thought shared by one of the high counselors yesterday.  He said, "Joy is not about our circumstances in life, but it is about the focus of our life."