cootie catcher

So to mix things up I made a cootie catcher/fortune teller and started playing it with people on the streets. You pick a picture, then you pick a word like "Jesus, joy, sorrow, death, life, etc and instead of a fortune, there's a scripture from the Book of Mormon-that we proceed to read to the player. It was fun, as I needed to change things around.

The Olive Tree

This week Tom read the allegory of the olive trees. "Can you tell me why chapter five is a guide on maintaining a garden?"

Lots of British Love!

Madie

The Lord has our backs....

The great thing is that Heavenly Father is really in control. :) Happy days! When it matters most, he takes over. We had a cool experience this week. We were teaching our investigator. I didn't think she was ready for the baptismal commitment, but you never know. Last time we were there, Sister Rose assigned 2 Nephi 31 for her to read, which is all about baptism. When we got to the appointment, Sister Rose had completely forgotten what she assigned, and when we followed up, she realized that we would be talking about baptism and felt the heat come on. So we discussed the chapter. During the lesson, I was thinking about inviting her to baptism but had some weird impression to wait and the impression of something about Sister Rose. Meanwhile, the conversation was drifting away from baptism and onto other things. Sister Rose was praying in her head that if the conversation went back to baptism, she would invite and then what do I do next? I turned the conversation back to baptism. Well that put the serious heat onto Sister Rose! bwa haha. So then she follows up after what I say about baptism, and extends the commitment. To my surprise our investigator told us that she had been thinking about it and really understood the importance and significance of it. She's praying about it. Cool beans! It's good to know that the Lord has our backs. Sometimes He just oversteps our plans, because His are much better. Would he really rely on us in our imperfect and weakened state to really have it all figured out? As long as we do our best, He makes sure the magic happens. And, we were going to discuss kingdoms of glory (which we did - connect that to 2 Nephi 31 - yeah that's right!)

Meet the Mormons

Went on exchange to Stroud with Sister Kottembagahagedara. She made me mango sticky rice for breakfast! We were at a returning member's house that joined the church in the sixties or seventies. She pointed to a bookshelf and said, "The Elders left me that book there when they taught me." Sister Kottembagahagedara went over to the shelf and pulled out a book - she turned it towards us, "Toshiba Guide to Microwave Cooking?" The lady was like, "No, no, no! The one next to it!" The book was entitled "Meet the Mormons".

The one time that it does make a difference....

I've realized that we do a lot of things over and over, sometimes they never seem to work, or they never seem to be doing any good, but the one time that it does make a difference - it is worth the 500 times that it didn't seem to work. Enduring to the end can sometimes be applied to having faith in certain principles of the gospel - faith that they will work.

undue hesitation

Well, I failed!!!!! the driving test for the second time. Somebody call the waaaambulence. After all, it did take me a few times to get the American one right, but I'd rather not go into that story to save any pride I have left. I had some undue hesitation a few times, where I stopped and started, and stopped again, at a confusing light, and on a weird place where I was asked to pull over (I didn't even think it was legal to pull over where I was!) nevertheless, it failed the British standard of driving, which is way up there. However, as my driving instructor got out of the car she did a double take when I said, "Have a good day," which made her laugh. I suppose she doesn't get that a lot. Three times is a charm?

A few questions and answers:

Answers to a few questions from mum:
*What do you do on p-days?
-On p-days I like to wear my gold spandex, lounge and write letters. We have to go shopping, we email, we go to Heritage Centers, and I etch a sketch, but the time is always so short, it's never relaxing.

*Do you serve strictly in Evesham, or are there other towns in your district?
-I cover Evesham, to Tewkesbury, to Bidfor-upon-Avon, and the surrounding villages...Honeybourne, Atch Lench, Winchcombe, Birrlingham, Pershore, etc. etc.

*Is it spring yet?
-The spring flowers started blooming in Feb! Spring is slow and steady here.

*What color is your brain?
- My brain is orange and tie-dye on the bottom with dinosaur prints and it is mostly hanging upside down.

Count your blessings....

Church was wonderful yesterday. We had two investigators who came for the first time. They got a ride from a recent convert. We had two returning members who came for the first time in a long time. We had our recent convert, who spent the night in Worcester and then woke up early and biked almost twenty miles to get to church. When I sat with them all in Gospel Principles and listened to them participate in the lesson and bare their testimonies, my heart was filled to the brim. It's times like yesterday where you feel humbled and grateful that you never gave up, even when it seemed hopeless at the time, because when God steps in and performs his miracles, it's the sweetest fruit to taste. I am impressed by the “returning members”. They come back holding on to their testimonies, freshly remembered. They come back courageously. They are hailed back by open arms and the joy of the saints to see their brothers and sisters looking forward to Christ. It just wasn't the same without them.

President Monson spoke of one thing in particular last conference - gratitude. It has truly blessed me. As I review the weeks and months in gratitude and search out the blessings, suddenly I'm surprised at how good life is. Count your blessings.

Roses and Popes....

At my insistence, Sister Rose bought a cardigan with roses printed on it! Rose prints are really in style over here! It's fantastic - Sister Rose, in the rose cardigan! I'm still looking for something with a “Pope design”, but there doesn't seem to be much out at the moment. A member offered to fashion me some Pope tights with cut out pictures of the Pope sewed on in fashionable repetition or a nice a-line Pope skirt, perhaps with different Popes throughout history, embroidered nicely all over.

Weird calamities of Bermuda triangles....

The mission brings about weird calamities of Bermuda triangles every so often. Last week we went to teach our investigator, whose neighbor was murdered a few weeks ago. She told us that the funeral was that day, in the church near our flat. She wasn't going, but her son was. Anyway, we went back home - we did't have much time for lunch between our next appointment (which is delivering cupcakes to Harold, a 18 year old friend of Tom, whose girlfriend was suspicious of us, but recently broke up with him! drama, drama, drama -anyway, we made him cupcakes). So, lack of time, what do we do? Make fantastic paninis! Oooo pesto, fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, and basil from our basil plants (yeah that's how I roll - I grow basil on my study desk!) We start walking, carrying cupcakes and eating fantastic paninis. We are getting up towards the church and see a huge crowd of mourners. We decide to cross the street so we don't disturb them. There's quite a line of traffic queuing up around the church so we decide to run across at the first break we see! As we are running we realize that we had just ran in front of the hearse. Good one. Nevertheless, on the other side of the road, we bump into our investigators son!
"Hi Dan."
"Oh hi, you all right?"
"You all right?" (traditional English greeting...)
Should have offered a cupcake………

God is good

Yesterday was a hard day at church. It seems these days that only the “rocks” are left. We were a bit sad. But, at the end of the night we had an appointment with a less-active-recent-convert. She had stopped coming to church just before she hit her ‘year mark’ in January. We were really worried about her and concerned. She had been doing well, but doubted her testimony. She wanted to take a step back to re-evaluate. It was strange b/c, although Sister Clark and I were concerned, we felt a sense of peace and just weren't too worried. We hadn't been able to see her for months. She excitedly told us about her experiences she had been having. She had realized there were changes that she had gone through, returning to her old life, but realized she reacted differently to situations - with more self-confidence, with more desire to do good. She said that after leaving the church for a bit, it was easier, but not happy. The same thoughts kept popping up in her head, randomly. She said at first she thought it was coincidence, but then compared it to science - "if it happens enough times it becomes fact". We called her once when she was thinking about us; she called some members when they were thinking about her. Her Ensign kept falling out of a huge stack of newspapers and magazines. Hmmm.

"I'll see you next Sunday,” she said.

Wow. I love you!
God is good.

Madie

how do you pronounce Evesham?

"eve-shum. or some say eve-uh-shum. i (and most) say...eve-shum"

My brain is hanging upside down.....

Ello!
So Sister Rose is here! She is 4’11’’, which is one of my favorite things about her. That and the fact that she is hardworking, willing to be obedient, and wanting to do the best for the area! We both have a really good feeling about her being here. I think she will do great things! And we will do great things together. We set a companionship vision for the transfer and we have a lot of goals that we are working towards. We have about 15 new and other investigators - ones that we have taught once or twice and who are semi progressing. It’s sort of a task to try and figure out who we should focus on and who we can help them progress! Sometimes it overloads the brain, but oh well. My brain is hanging upside down from trying to figure everything out and also having to remember everything b/c Sister Rose is new to the area and she doesn't know where everything or who everyone is. Crazy. But the area looks ten hundred times better than it did when we first got here so blessings from heaven.

I felt the spirit strongly today when I read Helaman 5:11. Repentance is a miracle and a blessing. The savior's atonement is a miracle. Ministering angels are with us.

The
word
of
Christ
will point
to
you
a straight
course
to
eternal
bliss.

Alma
37:44

Lots of love!
safe!
cheers!
Madie uh er or Sister Pope