Church History Zone Conference

Talk to EVerYonE

SOOOOOOOOOOO

There we are. We’re walking back from district meeting, through the Solihull town centre. (centre is English for center). I'm looking fabulous. I'm wearing my five pound pencil skirt from Primark, and my 6 pound rose patterned shirt from Tesco! and a green cardigan from America! We’re not even sweaty cuz we hadn't even biked that day. There are tonz of peoples all over, and so I decided to try and talk to everyone that came in my path. Well this tall, older gentleman, all dressed in black comes quickly striding out of a store about 10 feet in front of us. I almost didn't stop him because he looked like he was in a hurry, and he looked a bit intimidating, but at the same time, I had a subtle impression that there was something good about him. So I hold out a pass along card with the mormon.org website and say, "Hi, can I share our card and website with you?" He stops and goes, "oh, I know all about your church!" Sister Whitaker and I have that, "oh no, what have we got ourselves into?" thought come over us. However, our nerves quickly turned to shock and awe, when the man proceeded to tell us, "I'm Elder Zwick, of the Quorum of the Seventy." Whaaaaaaat? Well, he's in the UK for a few weeks, and heading up to Ireland in a few days, but chatted with us for a bit, and it was just sooooo cooool. Man, I've never been more relieved to talk to EVerYonE, and more relieved that I didn't back out of stopping him, and just so grateful to know that the Lord is so extremely aware of us! It's simply a miracle that He placed us all so exactly in the right place and at the right time, that we could all "bump into each other" Had we been on the other side of the street, or had he been in a different shop, we might have missed the divine rendezvous. It was perfect. We were so excited.

He waits for us to open the door

We got to listen to the departing testimonies of some of the elders and sister that are going home in the next couple of transfers. Our AP stood and gave an amazing testimony. He talked about all those times when we struggle, when people disappoint us who we work so hard for, when we feel inadequate, when we ask Heavenly Father, “why?” He said, "I finally realized, it's for this one reason. So that we could have faith in Jesus Christ." It just made so much sense to me. One of the most fundamental reasons we are here is to develop faith in Christ. How could it be developed if it wasn't tested or tried? How could we even have faith if we knew the answer for everything? We couldn't. The fact is, we don't understand everything, we don't see everything, and we don't know everything. But as things happen in my life, as I have held on to the hope, that no matter what, if I keep hanging on, the Savior will come for me, I have found, that so far, He has always come. I've never held on and have been forsaken. Answers come, understanding comes, and the ability to adapt and survive whatever circumstance comes. He lives. If you ever wanted to know, He waits for us to open the door.

we wouldn't be here without the English saints

We had zone conference at some historical church sites. Places called Gadfield, Elm and Benbow Farm, where Brother Brigham and Wilford Woodruff taught and baptized like none other! It was really cool. England is magical. Their membership of the church was greater than the membership in Salt Lake before everyone transported over. We wouldn't be here today without the English saints. No sir-eeee! The Lord remembers those on the isles of the sea, that's for sure.

Cleaning in Check...

When you are scrubbing the grime off of the tiles in the kitchen you should....

A.) Stop scrubbing when the tile falls off

B.) Scrub off the black mold behind the tile

C.) Watch Sister Whitaker walk in with her super glue and stick that sucker back on the wall!

D.) Then continue to scrub the surrounding tiles gently.

Scrubbed for three hours or so...that kitchen is without spot! and restored to its original brightness.

Man, it's good to be an elder....

Man it's good to be an elder. We are biking like crazy. Sister Whitaker and I are really becoming men. In fact, we call each other elder. At district meeting we got to ride our bikes with all the other elders to lunch - all of us in a big line. We finally felt that we were part of the brotherhood! They even let us have a place in the lunch circle, no problem! (Elders have a bad habit of being afraid of sisters because we are girls). Anywho, it was all good. Sunday though – woof - that was a rough day. My bike is a lot heavier than Sister Whitaker’s (we are borrowing them from some members) and I could hardly keep up as it was (soooo tired!!!) I had to pedal on all the downhills and I still couldn't keep up!

So the poor area I am in is....dead. It has the most active ward, but no baptisms. They say it's because it's so posh here. Well, whatever! We are here to "wake up the sleeping giant". Once the ward gets cracking, it will all fall into place! The church headquarters used to be located here, and Jeffery R. Holland was in this ward for three years before he became an apostle! Last night we visited with Brother and Sister Wills. Brother Wills is one of seven people who are in charge of all the films for the church. He showed us some awesome stuff and told us great stories! He goes to SLC every six months to meet with "the brethren" and he talks about the prophets as his work colleagues. Crazy stuff! There is also a sweet Tongan family here with all the poly love! Props to poly love!!

God bless America!

Strange, no one seems to celebrate the fourth of July here;) However, we got together for a zone P-day! and regardless of the fact that our district leader is German, he called all of us over and played the mo tab national anthem! yeahhhh!