June 24th 2013

Quick email to everyone. I can tell already that it is going to be random, so bear with me.

Last week I had my first Lemon Meringue Pie since forever ago. It was completely lush! (Sorry, welsh term.) We went and had a meal with some great members, and when they brought out the pie I almost fell off my chair.

We had another great miracle last week! A man had spoken with missionaries several times over the years, and we have tried over and over to get in to talk to him.  Yesterday we stopped by however, and were surprised when he let us in!  We talked about religion for a bit (he is currently a Buddhist of some sort,) and then we taught him about the restoration of the gospel! He thought that it was really cool that we have a way to know whether or not what we believe in is true (prayer) and he said that he would read from the Book of Mormon and pray about it! It was great!

Dodge night tonight! That means that tonight we will know whether or not we will be staying another transfer! If I am leaving, I will do so on Wednesday. Exciting!

-Elder Winters

 

June 10th 2013

Last week we were able to see some incredible miracles! First off, on Friday we took a member for the first time to a lesson we had with an investigator.  He often tells us that he is too old to change and he has a hard time making commitments, but the member we brought was fairly elderly and she told it to him straight! We had a really great lesson, and for the first time since I have been here he made a commitment to come to church! When we went on Sunday to let him follow us to the building he told us that he wouldn't be able to come because he was experiencing some really nasty neck pain. I still count the experience as a definite miracle however because we were able to set up another appointment with him, and he told us that he was planning to come to church next week. It was great!

 

Another miracle that we had, is that the Relief Society in our branch really took off with the idea we had of creating a feed the missionaries calendar. After the calendar made its rounds on Sunday (and with a bit of prodding from some wonderful sisters) we were told that we had 8 dinner appointments set up for the week!  We are going to capitalize on these by using the appointments to help the members find ways that they can do missionary work.

 

In our last zone meeting I was introduced to a scripture which may prove to become my favorite for a while! It is D&C 123:17 "Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed." I love the imagery here! If we will do all that is in our power (and cheerfully no less :) we can then sit back an watch the Lord reveal his arm and move heaven and earth for us. This may not always happen in the way we want or expect it too, but the Lord will be there to help us!

 

I appreciate all of your prayers for me!

Elder Winters

 

One of the couple missionaries knits dolls and hats for missionaries! Here are the ones that she made to look like my comp. and I!

Making strange faces with some hats

 

June 3rd 2013

One of my best friends told me last week that from the blog it doesn't look like I am doing much teaching, so here is a report on how the missionary effort is going in Aberystwyth Wales! When I entered the area we had two investigators, neither of which were progressing rapidly towards entering into the covenant of baptism. As a result, my companion and I have been putting a lot of effort into finding people to teach! Since I entered the area we have been blessed to find three more people to teach, one of which has unfortunately moved as of last week :( In addition, we have had the opportunity to talk with a number of potential investigators who may very well become investigators in the very near future!

 

My experience thus far has been a bit unique because for the most part all of the investigators I have taught have been at roughly the same point in the conversation process at the same time. I had the opportunity to teach about the restoration several times before I ever got to teach about the plan of salvation and so on. As a result, I have taught the first 2-3 discussions a number of times, but I have never taught many of the commandments! I still have so much to learn!

 

I'll wrap things up because my comp. and I are going to travel to Swansea for a P-Day activity with a few members of our Zone.

 

Cheers!

Elder Winters