August 22, 2013

Pictures of the week...

August 14th 2013

Well, for everyone who doesn't know, it's official. I have been moved from Aberystwyth to Hereford.  I was a bit sad to receive news of the transfer because my comp and I were getting along so well and we were beginning to see some incredible miracles in Aberystwyth! It's ok though, I'll go wherever the Lord wants me to go.

 

My new companion is from California, and he really likes to work hard as a missionary which I really admire about him. I have only been on my mission about 6 weeks longer than him.  I think that we will be able to work really well together!

 

Hereford is a town/city right on the border between England and Wales. It seems to be quite a bit bigger than Aberystwyth, and everything feels so much farther away (probably because I now have to bike everywhere instead of driving a car.) Some big miracles have been happening the past few months in Hereford, and as a result 3 people all from the same family are planning to be baptized before the end of August. That is a great situation to be transferred into! The only thing is, once these three get baptized we won't have any investigators any more so we have been spending a lot of time searching for new investigators.

 

We had a really cool experience a couple days ago when we were out knocking on doors. It was in the evening, and although we weren't finding too many outright rude people, we were having a tough time finding anyone who was interested in learning about the incredible message of the restoration of the Gospel. We were knocking along a row of houses, when my companion stopped and suggested that we go and knock on some houses on the opposite side of the street. We walked over and knocked on the first house and a man opened the door and said "Well, I've only got five minutes but you can come in if you like." We were so surprised! We went into his house and began to talk with him. We ended up teaching him a lot about the restoration, and we gave him a Book of Mormon to read from. We were surprised again when he asked us if we could come back after he had had a chance to read a bit from the Book of Mormon! We set a return appointment and then left. You never know when a miracle is going to happen!

 

I love you all!

-Elder Winters

 

The Text that changed my life!!!

My New Companion

Investigator Family

 

August 5th 2013

Heaps of miracles this week!

 

First off, a classic story that sounds like it came right out of Preach My Gospel. We were out visiting a lady who we are teaching, and it began to rain. We finished our visit and got in the car to drive back to our flat for lunch. As we began to drive out of the town I felt like there was somebody in that town that we needed to find. We turned around, parked, and got out of the car. We started walking down the street knocking on the occasional door, and the rain started coming down harder than I have ever seen! Within a minute we were completely drenched. We decided to knock on one last door before leaving, and the man who opened the door said "I may not be a believer, but I'm not going to leave anyone in rain like that! He let us in, and gave us each a towel to dry off with. The man introduced himself, and after chatting for a few minutes he told us that the last six months of his life have been incredibly tough for him. He has gone through a number of trials including the death of his father. Rob told us that because of what he has been going through he really wants to know if there is a God! We set up a time to come back and answer some of his questions.

 

The biggest miracle this week happened on Saturday morning at 6:22. We received the best text a missionary can receive from a investigator saying "GOOD MORNING! PLEASE WHEN IS THE BEST TIME I CAN GET BAPTISED?" I thought that I was asleep or that someone was pulling a prank on us! I still can't believe it! We called her up and set up a time that night to go over and talk to her.  She told us that she read from the Book of Mormon on Friday night and prayed about it. She went to sleep expecting to have a dream or something to answer her prayer. Instead, she just had one of the best night's sleep she has had in weeks. She  woke up at 4:00 thinking about the Book of Mormon and what we had taught her. She told us that she felt the spirit bare powerful witness to her that she has known all along that the Book of Mormon is true! She thought about an experience she had thirteen years ago when she had a similar experience where the spirit told her to do something. She had not followed that prompting thirteen years ago, and she had seen a number of consequences from her disobedience. She said that she didn't want to see a repeat of that experience, so she had written the text to us right away. She sat there for a while trying to convince herself not to rush into things, but she said that she couldn't keep herself from hitting send! She committed to be baptized on the 31st of August, and she brought her three children to church on Sunday. This experience strengthened my faith that the Lord is indeed preparing people to receive the gospel! (Alma 13:24.)

 

To top things off, a less active member and a former investigator accepted our invitation to attend church and we were able to see them there on Sunday! The Lord has been very good to us!

 

-Kyle

 

We are SUPER excited to hear that Despicable Me 2 is coming out, even though we won't be able to watch it.

Finally, I can FLAGPOLE!!!

 

Boil-up

We looked up what boil-up is...

In New Zealand a boil-up is a colloquial term for a method of cooking used by Māori people. A simple method of cooking, a boil-up is literally the boiling of different foodstuffs in a large pot (usually a stockpot) together to create a sort of crossover between a soup and a stew. Traditionally ingredients used are pork bones, Sonchus, potato, pumpkin, watercress, and dumplings.

This makes sense considering that his current companion is a New Zealander!!!