Wow it's been a while, sorry for the wait. I didn't get much of a p-day last week. It was workshops ALL day. Alot to say in a short amount of time so i'll be brief with my stories.
1. I DROVE IN SCOTLAND!!! yes it was a great experience and no, it wasn't scary. My companion/trainer Sister Beck let me drive the second day! It was A.W.E.S.O.M.E It takes a little bit of getting use to just like anything else. I still need help/reminder when I come to round abouts, but i'm at the point where we take turns driving! The left side of the road is just as good if not better as the right side.
2. Grandma and Grand dad Toughs( pronounce Tukes). Oh how I already love them. Grandma(the name everyone knows her by) is loud, loves John Wayne(has her own cowboy hat, outfit and shed), is a less active, bold and PUNCTUAL! Grand dad is oppsite. :) She told us that missionaries stayed with her once upon a time ago. She told them if they were two minutes late that their dinner would go to the dogs and you better believe she stuck to her word. First lesson learned: Be on-time to grandmas, probably be early. Funny story, we get through a lesson and we say a prayer. Grandma asks me to say it. I start..I start by giving thanks, than i bless their home(using their first names) and i pause for a second to think of what i'm going to say next and the before i spoke i hear grandma say 'toughs, our name is toughs' I wanted to bust up laughing, but i managed to bless the Tough family and end the prayer!!!! It was SO funny! I could hardly stand it.
3. My companion/Trainer is Sister Beck. She was Sister Chichoni companion before the move(transfer). She is great and we get along great! She loves sports and is willing to play with the Elders (awesome). She is excellent at football(soccer). We played soccer with our zone yesterday and she pretty much could dribble around any Elder that approached her! It was a great site to see.
4. Success story. Sister Beck is not afraid to talk strangers. She really will talk to everyone and anybody on the street! We approached a polish father and asked him if we could come over and teach more about Jesus Christ. We got his info and planned to see him and his family on sunday. Sunday arrives, we find their flat and are buzzed to come in(blessing in itself). The father wasn't there, but the mother and child were. All we had was a polish pamphlet of the Restoration, Gospel fof Jesus Christ and a Book of Mormon. Keep in mind that the mothers just as much english as we do polish. I know nothing in polish, maybe three words if i REALLY think about it, hard. Fortunately, her 6 yr old sond spoke english and ended up translating most of the lesson. His attention span couldn't last the entire 45 min lesson. We read through the Restoration pamphlet, read the last two paragraphs of the introduction and with the power of the spirit I invited her to be baptized, she said yes and we set a date for the 9th of Nov. However, We have to make sure that she truely understands what we asked of her so for our next appointment we are bringing translated questions and testimonies to make sure she understands what baptism is and making sure it's something she wants in her life! At the end of the lesson SHE prayed (We asked her pray to start off the lesson and she said no, but her heart was softened and i felt like she trusted more by the end). It was funny because we asked her to pray and she said yes so we knelt down and waited for her, yes we waited about two minutes before she started. What could we say? nothing really, we let the spirit comfort and testify to her. I also don't think she understood what we asked of her, which is why I don't think she fully understood the invitation to be baptized!
Giving the invitation to baptizm was natural. We practiced giving invitations all the time in the mtc and i was use it to it. oh i have another success story, real quick
This happened while in the MTC. The preston mtc does street proselyting, bascially we get on a train and go teach people in manchester. On the train ride home My comp Sister Jones and I sit across from a wild couple. We sit and they pull out beers! i'm thinking 'beers, cool, this is going to be fun' we talk, get to know their religious background and start talking about the gospel of jesus christ. The girl belived in spiritality. As soon as she said that I KNEW I could teach her and that her heart was ready. I asked if i could share a message (the restoration) brought out the book mormon invited her to baptism she said yes. she commited to read and pray about it. She gave me her information for the missioaries in her area to contact her if she found it to be true and we bid her farewell! I have to admit the one fault of the lesson. My companion didn't say ONE WORD. Seriously I spoke through the entire lesson. I even turned to my companion and said 'is there anything you would like to say?' she said no so i kept going! The lady's name is Amy and shewas off the wall loud and outgoing. One of the best things about our conversation is the compliment Amy gave to me and my companion. Amy said that she could see the excitement in my eyes to share this message with her and she could see (in both our eyes) the love we have for the Book of Mormon and Jesus Chirst!!!
Great to be a Missionary!
