General "Christmas"!

April 4, 2016

Abby Road Missionary Style!

Hello all!

This week has been SO great! The Britannia ward is the best. So to start out! P-Day last week was great, and even helped us see that the Lord is truly aware of us and in the details of our lives. :) Sister Kerr, and I, and Sister Griffeth and Sister Croft, went to Abbey Road to take some sweet pictures! Haha but the whole time we were wondering how we would take it, as we wanted all 4 of us to be there. We just figured we would ask someone. Well, we got there and were standing around waiting for a good time and trying to find someone to take it for us, when some people came running up and asking if we could take it for them! Turns out they were members from California and were also wondering how they would take it, when they saw us! Funny, how it all turned out. :)

Wednesday, was transfers so I packed all my stuff after having just finished unpacking it haha, and moved to the Britannia flat. :) It's great!! Probably my favourite flat I've lived in so far. The next few days, Sister Hannig was a bit under the weather, and so we did a lot of area book finding in the flat so that she could rest. But it was great because it gave me chance to get well acquainted with the area and people we are teaching!

So! A little bit about Britannia, it's the YSA ward here, so we have no boundaries. We are allowed to proselyte and go anywhere within the M25 (a big motorway that surrounds London), which means we can even cross the river and leave our mission! It's pretty fun. We do a lot of our finding near universities, or just on Exhibition Road because the chapel is right across from Imperial College. It's different now, because I'm not used to looking for a specific type of person when I'm finding. But now we stick with YSA people. :) I love it!! And the ward is amazing! Really diverse, and there are always activities we can invite people to. There are also a lot of new Chinese members. It's so cool to see how they grasp the Gospel so easily, because they have never heard of anything like it before.

Thursday, we went to the chapel and I got all set up with WeChat. (It's a chat/texting type of app that A LOT of Chinese students use, and so missionaries in Britannia are approved to have it because of the work we do with the Chinese. It's the easiest way to get in contact with some of them.) Then we had something called "cottage home evening" that our ward mission leader arranged. We watched "On The Lord's Errand" and it was meant to help investigators and new members get excited for conference and to learn a bit more about the prophet. It was great! It also gave me a great chance to meet members and learn more about the ward. :)

Friday, we saw our investigator Roger! He came into the VC, and one of the members, Kasper, helped us teach him. He is amazing!! He is on date for baptism on the 10th, and is really praying about it. He's nervous, but we talked about general conference and how he could receive an answer while watching. Kasper was a great help and bore a wonderful testimony of conference and how it could help Roger. I love teaching with members, because they are able to offer a spirit and experiences that we can't as missionaries. It was great. :) Roger really understands and takes things in. Afterward, we went into the chapel and knelt in prayer, and Roger said it in Spanish. :) It's true that the Spirit knows no language! It was a pretty powerful experience.

Quick insert, I just love being able to teach people in the VC! Whether they just walk in, or are our investigators, it's AMAZING. We have so many resources, and the atmosphere of being in a chapel is so ideal. I really feel so blessed to be able to serve here.

Then later that night, our investigator Min Tzu came! It had been a while since the sisters had seen her and talked about the Restoration, so we showed her the 20 minute movie and talked about that. Our recent convert, Wei Wei, also came. :) It was great! She is SO sweet and has such a desire to learn. We were able to extend a baptismal date for the 17th of April, and she agreed to pray about it. :)

We also played the best April Fool's joke on our district leader, Elder Burgess. So every Friday we have call-ins, where we report on who we are teaching, what we are doing, what we need help with, etc...and when he called we told him that EVERYONE had dropped us and told us they never wanted to learn again. He TOTALLY believed us and we had him going for a while. :)

Saturday, we had the coolest VC miracle online. So we were chatting on mormon.org, when someone came on and said they had just met a German missionary and wanted to speak to them again. They asked if we knew them, and the likely hood of that is very little. But we can look up phone numbers! So we asked where and it turned out to be in our mission! So we got their mobile number and called the elders and told them what had  happened. They were able to call right then and talk to this guy. It was amazing! The Lord is truly hastening His work, and how He truly uses us as His instruments. And how no effort is wasted and the guy looked at the card the elders gave him!

Later, we went to this really good Indian restaurant with our recent convert, Simon! It was SO good. And we were able to have a nice chat and lesson with Simon. Then we headed off to conference!! SO GOOD! Ahhhh I just love conference, it's like Christmas for missionaries. :)

Then Sunday was filled with more conference! It was sad though, that at last minute Roger ended up not being able to come. BUT he watched it at home and we will talk to him about it when we see him. Prayers for him! He is so close to being baptized, he just needs to feel ready himself. :)

But our friend, Qian came! She is great. :) We were able to have a lesson after, and she had a lot of questions about baptism because of Elder Bednar's talk. :) We extended a date, but she said setting a date stressed her out. But she wants to keep coming to the activities and is even going to the temple on Saturday to sit on the grounds. It's going to be an amazing experience for her. After the lesson, the member, Helen, suggested we kneel and pray and Qian was amazed. She really felt the Spirit and was excited to go and kneel and pray for herself. :)

Wasn't general conference GREAT?! I'm just so grateful for the chance we have to listen to the brethern, and hear their counsel, and the counsel from God, through them! One of my favourite parts was Bishop Waddell, when we said that listening to the Lord and walking with Him means that we accompany Him to Gethsemane, Calvary, and the tomb. Hard times will ALWAYS come. But that doesn't mean we can't find peace through and in our Saviour, Jesus Christ. :)

Well! I love the Gospel, and love conference, and I love being a missionary. There is nothing better. :) These next few weeks will go fast, but I'm excited to make them count! Have a great week!

xx

Sister Moody