Stockport Week 10

This week has been a week full of highs and lows, with thankfully more highs than lows. We are really seeing miracles and I know that it is through no effort of our own that these things are happening. The hand of the Lord is in all we do

The first exciting thing is that we were able to meet with Andrea, Sebastian, and Sami several times this week. They are a family from the Czech Republic that are all on date for baptism on September 1st. As we've met with them, we've realized the challenge that it is to adjust to the needs of 3 people at once. We've tried to make sure each one is an active participant in each lesson. We asked them last night how they were feeling about the baptism and they all said they felt excited for it and that they knew it would help their family. Andrea was also telling us just last night that one day she was just thinking to herself "Is this true?" and she felt an indescribable feeling. We explained to her that that was the Holy Ghost and she proceeded to tell us all of the other times in her life when she had felt the same way. It was such a special experience to hear of all of the other times she has felt the Holy Ghost in her life.

Two weeks ago in church we had a woman just walk into church because she was curious and wanted to learn more. Her name is Miriam and we were finally able to meet with her for the first time earlier this week. She is from Malawi and is so prepared to hear the gospel. We taught her the restoration and she said that she felt like it was true already. We invited her to be baptized on September 1st as well and she accepted! It was actually a very similar experience to what we had with Iyabo. Those two big truths of missionary work (that there are people being prepared and we have the authority to find them) have been proven again and again as we have literally just run into people who are prepared to meet the missionaries. How incredible is this work!

Do you remember our friend Kevia? Well she now has her own place and is doing so much better. With help from the government she has been able to get her own place and begin living again. She is so much happier now that she has gotten back on her feet. Now that she is set temporally we took this opportunity to set another goal for baptism that we can begin working towards. We invited her to be baptized on September 29th and she accepted. We also found out that she had met with missionaries in Bermuda, where she is from, and Blackburn before she met with us here. She has heard the lessons before and has a good understanding of the content of each one. We are hoping that as we work with her to receive a witness for herself that she will be well prepared to be baptized on the 29th.

In the Book of Mormon I've been reading in 4 Nephi, Mormon, and Ether. I've been quite excited because as I've gotten more familiar with the scriptures, I've been able to use the more in lessons. Something I liked that I read this week was in 4 Nephi 1:15-16. It says "there was no contention in the land, because of the love of God which did dwell in the hearts of the people ... and there could not be a happier people among all the people who had been created by the hand of God". Having the love of God in their hearts led to no contention which led to happiness. Well what is the love of God? Charity! And how do we develop charity? In Moroni 7:48, Moroni urges us to "pray unto Father with all the energy of heart, that he may be filled with his love". So, if we pray to have charity we can eventually be happy. What an incredible promise!