Week 12

Hello! I have so much to tell you today I don't even know where to begin! This last week has been beautiful madness. We had a zone conference on Thursday in Poole and the drive there... mom you would have been in heaven. Valleys and valleys of green, flowers, and thatched roof cottages all along the way. England is so beautiful!!! I still can't get over it. Zone conference was amazing, we talked a lot about member missionary work and how we can help the members here get excited about helping us in the work. President Shamo was the head of the audiovisual department for the church so pretty much any movie you have seen from the church... he made it. So he used that talent of his and made a movie of a woman that lives in Staines zone called Jean Hearne that they call Jean the Machine. She is an 80 year old woman that is just pure member missionary. Every day she goes out she makes sure she has 2 or 3 copies of the Book of Mormon that she can give out to people along the way. They interviewed her and she gave a few examples of how she approaches people and it is so easy for her because she simply loves the gospel and wants to share that love with others as well. I'm going to try to get a copy so maybe I can send it home or something because cute little Jean is so inspirational. Ps everyone go take a look at mormon.org. We tell people to go look at it all the time and Sister Christensen and I finally got a chance the other day to go take a look and the testimonies on there are so amazing.

But I am SO grateful to be in this mission. President and Sister Shamo are simply amazing. They really really are. President came to Newton Abbot on Sunday to do a fireside and we had no intentions of going even though we knew it would be fabulous but on Sunday we were at the hospital visiting an investigator that is about to have surgery and as we were leaving we both just decided we needed to go invite Karina and Martin. We had no idea why and we thought it was absolutely mad that we were going all the way over to their house to invite them to a fireside that we would have to leave for pretty much right when we got there but... we did it anyways. And guess what? THEY WANTED TO COME!! Well Karina wanted to come and Martin is just so sweet he said if she wanted to go he would go as well. So we went and President got up and said that he wasn't going to talk about what he had planned, instead he talked about coincidence. One thing he said that I loved, "Coincidence- where miracles happen and God remains anonymous." I remember I said something about coincidence in the last email as well but it's amazing how many coincidences we see but really... they are just miracles happening. For Martin.. that was exactly what he needed to hear. It wasn't coincidence that we decided to go to their house and invite them over, and it wasn't coincidence that President talked about what Martin needed to hear. President also talked about how the resoration of the gospel wasn't a coincidence and the way he explained it was so beautiful and when he read from the scriptures I opened mine and Karina was looking over at them and then Martin was leaning over her so he could see them too, he was so excited after that! We went over the next day for tea and we asked Martin if he enjoyed it and he said that he was so happy when he left and the night seemed to be better and it felt the same as when we go over to teach him. :) AND after the fireside President Shamo and Martin talked for a bit and Martin really really liked President Shamo (who doesn't!) but their humor is so similar and Martin just kept talking the rest of the night how brilliant President Shamo is. It was just something so little that Martin needed. I love that I was able to help the Lord bring that beautiful miracle to Martin.

We also had zone training on Monday and President talked a lot about anti Mormon stuff. It was so perfect for Sister Christensen and I because we have been teaching a girl from the Philipines that has been searching out anti Mormon stuff because she just wants to study and see if it's true... ugh. President said something like "if you put your hand in a fire you are going to get burned" Who cares what random men say about this church. That doesn't matter. People are different and people are going to have different opinions about religion and guess what, that doesn't matter. What matters is what God says. And guess what? God says that this church is true. Enough said. :) ha ha oh but ok so Sister Shamo used to be a drama teacher and the way she speaks is SOOO dramatic it is so powerful and... kind of amusing as well. ha ha ha it reminds me of Kate's stories :) I love them!

Ok well I just have to tell you one more miracle first. Seriously this week has been a week of miracles. Our zone has been praying and fasting for the seekers to be found and for people that are seeking the gospel to find us. Well Saturday afternoon we got a call from a chap from the ward called Barry Stanley. He had been at the church doing family history stuff and a chap called Patrick called the church just asking about it. Barry said he knew 2 people that could answer his questions better than he could and called us with his number. We called Patrick, talked to him for a while and invited him to church. He came on Sunday and he loved it. We called him on Monday to make sure we could still meet wth him on Tuesday and while we were talking he said to us "I want to get baptised, I just want to learn more about your church first. But I like you and I like your friend and the way I feel when I talk to you and when I was at church... I just want to keep feeling that." :O Did we start jump up and down for joy in the middle of the street? Yes, yes we did. :) ha ha The Lord is preparing people everywhere to learn and accept the gospel. Ps Patrick stopped drinking 5 years ago and stopped smoking 2 years ago because he just felt like it wasn't good for his body. (Well duh.. ha ha) .... Um sweet! Oh and he is from Belfast, Ireland and we have STRAINNNNNNN our ears to try to understand what he is saying. ha ha ha I love it. Dad did we go to Belfast last summer? I don't remember- oops. ha ha

I love you all!! Pray and ask the Lord how you can help him bring miracles to peoples lives and to your own life! I'll give you a hint... you can start by just simply keeping the commandments. :) ha ha ok I don't have time to send pictures again oops sorry! Bye!