Monday, April 4, 2016

Having a desire to Follow Him

I can't remember if I sent this or not but a month or two ago, our
mission was visited by Paul V. Johnson (an member of the seventy) and
I was able to talk to him (He grew up in Paradise, UT) and get a
picture with him and his wife. Well, he got to speak at General
Conference about the resurrection of Christ! :) He is a great example
to all of us missionaries and truly loves the Lord :)
-Sister Burtis

Hello everyone! I hope your time watching General Conference was
amazing! I can't begin to even describe the joy I felt throughout all
of last week knowing that we had the opportunity to listen to the
Prophet's voice and his apostles and the leaders of the church. This
past week has been a good one. Sister Fromgren has quickly settled
into Clapham from her first area and is doing great. The both of us
are working hard to find those who have been prepared to hear the
gospel. We were able to visit both Sally and Brenda, recent converts,
and it's amazing and incredible to see the light of the gospel in them.
They are
both so happy and we know that God is truly a God of miracles. A
miracle that we got to see was a week or two ago. Sister Nguyen and
I had met a lady named Veronica near the bus stop. We got talking to
her and as we did so, she started to tear up because she was feeling
overwhelmed with the things back at home. We felt that this was no
coincidence about running into her. We were able to write down her
number and give her our pass along card as well. A few days later when
Sister Fromgren has just recently arrived, we called her up and she
said that she would be happy to meet us at the library. That very next
day, we called to see if she was on her way and sure enough, she was!
We were able to teach Veronica the message of the restoration and
helped her to see the hope and joy that she can find in her life. She
seemed so happy and it is so worth it to street contact and be a
missionary to help those in need. Heavenly Father had provided us many
miracles this past week. We were able to receive a referral from the
zone leaders about a lady named Naomi and as we met her, she expressed
her desire to be able to learn more and to find out if this was truly
the Lord's church. She had been taught by pervious missionaries before
and wanted now to be taught again. We know that It is all in God's
timing and that He will provide that time when He is ready for his
children to come unto Him. The weekend consisted of us watching
General Conference and we were able to watch it at the Stake Centre in
Wandsworth. There were many people that came and it was fun to see
Sally show and also one of our investigators. We all felt the spirit
strongly and received answers to the questions we were looking for.
Sisters Fromgren and I along with Sister Couper and Sister Meyer were
able to plan to do banner contacting before one of the sessions
started and that was fun. What it is, is a big banner with a picture
of Christ on both sides of it. We needed to set it up in the middle of
a big sidewalk area and it was pretty daunting. It was just Sister
Fromgren and I that was on a big street in South London alone at first
because the other sisters were running a bit late. We looked around us
and debated on where to put the banner. A guy selling flowers and many
of the people looked at us with questioning looks but we reminded
ourselves that we are disciples of Jesus Christ and with that reminder
and a little prayer, we took courage and set up our banner. It was
great to be able to stand by it and people would come to know that we
were representing Christ. We would go up to people too and ask them if
they'd have a desire to follow Him and while many would glance at the
picture, a lot of them shook their heads no and kept walking. It was sad
to see that even with the picture of Christ, people would look and
reject. It made me realize how Christ must have felt when He was
actually here on the earth ministering to the people. The other
sisters showed up and we continued to banner contact for some time and
we were able to find some potentials who wanted to come to learn of
the message we had centered around Christ. After some time, we were able
to put away the banner and head to General Conference to be
spiritually fed. I loved all the talks and treasured every single word
that was said. I loved how President Uchtdorf mentioned that,
(paraphrasing), "If man can take rubble and ruins and make it into a
magnificent building, think about how much more our Heavenly Father
can take His Children and make them something great." I loved that and
it really helped me to see the meaning behind the Lord's work not only
here in this mission but throughout life in general. I love the gospel
and I love my Savior. I know that He is standing next to us wherever
we are, it's up to us to decide if we want to Follow Him or not. Have
a great week!
Love,
Sister Burtis

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