Monday, May 30, 2016

A Flood of Miracles

 Exploring the south bank of London


 Just went to tower bridge with all the lovely sisters in the zone! Great
fun! :)

After a district meeting, all of us missionaries were privileged to
have lunch with Nina (a convert of 3 years). She makes some amazing
African food! Photos included are of us and the missionaries and Nina
included in the picture with us sisters.








What an remarkable week! So many stories to include but I don't know
where to begin. Missionary work isn't easy at times, in fact, it can
be quite tiring. I've learned though the importance of perseverance
and trust. Sister Fromgren and I have been finding and finding,
finding and finding, but no one seemed to be really interested. This
past week, things started to change. We tried different finding
techniques, we exercised our faith to be even stronger, and we
trusted. With that and with God's timing, we have been able to see
many miracles. Here are a few we saw this past week:
1. Last Monday evening, the family history coordinator, Sister Helen
(who is amazing with family history) invited Sally, Ada, and Brenda
(recent converts) to her home and invited us as well. There we had
some food and helped Ada, Sally, and Brenda with their family history.
To see all three of the amazing recent converts doing their family
history seemed to be a dream come true. I love family history and my
passion for it has increased even more since I've been out on my
mission. The miracle of seeing Ada, Sally, and Brenda preparing their
own family history names to take to the temple was something I'll
never forget. This week too, they will be going to do baptisms for the
dead, all together! It's true just as Joseph Smith says in D&C 128:15
about Family History. "And now, my dearly beloved brethren and
sisters, let me assure you that these are principles in relation to
the dead and the living that cannot be lightly passed over, as
pertaining to our salvation. For their salvation is necessary and
essential to our salvation, as Paul says concerning the fathers--that
they without us cannot be made perfect--neither can we without our
dead be made perfect."
2. We had a dinner appointment with a potential. Just as we asked this
potential investigator if we could bring a member with us, she
excitedly said yes. We were in line to have a good teaching
appointment and to get a new investigator to share the gospel with. As
we met with the member, we got to this potential's home, knocked, but
no answer. Sister Fromgren and I looked at the door, thinking perhaps
staring at it a little longer would open the door ;) , and then we
looked back at each other. We knocked again, no answer. Third time,
nothing. We called her phone twice and got no reply with that either.
We felt sad that we had a member with us and that this person didn't
end up being there. We sat on the steps of the stairs that led to the
door and decided we would wait a minute so or more and see if this
lady would show. A bit bummed because we were so excited to teach, we
silently all said a prayer in our hearts. Just as we waited, a phone
call came from the zone leaders. At first we thought, "Oh, it's
probably something that they need from us perhaps like help with zone
call, ect." We picked up the phone and tried with all our might to
sound cheerful. The best words uttered from another missionary is, "We
got a referral for you." And so they did, just at that very moment
that we needed it most. Heavenly Father does truly provide when He
sees that we are doing our best. :)
3. On another particular day, Sister Fromgren and I were doing an
exchange with the Mitcham sisters. Sister Lulab (from the Philippines)
and I were together and we went to go and contact a potential named
Nancy. We had tried stopping by Nancy's several times before but
whenever we rang the buzzer that linked to her flat. No reply. We
tried several other flats to see if they would unlock the gate so we
could knock on Nancy's door but no luck there either. This particular
morning, we said a prayer and asked if there was some way we could
talk to Nancy. We rang her doorbell but no reply. We continued to pray
in our hearts, but no reply the second time. We waited for a tiny bit
and a delivery man was coming out of the gate and just as the gate was
about to shut, Sister Lulab and I quickly snuck in. We knocked on
Nancy's door and she answered! She was very interested in a Book of
Mormon and even asked us if we could have a return appointment. What a
miracle!
4. Using the area book. We have an area book with forms from years
back that date since 2007-2008. There are a lot of forms in there so
we decided to go through the area book and to prayfully select a few
people who had been taught before. We came across a guy who had been
taught several years ago and felt prompted to call him. As we did so,
he answered and said he'd be willing to meet with us. We got to teach
him the very next day about the restoration and the lesson went great!
5. One more amazing miracle: Sister Fromgren and I had been praying
about a street to knock and felt strongly about a particular street
near where we lived. We went there and saw a man walking towards us.
Deciding to stop and talk to him, we introduced who we were but he
mentioned to us that he wasn't interested. We replied "thank you and
have a nice day." but he must have had a bad day or something because
he suddenly started swearing at us and seemed really angry. We
continued walking without looking back and praying that he could have
a better day than the one he was currently having. We got knocking
some doors but no one seemed interested. No one. Most would look at
us, say that they don't believe in God, and close the door. Sister
Fromgren turned and asked me if we should start knocking the other
side of the street. I said perhaps but maybe there was so much
opposition because we were close to finding the one who was prepared.
So we continued to knock and about 4 or 5 doors down, we found our
miracle! Her name was Michelle. We had knocked on her door and she
looked out her top window and asked what we wanted. We explained who
we were and she told us that she would be right down. Seconds later,
she opened the door and said those magical and miraculous words, "Come
In." We got talking to Michelle about the Book of Mormon and
explaining who we were. She kept asking us if we were Christians and
we reassured her that we were. At the end of the conversation,
Michelle asked us something that I had never been asked before. She
said, "Will you do me a favor? Will you pray for me tonight that my
eyes may be opened and that I can understand the Book of Mormon?" We
shook our heads yes and smiled. We knew that this was such a tender
mercy given from God and that He truly provides.
The season of miracles is truly here. I feel so blessed to be a part
of this work! Love you all!
Love,
Sister Burtis

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