Let the Holy Spirit Guide

Happy 4th of July to my fellow friends and family back in America! Unfortunately England doesn't celebrate this holiday for reasons unknown to me yet ;) I'll see if I can't get them to change their minds and start having red, white, and blue colors all around the city on this particular day. I don't think it would be too bad because technically, they have the same colors as us! :) England is still so good to me though and I love being able to be here to serve around these people. This week has come and gone but yet so much takes place. This week consisted of Sister Fromgren and I doing a lot of planning for our zone training. The zone leaders and us would be preparing up until last Thursday and then as a leadership, give presentations, practice roleplays, and meet the needs of the missionaries here in Wandsworth. I love being able to help plan this training because I learned so much from it. It's just as if someone is asked to speak in sacrament or teach a lesson, usually you hear them say that they learned more from preparing it than from actually presenting it. Zone training came along and it went very well! The spirit was felt very strongly and many of the missionaries, including us, received answers to our prayers. Something that occurred to me was the importance of having the spirit. There were several occasions this week that I felt the spirit very strongly. One of those occasions was during zone training. Sister Fromgren and I were giving a presentation about studying our scriptures and the importance of how it builds our faith. As we gave this presentation, we felt the spirit testify to us that this message is so true. The Book of Mormon is crucial for our time and helps us to remember our purpose here on this earth. Our second occasion was with Begonia. Our investigator, Begonia, has been really searching diligently to find out if the Book of Mormon is true. She is so close to making her decision to be baptized and as we work with her, we ponder and pray about what we could share with her. We felt impressed to talk to her about baptism even if it has been talked about before. This time, we really worked on trying to focus on asking her inspired questions and taking moments to let silence fill the air and let the spirit guide. As Sister Fromgren and I did this, I felt the spirit more strongly than I had in some time. It was truly amazing how Begonia was opening up to us more and was willing to be baptized even though she's not sure of which date yet. We were able to invite her to pray about this decision and she said she would. Sister Fromgren and I have been really working on trying to be able to continually improve in our finding and teaching skills and we feel even more guidance from our Heavenly Father as we strive to be the best we can be. This week, we were able to go to a park in Vauxhall (near the border of our area) and try to talk to families. Because the weather was nice and it was a Saturday, many people were there. I won't lie though, it's pretty daunting to randomly go up to people in the park and start talking to them about the Gospel but once we started, it became less scary. We were walking down a pathway when we suddenly stopped a couple walking our way. We said hello, introduced ourselves, and got talking. The husband was from Ecuador and his wife was from a spanish country as well. They mentioned to us how they had missionaries teach them several years ago and how they couldn't seem to find the answer to whether the Book of Mormon was true. We felt impressed to write down a scripture on our pass-along card and gave it to them. We continued to discuss more and just as we were about to say good-bye to them, the Ecuadorian husband turned to us and asked us with sincerity if we would be willing to say a prayer with them. Normally we are the ones to ask people if we could say a prayer for their day but it was amazing to see the love that this couple had for their Saviour, Jesus Christ and their willingness to pray. We said the prayer and at the end of the prayer, the man said that he knew that this was no coincidence that we met. Unfortunately the couple doesn't live in our area but I hope that he will be able to be taught by the missionaries and find out the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon for himself. This week has been filled with lots of many learning opportunities, lots of finding, lots of joy, some opposition (but what's life without opposition right?) and many moments of gratitude for God's divine plan. I love this work. I often reflect and find myself asking, How is this Gospel NOT true? I love the knowledge of having a Heavenly Father who never leaves us alone and is with us 24/7. I hope you all, have a wonderful week, and a Happy 4th of July!

Love,

Sister Burtis