Monday, August 1, 2016

Alarms and Wandering Around



Hello everyone! This week has been filled with many funny adventures
and miracles! To start out, we (Sister Wang and I) are settling in to
Brighton and getting to know more and more of the area. We started out
by exploring and getting to know how the buses worked and whenever we
got lost or found ourselves wandering, we would need to use our maps
or call the elders that serve here in Brighton for the directions.
Nonetheless, we are surviving :) Brighton is much different than my
other areas. It does take me back to the days of Cornwall (my first
area) because of the countryside and greenery but as well, it has a
lot of different things too. Brighton has a very big city center area
where there are lots of shopping and touristy things. Lots of people
come here for the summer so it makes sense that there are a lot of
shops all around. The Brighton Pier is near the shopping center and as
well as the marine. I don't have pictures of them just yet because we
will be going to explore more of it today and next Monday but I'll
send them out soon. One of our first days here, Sister Wang and I were
able to experience lots of different miracles. In order to get to the
chapel (unlike Clapham, where we had a direct route to the chapel), we
needed to take a bus to Main Street area and then another bus towards
the chapel. We arrived at the chapel and went to go contact a referral
that was given to us by Sally, our recent convert from Clapham. We got
there and decided to knock a few doors and just before we got to the
referral's door, we knocked on another door. A guy opened the door and
asked if we wanted to come in after we explained who we were. He was
religious himself but was willing to listen to what we had to say.
Unfortunately we couldn't come in because we didn't have a member with
us but we were able to make a return appointment for this week. We
texted him a day later and asked if he had looked at our website and
he texted us back saying that he hadn't yet but would do before the
appointment! It's such a miracle when someone texts you back saying
they are planning for the meeting time still :) After talking to this
guy, we needed to head back to our flat. As we got on the bus, we both
sat down, and within a matter of seconds, a lady leaned towards us and
asked, "Excuse me, do you guys know where I can get a copy of the Book
of Mormon?" We grinned with big smiles and told her that we could give
her one which we ended up doing. We have continued to meet a lot of
great people and some in which we have return appointments with! God
is a God of miracles. No matter where you go, there are people
prepared! We have faith that these people we have met are searching
for answers to questions and we look forward to sharing with them our
message. A funny incident that happened to Sister Wang and I was only
a couple days into Brighton. We had been traveling to the chapel and
once we got there, we unlocked the door just as our district leader
had explained to us to do earlier that day. As soon as I put the key
in the door and unlocked it, a loud alarm went off. Sister Wang and I
panicked a bit because we thought maybe we did something wrong. I
honestly thought at this point that the police or something would show
up and arrest us all because the alarm went off. The alarm got louder
and louder and I locked the door back up with the key but it wouldn't
turn off. At this point, we both hear a guy yelling, "Ey!
Ey!"....clearly indicating that he was irritated by the noise. We
weren't able to see where the yelling was coming from but at this
point, that was the least of our worries. We quickly called our
district leader, Elder Mahaffey, and as soon as we explained what
happened, he laughed. Apparently these type of alarms are normal in
the northern part of England where he is from and so he didn't think
too much about it. For me, in my past two areas, there was never an
alarm with the chapel so we didn't know what was going on. Eventually,
we were given instructions on how to deactivate it and to our relief,
the loud alarm turned off. What a laugh! Now when Sister Wang and I go
to the chapel, we are deathly afraid of opening the doors. ;) The area
is getting more and more familiar to us and we are taking it day by
day. We are grateful for these learning experiences and we feel our
love growing for these people of Brighton. We were able to meet the
ward members yesterday during Church and it is a very nice ward. There
was a lady named Patty from Columbia who invited us for lunch to have
tacos with her and when we were there, she taught us how to make
Guacamole! It was a lot of fun and we feel that we are becoming part
of the ward family already. I'm grateful to be out here and I know
that God has a great plan in store for all of us. Love you all! Have a
great week!
Love,
Sister Burtis

No comments:

Post a Comment