Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Developing a love for Brighton











Hello! I hope the summer months are continuing to treat you all well.
Brighton has been blessed to be able to have some great weather this
past week and we hope it stays. This past week and a half or so has
been filled with many different things. I'm trying to think where to
even start. At the beginning of last week, Sister Wang and I were
blessed to be able to teach some people. We had went finding a week or
two back and got to meet a university student named Will. Will is very
open-minded and was very receptive. We got to go with a member to
teach him and we were able to feel the spirit strongly as we testified
of how he (Will) could come to discover for himself which church was
right and if the message we shared with him was true. We invited him
to baptism if he were to find out if this message was true and also if
he would be willing to read the Book of Mormon and he said yes to
both. What a miracle! Later in the week, Sister Wang and I traveled
out to a place called Hove. We had never been there before but we got
on the bus and made our way out to there. We followed the map to go
and contact a former investigator and as we go to do so, we
miscalculated how long it would take for us to get there. We didn't
think it would take long at all but what the map fails to tell you is
if there are hills or not. Brighton is filled with quite a lot of
hills and roads that curve and weave around so by the time we approach
the house of this person, an hour or two had passed by us. Out of
breath after just having climbed a big hill that seemed to be never
ending, we knocked on the door with hope and surety that this lady
would be there. A man answered the door and told us that she wasn't
in. You could have probably imagined what our face expressions might
have looked like. We sighed heavily, thanking the guy, and said we'd
come back another time. As we got on the thin road to get back to the
main road, a lady was walking towards us. Taking this opportunity, we
took the time to stop and talk to her. As we asked her if she would be
willing to experiment upon reading the Book of Mormon, she replied,
"Sure, why not?" Our long trek up the hill that we had just taken
seemed to be forgotten with a matter of seconds after she said that.
We excitedly told her that we could meet her another time and she
agreed. God does truly provide! Our district was able to have district
meeting this past week at the senior couple's home and then we had a
district lunch afterwards which was fun. During this district meeting,
we got told a few things including that the mission would be now using
online proselyting via Facebook, Skype, messenger, ect. to teach our
investigators the gospel. We believe this will give us a greater
opportunity to stay in contact with our friends from this area even
more. Another big change too was the change of preparation day. We
usually have accounting calls with our district leader on Sunday
evenings but since we are working to leave the Sunday evenings more to
proselyting, accounting has been changed to Monday and preparation day
is changed to Wednesday. Despite changes, I feel that these things
will truly help us to move the work forward. I trust the Lord and
trust that He knows what is best for us. I'm so grateful to be able to
be here in Brighton. There are many friendly people that even though
they don't believe in God, will politely say they aren't interested.
It's not to say that there is no opposition but I'm grateful for the
people we've been able to run into and for the miracles we have been
able to see! I love getting to know the members here in Brighton. Each
of them have welcomed us into their ward family and it makes us feel
an even greater love for the people. This past weekend, Sister Wang
and I traveled down to Sutton for exchanges with the STL, Sister
Couper. We stayed in Sutton for three days and got to see some great
miracles as we spent the days finding. Something I really loved was
being able to work with Sister Couper who's from Scotland and also
Sister Cassidy who also from Scotland. It makes me want to visit
Scotland even more especially too because my dad served his mission
there. Working with the two Scottish sisters was a lot of fun and we
even got to go to their ward, the Epsom ward. We didn't know anyone
there but suddenly a lady came and gave us a loving hug and we
recognised her as one of the sisters of the Brighton ward.
Immediately, we felt great love and we almost felt that we were back
in our area. It made me realise that though I've only been in Brighton
for a couple of weeks now, I've developed a great love for this area
and people. I love this work and treasure every moment I have here on
my mission. God truly knows what we need and always provides the
experiences for us in order to receive the lessons He wants us to
learn. I hope you all have a great week and continue to enjoy the
summer!
Love,
Sister Burtis

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