I love this time of the year where we can reflect on the things we are grateful for and to be able to realize the many blessings that we have received. As I reflected on this past week, it was one to remember for sure! Last week and this week has been great! We were able to work with a lot of the members and help them to see the importance of missionary work. What is great is that we have an upcoming Christmas party in the Staines Ward so Sister Manage, Sister Chand, and I have worked to invite lots of people to that and invite the members to invite their friends. We have a feeling its going to be very successful! The past weekend, we got to see many miracles. Last week, while working in Stanwell, two of our appointments fell through that we had looked forward to teaching so we used the best of our time and went and contacted some potentials. We had knocked on a lady's door and she opened up. We asked her if she was Claire but she told us that Claire had moved. However, the best part of this amazing miracle was that she mentioned to us that she was Claire's mum. So with that, we got to see if she was interested and she was! Plus, she gave us Claire's new address so we were really excited. We will be able to teach her next week which I am looking forward to. This past weekend, we were suppose to have a dinner appointment with our Bishop and his family on Saturday but something came up for them so Sister Holt called us and asked if we would like to join them in the Thanksgiving meal that they would be having this past Sunday. Sister Manage, Sister Chand, and I traveled our way over to their area and got to have an american thanksgiving meal! It was truly wonderful! It was fun to see the looks on Sister Manage's and Sister Chand's face as they saw all the different types of food that was there, seeing that this was their first thanksgiving meal. This past week, we got to see our friend Phil come to church and we were excited about that! He is usually caught up with work but he has a big desire to be baptized and made his way over to church this past week. We are working with Laura as well and she is doing amazing! We are planning to take her to the temple on Saturday which I am so excited for! She knows that this church is true and has a great desire to learn more. We are going to teach her about the restoration and watch the Joseph Smith movie with her so she can understand the life and calling of him. Apart from that, we got to go to President Gubler and Sister Gubler's home for my departure interview. It was really good and I loved the counsel of how my mission has prepared me for life and how the experiences that I've had are going to help me so much, which I don't doubt. It was funny though because we needed to take a train to get to President's home so we did but as we got out of the train station, it was pouring rain. Quickly pulling out our Ipads to locate the map, our map told us to take a footpath that led through a forest that would get to their house. I don't know what we were thinking but we went in and almost got lost. In this wooded forest, there were paths on the right and left sides of us and so we just prayed and continued to followed in front of us and eventually made it out. What was even funnier was that Sister Gubler had called us asking if we needed a lift from the train station but our phone was on silent so we never heard the call. We did eventually get there in the end which was good! :) On the way back from President's, we needed to go to Clapham Junction to switch trains. As we got there, Sister Manage, Sister Chand, and I took one look at the Cornish Pasty Shop and knew we needed to go and nourish ourselves with the food from Heaven. As we bought some pasties (which brought be back to the days of Cornwall), a guy asked us what church we were from and told us that he was from Sri Lanka. Sister Manage mentioned back that she was from there too and they both started spouting out some magical language. All in all, we came to find out that this guy was part of a Pentecostal church but wasn't really practicing. What amazing was that he said he felt spiritually low and said a prayer that morning to God for help after seven full years of not praying. That same evening, we had met him and we were all amazed at how God works! Miracle! We talked to this guy and he said he wanted to learn more and was open-minded. Just as we were about to leave, he hurried and grabbed a cone of delicious looking fries and handed them to us, saying, "These are complimentary. A gift from God." What an amazing week! We had the opportunity to share the gospel and teach the plan of Salvation with another one of our new friends named Glen and he's now planning to come to church. I am just so grateful to be a part of this work! I can't imagine my life without it. I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving and enjoy eating lots of turkey, potatoes, and pie! Love you all!
Love,
Sister Burtis
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