First things first. Happy belated 4th of July! 'Murica! :)
This week I was able to go one exchange with Sister Lau, one of the Chinese speaking Sisters. We came into the field at the same time and we haven't had the chance to serve together yet. We had too much fun here in Wrexham :) -- that is probably the reason why President Preston never put us together.. haha. It was a blessing to have her come to our area because she has served here before. It really helped for her being able to see the Chinese families and recent converts that she has built such a great relationship with and encourage the ones who are struggling to come to church.
Sister Chu and I have been sharing the lost sheep parable in our member lessons. We are involving the members in our finding by committing them to seek inspiration through prayer for what streets we should find on or who we can go visit to find these ''lost sheep'', whether they be less actives or those wandering unaware of the gospel. We have seen great success. The members are having names of people they know and streets come to their minds. More to report on this in the future!
The Lord has been placing very prepared people in our path lately:
One of them is a lady named Rose. We street contacted Rose when we had 30 minutes to find before coming home to the flat one night. Rose told us that her father passed away not too long ago and that she has been very curious about what different religions believe about the after life. We asked her if we could share more about our beliefs and she said yes!
Then there is this other lady named Karen whom I talked to while traveling back from exchange on the train. The funny thing is I was looking for someone I could sit next to and Karen had a bag in the seat next to her but I boldly asked if I could sit next to her and she moved her purse so I could. I got talking to her and she opened up about how she has been learning about different religions lately. I knew instantly in my mind she was going to accept the truth if she knew where to find it. I wanted so badly to act on the natural tendency to tell her this was the restored gospel she was looking for but instead I asked her what it was she was looking for by going to so many churches. She explained she was trying to learn more about God; who He was, what He is like. I got even more anxious to tell her everything! But I didn't. I listened to her and to the guidance of the Spirit in what to say next. Long story short, I was able to get her information down (sadly, she doesn't live in my area) and give her a copy of the Book of Mormon. She graciously accepted the Book of Mormon. I will refer her to the mission office and I hope to hear of her progress. I know without a doubt she is prepared to be baptized.
This is was not the first nor the last time that I have had to refer someone I think is so golden to the office. It is hard not to get bummed when you find prepared people like Karen that you cannot teach yourself because they live in a different area. It is in times like that I have to remind myself that we as missionaries, in our mission or even as missionaries around the world, are all on the same team. We should all be happy to ''pass the ball'' to our team members on the court. I working on waiting patiently for the Lord to bless my companionship with success in our own area.
I had a loaded study session on faith this past week. I love reading the definition entries in the Bible Dictionary. Included in the ''faith'' definition are the lines that to have faith is to ''have confidence in someone or something.'' I am going to have to paraphrase some other lines-- God has revealed His true character and attributes to us, one being love, to enable our minds to be able to put full confidence in Him without reservation. I love that. We can have confidence in Heavenly Father's love without reservation. This sentence in the Bible Dictionary reminded me of a recent experience I had teaching these young men on the street the other day about the purpose of prayer. We taught them that they could pray to give up their bad habits. One of them asked us ''so if I stop drinking, will God love me more?'' I rephrased his question to give him my answer: ''You will be able to feel God's love more if you stop drinking.'' I know our Heavenly Father loves us unconditionally and that His love is real and is always there. I know we can have confidence in His love for us. ''For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life'' (John 3:16). Have confidence that He is a loving Father who will give us His mercy when we repent.
Love you all!
Sister Jordan
pictures!
Sister Chu and I
Sister Lau in our 4th of July wear
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