Monday, August 18, 2014

"The Sun Will Come Out, Tomorrow"

I Won! I Won Again!!

You are all probably wondering ''Why in the world does this email have this title?'' Well let me tell you a little story about this man we met named Robert. Robert is extremely atheist because he is pro-science. We tried our best to share the gospel with him in bear our testimony, but he just wasn't havin it. He went on and on and on about how science ''disproves the existence of God.'' It was getting late and we were in a neighbourhood that gets dodgy (dangerous) at night. I started walking away because politely saying we had to go was not enough. As we walked away he pumped his fist in the air and exclaimed ''I WON! I WON AGAIN!!!!'' Our friend Robert here thought he had ''won'' the argument about religion vs. science..He  Needless to say, it was a funny experience that we always quote.

I cannot believe how good this week has been. We have seen so many miracles this week and I didn't think it was possible to be blessed this much. I am excited to continue to move the work forward here in Wrexham. Hopefully I can give you an adequate summary of all the good that is going on in our area.

Sister Klemm and I helped a recent convert with her photography project. We posed as her models. It felt like a dream come true! All of those years of watching America's Next Top Model paid off haha.

4 hour finding
I had one of the best 4 hour findings ever on my mission this weekend. We have been praying all week to be able to find kingdom builders this Saturday. We had two members accompany us in our finding. The Bishop's wife referred us to their neighbour, Lisa, the other week so we went to contact her this weekend. Lisa's husband was baptized in Chester 5 or so years ago and she has told Sister Dickenson how she missed the feeling that the missionaries brought to their home when they were teaching them. We had a wonderful lesson in Lisa's home. She had committed to coming to church but she did not show up yesterday. We will have to follow up on that.
Another miracle we saw came as we helped this elderly blind man named David find his bank. We had just been talking to these two young ladies and we were handing them Restoration pamphlets before walking away to help David. David overheard what we were saying about the pamphlet and then he asked ''Hey! What are you both about?!'' We replied that we were missionaries for the church. He almost stopped in the middle of the street because of this news for he has ''been looking'' for us. He knows a lot about the church already. He asked if we could sit down with him and tell him more about the Book of Mormon. He has been trying to get a Book of Mormon in brail but with no success. We got his address and told him we would try our best to get him one. An unusual miracle but a miracle none the less!
I have prayed in the past to be able to receive a witness that this work is exploding in our mission. Heavenly Father has gone above and beyond to answer that prayer and the people placed in our path each day adds to the witness that it is true-- the work is EXPLODING. We had a potential investigator bring his friend to his lesson. Both of them became new investigators. In total, we found 7 new investigators this past week! We also ran into this man from Nigeria that was baptized 20 years ago. His wife is not a member! Finally a family one step closer to the temple! Sister Klemm and I just have so many wonderful people to work with. The thing we need to do now is to boldly invite them all to be baptized on a specific date.
Sister Klemm and I are putting our transfer vision plan into action. One of those plans was to help part member families with their family history in the hopes that the non member family member would be touched by the spirit of family history. This week we were able to offer the Edwards, a part member family, help with their family history. We will start hopefully next week to help the non member father do his family history. One of the daughter's friends was present during the lesson on family history and is also interested in doing her family history. The Spirit of Elijah is real!
As we were updating our WML in ward coordination on the progress of those we are teaching, he was shocked that Lukman was no longer one of our most progressing. We explained the spiritual wall he had backed himself up to and how he was not progressing anymore. Brother Bullock came up with the idea that we could all fast Saturday night to Sunday evening for Lukman to receive a testimony and the courage to commit . He told us to be bold with him and tell him that we were fasting for him to receive these blessings. Brother Bullock was so inspired because this is really the only other thing that can help Lukman at this moment.
As I prepared for Lukman's lesson, I was guided to study in PMG about the power and authority of my calling. These three lines stood out to me: ''As you prayerfully and worthily exercise that authority, you will receive spiritual power, which is evidence of the reality of your call. Do not be afraid or shy about fulfilling this commission. Just as the sons of Mosiah, you are to teach with the power and authority of God.'' The Spirit hit me and I knew what I had to do. I needed to invite Lukman to repent. Never have I ben so bold in a lesson and invited them to repent. Although PMG told me not to be afraid to do so I was nervous about how he would respond.
Later that evening, a member came with us to met with Lukman and our other investigator, Stanley, joined us. We read in Alma 30 about Korihor the anti-Christ in the hopes to apply the principle of being careful of demanding signs when we have the truth already placed before us. After reading the chapter I bore testimony of the truth of this gospel and that I have been called of God to help Lukman. The invitation for him to repent was not as scary as I thought it would be. He was silent for what felt like a couple of minutes but he eventually admitted he had stopped praying to know the truth of our message. He opened up and told us he still has questions that haven't been answered and the great apostasy and how the priesthood was taken away does not make sense still. I had one of those ''pure intelligence being poured in the mind'' experiences during the lesson and I was able to explain the priesthood using our flat keys. It is amazing what you can learn yourself as you teach by the Spirit!
We went to Lukman's Nigerian church yesterday to support him in his preaching. We got permission from the APs but I guess President doesn't want us to visit other churches even when we are invited.. oops! I am sure Heavenly Father wanted us there though because so much good came out of this experience:
1)Lukman's heart was softened that we had come to support him and he is now willing to come to at least one hour of church each week. A baby step forward but progress none the less!
2)The main preacher of the church has a Koran and had a Book of Mormon too but misplaced the one he had. When we were talking to him after the service he asked if he could have the one I was holding in my hand.
3)We met Lukman's friend, James, who is from Kenya. He has various relations to our church and has always been  curious about what we believe. We walked towards home with him and gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon.
4)Lukman and his friend invited us to a BBQ that is this week and invited us to ''preach'' there. Free food and we get to share a gospel message to everyone in attendance??? Why yes. Yes we will :)
There is just too much good happening in our area for me to write it all. I struggled to fit even a tenth of it in this email!
I am a believer in miracles. As long as we believe, obey, and endure, we will see great things come to pass in our own lives as we share the gospel. The church is true!
Love, Sister Jordan

Picture:

1)Sister Klemm and I! (for those of you that haven't seen my hair in person yet.. yes! it has been transformed :) )

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

We Have Been Saved For These Latter Days

First things first-- I have some news I am really excited about! Jewel, the man from Bangladesh I met on the train back in May or June is getting baptized this month! We taught him here a couple of times, he came to church 3 weeks in a row, and then he moved to Manchester last month. We referred him to the Elders and now he is getting baptized on the 16th of this month. This joy I I have is summed up in a scripture I read this morning in the New Testament:
'' I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave‍ the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward‍ according to his own labour. For we are labourers‍ together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are‍ God’s building.'' ( 1 Cor 3: 7-9)
We owe all of our success to the Lord. He is the true converter. With and eye single to the glory of the Lord, the sower and the reaper can share in the joy of the harvest :)

As always, we have seen many miracles this week. Sister Klemm and I have a lot of hope for the people we meet with. It will be hard to share the depths of all the amazing experiences that happened this week.

Right before transfers, Sister Chu and I were stopped by these children between the ages of 7 and 10 that were raising money for charity. They asked us if we would like to watch them ''perform'' the dance routine  they came up with to raise money (so cute!). They asked us what we were doing and we explained we were missionaries. A little girl named Nicole told us her family was into ''that stuff'' and gave us her address so we could go visit her family. The other children wanted us to come see their families as well and they too gave us their address. Such angels!
Sister Klemm and I went back a couple of days later and visited Nicole's house and met her granddad, Jason. He lost his step daughter when she was only 29 and has been struggling to know why God would so that to such an innocent life, if He even existed. We were able to teach about the Plan of Salvation and we felt impressed to him that his step daughter had led us to him to say she was ok, was learning about this gospel, and wanted him to have the same peace and happiness. We left him with a Plan of Salvation pamphlet.

Now fast forward to Sunday night. We went back to follow up on the pamphlet. Outside again was Nicole and her friends. I asked Nicole if she had read or looked at the pamphlet we left behind and with the biggest smile on her family she nodded her head yes and told me she had twice. I asked her how she felt as she looked at it and she said ''good''. I believe children like her are very close to God. We went to see Jason again. He hadn't read the pamphlet.. We had another great conversation with him though and this time we left behind a Book of Mormon. We left him with a promise that if he read every day he would receive revelation on how to help his family situation. I know the Lord will fulfill this promise if Jason does his part.

One of our new investigators is Stanley. He is a friend of some of our other investigators. We met him one day when we were over to teach Lukman and he joined us and the lesson quickly became geared towards him when he brought up his questions. He is visiting from London and will only be here for another month but it is such a privilege to teach him. Not to make a generalization, but he, like most Africans, is very well versed in the Bible. He has a sincere desire to learn the truth and asks A TON of questions. When he first met with us I could sense he was not ready to accept the Book of Mormon so we made a compromise with him that we would use the Bible to teach the Restoration and then we would transition into the Book of Mormon and him reading it after we were able to adequately explain its purpose. The first official lesson with him got a little out of our control when he dominated the lesson a little too much and he brought up some concerns he had about prophets and the priesthood. We knew we would need a fellowshipper to help us teach him and control the teaching environment. That fellowshipper was Sister Reynolds, a member in the ward that is originally from Zimbabwe, a recent convert, and served a mission in South Africa. I was so grateful she was available to come with us. She is a powerful teacher. What we had tried to explain the other day that didn't make sense to Stanely, she had easily expounded upon in just 5 minutes and Stanley understood. The Spirit was strong and we were able to commit Stanely to start reading and praying about the Book of Mormon and for him to come to church, Sister Reynolds offering to give him a lift.

Stanley came to church on Sunday and it was just such a wonderful experience for him. It was fast and testimony meeting and the members of the ward got up and bore some of the most powerful testimonies I have heard from them since I have been in Wrexham. Sister Reynolds even got up to bear hers.  Stanley was able to see that we (members of the church) do read and teach from the Bible. He was also able to observe just how family centered and child friendly church was, which he really liked.

Two young men just left from the Wrexham ward to go on missions and as a result, the members have caught a glimpse of the vision of the work. They have a fire to share the gospel. It is so important we maintain and fuel this desire within each of them. This past fast and testimony made me realize just how great of an impact I have been having on the ward by bringing them out to teach with us or going to their homes to teach their families. I love the members of the Wrexham ward!

I have received a witness through the Spirit of why I Sister Klemm and I are serving together at this time. During weekly planning we came up with a transfer vision. We both have a desire to find the sincere and pure in heart that will progress to being baptized. There is so much power with us as we teach and testify to everyone put in our path. I admire how sincere and genuine Sister Klemm  as she teaches everyone, I mean everyone, about this glad message of the Restoration. This is the first time on my mission that I have been privileged to serve with someone who came out on a mission the same time as me. I am so grateful Sister Klemm and I can relate to how we feel about our missions having the same amount of time left on our missions. This has been a great strength to our companionship

I received revelation during church on Sunday and I would like to share with all of you the insight I gained.
I have always wondered what it means that Heavenly Father has saved His finest and most valiant for these last days. Something about it made it seem that He favoured some of His children above the rest. During the Relief Society lesson on how we are daughters of God, however, my mind was enlightened and expanded by the Spirit. I scrambled to write down the impression before it left me:
Heavenly Father saved His most valiant children for these last days because He knows we will stand up and fight for His kingdom even when it is hard to. If we are privileged to be born or raised in a family that has the gospel, He knows and trusts that we will go out and share it with others who are not as privileged. The same thing goes for those that will find the gospel later in life and convert to His restored church.

I know Heavenly Father loves all of His children equally as much and unconditionally. What a comfort it is to know that He trusts us to be here on earth at a time like this to bear such a great responsibility.

Love,
Sister Jordan

Trust in The Lord with all Thine Heart