EB Mission Blog: Strengthen the roots

Family and Friends!!!

Thank you for your emails this week, it is encouraging to read them during the week, emails from family and friends give us SUCH support and remind us why we are here - to help other people have what we have! A forever family :) So thank you for them! I really loved them. I do miss you all but I wouldn't want to be anywhere other than where I am now. I KNOW this is where I am meant to be. I have never felt so strongly about being somewhere at any other time in my life.

There was a HUGE rugby game going on in Cardiff in preparation for the World Cup so finding on Saturday was difficult because...everyone was at the game. Like EVERYONE. So much rugby love here. And football too. Like English football (soccer) not American football.

I get to play the organ a lot. I think I am now the ward organist hahahaha. They struggle to find even a pianist for Sacrament soooo that happened. Its not an official calling but we were at the Bishops last night and he was like "Can you maybe play every Sunday? We really struggle finding people" So that is fun! The organ here is OLD and kinda sounds super weird. And the volume pedal doesn't work, so I have to use these weird volume presents whilst playing to change the volume. Sometimes I hit them with my elbows so that it can get louder if I start off too quiet. I bet it looks hilarious but...it sounds ok so that is what I do!

THANK YOU for putting us on the prayer roll. We really felt blessed this week so it helps, we can feel it :) I LOVE my ward. Really, it should be a branch..there aren't many members, but we are really focusing on less actives this week. Both Sister Lowder and I really felt impressed that we needed to do that. Thinking of Jacob 5 and the parable of the olive tree - we need to strengthen the roots before we can graft on too many branches or it will all fall apart. So that is what we are really working on right now. It is kind of our vision for the rest of this transfer. We have another zone meeting this week....don't know why, but that will be cool and I am excited to learn even more from our zone leaders, they are WONDERFUL. Very inspiring missionaries. Tell the kids and dad and grandma and grandpa (both of them) that I love them.

Thank you for all you do for me! I pray for you and the rest of the family EVERY day. I hope you can feel my love and support from here in Wales.

So overview of this week:

Monday - we went to St. Fagans!! It was AMAZING! I will send many photos hopefully after I email! Then we had a super busy night and biked many miles - we came home EXHAUSTED. Every night this week I have been so tired. Waking up tired is not pleasant. BUT it also is cause I know I am working my hardest. We seriously worked SO HARD this week. It has been a wonderful exhausting week

Tuesday - we had district meeting, and the zone leaders attended. It was all about developing Christlike attributes to help us become better teachers and missionaries. I would challenge you to do the Christlike attribute activity at the end of Chapter 6 of preach my gospel again. I did it and will continue to do it on my mission. It helps a LOT to know what we need to improve on. So I challenge you all do to that!

Wednesday - We travelled a lot this day, and taught a LOT of wonderful lessons! Echo was one of our most solid investigators, but we will be passing her on to the Cardiff Central sisters cause she is moving. She might become an eternal investigator though...cause her parents don't approve of her joining a church at the moment. She is from China so its hard. But she was lovely and we do love her. We also taught our golden investigator Lisa. She LOVES Christ and wants to improve and learn more about him always. Except....more about her later on in the week...

Thursday - We got to do service on Thursday for a recent convert named Deb who is an ANGEL! We also got to teach a lesson to a girl named Ruby, she is an absolute angel. She loves the book of Mormon and has the kids book of Mormon (cause she is just a kid, but her parents are ok with her learning). and she knows SO MUCH! I think she knows more than I did when I was 17. She said to us the other day "so my friend Amy told me that God wasn't real. But I just looked around and said, "Amy, how could God not be real. Look at all THIS *spread her arms out wide and spun around gesturing to the world* This world is amazing and there has to be a God if this is here."" How precious is the testimony and faith of a child...it is no wonder that Jesus taught that we need to become as little children. They have more faith than anyone I can think of. I love it :)

Friday - Friday was a day where all our plans got changed according to Gods will, not ours. We visited a less active man and the whole family invited us in and we are now having lunch there this week, and a mini miracle happened with them. So I guess missionaries hadn't come over there for YEARS. So we just stopped by cause ALL our appointments and lessons fell through, and we ended up sharing little thought about gratitude and making our lunch appointment. On Sunday, this man came for all 3 hours of church and he hadn't been for years!!!! He came simply because of the example of the missionaries. His wife is the Primary president and has come faithfully for years but..yeah. Mini miracle for the week :)

Saturday - We travelled to Taffs Well, we take a train to get there and all our lessons and appointments and plans fell through here as well....it was hard and disappointing, but we got to visit a members home and share some thoughts with them and he tuned up our bikes a bit, so that was a little blessing as well. I love the gospel!

Sunday - now this was our miracle day. We were REALLY disappointed, cause Lisa disappeared on us. We haven't been able to contact her since Saturday morning, she wont get ahold of us or anything. So we are giving her space to see what is going on....but it was hard cause she is set for baptism in 2 weeks, and now we don't know what is going on. So we headed to church a little upset...then had the miracle of that less active man, then got to go over to the Bishops for dinner after fasting. The bishops family is LOVELY. They have two kids, Elinor and Josh and they are the sweetest things. We were so privileged to stay after dinner, as the bishop blessed his house. They had just moved in and wanted to bless it now that things were settled there. I have NEVER felt the spirit so strong in my life. I can honestly say that. NEVER IN MY LIFE. It was incredible. After, their son was crying so much cause he could feel it so strong, and their daughter said she just felt SO HAPPY. I cant even explain it but it was a miracle for us. Members homes become our homes, as it is one place where we truly feel loved and cared for after all the rejection we get every day, cause we get a lot. This area is hard. I love being here and wouldn't change where I am, but is is HARD. We are rejected day in and day out. and people wont even let us do service...its hard. But we persevere and get little miracles along the way.

I just want you all to know how much I love my Saviour. I feel so privileged and blessed to be able to share the joy and love I feel from the Saviour with others. I truly know that he loves us, and that He LIVES. I am so grateful to know that God is there and that he cares for us and can guide us and lead us. My life would be lost without that knowledge. I am so grateful to you, my family, for supporting me and loving me as I am here on my mission. I truly feel the support and don't know what I would do without it. Thank you for all you do for me :) I love you!

Sister Emma Beazer