This Gospel is to Strengthen Families
It's getting cold here! The temperature is dropping but the blessings and miracles are raising. I had many wonderful experiences with a few hard ones this week. But the good far outweighs the bad, and there is so much good when we seek for it!
Tuesday (Nov 26): Today just flew by in a snap, which is weird considering the fact that we have had like no appointments. We did study, ate lunch, and then went out finding for about 2 hours at a station, then we headed to the church to do comp study and more finding outside of the church. When we spent a bit of time doing that we were just out walking around visiting returning members, and we came home and made steak fajitas for dinner. They were not too bad if I do say so myself.
Wednesday: Well today was just a grind and a half, we went to district meeting in the morning, then after that we had a blitz in our area so all the companionships in our district helped do finding and visiting returning members for us, it was great! Unfortunately it was one of those days though were we spent about 3 hours just contacting people on the street and we had absolutely zero people who would talk about the gospel at all. Not much more to say apart from the fact that I'm grateful God recognizes our efforts and not our results haha.
Thursday: Last Thanksgiving away from home thankfully. Thinking back to my Thanksgiving last year it was just an awful day for me, and this one wasn't super festive but it was still a very good one. We had a devotional in the morning and then did some service for a lady in our ward who then cooked us a soup. We went to the church to teach a lesson after that too and it was just a solid day. Even got to say hi to my family which is the best. A cool experience I had was tonight I set a goal to try and pray for as long as possible and only give thanks for things, making zero requests. I set a stopwatch to see how long I could go and I prayed for a solid 20 minutes straight just listing off things I was grateful for. We are so blessed, just take a moment to really recognize God's hand in your life.
Friday: Today was another quick one. We first went to the other District meeting in the zone, and then traveled back to the church to eat lunch whilst we watched the new Book of Mormon video of Nephi's testimony. We spent a bit of time organizing a list of returning members that we were given by the ward, and we spent a bit of time contacting people outside the church as well. Also tonight was Friday so we had our games night and it was a pretty good one. Played a bit of chair football and ping pong so all is well in Lea Valley tonight.
Saturday: What an amazing day. It's hard to describe the feelings you receive as a missionary sometimes, I guess you'll just have to serve a mission if you want to know what they feel like 😜
But anyways today was the baptism of 2 kids we had spent some time teaching their family and their dad was able to baptize them after nearly 3 years of them not being baptized. I can testify that this gospel is to strengthen families because as I watched a father baptize his 11-year-old son I was just overwhelmed with the fruit of the spirit as I felt the feelings of peace, love, joy, and gratitude all at once. I LOVE this gospel, and I LOVE my family. How blessed we are. And speaking of blessings, there was lots of food to enjoy after the baptism haha. In fact we even had a dinner appointment this night too with bishop and his family, so I had another loving family environment and wow it was just a great day, with so much good food, so much joy, and so much family moments.
Sunday: What a fantastic day, this weekend was just a really good one loaded with spiritual experiences. So church was good, we had 2 friends come today which is always the best, and then we went to the Brazilian member's home for lunch as usual, but it's particularly great on fast Sundays! And today we had a fireside in Hyde Park called Why I Believe where recent converts share their testimonies and Zane spoke and I got to go and it was so awesome! There were also many Christmas songs performed so everything put together made for an amazing Sunday.
Also this week my companion and I set a goal to memorize 1 scripture every single day and we would review at the end of each night the scriptures we have memorized so far. We enjoyed it so much and are going to continue with it as long as possible. There is so much power in the words of God. I testify that continually having the scriptures in our mind will increase our capabilities to overcome struggles and experience great joy. I will leave you with that this week, and invite you to find ways you can incorporate them more into your lives.
Elder Orchard
Well we went to London for P day so that means photo session 😜🤙
Tuesday (Nov 26): Today just flew by in a snap, which is weird considering the fact that we have had like no appointments. We did study, ate lunch, and then went out finding for about 2 hours at a station, then we headed to the church to do comp study and more finding outside of the church. When we spent a bit of time doing that we were just out walking around visiting returning members, and we came home and made steak fajitas for dinner. They were not too bad if I do say so myself.
Wednesday: Well today was just a grind and a half, we went to district meeting in the morning, then after that we had a blitz in our area so all the companionships in our district helped do finding and visiting returning members for us, it was great! Unfortunately it was one of those days though were we spent about 3 hours just contacting people on the street and we had absolutely zero people who would talk about the gospel at all. Not much more to say apart from the fact that I'm grateful God recognizes our efforts and not our results haha.
Thursday: Last Thanksgiving away from home thankfully. Thinking back to my Thanksgiving last year it was just an awful day for me, and this one wasn't super festive but it was still a very good one. We had a devotional in the morning and then did some service for a lady in our ward who then cooked us a soup. We went to the church to teach a lesson after that too and it was just a solid day. Even got to say hi to my family which is the best. A cool experience I had was tonight I set a goal to try and pray for as long as possible and only give thanks for things, making zero requests. I set a stopwatch to see how long I could go and I prayed for a solid 20 minutes straight just listing off things I was grateful for. We are so blessed, just take a moment to really recognize God's hand in your life.
Friday: Today was another quick one. We first went to the other District meeting in the zone, and then traveled back to the church to eat lunch whilst we watched the new Book of Mormon video of Nephi's testimony. We spent a bit of time organizing a list of returning members that we were given by the ward, and we spent a bit of time contacting people outside the church as well. Also tonight was Friday so we had our games night and it was a pretty good one. Played a bit of chair football and ping pong so all is well in Lea Valley tonight.
Saturday: What an amazing day. It's hard to describe the feelings you receive as a missionary sometimes, I guess you'll just have to serve a mission if you want to know what they feel like 😜
But anyways today was the baptism of 2 kids we had spent some time teaching their family and their dad was able to baptize them after nearly 3 years of them not being baptized. I can testify that this gospel is to strengthen families because as I watched a father baptize his 11-year-old son I was just overwhelmed with the fruit of the spirit as I felt the feelings of peace, love, joy, and gratitude all at once. I LOVE this gospel, and I LOVE my family. How blessed we are. And speaking of blessings, there was lots of food to enjoy after the baptism haha. In fact we even had a dinner appointment this night too with bishop and his family, so I had another loving family environment and wow it was just a great day, with so much good food, so much joy, and so much family moments.
Sunday: What a fantastic day, this weekend was just a really good one loaded with spiritual experiences. So church was good, we had 2 friends come today which is always the best, and then we went to the Brazilian member's home for lunch as usual, but it's particularly great on fast Sundays! And today we had a fireside in Hyde Park called Why I Believe where recent converts share their testimonies and Zane spoke and I got to go and it was so awesome! There were also many Christmas songs performed so everything put together made for an amazing Sunday.
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| Elder Bakman and Zane from the fireside |
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| Me with Sister Checketts |
Elder Orchard
Well we went to London for P day so that means photo session 😜🤙
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