June 23, 2014: Mountains & Miracles

Hiya!

This week has been the prime example of opposition in all things. 

First of all, there's a phrase I've learned that is the British way of saying the equivalent of, leave, get off my property, etc..."Travel well".

The Mountain or trial for this week has just been rejection and people flogging appointments. If only people knew what they were missing out on every time they said no to the opportunity to hear the Gospel.

But much more important than the mountain, have been the miracles! We have been truly blessed this week. We have had so many people contact US and strangers approach US on the bus. This week we were able to gather in a total of six new investigators and even had two come to church! It was wonderful to see lots of prayer, fasting, and studying pay off. 

One experience I wanted to relate was of meeting this wonderful lady from Brazil named Mariana. We had just started street contacting that morning and the situation was dire. It amazes me how so many people are opposed to just talking to us. But then we said a prayer that we would be able to find someone to teach, anyone. Not two minutes later we see this lady walking our way carrying about 4 heavy bags. We quickly went to her and insisted on helping her carry her belongings to the bus stop. We learned that she was a Uni student and that today was moving day. She was very grateful for our help and said we were her angels. She told us that she was finishing her masters in journalism but was nervous because she had to write her dissertation in English which is still difficult for her. We were able to tell her that the missionaries in London can give her English lessons and she seemed so grateful! We also gave her a Book Of Mormon and taught her more about the nature of God and how reading His words can help us in all aspects of our lives. Even though we will never get to teach her, we found an absolute golden referral for another set of missionaries, and she even said her new roommate would be interested as well! 

The Lord truly works in mysterious ways, and I know that as we all continue to keep our eyes opened for opportunities to serve others that we will be blessed. 

Don't let Satan discourage you. Aim high and keep the faith. Hope and diligence pays off.

I love you all,

Sister Lydiksen

June 16th, 2014: "Look at Her Teeth! She's Got Beautiful Teeth!"

Well, this week has been about as funny as the subject line. 

(In response to the subject line, this really nice lady we met on the street just yelled this out to me in front of her husband, as well as the whole world. Thank goodness for American dental care! and thanks mom and dad for the braces, it's paying off ;) never thought that it'd be a missionary tool! )

This week we had a great zone training, then we got flogged (an appointment fell through), ward correlation meeting, chinese food with a member, lots of looking through the area book at old investigators and calling them, blisters, visiting a few sweet old ladies in the ward who have bad health, spider killing, overflowing washers, the summer fete, and two baptisms in our ward!

This week has had its challenges, mainly most people not wanting to talk to us. But after we had a 24 hour fast throughout the mission, we saw miracles. We went from having no investigators, to now having three! The work is hastening here, and I am so glad to be a part of it!

My ward is amazing, and there are so many wonderful people who are so supportive of us missionaries. It's also fun to have my mission president and his wife in our ward!

I think some of the pictures I will send speak for themselves, but needless to say, the summer fete was a success and we even had an investigator come! She was one of our miracles this week. Her name is Wendy.

About 6 weeks ago Wendy had been meeting with other sister missionaries and was making a lot of progress, then out of nowhere she told them she no longer wanted to meet with them. The other day we had a feeling to just stop by her house, and she was there and we were able to teach her a lesson, and she wants to start meeting with us again! She has so much potential, and I am so excited to see where this will all go!

I hope all is well with all of you wonderful people! Thank you for the love and support. The Church is true, so go and do!

Keep the faith.

Love you all,

Sister Lydiksen (: