February 22nd, 2017

I Moved!!! 

So I am now currently located in Burgess Hill which is only about an hour south of Epsom. The new switch came about because they want the zone leader area to be more centralized so we switched areas with the Burgess Hill Elders. The place seems really nice and I've heard amazing things about the ward. I'm pretty excited to be here.

I really want to get working. Elder Dey's knee isn't healing very fast so we haven't been able to do nearly as much as I've wanted to which has been driving me crazy. I feel so unproductive. It's been a rough week to be honest but I have a had lot of tender mercies to make up for it. The Lord with always show us He loves us even when we are in the middle of a trial. 

A really good tender mercy that I was able to have was to go on exchange with Elder Cloward who has become one of my best friends. He is the AP and has been for quite awhile and we are in the same group so I've known him my whole mission and I've been able to serve around him most my mission as well. Our exchange was amazing and we saw so many miracles like teaching the law of chastity to a 17 yr old girl who is a dating a LA member. Elder Cloward was a bit worried about it but the teach was so powerful and the Spirit was so strong that she completely understood and wanted to follow God's commandments. We also had some amazing chats about how the Spirit works in our lives and how the people that God has put in our lives are all for our benefit and growth. I had such a strong impression again this week that God has blessed me with so many people to teach me and help me grow. Everyone I have met has been for my gain in one way or another. I love being able to talk with one of my best friends about how God's hand is always in our lives.

Another really great thing I got to see was 4 different baptisms in our zone. One was in Crawley and the other 3 were in Brighton. I was so so happy from seeing all the people glowing at their baptisms. It was peaceful experience. My Saturday was just full of friends and baptism. Afterwards we went to the pier in Brighton and got 5 Guys which was the second time on my mission I've had a real burger haha. When eating I got that feeling again of overwhelming love for the people in my life and for God who put them there. 

I think that's one of thing of many things that I have learned on my mission is how to recognize the Lord's hand in my life. It has been ingrained in me that He is always there and anytime I begin to doubt or forget He never fails to remind me. I think that is one of the reasons we need low points in our life. They teach us to remember so that when we have the ups or high points we can know who has given them to us. 

So cool story about this pic is Elder Cheong and I were in Brighton and it was like 20 mins til the exchange was over and we already have some cool miracles. So we were walking through and I see this beautiful half Akita half German shepherd puppy playing with some people and I looked at Elder Cheong and asked if he wanted to play with a puppy and he smiled so we ran over to play and we made really good friends with the owners and their friends. They asked us loads of questions about missions and being a Mormon. They weren't interested in being converted but they thought what we were doing was awesome and they hope to see missionaries again. 

One of the biggest keys to missionary work is being yourself. If you are you and let your true colours show, people will want to know who you are and what makes you happy. That's when you pounce hahah