The Atonement is REAL

Hello one and all from across the Atlantic. :) 

First lets just take a moment to realize I've been on my mission for 3 months now... how crazy is that...?!

Ok, now that I've gotten that taken care of this week has been really fantastic! It started off with a really successful and fulfilling Tuesday. Recently we've been having some cockroach/mice problems in our flat so we decided it was high time to call an exterminator. P the exterminator came to our rescue and Sister Apiyo and I ended up having a really great gospel conversation with him. It just goes to show that sometimes the person who you would least expect to be interested in the gospel ends up being very prepared by Lord. Heavenly Father definitely knows His children. Later that day another miracle happened. We were on shift at the visitors center when all the sudden a Nigerian family of 10 walked in the Hyde Park Chapel! We were able to teach them about eternal families, and the love that God has for each and everyone of them. It was really special to see a whole family so ready to learn and so anxious to go to church in Manchester that next week. :) They are now being taught by the missionaries in their area! 

The next day started out incredible with another amazing visitors center tour. A Taiwanese woman from Taipei walked in, curious about what the building was. We took her into the chapel and discovered that she had actually been taught English by the missionaries in Taiwan! :) The entire tour was a spiritual explosion and by the end she told us that she would definitely be meeting with the missionaries in Taiwan, and kept saying how amazing it would be to have a fresh start at life after Baptism! :) Elder Stuart and Elder Nolan- referral coming your way. Also on Friday a man named local named P came into the visitors center. Although we didn't know much about him we felt prompted to take him back to the Cinema and show him Because He Lives (a short film about Jesus Christ and how he is really here for all of us). As the movie ended we realized that he was silently crying. He told us that the last couple of years he had gotten into some bad things, but that he had been trying to fix his life and be a better person recently. Sister Apiyo and I testified that with the Atonement of Jesus Christ he could have this second chance, and be forgiven of these things. We are still in contact with him now! :) Oohh how I love the visitors center and the many miracles that happen in this place. 

This email is staring to get long.. .so one more story and then I'll be done. Promise!  

On Saturday we had someone cancel on us while we were in Fulham. Not being close enough to the flat to do something productive there we decided to try visiting N. N was someone we found tracting a month or so back, but we lost contact with him and hadn't heard from him in a while. We knocked on the door expecting no answer, but to our surprise N popped his head out the window and yelled down at us that he would be down in a couple minutes. We ended up having the opportunity to teach him a lesson about repentance. We planned to just give him a Book of Mormon and invite him to church, but after a few minutes the Spirit lead the conversation there. Just like P a few days earlier he expressed his frustration about trying to change his life, but not being able to, and just like before Sister Apiyo and I were able to share that we knew the Atonement was not only real, but that it works. In all honestly though, I know that the Atonement is real and the Jesus Christ knows exactly what we've gone through and are going through now. He loves us so much and is more than willing to help us! The atonement doesn't only just give us the opportunity to be cleaned of our sins but can also give us strength in times of trials! I have a strong testimony of this. :) 

Hope everything has been just fantastic in the U.S. of A. and that everyone is really doing great! I love you all. 

Love, Sister Rebekah Croft

Service in the rain, and promises with God

Hola, Bonjor, Sawatika, Ciao, Acholi, Arigato, Conichiwa, Ne, or just Hello. :) 

How has everyone's week been? Hopefully full of sunshine, good food, and the last couple of weeks of summer. I keep getting reminded that the Summer is almost over, and that classes are about to start, but it doesn't seem like any time has passed here. On one hand I feel like I've only been on my mission for a week, but then on the other hand I feel like I've been here for 10 years.. sometimes I feel like time has completely stopped in every other country but England, and I'm just going to come back in 18 months and everything & everyone will be exactly how I left them, but then on Monday reality hits me and I realize time is definitely moving back in good ole Utah. Time is just weird on a mission. Period. I hope everyone is doing great, and the changes are good though! :) 

This week has been really fantastic. First big news of the week is... drum roll please. M. has a baptismal date! If everything goes as planned, he will be getting baptized on the 6th of September. :) On Tuesday of this week he had a lesson with him and taught about Faith, Repentance, and Baptism. While we were teaching Baptism we focused on just how special it is that baptism is the 1st covenant that we make with God. We invited him to be baptised and at first he was a bit hesitant and worried about making that leap of faith. The Spirit in the room was so strong, and I found myself telling him about my baptism (I don't remember much, but I do remember being happy, and feeling weightless when I came out of the water). Sister Apiyo and I invited him to be baptized again, and he said that he knew baptism was what he needed to do. It was such an incredible moment, and I'm so excited to help him prepare for next month! :)

On Wednesday I had my first ever Zone conference. :) It's amazing how much of a spiritual booster it can be for your whole week. It was focused on member missionary work, and how we can be exponentially more effective missionaries if we work with the ward members. It's actually very surprising how different missionary work is now compared to how it was 30 or so years ago. We hardly ever knock on doors.. but focus on building up the ward, giving service, teaching ward member's friends, and talking to people on the streets. President Phillips (our stake president) said, "The missionary work being done now is extremely different than it was before. Your role as missionaries is to break the mold and to change how missionary work is done."

(BBQ on the roof of the chapel with the zone.)

Also on Wednesday I learned that I would be going on an exchange to Illford again. Surprise! I got to be with Sister Nebeker again, which I was just fine with. She is an amazing, diligent, hilarious missionary. We get along well! While there we taught B, a 14 year old girl from Bulgaria. At the end of the lesson she expressed that her Mom was somewhat against her being baptized and that she didn't know what to do. It was heartbreaking to hear her say this, and all we could do was bear testimony that God would help her get though these trials, and that she really was ready to make this promise with her Heavenly Father. At the end of the lesson Sister Nebeker prayed fervently that B's mom's heart would be softened, and that B would be able to be strengthened in this hard time. Just yesterday I heard that she will be baptized this next week. :) Prayer works. It really does. Also while in "Illfordistan" we got to do service (which you can hardly ever find in central London). We had the opportunity to help put up a canopy/shade tent for this lady. While in the middle of it, the sky opened and it just started pouring rain. haha We just kept going, determined to finish, and after 2 hours of screwing pipes together, and velcroing tarps we finished. Completely drenched this lady hugged and thanked us over and over The Sisters in Illford will be going back over this next week to teach her about the Book of Mormon. :) 

(Sister Nebeker. Don't let her badge fool you, she just lost hers.)

One more story and then I'm finished. Pinky promise. 

On Saturday, we had a lot of cancellations with appointments and a whole bunch of free time (which is a bad thing when your a missionary) The Elders in our ward: Elder Jackson and elder Leite had their appointment fall through too, so we decided to go finding together. We hopped on a bus and headed over to Shepherds Bush area and started talking to people. Now usually Sister Apiyo and I don't have much time to just talk to people. We usually end up talking to people on the bus or the tube and finding new investigators that way, but today we decided to divide and conquer. Talk about exhilarating & also terrifying! I swear every time I stopped someone I had a mini heart attack before the Spirit kicked in and I could start sharing my testimony and my knowledge about the Restored gospel. It was scary, but also I knew that if I didn't talk to them the next time they would hear about the gospel is who knows when. Something I read before I left was "As a missionary I just had to conquer the fear, because it was my awkwardness, or their salvation." It really hit me that these people need that knowledge of Jesus Christ in their lives, because it can change lives! :) 

 All in all, in that 30 minute block I had some pretty amazing conversations with people. Together we got 5 people who were interested in hearing more about the Book of Mormon and Jesus Christ. 

Sorry this email is ridiculously long, but if you can take anything from it take this: pray works- we have a loving Heavenly Father up there and he hears every single one of our prayers, "when you are in the service of your fellow beings, you are only in the service of your God", conquer your fears- Jesus Christ can and always will be that strength and courage in times of trial. 

I love you all SO much! :) 

Love, Sister Rebekah Croft

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I am a member of a "missionary mommas" Facebook page which I joined last May about a week before Rebekah left for the MTC. When I introduced myself for the first time and mentioned where my daughter would be serving I got a message from another mother whose son was serving in the same mission. Her profile picture looked familiar to me and it wasn't long before I realized that Bryan and I had gone to high school with her! We started chatting back and forth in private messages about the England London Mission. I asked her tons of questions and she gave me loads of hugely helpful advice as we were finishing up getting Rebekah ready to go. Since then we have been continuously reminding our missionary kiddos to watch for each other any time there was a mission gathering where they might end up getting a chance to actually meet. Apparently this past week they finally did. My friend sent me a picture this morning of the two of them smiling happily. What fun for them to find another missionary with ties from home. 

The Mews and the Chelsea game

Hello family and friends, another week in London has flown by. I swear that the weeks go by faster and faster every week I'm out here! I'm halfway through my second transfer. How in the world did that happen? I'm also constantly amazed by the beautiful city that I'm living in! London is so architectural, and seriously gorgeous! :)  

This was a long week of finding new solid investigators, and helping those that we are working with to really start progressing. Although we couldn't meet with some of our investigators from last week, we found some great new people as we were travelling from place to place in our area. Something else that was a little different this week is that we got to proselyte while a Chelsea game (famous "football" or soccer team here in England) was happening. People are crazy fans here. Definitely gave us a question to stop people with... "Who do you think is going to win the game?" 

(Chelsea Stadium. In front of the rubbish bins...why not?)

Miracles of the week:

1. Remember how about 2 months ago we were teaching a Finnish man named M.? He had a baptismal date, he had been to church 3 times, and had been reading the Book of Mormon everyday. Sadly, he did have slight issues with the Word of Wisdom, but we were working with him. One day he just didn't show up to his appointment and wouldn't answer any of our calls for a week. We decided the best option was to drop him, although it made me really sad. Just this last Saturday out of the blue I felt like I should ring him. He picked up the phone and I invited him to church. He came, really enjoyed himself, and we set a return appointment with him for this next week!! :) Hopefully we can just be really bold with him and get that man baptized. Moral of the story though- promptings of the Spirit are the best, many miracles can come from listening to them. 

2. Sister Apiyo and I went tracting in the Mews (very classy, very expensive, old neighborhoods) on Wednesday. The first 3 doors no one opened, but on the fourth door a man named J. answered and said "Oh, hello ladies, this is actually an office, and not a residence." Oops. We continued on to ask him what the office was for but he responded that it was confidential.. After a few minutes of talking, and telling him what the Book of Mormon was, he told us that he had to leave but that if we wanted, and because we were nice people we could take a look inside the office. Turns out that is was a place where they take care of famous actors and artists when they come to London!! :) He showed us pictures, and told us how often Angelina Jolie, Frank Sinatra, The Spice Girls, George Clooney, Tom Hanks, and countless others had been taken care of by them. Just shows you what the perks are of knocking on random rich people's doors. Sister Apiyo and I were so happy after that. :)

3. We had 3 people at church! :) All who are thinking about baptism. And it just so happens that last minute the bishopric called the missionaries up to give a talk and my topic was baptism. Don't you love last minute talks.. ;)  All I can say is that I'm thankful for the Spirit that was able to guide my thoughts.  

4. At the beginning of the week we met an older lady named M. on the streets in Hammersmith. She was in a rush, didn't seem very interested and basically just yelled her address at us as she turned the corner. We didn't really know what to expect, but we dropped by her house on Wednesday. She opened the door and surprisingly let us in. :) We got to teach her the whole lesson one, and just happened to have a Book of Mormon with us in her own native language of Arabic (what are the odds). She kept calling us angels, and said that we could come by any time. It was such a testimony builder to me that the people that Heavenly Father are putting in our path may not necessarily look like those "golden" investigators. It might be the burly, tattooed man in the corner of the bus, and not the mother of 3 that God had been slowly preparing and softening their heart for me to share the gospel with. It is comforting to know however, that God knows his children so much more than I do. :) 

I love and miss you all, and hope that everyone is doing fantastic! Have a great week and never ever forget to read your Book of Mormon. That book holds a lot of power.

Love, Sister Rebekah Croft

 View from the Hyde Park Chapel roof. We eat lunch there all the time. :)

These "I love Mormon" buses are everywhere. They advertise The Book of Mormon musical but...they make me happy anyway.

Insert creative caption here

Hello everyone! :) I hope you are all having a great day wherever you may be.

This week has been a pretty average week in the Hyde Park 1st ward. Nothing particularly exciting has happened, but nothing necessarily bad has happened either.. makes for a bit of a boring email, sorry! 

One pretty amazing thing that happened this week is that we found a solid investigator from Uganda (Sister Apiyo's country). He is a former investigator of the sisters before us. We were looking through the Area Book one night and decided to call his number. He was really excited about meeting with us, and said he had been thinking about calling us any way. On Sunday we invited him to come with us to dinner at a members house, and then got to teach him the Restoration. The spirit was so strong as we explained to him about priesthood authority, and Joseph Smith's experience praying in the Sacred Grove. At the end of the lesson we invited him to be baptized. :) He is hesitant about getting baptized because he was already baptized in a different church, but said he would think about it. Hopefully we will be able to help him understand why baptism with the proper authority is so important. 

Sister Apiyo and I had some miracles in the visitors center this week, but they weren't while we were touring people. As visitor center sisters we get to have a facebook account, chat with people on mormon.org, and skype people from all around the world. We start teaching them, and then the local missionaries in their areas get into contact with them and we team teach. Technology is super cool. :) We currently have 7 people with baptismal dates from all around the world, and are teaching even more people! It's incredible to see how the Lord has hastened His work through technology. Missionary work is great! :)

Funny story of the week: Sometimes Sister Apiyo play a game where we see how many people we can get to say "hi" back to us when we are walking somewhere in the mornings. Some people just ignore us, some people are really startled and say something funny like "oh, good afternoon, I mean evening, morning!", some people actually say hi back, and some people just look at us and say "umm I don't know you." haha It's really funny to see people's different reactions. :) Sometimes the people here in London get so caught up with getting from one place to another that they don't look around at the beautiful place they are living in. London is a gorgeous city!

I just want everyone to know that this gospel is truly Jesus Christ's gospel restored once again on the earth! We really have a loving Father in Heaven who is aware of us, and knows us individually and by name. The Book of Mormon is the word of God and really is another testament of the Savior! :) I love you all. Have a great week!

Love, Sister Croft