Hello again from the currently rainy, and very cold London, England. Fall is finally catching up with this part of the world, although it's quite different from autumn in Utah. There are no mountains here, so that means no watching the leaves change colors. But one thing that I absolutely LOVE is rain, and autumn here means the beginning of the "rainy season". Maybe I'll get tired of the clouds, rain jackets and umbrellas but for now I'm embracing it. And who knows maybe the leaves on the trees in the city will change colors eventually, and I'll get the best of both countries. We'll see. ;)
Wow, is it already P-Day again? Seems like I just wrote you all. :) So recently I've been asked by a few people how a normal day in the life of a London visitors center missionary goes, so I figured I would start off with that.
This is what a typical Wednesday would look like:
6:29 "Arise and shine" usually we'll go jogging through the streets of London, or run to the chapel for some volleyball or Zumba as a zone
7:00 Breakfast and get ready for the day
8:00 Personal Study- love it!
9:00 Companion Study with Sister Apiyo
9:55 At the Hyde Park visitors center for shift. When we are online answering chats and picking up calls on mormon.org in the morning we are the only 2 missionaries in the entire WORLD online to help people!! Because of the time difference we are the only visitors center open at that time. It's kind of stressful sometimes trying to answer everyone, because of the lack of missionaries but it's also humbling that the Lord trusts me enough to be one of these sisters. Sure sometimes people come online to argue or waste our time, but most people that come online are really searching for the truth! :)
The other half of the time I'm out giving tours to anyone who walks in through the doors and if they are interested I'll pass along their information to the missionaries in their area. Miracles happen everyday while in the VC!
3:00 Out in our area teaching people, OYMing (open your mouth) on the bus/tube, visiting less active members, doing service, and everything else that other missionaries do.
9:00 Back at the flat to plan for the next day, update teaching records and other odds and ends
10:30 Fall into bed and sleep Zzzzz
As for miracles this week we had many! On Thursday we were able to have a lesson with M. We taught him with a recent convert who also had a difficult time with the word of wisdom. During the lesson he was able to bear his testimony of how the gospel has changed his entire life. It was so powerful! M is still progressing towards baptism (yay for that!), but we'll have to move it back because it would have been on conference weekend. Ooops!
Also, this week the Bishop asked us to visit some specific less active families that he didn't know much about. We dropped by a family on Friday and it turns out that it is a part member family! The son is willing to learn and come to church. We'll see what happens :)
Now your probably wondering where the title of this email came from... well on Saturday Sister Apiyo and I headed to the dentist to get Sister Apiyo's wisdom teeth out! :P One was especially bad and impacted, to the point in fact that they had to call a specialist and cut her tooth in half to pull it out. Poor girl! We've just been home this whole weekend so that she could recover. Eating lots of yogurt, and Ice Cream of course, as well. Prayers are real though, because she was able to go to church the following day for a few hours to see all of our investigators and the members of the ward. :) What a trooper! There is no way that Heavenly Father wasn't a big part of that.
Well, family and friends I love you bunches!! I wish you a wonderful week wherever you may be. And never forget this: Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and he in reality translated an ancient record which is the Book of Mormon! (oh how I love that book) :) Heavenly Father is a loving God and Jesus Christ is the savior of the world, and they love and care for everyone on this earth who ever it may be!
Love, Sister Rebekah Croft
_____________________
I got an unexpected phone call this past week from a couple who live in central Utah named the Pittmans. They had just returned home from a trip to London where they had met Rebekah at the Hyde Park Chapel Visitors Center. They visited the chapel twice...once on a weekday to look around and to find out what time church services were held, and then again on Sunday for church. Both times they had the opportunity to chat with Rebekah and Sister Apiyo. Sister Pittman asked Rebekah for my phone number, telling her that she'd love to call her Momma when she got home and tell her how she was doing...and was there anything Rebekah wanted her to tell me? I talked with both Brother and Sister Pittman, but Sister Pittman and I had a good, long conversation...first and foremost about Rebekah and then about our families and missionary service. She clearly adored Rebekah, even though they hadn't spent a lot of time together. She got emotional relaying Rebekah's message to me about how much she loved and missed me and that was doing well. Sister Pittman said that Rebekah was a delightful missionary and that she looked so happy. She had taken some pictures, she said. And though they didn't have internet, she had printed them out and was planning to snail mail them to me. She asked if I'd send letters occasionally letting them know how Rebekah was doing and would I please let them know when her Homecoming was so they could come see her when she got home? Frankly, I was completely overwhelmed and I couldn't stop the tears....the kindness and thoughtfulness of these people to go out of their way to make a call to a woman they'd never met to reassure me of my daughter's well being...someone they only had the chance to briefly make contact with! It felt like such a tender mercy to me....like even though my daughter is so far away, Heavenly Father is sending people to watch over her in my place while she serves her mission.
_____________________
I got an unexpected phone call this past week from a couple who live in central Utah named the Pittmans. They had just returned home from a trip to London where they had met Rebekah at the Hyde Park Chapel Visitors Center. They visited the chapel twice...once on a weekday to look around and to find out what time church services were held, and then again on Sunday for church. Both times they had the opportunity to chat with Rebekah and Sister Apiyo. Sister Pittman asked Rebekah for my phone number, telling her that she'd love to call her Momma when she got home and tell her how she was doing...and was there anything Rebekah wanted her to tell me? I talked with both Brother and Sister Pittman, but Sister Pittman and I had a good, long conversation...first and foremost about Rebekah and then about our families and missionary service. She clearly adored Rebekah, even though they hadn't spent a lot of time together. She got emotional relaying Rebekah's message to me about how much she loved and missed me and that was doing well. Sister Pittman said that Rebekah was a delightful missionary and that she looked so happy. She had taken some pictures, she said. And though they didn't have internet, she had printed them out and was planning to snail mail them to me. She asked if I'd send letters occasionally letting them know how Rebekah was doing and would I please let them know when her Homecoming was so they could come see her when she got home? Frankly, I was completely overwhelmed and I couldn't stop the tears....the kindness and thoughtfulness of these people to go out of their way to make a call to a woman they'd never met to reassure me of my daughter's well being...someone they only had the chance to briefly make contact with! It felt like such a tender mercy to me....like even though my daughter is so far away, Heavenly Father is sending people to watch over her in my place while she serves her mission.
No comments:
Post a Comment