A very Christ centered Easter and "Little Venice" miracles

Happy Easter everyone! Easter is honestly one of my favourite times of the year, but I've never experienced an Easter quite like the one I had this year. I did go on an annual Easter egg hunt thanks to Sister Hulet (the Visitors Centre director's wife), but other than that, this whole Easter season was completely Christ centered. And I wouldn't have had it any other way. :) Take away all the commercial blues, yellows, and pinks, the Easter eggs, and the chocolate bunnies, and you find the real reason we celebrate Easter. It's because we have a Saviour who lovingly took all of my mistakes, shortcomings, and pains upon himself. In Jesus Christ I really have found new life daily. The atonement is not only enabling, it is REAL. I've felt it, and I've felt my Saviours love for me again and again this Easter season! I love Him, and I'm beyond thankful for what he's done for not only me, but everyone in the entire world. That truly is amazing!

In other news- Transfers have come and went.

The word is in and I'll be staying in Hyde Park 2nd with Sister Griffeth! I'm super excited because I love these people to death, and Sister Griffeth and I have been seeing a ton of miracles together especially this last week. We are both ready to work hard next transfer, and find more of Heavenly Fathers "elect." Should be a good transfer! 

As for this week in general, it started out a bit weird.. with the bombings in Brussles everyone was paranoid for a few days and the security here in London skyrocketed! It's absolutely devastating to think of all the people who lost their lives or were injured in Belgium... :( My heart hurts for them! But, not to make this email super depressing because really this week was grand!

Just to mention a few of the incredible things that happened this week- on Thursday we stopped by a part member family who Sister Griffeth had taught before. The previous sisters dropped them in the past because neither the less active husband or the wife were progressing in the gospel, but we felt prompted to go by and share a short Easter message. Only C------ was there, so we talked with her for a long while and then asked if we could share a short spiritual thought. After the opening prayer, we both felt prompted to simply ask her about baptism. Umm what?! We followed the Spirits promptings though, and she completely opened up saying what her concerns were and what obstacles she felt were blocking her path towards baptism. Then after we talked through it, she opened up even more saying that in the past when the sisters mentioned baptism she didn't see the point because she's been baptised in another Christian church before. After they didn't come around for a while she started thinking more and more about it. She asked God what she should do and she got the answer that baptism was in His plan for her!! After the lesson T-- walked in and she was able to tell him. The spirit was undeniably strong and he started to tear up. It was so precious, and so special. I feel very blessed to be part of it.

Another miracle happened on Tuesday when we went to a place called Warwick Avenue a.k.a. Little Venice. When we came out of the tube station we went to the side of the road to pray and ask Heavenly Father to put someone prepared in our path as we were finding. We said "amen" and started walking down the road. Literally the first person we talked to was very interested in the gospel, and we had a step in lesson with him on the road for a good 45 minutes! He is from near Thailand, and he also wants to bring his Christian girlfriend to our first lesson this next week. It was amazing! :) Also in Little Venice another day a younger guy stopped US (that doesn't happen much in England). He said that he was very open to meeting, and learning more about Jesus Christ and His gospel! We referred him to the Britannia ward, but they should be meeting with him soon.

A cool experience I had in the VC this week was on Wednesday. The public affairs office is on the third floor of the Visitors Centre with the mission office. The Burke's are the senior couple who work there, and they told us that there would be a man from the Iraqi embassy coming while we were on shift. Elder Burke gave us a bit of notice because of how nervous he was to bring him in. Poor Sister Burke was very nervous! We were asked to give part of the tour and to keep it more informational than a spiritual. Talk about intimidating! This man was pretty high up in the ranks of the embassy! Everything went well though, and he turned out to be nice.

Well, there is my week in a few paragraphs. I'm always amazed at what I don't have time to write about.. but there you go. All in all it was a fantastic week, and I couldn't be happier! :) Hope that you all are safe, and had a special Easter weekend!

Love, Sister Rebekah Croft

I'll let you guess this one. "Here comes the son, do do do do. Here comes the son. And I say, it's alright."  Abbey Road!!!

 "Little Venice"

With C------! She's amazing! :)

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These two....  :) Seriously, they already look so much alike that sometimes in their pictures you'd swear they were twins. Here they have braided their hair together! 

This picture was for Brandon. He's a big Beatles fan so apparently Rebekah thought it would be fun to take a picture holding the Happy Birthday banner in the middle of Abbey Road. But it was too crowded with tourists to get any more pictures than just the one of the four of them walking across. So they took this picture on the sidewalk.

Also...

It’s been a bit of a strange week. The Brussels attacks hit a little too close to home for a couple of reasons. One of course, being that Belgium is directly across the channel from England….and London itself is obviously a big target for terrorists. Rebekah is literally smack in the middle of London…just a few blocks from both Buckingham Palace and the Parliament Buildings, etc. She takes the “tube” (the Metro or England’s version of the subway) nearly every day. 

But also there were 4 missionaries injured in the bombing at the Brussels airport, as you all probably know by now. And one of those missionaries, Elder Empey, is a friend of Rebekah’s. He and his family lived in our ward before they moved to St. George and we moved to Kaysville. Rebekah and Joe (or Dresden, as we called him back then) used to play together back when they were in elementary school. They are still in contact through instagram and Facebook. So when I first heard the reports about the missionaries being injured in the bombings, the news was of course very sobering and sad. But then I came across the names of the missionaries and my heart dropped to my toes when I realized that one of the elders was Dresden. I sent Rebekah a couple of emails through the week with updates on Dresden from his parents Facebook page, and of the other missionaries from the news. It’s been just really way too awful that within just a few weeks of each other I've had to send Rebekah such sad news about friends….first the death of Sadie Wells on her mission in Pennsylvania due to a car accident, and then Dresden’s horrible injuries from a terrorist bombing on his mission in Brussels. 

Rebekah had this to say in her personal email to me:

"London is dealing with the Brussles attack alright.. there is definitely a lot more security around especially in the tube stations, and the day it happened was really eerie…. :( Thank you so much for sending me the updates on Elder Empey! I actually did know quite a bit about it mostly because of facebook. There were a lot of things that I saw there, that I put two and two together. It's SO SAD though! The world is really messed up... signs of the times I suppose. The second coming is closer and closer everyday which is scary, and also happy news! But back to how people are acting, they are pretty paranoid. It kind of makes sense that London would be next so that freaks people out, but I don't want you to worry about me. I've honestly never felt safer than I do now. The Lord protects His missionaries! :) So I'll be just fine. Terrorist attack or not."

New in the neighborhood and a not so green "Green Day"

Hello my sweet family and friends! I pray that you are all healthy & happy. :) Seems like I was just writing to you.. and yet another 7 days have passed. Crazy, crazy.. 

My week was really incredible! Was is the most successful week in the measurable aspect of the work (ask the numbers)? Not really.. but when I think back to the amazing experiences we had, and the great people we talked to I would define it as an absolute success!

It amazes me every day how in control the Lord is of this work. He is at the head, and while usually I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing He makes up the difference. It's been a process for me to completely hand over my will to Him, but it's always better when I do. That's when the miracles start to happen! Speaking of miracles, lets talk about some, shall we?

On Thursday morning we decided to take about an hour to just go through the numbers on our phone and filter out those who weren't interested in learning more, and find those who really would like to meet with us. We called over 30 numbers and talked with quite a few different people. One man in particular answered the phone and when I told him who I was he was shocked saying that he had been reading a general conference talk just that morning, and had been thinking about going back to chuch. He said that he was going to be in South Kensington that very day, and so he said he would stop by the visitors center. When he came we showed him the new Easter video, and the spirit was extrememly strong! He talked about how when he was first meeting with the missionaries he was trying to find excuses not to be baptized, and how now he felt like there weren't any more excuses. He'll even be going to Utah on a trip the beginning of April, and he wants to go to general conference!! :) This guy is one of the most prepared people I've ever met. I'm so grateful that the Lord directed us to call him! 

On Friday we had a mini miracle. We were headed to a less active members house for dinner and as we were getting off the bus we miraculously passed someone on the street that we had met 2 weeks earlier. You've got to understand that you never talk to the same person in London twice. This city is huge! Anyways, we met K-- Q--- at the grocery store a couple of weeks ago. This Chinese man is hilarious, and also super prepared for the gospel! We weren't able to get any of his contact details the first time because he was in a rush, but we've been praying to meet him again. So when Sister Griffeth recognized him, and when she processed that it was him we had to turn around and run after him to catch up. We were able to chat with him more about the gospel, and he's very interested in learning more! We will be teaching him soon. :) 

Another tiny miracle not much involved with missionary work, but in day to day life here is that we moved flats!! Hurray! Our old flat was having problems... (mice, broken water heater etc) Our new flat is so posh! God is good. 

As for St. Patricks Day there wasn't much in the way of celebrating here in England. You'd think that there would be more here seeing as we are so much closer to Ireland, but the only places that I saw that were celebrating were the pubs... Sister Griffeth and I still wore green though and celebrated in little ways! Just not at the pub. ;) 

All in all, this week was another beautiful, amazing week as a missionary in London! Sorry if this email was super scattered and didn't make much sense, but if you take anything from this email just know that the gospel is true! I really know that. Heavenly Father is real, he is loving, and he is aware of every single one of us. The book is blue, and it's true. I LOVE this work! Have a wonderful week everyone!

-Sister Rebekah Croft

 The Crofts family. They are amazing! Plus they have the last name as me so that's pretty cool. :)

 Our old flat.

St Patrick's Day

 Fire safety training at the Visitor's Centre

Zone Conference

The Queen says "Hello"

This week. Where to even begin?

Well first I suppose I'll explain the title of this email... a monumental moment happened a couple of hours ago... I SAW THE QUEEN!!!!!! We were walking from Trafalgar Square to Buckingham Palace and suddenly we saw some fancy motorcycles with the Queens flag on top, and a very expensive looking car driving past. As the car was passing I looked in through the window of the car and saw Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth in a nice tailored blue suit jacket, and an amazing hat to match. She smiled at our little group of missionaries, as Prince Philip waved. Day. Made. Oh my goodness!! :) 

Other than that little bit of excitement, this week was much of the normal mixed in with some of Heavenly Fathers wonderful miracles. 

We didn't have much time in our area this week due to a zone conference, exchanges, and some extra shifts at the visitors center, but surprisingly, and then again not surprisingly at all we were able to accomplish a lot with the Lords help. 

On Wednesday we had zone conference which was amazing! Conferences are always great, but this one was completely centered on the Atonement. It was powerful! We also talked a lot about the new Easter Initiative- "Follow Him & Find New Life." If anyone hasn't seen it yet, stop reading this email asap, and go and watch it! I'm so thankful for the Savior. My heart is full as I think about all that He did for not only me, but everyone in the entire world who ever lived, and whoever will live! In Jesus Christ I have also found new life in so many different ways. I love Him and will never have enough words to describe how thankful I am!

Thursday was exchanges with the STL's (Sister Training Leaders). This time was a little bit different because they've changed the way that they do exchanges. Now both of us go to their area instead of splitting. For Sister Griffeth and I- that meant London North. It was a really fun experience and I learned a lot from Sister Swan from Australia! We mostly went finding the whole time, but oh my word I got to talk to some of the most amazing people! :) Let me just say- there are prepared people to hear this gospel everywhere. 

One of the biggest miracles that happened this week was on Thursday night. We didn't have any time to go finding that day, but we really needed a new friend to teach. We started going through the area book, and calling people who had been taught in the past. No one was interested. :( We said a prayer asking Heavenly Father if he would help us find one new person to teach, and then the last call we made I randomly went through the old numbers in the phone. I stopped at the name E--- and pushed the call button. He answered and I asked him if he was still interested in learning about Jesus Christ to which he responded "Of course I would be. Could we meet tomorrow?" Umm yes!! :) Next he said "Would you like me to bring my Mother too?" Of course! We taught them the next day, and then he wanted to watch the whole hour version of the restoration. I'm a fan of Bulgarians now! It was also a very big testimony builder for me that God hears our prayers. He always does! 

Love you all family and friends! I hope that everyone is doing well wherever you may be. Have a fantastic week!

Sister Rebekah Croft

https://www.mormon.org/easter -link to the new Easter video! :)

Happy "British" Mothers Day

Oh my goodness, this week. It's been on of the most exhausting weeks of my whole mission, but that means we had some of the most amazing miracles as well. :) So it all works out in the end! 

Going day by day, on Monday night Sister Griffeth and I were asked to go to the London BYU Centre to teach family home evening there. There are about 40 study abroad students in the program right now, and we were asked to talk about our missions, how we decided to come, etc. We decided to turn it more into a Q & A session, so that it would be open for any of the girls to ask questions. It was such an incredible experience! Not only was it an amazing thing to help them feel of God's love for them, and understand that He has an individual plan for each of them. But it also helped me remember why I came out on my mission to begin with, and realize just how much I've learned in these 9 short months. 

On Wednesday we had a huge miracle happen. It was the end of a long day, and we were headed home. On the way to the tube station we passed a young man sitting on a suitcase on the side of the road. I didn't pay much attention, but as we started walking down the tube station steps a few feet away I go the strongest prompting that we needed to go back and talk with him. It was one of those promptings that if you don't take action on, you know you'll be in trouble. ;) We went back and talked with him learning that he was a student, but he's been homeless for the past 2 weeks. We got him some food, told him how much God loves him, and he told us that he'd actually been searching for a church to go to. He has the most sincere desire to change his life around! He came in the visitors centre the next day, and now he's started his journey to get his feet back under him, and then he wants to be baptised!! I love meeting these people who are so genuine about seeking the truth! :) Since he's 27 we'll be turning him over to the AP's in the Britannia (YSA) ward.

Something else we've been working on this week is contacting a list of AUF's (Address Unknown Files) we received from our ward clerk. It's a real process to find these "lost sheep" to see if they still live in the same address and to see if they're interested in coming back to church. We weren't having much success, but then we knocked on one door and a woman answered right away. It turned out it was the daughter of who we were looking for, and she said that she would come to church the following day. It was a cool experience!

There are a few people we are teaching online who are from all around the world! Dang, technology is pretty incredible. That's all I have to say. E----, from South Africa who's waiting for the missionaries in her area to get in contact with her so that she can be taught and be baptised. She's so great! :) Also, we're teaching men from Slovakia, Kenya, and Norway, and women from Canada, America, and the Philippines. I couldn't be more thankful that I can teach these people from here in England! 

I hope that everyone is doing well, and that you all know just how aware Heavenly Father is of you & of your situation. He loves you! And I love you too! 

Love, Sister Rebekah Croft