Church Tour ⛪️

You know, today was a really good day. I definitely needed a day like this. We had a really good district council and we all stopped by Subway afterwards. We had a chat with one of the zone leaders, Elder Evans, he used to be one of the tech missionaries. We briefly talked a bit about the issue that the mission is having syncing the imos roster. Which basically is all the missionaries contacts and areas, as well as some other info that gets synced to everyone’s phones. He showed me the error that they are receiving each time it attempts to sync and he gave us the key to the family history center. So that’s pretty cool, it’s crazy, I haven’t touched a computer since the MTC. Anyways, let’s have a miracle moment. Today something really cool happened. Just a couple minutes after we got home from district council, we got a call from someone that works at the family history center, which is in the church. They said that there was this guy that came in and wanted to learn more about the church. So we headed over there and gave this guy a church tour and a Book of Mormon. The tour actually went really well. He was really interested in learning more and reading more about our beliefs. He was checking out the architecture of the building, pictures of the temple, the bulletin board, and all kinds of stuff. He used to do construction, so he was commenting on how beautiful and well designed the church is. He said it felt very peaceful, and he’s never seen a building like this. And this is where the miracle comes in. Usually the building is locked and no one is there. Just because of the mission wide restriction of using church buildings for missionaries. But this guy, just so happened to come at the perfect time, when the family history worker was there. The family history center is only open for a couple of hours, two days of the week. If he would have come half an hour later, there would have been no one to let him into the church. And this was the last day the family history center was open, cause they are closing it for the rest of the month with the holidays. So yeah, if he came half an hour later, he would have missed out on this whole opportunity. It’s crazy this was probably the latest time he could’ve come by, and it all worked out. It definitely shows that this is truly the Lord’s work.

Busy Day & Mission Reflection 🤔

Wow, today was probably one of the busiest days that I’ve had on the mission thus far. We helped out in the food mesh program, it was really nice cause they did a potluck; just to share their appreciation to all those that dedicate their time every Thursday to helping prepare and deliver food packages to those in need. Just after we delivered our packages, we arrived back home and did a Zoom meeting. It’s basically for my missionary training stuff, we do it once every week. And then after that we did like 30 contacts. Just texts and phone calls to all the people that interacted with our Facebook ads. It’s crazy we are trying to establish contact and meet with 60 people! After that we left to drop off a Bible to one of our friends. He was so friendly, usually our Bible drop offs are pretty quick. Some people don’t really want to chat, they just want to have the Bible and leave haha. But this guy was super nice, he let us in, and we chatted for over half an hour. We talked about prophets, commandments, the falling away, the restoration, and briefly about the Book of Mormon. It was awesome! And we went into it thinking that we were just going to discuss the importance of scripture study and share James 1:5. It was a great lesson, I need to get in the habit of speaking up more, but it still turned out really well. Right after the lesson we went to an institute dinner. It was really awesome, the senior missionaries shared a brief message. It was a simple yet profound message; they talked about how they were sitting in sacrament meeting and they felt a strong prompting that they needed to serve a mission. And right after that day they started putting in their papers. Talk about faith right! Just being willing to drop everything right now and follow the will of the Lord. That’s so difficult to do, especially with the constant uncertainty in life. But I can testify that as we exercise our faith in Jesus Christ and follow the will of our Heavenly Father, our lives become easier and we receive so many amazing opportunities and blessings that we would have never experienced otherwise! I know I’m only just at the beginning of my mission, but I’ve definitely seen the Lord’s hand and I know that He is preparing me and knows what’s best for me. As I’ve reflected on my mission thus far it’s interesting to see how much I didn’t realize I needed to grow; socially, spiritually, intellectually, you name it. I totally thought I was doing fine and I was where I needed to be in all those areas. While on my mission I have been humbled so much. I’ve realized how inadequate I am, and I’ve really struggled because of that. When I’m feeling inadequate, I struggle to come to an understanding that it’s truly a blessing. If I came out here and was already strong in all these areas, I wouldn’t have room to grow. Serving a mission would not have had such a significant impact and help in changing me for the better. But now I realize how much I can grow, how much this mission is preparing and helping me for the rest of my life. I know that the Lord has placed me right here, right now, for this purpose and most importantly for sharing the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. These truths are more valuable than rubies and diamonds; they reach far beyond the temporal reality of our state. We can’t even begin to comprehend just how important and significant the things that we do right now are. The things that we do now, the paths that we go down, will shape us and determine the rest of our eternal destinies. Sharing these priceless restored truths that give us direction, revelation, comfort, blessings, and peace in our lives with those around us is more important than anything we can do on this earth. These truths will change everything for us. It is a testament that we have a loving Heavenly Father. To have these truths today, to have a living prophet that leads and guides us, to have angels that minister all around us every day. He truly wants us to come back home and I’m glad to share these amazing truths and blessings with those around me. Thank you Heavenly Father, for this opportunity to be right here, right now, participating in the gathering of Israel. It is an honor and a blessing. I can’t fully express my deep love and gratitude. It’s not often that I reflect on this and I wish to do it more.

Christmas Musical 🎄

We had an epic Stake Christmas Musical Devotional thingy that we went to. It was packed! Multiple sets of missionaries were there, and the music was superb. There’s a ton of musical talent in Surrey first ward. The refreshments were definitely refreshing haha. We’ve had quite a bit of sugar, as you all might imagine with all the Christmas parties and stuff. They were serving fruit trays, which was a nice change of pace.

Five Guys 🍔

One of the members took us out for lunch at Five Guys! He was so nice! He was having us write down a list of foods that we enjoy haha.

Baptismal Interview!

Today the baptismal interview happened for our friend Lakshmi, and we are excited to announce that she is ready to be baptized! We are so happy for her! It’s gonna be great!

Spiritual Thought 🙏

“And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: ‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.’ And he replied: ‘Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.’ So I went forth, and finding the hand of God, trod gladly into the night. And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day.” -Minnie Louise Haskins