Crystal Palace Ward

Sunday July 26

Tonight we had a fireside and it was so amazing.  One of the bishops gave a talk and was really good.  He was raised in Jamaica and is the bishop at only 28 years old.  The story that really stuck out to me was a sister from Chile.  Her life story is incredible.  She was born in chile and I guess her father was one of the president’s leaders and he had to flee.  So her father went into hiding for about a year and then the rest of the family fled the country when they found that people wanted to kill them.  So they went to Scotland and she told of when they met their father for the first time in a long time.  They were on train cars and her father reached out his hand to pick up every child to cross over and then finally her mother.  Her father was caught and was locked up and was tortured for two years.  They released him and the family was then reunited.  She was saying how much her father loved his family and would do anything to protect them.  A couple years later missionaries knocked on their door and foerver changed their lives.  They baptized her father first even though he usually is really hard to get to since he is a politician.   That in and of itself was a miracle.  One by one each one of the children got baptized.  The dad tried so hard to convert the mom.  She was raised catholic but he finally got to her and was able to baptize her.   He loved his family and he loved the church.  

The sister from Chile knew at a young age that she had a testimony.  Unfortunatly her father left the church for an unknown reason and said he would tell her one day why he left the church.  To this day, she is still so grateful for her parents that joined the church and were such a good example.  Later on in life she had 4 kids and was not having a good relationahip with her husband and he basically  left her and she was all alone with her children.  She went on a drive and was crying and praying to ther heavenly father to help her and her kids so they would be able to have a better life than she did and have the things that she did not have.  This thing was the gospel.  She got out of her car and was just walking with her head down crying trying to find an answer from God and then looked up and write in front of her were 15 missionaries all with white shirts on.  She found her answer and from that day on she never left the church.  She literally ran to the missionaries and she was crying and so happy to see them.  They comforted her and made a circle around her and said a prayer with her.  This was such a spiritual moment for me and gave me a reassurance that the knowledge that Heavenly father answers our prayers is real and He loves us so much.  She remarried  and now has 5 children and they all have the gospel in their lives.  Her son is about to go a mission.  She knows that they are going to be valiant leaders of the church.  I was crying the whole time.  I thought of all of the experiences like that all through out the world and I can see the common denominator in each one of their happiness—it is the gospel.  It brings joy to our lives and eternal happiness if we abide by its principles.  Her new husband then bore his testimony in Spanish as someone translated.  He said that he loves his wife and Jesus Christ.  He told us how our number one calling in this life is to be good fathers and mothers.  I could just tell how amazing of parents they are.  They had a miracle baby together.  The doctors said that the baby was dead inside her stomach and there was no way it would survive.  The father then place his hands on his wife’s belly and gave her a blessing.  Her belly literally expanded and the baby was alive and well inside.  Every one was amazed and even the doctor.  The doctor said that their was a second physician and that was Jesus Christ.  This was  such a great miracle and testimony builder.  The lord is there.  I know I keep saying this, but there is no way that this church can not be true.  It is incredible to hear these stories and there are so many others that I haven’t even heard, but I am so grateful for them.  I love this church.  I am so blessed to have these experiences while I am in England.  I am getting so much out of everything and there is not one day that I take it for granted.

 

Earlier today at church I gave a lesson in Relief society and oh man was it an experience.  The lesson was on the conference talk by Robert D Hales entitled "Being Provident Providers both spiritually and temporally."  I was a little nervous to teach it since I don’t have a family yet and I knew these women have had so many experiences.  I started out by telling the story of the hurricane and how we were prepared spiritually.  We took on president hinkley’s challenge that year to reread the book of mormon and because of that and abiding by other principles of the church, we were blessed tremendously and many miracles were brought about.  The women loved this story and I didn’t mean for it to take as long as it did but they were aksing me questions about it and were enthralled.  I then opened it up for discussion and asked a couple of questions.  Let just say that the women have a lot to say.  Out of like 10 quotes that I had for us to read, we only got to about two of them.  Hands were being raised left and right and I tried controlling it.  It was hard and yet so entertaining.  One women was telling me about when she was living in Zimbabwe and the prophet told them to have food storage and sure enough I guess every thing got wiped out of there and so she lived on her food storage for two years with her husband.  There was one point where women started fighting because one African sister was saying some off the wall stuff and I could not understand a word she was saying and every one else did and started correcting her and I did not know what to do so finally I said for someone to read their quote. 

I noticed a difference in the different nationalities.  I noticed that the English women talk more about the news, and facts, and straight forward things,  whereas the African/Jamaican women talk about life experiences and love to tell stories.  They are usually some amazing stories but a lot of the times I am so confused why they say some of the things that they say because they have nothing to do with the lesson.  Hahaha Oh what a wonderful experience.  I felt like I was on a mission or something because I had never done anything like this.  It was so fun teaching them (even though I didn’t really get to teach much) and so funny when it turned into a discussion on the economy and financial stuff. 

 

Today in church I also gave an opening prayer and a sister that I just love came up and gave me the biggest hug.  It was so sweet.  The first counselor also got up today in the middle of the meeting and got a pillow for a pregnant lady in the ward.  I thought that was really sweet.  I noticed that the people her are very straight forward, blunt, and just say what they want to say. I could tell that the youth are so good here because the leaders are so good with them and are hard on them.  I like that.  The young men I could tell are going to be such great leaders one day.  I also got confused little Bradley’s name as Wesley, but he was still all smiles.  I love that kid.

This is me and Bradley, the bishop's son.  He is one of the sweetest kids you will ever meet.

Taking the train home from church with my ipod.

This is the building we meet at for church, an elementary school.  This is Coral and some of the primary kids after church.

This is where we have sacrament meeting...  The guy on the far left is getting baptized this week.