Dear Family,
There are
TONS of JWs here. I met them lots and lots in Ilford. Did I ever tell
you about when the tracted into us during our studies? haha. We told
them who we were and tried to exchange materials and they sort of just
ran away. There kingdom hall was close to where we lived so we always
saw them. I don't see them as much in King's Lynn, but everyone always
thinks we are JWs. It's kind of frustrating sometimes. But it is
interesting when people rudely ask us if we are and then when we tell
them we aren't they are suddenly ok to talk with us. CofE doesn't
proselyte. Most CofE don't really even know details of what they
believe, it's purely a traditional thing for most and they just classify
themselves generally as Christians. And it's pretty common that they
only go to church for Christmas, Easter, Weddings, Funerals, and christenings.
Mum, sorry about not
translating my letters: a brollie is an umbrella. The rain left this
week. It has been SOOOO hot! Seriously. The humidity makes it feel like a
million degrees. We have gotten rain here and there which just makes it
even more humid. I don't like muggy weather. But atleast with the sun
out it means lots of people are out at parks. And we had a ward beach
party that was really fun. Except we got cursed with the plague whilst
we were there. It was pretty overcast and all the sudden all of us were
covered in these nasty little black bugs. Supposedly they are called
thunder bugs (they follow wherever there is thunder according to the
members). They were everywhere. All over our arms legs, clothes, in our
hair, ears. It was awful. I'm sure it was a hilarious site to see all of
us trying to get rid of these bugs.
This week has been much better than last. We are
really making efforts to be more consecrated and we are seeing great
results. Especially this last few days. We have seen so many miracles
and felt the spirit so much! It's the BEST!!!
Where to even start??
First, we have a LA we're working
with who is named JAcob. HE's 27 and the son of a really active member
who recently returned from serving a senior single sister mission (she
is divorced). A couple weeks ago he said he just had lost all interest
in finding out the truth and really finding out for himself if God is
there. We couldn't get him to pray ever, but he said he would read the
scriptures. We had given him just one verse to read and a whole week to
do it. He ended up reading the whole chapter twice! Then we felt
prompted to teach WOW which he struggles with but he was open to trying
to live it. His mum told us that the other day he went to get his car
MOT'd ( I think it's similar to a smog check?) and it failed and he was
really upset about it. He was so upset that he came home and... read the
scriptures!!! Wahoo. great progress. HIs brother and his brother's
family are coming to visit from America and we're hoping we can get him
to come to church with the whole family.
We have been doing quite a bit of finding. We did lots yesterday.
We were tracting on one side of the road and I saw a house on the other
side I thought we should try. The lady was definitely not interested,
but we just continued on that side of the road. At the next house we met
this wonderful teenage girl who is SO open to the gospel and we had a
great lesson with her. The only problem is she has two mums (civil
partnership). She asked us about it and we let her know God's views on
marriage, but with the spirit and love and she was open to it. She is
going to talk with her mum and step-mum about us coming to teach them
all. We are really hoping their hearts will be softened to atleast
letting her learn about the gospel. She is so great!
We also visited a recent convert family. They are from the
Dominican republic and been baptised for a couple months. Their grandma
just passed away and they have completely stopped coming to church. It
is a single mum and her three kids (2 daughters, 13 and 10 and 1 son,
4). The 10 year old is named Evelyn and she is so AMAZING!!! I love her
so much. She was outside playing when we came, but we were visiting
Justina first (they live right across from eachother). She was so happy
to see us and said she was so sad she couldn't go to church because her
mum wasn't going. She begged us to teach her. We taught Justina and then
headed to Evelyn's. She tried to get her mum and sister to come to the
lesson but they wouldn't. She said the opening prayer and she prayed
that her mum and sister would realise that they were making the wrong
choices. She really opened up to us about all her struggles. About how
her mum and sister don't want to go to church anymore and how her mum
struggles with paying tithing and how sad it makes her to see that. She
said she didn't know why she had to go to church every week but she just
knew it was the right thing to do. She is so sincere and loving. She
has such a strong spirit. She said her friends are starting to swear and
she doesn't want to be around that but they won't stop when she asked
and she's scared to not have any friends. She is sad so many of her
friends don't believe in God. She also was so confused about why God
took her Grandma away when she had prayed that He wouldn't. It was a
hard lesson to teach and to help a 10-year old understand these things. I
just was filled with so much love for her and for her faith. I admire
the youth of the church so much. They face so many hard things, but they
are SO strong. I hope to have faith as strong as Evelyn.
Then we stopped by a PI (potential investigator) from the Areabook
that was a referral from a member that past sisters had received. It was
a flat so we buzzed and a man answered. We asked for the woman and he
said she had moved and he had been living there for a month. We
explained who we were and asked if he had any religious beliefs. He said
"Actually I was going to ask you when you could come back and see me."
!!! He said we could come the next day. We are going to see him tonight! So cool. He sounded genuinely interested. We did a role-play for lesson 1 in Comp Study this morning
to teach him. WOW. The spirit was SO strong as we taught about Joseph
Smith. IT was the neatest experience and best role-play I think I've
ever done. It's amazing how the spirit will ALWAYS testify of truth,
even when we are just practicing teaching in our flat. We really hope we
can teach him even more powerfully with the spirit tonight!!
This is the BEST work ever!! I love you all!!!!!
Love,
Sister Davis xoxox
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