SMALL WORLD!

This is a photo of the Mark Reed family with Holly and her companion in Limerick Ireland.  The picture was posted on Holly's mom's mission alumni site.  Turns out Mark Reed served in the same mission (South Africa Capetown) at about the same time as Holly's Mom! 

Feed My Sheep

My favorite thing that I studied this week was John 21.  Man I love that chapter!  In the MTC we watched a devotional by Elder Holland called "Feed My Sheep" it was amazing!  He talked about John 21.  This is after Christ was resurrected.  Peter and the other apostles didn't really know what to do because He was gone, so they did what they knew how to do, which was fish.  They went fishing and caught nothing.  They saw a figure in the distance on the shore (it's Christ but they didn't know that).  He asked them how the fishing was going, and they said it wasn't so great.  He told them to cast it on the right side.  They did and they caught so much fish they couldn't reel it in.  It was then that they realized it was Christ and sweet Peter :) just bailed over the side of the boat to get to Him.  When Peter got there Christ asked him, "Do you love me?  Do you love me more than the fish and the boats and your nets?"  And Peter answered, "Yes, of course I love you."  Christ asked him this again and even a third time.  And each time Peter answered, yes I love you Lord.  And Christ said, "Then feed my sheep."  It was so powerful as Elder Holland told the story.  These were his words, "When I asked you to leave your nets, it was FOREVER.  When I asked you to be a missionary-it was FOREVER.  The issue of time and eternity is 'do I love Him'?  And if I do then I must feed his sheep, and do it FOREVER.  The past is over, it will never be the same.  You are in this until the end and if you do go back you will break my (elder Holland's) heart and the heart of God Himself.  Our course must be true.  We have left our nets and we can't go back." 

Holy moly it was so powerful when we listened to that in the MTC.  I hope it made sense, probably not. :) But I studied it again this week because I mentioned it in my talk (I gave a talk yesterday).  "Do I love Him"?  That is the question.  And I do!  I'm gonna leave my 'nets' and never go back.  :)  You too?

February 20, 2012

Everything is going well here.  I'm still trying to get used to everything, but we're settling in.  Limerick is a really great place-we live right in the middle of the city, so it's a little crazy sometimes.  We have funny experiences everyday.  Like, a couple of nine year old girls were making fun of our outfits (yes, I know I look frumpy, I just don't care ha).  Annnnd...last night I was freaking myself out when we were knocking doors.  We stood outside of one door for a while, until we realized a creepy old lady was staring at us through the window.  I booked it. ha. 
Anyway, we have a pretty big area to cover and like I said before, we're opening up the area so basically all we do is try and find people all day.  I've only taught 2 lessons, so we sometimes get frustrated because we can't see the immediate success of our work.  We do have one new investigator!  He is probably 70 something. ha But everybody needs to be baptized, right?  I can see him in white. haha
His name is Patty and we met him on the street.  He's divorced and doesn't really talk to any of his kids.  I think he's pretty lonely, but he's great!  We taught him The Restoration and he's been reading the Book of Mormon and praying.  He's Roman Catholic and told us it's been that way too long to change. ha We'll see about that. We have a couple of other potential investigator's, but we'll see.  I know somebody here in Limerick is ready!  Pray for them and for us

February 13, 2012

Top o' da mornin to ye! haha Yep you guessed it-I'm in Ireland!  Ok!  So on Wednesday I took a bus to Scotland (Edinburgh) and met President and Sister Griffiths and all of the trainers.  Everybody is great!  We (all of the missionaries that came from the MTC) all had a deer in the headlight look the whole day.  The very first thing we did was climb Pratt's Hill or Arthur's Seat.  It was sunny!  It was a good hike, but the MTC made me kind of plump haha so they had to carry me to the top. (just kiddin.  or am I?)  It was so beautiful!  Sooo....my trainer...her name is Sister Fisher!!!  She is from Long Beach and has been out for 16 months, so I guess I'll be killing her off.  She is great-she is a reaaaaallllly good missionary!  I'm excited to learn a lot from her.  I feel inadequate most of the time, so hopefully she'll be patient with me. :)

We are in Limerick, Ireland!!!!  It took us a few days to travel down here.  We are opening a new area, so basically we're starting from scratch. 

Anyway, I'll just share a little experience.  Prayer and personal revelation are so important (and I'm really trying to become better at both).  For the last couple of days I've just been pretty overwhelmed and wondering "what am I doing here!  Send me back to the MTC!".  Yesterday morning after I finished personal study I was praying, just pleading with Heavenly Father to help me find the reason I was here and to help me, and I just opened my eyes and saw the picture of Christ that mom sent me (my very favorite) and the thought came to my head "He's the reason".  :)  He's too good to us sometimes. 

February 7, 2012

So I only have about 3 or 4 minutes to write today. :(  Today is my LAST day in the MTC.  That's soooo crazy!!  Tomorrow morning I'll be on a bus to Scotland.  I'll be honest though, I'm really scared. haha I have loved the MTC so much and have learned so much while I've been here, I'm really sad to leave.  I could just stay here for 18 months and be happy. haha No, I'm really excited to get to Scotland and do what I came to do.  (but I'm still scared to death) :)  I wish I could tell you all of my stories from this week..which include standing in the middle of a park in Manchester, praying with a pigeon lady, while literally hundreds of pigeons flew around me and crawled all over my feet. hahaha.  I'm pretty sure I have some sort of disease now.  But that's ok.  I feel like I've had to be broken down and I'm being rebuilt the way Heavenly Father always wanted me to be.  I have a looooong way to go.  Just know that I know this gospel is TRUE!  God is our Heavenly Father and loves us so much!  Jesus is our Savior and has done so much for us.  I love Him with all my heart.  And I love you all too!  I don't know when my next p-day is....but I'll talk to you soon!!!

January 31, 2012

January 31, 2012.  So last Friday we went "finding".  Allow me to explain...we all packed our bags with Book of Mormons (books of mormon or whatever it is ha), and pamphlets, and pass along cards, and we took a train to Manchester!  It was a real slap in the face and I kept thinking, "What did I get myself into?" haha.  First of all, it was POURING rain, and FREEZING cold, and really windy.  But it's ok, we didn't mind that at all.  So, after we got off the train they kicked us out and said, "Go talk to people...go do your job." haha And we're just like, "uhhhh....ok".  So, Sister Howell and I went out trying to find and talk to people.  It was hard at first, but got easier.  Most people didn't want to listen, some talked for a couple of minutes, and a lot of people just avoided eye contact and walked waaaaay around us. :)  After we got home that night we were all in our room and we just thought, "how did we do that??"  I have no idea how I (me-a little homebody hermit hahaha) walked the streets of Manchester, England stopping random strangers to talk about God, and The Book of Mormon, and Joseph Smith. haha Oh wait I do know...it was the Lord. :)  I could not have done that without Him. 

On Sunday morning President Walker and his wife took us on a tour of some church history sites.  I thought dad would have loved it. haha  We walked around Preston and took a bus to another little village about 45 minutes away.  We saw the place where Heber C. Kimball used to preach and where he lived.  We saw where the first baptism was done on this continent.  (that's a cool story, but no time to tell sorry!)  We also saw where President Hinckley lived for a few months of his mission.  It was so sweet to hear Sister Walker tell the story about her dad sending the letter home to his dad saying that he thought he should come home-and he got the reply "forget yourself, and go to work".  She doesn't get emotional very often, but she did when she told that story. :)  I'm really trying to do that, forget myself.  I decided I like it better that way. :)

England MTC

(January 19th, 2012)  I just arrived at the MTC about 30 minutes ago.  Life definitley isn't real. haha  I met like 14 other missionaries at the SLC airport.  Most of them going to SCOTLAND/IRELAND and then a few going to missions in England.  Everybody is really great!  I've been good.  I'm doing a lot better than I expected.  After the first tearful moments were over a really nice lady in front us tried to talk to Elder Johnson and I to distract us. ha The flight to Paris was stinking long, and I didn't sleep very much, so we are all kind of lacking in sleep right now.  We sat in the Paris airport for 3 hours.  Did I see the Eiffel Tower?  Negatory. :)  The flight from Paris to Manchester was not long, but was ROUGH!  I almost threw up, literally.  I was praying like mad. ha.  I decided I don't really like flying.  Excpet for the take-off---that's a rush.  :)  On the plus side-I sat by a lady from France who only knew a little English.  And I used all my French on her.  :)  She asked me about plural marriage because a couple of 'mormons' live in her city.  I'm sure she didn't understand a word I said. 

We got off in Manchester and took a bus to the MTC.  Everybody drives on the wrong side of the road and they have SWEET accents.  The MTC is really nice!  I should probably go...but I'm doing good..I have a feeling it will get harder.  But that's how it goes.