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This week has been great! Sister Hickman is amazing! She is from Blackfoot, Idaho and she has been out for 14 months. She is a great missionary and I am very excited to be her companion! We are determined together to be the best that we can be.
Bracknell is great... I already feel at home! This move (as always) was inspired and I am so excited to be here. Sister Hickman and I are getting along really well. We laugh a lot!! We already have great unity and I just love her. We currently have four baptismal dates and I am so excited to be working with these people on their journey to come unto Christ.
We are having a baptism this coming Saturday... His name is Vinayak and he is from India. He has been here for 2 months for his son's wedding and he goes home soon after his baptism. I am so excited for him! His English isn't great so we teach him with a translator (Elder Botcha from the London Mission). Elder Botcha's brother is serving his mission in India and he have just been transferred to Vinayak's home town... How crazy is that!?!??!?! Heavenly Father sure is hard at work!
We have members from the Reading Ward and the Oxford Ward helping out at the baptism who speak Hindi. Everything is working out just great.
We went to the Temple and Visitors Centre with him on Saturday and he loved it. The spirit was strong and we watched "Finding Faith in Christ", in Hindi... It was just what he needed!!
I saw Bishop Smith from Eastbourne at the Temple too. He is security there and he expressed how disappointed he was that I was transferred. It's nice to be loved!
We have Elders in our Ward... Elder Christenson and Elder Cooper. Elder Cooper is our District Leader and he moved into the area when I did. He seems pretty cool. Our District is just our two companionship's so that will be interesting as I have just come from a District of 5 companionships. Elder Christenson has just been out 4 1/2 months and he is crazy!!! He is 18 and he is from Utah. I'm sure we are going to laugh alot!!!!!! Probably at him!
Unfortunately Sister Hickman and I seem to have a little stomach bug thing going on! Not cool but we're hoping it will run it's course quickly. It hasn't stopped us thus far and we don't think it will. We have great plans for this week so it can't stop us!!! :)
Wednesday (Transfers) was cool... Clive our Ward Mission Leader from Eastbourne drove us to Crawley with the Elders where we met Sister Anderson and Sister Hickman. Sister Hickman and I got a train to Bracknell and Clive took the Eastbourne missionaries to the Temple for the day. Lucky them!!!! It's all good though as Sister Hickman and I had a chilled day once we got home! Some very kind members here picked us up from Bracknell train station and took us home which as very kind as my bags are getting heavier and heavier each move!
Apparently Reading Zone is a great place for P-days...
Next week 08/09 we are going to Windsor Castle with all of the Sisters (4 companionships) in the Zone (even though it's in the Staines Zone).
The week after 15/09 we are going to Highclere Castle, where Downton Abbey is filmed with the Elders.
Then the week after that 22/09 we are having a joint P-day with the Zone Leaders.
The week after 29/09 we're heading to Oxford with the Elders and meeting up with the Missionaries there for the day.
Then the following week it is transfers 08/10.
This transfer really is going to fly by!!!!!!!
Recently I have been thinking and studying a lot about Heavenly Father chastening and rebuking us. Trying to decipher when we are being chastened & rebuked and when we are being brought down by Satan. I have asked multiple Priesthood leaders to help me understand but none of them have really been able to give me a "good enough" answer. Finally I am getting somewhere!!!! It's not just a question of Heavenly Father or Satan... Heavenly Father chastens and rebukes us because he loves us. Then we have the natural man as a result of the fall "Suffer not yourself to be led away by any vain or foolish thing;" and then we have Satan "suffer not the devil to lead away your heart again after those wicked harlots." Alma 39:11. I think the ";" is key in this Scripture! Please let me know if I am wrong and if you have any other thoughts!!!!
Remember who you are!!!!
Love, Sister Smart
Just one of Sister Hickman and I!
Mark/Pete/Ian
ReplyDeleteAny takers for a comment on Jess's question???
Heavenly Father rebukes us so we can repent and grow in the right direction. Satan dwells upon the rebuking and the guilt we feel. He doesn't want us to grow, just wallow in the guilt and suffer further.
ReplyDeleteIts not about how many times we fall down or the need of but how many times we get back up and head in the right direction! It is means of re-aligning our will and our characteristics to that of saviours, so we can grow more to be like him, understand him and say we accept him on the last day. In the end from the means of realignment i like to call rebuking, we end up (hopefully) on the chosen path, the path that is following the footsteps he left for us in this life.
ReplyDeleteThere is a brilliant conference talk from Elder. T. Christofferson about he who i love i chasten or whatever, its brilliant and will shed better light than i could suggest!
Keep up the good work :)