So this week has really been amazing, we now have an investigator with
a Baptismal date, he is called Akin, he is from Nigeria.
This week I have just developed so much as a missionary, I just begun
to feel so comfortable and have really settled into this work. The
members in this ward love me and can all say my name right! I have
developed so many great relationships with the members in Rochdale. I
can talk about all of the members in my ward with love and I know they
will support me with any decision we make as missionaries.
This week we also sat down with our Ward Mission Leader with the Ward
list and coloured in Active members, Less- Actives and Recent converts
and Auxiliary Leaders, we have brought the missionary work in the
Rochdale ward to a whole new standard. I am so grateful for the
efforts of members in this area, we have visited many less actives,
found on the ward list and we are seeing miracles as we start to work
with them.
In Rochdale you meet all different cultures, much like London, we see
many Portugese people, Polish people, you name it we have it. It is so
funny, I came to this mission expecting to talk english my whole time
here, now I am having almost whole conversations in Portugese, it is
amazing, I start a conversation in Portugese from someone that looks
like they come from Portugal and they reply back to me in Portugese
thinking that I really can speak their language.
We are still meeting many new different people and we are uniting with
members in this mission, our goal is to receive many refferals from
members because they immediately have a friend in the Church and they
are more likely to stay active in the Church because of that friend.
We are working on ways to develop that trust relationship with members
so that they can trust us to work with their friends and associates.
In my spare time I have been making these Mini thank you card out of
sticky notes and then dropping by members and sticking them on their
door.
I can only begin to imagine how refreshing that must be for some
members to come home after work, and see that their missionaries in
their ward care enough about them to stop by and thank them for coming
to church/ their efforts in missionary work, because of this we have
really changed Rochdale around with the lords help, it just seems that
we are travelling from one teaching appointment to the next, before we
had to find alot through our own efforts, but now we are blessed with
many investigators through members efforts.
We have seen so many miracles this week aswell, we told our
investigator Akin to bring a question to Church, he came to Church
with a situation in his mind that he wanted an answer to, he had
recently fallen out with a friend and wanted to know more about
repentance and forgiveness, during last Sundays gospel principles
lesson it was on Exaltation, what a topic. The teacher explained what
we need to do in order to be exalted, Akin was sitting next to Elder
Lintusaari and I, he was taking notes on the lesson and was listening
intently.
After Church Akin shared that he got his question answered, he had
received guidance on how to deal with that situation, Repentance and
Forgiving others is necessary for Exaltation so Akin heeded that
council and told us that he will apply that in his life. I am so
grateful for the inspired lessons in Gospel principles and I know that
he was able to receive guidance from Heavenly Father about what he
should do.
On Saturday morning we got a call from a member of the Bishopric
telling us that we needed to give a 20 minutes talk on the following
day, Elder Lintusaari and I were flustered because of the short notice
and because we weren't given a topic to work with, I didn't know what
I should talk about. Heavenly Father however did know what I should
talk about, before my mission I would have struggled to fill a 20
minute talk, but I can tell you that yesterday (Sunday) I gave one of
the best talks I have ever given in my life, about missionary work and
families.
I shared many personal experinces, and it was a great talk. The ward
Organist wasn't present so I also played the music for sacrament and
for a musical item. They have probably never seen a missionary give a
talk and play the organ in the same meeting yet, I am so grateful for
these opportunities I have to serve the people in Rochdale.
Thank you for all your prayers and letters, just a note I will be
receiving a months worth of letters tommorow so if you haven't had a
reply yet it's only because I haven't got your letter yet, so expect a
reply soon!
Love,
Elder Sapaden.
No comments:
Post a Comment