Saturday, January 3, 2015

Love from Sam 3 January 2014

Fam bam! 

this week was excellent, and I  know I say this often, but it's probably been the fastest week of my mission! 

I'll start out with Simon- our progressing investigator, he will definitely be baptized next Saturday! we're really excited! He loves the church so much and is going to hopefully bring some friends with him eventually.  

Sunday I spoke at church, giving a talk on changing through the atonement of Jesus Christ. talked about how King Lamoni's father had to have real intent to change- he was willing to forsake his power, his kingdom, and all that he possessed just because he felt the possibility of there being a savior. Because of his real-intent, as he prayed he got an answer the first time, and he was a solid convert. 

On monday we met with our investigator Jane. She is in her 70's, and she is like a grandmother to us! she is so lovely, and she really likes the church so far, unfortunately she is a chain smoker, but that has never really been a big problem in the past for people who put their minds to quitting.  
For some reasons we're really getting lucky with the senior citizen's which is STRANGE. Another old black lady named pat has become one of our most solid investigators. She is from Jamaica and has lived here for 50 years. She loves the bible more than I've met anyone, so she's having a hard time accepting the book of mormon, but I'm sure all will work out.  

For New Year's Eve, we had to be in our flat at 6 because of all the parties, so Elder Lu and I made a chinese feast, and then spent the rest of the night deep-cleaning our flat. 

Thursday was one of my favorite days of my mission so far. I got to go on exchange with Elder Unice. We went to see my recent convert Ivy from Loughborough who they are now teaching and that was such a blast. Elder Unice told her we were coming at 1:30, and we didn't come until 5. She was excited to see me, and so she was waiting at the bottom of the flat complex (she lives on the 4th floor) for us to come. Right when she walked in the door she jumped into my arms and it was so good. If she was the only person I met my whole mission, it would have been worth 2 years of getting rejected all-day everyday. Thankfully it hasn't been like that :) She made us some really good chinese food like normal, and we got to catch up which was great, and then we taught her husband, Jeff.  He is struggling with the thought of god being real, but they are working through it, and I know that some day he will join the church.  Later that evening we did some street contacting, and then went around Birmingham City Center. Holy cow that place is MASSIVE!! It's the biggest city center I've been to in my life besides Time Square and Chicago.. but it's different, there is so much packed in a smaller place, and SO MANY PEOPLE EVERYWHERE. we stayed up until 3 or 4 just talking in our beds, catching up on the last year of our missions. What was so sweet about that exchange was that it was exactly a year ago that we were serving together, and it's been ridiculous to see how we've both changed and how fast the time has gone. 

We've seen some more miracles this week with finding new investigators. We were able to pick up a few new people in our teaching pool just from being prompted to stop and knock a door, or stop and drop by someone we know who had a friend around, and that's been a real testimony builder of how god knows exactly who and where his children are that are ready to listen to the gospel.  

I really love the church so much. It's crazy, the more I learn about it, the more I realize there's not enough time in a life-time to learn everything about the gospel. I can't wait to read and read and read when I get home! 

anyways, I love you all so much! I'm finally starting to love Wylde Green as a proselyting area, and I'm grateful for your prayers and thoughts. Have a great week!!

Elder Sam Harris. 

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