Week one of transfer two is done in the blink of an eye. I can't believe it's already been two months as well! It feels like yesterday that the group of us was sitting in the airport waiting to come over to England, and now it's already been two months. So what we're the highlights of this week? I gave my first training in district meeting on the importance of bearing testimony often, we met "John the revelator", and we had a great time at the ward barbecue with a miracle just before.
On Thursday (7/22/15), as we were talking with people in Braintree town centre, I stopped this older gentleman by the name of John. The experience we had was actually pretty remarkable and I wrote a new journal entry on it. Here is what I wrote minutes after talking with him:
"So this morning Elder Seely and I met this guy named John in town centre. We said hello and he immediately reached out and shook my hand with both of his. John was very soft spoken. He said he had just got back from Salt Lake City. He asked us how long we have been out, and then started talking about how we are sowing seeds. He said that the seeds we are sowing we may not see grow, but they will. He also said that we won't see him again on this side of eternity. He then quoted James 1:5 which is the verse Joseph Smith first read that says "if he lack wisdom, let him ask of God".He then asked us what we prayed for this morning, and Elder Seely went first, then me, in answering him. He gave us council/ advice on what we should pray for, and this is what he said: 1. Pray for the armour of God, 2. Pray for daily repentance, 3. Pray for wisdom, and 4. try to say two things we are thankful for, for every one thing we ask, just as a way of reminding ourselves how many blessings we get. He then asked us to say a prayer, we did, and he said one for us too, specifically praying for "Elder Ammermon" and "Elder Seely", and asked that the seeds we are planting may grow. This whole situation left me dumbfounded. Who was this? Was this just some good Christian man that is spiritually in tune, or something more?"
The conversation really did leave me feeling perplexed. He did give some great advice, and also referenced James 1:5, parable of the sower from the New Testament, and also Ephesians 6 on the armour of God. Funny thing is, just the night before we had a good conversation about the armour of God with Fiona, a recent convert. The next day we decided to go to a Bible study/ prayer meeting a local church in Braintree, where thy happened to be studying Ephesians 6 and the armour of God that week, and we finally heard it again in a wonderful talk given in church on Sunday given by brother Brooks.
I think this was our way of learning that we really need the armour of God. In this mortal world we are constantly bombarded with evil temptations, but luckily each of us can choose to put on the armour of God, which is described in Ephesians 6.
We also had a church barbecue on Saturday, and Elder Seely and I decided to go an hour early with the specific goal to find one person on the street to bring to the barbecue. We talked with EVERYONE that we went by. We got the usual "I'm not interested", and our favourite is when people completely ignore us. We get it all. We wound up on a bike path behind our church building that put us south of the building. As we walked back up, we met Bernadette. She is visiting from Ireland for two weeks. We asked her if she had seen our chapel, and she said she did and was actually wondering what was inside! We took her on a tour of the chapel and she loved the art work inside, and she said she felt really peaceful inside. We could feel it too. Unfortunately she couldn't stay for the barbecue, but we are meeting with her again on Wednesday to share more. Even though she is only here for two weeks, we hope to plant a strong seed and send a good referral to the missionaries in her area in Ireland.
Miracles are real and happen every day, we just need to slow down sometimes, stop to smell the roses, and look at all we are given. You will be amazed at what you see. We can all be sowers of good seeds; you don't need to be a full time missionary, or even a church member to do so. There are good people everywhere in all faiths, and sowing seeds can simply be a nice "hello" to someone.
Cheers until next time!
Elder Ammermon