I have learned a lot this week! This week we had our Christmas conference with the St. Albans zone at the St. Albans chapel, we had our ward Christmas party and a lesson over Skype on Saturday, and I gave a talk in church yesterday.
So the England London Mission has something called a GAP. This is a two minute role play we do with our companions four times a day, on one topic. At any district or zone meeting, and zone conferences with our mission president, someone is picked t
o do a GAP training in front of everyone. I have the curse for this because I have done the gap at every zone conference and almost every zone meeting since I have been in England. This curse comes from my trainer, Elder Seely. Hopefully this curse will be lifted in a few weeks when he gets home.
Zone conference was very good though. President and Sister Stevens have some very good insights and remarks on the Christmas season. The second half we just played games and ate.
The next day we had our ward Christmas party, which was such a success. We had food and games and lots of little kids running around screaming and making a mess. Felt like being back at home with our Christmas parties.
That night we were able to have a special lesson over Skype with one of our investigators named Doe. Doe works in Preston during the week and stays up there, which makes it hard for us to teach him obviously.
Luckily this is one of the missions with iPads', so Elder Parkin and I were able to teach him over Skype! We taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and all went smooth.
My assignment for my talk was simply "The Book of Mormon". As I pondered the direction to take my talk, I thought about how much of a gift the Book of Mormon is to us. Discovering the gift of the Book of Mormon comes first by studying and reading. Once we have studied and pondered the writings and teachings contained in the Book of Mormon, we can take Moroni's promise: "Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts. And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things." (Moroni 10:3-5)
I really loved this quote by Ezra Taft Benson on the Book of Mormon:
"It is not just that the Book of Mormon teaches us truth, though it indeed does that. It is not just that the Book of Mormon bears testimony of Christ, though it indeed does that, too. But there is something more. There is a power in the book which will begin to flow into your lives the moment you begin a serious study of the book. You will find greater power to resist temptation. You will find the power to avoid deception. You will find the power to stay on the strait and narrow path. The scriptures are called “the words of life” (D&C 84:85), and nowhere is that more true than it is of the Book of Mormon. When you begin to hunger and thirst after those words, you will find life in greater and greater abundance."
This week we have an exchange and I will be going to Northampton on Wednesday and Thursday, so that will be fun.
Merry Christmas!
-Elder Ammermon