Week 22: I've been out for five months???

Okay so I honestly don't even know where to begin for this week but I'm gonna just write and see what happens. Good morning friends, family, beloved individuals, and welcome to the weekly braindump that is my email. (I've been hard-core cleaning today for the past 4 hours and I'm a little scattwrbrained ðŸ˜…)

This week was full of miracles. We were able to go walk around Exeter with the sister missionaries there and we split up and they went one direction and we went the other, both trying to find people who were interested in hearing what we had to say. We walked away and talked to everyone we could (and there was a lot of people) and after a freak hail/rainstorm, a few nice conversations and one atheist who still hasn't made up his mind but didn't want to meet up, we didn't find anybody. Which is alright! We carry on :-) but after meeting up with the sisters, we found out they found three! How cool is that? Miracles. 

The next big miracle was Tess and Mae. So a few weeks ago, Tess stopped us on the street in Exeter. We didn't know her at all but she was actually a Mormon and she had gone to church a lot in the Philippines but after moving to England with her husband and two daughters, she stopped going. When she saw us she stopped us and we got chatting. She didn't know about our local congregation and seemed excited about it. We set an appointment to meet up this past Saturday and talk more. So this past Saturday we are planning in the morning when she texts us and confirms with us! That never happens. We are always the ones confirming with other people. So before we even got there we were excited. We arrived and she and her husband fed us lunch, including this great filipino dish that included black pudding, pork belly, and lamb liver. It was phenomenal. We had a really good conversation with them about so many different things. One of those things was church. When we told her where we meet now (we changed locations in august), she immediately said she and her daughter (who is not a member but loves church) would be there the next day. We were so excited and left their house abuzz with hope and anticipation for the day to come. 

Sunday morning arrives. We had another friend who was supposed to come to church that we had confirmed with the night before that didn't answer our calls and knocks the next morning. That was a bit disappointing. We made our way to the village hall where we have church and helped set up chairs and greeted people before the service began, always eyeing the doorway to see if Tess and Mae would walk in. About two minutes before it was set to start, we still hasn't seen or heard anything from them so we took our seats. I sat there honestly really downtrodden because just a day prior, everything looked like it was going to work out. I felt a wave of tiredness hit me. You know when you work and work and work and then you look around you and you can't see any progress being made? That's how I felt. Just as it was about to overtake me, I saw Tess and Mae walk in the back of the room and sit down. Joy filled my heart to the brim and overflowed into the rest of my being. I haven't felt that happy in a long time. Even now it makes me smile. They both loved church and are going to be coming back every week now. We've even started teaching Mae, helping her prepare for baptism. She's a really good kid who's got a lot of love for her family and for God. It's humbling to be able to be an instrument in God's hands to help other people come closer to Him. Miracles I tell you. 

The rest of the week was full of laughs, tears, struggles, triumphs, dinner appointments with the best people ever (looking at you Sahin family, Brother Manners, the Smiths and many others), building another stone wall, and personal growth and learning. I'm loving my time here. Testifying to others of Christ is becoming second nature to me, regardless of how weird it may be when I approach them on the street. I love God. I love my Savior. I love that I get to help out other people everyday even if they don't want to listen to what I have to say. 

British Word of the week: indicator - turn signal 

British food of the week: so it's not a food but it's a cultural thing. Everybody warms their plates or bowl in the oven before serving up a meal. I don't know if it's a thing everywhere else and I'm just uncultured but hey I think it's pretty neat. 

Companion Comic: Elder Moorcroft drinks tea out of a large glass measuring cup. 

Scripture of the Week: Alma 37:46 - give a good read and if you want to why it's the one shoot me an email ;-)

MY BEST FRIEND MADE IT TO THE RICHMOND VIRGINIA MISSION SO IF YOU SEE ELDER JENNINGS IN CHARLOTTESVILLE tell him hello for me and give him a rousing hurrah 

I love you all. Thanks for your prayers, love and support. The emails, the letters, asking my family how I'm doing, everything. You all rock. Until next time,

Elder Finnegan McKinley
England London South Mission 




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