I was just sitting here thinking that I haven't told you a whole lot about
New England yet! This crazy place that I love so much! A lot of the homes here
are very old and were built in the 1800's if not earlier. Every one is very to
the point but have the best hearts. My trainer used to say, "When your in with a
new Englander, you are in!" Every one here is so giving! I have never eaten so
much cake and candy in my life! And we end up giving away about 80% of the
treats that are given to us:) Every one says, "I'm all set." Every little town
has a town center with a cute little post office and an old library built with
columns. The Ellington library used to have a cat that lived here and it would
just roam around. Our ring tone for text messages is a cat meowing so whenever
it goes off people look around thinking that maybe the Ellington library cat has
come back from the dead:) A lot of people here are actually hoarders:) haha So
you never know what you are getting yourself into. Everyone saves everything!
There are trees everywhere there is not a road or a house. There are very few
restaurants, fast food places, grocery stores or even businesses for that
matter. All in all this is a great place to live! Our mission president is just
about the most amazing man that I have ever met! We have interviews with him
this Thursday and I am so
excited:) I am just very grateful that he will be here my whole entire mission!
This week was fun of many tender mercies and surprises! Tariq and Taraja got baptized this Saturday! I have never seen them so happy:) And Taraja got her party! When ever we talked about the baptism she would say ya and we are going to have a party. We got to see them every day this week except for Tuesday which was fine by me, I just love them so much:) I am going to miss getting to see them so much. It is just fun to think of how different their life will be now. The storm on Tuesday was not to bad, we had to stay in on Tuesday night but the roads were pretty clear the next day. On Tuesday we met this 94 year old man that we are going to start teaching. His nephew just recently joined the church in Georgia and referred his Uncle to us. So we are going to bring him a large print book of Mormon. He is just about the cutest old man that i have ever met. And just like Grandpa he does not like you to leave:( Poor guy! But we are excited to get to start teaching him. We also met with Taylor who is a 15 year old girl. Her grandma is in the Hartford Spanish branch. She wants to be baptized so we are going to start teaching her the lessons. We met to meet her and her mom was very nervous but relaxed when she realized that we were normal people:) She said with tears in her eyes that she is looking for something new in her life and wants the feeling of all of her sins being taken away:) Her current husband and other daughters were very interested. So we are hoping to teach them as well as Taylor's other two cousins who are interested in being baptized as well! It never ceases to amaze me how well people have been prepared for the gospel. We have another new investigator who's name is James. He has done a lot of research on the church both good and bad and just wants to put it all behind him and really learn about the gospel. He described to us that something is pulling him towards the lds church and that he can feel the spirit of it. He said that when the sisters in the UK were testifying to him of the restoration of the gospel that he could sense that there was some power backing up her testimony and that he could feel the truth of what she was saying. We are reminded very often that we do not do this work alone. I know that this is the Lord's true church and that it is not missionaries who bring people to the Lord but rather the Lord through the missionaries. We were able to teach him about the Book of Mormon and that he can receive his own witness that it is true! The book of Mormon has been a big focus in our training lately and our President really wants to make sure that we are using the Book of Mormon more. It really is the most powerful took in the conversion of someones life.
I was reading in the book of Mormon this morning in Alma chapters 23 and 24 where the anti - nephi - lehites were converted. They said they would never use their swords again and recognized how this act of faith had brought them forgiveness of their past sins. When the lamanites were preparing for war against them they knew that if they used their swords again having promised what they did and knowing what they knew they could not have that same forgiveness, so they buried they weapons so they would not be tempted to use them and then knelt before their enemies while in the act of praising God at the very moment that they lost their lives. To me that shows true conversion. They had left their sins behind and would rather lose their lives then have to go back to their past sins. Kind of makes me wonder what more i could be giving up for my savior? Life sure is good! I just love the Book of Mormon!
Gary is meeting with us again, he feels like he is in the fog and just needs to find the faith to act on what he knows his true. Up until this point Don has said that he will never join the Mormon church but that he is willing to learn about it. The gospel principles class yesterday was incredible and he was asking all these questions and then figuring out the answers, and concepts he has struggled with forever are finally making sense to him. When we went to his home yesterday he looked at us and said so what does it take to be a Mormon any just be baptizes? We said yup want to be baptized and he said yeah but does that mean i have to give up beer and alcohol. So then he said jokingly forget about it. So now we got to work on the word of wisdom but we can work with that because he is beginning to see that this gospel is so true and that it all makes sense! Life is good. When Sister Barney got her 7 months ago the work was pretty dead. She is finally starting to see the fruits of her labors which is a blessing! We are excited for this next week and what it will bring! Life in the mbm mission sure is good! Our president sent us a letter today and reminded us that we are our investigators and less actives life line. And that the adversary works very hard on them and it is our job to protect them. Kind of a big job! But it was a good reminder to do everything we can to help them. It is also nice to know that when we do our best the Lord will make up for the rest. Life is good! I love you and hope that you all have a fantastic week!
Love Sister Abbey lou This week was fun of many tender mercies and surprises! Tariq and Taraja got baptized this Saturday! I have never seen them so happy:) And Taraja got her party! When ever we talked about the baptism she would say ya and we are going to have a party. We got to see them every day this week except for Tuesday which was fine by me, I just love them so much:) I am going to miss getting to see them so much. It is just fun to think of how different their life will be now. The storm on Tuesday was not to bad, we had to stay in on Tuesday night but the roads were pretty clear the next day. On Tuesday we met this 94 year old man that we are going to start teaching. His nephew just recently joined the church in Georgia and referred his Uncle to us. So we are going to bring him a large print book of Mormon. He is just about the cutest old man that i have ever met. And just like Grandpa he does not like you to leave:( Poor guy! But we are excited to get to start teaching him. We also met with Taylor who is a 15 year old girl. Her grandma is in the Hartford Spanish branch. She wants to be baptized so we are going to start teaching her the lessons. We met to meet her and her mom was very nervous but relaxed when she realized that we were normal people:) She said with tears in her eyes that she is looking for something new in her life and wants the feeling of all of her sins being taken away:) Her current husband and other daughters were very interested. So we are hoping to teach them as well as Taylor's other two cousins who are interested in being baptized as well! It never ceases to amaze me how well people have been prepared for the gospel. We have another new investigator who's name is James. He has done a lot of research on the church both good and bad and just wants to put it all behind him and really learn about the gospel. He described to us that something is pulling him towards the lds church and that he can feel the spirit of it. He said that when the sisters in the UK were testifying to him of the restoration of the gospel that he could sense that there was some power backing up her testimony and that he could feel the truth of what she was saying. We are reminded very often that we do not do this work alone. I know that this is the Lord's true church and that it is not missionaries who bring people to the Lord but rather the Lord through the missionaries. We were able to teach him about the Book of Mormon and that he can receive his own witness that it is true! The book of Mormon has been a big focus in our training lately and our President really wants to make sure that we are using the Book of Mormon more. It really is the most powerful took in the conversion of someones life.
I was reading in the book of Mormon this morning in Alma chapters 23 and 24 where the anti - nephi - lehites were converted. They said they would never use their swords again and recognized how this act of faith had brought them forgiveness of their past sins. When the lamanites were preparing for war against them they knew that if they used their swords again having promised what they did and knowing what they knew they could not have that same forgiveness, so they buried they weapons so they would not be tempted to use them and then knelt before their enemies while in the act of praising God at the very moment that they lost their lives. To me that shows true conversion. They had left their sins behind and would rather lose their lives then have to go back to their past sins. Kind of makes me wonder what more i could be giving up for my savior? Life sure is good! I just love the Book of Mormon!
Gary is meeting with us again, he feels like he is in the fog and just needs to find the faith to act on what he knows his true. Up until this point Don has said that he will never join the Mormon church but that he is willing to learn about it. The gospel principles class yesterday was incredible and he was asking all these questions and then figuring out the answers, and concepts he has struggled with forever are finally making sense to him. When we went to his home yesterday he looked at us and said so what does it take to be a Mormon any just be baptizes? We said yup want to be baptized and he said yeah but does that mean i have to give up beer and alcohol. So then he said jokingly forget about it. So now we got to work on the word of wisdom but we can work with that because he is beginning to see that this gospel is so true and that it all makes sense! Life is good. When Sister Barney got her 7 months ago the work was pretty dead. She is finally starting to see the fruits of her labors which is a blessing! We are excited for this next week and what it will bring! Life in the mbm mission sure is good! Our president sent us a letter today and reminded us that we are our investigators and less actives life line. And that the adversary works very hard on them and it is our job to protect them. Kind of a big job! But it was a good reminder to do everything we can to help them. It is also nice to know that when we do our best the Lord will make up for the rest. Life is good! I love you and hope that you all have a fantastic week!
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