Past two weeks...yes I'm catching up

September 23, 2013
This week has been pretty great. We did 30 hours of finding, which was insane, but I'm enjoying it. It is something I want to get better at as well. it's hard to think of how to introduce yourself to people and make it genuine, especially when you really just want to have them open  their hearts to the gospel. I'm working on it though.  Today we are going to visit a lady who is a wedding planner and has teenagers. We gave her a For the Strength of Youth pamphlet last week and hopefully from that she sees how the gospel is such a great blessing. I'm praying that she will be home. So often we find incredible people, make appointments and then they "aren't home." It can be really discouraging. However, I did meet some pretty great people this week and I love the ward. The Stake President is in our ward as well.

Kirkstall Abbey

     President Pilkington and the Stake President, President Stewart, are really encouraging missionaries to build relationships with the members and never to ask for referrals, but to just get the members excited and involved in missionary work. this way, we love the members instead of annoy them. It is so hard sometimes (depending on the ward) because members feel like they are their own 'church' and the missionaries are their own. The greatest way for missionary work to progress is to work with the ward members.
     I didn't have any more crazy experiences like last week's but I still have good ones. Sister Jodicke and I were feeling discouraged last week, and so we prayed that there could be miracles and that we'd be happy and ready to work our hardest. After the prayer, we looked out the window and there was a full rainbow! So, naturally, we decided the end of the rainbow is where we'd go finding next. This is where the lady lives that we are meeting with today. :)
Love,
Sister Lybbert




September 30, 2013

Things this past week have been pretty good as far as the work goes. right now I can't really thing straight though, I have a terrible cold and it is not fun. I was also sick with a horrid stomach ache last Wednesday and had to take the whole day off.

Lewis, Natalie & Sis. Lybbert

     On Saturday, Tracy came out to work with us again. She's from Leeds and she knew Sister Jodicke when she was serving there so she likes to come help us out. We went finding and saw so many miracles that day. One of the miracles happened later that day when we were all exhausted and didn't know what to do next. I wasn't feeling too motivated and my head was hurting so I  was going to just settle for whatever Sister Jodicke and Tracy decided to do. Then, out of the blue, I had a burst of energy and motivation and I looked at Sister Jodicke and said, "We're going finding!" and off we went on the next bus heading to Haworth. We didn't know where we would get off, but relied on the Spirit. We got off, chose a street and went knocking. We were happy and even though people didn't really respond like we would have hoped, we kept going. We finished the street and then started walking to the bus stop. I felt we should knock one more house though. We went to a house, and it was impossible to get the gate opened, so we went to the house next to it. A lady answered and she was in the middle of baking. the miracle is that people usually pretend they're busy when they're not, but this lady was busy and she actually stopped to talk to us. She said she's been through some struggles and has been wondering if any body is allowed to attend our church services. We were thrilled at this, talked to her about the blessings of the gospel and she is now our new investigator! She's so darling. she's probably in her late 50's and her name is Amanda. :)
     Church yesterday was great. We focused quite a lot on missionary work because Priesthood and Relief Society were combined. I think we helped the members understand that missionary work doesn't have to be difficult, it's as simple as inviting someone over for dinner and letting them know you are a member of the church.
    I'm not sure what else to say other than I can't believe September is over. Time is flying and in two weeks from now, it's transfers again.
Love,
Sister Lybbert