Snapshot of Our Week
Each week seems so busy and getting busier but we are happy to be serving here in this beautiful land with these beautiful people. We covered a lot of ground this week: going to a wonderful new convert baptism in Gateshead on Tuesday (Heather played the organ for this); teaching and cooking for institute classes on Wednesday and Thursday; driving down to Leeds on Thursday to deliver missionaries who were transferring (4 hours round-trip); driving down to the temple on Friday (6 hours round trip) to be with Ben Lowerson (one of our amazing recent YSA converts) who was meeting up with a new convert from Poland who wanted to go to the Preston temple; being the photographer for the Sunderland Stake '80's roller derby activity on Saturday; and then teaching the Gospel Doctrine lesson on Sunday and singing in the ward choir. There are so many wonderful and varied opportunities where we can serve and we love being busy! Plenty of opportunities for senior missionaries!
Our Divine Nature and Destiny
There were many highlights this week, but we loved teaching the doctrine of our divine nature and destiny in our institute classes. This is clearly one of the most important messages we will teach this year... that we are sons and daughters of God with a divine nature and destiny. The Bible is so clear on this doctrine, how can many in the world be so confused?
Acts 17
28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. 29 Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.
Hebrews 12
9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
1 John 3
2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
Genesis 1
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf said:
"We are created by the Almighty God. He is our Heavenly Father. We are literally His spirit children. We are made of supernal material most precious and highly refined, and thus we carry within ourselves the substance of divinity.
Here on earth, however, our thoughts and actions become encumbered with that which is corrupt, unholy, and impure. The dust and filth of the world stain our souls, making it difficult to recognize and remember our birthright and purpose. But all this cannot change who we truly are. The fundamental divinity of our nature remains."
(“ He Will Place You on His Shoulders and Carry You Home”, Dieter F. Uchtdorf), Ensign or Liahona, May 2016, 104)
Mila (Two Years Old) Sings for Institute Class and Inspires an Analogy for our Lesson
Like singing…maybe we don’t know all the details of Our heavenly Father’s plan for us … like not knowing the words to a song… but we know and recognize the melody, like feeling His Spirit and moving forward with the feelings and knowledge that he is directing us… who would criticize a child for trying to sing a song without knowing the words, like a toddler trying to walk and frequently stumbling and falling. This is like us, we recognize the melody (the Spirit) but we don't know all the words (His plans for us) but we know the melody feels good and rely on our knowledge of the melody to lead us forward until we can learn the words.
At the temple with Hania Gajewska and Ben Lowerson
She went on a journey of 2,500 miles in search of a copy of the Book of Mormon. How many of us are so committed to read the Book of Mormon that we would travel so far to obtain the truths contained in this amazing book. She just wanted to get a copy of the Book of Mormon to read it without talking to anyone from the church. She ordered it on EBAY for $50 but it never came.
In an effort to find one, she then got on the train, traveling to other cities, and ended up traveling over 2,500 miles but still did not find one. She traveled from her home in Poland to Warsaw, then to Bulgaria, then to Romania then home again but did not find one in all those miles. So she finally relented and called the mission office in Warsaw-- they said there were sister missionaries just 10 minutes from her home who could bring her one. Message: go to the source and receive.
Meet Hania Gajewska. She had been proselytized to the Fundamentalist church and was planning to be baptized in that church, but something didn't seem right. She had not learned of the complete history and context of the succession of the leadership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-days Saints after the prophet Joseph Smith was killed. She hoped reading the Book of Mormon would fill this knowledge gap for her.
At about this time, she traveled to Manchester, England to visit her aunt and then learned that the Preston, England temple was just 30-45 minutes away from where she was. She traveled to the temple but it was not open. She walked around the temple and spent a whole afternoon on the temple grounds and there received a powerful witness of the truthfulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as she walked around the grounds of the Preston Temple.
The rest is history. She was able to meet with the sisters missionaries finally in her home town and they shared with her a copy of the Book of Mormon and the history of the Restoration. She joined the Church in her home town in Poland in August. She speaks Dutch, Polish, and English and is now anxious to serve a mission!
Within a month of her joining the church she traveled to the Temple in Freiburg, Germany to do baptisms. She then traveled to England to meet Ben from our stake YSA group, who had befriended her on-line and helped her to learn the truths of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. He was present for several of her lessons via Zoom as she was taught in Poland by the sister missionaries. Ben invited us to accompany him to the Preston temple where he was to meet her in person for the first time. We enjoyed being in the temple with Hania and Ben doing baptisms and confirmations. Hania was SO EXCITED to finally enter the Preston Temple after her strong revelation about the truthfulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ while on the temple grounds earlier in August.
Another surprise came while in the temple baptistry in the Preston temple-- there she met the uncle of the missionary who had confirmed her in Poland and who is still serving in the Warsaw, Poland mission. It was a sweet moment for her to make this connection while she was visiting her beloved Preston Temple.
Mary Poppins Sighting
We were so impressed with this English woman riding her bike, complete with flowers around the front basket, that we were convinced she must be Mary Poppins.
Egglestone Abbey
Egglestone was a Premonstratensian house founded around 1185. Premonstratensian monasteries were made up of canons (ordained priests) who served the spiritual needs of nearby communities. In 1535, Egglestone Abbey was the poorest of these institutions in all of England. It was closed on 5 January 1540, and the abbot and eight canons were pensioned off. In the 1700s the east part of the complex was used as cottages until new farm buildings were built nearby. It was abandoned in the late 1800s, and in 1925 the remains were placed in the guardianship of the state. Pictured here are the remains of this once great complex, that sits just outside Newcastle not far from the Barnard Castle.
The 80's Disco Roller Derby Stake Activity and one legged roller blader
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