Week Twenty Nine: "And my Father dwelt in a tent"

We "Heart Attacked" a members door.

This week I had two fervent prayers answered...First, my phone was found! YAY! Second, S. decided to continue learning about the gospel! We had a lesson about the restoration on Wednesday and it went so so well. Our ward mission leader and his wife came and really helped with a second witness of these truths. To make a great miracle even better, S. came to church on Sunday and wants to bring her son next week! She is so prepared to hear the gospel and I feel so blessed to be able to help her learn more. Our friend P. also came to church for his first time on Sunday. We have been teaching him for about a month now. Luckily the meeting topic was on service (easy to understand) and the Sunday School lesson was on The Tree of Life...which both S. and P. read this past week! It was wonderful.

Another side note...I took a break from writing this email to go teach S, and she accepted the invitation to be baptized!! I am so proud of her. She is planning to get baptized on Feburary 8th.

A dress Laura Pinnock sent Jane and I for our birthdays

This week we continued to teach our Persian friend P. English and more about that gospel. The Farsi speaking elders skyped in twice this week to help translate the lessons. It's incredible how technology can help futher this work! P. wants to know how to find more peace in her life and committed to read the Farsi copy of The Book of Mormon we gave her.

On a another note, P. always makes Sister Whitby and I laugh. She wanted to learn the sentence "I am trying to on a diet" and told us the hardest word she has learned so far is "parallelogram" (who taught her that?!)

HERE IS THE FIRST BLUE SKY WE HAVE SEEN IN WEEKS! JUST SOAKING IN THE SUNSHINE!!

On Friday we went to Zone Conference in Sheffield. In preparation, President Green had us read "In the Strength of the Lord," a 2001 BYU devotional given by Elder Bednar. If you haven't read this talk, PLEASE read it. It was one of the most moving talks I have ever read. Interestingly enough, this talk and our zone conference was centered around the enabling power of the atonement. This is a topic I have been studying over the past few weeks. One line in the talk reads, "The purpose of the gosepl is to make bad men good and good men better, and to change human nature." Bad men (sinners=all of us) can be made good through the redemptive power of Christ's atonement, and good men (those who have repented and continue trying) can be made even better through the enabling power of Christ's atonement.

Japanese food with district to celebrate three of our birthdays (The restaurant was called "Wagamama")

A few weeks ago my dad sent me a letter explaining the difference between kindness vs charity, knowledge vs wisdom, etc. As humans, we can be kind. We can gain knowledge. But the latter quality (charity, wisdom, etc) can only be developed through Christ. And I want to add to my dad's message by including, it is only through the ENABLING POWER of the atonement that we can develop true Christ-like qualities.

Chinese food at the Peggs after zone conference

Hanging at the Peggs

Elder Rosquivist and Elder Neck from Sweden and Wales (this was from our Birthday lunch)

I made an interesting discovery this week in my personal study. In 1 nephi 2:15 it reads, "And my Father dwelt in a tent." I remember when I started Seminary kids would pick that as their "favorite scripture" jokingly because it was so short and could be taken as seemingly insignificant at that age. However, this week I noticed something quite important about this statement. Lehi was dwelling in his tent when he received the vision of the tree of life (1 nephi 8). He was dwelling in a tent when he learned about the Savior coming to redeem his people (1 nephi 10:16). Lehi is "dwelling in his tent" when some of the most critical truths are revealed to him. How often do we take the time to "dwell" in a quiet place to converse with the Lord? Perhaps if we took more time to do so, could we learn important truths that could help us greatly in our lives?

I hope all is well in America, and that the weather us treating you a bit better than its treating us over here in Nottingham. Have a great week!

Sister Eliza Jones