Happy Fourth of July, everyone!
Ha ha, are you surprised that I remembered? Elder Dundee actually reminded me... This morning, during personal study he asked ''What day is this?'' I replied, looking at the calendar and completely missing the 'Independence Day' label: ''Its the fourth.'' ''Ah. Only ten more days, and then you can celebrate your counties day of Independence.'' (thats when it hit me.) ''Oh! HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY, ENGLAND!'' Ha ha my swedish companion is oh so funny :o) Make sure each of you remember me overseas, defending the freedoms of man on behalf of the Lord, as you light a firework today...
What a blessed week! We saw so many miracles! To start off, we went knocking in an area called 'Edenthorpe' an area which, according to the members, missionaries for years have tried and tried to find investigators from, but without any luck. Well, I tell you, Elder Dundee prayed one night, asking the Lord where we should go, and we felt Edenthorpe! Not only that, but we prayed about finding a specific street to knock, and I felt one street in specific, and Elder Dundee felt another. And so we went knocking! My street was first. (Keep in mind, Edenthorpe is a very very 'posh' area (the people are rich), and so it was already a little difficult) No luck, at all. Then we went to Elder Dundee's street. From the first sight of it, we could tell. It was one of those streets that is designated by the government to put old people in. In England, we call them Bungalow Estates. Now old people, especially in England, tend to be very stubborn, opinionated and VERY stuck in their ways. I knew this, and Elder Dundee knew this. Despite this difficulty, however, this presented a wonderful lesson on faith for Elder Dundee. Just before we started knocking, Elder Dundee suggested we go to another street that we had picked the night before as a backup, and knock there, hoping that we'd find residents that were maybe a few decades younger. But I suggested that we press on, having faith in the answer we recieved the night before. We knocked house after house, with a couple people shouting at us, a couple people scared of us, and one guy that... to be honest... kinda scared us. But all of the responses had been negative. Finally, after quite a while we got to a house and I said to myself ''Okay, this is the last one. After this, we'll try the other street.'' Lo, and behold, a first happened for both Elder Dundee and I. We were invited in! For me specifically, I have only seen successin knocking through getting return appointments (sarah, a baptism I had in Leeds 5 was found through knocking), never through being let in on the spot! We then met with Pat and Stan, a wife and husband in their 70s who have always been interested in religion, and have read a bit from the book of mormon about 20 years ago. Faith+Works=SUCCESS! Talk about a wonderful testimony builder for both of us :)
Also this week, we had the opportunity to seek out a member referral in a far-off area in Doncaster called ''Conisbrough''. Its so far, we literally had to catch a train to get there. On our way, however, we came across my very first real life Castle! The very castle, in fact, that Richard, Duke of York was born in! (If you know Shakespeare's histories, or the War of the Roses, then you'd probably know who that is) It was a magnificent, yet a run down old castle, that had a key point with the Mideval Crusades :) I'll include a picture.
Not only that, but we also had to hike through a forest in another area of Doncaster (its a VERY big town) and we kinda got lost... Dont worry though :) We found the street just in time to make our bus home for the night :) I'll include another picture :)
Im loving this work! Please pray for Oto, our 16 year old Slovakian investigator who is set to be baptised on the 16th. Thank you!
God Bless!
Love,
Elder Gabriel G. Spencer
Third Pic: Sanela's (less active from last week) last cigarrettes!
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