Hello!
Where to begin?! This week has been crazy! We've had all sorts going on!
First of all, Monday. Well, Monday didn't go as planned. We basically got to email, grocery shop and yep that was it. We were emailing for aaages! We were going to go and play at the park too, but it started to rain and so we were like... Uh... No! Hahah
So every Monday we hold family home evening at the chapel for investigators, recent converts, less actives etc and we rotate with the elders as to who will be teaching. This week it was supposed to be the elders turn. You can probably guess where this is going. About 5 minutes before FHE was supposed to start, we get a phone call from the Elders saying they weren't coming and they need us to help them out with the lesson. Thankfully we are amazing and we pulled a lesson together super quick but we were not happy with the elders. They were in so much trouble! Haha :) but it all worked out just wonderfully :)
Tuesday. Again, not completely according to plan. We had a lesson with 2 recent converts in the morning. The woman has a little girl who is about 18 months and I was basically the baby sitter. I was the one keeping her occupied as my wonderful companions took control of the lesson. It is usually just a discussion that Samuel leads anyway.
After lunch, the Sister Training Leaders came over for a workover. It was awesome. Sister Pickett went with Sister Woolsey and Sister Frandsen to teach a lesson and I went with Sister Stone to do some finding. We spent most of the time talking and it was perfect. She's
amazing and I just love her so much. She really got me thinking and I was able to go home that evening and come up with a plan to get myself motivated and back into Sister Gaffney mode. It was a really good day :)
Wednesday was a good day! We taught 5 lessons and got 2 new investigators! It made us so happy! It was a really good day. And we had some stuff that we had to get ready for the mission conference so we went home for dinner and got all sorted for Thursday.
Well I guess I'll tell you all about Thursday now... I know that's what you really want to hear about. It all started at 6am when we rolled out of bed to get ready for the day ahead. We rushed out to the bus and waited for the Elders at the train station for about 45 minutes because we were super early out of fear of being late. Then we trained over to Solihull with the Woodsetton elders and the Redditch elders. Fun times! When we arrived, we were greeted by President and were then rushed through to put our bags down and then into the chapel where we took our seats ready to study in wait of our Special Guests. As the time was getting closer, President announced that they were going to be late. So after about an hour of everyone study's, we started to get a little fidgety and we were all rather excited about the fact that everyone was here! Then about 45 minutes late, everyone in the room stood up. We were joined by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, Elder Teixiera, Elder Kearon and Elder Herbertson. We had a mission photo with them and then we got the opportunity to shake their hands. We were asked to say our names and where we were from. It was awesome! Me and Sister Woolsey were so nervous. We were near the back of the
room and by the time it was our turn, I was literally shaking. I don't know why, it was so cool!
First we got to hear from Sister Teixiera. The main thing that I got out of her talk was: "God is making something divine out of all of us" Then we got to hear from Elder Kearon. It was so cool hearing from a fellow Brit! I learnt from him that I needed to be ready to act on the
promptings that I receive in all our training, specifically the mission conference.
After that, was Elder Teixiera. His talk was awesome too! I think the main thing that I got from his talk was: "The Lord can do all things, let Him help you."
The final speaker of the conference was, obviously, Elder Holland. I could go on for hours about what I learnt from Elder Holland. When he started though, he confirmed mine and Sister Woolsey's fear. He said about shaking our hands: "I just looked into your eyes and stared into your soul." Do you know how terrifying it is to hear that from an Apostle. Yeah man!
So I took loads of notes from Elder Holland's talk, and I am looking through and trying to think what to share with you all. He really stressed about not missing a moment of our missions, about living every second of it to the fullest. And then he told us very clearly
that we are not to go less active! He said it in about 5 different ways and it was a little bit scary. Actually a lot scary. He said if we see him in the street, cross over and walk on the other side or it's not too good for us. He was really funny about it, but we knew just how serious he was. He also said that his mission meant more to him than anyone else's mission means to them and if we want to disagree, then he'll take us on in the parking lot! Like I said, he's really funny!
The great thing was when he said that he is so glad that he doesn't have to do an obedience talk with the mission, he gets to do something that he doesn't usually get to do and talk on a higher level with our mission. He just said "just be obedient!" Then moved on. He spoke with us about The Atonement. It was amazing. I wish I could tell you everything that he said and everything that I wrote down but this email would be three times as long and it's already super long! I'll just share with you a couple of things that he said.
"The road to Salvation goes through Gethsemane. And we have to go in, just a little bit, not all the way, but a little bit." "There's no such thing as Cheap Grace." (This is my favourite one) "This is the Church of Happy Endings." When we get to the other side, "The Saviour will ask us what we did with His name." And we have to stand accountable.
It was truly an incredible experience! I am so grateful that I was able to be in this mission, at this time, to receive such incredible, undoubtable answers to my prayers! Elder Holland truly is an Apostle of the Lord and just being in the same room as him brought such an special spirit that I have never felt before in my life. I love my mission and the amazing experiences and blessings that I have received in this last 11 months.
I know, without a doubt that this Gospel is true, that it was restored through Joseph Smith. God's priesthood power is here on the earth and because of that, we have men called by God to receive divine revelation for the Children of God.
I love you all and I hope to have many more amazing things to share with you next week!
Remember: "Salvation is not a cheap experience."
Love
Sister Gaffney
Xxxxxxx
Photos -
-My Baby Girl!
-Alvin and the Chipmunks
-Elder Russell!
-I freakin love Sister Silsby
-but not as much as I love this Clown! Best friends! Elder Bos!
Where to begin?! This week has been crazy! We've had all sorts going on!
First of all, Monday. Well, Monday didn't go as planned. We basically got to email, grocery shop and yep that was it. We were emailing for aaages! We were going to go and play at the park too, but it started to rain and so we were like... Uh... No! Hahah
So every Monday we hold family home evening at the chapel for investigators, recent converts, less actives etc and we rotate with the elders as to who will be teaching. This week it was supposed to be the elders turn. You can probably guess where this is going. About 5 minutes before FHE was supposed to start, we get a phone call from the Elders saying they weren't coming and they need us to help them out with the lesson. Thankfully we are amazing and we pulled a lesson together super quick but we were not happy with the elders. They were in so much trouble! Haha :) but it all worked out just wonderfully :)
Tuesday. Again, not completely according to plan. We had a lesson with 2 recent converts in the morning. The woman has a little girl who is about 18 months and I was basically the baby sitter. I was the one keeping her occupied as my wonderful companions took control of the lesson. It is usually just a discussion that Samuel leads anyway.
After lunch, the Sister Training Leaders came over for a workover. It was awesome. Sister Pickett went with Sister Woolsey and Sister Frandsen to teach a lesson and I went with Sister Stone to do some finding. We spent most of the time talking and it was perfect. She's
amazing and I just love her so much. She really got me thinking and I was able to go home that evening and come up with a plan to get myself motivated and back into Sister Gaffney mode. It was a really good day :)
Wednesday was a good day! We taught 5 lessons and got 2 new investigators! It made us so happy! It was a really good day. And we had some stuff that we had to get ready for the mission conference so we went home for dinner and got all sorted for Thursday.
Well I guess I'll tell you all about Thursday now... I know that's what you really want to hear about. It all started at 6am when we rolled out of bed to get ready for the day ahead. We rushed out to the bus and waited for the Elders at the train station for about 45 minutes because we were super early out of fear of being late. Then we trained over to Solihull with the Woodsetton elders and the Redditch elders. Fun times! When we arrived, we were greeted by President and were then rushed through to put our bags down and then into the chapel where we took our seats ready to study in wait of our Special Guests. As the time was getting closer, President announced that they were going to be late. So after about an hour of everyone study's, we started to get a little fidgety and we were all rather excited about the fact that everyone was here! Then about 45 minutes late, everyone in the room stood up. We were joined by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, Elder Teixiera, Elder Kearon and Elder Herbertson. We had a mission photo with them and then we got the opportunity to shake their hands. We were asked to say our names and where we were from. It was awesome! Me and Sister Woolsey were so nervous. We were near the back of the
room and by the time it was our turn, I was literally shaking. I don't know why, it was so cool!
First we got to hear from Sister Teixiera. The main thing that I got out of her talk was: "God is making something divine out of all of us" Then we got to hear from Elder Kearon. It was so cool hearing from a fellow Brit! I learnt from him that I needed to be ready to act on the
promptings that I receive in all our training, specifically the mission conference.
After that, was Elder Teixiera. His talk was awesome too! I think the main thing that I got from his talk was: "The Lord can do all things, let Him help you."
The final speaker of the conference was, obviously, Elder Holland. I could go on for hours about what I learnt from Elder Holland. When he started though, he confirmed mine and Sister Woolsey's fear. He said about shaking our hands: "I just looked into your eyes and stared into your soul." Do you know how terrifying it is to hear that from an Apostle. Yeah man!
So I took loads of notes from Elder Holland's talk, and I am looking through and trying to think what to share with you all. He really stressed about not missing a moment of our missions, about living every second of it to the fullest. And then he told us very clearly
that we are not to go less active! He said it in about 5 different ways and it was a little bit scary. Actually a lot scary. He said if we see him in the street, cross over and walk on the other side or it's not too good for us. He was really funny about it, but we knew just how serious he was. He also said that his mission meant more to him than anyone else's mission means to them and if we want to disagree, then he'll take us on in the parking lot! Like I said, he's really funny!
The great thing was when he said that he is so glad that he doesn't have to do an obedience talk with the mission, he gets to do something that he doesn't usually get to do and talk on a higher level with our mission. He just said "just be obedient!" Then moved on. He spoke with us about The Atonement. It was amazing. I wish I could tell you everything that he said and everything that I wrote down but this email would be three times as long and it's already super long! I'll just share with you a couple of things that he said.
"The road to Salvation goes through Gethsemane. And we have to go in, just a little bit, not all the way, but a little bit." "There's no such thing as Cheap Grace." (This is my favourite one) "This is the Church of Happy Endings." When we get to the other side, "The Saviour will ask us what we did with His name." And we have to stand accountable.
It was truly an incredible experience! I am so grateful that I was able to be in this mission, at this time, to receive such incredible, undoubtable answers to my prayers! Elder Holland truly is an Apostle of the Lord and just being in the same room as him brought such an special spirit that I have never felt before in my life. I love my mission and the amazing experiences and blessings that I have received in this last 11 months.
I know, without a doubt that this Gospel is true, that it was restored through Joseph Smith. God's priesthood power is here on the earth and because of that, we have men called by God to receive divine revelation for the Children of God.
I love you all and I hope to have many more amazing things to share with you next week!
Remember: "Salvation is not a cheap experience."
Love
Sister Gaffney
Xxxxxxx
Photos -
-My Baby Girl!
-Alvin and the Chipmunks
-Elder Russell!
-I freakin love Sister Silsby
-but not as much as I love this Clown! Best friends! Elder Bos!