Street contacting success!

Dropping off the Isle of Man Elders

Date: Wed, Apr 14, 2010 at 9:49 AM
Subject: Re: Happy Easter!!!

Hiya Everyone!

We've had another miraculous week here in Preston and I'm excited to report that my new companion is Elder McKechnie (the "ch" is different than a normal "ch"... I can't really explain it) from Scotland! He was trained by Elder Griffeth and I'm very excited to work with him!

It's been a very busy week and a half since I last wrote... so much has happened and so many blessings have come our way. I think the first is that last week were able to teach many people right on the spot. When we street contact or tract we always ask people if they have some time right at the moment that we can speak with them and we always consider it a miracle to teach someone in the street or have them let us into their home. Well, that happened multiple times last week and we feel very blessed.

On one of these occasions we were with a returned Missionary who served in Italy. We told him we were going to get let into a door and sure enough as Elder Griffeth knocked on a man named Richard's door he let us in. Richard is Chinese and just so happened to have read the 4 Gospels recently! He was very prepared to hear about the Restoration and we're excited to see him progress.

Another miracle we saw was on Sunday. Three of our investigators, Jimmy, Simon, and a Hungarian man named Peter all came to Church! They enjoyed it and we are excited to help them progress towards Baptism. Your prayers and faith have all helped so much for us to see this amazing miracle, so thank you! I'll keep you updated on their progress.

Today we've just been so busy. In the morning we were driving Missionaries and luggage to the train station and then after saying some goodbyes I took some Missionaries with me to Heysham to send one off to the Isle of Man and to pick one up that's returning from there. It was fun to talk with them about the people there. The one that will be serving there just served in Rochdale, one of my other previous areas, and it was good to get to talk about that area as well. So many amazing things are happening right now, I love it!

I'm sorry this is short, more will come on Monday. There is just so much to tell you and so little time to do it. Really the most important thing about all of it is that we feel the Holy Ghost. I learned something interesting on Sunday. We often use the word impression when speaking of spiritual experiences or receiving the Spirit's guidance. I remember the word impression by thinking of a leather sofa. If you press your hand onto the sofa you leave an impression. But it doesn't last. The sofa goes back to it's previous state after your hand moves. This is like receiving the Spirit's guidance. Sometimes we let impressions only last for a few moments and then let them go away. But if our hearts are humble enough to receive the impression and strong enough to keep the impression then we experience conversion. And through this Heavenly Father molds us into who He wants us to be so that we reach our full potential. We need to have hearts like clay which has those characteristics of being humble enough to receive impressions but strong enough to let the impression stay. As I've strived to follow the Spirit more recently I've felt happier and I've beat myself up less. I've been learning more. So many other blessings have come because of this. I testify that as we learn to follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost we experience greater happiness. God lives. Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. His Gospel is the only path to true and lasting happiness in this life and in the world to come. Families can be together forever. The Book of Mormon is true and I know all these things as I have read and prayed to know it's true. Reading and Praying about the Book of Mormon truly are critical for an enduring conversion. It does help our hearts become as clay. The Gospel is true, let us live it!

Well, thank you again for all you continue to do for me. The people here are blessed for it. Keep up the amazing work and I'll write more on Monday and hopefully be able to send some pictures as well. I love you all!!

-Elder L. Rowley