Recognizing the spirit

The Preston Zone at Zone Conference

Date: Mon, Jun 7, 2010 at 12:20 PM

Hello Everyone!

We've had an amazing week here in Preston. I love serving here, it's just the best place to be right now! Today it's a bit rainy, even right now it's raining, but I still love it. It's been very warm recently and we're all starting to get the Missionary tan! I'm excited for the summer.

First of all, yesterday was one of the best Sundays of my mission. Peter, Michael, and Naghma were also at Church and Peter will be Baptised this weekend. They are all doing well by the way. My favorite part though was in fast and testimony meeting. There were two deaf people in the congregation and a member sat at the front and signed the whole meeting. I loved it, even though it was in British Sign Language and I couldn't understand all of it. Then, in the middle of the meeting a new sister in the ward got up and shared her testimony in ASL! It was amazing and it made me so happy that I had to get up there and share my testimony too. All I could sign was that I couldn't remember enough signs to share my testimony, so I had to let the interpreter do it. After the meeting I was able to have a conversation, half in sign language, with one of the deaf people that was there. It made me so happy that I made that decision to take ASL in high school.

The next experience I want to share was from getting a referral from a member family. Last Sunday we had an appointment in an area that was a bit farther away from the centre of Preston. As we went out there Elder McKechnie recognized that there was a member family that lived in the area. The best part was that the father of the family actually taught Elder McKechnie when Elder McKechnie was in primary. Well, less than a minute after we realized that they lived in the area we saw them walking down the street with their children! It was amazing and we were able to stop and say hello to them and talk with them and they invited us over for a tea appointment! As we went to the appointment and shared a spiritual thought and asked for referrals, they quickly told us of an African family in the area. We tried by right after the appointment and we were let in this African family's door! It was amazing, we were able to teach them the very next day and we're excited to see them progress!

Now probably the best experience I'll share with you was at Zone Conference. We got to go to a Scout Camp in the hills near Manchester. I never would have thought that there would be a place like this in Manchester, but there is. It was beautiful. I love the rolling hills of England. We had a few sessions of Zone Conference and an afternoon of sports and hamburgers for dinner. It really unified our whole mission and everyone benefited from it. I'll never forget the experiences I had there.

The theme of our conference was that exact obedience is the "Pathway to the Promise", which is a phrase that President Bullock was inspired with recently. We learned a lot about that and talked about passing down the sacred culture in our mission to the younger Missionaries, and had some wonderful experiences as we did that. One of my favorite experiences of the conference was recognizing the spirit of Missionary work. As we played sports I felt happy and had some contentment, but I still had an empty feeling, I thought that it might be similar to what I felt most of the time before my mission. It's hard to describe how I truly felt, but I think you know what I mean. Then in the evening for part of the session of Zone Conference we had an hour of personal meditation time in the woods. We were all spread out so we could still see our companions, but we were far apart enough that we could be alone. The spirit was very strong then, and it felt like a Personal Priesthood interview with Heavenly Father. After that I felt so much more fulfilled and just full of joy. I felt the joy of being a Missionary and knowing from the Lord that I've done good here in England. I felt the joy of knowing the positive effect that the Gospel has had in all of our lives and of knowing that we all can be together forever as we live the Gospel always. It was amazing to tell the contrast between the two feelings. The Gospel is what brought that feeling of joy, and it's what still brings that feeling as I feel it even now. I know that this feeling comes from Heavenly Father and that we can all feel it as we apply the principles of the Gospel in our lives. This isn't to say that playing sports and doing other things than the Gospel are bad, those things are still necessary, but I'm just happy to recognize the difference in the spirit that the Gospel brings. I know that these things are true because of my testimony of the Book of Mormon. I know that it truly is the iron rod. If we study and apply it's principles consistently then we will be always on the Gospel path that leads to the promise of "peace in this life and eternal life in the world to come" (D+C 59:23 I think it is). I also want you to know that I've been able to experience the pathway and the promise of D+C 31:5, and we all can as well. The feeling of living the Gospel and experiencing it's blessings is the very best in the whole world. Again I'd encourage all of us to continue utilizing the Gospel in our lives and work to share it with everyone we can so that they can as well!

Well, I love you all so much. I'm here because of you. I hope you have a wonderful week and keep up the amazing work!

Love,

Elder L. Rowley