Faith and Miracles

 Whew!  Famine to Feast! Figuratively Speaking.

Our two weeks of isolation were indeed isolating. We stayed in our little tower opening windows and gazing longingly out at Oxford, heartily looking forward to get out there and walk!

Yesterday was absolutely marvelous, although my legs complained bitterly throughout the night last night.  5 miles was a little too much to do to them after such a lengthy period of activity.  However, I think daily walking will be the answer.  The weather here is absolutely wonderful.  Down in the 50s and even 40s at night and then up to 70 or so.  We'll walk in the morning, and we will probably try to average 3 to 4 miles.  I have to say, this is such a lovely place to walk...in any direction.

We got into bed late last night, and then I ended up walking back and forth in the living room to ease the dull ache in my legs.  We got up early to be off to the missionary zone conference about an hour and a half away.  We were there with 8 companionships.  I love those young people!!!  We sat scattered throughout the chapel, benches separating each companionship from the others.

It felt so good to stand and listen to "Jerusalem" and then recite the mission theme.  We heard from President Ball, the stake president of that area.  He was humble yet powerful as he trained those young missionaries.  He shared a sacred experience he had had at age 16, which led to baptism and a life of leadership in the church.  He served a mission in California - Sacramento.  He said that not a single day goes by without him recalling some aspect from that mission.  It might be some brief insight, a flash of a memory, a gospel principle strengthened , a testimony that was increased, or something humorous.  

I have seen that in so many people's lives.  When they are out in the mission field because of a desire to serve the Lord, they are literally endowed with power and the experience nurtures and strengthens them throughout their lives.

Deb shared two incredible miracles in the lives of the Dave Checketts family, one involving the survival of Miracle Charlie, after being born way too early, and being way too small.  He is a rambunctious little boy now.  The other was another grandson, Will, who had a terrible fall and sustained a serious head injury.  Two key doctors (a pediatric neurosurgeon and a pediatric anesthesiologist) just happened to be at the hospital the night he was admitted and saved his life.

She switched at that point and shared a quote from Neal A. Maxwell:  "Great faith is born of doing simple things."  She bore testimony of the power of the huge miracles in her life, but then bore a further strengthening witness to the power of doing the small simple things in life that increase our faith, such as faith unto repentance, faith that leads to good works (never suppress a generous thought), and faith to which is added virtue.

She quoted President Nelson about praying with focus and in peace and quiet as a little thing that brings great reward.  She ended by handing out a beautiful little card:




Dave ended out the morning speaking about the Great Apostasy.  It was marvelous!  I was so glad we were there,.

/During lunch, we visited with several great young missionaries...one in particular Elder Hathaway, that we served with in Oxford and absolutely loved.  Great young man!

We had several discussions with cute sisters and elders, and look forward to seeing more of them.

The hour and a half drive home, turned out to be two and a half hours.  We got caught in the rush-hour traffic coming out of London.  SK did a masterful job of getting us there and back, and was largely on his own on the way back since I was sound asleep!  He is such a reliable and good man.

We spent the evening on visa applications.  I know you are wondering what our problem is.  Well, even Berklee, our wonderful young YSA is having problems!  But she finally figured one area out and walked us through.  That is a tender mercy.

Great day!  another full one, but we like it that way.  Tomorrow....the long awaited event....an early morning walk in Oxford!




Comments

melissa said…
How wonderful to be out walking AND going to meetings!! I love that...”Expect a Miracle.”
September 22, 2020 at 7:48 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Master Teacher

In the 1st Ward today, an 11-year-old boy gave a talk that was one of he best sacrament meeting talks I have ever heard.  He got up to speak and his head just barely cleared the podium.  He is small and has a shock of dark hair topping a cute slightly freckled face. It will be several years yet before his voice deepens.  He had his written talk, and he read most of it, but he was familiar enough with it that he looked up often and it seemed as if he was speaking from his heart. He began with a quote from Nephi in 2 Nephi 25:29, where Nephi prophesies about the future and then tells us how to worship the Savior. How? this boy asked us. He went on to answer his own question.  Nephi says "with all our might."  The boy then asked how that is done. He cited the story of the converts in the Congo who threw all of their idols into a massive waterfall where they were unrecoverable.  The boy said that when we worship the Savior with all our might, that mea...
Read more

Going Home

  Fifteen missionaries are returning to their homes this week.  For this Saturday night zoom conference broadcast, each bore their testimony from their flats with their companions by their sides.  SK and I teared up many times as we listened to humble, sweet and strong testimonies.  It is easy to see the difference as they get close to their release date.  It they have been faithful, there is a maturity and a sweetness that is unexplainable. Here is a smattering of what was said: There is no growth in the comfort zone.  I am about to go home to my comfort zone...but it struck me that my old comfort zone is no longer comfortable for me.  I want to be in a growth zone. The early apostles did not succeed, but they knew we would. One elder quoted Dave's poem "If."  "If you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two impostors just the same...Hold on...even through the hardest times."  "How can I accomplish these things?  Jesus Chr...
Read more

Shark!

Image
We left our flat way too early for my taste this morning, heading out to go south to Farnborough.  Forty-eight miles, supposedly an hour and twenty minute drive.  We got into some heavy stop and go traffic and it was closer to 2 hours before we got there. We inspected the two young sisters' flat, which was beautifully clean and organized.  They are cute sisters.  They had been in London yesterday for zone conference and excitedly shared all they had heard and been taught.  They had their notes out and were very cute to repeat some great messages from President Checketts.  I hardly ever talk to him when he isn't dealing with numerous issues in the mission and in the middle of at least one or two crises, and planning the next gathering....all at the same time.  It must be that he and Deb are in a constant state of stress.  But he has cleared the half-way mark.  I wonder if he knows how highly he is esteemed by these young missionaries, who ...
Read more