It has been a hard week for all of us. Lulu our sweet dog passed away a few days ago and we all miss her like crazy. But we do KNOW that we will see her again one day and that helps us all a lot.
Søster Holbrook is testifying on the Book of Mormon and it's truth.
Teaching at the Zone Cnference.
The Zone Søster Holbrook is in. What a great looking group of missionaries.
Hey Everyone!
My heart is filled with gratitude this week. As many of you know my dog died last week. Many of you also know that I love my dog more than most other things and "Nothing makes me trunky except for my dog and Cafe Rio." I was devastated when I first got the news, and of course I turned to the Lord for comfort and strength. A missionary on The District once said, "To know God is to struggle." I know this to be true. My testimony of the Atonement of Jesus Christ has been strengthened this week as I have felt Him heal me. I have felt the Savior's love and peace in high voltage, and am so grateful that I was blessed with the opportunity to experience more fully His Atonement in my life.
We went on splits with Sister Lanham and Sister Peterson (our baby and grandbaby) this week and we saw some pretty cool miracles. Sister Peterson is grate at recognizing "What does God want me to learn from this" and we had a great discussion about this. I told her about my dog and about how "I have learned that Christ's Atonement covers even this pain", but I also told her that "I know that there is something else God wants me to learn from this. I am just not sure what yet." Less than two hours later we knocked into a man that had also lost HIS dog the SAME week. He wasn't ready to accept the gospel, but we could see his countenance change from saddened to peaceful when we testified of the Plan of Salvation and Jesus Christ. The lesson I learned is that God prepares people to comfort others that stand in need.
This week has been great! We had zone conference and Sister Jones and I gave a training on repentance and commitments. We have had so many appointments that we often go "bike contacting" in between lessons. Meaning we stop people as we bike to each appointment. It is surprisingly effective because people are so surprised that you are stopping on your bike that they will actually stop and listen! We also had lunch with Mormor and Morfar and Uncle Bjørn. It was AWESOME seeing family again. Sunday I gave a talk in church and spoke on the gift of the Holy Ghost. There was also a member that gave us (and the other two sets of missionaries on our ward) a whole bunch of frozen meat because he and his wife are going to America for several months. It is actually kind of questionable because he straight up dumpster dives (missionaries have actually caught him in the act) in grocery store garbage cans for all the meat that has "expired but still doesn't smell bad." We ate some pork from this stash last night and it actually tasted great! We figured that if he has been doing this for 50 years, we will probably be okay too. Sunday night we heard Elder Ballard, Elder Sabin and Elder Clayton speak to us in a European broadcast.
Elder Ballard spoke on miracles. He shared an incredible story about how he and another church worker once traveled to Ethiopia during a drought. They met with the single member living in all of Ethiopia and held their own little sacrament meeting. During the meeting Elder Ballard felt as if he should bless the land. He blessed the land that it would rain and the people would be saved. Later that night, Elder Ballard offered another prayer and said in essence "Heavenly Father, I felt really inspired to say that. I have faith that you can make it happen. Please let it be so." It rained EVERY single day they were there. He then told us that it had nothing to do with "little elder Ballard" and everything to do with being faithful enough to believe in miracles. He gave us an apostolic blessing and told us that there are miracles waiting for us in Europe and that God needs us to believe in them. He also said that missionaries are struggling to keep the faith alive in the countries and are praying for miracles to happen, but that it is not enough anymore. He told them that they need to be the ones to pray for these miracles as well. All I can say is amen to what Sister Baird said in her email: "He is a God of miracles. Let us participate in His miracles."
I love the work. I love my Savior. I have felt so close to Him this week. I am grateful for the Gospel and I am so incredibly happy to be about his great work.
Keep on keeping on.
Søster Holbrook
These are called "Flying Rats" per Søster Holbrook's Great Grandma's saying. They are all over Denmark and really is a pest!
Visiting a great member and getting spoiled. THANKS for being so AWESOME and loving the missionaries.
Lunch date with Mormor, Morfar and Uncle Bjørn. What a nice time and a treat for these two sisters.
Another week has passed and Søster Holbrook is doing WONDERFUL. She is serving hard and loving the mission life. They had some great visits from some of the leadership in the church so they were taught well as always.
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