Hello from Wales again! We are having a bit nicer weather lately. but still very cold. I emailed President last week and mentioned our heaters not working in our flat and said that I was freezing and if he had any extra blankets they would be appreciated in Wales. I was only joking, but when we showed up for Sisters' conference on Friday at the mission home, he and Sister Preston had a couple of fuzzy warm blankets prepared to send home with me. That was nice! So I'm keeping a bit warmer with my snuggie, my comforter, and the two fuzzy blankets on my bed. Yes I need that many blankets.
It's been a bit of a crazy week. We had zone conference on Tuesday up in Runcorn (about an hour drive). The meeting got done around 5 and we started off again only to be stuck in stand still traffic. An semi carrying oil had flipped the barricade on the motorway and had caused everything to come to a screeching halt. We were able to move 4 miles in 4 hours. It took us a total of 5 1/2 hours to get home. It was crazy, needless to say we didn't get much accomplished that day. We tried talking to the cars that were stuck next to us... but... not too much enthusiasm.
Then we had sisters' conference on Friday at the mission home (2 hour drive). It was a good meeting and I was happy to see some of the sisters that I haven't seen for a while. This last transfer we had 2 sisters decide to go home early. So one of the speakers talked about how much regret you will have if you choose to go home because you'll always wonder how life would be different. It was sad to see those 2 sisters leave. They just couldn't handle the stress and pressure. It's not easy being a missionary. Dad knows that.
We had an interesting experience after getting home from sisters' conference. We had an appointment with a recent convert. Lately she's been asking sort of "what if" questions and giving very vague scenarios in which these questions could occur. Like "What if you want to be better at something and succeed, but God expects you to do something else?" Then give the scenario of a business man who wants to be a CEO but maybe God wants him just to be "normal." Well we had planned to talk about charity with her, but one of these questions came up and something just clicked in my head. Although the law of chastity had never been mentioned in her questions or her scenarios, something just said that all these questions lately had to do with her struggling with the law of chastity. So I just bluntly said, "Are your concerns regarding the law of chastity?" and she paused and then said, "Well everyone lately has been telling me I need to gain experience before I get married so that my husband will like me more." I paused and then said, "One day when you get married, if you knew your husband had been sleeping around with many other women, would you like to know that? How would you feel to know he's gained that 'experience'?" She said she wouldn't feel very good about that. We then spent time discussing that our bodies are temples. With our beautiful temple buildings if someone were to graffiti on the outside, it would take effort, but it could be repainted over or repaired with very little influence on the functioning to the building. I said that is something like a tattoo on our bodies, steps can be made to cover them, it's not detrimental to our functioning but it needs repair. Then I asked what would happen if someone who didn't understand the sacredness of the temple went inside the temple and did a lot of damage? Then, I explained, with that damage done, the temple would need to go through heavier phases of repair, causing the temple to be closed for repair and rededicated as necessary. I said that is like us not keeping the law of chastity. Once we give into that heavy of a temptation, it will impact our lives, our functioning, on a greater scale. It takes more repentance, it takes more time, and sometimes we can never make the repairs be the same as the original. Then I just bluntly told her that once you lose your virginity, you can never get that back. It is a sacred virtue which we have been trusted with and that we should save that for the special union of marriage. From her reactions and the feelings that we could feel as we had this discussion, I believe her concern has been resolved. I hope so. Charity to Chastity. Close enough. Only a few letters off.
Other than that, nothing too spiritually profound has happened that I can remember. President gave me a talk at Sisters' conference. I mentioned to you how I was wondering if I was changing and making a difference here. He gave me a talk titled, "Grace is sufficient." It was all about becoming and relying on the Lord. It was good and very helpful.
We taught primary yesterday (sharing time). It was on Choose the Right. We played Simon says and talked more about obedience. Towards the end of our time we asked if anyone had stories that related to when we had to obey. This was one little boy's story:
"One time, I didn't listen to the Holy Ghost. I wanted some chips and I wanted them to be warm and I put them in the microwave without opening the wrapping. Well, I didn't really know what I was doing and I pushed just a bunch of buttons and then the chips started on fire and the alarm started going off and my older brother, who is (pointing) over there, was in the bathtub and it scared him so he jumped out of the bathtub and ran out without any clothes on."
Then his brother interrupted and said, "You're making that up!"
Which he replied, "It was before you were born, ask mom."
There was like a year difference in their ages. The one telling the story was maybe 7. It was great. Haha!
Anyway, that pretty much is all I have this week!
