I cannot believe that I am writing my last email right now. It is crazy to me how quickly time goes.
Thursday: We had two district meetings today. We started out the morning with Epsom's District meeting. It was so great. I was able to share my testimony of how my mission has changed me and something that I have learned. I shared the quote from Tiffany Webster's ted talk called "The Perfect Lie". I remember when pops emailed me one week at the very beginning of my mission and invited me to watch this ted talk. The message has stuck with me the rest of my mission... "Me + Christ = More". I didn't need to be more of something...I didn't need to be perfect, I just needed to add Christ more into my life, it changed my whole outlook. I'm SOOOO grateful for that! After Epsom's District meeting we had another District meeting with Crawley! It was my last District Meeting. But it was really good! We had a Skype lesson with Izzy. She told us again that she knows that she needs to be baptized, but is really struggling to pick a date. But she felt that April 7th would be a good date for her. Then this evening we did some finding which was great.
Friday: My goodness, it has never been so hard for me to catch a train haha! So we had a workover in Eastbourne with the Sisters today... Usually we take the train from Crawley and change at Gatwick Train station... but for some reason we felt better about taking the bus to Gatwick Airport and then taking the train... Oh my days... So we relied on Google Maps, and it took us to Gatwick Train station, however it dropped us off on the other side of the gate... We could see the train station, however we couldn't get into the train station, so we walked around perimeters of the train station for about half an hour looking for a way in, and we couldn't find one. But then we met our nice friend Mike. Mike was dropping his rental car off, and he was going to catch his plane, but he told us that he would help us get into the train station. BLESS HIM! Turns out we had to go into the airport to get to the train station... Wait what? 🤔 Anyways Mike was from the States and knew about Mormons, he was so nice! Long story short we missed our train but we caught the next one and we were able to get to Eastbourne. I love those sisters! They are the cutest. We did finding with them, and it was a nice sunny day so that was great!
Saturday: We saw lots of miracles today. We had the mission finding hour, and we met this kid named James and he let us teach him right then and there which was great! He has had a really really hard life, my goodness! But then we met lots of other great people too. One of the best parts of the day was that we got to witness Obert get baptized. Obert is the elders friend from Zimbabwe. He was so prepared! He was glowing! It's always a good day when someone takes steps closer to Christ by being baptized! This evening we met with Diego and Richie in town. They are doing great. Richie just got his patriarchal blessing and he is over the moon about it!
Sunday: Today was great. Izzy came to church, and so did a guy we met on the street, named Paul. He only stayed for like half an hour... but that's okay, hopefully he will come back one day! We did some finding this afternoon which was really fun actually! We met a really cool guy named Vlad from Romania. It was his last day in England, and we were able to give him a Book of Mormon. Later this evening he sent us a message, and was like " Thank you for introducing me to the truth" and sent a picture of the Book of Mormon in his carry-on bag.
Monday: We had accounting and our normal morning. Then we did MLC planning with Elder Armstrong and Elder Hardy, which was good! Most of our lessons fell through today. But we had a lesson this evening with a guy named Tom. Oh man... It was interesting. They live in very uncleanly circumstances to put it nicely. At one point in the lesson we were bearing our testimony about the First Vision, and their dog Trixie came up and grabbed something off the ground and started chomping on it... 🙊But they invited us back for next week. I won't be there but hopefully they will still let the sisters in, because the gospel can change their lives!!
Tuesday: Such a golden day! We taught a former investigator named Shirley today. She has a very strong testimony in the Book of Mormon, and she knows it is true, however she is scared to leave her church. But she has so much potential! Then we went and visited Sabrine. She is moving back to France, so she can submit her mission papers. She was pretty emotional, because it has been a really long process to put her papers in, but she is ready and excited to go. Then we came back to Crawley to teach our friend Wez and then Flavio in the Library... Sadly a volunteer in the Library came up to us and told us that the Library is a neutral space and that we can't teach there anymore... I mean that's fair enough, we understood! But the lessons went really well. Wez has a lot of potential. And Flavio is so great. He told us "Sisters it's like you are reminding me of what I already know, I know what you are teaching is true!" Ahhh so great! This evening we just had correlation and ward council. So all good things, all good things!
Where do I even start... It was never in my plan to serve a mission, but God had a plan for me, and he needed me to serve... And I am so grateful that I listened to his prompting. I have been reflecting on my mission, and it has been a pretty emotional time. I love the people I have met here. They have changed my life forever. I know that there is a time and place for everything, and that God needs me to move forward to another chapter in my life. I am excited for what lies ahead.
If I could say one last thing to you all it would be this... My mission was not a race, it was a journey. At times I compared myself to others, at times I wished I had what others had, at times I wanted to quit, at times I felt like I was on top of the world, but through all these times it taught me this : Life is not a race, it is a journey. A journey back to our Heavenly Father. I learned a lot about who I am. I am a daughter of the Almighty God. I have infinite worth that no one can take away from me. I know that I was called to this earth at this time for a reason, and that Heavenly Father has very specific tasks that He needs me to accomplish. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have had to serve in the England London South Mission. Yes I am sad to leave, but I know that this will only be goodbye for a very short time!
I am grateful for all of the support you have shown me over the past 18 months. I am so grateful for you.
To close I want to share a quote from Elder Uchtdorf :
"The path toward fulfilling our divine destiny as sons and daughters of God is an eternal one. My dear brothers and sisters, dear friends, we must begin to walk that eternal path today; we cannot take for granted one single day. I pray that we will not wait until we are ready to die before we truly learn to live."
That is my hope for all of you as well. I hope that you will not wait to accept all the blessings God wants to give you. Choose TODAY to accept our Brother and Savior Jesus Christ, and live...
I love you so much.
#Wecandohardthings! #Wegotthis!
Love,
Sister Abbie Lund
Precious sister in Christ,GOD is for real and HE knows you and HE loves you. Now,if you too love HIM and Truth,it is important you come to know a well known documented and verified truth(although,hypocrites try to deny it by telling silly lies);that is the book of Mormon is totally worthless(Never a Tribe of Israel went to the Americas to give birth to the Natives-the DNA test denies it-and far less the Lord JESUS. truly,the so called original manuscript with the "pearl of great price" were mere lists of obituaries written in the old language of Egypt,which Smith had purchased in a library and not discovered in a library,and the "apostles" in Salt Lake know it well;by the way,'cause Hyrum and Joseph were Freemasons,many rituals followed in the temples come from masonry). We have,already,a perfect testament,which you can find it in the GOSPEL(Galatians 1,6-9,Jude 3-4). May the Grace and the Love of our Heavenly Father find a warm welcome in your soul,so that his Holy Spirit can protect you from deception,sin and hell(Luke 12,1-12);until the day-if,you turn earnestly and with humility to our Lord JESUS to get his personal revelation with his forgiveness and holy freedom;and,so,to taste his fellowship with his peace and mercy-you too 'll enter the joy of Paradise. In God's love and Truth
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