Racing For That Piston Cup

Wow what a week! Hope you all enjoyed your week last week I had a pretty solid one. We had our Zone Conference, planning, lessons, driving miracles, and private number phone calls! Let's dive right into this week. 

So, at the beginning of the week, we had our mission/zone conference. The first session was as a whole mission and the second session was just our zone. This transfer we will be focusing on Preach My Gospel chapter 11 "How do I help people make and keep commitments?" and our 3rd objective as a mission "Inviting with Inspiration" we received wonderful instruction from the assistants and mission presidency. For our zone conference Elder Dupre and I and the Sister Training Leaders gave a training focusing on the things discussed at mission conference. One cool/funny thing we did is we had the sisters drop off cookies to a companionship in the zone, but they didn't tell them they had (they just placed it on their doorstep). Then as we were giving our training, we extended an invitation and promised blessings to the companionship. We asked them to go and open their door and promised they would be happy. They were surprised and it was President laughed. He commented and asked if he could get the same invitation haha. We then asked another companionship to open their door as well, but they would be disappointed because there was nothing there for them. We compared the 2 examples and pointed out the good and bad example. It was a solid zone conference and the spirit was strong throughout. 

Later in the week we had an emergency. The sister training leaders were going to drive some sisters down to a place called Barnsley to take a driving test, but one of the sister training leaders wasn't feeling too good so they couldn't take them down. They asked us to take them which meant that we had to reschedule a few of our lessons. The sisters needed to be at the driving center at 10:14am so we hit the road down to Huddersfield to pick them up. As we are about half way down we realize that we only have about 40 miles left in our tank so we had to fill up quick. As we are getting close, I look over to the right and see my old area called Halifax. When I look back at the GPS, I was supposed to take the next exit, but I missed it. The only possible route back was to go up 2 miles and turn around which added about 10 more minutes to travel time. I was stressing hard-core. With driving tests in England if you are late to a test, they cancel it and we were running behind. I start zooming down the motorway trying my best to shave off some time. We finally get to the sisters and we have 30 minutes to get there by 10:14, but Google maps says it'll take us 36 minutes. So, at this point I'm calm on the outside but freaking out on the inside. On the way there I we get behind 3 cars all going really slow and I'm just praying for a miracle that we can get past and get there on time. We eventually pass them and are 3 minutes out from the test center. We hit this long queue of cars trying to turn left so I decide to move over into the right lane, but it was a turn right lane and that's not what we wanted. Then I do one thing that I'm sure none of us like to do and that was drive all the way to the front and cut in front to turn left. I felt bad, but thankfully no one was mad. We pull into the driving center at 10:15 and thankfully the examiner came out just as we pulled in so the sister taking her test was able to take it and pass! It may not seem like a big miracle, but the whole time I was driving I prayed that God would help us get there with no troubles. We were all safe and we got there so that's a miracle in my book. 

Anyways moving on to later in the day we had a lesson with Elijah and we studied 1 Nephi 8 and compared it to the Parable of the Sower. If you get a chance look at the similarities between the 2 stories it's really fascinating. It was a good lesson and then we also had a lesson with our friend Anthony that we recently started teaching. I swear every time he speaks at the end of a sentence he says "Ya know what I mean?" It's quite funny. Anthony came to church which was great he seemed to enjoy it and we will see how things go this week with him. The rest of our friends have been ghosting us/avoiding us/ and "being busy". It's a bit sad, but we pray they may have a stronger desire. Their names are (Catherine, Alina, Vijay, Jordan, Marie, and Jamie). 

We also received a phone call from a private number this week which was crazy. I answered and it was a girl who asked "Is it a sin to commit suicide?" I was thrown off by this. I assured her it wasn't and then started asking her questions and explaining who we were as missionaries. I explained a bit of God's plan for us and that she can find the joy that she desires. She seemed interested. Unfortunately, we didn't get her number because it was private, but she said she would text us so we are praying that she reaches out again. Her name is Marie Ryan. 

Spiritual Thought: 

Jacob 3:1-2 

"1 But behold, I, Jacob, would speak unto you that are pure in heart. Look unto God with FIRMNESS OF MIND, and PRAY unto him WITH exceeding FAITH, and he will console you in your afflictions, and he will plead your cause, and send down justice upon those who seek your destruction.

2 O all ye that are pure in heart, lift up your heads and receive the pleasing word of God, and feast upon his love; for ye may, if your MINDS ARE FIRM, FOREVER."

This scripture really stood out to me this week. I capitalized the words that I liked and wanted to emphasize. I was curious what firmness of mind was and started to dive deeper into it. Essentially it is being steady in purpose and consistent. I like that a lot and it made me think how I can be firmer in mind when it comes to our focus with God. 

What does be firm in mind mean to you? I'd love to hear what you all think! 

Anyways hope you all have a good week and I'll catch you next time. Love you all! 

Elder Jones

1. Training

2. We couldn't stop laughing when Bernard was trying to say the prayer!

3. West Yorkshire zone leadership

4. Englad beauty

5. All the rain is making it lush and green