Sister Jack Is Back!

Becca got home last Thursday, a wonderful Valentine's gift for her family :) Here are some photos from the airport. And click on this link to hear the talk she gave in church about some of her experiences on her mission.

Becca's coming home!

As I'm guessing you noticed from Becca's last email, she's coming home soon! She'll be speaking in church on February 17 about her experiences over the past 18 months, and we'd love it if you could be there! Church starts at 9am at 9 Jewett St in Georgetown, MA.

--Annie

The Final Email (Can you believe it? Because I can't)

It has been a lovely week, and the weather has even matched it! I will admit it all seems a bit surreal that I am writing you for the last time, as a missionary that is :) But it will be nice to be able to speak with you face to face as well.

Let me start and report about the area. Things are going well, and we are continuing to work hard. Sister Crookston and I do a good job about laughing together, enjoying the moment and working diligently. The YSA are doing well, and we are striving to work more closely with the members to inspire them to do missionary work because they know a lot more non-members than we do. Good things will continue to happen. For example, Joanne was able to finish her family history for her mother and grandparents. She is becoming quite the detective and really enjoys family history. Unfortunately, she was confused about meeting locations and wasn't able to attend the temple, but she has her recommend and is looking forward to going next month.

This last week we had departing testimonies (meaning we get up in front of half the mission and bear our testimonies). I was reflecting before to prepare, and what came to mind is the departing testimonies of those missionaries who went before me. I want to share some of those insights with you, and how they relate to my mission experience.

Elder Joliffe spoke about how he was excited to go home, but wished he would have put more effort in the work earlier (he wouldn't have wished to go home at the beginning of his mission). I took his counsel to heart and tried to serve with my full heart, might, mind, and strength. It doesn't mean I was always perfect, but I strive to enjoy missionary work. I feel like Moroni as his father told him in Moroni 9:6 to labour till the end diligently. Missionary work is fun, and if it is not, you’re doing something wrong.

Elder Holman spoke about how he had a powerful experience near the beginning of his mission to know this is where he needed to be. I too feel similarly. There are two experiences that come to mind, and I know those had an impact on the rest of my mission.

Elder Eliason stated he fell in love with The Book of Mormon. I too have gained a greater appreciation for those inspired words. Just this morning, I finished it for the third time since coming on a mission. By reading it, I am able to feel the Spirit and receive guidance for my own life. Furthermore, I am excited to read it again. It is one book that I don’t think I will ever get sick of.

Elder Hughes told us to repent if we wanted to go home. I feel a mission is a wonderful blessing. The things I have learned such as charity, recognising the Spirit, wisdom, and so much more are irreplaceable. The friendships I have made will last forever. That is what Louisa told me as we spoke about going to the temple on Saturday. (I am looking forward to being able to attend with her; it is the first time she has gone in over 30 years. I couldn't ask for a better ending.) I recognize there is a time and a season for everything, and I have loved my time and season of being a full-time missionary in the EMM (England Manchester Mission).

And the part from my departing testimony is the heart. I got up to speak not really sure what I was going to say, but then I was inspired. The Spirit reminded me of the importance of the heart. We need to open our hearts to love the people around us. Our hearts continue to grow each and every day as we meet new people and allow them into our lives. Openness and honesty are great blessings that show love for the people around you. Additionally, when we use our heart and our mind together, we can learn that much more. We gain wisdom rather than just knowledge.

This week we also went to zone leader council. It was very exciting, especially because they showed us a campaign the church will be doing in London because of The Book of Mormon musical going there. Also, they spoke about how the UK is the head of the growth of the church in Europe. I am glad that I have been able to be a part of that growth for these past 18 months, and I will continue to be a part of that no matter how close or far I am.

Hope all you all have a great week!

Love always, Becca

p.s. I hope you enjoyed my British spelling this time around.

p.p.s. Here are the photo descriptions:

1. Sister Crookston and I went and did a work out with some of the elders headed by one of the YSA that is studying to be a personal trainer. I don't think I've worked out that much since track/cross country in high school...

2. We went out for some burgers! It's a cute little restaurant in the village we live. It was delicious :)

3. Sports day. Dodge ball anyone?

Good Old Manchester

Hope all is well with you. I have had a good week, and I mostly want to report on some insights I had during study this morning:

I have nearly completed The Book of Mormon yet again. It is an exciting and joyous experience. This morning as I came across Ether 6 where the Jaredites travel across the sea, new insights arose. Their travels are comparable to a mission. As their travels begin, the “furious wind[s] blow” (v. 6). These winds have a purpose: to get them to the promised land. At the same time, they are furious and cause them to be “tossed” (v. 6) and “buried in the depths of the sea” (v. 7). We too face challenges, trials, and growing experiences that often seem like furious winds. They may have a purpose: to help us become who the Lord would have us be, yet they toss and bury us. There are even instances where we feel buried beneath the depths of the sea. However, in those instances our “vessels [are] tight like unto a dish” (v. 8). The vessels can be compared to our testimonies that are fortified by companions, leaders, the scriptures, the Spirit, etc. Our testimonies remain strong and unbroken by the temptations of the world around us until we are able to reach the promised land (v. 12) or the moment when we are released. At which point, we have cause to rejoice and “shed tears of joy before the Lord, because of the multitude of his tender mercies over them” (v. 12). I too feel like the Jaredites and am grateful for the tender mercies I have been afforded. I want to share just a few of them with you from this week:

Even though Joanne had some concerns about attending the temple, we were able to clarify things and she is excited to go. She received a temple recommend yesterday and is going to the temple on Wednesday. The best part is when she is there she will do the work for her mother as well as her grandparents. She is excited, and I know this will be a memorable experience for the rest of her life. It is simply one mark of her conversion.

My dad always said that I would find the only Red Sox fan in the UK and convert him. Unfortunately that has not been the case, but I did meet a basketball player on the way home from an AUF on Saturday. We had a good conversation, and my knowledge about basketball finally came into use. His name is Chris, and he has that sincere desire to increase his faith. He wasn't able to come to church, but he texted to let us know and said “if I’m truthful, I’m interested.” It was cute and shows that there are sincere people in the world today that each of us are meant to friendship for specific reasons.

As part of the weekly focus, we were role playing applying different methods of finding and then applying them through the day. Yesterday, we role played addressing the importance of family. While the role play was in the back of my mind, our conversations were not quite playing out as expected. On the bus ride home, I was able to talk with a young man named Ryan. We discussed about faith, goals, and aspirations. It soon became evident that he was not interested in the gospel of Jesus Christ and politely declined my invitation to learn more. However, we then got to talking about our families. As we discussed our ancestors, he said, “My friends call me a hill-billy” because I have a mixture of it all. I then asked, “Would you be interested in learning more about your family history?” He said, “Yes,” and I was able to give him a pass along card that contains the church’s family history website/information. As he got off the bus, he proactively told me that he would visit the website to learn more.

Have a lovely week! Know that I am enjoying my last moments in Manchester.

Love, Becca

Cold and Snowy Manchester

We have received some snow this past week, but none of it seems to stay. We are bundling up and staying warm as much as we can (until your boots fall apart quite literally). I truly have never had so many problems with boots in my entire life (maybe because I didn't really own boots), but the sole came off the heel of my boot this past week. Not so fun, but we will get it repaired today and all will be well. Life is good none the less!

This week we have been able to teach some new people. These people were each found in a variety of different ways—street contacting, bus contacting, and referrals. One thing I have been impressed by is my district leader, Elder Matute. Elder Matute is from Honduras, and he is constantly giving us referrals. Just the other day, he told us how he wanted to build the district and so he looks for YSA for us to teach. (Since we have a YSA ward, anyone between 18-30 years old are supposed to be taught by missionaries in the YSA ward.) It is clear that he loves the people he serves and truly wants to help us. I am very grateful for how he exhibited and continues to exhibit love for our companionship as well as others. I’ll admit there have been very few leaders that have gone to such an extent to help my companionship. Basically, I am grateful for his humility and charity. He is a good leader and understands those things of greatest importance.

On another note, one of the talks at church yesterday was about pride. The speaker, Brother Cain, talked about a beautiful bouquet of flowers and how as soon as they are cut off, they begin to die. I always admire bouquets of flowers, but I never thought of the beautiful bouquet as dying as soon as it is created. It opened my mind to a new perspective. He then related this analogy to how as soon as we rely on our own strength we begin to die (spiritually). It is important to be humble and rely on the Lord for strength. He can provide us with that greater motivation and desire to serve others, but only as we rely on Him. This analogy really helped me to see the reality and importance of relying on the Lord, and mostly I just liked it.

On a more comical note, I have come to understand the sentence in the white handbook which says, "bathe daily if possible." I always thought this sentence was a bit ridiculous because if you can bathe at all, wouldn't it be possible to bathe daily? However, I have come to a greater understanding. Last week our boiler broke, leaving us with no heating nor hot water. Let's just say we didn't bathe that day. Honestly, it would be ridiculous to bathe in cold water when the temperature is freezing outside. Thought I would share some of the fun and experiences we are having over here as well :) 

Hope you have a great week!

Love, Becca

Photos:

1. A place we went tracting (part of the AUF program for the record. We didn't just go see the country side...)

2. My boot broke and Sister Crookston lost her glove on the same day.

Let it snow

The weather has definitely dropped in temperature this last week. It even snowed last night! It didn't stick and is no where near as bad as the picture grandma sent, but I sent you some pictures of flurries we got anyway.

About a month ago, we had a recent convert named Naomi move into the ward. She was baptized in South Korea while teaching English there; however, she is originally from Manchester. We visited her this past week and will continue to do so in the future. I love her already; she's amazing. Just last week she told us how she read the entire Book of Mormon before her baptism. Naomi has a strong testimony, and it is clear that she loves the gospel. It is a pleasure just to witness the Spirit working in others and being able to see their testimony and light. And it is fun to make new friends :)

Yesterday, we were able to meet as a ward council with the stake presidency where they presented their vision for the year. President Liptrott, Scott, and Gregson are definitely inspired. As they presented the vision, they helped us to understand those things that are of greatest importance. There was so much that stood out to me in that meeting. Aligning our wills with the stake’s will, and most importantly, Heavenly Father’s will is essential. The united vision will bring great blessings to the people in Manchester this upcoming year. It has helped me to realize how missions prepare the young people for future leadership. The Spirit and vision the presidency have has inspired me to create a similar vision in my future callings. I am grateful to take part in a variety of roles and meetings.

This week in my scripture study, I came across the phrase “return with full purpose of heart” (3 Nephi 10:6). It reminded me of Elder Kearon’s (a member of the area presidency, so he oversees the church in the Europe area) whole soul devotion. (This concept of whole soul devotion is the idea that we devote all of ourselves to the work.) The ideas of full and whole are quite similar. We need to put in our all, our 100%. It is when we are fully committed that we are blessed with success. We may not see the fruits of our labors right away, but we will be able to rejoice in the work being accomplished. I recognize it is important to maintain that focus, commitment, and determination even to the end. There will be great blessings that come as I do so.

I am doing well and am continuing to enjoy my time with Sister Crookston. You can look at the pictures attached to see more of the fun I'm having :)

Love, Becca

Pictures:

1. Sister Doherty and me

2. Sister Howell and me

3.  [Becca said this was her and Sister Crookston, but it looks like she sent the wrong one...looks to me like Sister Doherty and Sister Vosloo]

4. Me in the snow (if you can even call it that)

Life goes on in Manchester

Life carries on and there is sunshine in the work we do, despite what the weather may say. I am happy. I am increasing my knowledge. I am setting new goals. I love the people. I appreciate the gospel. I am grateful for the Savior. And mission life is brilliant.

One word I would use to describe this last week is busy. We have been focusing our work on AUFs these past few weeks. [AUFs stands for Address Unknown File. It is people that have been to church sometime in the past, but people haven't seen in a while. Our responsibility is to go to their homes and find out if they still live there or not by speaking to them and the neighbors.] There has been some good progress made. In particular, I want to share one miracle. We were waiting at the bus stop to travel to the AUF and started speaking to the young man there. His first comment was, “Who are you anyway? You tried to stop me the other day.” I thought that comment was fairly funny because I honestly didn't remember trying to stop him the other day, but it goes to show you can't hide from missionaries :) We were then able to explain how we are missionaries. His name is Rory, and he is from Ireland. Since we were both traveling on the same bus, we sat together and were able to continue our conversation. Much to my surprise, when I invited him to meet with us, he said yes. He lives with more than six other people, so he thought his house would be hectic. We arranged to meet at the library, but he didn’t have a phone. [From my experience, more often than not when you don't have an address or a phone number, people are just not very reliable.] As a result, we went to the appointment with faith, and he came! It goes to show that I really need to have greater faith in people and what they say. It increased my faith that some people are sincere and want to know that truth. We had a good lesson, and he was pro-active about inviting himself to do things such as read The Book of Mormon. What a miracle!

Furthermore, I have been having more inspiring personal studies. In particular, I have been focusing on truly learning from my reading of The Book of Mormon. Just the other week ago, I asked myself: what is the difference between studying and learning? Learning is the actual application and long-term knowledge of what you study. As you learn, you take what you study and apply it. I have been trying more and more to apply what I learn and truly learn rather than just study. I can remember the difference between university classes when I studied and when I learned. Studying or learning didn't always have instant results like better grades, but it did make a difference in the long term. I remember Economics 110 freshman year with Professor Kearl. I learned in that class. There are still things that I can recall today like sunk costs, demand, etc. However, there are classes like my proofs of calculus that I absolutely dreaded. It didn't seem to matter how hard I studied, my mind couldn't learn. In the end, I actually got a higher grade in the latter, but I barely remember the things we studied. There are short- and long-term effects on what we study and learn.

Hope all is well for you. Enjoy the new year!

Love, Becca