weekly update 8/1/2011

HELLO FAMILY!!!!!!!!!


This has been a really good week! On Tuesday, in Preston, we were heading to what we thought was a solid, confirmed, appointment. The appointment fell through, but it put us in a position to find Fiona and her family. Fiona is from the Caribbean and she is so great. She accepted a baptismal date, she also came to church with us on Sunday. The appointment might have fallen through but we were led to that area for a reason.

I really enjoyed trainings this week. I know that the meeting was truly inspired. I learnt so much! I was reminded that we need to be personable and not robots. It was good to see that the things we have been given are guidelines and we use them as prompted. For example, Teaching the restoration in the first lesson. I realized that we have been focusing on teaching the restoration first was to help us see both extremes. I was looking at a teaching record from before we were supposed to teach the restoration first, on the record we saw that they did not even teach the restoration before the investigator was dropped. So i feel that the lord wanted to show us the importance of the restoration. And now the it's been changed we can teach something else but we will be more inclined to tie it in with the restoration.

This week I had my first interview with president Preston. It was really good to sit down with him in the interview, and get to know him a little better. I appreciate the comfort and council he gave me. I really look forward to serving with him shoulder to shoulder here in england.

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With Love,
Elder Ballantyne