Alnwick

Mummy and Daddy

I love it in this little land of Alnwick. The members are absolutely fantastic! They all are so excited to have us in their little branch. Our little flat is so cute. It's all secluded in this little yard. There aren't any street lights blaring into our little courtyard. On a night, Sister Hillgaard and I plop down on the ground and marvel at all the billions of glittering specs in the sky.....wow.....how can you not look at that and think there's more out there.....how can you look at that and not believe in a Supreme Creator! Wow.... We love our little flat. We've been having movers and boxes and all sorts in and out of this joint, but things are finally starting to settle down and we're getting things into their proper places. I'll show you when we're all settled. The people of Alnwick are wonderful. It's refreshing to walk down the street, wave at someone and not get sworn at :D ahhhhhh......it's even better to not have to chase down little oldies in their mobility scooters. Man, they can definitely kick it up a notch when they want to :D hahaha.

We're just having so many little miracles happen in our corner. We met Michael last week and he's soaking it all in. We give our investigators little calendars to help them keep track of all their reading, praying and church attendance. At our last appointment with Michael, I accidentally keiffed his calendar. When we had our next appointment, I told him I had it, and he said, "Not that I blame you for taking it.....I haven't been reading as much as I should, and I have so many things wrong in my life, I'm not worthy to have it anymore." He's such a stinkin sweet heart. He just wants the blessing of baptism so much. He wants a clean slate and a new life. He came to stake conference for the reorganization of the Sunderland England Stake, where he got to hear from Elder Causse of the Area Presidency and from President Lindley. He was so impressed and so inspired! Michael is incredible! BAM! MIRACLE!

Let me tell you a story. Last night, we went to a street we planned to knock. Before we even got out of the car, a member called us telling us he had some stuff for our flat he wanted to drop off. So we motored back, parked....but no member yet.....so we decided to knock the street on which we live. As part of Stake Conference, Elder Causse said something to the effect of, "The Lord knows these people, and he loves them enough to lead you to them." For some reason that idea stuck with me, and I thought a lot about it for the rest of the day. When we knocked on one door, I had that thought come to be again. "The Lord knows these people, and he loves them enough to lead you to them." The door opened. I can't for the life of me tell you what was said, but I do remember watching the man's eye's well up and his voice shake out, "Well....I'm not so sure....my wife died five years ago." A few moments later our member rolled up behind us.
"Can we come back in a half hour and talk to you some more?"
"Yes. Come back then."
Once we sorted things out with the member, we went back, and knocked on the door.
..............
*knocked louder*
..............
*knocked on the window*
.............
*knocked with the door knocker*
..............
*knocked with rhythm and beat*
..............
*whistled through the key hole*
..............
"Dang it....he was a good one!"
So we went back to the street we planned to knock, but it just didn't feel right. We knocked some houses.....turns out the Jehovah's Witnesses had been there earlier. We prayed, "Should we stay or go to another street?."...........We didn't feel anything in particular, so we carried on........but it still didn't feel right. We prayed, "We don't know where we need to be right now, but we feel like it's not here. Where should we be?" "Let's go back to that man's house." So we did. We knocked really hard with the door knocker and lo and behold, he answered!!! AND invited us in straight away. We got to talking. He had some excellent questions about the Plan of Salvation, and about our church. There was such a lovely spirit in that room. We invited him to be baptized and he accepted!!!!! He lost his leg a few years ago and after an exhilarating discussion about leg attachments (roller skate leg, pogo stick leg, broom leg, mop and bucket leg, the list went on and on....we all know of my love for amputees!!!!!) he told us he's getting a swimming leg (aka a leg that floats) in the next week or so. IT'S A SIGN!!!!!!!! See! You're meant to get baptized! He was absolutely wonderful! In his closing prayer he said, "Heavenly Father, thank you for sending these.....[choked up]..... two crazy women to my house. It's not an accident they're here. They're coming back soon, and we'll see what more we can't learn about you then....."
BAM! MIRACLE! NEXT!!!! I love being a missionary!!!! Thank you so much for letting me be here!

Love always and forever,
Your Sister Stephanie White