Blessings

We continue to be blessed by Heavenly Father and we feel the support of family and friends. We are blessed to be able to serve a mission for Him. We are amazed at the expense and effort the Church invests to help the individual! Elder and Sister Larson who serve in the office and previously served in the office in Toulouse France were telling us how much the Church spends in that mission to bring the gospel to relatively few and we know this is true of other missions. We see how much is expended to keep the Employment Centre running—computers, supplies, our monthly council tax, the rest of our rent, utilities, etc. We have had an average of 33 people come in to the Centre each month with 3 placements. Last month we had 45 come for help with 6 placements. That’s not a lot of people but the Lord cares about each individual and our circumstances—spiritual and temporal!

We have added more countries to our visitors’ list—France, Senegal, Cameroon, Brazil, Zaire, Zambia—and we’d like to tell you about another of the people who has come to the Centre. Jeanne (not her real name) is from Moldova but has been living in Italy with her mother. She has some emotional problems at times. She is a beautiful girl, 30 years old, and wants very much to be able to support herself and live as an adult, not dependent on her mother. She has been a waitress but wasn’t getting many work hours and wanted something different. She couldn’t qualify for some jobs she had dreamed of and didn’t want to study further. She was constantly praying for help and keeping the commandments, but she was getting desperate for work, emotionally distraught, and about to give up and go back to Italy. As she left the Centre one day, feeling very discouraged, Kaye had the idea to tell her about a part-time cleaning job at the BYU Centre. They were looking for someone with a temple recommend and Jeanne qualified in that regard. It was not the kind of job she had hoped for and at first she seemed put off and perhaps offended at the suggestion. We told her we would tell the employer she might be coming to apply, and she left. Kaye wondered if she even should have told her about it. She evidently applied because we learned that as she was visiting the temple a few days later, she got a call that she had the job! She had made the decision that no job was beneath her and she should try for this job. We learned a few days ago that she loves working there and has been given extra work hours. We realize we were prompted to tell her about this job but, at the time, we did not recognize it as inspiration. 

Jeanne had been blessed an earlier time when she was in the Centre. She told Kaye that she had been living at a hostel but needed a permanent place and she was going to move into a flat with a girl she had met on the underground. This did not seem safe to us and, in talking to Claire, one of our volunteers, we learned that the Hyde Park Stake Relief Society President had an extra room she was about to advertise for rent. She was contacted and took Jeanne in and it was such a blessing—safe, supportive, and homelike. Kaye talked to the RS President last week and she said it has been a blessing for her also. Even though Jeanne has her bad days, she is a good person, clean, pleasant, and they sometimes cook for each other, etc. The Lord watches out for his children!!! He loves us all and blesses us every day, many times without our notice or acknowledgement.

Another great person we have met is the Assistant Ward Mission Leader in the ward we attend. Brother Canaan Kangetsambo, from Nigeria, has taught the last two lessons, on repentance and baptism, in the Gospel Principles class. Sunday, at the end of the lesson on baptism, he bore his testimony saying that before he joined the Church, he was doing bad things. When he repented and was baptized, he felt his sins were washed away. He said because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, he can partake of the Sacrament to renew that baptismal covenant and he can pray and repent daily and, he said, “The Lord forgives me each and every day.” His complete faith in the power of the Atonement and his sweet acceptance of the Lord’s gift is beautiful! He has a kind and peaceful countenance and a quiet, humble confidence. “Oh, it is wonderful!”

Over and over we see how the Gospel blesses people’s lives.

We can't resist putting in a couple of pictures. We recently visited the town of King's Lynn in the north part of the mission.

Kaye's Lynn, too!

Stories of Amazing People

We would like to share stories of a couple of people who have come to the Centre for employment help. One is a young man in his thirties from Lebanon. You can feel his sweet spirit when you look into his eyes. He is very well-qualified and experienced for certain jobs but lost his good job when the company he worked for went out of business. We have heard more of his story from the YSA couple, Elder and Sister Phillips from Orem.  For two weeks this young man had a strong spiritual impression to enter the church house but had resisted. When he finally came in, he had only been there for 10 minutes before Elder Phillips entered the building. As Elder Phillips walked by the young missionary sisters he heard them teaching this young Christian man from Lebanon. This man really KNEW his bible and the sisters were having a hard time staying up with him. Elder Phillips introduced himself and they began to talk. That introduction ended up being a full hour-long discussion. This young man has been a student of the Bible his entire life and has spent his whole life searching for the truth. Elder Phillips said he was hungering for what he was hearing.

When they met the next day, one of his first questions was about how those who never had a chance to receive the gospel were going to be saved. They discussed 1 Peter 3:18-19 and 1 Peter 4:6, 1 Corinthians 15:29. The young man, who was a great student of the Bible, said excitedly, "This is in the Bible? How have I never seen this in the Bible?!!!! The hair on my arms are standing up!!!" Brother Phillips was able to testify of a loving Father who will give EVERY ONE OF HIS CHILDREN a chance to hear and understand.

Another time, as this young man was reading the Book of Mormon, he said the spirit very clearly whispered, "Stop making this difficult!" He said he heard it twice. He said, "So I am believing!" Elder Phillips told him, the Lord "wants us to ask questions, but it's the way we ask that makes all the difference. One who questions without wanting to find answers will never find the truth. But one who asks questions with the desire to find and understand makes it possible for the spirit to testify to the truth when they hear it."

Elder Phillips told him that he thinks his job dilemma is part of God's plan. He would never have had time to search out the church working 100 hours a week. Sister Phillips remarked, “God loves and knows each of His children and opens the way for those that truly are seeking to find the truth.” It is our blessing to meet this young man and try to help him in his job search.

One of the young people we have gotten close to is Marius from Romania. He told us how his family opposed his meeting with the missionaries and reading the Book of Mormon. He hid his Book of Mormon in the woods and would go out there to read. He was secretly baptized four years ago and when his parents found out, they were so upset and fearful because of things they had heard, he had to leave. Eventually, his family has seen the change in him (he had been quite a troublemaker) and he is able to live with them when he goes back to visit and he sends them money when he can. He is in London working to save money to go on a mission later this year. Recently he went to the temple for the first time to do baptisms. He was so thrilled with the experience that he returned the next day on his bicycle, traveling 26 miles each way! Elder Phillips put it this way: "He rode his bike 5.5 hours each way in pouring rain and freezing winds to do 12 baptisms. That’s almost one hour for each person he was baptized for to make sure their work was done." Marius told us that as he was being confirmed he could tell if the person was receiving the ordinance or not. Sister Phillips, who was in the temple with the YSA group recorded: "When it was Marius' turn to be baptized I sat and watched him. I wasn't sure what was happening, if it was nervousness or what but I knew something was affecting him deeply. When he was finished I was there to wrap a towel around him and it was like he was ready to explode! He kept saying 'I know these people. I feel who they are. I know them. I had no idea it could be like this! Please let me do more!'

"I was a witness of heavenly JOY. He had paid such a price to be there that the outpouring of the spirit was equal to the sacrifice he had paid...It's also a testimony to me of what can happen in the Lord's house if we are prepared to receive it!"

We are privileged to know these amazing young people.

Marius at the temple. The sign says, in part, "Because of Him all things are possible, even eternal life...He Lives!"

With Marius at the Employment Resource Centre. He calls us his American grandparents.