The Work Continues Forward!

My heck, you drive worse than me!  Slaughtering an innocent deer who just wanted to get to the other side?  Heartless.  Really heartless.  Haha :) .  I'm glad everything turned out ok!  That's pretty crazy.  Now both you and dad have hit a deer (his was already dead though, I think).  My first driving lesson went really well, the instructor is a decent chap and pretty nice.  I just kept drifting too close to the curb because I'm not used to having the car on that side of me.  Plus, the roundabout system here is utterly confusing.  I guess I'll learn it eventually though.

The baptisms from this week and last were fantastic!  Last week was for M, S, and P, who are the family of M, who was baptized a few days after I started training.  They are a family from Rotherham, the second one now to join the church, and they are all amazing.  S wanted me to baptize him, so that was a great experience as well.  M, the father, has also been extremely active in doing missionary work with Elder Sindylek and Krylborne, who are now the only ones working in Rotherham (as they have a car, they took that over while Elder Frahm and I largely took over Darnall).  On a nearly daily basis he goes teaching with them and has even gone with them to find people to teach.  When he did that, he met some long lost family members, and they gladly let them all in.  They are now progressing very well and have come to church for several weeks in a row.  They walk, not having money to afford a bus, all the way from Rotherham, which is even further away from where we meet for church than we walk from our flat.  All of these things started out as a result of Frantisek (the father of the other member family in Rotherham) sharing his testimony with M, a stranger at the time, and inviting him to listen to the people who changed his life (the missionaries).  Pretty amazing, right?  And that miracle is still continuing with their continued devotion to God, that's the best part.

The baptism of this weekend was V and T, a mother and son that we found just over a month ago as a result of a member referral.  They have been so great at accepting the gospel and changing their lives to live it.  After about a week of meeting with the family, we taught about how V needed to give up smoking before baptism, and within a week and a half she completely quit.  T told us as we walked to church with him the first time that he would go to church every week the rest of his life (he's 11), and so far he's made good on his word.  M, another son of V is scheduled to be baptised this month as well, because he missed his baptismal interview and we had to postpone it.  He's been fellowshipping other nonmembers and encouraging them to come to church as well, though he's only 15.  D, the father of the home, is from the Czech Republic, and is a really good guy.  He's quick at understanding the scriptures and doctrine, and we're working with him to help him give up smoking so that he can join his family.  Across the street from them live some recent converts (R and D) who have come teaching with us for more than half of our lessons there, and have provided a great influence for good with the family.

Those are just a small piece of the miracles going on here in the Sheffield 4 branch, and there are many more to come.  Thanks for the pictures and email, I look forward to hearing about the miracles in your letter.  I sent you a picture, too--what do you think about my hat?  I like it :) .  Talk to you next week, and I love you all lots!

Mojou laskou,

Starsi Brown