Stories from Ruth #64

Sorry I did not write last week. We moved flats and then everything has just been crazy since. This transfer Sister Shin and I are staying together In Gillingham! However, we have a new flat. The senior sisters moved to the temple and we moved into their lovely flat. I get to wake up to seeing the water every morning.

 

This week we met a lot of bashers. One day we had this guy named Lingo call us and he asked to meet and we told him we would share more of the Book of Mormon. Well we met him and he brought his friend. We asked if we could start the lesson with a prayer and Lingo said a harsh no. Sister Shin and I were taken aback. Lingo's friend said it was okay but Lingo vehemently denied. His friend pacified him and we prayed and then Lingo told us that in his church women are not allowed to pray. If they were in church together Lingo would have to pray for him mom. He then also told us that no matter how much we read or believed The bible if we did not wear the cross we were not Christians and would be damned and he would not accept that a person who did not wear the cross believed in Christ. I told him that was making the cross and idol and worshiping it instead of Jesus. We then tried to explain the restoration and they were just hung up on the trinity no matter how many scriptures we showed them. In the end we introduced the Book of Mormon and invited them both to pray which they refused to do. After all of this Lingo asked me out... that take guts I will give him that but bless him no!

Then we had another lesson right after with two guys from Romania who were fine until they heard about the Book of Mormon and they were just telling us how they have heard awful things from their uncle who is a baptist minister. They asked why other Christians hate us and I asked why the pharisees hated Christ. They showed us scriptures and we dis back and then we showed them scriptures from the Book of Mormon and pray. Then they, as the two boys before, said that they did not want to read and would bot pray. Then after some more conversation and pleading with them to pray the younger one looked at the both of us and said "if you are christian, why do you have earings?" I simply told them that women were only allowed one pair while men none, and that we did not drink or smoke, etc., etc..

Well let's just say we had a good laugh on the way home.

I want to share a scripture from the Book of Mormon:
Moroni 7:45 "And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
46 "Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail—
47 "But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.
48 "Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen."

I know that this is true. Charity is something that we must learn to develop, not just a love for people, but every single one of those attributes, and become pure even as Christ is pure. I know that God is our loving Heavenly Father and will help us as we strive to become more like him and overcome the natural man. I love this gospel. I know the Book of Mormon is true and I am grateful for this opportunity to serve.

Merry Christmas 2018

New Portraits

This Week at Our House #49

I feel a little astounded that this year is coming to an end already. It has been such a hard year. I know I will never look back on it with delight, but we have learned and experienced a lot, including having several of our own little miracles to ease us through this difficult time.

We finished off one week of school in December and have one more to go before vacation. On the whole, the kids are doing well completing their work and keeping up on the household chores, but I can tell that we all need that break.

1. John has been keeping us thinking about Christmas and celebrating the holiday. He's been having us play music and sing and read stories and do extra service and baking and such. It's always nice when I am not in charge of making the holidays holiday-esque. 
2. Ugh, I reached the uncomfortable part of pregnancy. I have a month to go and I can feel it. My abdomen and back and legs are aching a lot more. I am thinking more about the baby and life with a newborn, and time has slowed down. On Wednesday, I kept thinking it had to be Friday. I am still managing the GD diet well. I have had no desert and no candy for months now. I think this is the longest I have been sugar-free, and I would never have done this during the holidays on purpose. There's a reason diets start after the new year.
3. Ruth is staying where she is at with the companion she has for the next transfer.
4. Kate got sick this week. We've had a little something that seems to cause a short term fever and mild nausea going through the home. Most people have been fine with it and better between 4 and 24 hours. Kate was not so lucky. She had all the symptoms magnified, plus severe headaches and dizziness and it lasted most of the week for her. 
5. Johnny has his own little office now, which happens to be my bedroom closet, but he gets more done now without all the littles around to bug him.
6. Adam exercises  daily. He'll go out and run, and lift weights often, but everyday he does 300 situps and 50 pushups. John was watching him exercise and said, "You know, I think me being fat has benefited you." Adam exercises because he likes to eat, and he is a lot stronger because of it.
7. Rachel is the last girl in the family, aged 8 and older, to still be reading the Book of Mormon for the challenge from the prophet. We warned her ahead of time, that she needed to be more steady and read more daily. She did not heed the warnings and is now trying to read 10 chapters a day. She did, however, make bread twice this week, and she has improved on her math.
8. Anya finished the Book of Mormon early in November and has almost gone through it a second time to get some things she may have missed reading it so quickly. 
9. Joseph has been having trouble sleeping at night. I am not sure if I should be mad or glad that he is preparing me for a newborn. But I rejoice the nights he sleeps all night without feeling afraid or just having a hard time falling to sleep.
10. Joshua likes to wrap and give gifts. But he wants to do a lot of easy to make things very fast, which doesn't turn out so well. Today I noticed that Kate was frustratingly trying to convince him to slow down and do a better more careful job on what he is making, so that those getting the gifts will actually enjoy them.
11. Arwen either did really well with her school work or terribly this week. She either did it fast and well or just sat for hours looking at a work sheet and doing nothing more. I think Arwen is most ready for a vacation.
12. Suzy pointed to the girl with naturally curly hair in a Charlie Brown's Christmas and said, "That is me." We all agree. Suzy really likes her naturally curly hair. But she would also like it to be longer, I think. Yesterday she was wearing her dress inside out and only just over her head, like a nun's cap. I asked her what it was and she said, "It's my long hair."
13. Sam was sick the first part of the week. He could not sleep at night and he laid around tired and uncomfortable, but awake during the day. We knew when he started to feel better because he started making lots of messes. He got into the pantry and dumped out dry beans everywhere; he took the clean silverware out of the drawer and dumped it all in a dirty laundry basket; he stole Kate's drawing board and pencil and broke the pencil and scribbled all over her drawings; he played with the plunger in the toilet; he played with the hose in the kitchen sink; he dumped out board games, and then finally we realized he needed a one on babysitter or to be in bed or to have a tv show on.
14. Gideon's head was down this week, but the amniotic fluid is still high and he could be still spin around. I have the next ultrasound on Monday, so we will see if he is head up or down or transverse. It is hard to tell with the extra fluid.

Pictures

Josh's male duck

Arwen's female duck