Companions make all the difference in the world!

Meeting Up!

Dear President,

This has been one crazy week. Wow! I was able to go on an exchange with Sister Crookston. It was so good to see her and work with her again. She is the same Sister I worked with 9 months ago, but she has just grown and become more like the Saviour than even before. We had the chance to have a very fun but spiritual exchange.

 In the busy city of Manchester I saw a bus that said Sale on the front of it. That caught my attention because I have a relation that lives there. Sister Crookston then mentioned Sale was in her area. I reminded her of how long ago we had a family friend, Pauline, join the church in Manchester and later move to California introducing my Grandma and Grandpa, my Dad, and his siblings into the church. Well Pauline's sister, Margaret, lives in Sale. What is really amazing is I never usually bring my address book with me places. It usually stays at the flat, however, for some reason I brought it with me on exchange, and now I know why. We figured while on the exchange it would be the perfect time to go and see Margaret. During nightly planning we prayed whether to ring her first or just call by. We both felt the need to just call by.

 The next day we spent the morning in Piccadilly. We had miracle after miracle happen. It felt like we were back in Kendal. I felt the unity we felt 9 months ago come right back into our companionship. After having lunch in Piccadilly we hopped on a bus to Sale and realized we didn't have the map, but we figured we knew the general area where Margaret lives. When we got close we would ask people for further directions. As we got there and were asking around no one knew where this street was. For some reason though, we weren't worried. We said a little prayer and started walking to the post office to ask them where the street was. As we were walking Sister Crookston suggested we try down a certain street; what was crazy is literally just before she mentioned that I had that same thought. As we walked down it sure enough there was Margaret’s street.

 As we approached her home my heart started to beat faster and faster. We knocked a few times but no one answered. Both of us said, "They will be here." We just felt it. We ended up tracting her street while we waited, figuring they were out and would be back soon. As we did her neighbour’s let us in and offered us a biscuit and some hot chocolate. We sang her a hymn. She was such a sweet old woman. We told her what we were doing as missionaries and specifically why we were on her street. She had her son look out the window and let us know when he saw Margaret and her husband Bob get in. Sure enough about 30 minutes later they came home.

 That evening we were supposed to teach a lesson back in Stretford area however we got a phone call saying he had to cancel, which actually was a blessing because it gave us just enough time to visit with Margaret and Bob. As we approached their home a strange sense of calmness and excitement filled me. They were in their drive way and as I said I was Karen Prices grand-daughter they embraced us immediately and invited us in. Wow! It was fantastic.

 Margaret and Bob were very surprised we took such a risk in going out there without even calling. We told them of our experience of praying whether to ring first. Bob has cancer and so he could have had a hospital visit or many other things going on that very easily could have caused us to miss them, however the Lord brought everything into alignment. What a massive miracle. I will forever be grateful for this exchange.

 It truly felt as if this day was planned from even before I came to earth. It was probably one of the most significant days on my mission thus far. They showed us pictures and told us stories. We even sang them a hymn. They listened as I shared why I was here on my mission and how I gained my testimony. Margaret is a strong Catholic, however, the spirit was felt as we spoke of how our Heavenly Father has helped both of us. About 12 years ago Margaret had lessons with the missionaries and even read parts of the Book of Mormon. She did this mainly because her sister Pauline really wanted her to. They are very supportive of one another. I do not know what the results will be of our visit however; I do know that it was divinely designed to happen. 

 I am so happy I got to go there with Sister Crookston of all people. I have such a great love for her.

 President I know I am here serving in England for a reason. I know that this day was planned from long before. I love you.

-Sister Alyssa Ann Longmore

PRAYER

Dear President Preston,

Wow, missionary work is great isn't it? I am learning so much about myself, especially as I have been able to serve around Sister Dunn and Sister Alston. Sister Dunn is very quirky and able to reach into the hearts of the Ashton people in a way that no one else can. She has a very strong testimony and isn't afraid to show it. As for her confidence in the area book and in planning, well, it is improving. I have been able to slow down and go through things more thoroughly with her. It makes me so happy to see both her and Sister Alston starting to grasp things that they find to be difficult. I have also done this with Sister Alston but more so with finding. She has found it very difficult to street contact, but she is starting to get it. This may sound weird, but, I really look forward to the day where I one day have actual children of my own, not missionary children, ha-ha, and get to help them in their progression in life. It is a very visible way to see the hand of the Lord.

As I have studied further into humility and virtue, the attributes I want to work on this year, I have discovered that they, and really all of the Christ-like attributes, can be developed by doing the simple things in the gospel. We must study the scriptures and pray earnestly if we want to change, develop, or become anything. This is one of the best ways to learn more of Christ, to come to know Him better, and to rely on the grace of God to help you become like Him. Whatever we focus on, that will end up happening to us. We see this even in different aspects of missionary work. If we focus on finding families, we will find families. If we focus on lifting members, we will be able to lift members. This flows naturally, as we involve the Lord in everything that we do constant communication with Him through prayer. Sister Dunn asked me this week what has helped me the most through out my mission to help me get to the 17-month mark. I told her that it was PRAYER! I have learned so much about prayer since being out, but the greatest thing I have learned about it is that I can do nothing with out it.

Our finding day was great! We saw many miracles as we involved the members. We went out finding with Cerise Brooks, Naomi Fletcher, and also with Lauren Hopwood.

I hope you and Sister Preston are doing all right. I appreciate what you both do for us. You have a long few weeks ahead of you with interviews coming up. Take deep breaths it will all be over soon. We do benefit from them though so thank you for doing them. I hope your Easter was fabulous. Have a happy General Conference.

-Love Sister Longmore

2 Companions & 2 Baptisms

March 27th

This last week has been the week of miracles. The icing on the cake was the baptism of Masoud and Habib. They both are from Iran and have lived here about 5 months. We met their friend on the street who said he was from Iran but was Christian and looking for a church. He didn't have too much time so we exchanged numbers and left him with a pass along card. Masoud and Habib came to church the following Sunday with the pass-a-long card with my hand writing on it. I was confused at first because I couldn't remember meeting them but then they explained how their friend had given it to them. A belief that there is a prophet on the earth today sparked an interest for them to learn more. We met with them about 3 times per week, each time with a member of the church. Because of this and their dedication to do what is right they progressed quickly and were excited to share the gospel and the news of living prophet with their friends. They were baptized on Saturday and were confirmed on Sunday, just one month from the day we met them. WOW!!!!! I am amazed. After church on Sunday we were able to witness them recieving the priesthood. After Masoud, recieved the Aaronic Priesthood, under the direction of Bishop Cook, he confired the same priesthood to Habib. He said the first bit in English to make sure he got the wording right but then he said the second part, the blessing, in Farsi. What was incredible was the ordinence took place in the high council room directly in front of the picture of the Savior ordaining the apostles. Wow! The spirit was so intense. I couldn't stop smiling. In addition to this excitement they were both called to be ward missionaries. We just had a lesson yesterday where they introduced 2 of their Iranian friends to us and one of them is a new investigator. Also another one of their friends came to their baptism. I love this work so so much. I know that it is by God's hand that it moves forward.

By the way today is transfers but I am staying in Ashton with Sister Dunn and Sister Alston for one more transfer. Yay! I like it here. This will be my last area. I can not even believe how quickly my mission has come and gone. I am just trying to work my absolute hardest. I told my companions I don't want to just fizzle out but rather I want to go out with a BANG!!!!

Never weary of good works

President Preston,

I want to thank you so much for talking with me yesterday. I was feeling quite overwhelmed and as I was praying I felt like I should call you and I am sure glad I did. I took your advice and took a small nap then I felt ready to go after that.

Please let me tell you about the lesson we had with Lisa Nazir at the Cooks home last night. Well, we were there about 10 minutes early to the lesson so we decided to tract around Tauntin Lawns even though most people would have seen missionaries many times before. As usual it was the last door we knocked on that someone actually wanted to talk and was willing to listen. The man we spoke with said he's been to the church before for the Christmas Carol concert, however didn't make it this year. He was very warm and even agreed that we could come over again some time to share about what the church is all about. Once we started setting up an appointment though he said he needed to talk with his wife first. We are just praying that his wife will be just as prepared and open as he is. We may even invite one of their many neighbours that are members to go and invite his wife to an enrichment activity. I just love how this work moves forward in the Lords way and in His timing. It feels so much better than thinking it came from me, because no way could it.

With the lesson we started by finishing up teaching the last parts of the Plan of Salvation that we couldn't fit into our last lesson. Sister Dunn did such a wonderful job leading us out in the lesson. She is really progressing quickly in her ability to teach and find. When it was my turn to talk about the resurrection and the judgement I was prompted in what to say. We started talking about something that we had spoken about before, daily repentance, which then led me to share how the only way to be truly completely cleansed from sin is through baptism and confirmation by someone holding the correct authority. The spirit then had me extend the baptismal invitation... I was scared President. I didn't know how she would respond, but as I did it, she really thought about it. She said if she knew that a wide-spread apostasy truly occurred then yes she would. Our lesson then went a completely different way. We spent the next 30 minutes talking about the apostasy and the priesthood authority. The spirit again prompted me to do something drastic. I started rummaging through my bag to find my white handbook. I always have this with me and when I really wanted I couldn't find it. I then realized I must have left it at home. I asked to borrow Sister Dunn's. I opened it up to the ministerial certificate and showed it to Lisa. I then read it replacing Sister Dunn's name with my name. I had her read the signature of President Monson. I then shared of how I felt when I was set apart and how I know that I was called of God and was called to serve here in the England Manchester Mission to meet people like her, to walk beside them and help them in their journey. The spirit was so strong. My eyes started watering as I felt of the truthfulness of what I was sharing. Lisa felt it too, and she too became emotionally. She then committed to put in an even more dedicated effort to know that the Book of Mormon is true, to praying with all her heart, and to come to church, which she hasn't done yet since we started teaching her. President this was such a sacred experience for me.

I love this gospel and am so grateful to be here on my mission and to have you as a mission president.

Love Sister Longmore

An instrument in his Hands

The greatest feeling is to be worthy to be an instrument in his hands and then feeling that your being used for good to help bring his work forward.

 

Yes we do sometimes get a little twisted around but thank goodness we have a "sat nav"  sattelite navigational system. That saves us a lot of time that would be wasted. We have had so so so many amazing things happen this week that I will try to share a different one with you mom and Cassie and then you can tell each other about them....

 

On Monday we had FHE at a members home and we invited our investigator. We asked if one of our members could give her a lift but he didn't get the message until literally right before he was about to come. We felt though that our investigator, her name is Margaret, needed to be there. One of the mission rules is that we are not allowed to give lifts to non-members and we can only give members lifts if they are coming to or from a teaching appointment with us. We really struggle to get our investigators to church because there aren't too many members with cars and the buses start running too late to get people to church on time. .... We had no idea how to get Margaret to the Bradley's for FHE so we prayed about it and I thought what if we order her a taxi? So that is what we did. I didn't care how much it costed, I would pay for it, she for some reason needed to be at this FHE I just felt it. The taxi ended up being £8.50 which really isn't too bad and Margaret was able to get there. During our lesson we went on this massive diversion from talking about how everything denotes there is a god to talking about forgiveness. That was why Margaret needed to be there. She is a 23 year old girl who is pregnant and she is having the hardest time forgiving herself. During the middle of the lesson I had the prompting to go out to our car and get a CD and play a song. It was the song by Hilary Weeks called Come in my Friend or something like that. It was amazing the spirit that was there. I love how no matter what we plan Heavenly Father's plan rolls forth. This was an amazing experience Dad. Margaret plans to be baptized on the 9th of February.

 

The Still Small Voice

I am so glad that you had a good activity full of revelation it sounds like. We had ward conference yesterday and it was incredible. The stake presidetn is truly inspired as Iam sure president Morgan is too. Here President Ireland talked about the spirit and how when we recieve spiritual promptings and acton them immediately the Lord will trust us more and we will recieve more spiritual promptings andmore and more. And the opposite is also true. President Monson is a great example of this. He recieves many promptings then never hesitates to go and do. Durring this combined priesthood and relief society lesson I recieved a prompting to go and visit a less active woman. She had only joined the chrch 1 year ago. She lived at an appartment complex that you have to ring a buzer first before you can get let in. These are really hard because people can more easily just hang up on you and not let you with out feeling too bad about it verses having to physically answer the door and then shut it in your face. That is a little bit more difficult on peoples conscience, yet some how it still happens. Well I had a prompting to go and stop by this girl and as we did the door into the complex was left open by someone so we were able to get in and knock on this girls door. As we did she started off all cold saying, "how did you get in here. I had concerns that never were answered and I took that as my answer. blah blah blah." We told her honestly that the door was left open and we were just new and wanted to get to know here. We showed gratitude for her and her kindness in talking with us she softened. I complimented her on this really great lego heart neclace she was wearing and she started to open up. She even started laughing with us. It was amazing. She then realized what had happened and all the sudden got all cold again. It was absolutely a front. She then said I'm not interested and shut the door. We then slipped a nice note under the door thanking her for talking with us and complimented her on her smile, because it truly was beautiful and we left our number. The spirit is an amazing thing. It is something we have with us as we are obedient and it truly changes hearts. I am so happy we went to see this girl. Heavenly Father guided us right to her.

Driving Crazy Style

Our week in Chester has been pretty good. It was sister Milbin's first time driving over here and no one gave her any instructions or anything. it was trial by fire. Luckily we have angels surrounding us looking after us. We only have hit one curb going about 40 mph. but we were ok as was the car. It just made me really nervous but the great thing was that I was able to talk that out with Heavenly Father and he somehow helped calm my nerves. Sister Milbin really is doing so great now. She just had to get used to it. It helps a lot that we now have a "Sat Nav" satalite Navagational system. That is what the call a GPS. We have had some amazing experiences. TThis Sunday we had a surprise visit at the end of church from president and sister Preston. They just wanted to make sure we were doing all right. I was so happy that they came. I needed a president and sister Preston hug. Not because I was sad or anything, we just have had a lot to do with having a baptism and trying to figure out a brand new area and moving into a house where there have been missionaries living for the last 26 years but never sister missionaries there and it looks and smells like it, the elders did the best they could but we just have a lot to do along with being a full time missionary, I was just getting a little stressed so it was  just nice to feel the support and love of our mission president.

Love you, Love Sister Longmore

Transfer Date-Morton

Thank you for up dating me on all that is going on. I love hearing about it. I can't believe that there will be 18 and 19 year olds out here serving missions. WOW!!! If that is not a sign that the work is hastening I don't know what is.

So I bet you are wondering if I stayed in Chorley or not. Well, I was transferred as was Sister Hanson, Meaning Sister Ballantyne will be staying and getting a follow up trainer. I am white washing another area called Chester. It is sort of by Birkenhead. In fact I am in the  Morton, "or Birkenhead" district. We are whitewashing the zone leaders. I am serving with Sister Milbin. She was trained 3 transfers ago by my old companion that I served with in Birkenhead, Sister Hoffman. Sister Milbin was born in Haiti and  lived there till she was 16 then moved to ontario Canada and then went to Uni in Alberta and lived there for the last 5 years. She is wonderful and so gentle and kind. This area seems to be great. I am really excited to work with the ward. The bishop, Bishop Goble, served his mission in Draper and said he was there when the temple was being built. I will have to talk with him and see if he ever visited our ward or any place we know. Bishop wants us to get involved with the youth council, which I am so excited for. I really loved it when I was doing that. It helped me to stay involved.

As for leaving Chorley and my 2 companions, I was really sad about it. I loved that area and loved the members and miracles we were experiencing. I may have shed a tear or two a few nights before leaving. I love being out here. Missionary life is one of a kind. We get once in a life time opportunities that will never come up again. I wish it could last forever but I know that there will be a lot of other really great things to come in my future as well. I will just enjoy the moments I have here.