He is the Gift

Time is FLYING by!

Oh my goodness. 

We had an interesting week. It was pretty slow because my companion got sick so we stayed home for one day of the week.

I think my favourite part of the week was Sunday. This Sunday evening we had a special "come and see fireside". It is specially designed for investigators and less actives. It was so good!!! 

We were asked to sing at the fireside, so we sang "i feel my saviours love", i was so nervous i could feel my face going red but because we sang it brought one of our investigators there. So that was good. She is so cute, because she is so proud of us when we sing. It touches her and touches me that she cares so much. She's like a mum in that sense, supporting us and loving us and being proud of us for our achievements:) We've been trying to help her recognize and feel the spirit and she said when we sang she felt the love of what we were singing, i tried telling her that maybe it was the spirit. the talks later on in the meeting touched on answers to prayer and how we can receive the answers to our prayers when we act in faith not standing still. 

The speakers were Yuri, a man who just recently came back to church, and Tui Birch, a man who just got baptised. They are brother-in-laws. There story is a miracle story.  It's been beautiful to see their whole family come back to church and join the church after many years. 

The following speakers after the beautiful ward choir sang a wonderful rendition of "Joseph Smiths first prayer" was the mission presidents counsellor and his wife. President and Sister Higgins. They spoke so powerfully and beautifully on things that i needed to hear as well as my investigators. wow. As i said before it was mentioned how we can receive answers to our prayers. 1. Through dreams 2. Through the ones we love and trust 3. through prayer. that was his wife and then one of the things that stuck out to me that president higgins said was that our lives are kind of like a gps on a phone. If you are standing still it can't tell you how to get to your destination, it won't say go left, right, turn around etc but you must be moving in order for it to tell you where to go. This is related to faith, how can we receive answers to our prayers if we are being dormant and not moving. It was so good.

John Stewart, the man i talked about last week came to church and to the fireside. He is doing great and i really believe that he will be baptized. He is solid as and really soaking it all up, he wants to know everything.

Please pray for these people John Stewart, John slater, Maree, Daniel and Cindy, Dane, Molly, Tata.

I have been praying that i will have one more baptism before i go home and the Lord has blessed me with my desire. There is a little girl who just turned 9 that is a daughter of a recent convert of a year. Annaliese is her name and she wants to be baptized asap. So we have scheduled for the 20 of December. Please pray that it will all work out and be a good experience!

i Love you all and i am so grateful for this wonderful opportunity that i have had to serve a mission. I have learned so much but most importantly i have learned that my father in  heaven lives. He loves us, he knows us and i know it! I love him for what he has so graciously done by giving us his son Jesus Christ as our gift for Christmas.

We are doing something called the "He is the Gift" initiative. If you have not watched it yet please go tochristmas.mormon.org and discover the gift for yourself, embrace it and then share it. the world needs to know about the wonderful gift of our saviour Jesus Christ.

love you

sister Bird