I Love Westcotes

Dear Family (and friends),

This week was amazing! I have to say, it was definitely not what I expected, but it was amazing. We taught some incredible people this week. We've been slowly getting to know the ward and I have felt the Spirit testify of truth frequently this week and deepen my understanding of doctrines. 

So. To start of with. Leicester is really really diverse. I LOVE it! We have met so many people from all around the world. There are loads of Polish  and African people we've talked to. We've also seen and talked to quite a few chinese. 

Some of the cool people we've found this week: 

S5- We found her GQ'ing and she expressed interest in deepening her relationship with God. We set up the return appointment and she came! We were over the moon because we'd been stood up for lessons over 10 times already. She wasn't quite sure what to expect, but it was a really good lesson. She was really open and honest with us and really trusted us. We taught her twice this week and she came to church this Sunday! She had a positive experience at church which was wonderful. I'm excited to see how she continues to progress this upcoming week. 

DJ- he is hilarious! He is from Kenya originally but has been in the UK for 10 years. When we originally stopped and talked to him he was a little drunk, but interested nonetheless. We set up a return appointment with him. The first lesson was memorable. He was drunk for that as well... but he seems to be slowly changing.  The last 2 times we have seen him he hasn't been drunk. And he wasn't drunk when we came to church on Sunday with us. He is a character!! He was reading the words to the Hymn "I Believe in Christ" before sacrament meeting started and he really liked it. I know the spirit touched his heart this Sunday. 

T6- We are unsure what religion T6 actually is because he keeps on changing his mind, but he seems to have a past (or ties) with Orthodox, Catholic and Rastafarian beliefs. When we taught him the first lesson the Spirit was so strong! Especially as we talked about Joseph Smith. We taught him twice this week. The second lesson of the week was pretty interesting because his Rastafarian nephew was there for it, and there was a shouting match that started in the middle of the lesson between T6 and another resident at the care home he lives in. Nothing too strange for me though- I spent a year working at a care home, and anything goes haha. Needless to say, we said another prayer to get the spirit back :) T6 is cool though, and he definitely loves the Savior. 

We also taught a Muslim man this week and had a very interesting time. Basically we shared our message and he shared his. I did learn a lot about Islam though. I don't think we'll be seeing much of him, because he is very devoted to his beliefs, but it was a good experience. 

We have met some really really cool people this week while finding and I am looking forward to meeting many of these people and sharing the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them. I love leaving a conversation with someone on the street and feeling like I was able to truly teach and testify and that they listened. It was happened many times this week and I am grateful! 

During my personal studies this week I have learned a lot about the Savior. Jesus is the only begotten of the Father. This is an important doctrine which I know to be true. He did live a perfect life here. He was subjected to temptations, but he never gave in, he was rejected, but he was still true to his Father. As it says in John 15, He is the vine, and we are the branches. We can only produce fruit when our vine is Christ. He is the living water. 

During Zone meeting this week, the focus was on what we can do to help our investigators be converted. The most important things that they can do are come to church, read, understand and have spiritual experiences in the scriptures and pray sincerely and fervently to Heavenly Father. Daily! And we need to be mindful of our relationship to Him. He is our Father! The same basics that help them be converted apply to us. If we hope to truly be converted in the first place and then remain converted we must be doing these things diligently throughout our life. I have a testimony of this, I have already seen this help investigators and I have also seen it help me be (and stay) converted. My challenge to you this week is : If you are lacking in one of these areas, take steps to be better! Kneel down and have that meaningful prayer to Heavenly Father where you pour your heart out to him. Truly immerse yourself in the scriptures, and make church a meaningful experience! 

Now for some pictures:

 

 

A picture with new companion. She's from Utah (has moved around a lot within Utah county). We're close to the same age, were in the same MTC group and she it wonderful!

I love you much!!

Sister Roscher

Westcotes!

Family!! 

Firstly, I was just transferred to..... Westcotes B! Our area covers 1/8 of the city of Leicester, and the ward boundaries are 1/4 of the city of Leciester. My new companion is Sister Curtis. She is in the same MTC group as me, so we already kind of know each other! Also, we are Re-opening the area so we're both brand-new to the area and the ward. The area had been closed for about 4 weeks. Needless to say, its been a fun but faith-building adventure for the last 5 days here! 

We've been out finding pretty much all day everyday, and I've been really enjoying it. We've met some really cool people and have been able to teach and testify. We're looking forward to this upcoming week. Hopefully we'll see some new investigators this week as a result of our finding efforts and faith :) 

Our flat is really cute and nice and we have been finding our way around pretty well with the help of our trusted map. We've already seen many evidences of the Lord's hand helping us in the work here. He is definitely mindful of us and this area. Leicester is a lot more diverse than Swindon was, which I am loving! Its fun to be a missionary in a bigger city. 

Leaving Swindon was hard, but good. The people and the ward are amazing and I know they will continue to do great things with the missionaries there :) I learned so much in Swindon. I had hard times and good times there and in the end, I know that I am a better person because of it.

This week, as we have had to chance to focus on the Savior and his resurrection I have have felt the spirit testify to me once again that Jesus is the Christ. That he did overcome death and sin, and that He Lives!!!! It truly is amazing. His atonement is something that I don't understand perfectly, but I know that it is real. I am grateful to be serving Him right now. It is such a blessing! 

Love you, hope all is well at home! 

Pictures: 

 All of the food that the ward gave us, how sweet are they?! And let me say... we really needed that food. We're pretty much out of funds until we get reimbursements in!

My burst tire/tube (which I fixed all by myself I might add, I've learned a thing or 2 about bikes in the last few months :P )

  English people don't do the plastic Easter egg thing, they've never even heard of them. BUT they do do this: chocolate Easter eggs with candies in them. A family gave them to us on Sunday, so sweet!

This is a picture of our front door. England has really cute, colourful front doors! More pictures of the flat to come.

3- my burst tire/tube (which I fixed all by myself I might add, I've learned a thing or 2 about bikes in the last few months :P )

4- all of the food that the ward gave us, how sweet are they?! And let me say... we really needed that food! We're pretty much temporarily out of funds until we get reimbursements in!

Happy Easter!

Written on April 14, 2014. I've been a couple posts behind ;)

Family!

I figured I'd wish you a Happy Easter before rather than after it :)

This week has gone by incredibly fast. I don't even know what happened to it!

We have seen some progress with our investigators this week. They are keeping commitments and are increasing their faith. D3 (I don't know if I talked about him, we found him door knocking on the street with only 8 doors) came to church this Sunday! We were pretty excited about that. It was his first time ever attending any church. He was amazed at the faith which members demonstrated and he really enjoyed Fast and Testimony meeting.

G committed to a baptismal date! We are so excited! We have much to do in order to ensure that he is ready for May 10, but he has the desire and is slowly increasing his faith.

Ps is doing ok, but he has had some recent doubts. We are being faithful and patient and working with him to resolve concerns and teach to his needs. He is still pretty amazing though.

Probably the most eventful things this week were: #1 we found out Sister Appleby will be training this upcoming transfer, and #2 we went on exchanges (I got to go back to Harborne!)

Harborne. So many memories. It was so fun to go back, but its never the same when you go back and it's not your area. It was fun though. Because some areas were realigned I got to GQ (GQing is asking the questions "Who am I?" "Why am I here?" etc.) on some of the roads that I walked on every day! I got to see the University of Birmingham campus clock tower, the Queen Elizabeth hospital and some of the other sights that are so near and dear to me. It was crazy to think back to about almost exactly a year ago when I got there! I have learned so much as a missionary since then.

Transfers happen in 2 days, so we'll see where I go to (assuming I go, you never do know what will happen!) You'll get to hear next week :)

 

Here are some pictures:

On Friday we went to the mission home for the trainers meeting, and one of our connection trains was in Oxford (which is out of the mission). So, I seized  the opportunity to take a picture of the sign at the train station. We were only there for about 5 minutes though, and don't worry, we had permission from President to catch the train through oxford :)

Every Sunday morning for the last 2.5 transfers Sister Appleby and I have taken a picture. Here's the one from this week.

 

 Love you all!

Sister Roscher

Oh How I Love Conference!

* If you don't know what General Conference is, watch this video:

 

 

I've gone through and added some links to help you find out more about General Conference if you're curious. You're always welcome to email Sister Roscher at meghan.roscher@myldsmail.net if you'd like to ask her a question or I can answer questions in the comments section.* 

 

This week has been absolutely amazing. Its been miracle after miracle, and finished with conference (*this link takes you to the conference homepage where you can find audio, video, and text of every talk given*)  How amazing is that?

This week started out on a pretty spectacular note. Tuesday we were out tracting on a road we felt we should go down. We got there and found that it only had 8 doors on it. We were a little bit taken back, but knocked the road anyways. 3 doors answered, and at all 3 we got return appointments! We even had a doorstop lesson with one of them. Then we had several other miracles as the day progressed, and I kept on thinking 'surely they are going to stop soon.' But they didn't! We had twenty minutes before we had to head to ward coordination and we went to the street we planned to knock figuring we'd be able to knock a couple of doors. We got to the street and were deciding which side to knock. Sister Appleby and I both felt a distinct impression that we needed to knock the right side. 4 doors later, we found Ps, a young man from Nepal. He was Christian, and had just recently been coming back to belief. He had just started reading the Bible again and praying. We taught him a lesson on the spot. There was a woman home with him, so we were able to go in and teach a proper lesson! We met with him 2 other times this week and he attended the Sunday morning session of General Conference. At the end, he expressed how it had been a very positive experience for him. He really felt it strengthened his faith. He said that when the prophet was speaking he felt overwhelmed with emotion. He's so amazing!

Also, G. We experienced some setbacks with him this week, but he called us on Saturday night after having read the Book of Mormon 2 days in a row. He said he felt 'tingly' inside when he read it. He began to cry on the phone, thanking us for the things we were teaching him. He was at his wife's cemetery on Saturday and felt God's love. He also felt, based on the things we'd been teaching him, he needed to forgive his sister and patch up an estranged relationship they have had for a number of years. I was so humbled while this man was crying on the phone. The gospel has already changed his life and will continue to do so as he allows it to!

Some themes which I noticed at conference and really liked? Discipleship, Covenants, having our foundation on Christ and of course... MISSIONARY WORK! hahah :)

We watched the general women's meeting too and I LOVED it. Throughout all of conference, and especially in the women's meeting I felt so close to you, family. Its funny how we can be so far away from one another, yet I felt so close to you! It was almost as if I was watching it with you, but just couldn't see you. It is a blessing. Sister Merrill described it this way when watching conference: "We are closer than we are far in heart through the everlasting gospel of Jesus Christ!" I've copied it here, because it's how I felt too, she's just more eloquent than me!

Love you!
Sister Roscher

Here's a picture of Sister Roscher and Sister Appleby:

She's a ginger now!