Called to Serve : Prayer works ladies and gents! God is actually listening! I am absolutely sure of it:)

I absolutely love my companion, Sister Fenu.

As an activity for P-day, we went to a Sikh temple today and wow that was an interesting experience! So we get there and go inside the temple and ask if we can look around.., and immediately they were like, "Of course! This is Gods temple! Everyone is welcome!" It was really interesting. So yes we go in and we have to wear a scarf on our heads and take our shoes off, and the guy that was helping us out took us upstairs to the Holy room called the Darbar. You sit on the floor in there and people would walk in, go up to the front bow down and kiss the floor, pray, and then go and sit down on the wall and meditate. That was cool to watch! Then after they have like a soup kitchen type thing downstairs and serve Indian food so we had lunch at the Sikh Temple today:)

God has been very good to us this week! I feel like one very blessed missionary. Let's see what happened...... We were at a member's home the other day and some Jehovah Witnesses knocked on the door.... yeah that was awkward. And this week I definitely taught a less active family about Jesus Christ using a Rubix cube and they definitely came to church yesterday. #success. Toba is still doing really well and loves the Book of Mormon!! WOOO. All around it was a great week:)

Inside the Sikh Temple

This week we had two exchanges with the Romford and the Cambridge sisters and I was the one who stayed in the area both times though! So yes I have been doing lots of travelling this week as well.... It takes us 2.5 hours to get to Cambridge so on Thursday and Friday I did 5 hours of traveling! We have to travel into central London, take the tube to Kings Cross station (aka Harry Potter), then take a train to Cambridge! Goodness I love my life right now:) All of these sisters I get to serve with are so wonderful and I love getting to know them and learning from them!!!

I learned a lot about prayer this week. First of all, an 8 year old prayed that we wouldn't get blown up by a volcano...... Thank goodness for that. I was getting worried! Bless his sweet heart:)

We found this new investigator called Raees this week and man he is sooooo good! He is 24 and

P-Day visit to the Sikh Temple

when we were Carolling outside the chapel before Christmas he came up to us and said he has been thinking about meeting with us to learn more... Well we finally got to see him this week and dang I have never taught anyone with a more sincere heart than this guy!! He has always believed in some kind of higher power but has never known what it was... And some very serious things have happened in his family that has made him wonder.... Positive things! Well we had such an amazing lesson with him!

Here is where the prayer thing comes in... He has never prayed out loud before in His life. We taught him about prayer and how when we pray we are really speaking to God and God is really listening to us. He agreed to say the prayer and all I can say is....... wow. This is the first time this guy has ever prayed out loud and I don't think I have ever heard a more sincere and beautiful prayer in my whole life. He was really speaking to God as if he was right there. It was amazing!

Beautiful London at Night

This experience made me really think about my own personal prayers. Unlike Raees I have been praying out loud ever since I started to speak, and far too often are my prayers too casual and I forget that I am actually speaking to my Heavenly Father! I set a goal this week to improve my prayers and wow that made such a difference!

I just wanted to invite you all to think about your own personal prayers. I remember an institute teacher always asking us this question...... "How is your prayer life?"

So I ask you the same question.... How can you improve the quality of your prayers this week?

Prayer works ladies and gents! God is actually listening! I am absolutely sure of it:)

KEEP THE FAITH.

ONWARD AND UPWARD.

Sister Sara Ranck