Sunday, July 13, 2025

Sunday, July 13, 2025

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Our numbers at church are getting lower. This is a hard time of year. It did the same thing last year. 

We had a new person attend church today. He is from the UK and before that was from China. His name is M Alan Sun. He shared a little bit about himself in priesthood meeting and said that he joined the church last year in August And he is here with his work. He brought a young lady friend and her name was Olivia with him from St Lucia who is not a member but he is staying with as part of his work. I guess they rent out their house or part of it and he is staying there for about a month or so trying to determine whether he should stay here or he will go back after 5 or six weeks to the UK. He said being here has its advantages with his work because he's closer to the time schedule of the US where most of the people he deals with live. He was saying when he was in China that he was not even a Christian and knew nothing of Jesus Christ. When he moved to the UK he said he was walking down the road and ran into 2 missionaries from the Church. They were lost and asked him for directions and I guess struck up conversation and begin to teach him and he liked what they had to say and eventually joined the church. He told us that later the missionaries said that they were not even supposed to be on that road but got lost which led them to asking him for directions which ultimately resulted in his baptism. It was an amazing story.

Sister Diann Davey spoke in church today along with the missionaries and they all did a great job But I was really impressed with Sister Diann's talk on the importance of pain tithing and how it has blessed her life. It really touched me. She told a story of when she was young and her husband needed a surgery And had to have $1000 or maybe it was $7000 to cover the cost. She had a stand where she sold things. She said she went into her branch president and asked if he would loan her the $7000 And he said he would get back with her. He finally came to her house and said he would not loan her the $7000 but would give her the money if she would do one thing. She asked what it was and he said if she would become a full tithe payer. She promised him she would. She said that why she was trying to save money that the Lord blessed her so much in her shop that every day or two she had to buy more stuff to sell and she just kept selling and selling where the shops next to her were not selling anything. Over time she had the money to pay for the surgery. I can't remember exactly all the details but she forgot to pay her tithing And when she went in for her husband's surgery there was no room in the hospital. The doctor said he would show her how to take care of her husband after the surgery. Because the husband would not be able to stay in the hospital they gave her all her money back. She was amazed. Then she went back to her shop working and she said the strangest thing happened. No one bought anything from her stand people would stop by and look at things ask her how much and then put it back But after a few days of this going on and not a single item selling she realized she had not paid her tithing as she promised her branch president. She went and paid her tithing and then she said her cells went back to normal. Diann bore a powerful testimony of paying tithing.

We really have been blessed and I see more people paying their tithing. I know it will bless their lives also. 

Cherley and her son Snyder came to church today. I guess she does not really understand English to well so the sisters are looking for some French sister missionaries to teach her and maybe that will help her understand the gospel better.

Lambert didn't show up again for priesthood meeting or church for that matter. So I taught the lesson. In a difficult class to teach because Benjamin is always making comments that are kind of out there a bit and he wants to control the narrative And it doesn't give others a chance to say anything. To make matters worse today there was a friend of the sisters and he wanted to control the entire conversation and he wasn't even a member It was kind of annoying' cause we were trying to get some discussion going on things that would bring us closer to Christ through attending church.. It was hard to understand anyway he talked really fast He was an older gentleman who didn't speak plain English anyway. Anyway we seem to get through it But not as much as I anticipated that we would.

We had branch council this evening It is painful to hold that meeting because I get hardly any discussion from anybody so I'll throw ideas out there and ask them what they think and they'll just say that's a good idea with no input. I did get a little bit of input on having a family history day with a couple that are coming into town that are gurus in that area. I would like to take advantage of them and maybe help the youth find names that they can take to the temple for FSY.

Sam called this evening and we visited about what was going on with him and his family. He seems to be busy with his doctoring responsibilities. It sounds like he's getting good experience and learning lots of different things.

A green lizard