Put your trust in the Lord

Hello all! 

Its me again! I hope you have had a great week full of learning and fun because I have! 

Even though some days are harder than others, I enjoy this work! Thank you for supporting me in this :)

Don't have much time so it might be a little short so I'm going to tell you all what I learned this week.

Monday - The tender mercies from Heavenly Father are everywhere, we must look for them and appreciate each one individually. 

Tuesday - We must do all we can do, trust in the Lord and give our all to him.

Wednesday - I want to be the man that is trust worthy, responsible and an example of a righteous priesthood holder for my children.

Thursday - The scriptures and family prayer are what we need to base our families off of. "A home that is founded upon righteous principals will be a place of refuge and safety" - Preach My Gospel

Friday- We need to be honest and open with people. We must let them know how we feel and why we feel that way. If we do this we will help them learn, grow and become their full potential. 

Saturday - "I fear not what man can do because perfect love casteth out all fear."- Book of Mormon. 

Sunday - Enduring to the end is not just pushing through your trials, it is persevering through them trusting in God, with an attitude of optimism and a brightness of hope. 

So yeah. That is what I learned this week through the missionary life :) I am really working hard to be effective with every moment and not just "going through" trials but loving and learning in each one of them. I am grateful for trials because they make me into the man that I want to be and that the Lord wants me to be. I can feel his spirit in my life abundantly and I strive to keep it with me every moment of every day. The best part of being a missionary is those little moments when you can feel Heavenly Fathers love for those around you. When you put your trust in the lord and ask him for help, he shows his abundant mercy and love. The biggest thing that has stood out to me this week is how much we truly need Heavenly Father in our lives. We need to always be praying for His help and thanking Him for everything that he gives us. I thank him EVERYDAY for you and what you mean in my life, you have helped me get to this point in my life and if it wasn't for you I wouldn't be here. Thank you for your support and confidence in me. I love you. Always remember that. 

Well I must dash!  I hope you all have a wonderful week where you can see how Heavenly Father loves you because HE DOES!   Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love each one of you no matter what.  And so do I.

You are in my prayers,

With love,

Elder Dotschkat

Study your Scriptures & Feast upon the Words

Well hello everybody! It is your favorite Elder again! haha....just kidding....well...I will let you all decide ;P Anyways, you all are probably keen to hear about my week! 

Monday evening Elder Ivins and I went to a family in the ward for their family home evening. They are memorizing an Article of Faith each month and so we helped them with that. It was so fun and the brownies that Sister Brown made were divine! They were so good :) In competition with a few of the women's back home!  The most profound thing that stuck out to me was that I want to hold family home evening every week with my future family and raise my future children in the gospel.

wait a minute......I already told you all about this in last weeks letter! haha :P woops....okay ...well then ... uhhh... I will start with...Wednesday! 

Wednesday - The most profound thing that I learned Wednesday was that when life seems rough and we are getting really nowhere we must look for those little miracles and tender mercies that Heavenly Father gives us. This came to me in the day because well guess what? It rained all day! I guess that just goes to show that sometimes stereotypes are true. Apparently I am extremely polite and the stereotypical Canadian man. IDK....I live with Americans. 

Thursday - The biggest thing that stuck out to me was that this is the Lord's work and we cannot do anything by ourselves. We need him to direct us and guide our thoughts actions and words. Sometimes we get too caught up in ouselves and we just need to slow down and let the Lord do his work. We need to let him help us, we need to let him comfort us, we need HIM. 

Friday - Well....now this was different! The most profound things that stood out to me were:

1 - Endure in Patience

2 - We need the spirit 

3 - Suck it up princess

I know this really isn't what people are expecting to hear from me but that's what I learnt! Friday was a tough day. Rained, cold, I wasn't feeling that well and noone was listening. Missionary work at its finest! I am not gonna lie or even fluff it up, it was hard but now that I look at it, I'm glad it was hard. I wouldn't want it any other way! Wanna know why? Its because in the end it is good for me and will make me a better man and I LOVE IT!!!

Saturday - I prayed really hard Saturday morning to have a better day and saw a miracle! IT WAS THE SAME WEATHER, THE SAME SITUATION AND THE SAME CIRCUMSTANCES AGAIN!!! and guess what? I LOVED IT!  I had a far better day! I know that the spirit will bless us in mysterious ways and Heavenly Father may not answer exactly how we want but he will always hear and answer our prayers!

Sunday - The most profound thing that stood out to me was that when we truly study our scriptures and FEAST upon the words of Christ, we will ALWAYS find what we are looking for. Sometimes we may not be looking for it, but we will need it later. 

Well thats all folks 

love you all

Sincerely 

Elder Dotschkat

Never Give Up. Never Lose Hope. Let Light Shine

Hello everyone! Sorry its so late. It was transfers this week and we didn't have time yesterday so I am here now and that's what matters! Haha

This week has been one of a lot of learning and testing experiences and so if I seem like I a rambling on...its because I am. Haha. I'm loving every minute of the mission though :) Gotta keep positive right? First of all, I want to tell Josh, keep your chin up buddy :) I promise that you will see some field time :) I had somewhat the same experience in rugby and so I know how it feels. Work hard, play hard and FIGHT HARDER! Love ya bud :) 

So to everyone else! This week was a true learning curve for both Elder Ivins and I. Let me explain. 

Monday - So the biggest thing that I learnt on Monday was that when you forgive someone or what they have done wrong, the love of God fills you :) So all day I was pondering the messages in the talks during conference and it touched my heart to realize that when you forgive someone for what they have done wrong the love of God fills you. Just thinking about it right now makes me feel like a burden is taken off of my shoulders. "I will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive ALL men " - Idk the reference :P 

Tuesday - It really stood out to me that we are accountable to the Lord for our time here on earth and how we utilize our time so we MUST make EVERY MOMENT COUNT! Our lives here on earth have been given to us as a gift and we must utilize the time that we have to work for the Savior. We must tell everyone we know that Jesus Christ lives and that we can all find peace and joy. This message that we have to share with the world is so important that we have a DUTY and RESPONSIBILITY to share it! 

Wednesday - The most profound thing that stuck out to me in my mind was that no matter the circumstances, we MUST remember what we stand for and who we are. We must NEVER GIVE UP. "There are times in our lives that seem dark and dreary, but these are the times that the light at the end of the tunnel will shine the brightest"- Me. Haha. Just made that up on the spot. :P Anyways though, life is hard sometimes. Trust me. I meet so many people with so many different problems and the one thing that they all have in common is they cover up the light at the end of their tunnel. We must let it shine. We must let it glow. How are we supposed to be guided and see all the beauty of life if there is no light? NEVER GIVE UP. NEVER LOSE HOPE. LET THE LIGHT SHINE. 

Thursday - The biggest change in my life this day was in the morning when I learnt what true charity was. I learnt that "charity never faileth" and if you are upset with someone, SERVE THEM! So in the morning I learnt what it meant to have true charity for your fellow man and how the love of Christ will fill you. Elder Ivins and I had a disagreement the night earlier and we were just not seeing eye to eye. In the morning as I was in the shower, he made me Bacon and Eggs :) and then while he was in the shower I made him some delicious toast (I know it sounds gross but try it! Philadelphia cream cheese and....NUTELLA!!!!) and a nice thing to drink (pineapple orange juice ) . I learned that no matter what you circumstances are, if you are upset with them, serve them!!!

Friday - I learned on Friday that we MUST always be evaluating and re-evaluating ourselves so that we can grow into our full potential and become who we are meant to be. Well we had to take a survey for the mission just to see how we were doing and so because of this it made me think ask if I was doing my best and everything that I could do to serve God. I thought about and pondered on this topic all day and realized that there is always more that we can be doing to serve God. So yeah. Do your best. If you don't know what your best is, imagine serving someone you love and how much effort you would put into making them happy. There is your start point :)  

Saturday- I learned that we must love and enjoy all of those people around us. When we are in the service of our fellow beings, the love that you have for them will show.  Saturday was different for me because well...our teaching pool has been struggling for a while and so to help us, our Zone Leaders, District Leader and his companion came and went on a blitz with us to build it. It truly made me feel loved and cared for because I was struggling trying to help Elder Ivins keep positive and a happy outlook on missionary work but because of this blitz we have 3 new investigators! If we are doing our best, Heavenly Father will hear and answer our prayers :) 

Sunday - The thing that stood out to me the most was even though we have our own fears and cautions, we must trust other people in life. During Sunday I was reading the story of Job in the Bible and it amazed me how much he trusted in God. He had all manner of afflictions and torment upon him and his family and yet he did not speak ill of the Lord. We as mortal human beings are imperfect, but if we put our trust in the Savior we can become the people that we are meant to be. We can achieve our full potential. We can do ANYTHING that we set our mind to.

Monday - Transfers day, I am staying in Hull with Elder Ivins (crossing fingers until after Christmas as well :D ). We evaluated how this past six weeks have gone and what we want to do better. We realized that there are so many things that we can do better but we can only accomplish all of these goals with help from the Lord. This is such a common fact in life because no matter what we do by our own means, we will always fall short. We must trust in the Savoir so that we can achieve the goals that we have set for ourselves. When we trust in God and plead for his help, he will raise us and help us exceed our goals. 

Tuesday - It stood out to me that sometimes we need to take ourselves out of a situation, analyze the problem and try to understand the other persons point of view. Last night during planning for the day Elder Ivins and I were having a disagreement and not seeing eye to eye again.  I thought about it for a minute and the situation that we were in and realized that sometimes you just need to step back and try to understand what the other person is trying to say. Once I did that, we both calmed down and were both trying to understand one another. If you are having a difficult time with someone, take a step back, a few breaths and listen.

Well that's all folks! That was my week.

Once again, sorry for the lateness and confusion. 

Have a good week! You are all in my prayers because I love you all! 

May Heavenly Father bless and watch over you

Regards

Elder Dotschkat

If we do our best, we need not stress!

Hello everyone. First of all I just want to thank you for all of your prayers and your love. I do need it sometimes to get me through the days and I know that Heavenly Father sends his blessings to those who ask. You are all in my prayers and I truly do love you all. I am so grateful for the support that you show me while I am out here. I love you. This week has been such a one of faith building and strengthening especially with conference.

So I kind of missed a few days on telling you what was most profound to me and I promised that I would tell you everyday and I keep my promises. So on Saturday the most profound thing that I learned that day was that if we trust in Heavenly Father that everything will turn out the way that it is meant to be. On Sunday it was just a reaffirmation to me about how much I want to be a father. To be a parent is the most sacred and special "job" that we can have on this earth in this life. This stood out to me while the primary was giving their presentation and while I was looking at their parents faces. I want to have that same joy. I know without a doubt that I want to be a father and help some of Heavenly Fathers special children return home to him. 

Monday - We had P-day, played some Gator-ball (mix of all sports), watched some movies and wrote letters like every P-day :P It was really fun! That evening Elder Kruse and I were on exchange in my area and we got lost :P haha. it was quite funny...you think that I would know it all by now but I guess that I just have to keep learning. :P We all do. Thats why we are here , right? So the most profound thing that stood out to me that day was that if we do our best, we need not stress. Give yourself a break, things will turn out the way that they are meant to be. 

Tuesday - The miracle of that day was just how much I am changing and growing into the man that not only do my family and loved ones want me to be but the man that the Lord wants me to be. I am standing for truth and righteousness and proclaiming that we have a loving Father in Heaven to the world. I love every moment that I have to share this with those around me. The most profound thing that stood out to me that day was that we MUST be bold in our testimonies and our desires because that is what truly makes us who and what we are. We are children of God, children of Truth and children of Light. We must stand up and rise above the world. Don't let it get you down. Rise above the blues, reach up for help and the Lord will lift you up. 

Wednesday - The most profound thing that stood out to me that day was in district meeting. We were talking about virtue and knowledge. These two Christ-like attributes are life long journeys and they are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven and the atonement. We must repent and make changes in our lives to become our full potential. To virtuous is a life long travel, when you fall down you MUST NOT give up. Keep going. Keep trying. Look forward to the future with faith. The Lord is there to help you and carry you. He will help you. While we were in district meeting I also finally felt a sense of belonging. I know that I am a missionary in the England Leeds Mission and there are many more like me but now I feel like I belong more than I did before. Sometimes the Lord will bless you with things you didn't even know you needed. 

Thursday - The most profound thing that stood out to me that day was if you ask for specific things, God will give you specific answers or blessings. It may not be in the way or time that you want it but He will give you what you need. This is truly a sobering thought that an all powerful, all knowing being will take time just to answer our prayers. He loves you. He knows you. Rely on Him. 

Friday - The most profound thing that stood out to me that day was that we need to read our Patriarchal Blessings often! They are specific blessings from God to YOU! They are so amazing and it just makes sense that we should read them as often as possible. They will answer your questions, give you comfort and advice. Listen to the counsel that it gives you and you will know where to go, what to do and what will help you in your life. I find so much strength from reading mine and I know that you will all find the same from reading yours. 

Saturday - The most profound thing that stood out to me that day was just the humbling idea that I am just a tool in the Lords hands, like the prophets in the Book of Mormon I glory not in myself but in my Saviour and my God. He knows and loves each one of us and this is his work. We must be humble in our circumstances but if we have faith, He will help us because he loves us. 

Sunday - Well all I want to say is that a prayer that I have had for a long time in my heart and in my mind was finally answered during conference. I feel like a burden is lifted like a new man. I know what to do and take strength from KNOWING that Heavenly Father KNOWS and loves EACH ONE OF US! HE KNOWS YOU! HE LOVES YOU!  Look to him for strength. He will guide you in life and if you trust in Him, you will be where you are meant to be. You will be with the people that you are meant to be with. You will become the person that you are meant to become. 

Well that's all folks! haha....Yeah! That was my amazing week! 

I have grown so much! I love it!

I love this work! 

I love my Savior! 

I love my Father in Heaven!

I love my family!

I love you! 

I love the gospel!

Sincerely with love! 

Elder Dotschkat

"God trusts us to make decisions"

Well hello all! 

I have had a truly amazing week! I must say though, it seems like every week is speeding up! I love the work and the people here. The ward members are amazing and taking care of us. Its truly wonderful that they support us as much as our own families and wards would :) I love this work. I love being a missionary.

First of all I want to congratulate Jessie and Melissa Potrie on the birth of their baby girl! You will be wonderful parents! I know that the rest of the family must be extatic about the new addition to the family and I am so happy for all of you. 

So this week was amazing! I want to tell you all about the important things I learnt this week first and then I might expand on them. 

Monday - The most profound thing to me that day was during my personal study. I feel that I have grown so much and I am becoming the man that the Lord wants me to be. I learned that its okay to have certain feelings because we are only human, its just how we act on them that makes the difference. Another thing was that we need to bring the spirit into our homes. These are our sanctuaries against the world for our families and we must fill them with love. One thing that also stood out to me was that if we are having a rough day, take ourselves our out the situatioon for a minute and do something that makes you happy because its no use working and not being effective. 

Tuesday - The most profoud things was that even though life gets hard, we must NEVER give up on being happy. Being happy is the entire reason that we are here on earth. We are here to learn, grow and have joy. 

Wednesday - I learnt that to be confident we must have faith in Christ. Only when we have faith in Christ is when the Lord will bless us. Also that humility is not a sign of weakness but rather a sign of spiritual strength 

Thursday  - I learnt that no matter the circumstances we MUST move forward in faith. Sometimes life gets hard and we just have to keep moving forward. We can never give up. That is NOT the reason we are here. We are here to learn and grow. These things require moving forward, increase and growth. Whatever you call it, you must KEEP MOVING FORWARD. 

Friday - Mormon.org quotes:

"Whether or not it is inspiration or just our own thought we will not know until we act"

"God trusts us to make desicions, we must trust ourselves"

"Surviving is about two things - Courage and Faith!"

"Everything that we experience in life is to enrich our lives and help us become the people that we want to be in eternity"

"A marriage eternal in duration and God-like in quality never contemplates divorce"

"Don't withhold expressions of love"

"We must run as fast as we can to spiritually higher ground"

Saturday - we had the baptism. Here is my letter to President Pilkington :

Hello President! We were very grateful to hear from you last night. Thank you. We know the amount of work that you do and the amount of stress that you deal with and we are always so grateful when you take the time to get to know and talk to each one of us. These calls that we receive from you help us understand that we are all working together in the wonderful work of bringing Heavenly Fathers children back to him . We support and sustain you in your calling and we are very grateful for the insightful pieces of advice that you give to us because they not only help us build and strengthen the areas that we work in, but they help strengthen and build us into better missionaries and better men. 

So this week was truly amazing and to be honest, when the time came I was nervous and a little stressed but I knew that if I had faith in the Lord that everything would turn out the way that it is meant to be. I am very grateful for the experience to be training. It takes a lot of effort and change. I was working to improve on my Christ like attributes when I was being trained and now I am working on them even harder so that Elder Ivins can see my love towards him. He is a great missionary and growing every day! His confidence in himself is increasing and his desire to work hard always amazes me every day. I love working with him. His teaching skills are improving, we have some work to do. I have really taken to heart the counsel that you gave to teach from the heart and love the people. Due to this counsel I am trying to help him know the doctrine but more so internalize it and reach inside his heart for his testimony to teach with. I know that teaching with your testimony is the perfect way to show the people that you are genuine and it will always bring the spirit. His skills in finding are increasing, in the past few days we have felt that our approaches to people have been redundant and we are not seeing a lot of fruit from them so we are changing it. We are working on being "normal" with people and using quick 1 minute summaries of what we teach and always asking if we can step in. When we have asked to step in we have had a lot of success because people generally let us in or give us return appointments. We are truly seeing the lord touch the peoples hearts with the spirit, so much so that we saw a miracle at our baptism this weekend. 

It seemed like everything that could be going not according to plan was happening. I was getting fairly stressed and running around trying to get everything ready and done so that the baptism would run smoothly and then I realized that we need to trust in the Lord all the time. When I did that, the miracles started appearing and everything started to run better. Sometimes it is our own hearts and minds that stall the work of the lord. We MUST trust in him in all phases of this work because we are NOTHING without him. This is His work, not ours. We are only tools in his hands. We must be submissive and have His purposes in our hearts. When we do this, miracles happen. From the beginning of our teaching experience with Laura and her son Akam we saw miracles! First of all when they came to church the first time the ward perfectly fellowshiped them. The ward members saw her and freely went up and introduced themselves to her. We didn't even have to ask! The ward here in Hull 2 is truly amazing! Later on in the teaching process, they both admitted to us that they got their answer! They knew it and could not deny it!  Laura has had such an experience that she desires to have Akam and her daughter Hanifa raised in the church! Akam has the burning in his bosom and he told us that he knew that it was the spirit telling him that everything we were teaching is true and because of that he desired or rather hungered for baptism! As we were getting everything ready an unfamiliar face walked into the chapel. We went up and introduced ourselves to the man and found out that it was our investigator Akam's school teacher! Akam had told him about his baptism and invited his teacher to his baptism! It was truly a miracle! The pinnacle shinning moment of this while experience was when Akam, who is 9 years old and just baptized, gave his teacher a copy of The Book of Mormon with a mormon.org card in it to his teacher!!! Miracles happen, we just have to trust in the Lord. 

This whole entire experience has truly strengthened my testimony not only of Heavenly Fathers answers to our prayers but how much we need to love and appreciate our ward members. They are our families, our support and our strength. We MUST love them! 

Regards

Elder Dotschkat 

(end of letter)

So that was my week.  I will send pictures next week.  

Love you

Elder Dotschkat

A Tourist in England

Well Hello everyone, first of all I just want to tell you that you are in my prayers, in my heart and I love you. 

So this week was really good! I cant wait to tell you of all the miracles that Elder Ivins and I have seen. We have truly seen Heavenly Fathers blessings all around us, I know that he blesses all of his children. We just need to look for it. .

So on Monday we went over the Humber River to have zone P-day at Grimsby. This was a first (and hopefully last) time that I have gone over the bridge on p-day. The only reason that I hope that it will be the last is because it took over half of the day to travel there and back :P But whatever I had fun! We had a foosball tournament, ping pong battles, watched Prince of Egypt and Tangled! I had no idea how good that movie was! Haha. I know it sounds funny but we were all singing to all the songs on tangled :P It was great!

I got the package that mom sent from Idaho that day as well :) It was so full, I waited to open it at the flat :P Anyways. I then went on exchange with Elder Coombs from Edmonton! It was great. I realized that missionaries are not just for bringing people into the ward but they are here to strengthen the members already there.

The most profound thing that I learned on Monday was that we all need the gospel no matter at what point in life we are. 

Tuesday - This was probably the fastest day on my mission so far. We went out to Patrington and met one of our less actives and because of that she came to church yesterday!!!! I was very happy to see her there :) Anyways, in Patrington we took the classic "tourist in Enlgand with the phone booth" picture :P I have been wanting to do it since I got here but I just couldn't find one. I FINALLY GOT IT THOUGH!! HAHA! Anyways, we then in the evening we had ward coordination and to be very honest, I am blunt and make sure that the point of missionary work within the ward gets across. I cannot stress enough how vital the ward members are for this work. Missionary work WILL NOT MOVE FORWARD WITHOUT THE MEMBERS INVOLVEMENT.  If the missionaries call you up, try your best to give them time to go with them. These people that they teach are important and children of God. Sometimes they might even turn out to be your best friend. Make sure that you have the missionaries over and feed them every so often, I don't know how it is at home but here we have a meal appointment nearly 5 or 6 days a week EVERY WEEK. So yeah....I don't really know where I was going with that but I just want you all to know those things. 

Most profound thing that I learnt that day was that if you truly care about someone, you will do anything for their happieness. I have already known this and its deep within my heart but the resounding message struck my heart on tuesday. 

Wednesday went so fast as well! Only like four things happened though haha. 1st - District meeting was great! I love Elder Kruse as my district leader. He was my first real friend in the field. We kinda have the same background and so we can talk about certain things and he understands. I enjoy time that we have together because it is always just so fun! Hahaha.  It was good and the most profound thing that I learned that day was in district meeting. It was that we need to make every moment count and make every second memorable. I have so many wonderful memories but all them have one thing in common, I am with those people that I love. Days at the lake, in the snow, watching fireworks, on the beach, in the woods, on the mountains, watching sunrises, sunsets and most of all at the temple. These are the moments that lift me up when I have a hard day because these memories are full of joy for me. The best thing about it is that I am with those people that I love.  The rest of the day just consisted of doing service for a member in the ward and having tea with a member family. 

Thursday - DAY OF MIRACLES!!!! Wow! So I am just going to say what the miracles are because I know that Heavenly Father answers our prayers. So in the evening we saw the family that we started teaching last week and well guess what!!! THEY ACCEPTED TO BE BAPTIZED!!!! :D I am so excited about them! It just makes me so happy to go over there. There is Phil - 37, Louise - 32, Jack - 13, Ben - 10 , Grace-  turns 8 on October 21 and Oscar who is 18 months! All I want to say is that Heavenly Father answers our prayers. Just have faith. That was the most profound thing that happened that day. 

Friday - Well in the morning we had weekly planning and the most profound thing that stood out to me was once again the importance of communication. The world and everything crumbles in it because of bad communication. DO NOT LET BAD COMMUNICATION IN YOUR RELATIONSHIPS.

Saturday - The most profound thing that happened on Saturday was answers to prayers and plans. We had people that we wanted to see and we said that if they were unable to see us we would knock around their homes and because of that we saw people who are interested and are returning this coming week so stay tuned!  HEAVENLY FATHER WILL ANSWER YOUR PRAYERS!

Sunday - Once again the point of good communication came up because we were talking about eternal families and a family must be based on love and communication. Thats the most profound thing I learned

I hope that you all have a good week

Remember this

I love you

Elder Dotschkat

Elder Dotschkat with his England phone booth

My awesome package that mom sent me from Idaho. Each item has a corresponding scripture. It was pretty cool

Another letter arrived this morning

Alright everyone the most profound things that I learnt this week were :

Monday - That we need to enjoy the times that we have with those that we love and make every moment a memorable one. I learnt this through talking about home with Elder Ivins and getting to know one another. I just want to say that I am greatful for all the experiences and memories that I had with all of you ( even the bad ones because we grow through our trials) and that I love all of you. 

Tuesday - We had Zone Training meeting and at the end we had a testimony meeting. Elder Kotua (from Micronesia) bore a simple but resounding and powerful testimony that has really changed my outlook. The thing that was the most profound for me that day was when he said,"God loves you and wants you to be happy, so be happy". Very simple yet enlightening. We all have come here to learn and grow and sometimes we have to go through trials but it is because that is where we grow the most. We must learn from our trials and never give up.

Wednesday - The thing that stood out to me most on Wednesday was that, "you may have to work at something for a long time but Heavenly Father will give you miracles if you have faith and ask him." I am pretty sure that I learned this in personal study. I have been reading the OUR HERITAGE book in the missionary library and it explains the simple and humble starting of the church. There were so many miracles back then and there are so many miracles now. Just look at the birth of a child and the complexities in chemicals that create such a being. One that can think, learn, communicate in different languages, that can feel sorrow,  that can feel joy and most of all, that can progress. I am so amazed every time that I think of such a miracle. Thats what children truly are, they are MIRACLES.

Thursday - I was reading in this months Ensign and let me tell you how truly wonderful it is! If you have not read it, READ IT! These words that are so freely given to us are inspired and they all come from PROPHETS and APOSTLES of Jesus Christ. I love reading these words because they are instruction from the Lord to our day. The sentence that stood out to me was  "When God speaks and [we] obey, it will always be right." I know this to be true, I have seen it in my life everyday but especially now. Look for Heavenly Fathers hand in your life and know he loves you.

Friday - My testimony of prayer truly grew this week because when we needed things, our prayers were answered. I know this and I love this fact. Its a fact because its the truth. I was praying very hard that one of our investigators would feel the spirit and she did. She knows that she needs to be baptised and wants to have the happiness that her mother has. She wants to have a relationship with her father in Heaven. I can testify that Heavenly Father will answer our prayers. He loves us, knows what we need and desire. He will answer your prayers. 

Saturday- My testimony of prayer was even more solidified because of the trial that we had that morning. All our plans fell through and no one was wanting to talk to us and thats how it was all day. We had a lesson in the evening which was supposed to be for this former investigators daughter and they welcomed us into their home with open arms. So much so that Elder Ivins and I were taken back and surprised :P Anways, we got into the lesson and started teaching. The father then came in and joined the lesson...then the brother...then the other brother...and in the end we had a miracle! We taught the entire family and the children want to come to church and read and they even prayed!!!! :D I love it because heavenly father answered our prayers. Not only did he do this and I learnt that Heavenly Father will answer your prayers but as it says in Ether 12 - the blessings come after the trials of our faith.

Sunday - I learned that if we have faith Heavenly Father will guide us to where we are meant to be. We all can be tools in our Heavenly Fathers work, we just need to trust in him and give him our agency. Elder Ivins and I had 30 minutes left and there were next to no people on the street and I prayed and asked heavenly father just to have someone stop and talk to us and he answered immediately. As soon as I said this, we had 2 people to stop and talk to. They are interested in learning more and we are seeing them later this week!!!

Heavenly father answers prayers, he will answer your prayers because he loves you. 

You are all in my prayers

Talk to you later! 

I love you all

Regards,

Elder Dotschkat

An old church in Sproatley

A picture from a members house that I really like