Dudley, Michelle

We are working hard to help build our ward young adults with their testimonies and church activity. We invite them over to dinner each Sunday after church, teach a Sunday School class using Gospel Principles Manual, teach a weekly Institute class using Come Follow Me curriculum, drive them to attend special stake activities and anything else to help them individually and increase our strength in numbers.  Some are returned missionaries, others are new members, others are struggling to stay, and others are struggling to return (which they define as ‘lapsing members’).  We began with three and are growing - now EIGHT! We were excited to find a wonderful room to rent on the campus at Bangor University which is very convenient for all of them.  We also viewed a flat for potential young missionaries right near the campus.  What a blessing it would be to have some here! Our weekly discussion with Kev and Elisha was just as wonderful as the previous ones.  They SHINE!...

The names of many places in Wales begin with Llan. It means “Church” – or, rather, the enclosed land around the church where Christian converts had settled.   We live in LLANFAIRPWLLGWYNGYLL (the shortened name!) We are grateful to have a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints near us where we weekly attend with others to partake of the sacrament, worship, socialize  and support those who choose to receive the ordinance of baptism. We have had another busy week. We love being busy in the Lord’s work!  Families in the ward continue to invite us to their homes for dinner, which they call TEA.  We enjoyed an evening with Joseph and Elaine Wall, their son, Jordan, and girlfriend Eliza Rose (newly baptized). Another night we ate with Nathan and Jana Gill's family.  Jana had just completed her final chemo and radiation treatments for cancer - and we all happily celebrated.  We went out to dinner with two YSA in our ward.  Gem is a returned missionary wh...

This week’s missionary work has been busy, productive and varied! Our best week so far.  I am so happy -Each Sunday evening we have a mission wide Zoom devotional.  Tonight Mike and I were invited to be the speakers.  We felt the power of the Holy Ghost as we shared thoughts and bore our testimonies. -Monday we drove to the Manchester Mission Office (2 hours away) and met with all the other senior missionaries, including President and Sister Johnson, for a surprise 50th birthday dinner for Emily Mitchell, a senior sister who is the mission nurse.  She is a really neat woman we spent a few days sightseeing with earlier this month and we love to be around her.   We enjoyed a great dinner with everyone.  Since our assignment on Isle of Anglesey is far away from all other seniors (and most young elders/sisters), we really enjoy times like this to mingle with the other missionary couples. -Tuesday included lots of driving to ‘find’ members on the Gaerwan ward li...

We are getting to know more members of the Gaerwan ward.  I am experiencing a personal miracle.  I have never been very good at remembering people’s names.  When we first arrived 3 weeks ago, Michael was set apart as a member of the bishopric.  He was specifically blessed to ‘remember’ names of our ward members.  I silently prayed for that same blessing to include me.  And that prayer is being answered…beyond my own abilities.  I find such joy in calling people by name, including children and youth.  It is going to be much more difficult to have this same experience with the elders and sisters in the mission because we don’t see them very often …but they all wear their missionary name tags and that works! We spoke in church today.  Michael is such a gifted, powerful teacher and testifier.  I love every.single.word he shares.  I spoke on ministering ‘in the moment’ and long term ministering of which I have a personal testimony. We ha...

We are learning to get around quite nicely.  Mike has a keen sense of direction, navigates the round-abouts perfectly and is even staying within the speed limits!  (He is motivated because mission rules are 2 tickets and you forfeit driving privileges/no mercy!) and…we are in the car a lot driving short and long distances.  I don’t know how many miles we drive per month, but our gas (petrol) costs about $500/month! We found someone to cut (and color mine) our hair!  That is harder than finding a doctor! Our last hair appointment was in Virginia with Shelby 2 months earlier and we looked like some of the shaggy sheep we see around here! We have been helping some Elders teach on zoom to a Muslim man named Abdullah.  We have had interesting discussions, but not a lot of spirit.  There are a lot of similarities with his Koran teachings, but the big divide is his unbelief in the need of a Savior at all.  So grateful we know we have a Savior who is the Redee...