September 21st, 2016

      My week has been pretty good. I got to meet my second cousin for the first time who just came into the mission and it was a really cool experience. He is from the Canadian side and I saw him at DLC (district leader trainer meeting) because his comp is a is DL in my zone. I knew he was coming because my parents were telling me about it for the last 3 weeks but I never thought I would see him immediately because there are 9 zones in my mission. Well we had a great chat and I got to know him really well and at the very end right before he left he said to me "hey can I talk you privately?" so we walked away from everyone and he said quietly, "I'm feeling a bit homesick. How did you get over your homesickness?" I smiled put my hand on his shoulder and said, "great question let me call you tonight!" So I called him and we had a great chat I talked more about the start of my mission and how I struggled with home sickness. We talked about learning from the scriptures and focussing on the day ahead of him not the 700 days ahead of him. I talked about having a girlfriend on a mission too because he is writing a girl and I told him how he can stay focused. We talked for a solid 30 minutes and it was so good and such a tender mercy for me to help my family member. I love how God works!

      My comp struggled a bit this week. I think he is slowly losing the motivation to be here which sucks. It sucks because I don't think there's a whole lot I can do for him to help him change. His main language is French too so that's a bit of a struggle and when he doesn't know how to say something he doesn't have too much of a desire to learn. It's a struggle. 

      The work has been really slow. No new investigators this week and we had a few of our appointments cancel. I don't always understand why times in the mission like this happen, but they do and I know that we grow through the struggle though. I love being here and I love the growth that has happened. 

I was reading in 2 Nephi 4 this week which is one of my favourite chapters in the BoM and verse 33 and 34 stood out to me so much. 

33 O Lord, wilt thou encircle me around in the robe of thy righteousness! O Lord, wilt thou make a way for mine escape before mine enemies! Wilt thou make my path straight before me! Wilt thou not place a stumbling block in my way--but that thou wouldst clear my way before me, and hedge not up my way, but the ways of mine enemy.

34 O Lord, I have trusted in thee, and I will trust in thee forever. I will not put my trust in the arm of flesh; for I know that cursed is he that putteth his trust in the arm of flesh. Yea, cursed is he that putteth his trust in man or maketh flesh his arm.

      We get trials all the way through life and I have learned that a lot of the time those trials are there to make us turn to our Heavenly Father. When these trials come the first thing we need to do is turn towards God and acknowledge Him. As we do this we come closer to Him and more quickly learn from our trial. I think a really good "trial replant" is just to stay close to God. This is a lot easier said than done because we always need to be on a path of growth and we tend to like to coast. I love how Heavenly Father has a plan for all of us to grow! He is so good to us

September 14th, 2016

      This week has been pretty uneventful. I got sick on Friday with a bit of a head cold so that put me out that day and I'm just now recovering. The weather has been changing a lot and it's getting very rainy and cold again. Winter is not a happy time here in England. By next month it will start getting dark at 4 and raining loads. But that's why Christmas is in the winter so it can warm everyone's hearts haha

      Me and Tokoragi are doing good and it's been interesting to work with him. He is quite different than most Polynesians for a few different reasons one in particular he doesn't like fish... Yeah that was a bit of a shock haha but we have had some good laughs. One really funny thing that happened this week was when we were out proselyting and saw an old lady cutting some very overgrown brier bushes. As missionaries do, we asked if we could help her and she surprisingly let us (most people don't like getting help). So we finished cutting and putting the briers cuttings into bags. When mostly everything was cleaned up in the bags I looked around the perimeter of the garden to find any stray pieces and I saw what looked like an old dead tree branch that wasn't a brier so I picked it up and then it in the bag. When I picked it up felt a tug of the root snapping and when I did tug Mavis, the old lady, very dramatically shouted, "oh no!" She then said that this bush was 50 years old and she had had it most of her life. I tried to apologize but the damage was done and we very quickly finished and left. She was not happy. We are still laughing at her reaction of the death of her dead bush haha       

        The work has been alright but we are going to have to clean out our teaching pool a little bit as people aren't progressing but that's mission life. We got flogged by Marie when we were going to teach her and Alex and Hannah are sticking to their beliefs and didn't read the Book of Mormon.

        We also have to worry about grown up things as the mission is dissolving all 4 man flats. The mission office told us to buy a flat so this week we have started the process of finding flats and setting appointments to view flats. It's not my favourite, but must be done. 

        A great lesson I was reminded of is the spirit is the key to missionary work and a successful life. As soon as we start to rely on ourselves we instantly let pride in our hearts and lose the Spirit. When we have the attitude of' "I know I can do all things through you" that's when we have the spirit and are successful.