February 22nd, 2017

I Moved!!! 

So I am now currently located in Burgess Hill which is only about an hour south of Epsom. The new switch came about because they want the zone leader area to be more centralized so we switched areas with the Burgess Hill Elders. The place seems really nice and I've heard amazing things about the ward. I'm pretty excited to be here.

I really want to get working. Elder Dey's knee isn't healing very fast so we haven't been able to do nearly as much as I've wanted to which has been driving me crazy. I feel so unproductive. It's been a rough week to be honest but I have a had lot of tender mercies to make up for it. The Lord with always show us He loves us even when we are in the middle of a trial. 

A really good tender mercy that I was able to have was to go on exchange with Elder Cloward who has become one of my best friends. He is the AP and has been for quite awhile and we are in the same group so I've known him my whole mission and I've been able to serve around him most my mission as well. Our exchange was amazing and we saw so many miracles like teaching the law of chastity to a 17 yr old girl who is a dating a LA member. Elder Cloward was a bit worried about it but the teach was so powerful and the Spirit was so strong that she completely understood and wanted to follow God's commandments. We also had some amazing chats about how the Spirit works in our lives and how the people that God has put in our lives are all for our benefit and growth. I had such a strong impression again this week that God has blessed me with so many people to teach me and help me grow. Everyone I have met has been for my gain in one way or another. I love being able to talk with one of my best friends about how God's hand is always in our lives.

Another really great thing I got to see was 4 different baptisms in our zone. One was in Crawley and the other 3 were in Brighton. I was so so happy from seeing all the people glowing at their baptisms. It was peaceful experience. My Saturday was just full of friends and baptism. Afterwards we went to the pier in Brighton and got 5 Guys which was the second time on my mission I've had a real burger haha. When eating I got that feeling again of overwhelming love for the people in my life and for God who put them there. 

I think that's one of thing of many things that I have learned on my mission is how to recognize the Lord's hand in my life. It has been ingrained in me that He is always there and anytime I begin to doubt or forget He never fails to remind me. I think that is one of the reasons we need low points in our life. They teach us to remember so that when we have the ups or high points we can know who has given them to us. 

So cool story about this pic is Elder Cheong and I were in Brighton and it was like 20 mins til the exchange was over and we already have some cool miracles. So we were walking through and I see this beautiful half Akita half German shepherd puppy playing with some people and I looked at Elder Cheong and asked if he wanted to play with a puppy and he smiled so we ran over to play and we made really good friends with the owners and their friends. They asked us loads of questions about missions and being a Mormon. They weren't interested in being converted but they thought what we were doing was awesome and they hope to see missionaries again. 

One of the biggest keys to missionary work is being yourself. If you are you and let your true colours show, people will want to know who you are and what makes you happy. That's when you pounce hahah

February 15th, 2017

I've been getting stir crazy this week as Elder Dey and I have been a bit flat-bound due to his knee. It's healing well but he isn't getting the stitches out til tomorrow so for the past week we haven't been able to go out and work very much. At first it was nice to relax but it's kind of driving me crazy now. We have been able to go to teaching appointments this week and that has been really nice. Paul is progressing but very slow. We were super bold with him this last week and I think it was good for him. We were trying to really find out what he needs in order to be baptized. We found that nothing other than him knowing if the Book of Mormon is true is holding him back and he is doing everything to find his answer. He reads, prays, goes to church, and had the right desire. It's just some people take a while to know. We explained that answers to prayers sometimes come like a light turning on and other times more like a sunrise and I think that really clicked for him.

We have also taught Becky twice in the past week. She didn't come to church but the lessons have gone well. We have really tried to focus on her needs and teach specifically to them. Also something that has been helping is teaching the role of the Holy Ghost before we start any lesson or follow up to help her focus on the feelings she has and help her understand that we are not the teacher but the Holy Ghost is. It's been fun teaching her and Elder Dey and I have really good teaching unity. She works as a career though so she is usually very tired during our lessons, but she does try!

I think my miracle of the week, and probably of my mission, has been the people around me. Sunday after church we went to Brighton to do two baptismal interviews for the Brighton Elders' two investigators (they passed). Then we went to the Burges Hill Elders to give them a training. We had a really good chat with them and loads of laughs. Lastly we went to the Crawley Elders to give them the same training and because it was so late and we got pushed back so much we just slept over there and they live in the same flat building as the Assistants and we got to see them too. Well that night while I was saying my personal prayers and accounting for the day I got so overwhelmed with a feeling of love. As I went through the things I had done throughout the day I recognized all the people I got to be with and all the people who showed me so much love and who have taught me so much about life. I couldn't think of anything to say other than thank you. I was then flooded with so many memories of the people I care about most and how they have loved me so much and I just kept saying thank you thank you thank you. It was such a powerful experience and a huge tender mercy for the spirit to bring to my remembrance the ways He has shown me love through the people in my life. People make me so happy and I will be forever grateful for the relationships I have. I know God have put certain people in my life to show me His hand.

February 8th, 2017

So update on Elder Dey. He is fine and it's all healing really well. He's just supposed to stay off it for a few weeks and not push it too much. It's a good thing we have meetings all week so we haven't been walking around too much. He has been getting a bit irritable though because he is always in a tiny bit of pain and we can't really go out work which drives us crazy...

We taught Paul and that went really well. We invited him to be baptized again but he said he doesn't feel ready so we gave him a baptismal calendar and just had him look at it and see what things may be holding him back. Hanifa has kind of dropped off the radar. We are still trying to meet her though so we will see what happens.

A cool miracle we had was we got a referral from online. A man who is going through a divorce and has two kids wanted to know if God could help him through his situation. On the referral it didn't give a home address but an email but we figured he lived in our area because we got the referral. So we set up a time to meet and he could only meet at his work which was in Crawley. He is the security guard of a nice flat building so we met at his front desk. It was a bit weird at first but the teach went really well and as we were explaining the Holy Ghost and how it feels he instantly said he has had those feelings before. Later in the lesson we extended a baptismal date to him for the 4th of march and he gladly accepted. We left him with a Book of Mormon and a place to read and after we left that night he called and told us when he read the BoM he had those same feelings!! It was such a cool experience and just reminded me that no matter where in our spiritual journey we are we can always have those feelings from the Holy Ghost telling us that the church is true and God loves us.

The sad end to that story though is the reason he didn't put an address in the referral is because he was in the process of moving out of his wife's house and didn't know where he would stay. Well he now found an place to live but it's in Crawley and we are the Epsom area so we can no longer teach him. Pretty sad but the area is close so we may be able to teach him again and we will definitely go to his baptism.

Well that was the week! Today I'm excited because I'm going to get to play ping pong with a less active member in our ward who used to be on the jr national team for England and he is insane!

My little insight for the week is if you want to learn then you must minister. I spend a lot of time studying but I don't think I really truly learn any of it until I go and apply it by ministering or helping someone else. I was also thinking that the older we get, the more we learn because we have more people we can minister to. Anytime we teach, uplift, or serve someone there will always be a lesson to be learned. 

This is MLC. Sorry no cool pictures this week.

February 1st, 2017

I'm sorry that this email is going to be so short but I am currently in the Epsom hospital A&E with Elder Dey. So back story. There is this place in our area called box hill and it has a fun hike on it and it was raining so we thought it would be fun to go muddy hiking. Well we were just at the end and Elder Dey was in front and there was a little downhill part right before an uphill part so as he was hopping down the hill he slipped and fell. Naturally I laughed really hard and then he stayed on the ground. He then sat down and said that something was wrong and he has a bad cut. Turns out he fell right where there was a broken bottle and he sliced open his knee pretty bad. So we are waiting and have no clue what's wrong but hopefully by the end of this email we will have it figured out.

He is okay! He just had to get 8 stitches..... Here is my weekly update

Elder Dey and I are doing great and loving our companionship. We were able to run a zone training together with the sister training leaders that went from 10am to 8:30pm. Yeah it was killer but quite fun and Elder Day and I were able to come up with a lot of fun ideas. It was a zone interview day with the President and we had one district come in at a time and while president was interviewing one companionship we would be running a 30 minutes workshop. When the companionship being interviewed was done they came and joined the workshop and one companionship left. We had 3 workshops and just keep running through them all day. I was so tired by the end of it and then we had our interviews which were great and then me, Elder Dey, and the STLs had dinner with president and went through a leadership training with him. I loved all the practical teaching applications he gave us. I also loved being able to work with the zone. There is so much diversity in our zone as well. Out of the 22 there are only 4 Americans. It's makes it quite funny and everyone knows that they can be themselves so we laugh a lot. 

Most of the new investigators we have gotten in the past few weeks have dropped us. We are still working with Paul but he is going to be a slow going journey. He comes to church every week and most people think he's a member but he just doesn't see the need to be baptized yet. Hanifa is doing well although we weren't able to see her this last week but we are seeing her Saturday. We are excited to use some of the new tools that President Gubler has taught us yesterday to find and retain new people though.

The new schedule is so nice. It makes the evenings so much more relaxed and focused on accounting with the Lord at night and it's gives me plenty of time to write in my journal. I also like mornings better. Elder Dey and I go to the chapel and play ping pong every morning. All in all it just gives us a lot more freedom and I love that.

The weather here has been rain rain and more rain. To be honest though I don't even notice that it's a rainy day anymore. The rain doesn't change anything people do in England so it doesn't change anything we do haha it think it's rained more days then it has not rained on my mission. 

I've loved being able to work with all of them so closely and it has helped me to learn how different people are and how every one needs to be ministered to differently. People give and receive messages of love, encouragement, correction, and appreciation so differently. I have been working on identifying how people give and receive those messages and then trying to do the best I can to adapt myself to the person to show them that I care about them and want to help them. For some people it's pure listening. Some it's talking a lot. Some like opinions and some don't. Some people like to receive written cards or cookies haha. And some people don't care what it is as long as you're just with them. It's cool because the more I've been learning about how to treat other people the more I've learned about myself and what I like and don't like. That cliche saying "you learn something new everyday" is my life at the moment. All the the way from learning cool doctrine to learning how to talk to someone. I love it. 

January 18th, 2017

I've been doing a lot of learning about looking back to learn from the future as well. One of the keys to faith is remembering. I'm reading in 1 Nephi at the moment and Nephi is constantly telling his brothers to remember how great the Lord has been. When we remember and learn from our past it help us to learn and move forward! When we doubt, the first step is to remember. Then we gain a hope for the future and then we act on that hope. I've actually being doing a lot of study and pondering on faith. It's the first principle of the gospel and it's so powerful. It leads to all other principles.

Life this week was good! Me and Elder Dey are having tons of fun together and both of us have a really upbeat and positive attitudes which makes the work so much more fun. Our goal is to beat the assistants in key indicators and on Friday we were working hard and having loads of fun talking to everyone we saw and because of it we got 4 new investigators. It's been a good change of pace. Paul is still progressing but things are going to be a bit slower with him.

The two of us really get along and I love working with him. Something great - we had the opportunity to have a mission zone conference in Crawley with 5 zones. Me and Elder Dey planned an hour long breakout session with our zone. We started by doing a really fun object lesson where each group had 25 balloons and in 10 minutes they had to see who could build the tallest structure. The mission president came in right as we started and we told him if he wants to stay he has to participate... his group won haha it was a great time and the zone conference as a whole was awesome! One of the biggest take aways was about faith. I've been thinking a lot about faith and what it means to me and I've come to the conclusion, which I'm sure will change as I grow as it always does, is that faith is an abiding trust in God. It's me saying I know that what you want me to do is best, so I'll do it an put away what want. I've seen that when I have a question and I want revelation from God I have to trust him before an answer will come, or before I find someone who will be baptised I have to trust him that he has prepared people and that my efforts aren't wasted. It's all about trust. And as I just trust and let go of my set back, what ever the outcome is I always have this rock solid sense of peace that can't leave me. Right now I feel like no matter what happens to me I can't lose this sense of peace because it's a peace that comes from God.

January 11th, 2017

This week has been pretty eventful! I got a new companion, Elder Dey, who is from North Carolina. He has been out a year and he seems like a really good companion. We also had MLC and there was a way cool change that happened throughout the whole world with our missionary schedule. It's a bit hard to explain but essentially we no longer have a strict structure to our morning routine. We can now study, exercise, and prepare for the day in what ever order we want. Also we plan in the mornings too so our evenings have nothing and we can now choose to go to bed at 9:30 or 10:30 which is so nice. It may not seem very cool to you but it's huge for us haha

Paul is gone. He moved back up North and is living with his family who sorta talked him out of baptism. He said one day he might get back into it but for now he is going to leave it. I was pretty crushed about that but I know the Lord has him on a path. We did pick up some new people. Hanifa, who we have taught twice now and then Paul(2) who is the husband of a member in our ward who was recently reactivated by the sister missionaries but Paul(2) wants the Elders to teach him! We're pretty excited. Me and Elder Dey have set good transfers goals one of them being to beat the APs in key indicators but also we really want to get into out of the box finding again like I did in Plymouth and Salisbury. So that's pretty much my life right now.

Funny sorry. We were our way back from a district meeting at the temple and I was on exchange with Elder Ribero who is an office Elder. We were about half way there when out of no where I got hit in the stomach with that all too familiar stomach pain that I get when I have mad diarrhea. I wasn't sure what to do so I decided to try and man up and see if the pain would pass. That thought quickly left my head when I got more shooting pains in my stomach so I frantically asked Elder Ribero if he could pull over at the next petrol station. The sisters were in the back just dying of laughter (Sister Manage is from Sri Lanka and Sister Cassidy is from Scotland and they're super funny) and it was making me laugh which made everything hurt more. So we pulled up to the petrol station and I got out and waddle/run to the toilets and Elder Ribero chased me. I got to the bathroom and there was an out of order sign on the male toilets with a maintenance man there. I instantly was filled with fear and looked at the girls bathroom but then Elder Ribero showed me there were disabled toilets. The best part of this story is while I was exploding in the toilets Elder Ribero was talking to the maintenance man and got his number and a return appointment haha just goes to show you can be a missionary in any situation!

Something I have really been focusing on this past week or two is giving everything to God not worrying about the outcomes. Using a prayer journal has helped a lot to communicate with Him. There were some things that I really didn't know what to do and I was trying to get Heavenly Father to tell me what to do but I wasn't getting anything and I learned that revelation comes when we are completely willing to do what God wants over what we want. It's so difficult to do but being on a mission helps so much. It's kind of like an incubator for spiritual growth. I am so grateful to be here.

December 14th, 2016

The week! 

So a lot happened this week. We had MLC which was a lot of fun and it was good to see a lot of my old mission buddies. Seeing Elder Foster who is now a zone leader was fun. I tried to bring some things to the council that I thought would be good next steps for the mission but many people didn't agree. I had a mini revelation during that time that God will not necessarily give people the best thing but he will give them what they need at that time. Tying this into my Old Testament studies it's like how God gave the children of Israel the law of Moses even though the best info is the law of consecration. The people couldn't handle it as a whole so he had to give them what they could handle at the time. This is he great thing about revelation and why it is so important to not only follow our leaders revelation but to constantly seek for our own. 

Good events that happened this week was I passed my driving test!!!!! I was really nervous when I went into the testing centre but as soon as I got into the car I felt calm. That was up until I thought I caused an accident haha so he told me to turn into this super tight road that was a two way but there were cars parked in both sides so only one car at a time could go through and I was driving and almost got to the end when another car turned in and started coming towards me. I was almost out so they stopped and I stopped to wait for them to get out of the way. Instead of going backwards this other car tried to go forwards and squeeze into a gap in between a car and a big metal garbage bin the size of a truck to the right of me.  She didn't have enough space though because I was there and so she turned really sharply and crashed into the metal bin. I then got super nervous and backed up cuz I thought it was my fault then she tried to back up but she was stuck against this bin and while reversing she scraped the side of her car super bad and I think she took off her door mirror. When there was enough space I drove away without checking to see what happened because I was in the middle of the test and had no clue what to do. After that I was sure I failed but I asked him about it when we were done and he said it was her fault haha English drivers are ruthless. 

Regarding Paul he had some things come up this last weekend so we had to push his baptism to next week but he is still on date and all is well. I really hope Satan doesn't get the best of him this last week though. He has been working on Paul really hard.

Going back to personal revelation. Something cool that I've learned and have been trying to apply this week is accounting to God every evening for the works of the day then asking him what my next step is for tomorrow. It has been super helpful to review my day in personal prayer and then ask Heavenly Father what I can focus on tomorrow to help myself grow and repent. Then I can account the next thing, go over my day, and see how I improved in that one thing. It's helped me feel fulfilled as I have been making daily measurable improvements even if they are sometimes quite small. It's also helped me receive daily revelation as I ask God what I can focus in for the next day. Another important thing I do is write down the revelation I receive and make sure I work on it.

November 30th, 2016

This week has been full of change! So first of all we had some training and what a great time that was. So we planned it all around finding yourself. We set up 3 different workshops and had missionaries bring 3 items or pictures that describe themselves. In the first workshop we got into small groups and talked for 3 minutes about each item and how they relate to us. The second workshop was all about coming up with ways to implement ourselves into the work. So we got into small groups again and discussed different ways to implement our personal talents, skills, hobbies, interest, etc. into finding, teaching and fellow-shipping. Lastly, we did role play where we more practically applied what we discussed to specific situations. It was super fun! We also had some great presentations that brought the Spirit. All in all it was a fun and educational zone training that ran smoothly so we were well chuffed!

     Moves happened yesterday and we had 8 people change which is sad because they were all good friends but the new ones seem pretty cool. One of them just came from Trowbridge and I'm excited to talk to him all about my first area.

     Paul is still on date although he hasn't been to church in a few weeks. It's not lame excuses though. He had very legit reasons and he was really sad that he couldn't make it but we have still been meeting and it's been going great. We teach him over Skype a lot which means we can teach him more often. He has his baptismal interview this Sunday and the 3 of us are going to the mission president's house for dinner and then he will have the interview there and the baptism will be on the 11th.

      The area of Epsom has been good. We've been finding people and all that but I think I've been getting a bit bored of the same routine and it's been getting sooooo cold!! It was -4 c today which was killer especially with the icy wind. It's definitely feeling like winter. Not so much Christmas yet though. It's rare to see a house with logs on it although the city centres in most cities here have lit up so that's nice.

    Another reason it doesn't feel like Christmas is because there was no thanksgiving! It's pretty weird because to be honest I forgot it was thanksgiving especially because it was zone training that day. But I'm definitely grateful I am here!

     I'm finished the Book of Mormon for the 3rd time I think since in my mission. My new goal is to finish all the standard works in the next 8 months. By my calculations it will take me around 92 hours if I read the BoM again. We'll see how it goes. The Old Testament is so boring and I'm 60 odd pages into it and there has been so many weird things. It made sense why most Mormons haven't read it haha I love the last chapter in Moroni in the last few verses how he bears testimony of Christ and His atonement in such a profound, yet simple way. It reminds me of the testimonies that the prophets and apostles give. They are so simple and powerful. We can talk about all these gospel things for ever and ever but at the end of the day it is all about Christ. Through Him all of it is made possible and through Him we can do all things.

Ps I have my theory test for my English drivers license tomorRow so pray for me!!