Wednesday, September 30, 2009
September 29, 2009
People have some weird ideas about the mormons here.We had one born again guy try to tell us that he knew what went on in the temple and in one of the ordinances we have to slit our own throats so that was kinda funny. Kinda weird that we're still alive isn't it. I've heard other missionaries talk about how lots of people tell their kids that they can't talk to us cuz we'll kidnap them. That's cool about Kirby getting his call. I'm glad he decided to go. Just so you know you shouldn't complain about the hospitals there til you've seen one here. We went over to visit a guy in the county hospital the other day and it was ridiculous! They make the front look all posh and nice but then you get back to where they keep the patients and it's a bunch of old military barracks' that have been connected. Each barracks is a different ward and they keep 25-30 people in each one. It was bad! If President Obama gets socialized health care we're in deep trouble just so you know. So I found out the other day that President Ogden was the President and CEO of the company that owned Coral Canyon golf course in Hurricane before he retired. I talked to him about playing it so that was sweet. And Sister Ogden is related to Charles and Elizabeth Ashbaker who lived in Grace. I don't know if we're related or not but thats who hers are. Oh ya and if Scott Murdoch ever talks about an Elder Barney in Chile, his cousin is in my district his name is Elder Hooper.
September 22, 2009
All is going well here. I have a bike I got it real cheap at a second hand shop and I had enough cash to pay for it. It was only about 60 quid (pounds) but it's a good solid piece of work I tell you what. The shop owner even threw in some sweet mudflaps. It's alot better than some of them I've seen missionaries have. One of the zone leaders told me a story about his bike breaking in half while he was riding down the highway so I feel pretty good about my purchase. I have bought a few ties at tie rack and they are sweet! The work has been going well lately. Our teaching pool is a little shallow at the moment so we spend a ton of time
finding but I'm ok with that. We watch conference at the chapel with the members so thats pretty cool. We haven't had any general authorities visit us in the field. Just the ones in the MTC. And we have KFC and Mcdonalds and Pizza Hut. The members take good care of us for dinners and I haven't eaten anything too weird yet, just curry. But that was pretty good.
finding but I'm ok with that. We watch conference at the chapel with the members so thats pretty cool. We haven't had any general authorities visit us in the field. Just the ones in the MTC. And we have KFC and Mcdonalds and Pizza Hut. The members take good care of us for dinners and I haven't eaten anything too weird yet, just curry. But that was pretty good.
September 15, 2009
Hereford is about the size of Pocatello but there's alot of farming just outside of town. They grow
potatoes here but they're really little. I got a good wiff of the potato dirt though the other day. I almost shed a tear it was so glorious. Elder Israelsen is awesome we get along great and we do some good work. The baptism was great too. It's amazing to see the change take place in someone's life you know.
potatoes here but they're really little. I got a good wiff of the potato dirt though the other day. I almost shed a tear it was so glorious. Elder Israelsen is awesome we get along great and we do some good work. The baptism was great too. It's amazing to see the change take place in someone's life you know.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
September 8, 2009
We've been working really hard this week. Our baptism actually got moved up to Friday night instead of Saturday so that's when that one will be but she's still right on track so that's pretty sweet. Yesterday was pretty rough for the first part of everything. Nobody would listen to us at all. For like 4 hours we tracted and street contacted and got absolutely nowhere so it was pretty tough. But then we decided to say a prayer and guess what... The next two people we stopped accepted the Book of Mormon and return appointments! Crazy huh. Being out here is so much better than the MTC I love doing the actual work you know. And I forgot to tell you that we live in the basement of a bed and breakfast owned by one of the members so that's pretty sweet.
August 30, 2009
It's our last Sunday in the MTC today! I just had some more personal time thsi afternoon to write. We head to the field on Wednesday morning so this might be the last letter I write to you from the MTC.
So I have a couple of experiences I wanted to share with you. So I can't really remember whether I told you or not but last Sunday Elder L. Tom Perry came to the MTC to give us a little devotional. It was really good. He talked quite a bit about Nephi getting the brass plates from Laban. He likened it to missionary work really well; he showed us how they weren't able to get the plates until they trusted in God and he delivered them to them. It was way good. And then last night we had another devotional from Kenneth Cope. He came and gave a talk and it was so good! He talked about us being literal children of God and compared it to the love he has for his children. It really hit me hard. You know, I've heard people say we are God's children thousands of times but its never hit me like that... Like it cut me straight to my soul. All I could think about is what if one of my children were lost but I couldn't reach them myself? I would want someone to do it for me. Then I realized that's why I'm here! To rescue my brothers and sisters! It was such an amazing feeling! Kenneth Cope wrote a 4th verse to "Because I Have Been Given Much." I love it and wanted to share it with you. The words had a profound effect on me when we sang it at the end of the devotional.
Because of They life's mission, Lord
I too will serve.
I'll leave the comfort of my home
To teach Thy word.
I'll seek Thy sheep who've gone astray,
And those who've never known the way.
I will make Thy work, my work, today!
So I was going to tell you a funny story, too. So on Thursday we got to go out tracting in Blackburn, a nearby city, and quite ghetto I might add. But anyways, they sent us out to locate less actives and invite them back to church. So Elder Peterson and I got pretty much the most ghetto part of town; we were in all these little apartment complexes full of Muslims. We were literally the only white people within a 5 block radius so we looked really out of place anyway... But then we were in our suits and everyone else was in these long robes and Muslim hats. So we were in this on complex and this bobby (cop) comes out of nowhere and starts interrogating us about where we were from and what we were doing and everything. He asked about every question in the book and he had never heard of the church, so that didn't help. He wanted to know why we were in England and where we were staying and everything. He even made us show him our American driver's licences and everything lol. I guess he thought we were there to rob people or something. But luckily we didn't get arrested lol. It was close though. But we didn't end up getting into any houses or anything but on our way back to the van to go back to the MTC we ran into one white guy on the street who said he was busy at the moment but we could send anybody over to his house later and he'd love to hear our message, so we took down his address for the Manchester missionaries. So at least there was some success. Getting out and doing the actual work made it kinda tough to come back to the MTC, though, lol. Oh well, we get plenty of work later, right.
So I should probably tell you why I was with Elder Peterson, huh? Well its kinda crazy but Elder King has been really sick for the last 3 or 4 days, so I got paired with Elder Peterson now. We get along so great! Like seriously, you hear people talk about eternal friendships with companions and I'm here to tell you its true. Like just in the 4 days we've been companions we've become so good of friends. Unfortunately he is going to the London mission, though, so that sucks but its ok. We also get to take care of Elder King so I've gotten to be really good friends with him, too. We really have a good time together so it helps to keep the time passing and the homesickness down, which is really really nice! I've found that friendships and work are the best medicine for that!
We've been working really hard this week. Our baptism actually got moved up to Friday night instead of Saturday so that's when that one will be but she's still right on track so that's pretty sweet. Yesterday was pretty rough for the first part of everything. Nobody would listen to us at all. For like 4 hours we tracted and street contacted and got absolutely nowhere so it was pretty tough. But then we decided to say a prayer and guess what... The next two people we stopped accepted the Book of Mormon and return appointments! Crazy huh. Being out here is so much better than the MTC I love doing the actual work you know. And I forgot to tell you that we live in the basement of a bed and breakfast owned by one of the members so that's pretty sweet.
August 30, 2009
It's our last Sunday in the MTC today! I just had some more personal time thsi afternoon to write. We head to the field on Wednesday morning so this might be the last letter I write to you from the MTC.
So I have a couple of experiences I wanted to share with you. So I can't really remember whether I told you or not but last Sunday Elder L. Tom Perry came to the MTC to give us a little devotional. It was really good. He talked quite a bit about Nephi getting the brass plates from Laban. He likened it to missionary work really well; he showed us how they weren't able to get the plates until they trusted in God and he delivered them to them. It was way good. And then last night we had another devotional from Kenneth Cope. He came and gave a talk and it was so good! He talked about us being literal children of God and compared it to the love he has for his children. It really hit me hard. You know, I've heard people say we are God's children thousands of times but its never hit me like that... Like it cut me straight to my soul. All I could think about is what if one of my children were lost but I couldn't reach them myself? I would want someone to do it for me. Then I realized that's why I'm here! To rescue my brothers and sisters! It was such an amazing feeling! Kenneth Cope wrote a 4th verse to "Because I Have Been Given Much." I love it and wanted to share it with you. The words had a profound effect on me when we sang it at the end of the devotional.
Because of They life's mission, Lord
I too will serve.
I'll leave the comfort of my home
To teach Thy word.
I'll seek Thy sheep who've gone astray,
And those who've never known the way.
I will make Thy work, my work, today!
So I was going to tell you a funny story, too. So on Thursday we got to go out tracting in Blackburn, a nearby city, and quite ghetto I might add. But anyways, they sent us out to locate less actives and invite them back to church. So Elder Peterson and I got pretty much the most ghetto part of town; we were in all these little apartment complexes full of Muslims. We were literally the only white people within a 5 block radius so we looked really out of place anyway... But then we were in our suits and everyone else was in these long robes and Muslim hats. So we were in this on complex and this bobby (cop) comes out of nowhere and starts interrogating us about where we were from and what we were doing and everything. He asked about every question in the book and he had never heard of the church, so that didn't help. He wanted to know why we were in England and where we were staying and everything. He even made us show him our American driver's licences and everything lol. I guess he thought we were there to rob people or something. But luckily we didn't get arrested lol. It was close though. But we didn't end up getting into any houses or anything but on our way back to the van to go back to the MTC we ran into one white guy on the street who said he was busy at the moment but we could send anybody over to his house later and he'd love to hear our message, so we took down his address for the Manchester missionaries. So at least there was some success. Getting out and doing the actual work made it kinda tough to come back to the MTC, though, lol. Oh well, we get plenty of work later, right.
So I should probably tell you why I was with Elder Peterson, huh? Well its kinda crazy but Elder King has been really sick for the last 3 or 4 days, so I got paired with Elder Peterson now. We get along so great! Like seriously, you hear people talk about eternal friendships with companions and I'm here to tell you its true. Like just in the 4 days we've been companions we've become so good of friends. Unfortunately he is going to the London mission, though, so that sucks but its ok. We also get to take care of Elder King so I've gotten to be really good friends with him, too. We really have a good time together so it helps to keep the time passing and the homesickness down, which is really really nice! I've found that friendships and work are the best medicine for that!
Thursday, September 3, 2009
September 3, 2009
I just am at my first area now so they let me have a little time to email home and let people know that I made it ok and stuff lol. So just so you know I am alive. My first area is Hereford, and my new companion is Elder Israelson from Kaysville. He seems like a really hard worker so I think this is going to be great. We road the train from the mission office out to Hereford and had to walk about a quarter mile with our suitcases in the rain. It was a blast haha. I think everyone thought we were homeless. We did a little bit of tracting last night and we got poured on lol. Good news though, we're picking up an investigator and teaching the last few lessons to her and she plans on getting baptised on the 12th! sweet huh. We went over to her house last night and taught a lesson like 5 minutes after we got to our flat so it was straight to work. It was good though. Tell Dusty and Megan I got their letters that they sent to the mission office yesterday and I really appreciated them alot! Also they don't forward our mail out from there they just give it to us at zone conferences and stuff so it might take forever to get it so I think I'll just have you send it to my flat k. My address there is 1 Folly Lane, Hereford HR1 1LY. So if you could send everything but packages there that would be great! Anyways I better head back to work now :) Have a good week ok. My p days are still normally on Tuesdays so that won't be changing.
August 26, 2009
Today we had a devotional from the Preston Temple President and his wife and it was so good! The were Welsh and they were way funny! The president's wife gave a way cool quote in her talk. She said, "We shouldn't pray for our tasks to meet our abilities, we should pray for our abilities to meet our tasks." It is really simple but way powerful I think. But ya I thought the whole meeting was really good. Then we got to watch a bit of Elder Bednar's MTC devotional in Provo from June, it was way awesome, too. He talked about following the Spirit. It really is amazing to see the Spirit help when teaching lessons and stuff, even in little MTC role plays you can feel and see the Spirit working through you. It's really amazing!
August 25, 2009
MTC life is about like Dusty always talks about. It seems a little bit monotonous at times, and there's a ton of information to take in, but in the end its a pretty good experience. It is what you make it out to be you know. Sometimes its tough to make class more fun, but I always have fun at mealtimes and stuff. I just try to keep a good attitude and it all goes great.
So today we got a tour of church history sights around Preston, like President Hinckley's flat and stuff. I got some pictures of that. It was crazy though cuz when we left the MTC the sun was shining and right after we walked away from President Hinckley's flat (the first monument of the day) we got hit with one of the worst downpours I have ever seen in my life. I took a picture of that, too. Some of the elders forgot their umbrellas, so I got a picture of them standing in the rain, they look so miserable lol! It was really fun though!
I'm in a trio right now cuz I didn't have time on the computer. Ok, so at first in my district there were 6 elders and 4 sisters. One of the elders was Italian and can't speak English, lol. So after a long few days for one of our elders, they decided it would be best to send Elder Boer (the Italian) to Provo to learn English. So now I've picked up an extra companion. Seriously, this Elder Boer knew about as much English as I know Spanish so it was kinda funny. He was a funny guy though. I kinda miss having him around lol. So now I am with Elder Muro from Brazil and Elder Engelbrektsson from Sweden. We get along really great. Elder Muro is one of the slowest people I've ever met thought lol. Like in everything. He can be the first to start getting ready and you can guarantee he'll be the last to finish. But its ok I think its kind of funny. The other two elders in my district are Elder King and Elder Peterson from Smithfield and Grantsville. I'm the only elder in our district going to Birmingham and it makes me a little sad to have to part with these guys next week. Oh well, I guess that's kinda how it works, right.
I just am at my first area now so they let me have a little time to email home and let people know that I made it ok and stuff lol. So just so you know I am alive. My first area is Hereford, and my new companion is Elder Israelson from Kaysville. He seems like a really hard worker so I think this is going to be great. We road the train from the mission office out to Hereford and had to walk about a quarter mile with our suitcases in the rain. It was a blast haha. I think everyone thought we were homeless. We did a little bit of tracting last night and we got poured on lol. Good news though, we're picking up an investigator and teaching the last few lessons to her and she plans on getting baptised on the 12th! sweet huh. We went over to her house last night and taught a lesson like 5 minutes after we got to our flat so it was straight to work. It was good though. Tell Dusty and Megan I got their letters that they sent to the mission office yesterday and I really appreciated them alot! Also they don't forward our mail out from there they just give it to us at zone conferences and stuff so it might take forever to get it so I think I'll just have you send it to my flat k. My address there is 1 Folly Lane, Hereford HR1 1LY. So if you could send everything but packages there that would be great! Anyways I better head back to work now :) Have a good week ok. My p days are still normally on Tuesdays so that won't be changing.
August 26, 2009
Today we had a devotional from the Preston Temple President and his wife and it was so good! The were Welsh and they were way funny! The president's wife gave a way cool quote in her talk. She said, "We shouldn't pray for our tasks to meet our abilities, we should pray for our abilities to meet our tasks." It is really simple but way powerful I think. But ya I thought the whole meeting was really good. Then we got to watch a bit of Elder Bednar's MTC devotional in Provo from June, it was way awesome, too. He talked about following the Spirit. It really is amazing to see the Spirit help when teaching lessons and stuff, even in little MTC role plays you can feel and see the Spirit working through you. It's really amazing!
August 25, 2009
MTC life is about like Dusty always talks about. It seems a little bit monotonous at times, and there's a ton of information to take in, but in the end its a pretty good experience. It is what you make it out to be you know. Sometimes its tough to make class more fun, but I always have fun at mealtimes and stuff. I just try to keep a good attitude and it all goes great.
So today we got a tour of church history sights around Preston, like President Hinckley's flat and stuff. I got some pictures of that. It was crazy though cuz when we left the MTC the sun was shining and right after we walked away from President Hinckley's flat (the first monument of the day) we got hit with one of the worst downpours I have ever seen in my life. I took a picture of that, too. Some of the elders forgot their umbrellas, so I got a picture of them standing in the rain, they look so miserable lol! It was really fun though!
I'm in a trio right now cuz I didn't have time on the computer. Ok, so at first in my district there were 6 elders and 4 sisters. One of the elders was Italian and can't speak English, lol. So after a long few days for one of our elders, they decided it would be best to send Elder Boer (the Italian) to Provo to learn English. So now I've picked up an extra companion. Seriously, this Elder Boer knew about as much English as I know Spanish so it was kinda funny. He was a funny guy though. I kinda miss having him around lol. So now I am with Elder Muro from Brazil and Elder Engelbrektsson from Sweden. We get along really great. Elder Muro is one of the slowest people I've ever met thought lol. Like in everything. He can be the first to start getting ready and you can guarantee he'll be the last to finish. But its ok I think its kind of funny. The other two elders in my district are Elder King and Elder Peterson from Smithfield and Grantsville. I'm the only elder in our district going to Birmingham and it makes me a little sad to have to part with these guys next week. Oh well, I guess that's kinda how it works, right.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
