christmas day 2012

We skyped with Michael this morning.  He's happy, loves what he's doing, and has a cute little English accent.

week 76

Oh My Christmas Eve!!!

It's soooo crazy it doesn't even feel like Christmas.  I don't know why but it was like this last year as well.  Maybe it just because the mission makes it weird.  I get to skype you TOMORROW!!!  I'm soo excited lol it's been forever but at the same time it seems like just yesterday it was Mothers' Day and I was skyping you!  Crazy weird.

I have packages from everyone.  I love you all so much for all that you do for me.  Also tell your seminary class thank you for the cards they mean alot!

Can't wait to see you tomorrow!

week 75

My companion is from Tooele, which is the next valley west of Salt Lake. its about 30 minutes west.  Elder QB has been out about 7 months now.  He has one older sister.  He wants to work hard and be better. sometimes he can be too hard on himself and expects perfection which isnt good in missionary work because we make 1 mistake every minute hahaha.   

He seems very humble and willing to work.   He is a cool lad. We have things in common. We both want to work hard and we just seem to get a long quite well, so I'm excited to see what we can accomplish this transfer!

 

ahhh yes the baptism!  She is soooo happy and excited to be a member! She is loving it.  The ward has really fellowshipped her quite well and she has made some good friends in the YSA and older friends in the ward.  She will do really well and I'm not worried. 

We had a stressfull Saturday hahaha because the font takes 2 1/2 hours to fill up and we couldn't get the master keys we had to unlock the font or the boiler so we couldnt fill the font so elder QB jumped into the font from the front lol and opened it from the inside hahaha. 1 down but we still could not get into the boiler so we had to call bishop and he was struggling a bit as well, but we finally got it all up and running about 12 for the scheduled baptism at 1lol so we bumped the baptism to 1:30 and the font had approx. 1 foot of water maybe a bit more lol. So she comes into the font and sits down hahaha and is baptised that way. But hey it happened so that's the important bit. 

I had the opportunity to baptise her!  i was soo happy and excited for her!

Bro. Howard, gave her the holy ghost.  It was all soo good!

 

The 21st will be a blast! There are some carolers mostly at night in town.  But the whole mission will be caroling in one huge group.  160-70 missionaries caroling together in harmony..hopefully haha

I'm excited!  The party is in the Harborne chapel which is where it was last year because the chapel is bigger there than the mission home.  It will be from 10 in the morning til 6 at night hahaha AWESOME!!!

  

We saw this sweet car! We spoke to the guy and he bought it from a film company in Hollywood lol no big deal it's still decked out with lights, sirens, police scanner, the whole works hahaha and he just drives around in it lol.

LEGEND!

week 74

I am safe and healthy and happy :)  I'm staying in Lufbra!  Elder Gomez got transfered to Wales, Blackwood.

My new companion is Elder Quackenbush, from Utah.  He has been out about 7 1/2 months.  he is the man and actually just came from Wales!  LOL it's the legendary Lufbra, Wales connection. Everybody that comes to Lufbra always comes from Wales and everyone that leaves Lufbra always goes to Wales hahaha. 

So yes, Elder Quackenbush seems like a good kid, I'm excited to be working with him and to be able to see success this transfer!

He is 19, has one older sister, and this is his 4th area hahaha he has gotten moved around. 

He was only in Wales 1 transfer and he was in an area by Cardiff. 

He seems like a kool kat!  I'm excited to work with him. 

This week has felt like its been ages!!!  and its only Thursday.  It's just so weird.  I have been so incredibly tired this week it's insane!  

Christmas is going to be crazy fun this year.  I'm not exactly sure the plan for Christmas.  We will be skyping, I'm just not sure, when or where.  but yes! only 12 days!!!  Can you believe this is my second Christmas out!  It's crazy! 

So at transfers President was talking about the Christmas party!  It's next Friday, the 21st and its gonna be sweet.  After the party we are all going to go to the bull ring and do some Christmas caroling!  It's gonna be such a fun day!!  I'm so excited I can't wait! 

Everything with Donnella (our investigator) is good for the 15th. She is excited but kinda sad that Elder G left, but she is still ready!  We actually see her tonight.  It will be good, I'm excited!

Sorry this email is soo late!  We'll email again Monday and I'll send pictures!

week 73

Things have been absolutely bonkers and I've been crazy busy trying to get everything done and I'm absolutely
shattered!  We put up our tree and lights and we have a cozy little living room and we have an open fire place!  So it's nice at night :) 

Transfer dodge night is next Monday and transfers are Wednesday the 12th of December!  It's crazy because I think I'm getting a new companion but I have NO idea whatsoever what is happening!  So we are planning on working suuuuppppeeeerrrr hard this week to end with a bang and to keep our minds busy.  So we have a super packed planned week.  It should be good!

The investigator is still excited and ready to be baptised the 15th of December.  She is so ready and prepared by the Lord.  I have been able to see that I have done absolutely nothing at all, and the hand of the Lord has taught and testified to her and that's how she knows its true.  She prayed, fasted and she is 100% commited to it!  It's soo awesome!  We really are excited for her.  We do have some other investigators that are really good. A couple are struggling but we are helping them to work through it.  We really are seeing that hand of the Lord working in this area and we are merely just assisting in the work.  It is amazing to see the blessings of the Lord, and I think I appreciate the hard times because I learnt so much and really came closer to my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.  Now after the hard work and trials we are being blessed by the Lord allowing us to teach and bring someone into the gospel. 

This week I have learnt about attitude and the atonement. 

   it is attitude

   not aptitude

   that determines our altitude in life

So I  think of this and then think of the atonement.  Only our attitude toward the atonement, no matter what our skill or ability is, can help us reach the celestial kingdom.

For example:  if you go into a class and you come in 15 minutes early and get all ready and then pull you notes out and study old notes. then when the teacher comes in you are taking notes and asking questions, you get alot out of the class.

 OR

the your roll into class 10 minutes late with your music blasting and you slop into your seat and slouch back and text, don't take notes and just turn the music down low enough that the teacher cant hear it but you can. you dont get anything out of this class, why even go?

So we can apply it to the atonement, we can study about it, pray to ask the Lord questions about it,  ask our church leaders about it and practice using it in our lives and really take it in.

OR

we can barely ever use it or use it because we are told were supposed to but we don't know anything about so we don't use it correctly therefore it doesn't work and we get nothing out of it.

It all comes down to our attitude toward the Saviour and his atoning sacrifice.  If we have a positive I WANT to use it attitude, and think I'm going to get as much out of it as possible, and know that only the atonement can save me, and we dont rely on out aptittude but our attitude of faith then we will guarentee our altitude to be the celestial kingdom.  So that is what I learned this week.

I'm so grateful that I came on a mission becasue it has changed my life and if i had never had gone I KNOW I would have regreted it because I'm here and I love it and am learning so many lessons and one of them is what i shared in fast and testimony meeting yesterday.

"Every blessing we recieve comes from obedience."- Joseph Smith.  I'm so grateful for all that I have been blessed with! 

week 72

Things in "Lufbra" are well good!  We are teaching that one solid investigator, the uni student that referred herself and went to the temple and everything.  Well  we committed her to a date and she will be baptised the 15th of December!  I'm so excited for her. She has soo many trials with her family not wanting her to do it, but she has prayed about it, and she knows it's true so she is going forward with it!  She came to church yesterday and was like I got my answer and I'm going to get baptised.  i feel 100% commited right now! 

So now we are working on making sure she is ready and knows everything lol.  I'm soooo excited for her!

i enjoyed Thanksgiving with a nice spaghetti bolognagse hahaha. It was really good! I'm just grateful that we had a place to eat and that the members are so nice to us.  i love the food here, we are having breakfast for dinner on Friday which is a weird thing for this family hahaha but I told them it's good so I'll convert them!

We are working way hard in this area and the Lord is blessing us with amazing investigators, dinner appointments, and the members love us.  And it's all because we are being obedient and diligent!  I love it!  

So right now we are in an internet cafe in Leicester because we are playing footy today!  Hahaha sweet p-day!

Shout out to Katie and Cameron!  I love and miss them so much!  

This week will be good we have a dinner appointment every night so I'm being taken care of.

We have solid people to teach and the Lord is just blessing us!

I love it!

week 71

Thank you so much for the Christmas coat, it is soooo amazing!  I'm warm and ever since I've gotten it I've never been wet!  So it's amazing!  The christmas decos are already halfway up in town centre.  It's Christmas Season, so the decorations come out and the music is blasting!  Is Thanksgiving Thursday?  I don't even know when it is hahaha, we don't really have any plans.  I think we have a dinner appointment, but if not we will make all the food you sent me and enjoy! lol it will be good!  I hope you enjoy Thanksgiving with all the family, give them all my love!

 

Things are good here in Loughborough!  We are focusing this week on working hard, smart and really following the direction from the Lord on what to do.  We have 3 pretty solid investigators. I love this area. The Lord is truly blessing us and I recognise his hand in it because there are miracles happening.  The Lord is truly blessing us and it is kind of nice to be seeing the miracles.   Here is some good news from Milford Haven, the chapel is almost finished (should be next week) and also they got 6 new investigators last week!!  AWESOME!!  That area is exploding!  So our investigator comes to church every week, she comes to institute, and we teach her twice a week!  She is really good and progressing really well.  I hope and pray that she recognises why it's essential to be baptised and how it can bring joy to her life.  We have these investigators and we are going to be seeking advise from the Lord on what they need, and if and when He feels they are ready for baptism.  The mission right now is stressing meeting our goal of 235 baptisms by the end of 2012 and we need 41, so its a big topic and I will baptise the people in the Lord's time so they can really receive the blessings of the church and prepare to go to the temple.  It's good!  I'm loving "Lufbra"!  The members love us, the people are awesome!  It's just great! 

 

The missionary force in Europe is going to explode!  President was saying  there are about 3,000 missionaries in Europe at the moment, and in the next months there will be around 5,000 missionaries!  So in the next months we will be getting about 70 new missionaries!  It's absolutely crazy!  And they will be so young!   

 

 I love the mission because I learn so many awesome life lessons that will help me so much in my life after the mission.  I think I might train again next transfer with the huge group coming in, but we will see.  It's already the 3rd week of the transfer, so things are flying! 

 

Things are good over here behind the blue door!

week 70

Elder Kerr, an Area Seventy, came and spoke to us this week.  He said we are amazing missionaries, we are all doing a fabulous job and there aren't any huge changes we need to make--just little 1 degree changes and it will make all the difference.  I know this to be true, like the scriptures say by SMALL and SIMPLE things are great things brought to pass.  If we focus on the basics that we need to improve on, everything will fall into place.  I know it!

Another thing we talked about was agency.  People have their agency to act and no matter what we do they have the freedom to choose.  Even though we are the best examples and do everything right they can still choose to got he other way.  Often those people have chosen to go down a path they think will bring happiness when in reality it will only bring them regret and guilt and pain.  Obedience and dilligence bring happiness.  i know that to be true. 

"On it like a dog on rhubarb" is just a silly brit saying and yes I know what rhubarb is.  It is a plant and the british love it.  I love rhubarb now. rhubarb and custard or rhubarb cobbler.  It's all good! 

I love this area!  We cover the whole city of Loughborough and the uni is smack in the middle. We kind of live far east of the town and kind of in a rubbish location, far from everything lol but its ok.  The members are great, the bishop is the man and the whole ward supports missionaries in a positive way.  This ward seems to be really good and recognise hard work and respect it.  We do ride bikes, not as much as I would like but we do.  It's just an area that has loads of potential.  

So miracle of the week......

We got a media referral from a girl saying she wanted a Book of Mormon, so we go to contact this girl and she lives in the dorms at uni so were like flip all we have is a building, no number.  So we speak to the main man in charge, and for safety reasons he can't tell us anything, only that 300 students lived here hahaha!!  So we just pray we will be able to get a hold of her.  Well we get a call from the institute teacher saying he got an e-mail from a girl who wants to go to institute, it was this girl!!!  She went on a study abroad to the Ukraine and she met the missionaries and gave her a book and she read it and then stopped because she got busy with studies.  She went to the Ukraine temple and loved it, curious to know what happens inside.  So she came back and wants to be more involved in the church. So we saw her at institute, she is way cool, we taught her 2 days later and she has watched Joseph Smith:Prophet of the Restoration and she knows Joseph Smith is a prophet, she knows the Book of Mormon is true and she came to church yesterday and she loved it, so we are seeing her on Tuesday!  She is AWESOME! 

The Lord is great!  He really blessed us with an amazing investigator!

week 69

It's been a good first week. Transfers being on Monday kinda threw off my groove and it was a long week, but it's ok because now it's just a normal week! So it will be good. 

 

The ward seems really good.  The ward is pretty big compared to Milford lol It's about 150 people or so.  All the members are really young and middle aged.  There are no singles at all reallly, all young married students,  There is just one ward in Loughborough but there are more in Nottingham, becuse there is a big uni there as well.  We get fed basically every day so that's pretty awesome and it's good food as well.  We have a lady who is our dinner coordinator  and she is on it like a dog on rubarb lol.  We had fast sunday and I got up to bear my testimony and afterward loads of the members came up to me and said, "i thought you were English until you said you were from california" hahaha YES!!! I have a little British accent!  It's so totally awesome!  I'm gonna sound British when i come home! 

 

Our flat is pretty awesome, we are in the process of re arranging the flat so it is looking quite cozy and homey.  We have a fireplace so we are getting wood and making some fires and keeping warm. So I'm happy.

 

I have only been able to see 1 of the investigators.  He is 13 and Chinese. and he doesn't speak much English so we are teaching him English and teaching with English leaflets and Chinese leaflets and teach side by side.  It's working well. We were there last night and the parents came out and slapped this meal in front of us and we ate this really good, rice and ,meat and I learned im pathetic at using chop sticks but I finally finished. 

 

I know obedience brings blessings not only for me but others and when I'm obedient and hard working it shows my love for the Lord.  I feel that I have two years to devote all my time to show the Lord my appreciation for him, so I'm going to work hard and be obedient and show him it is important to me.  I have gained a strong witness and testimony of how if I dont work hard, if I'm not obedient and so on, then I'm denying not only myself, but others, blessings of salvation.  Understanding this and learning it has changed my whole perspective on the mission and I think I can finish working hard knowing I'm doing it right. 

 

I love this area and I love my mission. I am learning so many things I know i will be able to use when I get home. 

 

week 68 part 2

So I'm in Loughborough, pronounced Luff-bra.  It's in Birmingham right below Nottingham.  So I'm kicking it with Robin Hood in Sherwood Forest!  

It's a fairly big city.  It is a University town so there are loads of uni students.  I'm excited to work in a uni town.  I haven't seen this many people in a while so it's quite shocking hahaha.  The flat is really nice.  its small but homey and big enough.  Ours is the one with the blue door.
Elder Gomez (pronounced Elder Gometh) is the man from Spain.  His English is good, he has the classic Spanish accent and it reminds me of Senora Rubio sometimes hahaha.  I should have listened to her better hahaha.  It should be a good transfer for sure! I'm excited.  

It is a ward here and they have a building!!!  The ward is big, I've heard more than 100 people so thats interesting!  I might not like it after being in such a small close knit group i won't know everyone and their dogs lol but I'm going to do my best to get to know everyone the best I can and fast.  They just had a baptism a transfer back and we have 2 to 3 investigators who are working through things, but they are interested in learning.  I'm really quite excited to get to work and to see some miracles and success happen.  

i have some pictures from Milford that I never got to send.

St. David's Cathedral

Our last district meeting in Milford Haven.  I love these elders and sisters!

The William's Family (the mum was somewhere else)

The man himself. the legend of Pembrokeshire. Dr. Dickie 

The Martin Family

week 68 part 1

Today is transfers!  I'm staying in Milford.......just kidding. I'm finally, after 9 months, leaving to go back to England. I'm going to Loughbrough, near Leicester.  I'm follow up training a boy in Elder Dutton's group.  He is from Spain.  

I know that God has a plan for me, I would have never thought of this place and it makes me know that President is called of God and that I'm meant to be here.  I'm excited to be in a new area with a new companion, it's kinda nice.  

This is my new address.

Elder Barton

11 Thomas Street

Loughborough

LE11 1SH

England

We are emailing at a member's house tomorrow, so I'll send a better email then.  We are at the Mac Store at the Bullring now just popping off quick ones to let everyone know. 

week 67

So this is the last time you will hear from me before transfers lol, that sounds pretty dramatic.  YOU'LL NEVER HEAR FROM ME AGAIN! lol  So transfers are Monday this time, so the 29 of October. They have some fancy Mission President meeting on that Wednesday, so Pres. Rasmussen moved transfers. So you will hear from me either Monday or Tuesday! :) happy days.  So last week we had presidents interviews, but I asked President bluntly, "am i going to be here for the open house?" 
and he said, "well Elder how long have you been in Milford Haven now?" 
"9 months sir."  
"no probably not."  
So I'm planning on getting transferred Monday. So what will happen is on Saturday we will get the dodge (the what's up with everyone--who is leaving/staying/new comps, everything). So I have begun packing a bit so I don't have to stay up all night Saturday.  Because Sunday is Stake Conference in Merthyr Tydfill and then we are going to Abberystwyth.  So it's going to be a pretty crazy week.

The weather here is pretty bleek and boring now, about 14 degrees or so and in a couple of days its supposed to drop to about 7 degrees so that's about 45. It will be winter soon!  I love it!
Bro. Dickie is the man!  He is like 94 years old and still going strong!  Like today actually, he took us to see St. David's Cathedral.  It is a beautiful cathedral!  It was way fun!   

Brother Dickie is the oldest member of the branch.  He is a retired GP and he lives alone.  His wife
died a while back.  He goes to the temple 1 week every month.  He is just one of those awesome old funny guys everyone loves.  i don't have a picture of him because he hates pictures lol but when I get one I will send it.


So Milford Haven is seeing miracles.  We got a media referral and so we tried visiting and nothing. So we had a night of appointments and Bro. Dickie  was with us and all our appointments fell through. So we decided to stop by this referral and the mum answered and she was super excited.  She was like, "Oh I love your religion, I've read the Book of Mormon, you are all so pleasant!" And I'm like, "WHAT!!  GOLDEN!"  So she says, "let me go get my son, he was the one that wanted you to come." So he comes down, and this kid is 17 and elect!  The whole family is elect. Well the mum was busy speaking to dad so we taught the kid and invited him to be baptised and he sad YES!  We are seeing him tomorrow and we are going to put him on a date for the 1st of December!  Then we checked the building schedule for the 1st of December and it's free, so we booked it having faith he will say yes!  Oh man I'm sooooo excited!!!!  I'm not going to lie I'm kinda sad that the second we have a golden elect person I'm leaving.  But..this is how I feel.  I have been here 9 months, I've worked hard, and tried to find people.  Now the Lord led us to this elect kid and his family, and I'm so grateful for the opportunity and blessing I had to meet him, becasue it is proof to me that even in a really hard area when it seems "dead" that there are people prepared to hear the gospel and I saw that.  I saw and taught him because the Lord allowed me to, and now I can leave this area happy because I feel like I was led and guided and found the person the Lord wanted me to find.  So I don't need to see the blessings.  I
feel I have left this area better than when I found it so I'm happy.

The chapel is looking really good, it should be handed over the end of November!  Man I'm sooo excited for this area!  It's going to explode and not slow down for a long time! I'm so happy!

I'm loving my mission so far, I'm learning soooo much and trying now to apply and really build habits and my testimony in things by doing them1

week 66

Mission football WAS awesome.  I'm finally not sore anymore from it.  It took a while to recover.  Just a little about some of the other missionaries:  Elder D is from France, he is the district leader and he is pretty cool, he is way funny.  Elder P is
from Arizona and he is a stud and a way hard working missionary.  Sister L is from India!  That's pretty cool, I haven't met her, but she sounds legit.  We just have a way cool district, everybody gets along and loves each other!  It's brilliant!

So I learned how to play some songs on the ukelele.  I have a little collection of songs now. It's pretty awesome, because it's my mission uke-- all my companions have signed it!  So it's just a way cool memory of my mission.

Today is gonna be legit.  We are just gonna chill out, write some letters, clean, eat, sleep, and then tonight we are meeting with a couple of members and we're gonna play some squash, which is just like raquetball, except smaller.  And then have a FHE with the sickest family EVER!!  It's gonna be a good day.  

The chapel is looking soo good!  We get the keys the 23 of November!  It's just around the corner!  I'm soo excited for the branch, they deserve it and need it!

Things are good here, we are working hard and have some solid potentials.  We're going to see them all this week so it will be good.  Hopefully we can get one with a baptismal date.  it will be good!

I have learned that God truly does love us. Just like a parent who does all they can for their children and give them
opportunities to have a good life.  Well I know God is the same way.  He is our loving Heavenly Father,  he gives us opportunities to do things that will make us happy because when we are happy He is.  It's a fact.  In our white missionary handbook it says "your loyalty is first to the Lord, then to your mission president and then to your companion."   It keeps us focused.  If we're not focused on the list,  we can change our efforts a wee bit.

week 65

Sorry I didn't email yesterday.  It was the Thomas S Monson Transfer Football tournament (aka mission football)  so we were in Cardiff all day.  Man it was sooooo muddy because it poured that morning and then it was misty all day but it was so fun to play in--we all were soaked and covered in mud hahaha I scored 3 goals!  It was awesome!

Our little mission footy team!  We rock!!

So conference was awesome!  The announcement!  Oh man that is absolutely crazy.  Missionary work is being pushed so hard and do you know why?  Because it is an experience that will set you up for the rest of your life so they want everyone to have the chance.  I loved Quentin L Cook's talk in the Saturday morning session.  It was really good. That Saturday session really tugged on the ole heart strings and I was able to learn and receive some good insight.


So we left Haverfordwest Saturday morning and got to Cardiff, where the Zone Leaders picked us up and we chilled and got all ready for conference by making our food and stuff.  Then we went to the Saturday morning session at 5pm. hahaha crazy time change!  Then the Zone Leader's did a baptismal interview so we split up with some other missionaries and went out and did some finding.  That was really cool, and cold.  It is most definitely autum time because the leaves are changing colours and it is getting cold!

Then Sunday came and at 10 am we watched the Priesthood session live lol.  Then at 1:00 pm we watched the Saturday afternoon session, and at 5:00 pm we watched the Sunday morning session.  We cant see the Sunday afternoon session because it is at 9:00 pm, so that's kind of lame, but oh well it's a privilege to see what we can.

Monday morning we drove to Cardiff from Ponty Pridd, the ZL's area, and played footy from like 1130 to 1500.  We played hard, our little team of 12, and we got 3rd place out of 4.  Not bad, we could have gotten second but we had to
cut our last game short because we basically got kicked off the field.


I have learned on my mission, especially in the last 3 months or so, to just ask.  You never know what the answer might be--so you might as well just ask it anyway. 


So some news with our District. there are 3 new missionaries coming in on Wednesday. Mid-transfers, from Provo because they had to learn English.   So here is how our district is now:
New Castle-                  Llanelli-

Sister Lafevre                Elder Parham
Sister Benson                Elder Destriboui(DL)

Abberystwyth-                Milford Haven-
Elder Mucca                   Elder Dutton
Elder Quilter                   Me


Since last night was a mid transfer dodge night, here is our new district:
New Castle-                  Llanelli-
Sister Lafevre                 Elder Parham
Sister Lewis                    Elder Kulows

Abberystwyth-                Milford Haven-
Elder Mucca                   Elder Dutton
Elder Destribuoi(DL)     Me

So Elder Destriboui just moved areas in the same district and Sister Benson is opening a brand new area and training a new Sister missionary from Armenia! And they are on bikes! hahaha its absolutely crazy!  

All is well here, we are working hard to get a baptism still this transfer.  I know this week will be good, I'm pumped to be effective, smart, and work hard this week and see what happens.  We are trying this week to hit standard of excellence and hit all of our goals!  It is going to be a good week for sure!

Tomorrow we have a Zone meeting in Swansea, so that will be good.  The Zone leaders will teach us a bit and train us so that will be good!

It's been a good week!  And it will only get better!

week 64

The weather here is... hmmmm...., it's raining and getting cold and soon it will be freezing.  Hahaha oh well it's autumn now so we will prep for a cold winter.

Things are good here.  The chapel is looking amazing and everyone is sooo excited to get in it.  We were able to get a new investigator.  She seemed really excited, well so I heard because I was on exchanges when it happened, which is how it always seems to go down hahaha.  Good things happen when I'm on exchange lol.  But it's all good, she is busy for about a week so we won't be able to see her til next week.  Things are good we just need to find someone to teach this week because I think I told you that this transfer is the Thomas S. Monson transfer.  The goal is to baptise 1 this transfer so we really need to find that person this week so I'm putting everything to God.

For Conference on Saturday and Sunday we are going to Abberystwyth again for the weekend and spend the night with the elders there.  It will be a good week.

I know that this area is being blessed, and i have learned that it isn't about me receiving the blessings, but the area receiving them because the people need it.  This area is being blessed, a chapel, excitement, and then missionaries will reap like crazy!


It will be sooo good!

week 63

I'm still in Milford for the 6th transfer so at the end of this it will be 9 months in this area.  Unfortunately if I do get transferred on October 31st I will miss the opening of the chapel, but its alright because we don't ever really see the ending result in this life anyway.  We work and work and work then in the next life we see it and how much joy will we have when we do.

I'm working on improving myself, one thing i working on is saying better more meaningful prayers that are guided by the spirit.  If I pray with the spirit he will tell me what to say and I will know that is the will of God.  I'm working on working smarter.  I think and feel I am a hard worker but if I can now work smarter as well that will help.  So many things i want to learn and apply.  It's ok i have time. I want to get in habits of doing things that way when I come home I can still do these things.

Well that lady we found because I wrote down the wrong address is moving back home to North Wales, which is out of our area and out of our mission.  That's ok, we are going to see her tonight and get her details so we can refer her to the elders up there, then she leaves tomorrow.  i hope she continues to progress and wants to learn more.
We got a media referral the other day actually.  Basically if you go on mormon.org you can request a missionary visit and it goes to SLC and then distributes to missions, then to missionaries. so we got one who lives in a small town/village about 30 minutes away.  So we called him and I can't tell if he is a nonmember or a Less active but we are seeing him
tomorrow night so we will find out for sure.  He said he really wants to come back to church so whether he is a member or not, he wants to come to church which is the important bit.


This transfer is dedicated to Thomas S Monson because October will mark 49 years of being an apostle. So everyone in the mission is setting a goal to baptise once this transfer, so that is our goal and I know we can accomplish it!
So we are going to rely on God, work smart and work hard and we will be blessed with a baptism.

My mission is shaping me and giving me these experiences and trials because I have a sneaking suspicion that I will have similar trials later so God is preparing me for that.  I am grateful I came on a mission. The experiences, the friends the memories I have had are amazing and I will never forget them. Tell your seminary kids to go on missions because it is the best decision they will ever make in their life.  It will give them 40 years of life experience crammed into 2
years,  it will make them better than when they left and they will see the change and be grateful for the opportunity they had to be shaped by the Lord.  It is an amazing experience.

week 62

The library internet is under the works so we went to the senior couples home to email.  

This has been a long week, but the Lord is for sure blessing us.  Well so here is the news-- I'm staying in Milford Haven with Elder Dutton so I'll be here for another 6 weeks the next transfer day is 31st of October--Halloween transfer!

It has been good here.  We are working hard and more importantly trying to work a lot smarter. We are trying to be more productive and plan better and be more organised and it is paying off.    It's all about on Friday weekly planning set up all your teaches, dinners, everything then over the next couple of days confirm and get people to come teaching with you, then Sunday confirm the fellowshippers, then your week is set.  It's perfect!  so that's what we are going to do this transfer and we are going to see success.

So here is the update of what has been happening.....

Last week we had a zone meeting and training in Swansea so that was good.  

We have been doing loads of finding trying to find people to teach. 

We have been able to do a couple of service projects for some members

more finding and

more finding

I have learnt on my mission that no matter how much you go out and work if the desire to go out and work and the right attitude isn't there then to be honest your just wasting your time and the Lord's time.  So I have prayed everyday to have a better desire, a better attitude, to be happy, be filled with love, and have faith.  i feel those are the most important qualities we can develop.

On monday we stopped by this potential with a member and we pulled up to the house and I realised I had wrote down the wrong address. and so we were like oh well let's knock it, so we did, and this lady and her sister let us in and we had a lesson and we are going to go back tomorrow and they want to come to church!  The Lord is blessing us for sure!  

Then we spent all day in Pembroke Dock an area about 1 hour away on bike so we bike out there and spend all day and get 5 potentials and a couple of those are families!!! Miracles are happening.

In district meeting we talked about families and how the gospel can bless them and how most of our drive to be on a mission is because of our families and how the gospel has blessed us.  So we are striving to find a family to teach.  So our goal is by the end of Sunday to find a family!  We want it soooo bad!  

Things are good here. I love this area, I love the people, I'm trying my best to love my companion, and I want to see success-- but something we always have to look at is why do we want success, is it for recognition or because we want to bring children of God back.  

I love my mission, even though it can be hard, I have learnt some of the most valuable life lessons ever!!!  I will appreciate my mission forever and everything that it has taught me.