week 52

The sky on the way home from Zone Conference

We had Zone Conference and interviews with President Rasmussen.  They have a son on a mission in Nashville Tennessee, and I realised that I know their son Tyler!  We went to BYU-I together and I had a class with him.  I feel President is going to be fairly strict. At Zone conference he whipped out the white handbook and told us some things he feels are important.  He seems like a good, loving man.  At interviews we had a good chat and he just wanted to know more about me and things and he said I'm glad you have a year left we can get to know each other really well.  He told me "Elder Barton the Lord has big and great things for you to accomplish in this next year so keep working hard and you'll see the blessings."  Here is a little fact for you, at the moment 60% of the mission has been out under 6 months.  We are such a young mission. I'm probably in the top 20% if not higher.  It's crazy, so I have a feeling that this will be my last transfer in Milford and I'll get moved to another area with a younger missionary because President wants to spread us around and take advantage of the older guys.  It will be good.

Unfortunately I have sad news about the family we were teaching.  The husband completely hardened his heart toward the gospel.  The tithing thing really stuck and he wouldnt let us read from the Book of Mormon when we saw them last or anything, so we won't be seeing them for the time being.  We are going to sit back and let them figure it out and we will pop by in a couple of weeks to see what's up.  So back to the drawing board.  We are finding loads which is hard because your results are pretty slow for a while, but then suddenly boom 20 new investigators.  We have a couple of teaches tonight and then tomorrow from noon til 1730 we have a teach every hour hahaha we will be packed with people.  I have faith that they will all keep their appointments!  

As we study the gospel we gain knowledge, but I've learned the best and quickest way to gain a testimony of the gospel is to live it.  As we live the principles, we come to know they are true.  That is why, as missionaries, we invite people to do things to build their faith. Because even though reading will help, if they live a principle it means more and lasts a lot longer.  And as we live a principle we gain a piece of the puzzle and slowly our puzzle starts to form around the edges and then we fill in the middle pieces because those are a lot harder to get. 

The rain is still coming in (wettest June in history!).  Right now it is like a really thick blanket of mist so I feel like you get wetter that way, but its all part of the experience.  We are already getting tourists down from all over the place because Pembrokeshire is so beautiful.  There are alot of caravan parks here so we usually have some tourists.  And since it's supposedly summer, the surfers are here and the caravan parks are full and people are coming for the Olympics!  It's gonna be crazy!  

A castle in Aberystwyth

Another castle in Aberystwyth