week 89

Wayne was a former investigator and when I first got here we taught him a couple of times but he flogged(cancelled or didnt show up) us 14 times so we dropped him.  Then we picked him back up with QB and taught a couple of times and then the same story; and he really wanted to be baptised before Christmas but he wasn't keeping commitments like church, reading, and praying. But he called us one day and said he would like us to come over and he was keeping appointments but not commitments and we were wondering what Wayne needed to progress. So after some time we set him with a date and told him here, this is your date--the 13th of april.  If you want to be baptised on that date, prove it.  And off he went . He came to church and he was reading, really well, and he was keeping commitments and over those two weeks Wayne changed so much.  He wasn't even the same. He embraced the gospel and allowed it to change him. It was amazing teaching Wayne because of the change we saw in him. It was awesome.  So we prayed and discussed and felt we needed to move his date forward because he was progressing and ready, so we moved it to the 23rd of March and he was soooo excited!  He continued to progress and keep commitments, so on Wednesday after district meeting President came down and interviewed Wayne for baptism, and he passed!!! 

Then on Thursday and Friday it snowed alot. Which was amazing and beautiful....

But, the baptism was supposed to be Saturday after the ward party so everyone could be there.  But the ward party got cancelled because of the snow.  So Saturday morning at 8 o'clock we got a call saying the party was cancelled, and we went into missionary extreme planning.  We called people to come to the baptism, got to the church and filled the font, shoveled the car park so there was no snow, and called people to bring cakes.  And on Saturday, 23 March at 11:00 Wayne was baptised into the church!!!!! 

It was a crazy amazing day! I asked him how he felt after the baptism and he said, I feel different.  I feel good and I about cried. It was awesome to see this man completely turn around and now is a member of the church.   Then on sunday we only had sacrament meeting because of the snow and Wayne was given the gift of the Holy Ghost and sustained andwelcomed into the church and the ward. 

Things here are going great, we are doing loads of finding because now we have one less investigator so we are trying to build our teaching pool.  We have a couple of potential investigators that could turn into something. We will see what happens and this time I promise to keep you updated on it. hahaha  We had sweet dinners this last week with members! i love the members here! I would not mind finishing my mission in Loughborough!  It would be cool and long (lol) we will see, we have interviews on Thursday so I will most likely speak to president about it and see what he thinks. 

 

Here is the quote of the week for you, this one is from Brigham Young.

"Salvation is an individual operation."   Good huh? I liked it.

This is COSTCO!!  So we went and we couldn't get in! Elder Hansen didnt have the right number, so we tried buying one and they said we couldn't because we were not employed, so we were like can we at least get a hot dog and they were like no sorry we only sell to members!  STUPID. 

This is the funniest little 3 wheel truck hahaha we saw it and I was like yes I must have a picture of that!

week 88

So I have a long list I've been writing out this week of things I want to tell you.

1. So I feel bad about this one, I have totally forgotten to tell you.  So do you remember Wayne?  Well we started working with Wayne again a couple months back and told him how it is and went through a process, but a couple weeks back we invited him to be baptised on the 23 of March!  Well that's this Saturday!!  I have loved working with Wayne because when he started taking the gospel seriously, it changed him and I have seen it work on him and shape him and he isn't even the same person as when I first met him.  I'm serious, he is completely different.  Well he is so ready and excited for Saturday!  He is reading, praying and coming to church and well integrated with the ward, it's perfect.  So yes Wayne is getting all ready and he is praying about who he wants to baptise him.  He is amazing and I'm so glad I have had the privilege to work with him. So yay! Exciting times in Loughborough!

 

2. Donnella is going to Utah tomorrow with one of the American YSA girls.  They are taking a tour of the west coast and will be gone for 4 weeks because it's half term for uni students. So they get 4 weeks off.  She is going to Utah, California, Oregon, and Arizona and they are going to go to the Confernce Centre to see General Conference!  She is totally loving being in the church she is just soaking up every opportunity that she can!  

 

3. We started a sports night at the chapel every Thursday night at 7 and we had 8 people there last time and we should have a couple more, there is this kid we met on the street.  He is way cool and he loves basketball so he said he would come and bring his friends so we are doing a creative finding way. 

 

4. This kid named Ethan just returned from his mission and Sunday was his homecoming. He served in the Athens, Greece Mission.  I thought my mission was hard.  But he seems like a good kid, we are excited to get him out teaching with us. It should be good.

 

5. Elder Hansen, one of the ZLs possibly has a Costco card, he's checking with his parents today but if he does then that means we can go to Costco in Leicester!  They are so rare to have and we have the chance to go!  I'm sooo excited!  It will be awesome. 

 

6. Things here are doing well.  We have had some good finding hours this week and got a couple of potentials and some new investigators! It's exciting!  We have a couple of potentials that could turn into something so we will see.  We were teaching one of our former investigators and she gave us a referral, which is one more than we usually get so we were so grateful!  It was just a number and a name, so we called him up and told him we had met with this friend of his and she had said you might need some help and we told him we love to serve and we share a message of Jesus Christ that can bless our lives and would he be interested and he said come over Saturday morning!  MIRACLE!!  It was amazing!  We were so excited, he seemed really nice so there is some potential there.  The Lord is blessing us really, that's all it comes down to, everyone we are working with is a miracle that God has given us.  It is amazing to be in this area because we notice the little miracles every day.  That's something I have been working on--noticing all the tiny miracles, like yesterday my feet were dry.  Awesome. 

 

The new area and the ZLs are doing great they are just finding and finding and finding. We gave them a couple streets to knock and some people to stop by to see so we hope that they get something from that.  They are good guys and good missionaries and they are seeing miracles as well so it's good.

 

The ward is doing well.  We have a dinner appointment everyday but Saturday and the other elders I think have the same and they are all separate.  President doesn't want us doing 4 man DAs so they are all 2 man so its quite impressive that the ward is stepping up and the Lord is blessing them for their efforts. 

 

It has been cold here and it randomly freak snow storms.  It's nuts like it's alright weather then BOOM blizzard hahaha.  It's like BYU-I but the snow doesn't stick so that's good.  It's crazy though!  It has been bitter cold the last couple of days but oh well its England and I'm quite used to this by now hahaha.

 

"Courage is when you kept pushing on and not giving up when everyone would understand why you fell."

 

I love this quote. like in Finding Nemo, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming swimming swimming.  

 

One last thing--the 6 nations rugby match was the other day. Basically it determines who is the champion at rugby and it was the defending champions, WALES vs ENGLAND hahaha and guess who won.......WALES!  LOL I was loving it hahaha!  Elders Quorum the next day was a bit tense hahaha maybe becuase i wore my IWales socks hahahaha it had to be done. 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

week 87

I love that I'm staying in Loughborough, and that I'm staying with Elder QB.  He is the man and I love serving with him!  I have been in Loughborough a while, at the end of this transfer it will be 6 months in Lufbra.  

There is just 1 ward in Lufbra, about 150 members. It is such an amazing ward! I love them!  We split the area down this street called Epinal Way and its the main road that runs through Loughborough and so that was the easiest way to split it.  We get the east side and they get the west. The train line runs right down our side so we can still catch the train and get to the little villages that are on our side.  They have a car because they are ZLs so they get all the west side because there aren't any train lines over there so it really makes sense.  The trains are actually quite good, because they got remodeled for the London olympics. Why you ask?  Well the Chinese Olympic team was based at Loughborough University so that is pretty awesome!!  The trains run pretty regular to all the main places we need to go like Nottingham, Leicester, London lol, Birmingham, and all the villages.  It's good.  The members are pretty evenly divided throughout all of the area. Most are in the main part of Loughborough, but there are the members in the villages as well.  

The area is doing really well. We have been working so hard and found some really cool people this week and got a couple of new investigators. It's way good!!!

Here is a note to everyone that is mission age and worthy to go...

DO IT!!  A mission is the best decision you will ever make and I promise you, you will never regret serving, but you will regret not serving.  Go on a mission and find the joy that comes from the gospel. see it change peoples lives. see it change your life.  I love my mission and I have learnt so many lessons and have grown so much in so many ways and I wouldn't change these past two years for anything because they have been so memorable and priceless. I LOVE IT.  So if you doubt or are trying to fight the system, stop it and go and do what you know to be right and serve the Lord with all you have and you will love it!!!!

I love this week because it changed me. I have learnt so much these past couple of days and I know it was just at the right time because I'm ready to hit the ground and work and let everyone know about the Book of Mormon and the happiness the gospel brings into our lives!   A good quote I found this week and applied.  You know me I love quotes lol

"the key to change... is to let go of fear."  

So today will be fun because we're actually in Leicester and we're going to play some basketball with the boys here. It will be a good pday!  These guys are soo amazing, all of them we are good friends and we know that what we do is true.  

week 86

So transfers were on Saturday and boy oh boy do I have news.

TRANSFER NEWS!

So first off, Elder QB and I are staying together again! This will be our 3rd transfer together, he is my longest companion.  Then they split our zone, it used to be the Nottingham/Leicester Zone and now there is a Nottingham Zone with ZL's and a Leicester Zone with ZL's. Which gives more leadership positions to handle all the increase in missionaries.    So now we are in the Leicester Zone which makes sense because we are in the Leicester stake.  So we moved districts as well, before we were in the Nottingham district but now we are in the Westcotes district in Leicester.  Yep there is more.

So we have another set of missionaries in Loughborough now, its the Zone Leaders.  So they have a car and I will bum as many rides as I can lol!  They have their own posh flat on the other side of town.  It is really nice and in a good area.  They are cool and now there is 4 of us so its crazy.  We split the area to make it easier to work and it is good we have the east side of Loughborough and all the villages like Sileby, Quorn, Mount Sorrell, and East Leake. That's where the train line runs so we can actually get out there. So it makes sense.  It's good we are going to hit these areas hard, now that we have less ground to cover we can work more effectively and efficiently. We pick an area and work that area  the whole week so by the end of the week the area has been destroyed lol and we move on to another area. 

We are expected to have an increase of 100 missionaries by the end of 2013.  We have about 150 missionaries right now so that's about 250!  I'm not sure how many sisters we have, but I would guess maybe 20-25 sisters, but we are expected to get loads more.  Every sister in the mission will be training at the end of this transfer. We are supposed to be getting 30 odd missionaries at the end of this transfer and then 20 odd at the end of the next one.  It's absolutely crazy!  So things are pumpin over here!  I see that by the time I go home every area in the mission will have at least 4 missionaries in it!  It will be insane!

The ZLs have a meeting tomorrow where they will find out all the news for the next couple of transfers and whether they will be 5 or 6 weeks.  

It is starting to pick up on the temperature here, but it goes up and down all the time.  So one day it's warm and sunny and the next it's grey and windy. Welcome to England. It's okay you really do get used to the fact that everyday is a gamble for the weather.  I usually end up bringing everything so that I am prepared for whatever weather happens hahaha!

 

Yep so we met the DVD man in the park Saturday and we taught him the first discussion and did a how to begin teaching (which is basically where you go and figure out their religious background and what their beliefs are) and then you tell them what your job as a missionary is and how we are guides here to help you find answers to your questions--something like that. Then we taught a brief introduction to the Restoration and the Book of Mormon.  We left him with a Book of Mormon and we are seeing him next Sunday :)  He is cool, he is looking for a religion and believes in following God in his own way. So we asked him if he had ever prayed to know what God wants him to do and he said, "no not really, I always thought He just wanted me to believe in whatever way works for me", and we commited him to read the Book of Mormon and to pray to know what God wants him to do.  It went really well!