Easter surprise, a new companion.

Picture 1- Some kind of spider.

Picture 2- My new companion Elder Aveiro.

Happy Easter! I had a pretty good Easter, there were very good meetings on Sunday that made me think and reflect and feel the spirit. As for the rest of the week, it was pretty good too. We had a Specialized Training thing with President Shamo on Tuesday, and we had interviews with him which is always good and makes me feel a bit better. And at this training, Elder Harris got an envelope that says his visa background check is complete! So we went up to the Temple on Friday and he is going to the embassy on Tuesday and will fly out shortly after that. So, he's staying in Crawley now because they have a car and are closer to London and the temple. Sooo, I have a new companion named Elder Aveiro! He's from Jersey, one of the Channel Islands (Not the one Elder Evans went to, the other big one.), and he's waiting for his visa too. He's been called to the SLC South mission, and he still has yet to go to the MTC, so he'll go to the one in Provo once his visa comes through. So yeah, another new companion right in the middle of transfers! :D He's a cool guy, and we get on really well.

When at the temple on Friday, we had a funny experience. Elder Howarth (who was also at the temple just waiting for his new companion) and I were walking around the temple housing and distribution centre, eating lasagna and peanut butter eggs from one of the senior couples. And then we talked to one lady, whose brother-in-law used to live around Elder Howarth in Luxembourg! So what a small world it is! There were a LOT more connections between them, but I can't even attempt to write them all, for fear of my brain being over-exploded. But it made me think how cool it is in such a HUGE world, we all have these connections and we're all really brothers and sisters.

Well, that's about it for this week, I hope you all had a good Easter! And I hope you have a good week! It's good to hear from you any of you guys, and I wish I had the motivation to write more letters, but sadly I don't. I do appreciate all of you very much though! Talk to you later, bye!

A 1-year older Elder. :)

Yes, a kind of clever name for an email, finally! I was getting bored of all the hellos and that kind of generic greeting. :)

Picture 1- Dad, this is Elder Lamb, Richard's nephew. Small world. :)

Picture 2- Typewriter! I have to put carbon paper on top of real paper, so I can't see what I write until after, haha. But it's fun.

Picture 3- Birthday preparation...

Picture 4- 20 Marshmallow sticks long/old!

Picture 5- 20 Reeses eggs long/old!

6- CAKE!

 

7- Blowing out candle reenactment.

8- Beautiful cake. It was truly awesome cake. I had some for breakfast today.

Hello! This has been a good week! The new Zone leaders brought my camera back to me on Tuesday, which I was very grateful for. A member had found it in the chapel and returned it to them, so that was a very good thing. :) I also had an exchange with Elder Anderson, who is from my MTC group, and that was good. We met a guy who said he was a member and a street magician. I've never seen him before, and have no idea if he really is either of those, but we're going to try and catch him in this week and find out, haha. We met a lot of other cool people too, and had really good discussions with them. We had an investigator come to church on Sunday, which was good. She is an 80ish year old lady who was raised Catholic but not practicing. We had a member pick her up, and they got along great and she enjoyed church, so that was good to see her enjoy it.

Also, it was my birthday on Sunday! So that was good, we had a delicious cake that we made from the mix Mom sent! I don't feel much older, nor wiser, nor mature. So I guess I've got to wait another 20 years for that. But it really was a very good birthday. The lady we live with gave me a box of chocolates, so that was a nice surprise. And a few members wished me a good birthday. :)

It was a good week, and this week is going to be good too! We have a lot of people to see this week, and I really hope they all go through. Tomorrow we're having another Zone Training thing, which will be good. I don't have too much time left now, so I'll send this off. But Thank you everyone for sending birthday wishes!! I love ya, have a really good week! Bye!

April!

Hello everyone! I don't have a lot of time this week. I also don't have a lot to say this week.

Sooo, this is a bit of a boring post. It's been really similar to the last three weeks, which means it was good. But things seem to be right on the cusp of happening, but it still hasn't made it over the hill yet!! So we're trying to get that last push up the hill to actually have a steady teaching pool and people wanting to come to church with us. We're really close. Hmm, let's see, this week's highlights:

-Someone bought us some smoothies, which was really nice.
-I have finished the Book of Judges in the Old Testament. It was weird, and I enjoyed it if nothing else for the weird things in it. But it's got to have taught someone else something, so it's served its purpose. :) On to Ruth and 1 Samuel!
-I made a mess of stir-fry vegetables and noodles the other day and it was quite nice.
-I'm enjoying myself, and happy to be here! I'm finding myself more motivated to use my life to make a difference in the world. I just have to keep selfishness in check while allowing enough time for myself. :)

Okay, well that's about it. Oh yeah, it's my birthday on Sunday but don't feel you need to send me anything other than good wishes, prayers, and emails. Love you guys, bye!

Happy April!

Hello there! This week has been good, but sadly I have misplaced my camera so there will be no pictures until I find it. I think I left it at the chapel in Crawley or in the Zone Leader's car. But anyways, this last week we've had good things happen. We've found lots of cool people who we're about to start teaching. We've also had one guy give the Book of Mormon back just because he couldn't be bothered to think about it. Fair enough. :) But all in all it's been a pleasant week. I really enjoyed General Conference. The priesthood session was great, I loved the last 3 talks especially.

As far as moves goes, we're both staying here, which was to be expected since Elder Harris and I basically had moves 3 weeks ago. I'm glad we're both staying, because the last few weeks have been good! We're getting to know so many people, and just trying to share the gospel to everyone in a peaceful yet bold way. That's the tricky balance to achieve.

Hmm, there aren't too many stories to tell. We've just kind of met all sorts of people. It's just getting the second appointment to go through that's the problem, haha. The most exciting thing I can think of is that we met a gypsy.

Anyways, in my studies at the moment, I'm still reading through the Old Testament which is sometimes extremely hard to read and there's lots of little things in there that I've never heard of before. I've made it all the way to Judges (7th book in the Bible) and it has some weird things in it. I don't know if we really have all the information to really know why everything is happening the way it did then. But it is interesting and you can learn something from it every once in a while. :)

I'm also reading the Doctrine and Covenants all the way through and I just made it to Section 90. There are some really good things in there as well. I seem to recall enjoying Section 88 a lot, but I can't really remember because it's P-day and I'm just excited to relax. :D It's been a long time since the last P-day.

Well I love all of you! Thanks for the thoughts, prayers, letters, emails, gospel songs about making mistakes (haha), etc. Make a new friend this week! That's the challenge for all of us! If anyone actually does it (which they should!), let me know. :D Okay, bye!!

Stay Tuned . . .

No email today--transfer day. Stay tuned for Wednesday!

Hello once more!

Picture 1- Me with some glasses we found in our flat. :)

Picture 2- Make way for ducklings.

Hello there! This has been a good week. We met 4 really cool people, and we have plans to see them all this week. So I don't want to say much about them since we don't know what will happen, but I'll let you know next week. We should have some exciting things to talk about then. :)

This week has been full of learning experiences! We had a Zone training thing on Friday which was really good. I learned a lot from it, and it motivated me to ACT! Not in plays or anything, but to actually just do the things that I plan or am inspired to do. Because there is no point in not doing anything. I've noticed also that as a human race, oft times we judge everything at face value all the time. :D So many people this week have seen our badges and just said "Oh no, you don't have anything to say that would interest me." without even knowing what we were going to say! And on the opposite end, sometimes I judge people when I see or talk to them by thinking "Oh this person won't want to listen to us or they won't really do anything." So on each end of the spectrum there are problems, which do stem from the fact that we are all natural men. So I'm trying to not do that as much, and good things are happening because of it! We're meeting lots of cool people, whether or not they are interested. I wish that they all were interested, because there is at least one thing in the church that could really help each one of them.

Anyways, I was rambling a bit. But other than the training this week we had a Ward Quiz night on Saturday and that was fun. We and the non-members had a good time with the members and built friendships. So that was really good. So basically I'm doing quite good, even though bad things do happen every day. There's always something that can get you down, so it's just not worth it to let it everytime.

I love all you guys! I am excited for General Conference this weekend. I'm excited for what this week will bring. Talk to you next week, bye!

The REAL Post We Didn't Think Was Coming So We Sent The Other!!!

Picture 1- How late Elder Evans and I stayed up packing his stuff for moves.

Picture 2- Me and my long lost friend Elder Whitehead! (He was in my MTC District)

Picture 3- My new companion (Elder Harris) and I.

Picture 4- The beach on a beautiful sunny day

Well hello there! I know I said I wanted exciting things to happen this week, but I think God was saving up his answers to those prayers and answered all of them over the last 6 days. Let's start, shall we?

So, on Tuesday we had District meeting and for some reason there were about 5 missionaries there who aren't in the zone, two of which were the missionaries that were serving on the island of Guernsey. So we thought that was odd, but then Elder Evans and I went back to Eastbourne. A few hours later, we get a phone call from President Shamo. Basically he said that Elder Evans was moving to Guernsey the next day at 9 in the morning (which means we had to leave our flat by 6:30AM) and that I was going to be getting a new companion who was fresh out of the MTC! So we were both quite shocked by that, rightfully so, and so that evening we packed all of Elder Evans' things. And when you go to Guernsey, you can only take 20kg of luggage, so he was sorting out the things he was taking and the things he was leaving at the temple. So yes, we were up until the next day packing his stuff.

In the morning (5 hours later...) we went to the temple to meet up with our new companions and stuff. There was some training going on for new missionaries and their trainers, so I went in there to wait until Elder Harris arrived. He got there, and then we stayed in the training and got to go to the temple that night. Then the next morning we had MORE training and didn't get back to Eastbourne until 6:30PM. So wow, what an exciting two days! So I'm now with Elder Harris, probably until his visa comes which might not be until June! He's from Leicester and he's waiting for his visa to go serve in the Portland Oregon mission! And judging by the last few days, this will be a very good transfer!

On Friday last week we went knocking and the first people we really talked to were a nice older couple and they were extremely interested in the Book of Mormon and really everything we were talking about with them! It was cool, it was like something they had been looking for for a while. So we'll see them this week and see what they read and how they feel when they pray about it. It was a miraculous thing to happen on Elder Harris' first day out here, and it was good because I haven't really found anyone like that for a long time. And ever since then miracles have been happening! We are talking to loads of people, and getting return appointments with a few of them. But all in all we're enjoying teaching people. I think the next few weeks will be very productive because Elder Harris is very excited to talk to people and that's helped me since my excitement hasn't been too high recently.

Phew, how's that for exciting?! I'm tired just typing all of that out. But it's been a VERY good week! And I'm excited for this upcoming one. I love all you guys, thanks for the thoughts and support! I hope you're all doing well, and I will talk to you next week! Bye!