Monday, November 24, 2014

A musical Exchange!



This week went by very quickly! On Tuesday we had district meeting and then exchanged with the Zone Leaders. I worked with Elder Herrod in Welling for the day, and a lot of Wednesday as well. It was a good exchange, but ended up being quite a weird one. We were asked by the bishop to help out a group of people set up and take down stuff for their presentation that they were doing for those with special needs. It was great to be able to help them, and to watch Elder Herrod touch others hearts by playing the piano after the activity as they had the lunch. One of the songs he played is one that he wrote in his dream.....Literally in his dream!! He dreamed of a girl (of course) and in his dream, he told her he wrote a song for her. He sat down and played it for her, and then when he woke up in the morning, he was like that sounded so good! He was playing piano later on in the day, and his hands just kinda started playing something he didn't know, and he began to recognize the tune. It was the song from his dream! Crazy right. It sounds super good to! I took a video, and although it doesn't sound too great on there, I will try and upload it if I can. Anyway, the group was very grateful to us, and it was a good experience for us as well. But as it took much of our time, it was a bit out of the ordinary for an exchange. I still learned a lot though, and am thankful for the experiences we had.

Then Thursday I went on exchange with Elder Hafen in our area, and we had a very good day. Elder Hafen is a hard worker, and knows why he is out here. It was great to learn from him, and to be able to discuss and establish goals together at the end of the exchange. 


Elder Hafen, Elder Alambra, Elder Brown, Elder Kroch



Then,  I got sick,  food poisoning or something and threw up 6 times on Friday night, got virtually no sleep and was really achy all day Saturday. Don't remember what I was laughing at, but it hurt.   I am still not feeling 100%, but should be able to work today without a problem. We stayed in nearly all of Saturday and took it a bit easy Sunday..

I am excited for the upcoming transfer, I am sure it will be full of experiences. We, as a mission (with London Mission) are having a visit by Elder Cook on the 25 of November! Don't know anything of moves yet, unsure why.

I love you all so much! Hope you have a glorious week, full of excitement, earthquakes and other signs of the 2nd coming! You guys are great! Not many pictures this time, just a funny key ring, and some cool Halloween starbursts.










New Companion from Scotland!

Elder Alambra moved to welling! I am still in Maidstone serving with elder Simpson now. He is from Scotland and is sometimes hard to understand, but that just makes it more fun! Sort of. Thanksgiving dinner sounds so good! We have a member who is planning to have us the day before to have thanksgiving dinner, she is British, but loves holidays, and her husband is down for any excuse for good food! So hopefully that goes well. 

This week was pretty good, We got 2 baptismal dates on Elder Alambra's last day in the area! Other than that, we had an average week, doing hard work as usual. We thought of another crazy finding Idea. One of the Young Single Adults in the ward has a lot of legos, and we are going to ask him to come with us and others and we will have a temple and family history booth in the street and will build a lego temple! Pretty crazy right!  Because of tanners mention of revelation 12:7, my district began discussing topics all over the board, and at one point we spoke about Revelation13:16-18. It resulted in a 30 min discussion with the 4 missionaries here. 
Elder Brown


 Elder Simpson my new companion from Scotland and me Elder Brown


 The last companion photo with Elder Alambra, 


A picture of the sky this morning, thought it looked cool.


 My new 2013 pocket sized scriptures and the case I made for them.


Elder Alambras B-day at Jean Meakins home.


Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Put yourself in someone elses shoes!





We had a wonderful   Sunday yesterday. It was fast and testimony meeting, Toni's Confirmation, a baby blessing, and Remembrance day! The spirit was strong, and the people there felt it! We had an investigator there from the other area, and he went up and bore his "testimony." It was very interesting. 

This week, we were able to get some promising potentials, and a few referrals as well! We have appointments set up for next week with some of them, and were able to give a chapel tour Sunday evening to E__, a former investigator who Elder Smith and I taught once in the past. He enjoyed the tour a lot, and committed to come next week with his whole family!


We did chess one last time this week, but as the weather is becoming worse and worse, we will not be doing it any more for a while. There are not enough people in the park and it doesn't work in the rain or the wind. We will be working on some winter finding approaches this week, and hopefully we can get them going! 

We also had a Book of Mormon study class with a less-active member, V_ last Monday. Last week we taught her how to liken the Book of Mormon to her own life and she enjoyed it so much that she asked us to hold a study class in her home as a Family Home Evening. It went well, and we should be doing it in the future as well!

The district is doing well, I had an exchange with Elder Kroch in his area, and we had a good day. He is struggling mainly with the British accent. He told me that he only understands maybe 10-20% of what most British people say. He can speak pretty well, and is a good teacher, but he doesn't know when to say what because he can't understand what the investigator is saying. I encouraged him as much as I could, and gave him some ideas on how to improve. I also asked Elder Hafen to find ways to help him know when to teach certain principles and when to testify, even though it is difficult for him to tell.

Elder Brown and Elder Kroch



Elder Kroch



Elder Brown




Leeds castle was a blast last Monday, and we got loads more pics! 
Elder Brown and Elder Kroch



 

Elder Kroch, Elder Brown,Elder Hafen



The glasses were bought at Leeds castle, and are the 
coolest disguise glasses I have ever seen!



Elder Alambra




 Elder Kroch, Elder Hafen,Elder Brown, Elder Alambra



We had a fun district meeting this week as well. I altered some old missionary shoes that I found in the flat (including the ones I destroyed in my first year) and had the district go through an obstacle course with the shoes on. Then I taught them about putting themselves in their investigators shoes when they study and receiving revelation for them. It was really fun! 






Elder Alambra at district meeting






Monday, November 3, 2014

Big Chess in the Park Brings results!

Sorry I can't say much today, the library is closing for repair, and we are going to leeds castle again, here is the information I sent President Millar.

This week was pretty good. We did the best we could to take the challenge of consecration week. As we worked as much as possible to find during the week, we saw many miracles. We have many return appointments for next week with new potentials, and investigators. 

We found a very nice African family through our giant chess in the park on Friday. It was cool to see as they came into the park the children pointed and said something about the big chess set and expressed their amazement and surprise over what we were doing. The reason they had come to the park was to play tennis, and they did so for a short while, but soon the children came up to us and as the sign we had said, they chose a side and joined in to play as a team. During the chess match we were able to get to know a bit about them, the father took some photos and watched for a bit. Afterwards, we went up to the father and spoke with him. After we complimented his daughter on her chess skills, he said that he has been looking for a chess club or something for his daughter to improve her ability, and get to know new people, but has had no success. We told him that we were not a club, but that we would occasionally be doing the chess in the park. We gave them chapel cards and said that if it rains next time, we would be in the chapel instead, with others who we have invited. We got their phone number, and then changed the subject to the gospel. He had some great questions, and said he would love to have discussions when he is free. We tried to set an appointment, but he said he didn't know his schedule yet, but will speak to us next week when we do chess again! Very cool experience! 

Toni's baptism on Thursday went great! Her 11 year old son was able to be there, and the social worker that brought him stayed for the service and said she really enjoyed it and was lucky to have been the one to bring him! Toni has been doing very well since, and was at stake conference as well as our Halloween activity. Tonight she will be at a Book of Mormon study class that we have just set up with a less-active member for FHE each week. So things are going great so far. 

This week we have set a goal to achieve 20 total teaches and we feel that it will be possible. So hopefully we can be diligent and have a good attitude and focus on this goal this week so that we can be successful. 

The district is doing well. Elder Kroch is a little more comfortable with the language, but still struggling. I will be exchanging with him this week, so I can see how well he is doing and how I can really help.