Good as always to hear from you guys. Not much going on this week. Just trying to keep working hard. There was a ward dinner on Saturday and all the missionary's in the ward were invited to sing. It was fun and all. I'm sending a picture from the dinner of our new member Bruno with our investigator Valentim (I have always miss spell't his name as "Valentine"). We are still working with Valentim and he's doing good but he needs to come to church on time and quit smoking. He wants to be baptized but we need to make sure he's ready. He's a really funny guy. Sounds like you're having a rough winter over there. I don't think I'll be seeing snow this year. I sent you the DVD last week. Let me know when you get it. 

Our First Paper Letter

Dear Family
So i wrote ya'll a letter a long time ago but i never finished it because I never had the time  so now I have to re-write it because things have changed since I wrote it and other things that i have included in the original letter are irrelevant. Wow that last sentence is long! So we are working with a man named Valentim right now. We met him on the street on the 26th of September. He was walking down the road and we tried to stop him but he said he was going to the shop so Elder Johnson asked him if he was coming back our way and he said yes. and we said we'll wait for you. Elder Johnson doesn't know why he said that; its not something you would normally ask someone in this situation. He cam back and we basically followed him into his home and sat down and he just talked and talked nonstop. He just ranted on and on the whole time about random stuff and didn't really let us talk. The second time we met at his house was very much the same. The third time we met started the same way and we thought we would get no where with him until he saw our Book of Mormon. He recognized it and remembered he met with missionaries back in Angola when he was young. Now he listens very well to our lessons and he has decided he wants to be baptized. We do not know when that will happen though because he is not in a hurry to do anything. We originally planned for him to be baptized on the 23rd of November but he wasn't ready by then. He need to come to church enough times before he can be baptized and he's only been once, and he was late. But he has a good excuse. He is currently taking heavy medication that makes him sleep all day. He's trying to get a different prescription or lower his dosage or something so we'll see if that works. He will eventually be baptized but he's the kind of guy who's never in a hurry to do anything.

Denis is a recent convert now. I'm sure i sent you pictures of his baptism. Before he decided to be baptized ha was far from being converted. He was a heavy drinker and smoker. On top of that he liked to argue. When we tried to teach him he would always dissagree with everything we told him. Finally we decided not to teach him anymore. We were going to watch the Joseph Smith movie with him and then drop him and stop teaching visiting him. So we went to his house one last time and watched the movie and when it was over we asked him "how did you like that?" to which he replied "I want to be baptized." From then on we taught all the lessons again to him and he listened and accepted everything and he got baptized on his 62nd birthday (the 17th of November). He even bore his testimony in the testimony meetings on both the fast Sunday before and the fast Sunday after his baptism. He also quit drinking and smoking. He also said he would give me one of his guitars (once he gets the strings on it). Well i'm running out of room on this paper and don't have enough to say to fill another page so I'll end here. Good buy and Merry Christmas!

Letter and Baptism

I sent a letter and then a Christmas card. Did you get both of them? Glad to hear you had a good Christmas. Did I interrupt you'r gift opening with my call? The baptism went well. Bruno and his son Elton were baptized last Saturday and the Mother is being baptized next Saturday. I'll send you a picture of the whole family at the baptism (the youngest one is only seven). There's also a picture of a wild fox. We see them in Croydon all the time. Happy new year! 

We did received his card and letter and we will add his letter another time for everyone to read.

Temple trip

An exciting trip to the temple on the 19th of Dec for Brandon. Not only did he get to pick up many Christmas presents (thank you everyone who sent presents, cards or letters.) but he also met Brian and Leanne Mulholland who are presently serving a temple mission in the London Temple. Mark Stubbs alerted the Mulhollands that Brandon was in the mission and so when they heard that the whole mission was attending the temple that day, the two of them watched and finally found. Brandon didnt remember them but made the connection when he found out their name. Cool. 

Temple Greatings

I had the privilege of visiting with Mark Stubbs today at church.

He had updated me on the fact that Brian and Leanne Mulholland are serving a temple mission right now and keep in touch with Mark and Sharron. They were telling Mark that they had all the missionaries come through the temple this past week and said they were keeping an eye out for one certain missionary. Yes you guessed it.......they are serving in the London Temple and yes they found him.....Elder Fisher.
Kind of cool someone who lived in Claresholm now in London met Elder Fisher at the London Temple.

Q&A Game

It's time for a game of Q&A!

Welcome to Q&A Monday where questions are answered and answers are questioned. Lets get started. Our first questionable contestant is from Alberta Canada. Here are the answers to his four questions:

(Q) Have you received any  more Christmas packages yet? Whom from and are you saving any to open at Christmas?  Have you had to pay any more on duty charges?

(A) No. I have not received any Christmas packages since I got the ones from you and grandma and grandpa Baker (they'rs came at the same time). I only get packages when we go to conferences. There are probably some at the temple waiting for me. I will pick them up when I go to the temple on the 19th. I will try to save some for Christmas but it's hard when it says on the package what's in it. And I haven't hat to pay any more on duty charges.

(Q) Have you had any spiritual experiences this past week?

(A) This is a very hard question to answer. I keep trying to think of big miracles.

(Q) Other than the popcorn  mess have you had any challenges?

(A) Every day is a challenge. There are different challenges every day. Most of them are small challenges but there are lots of big ones. One of the biggest challenges is thinking of things to say in my e-mails home. 

(Q) What do you wished you would have studied more before going on your mission ( Britts question)

 

(A) Everything. There is no particular subject or topic that I wish I could have studied more because we get to study for two hours every morning and so it comes to you pretty quick. There is always something to learn and you'll know what you need to study when you get to your mission. I just wish I had a better base to build on.

The cantata you guys had sounds like it was awesome! We haven't had ours yet. Have you got the letter I sent you yet? It's pretty good. I probably spent a whole month on it. Have a Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone