Amazing Dinner Appointment

Hello.
This week has been fairly quick. We had an amazing dinner appointment at the Hamiltons on Wednesday and they invited Jacob there as well. I may not have told you about him. He's a young less active and we have been having a hard time trying to get a hold of him. We hadn't seen him since last transfers so it was good to see him there and I think he got a lot out of it. We've been teaching this guy named Kieran. He's 19 and we met him at an appointment we had with a former investigator. He's a really nice guy and he loves to meet with us. He said that he believes in God now because of us. He even said he wants to be a Mormon. He has a smoking problem but he wants to quit. He's a slow learner and has trouble reading but he takes it all in and really enjoys what he learns. We've been meeting him in parks and public places because we didn't know where he lived. Unfortunately we found out that he lives just outside of our boundaries so we'll have to refer him to the missionaries in South Hampton. But we may keep teaching him because he spends a lot of time in our area. He'll just have to go to the South Hampton ward. Which brings me to Fran. We have a similar situation with her. She lives in Farnborough but she works in Romsey. We still teach her because she spends more time here in Romsey but she is also in contact with the missionaries over in Farnborough. We met her when she saw us as she was driving and she pulled over to ask us for some literature. We gave her our number and we got a call from her later. She's very intelegent and asks a lot of good questions. 
I've got some pictures to send but I can't because the computers at the library are not connected to the internet for some reason and the one I'm on has no USB input. I'm exited to see the theater room all complete. Are you going to decorate it with movie posters and a big cinima sign on the outside?

Hello again.

 

Things are slowly starting to pick up here in Romsey. We already have a number of appointments lined up over the next few days. We are still having trouble contacting the former and potential investigators but we got a few new investigators. The problem is getting them to church. One of our investigators was almost definitely going to be at church but he gave us a call and said he was in the hospital. Another one just slept in. We have been trying to stop my the members more because Elder Treadway still doesn't know the members all that well. He hasn't met half of them because they all have been on vacation. The members here are really nice though. I imagine all of our potentials are gone on holiday as well. That would explain why we can't seem to find them.

 

I feel bad that I haven't been sending any pictures but I haven't been taking any pictures lately. I guess I just haven't been seeing anything interesting lately. I'll keep looking. I can't wait to see the "man cave" when it's done. It's good to see that you have been having fun lately. I feel like I could probably take on any hike by the time I get home.

Hello everyone, nice to hear from you again.

This week was better than the previous weeks. It went by pretty fast but that's because we had an exchange and a zone conference. We also got a few new investigators who seem really nice.

I would say it definitely does feel like it's been a year. (Since he started his mission) It hasn't gone by fast but it hasn't gone by slow either. It feels about right.

(we asked him in an e-mail if it was too early to start thinking about Christmas and what he wanted) It's never too early or too late to be thinking of Christmas. I can tell you're already exited. I do however feel as tough it may be too early to know what I need or want for Christmas. I'll have to think about it and get back to you on that.

So here's the conversion story that I didn't have time last week to tell. Back in the first week of my mission when I was serving with Elder Johnson we got a text from someone by the name of Dominic saying "Enough's enough; I want to be baptised". That's a pretty good text to receive. So we told him to meet us at the chapel and he told us his story. 

He was studying to be a minister but as he studied he found a few things that were wrong. He decided he wanted to find the true church so he made a list of what Christ's church should be like. He narrowed things down to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and thought "no that can't be right." so he made a new list and started again. After checking things off he again narrowed it down to the Mormons. 

After this he prayed that he may know if he should learn more. Later he was walking down the street and he saw two missionaries coming his way. He thought it must have been just a coincidence and just ignored them. As he kept walking he says he saw another set of missionaries. He decided to stop them and started taking the lessons. 

He investigated for a very long time and spent a lot of time studying the Standard Works, church history, and other church material. He knows the doctrine better than anyone. In fact, he suggested that if we ever have a question about doctrine we can just ask him. But he never got baptised. He called himself a "dry Mormon". Finally he felt he shouldn't put it off any longer and he still had the missionaries phone number. That's when he contacted us. We tried to set a date for him but he said he was going to be away on holiday for a while. After he left we couldn't seem to get any contact with him. We tried calling and texting him but got no answers. We never saw him again.

The Mission President sends out a mass e-mail to everyone in the mission each week to encourage and update us. This letter includes a list of people who have been baptised that week within the mission as well as the aria they got baptised in. The Presidents letter of the 30th of June has Dominic in that list stating that he finally got baptised in my first area.

The Long Week

This has been a long week. I'm thinking back to the beginning of the week and it feels like a month ago. Contacting hasn't been successful and we just cant seem to get in contact with the former and potential investigators we planned on contacting. We are still going to keep trying by them but we were also planning on stopping by members houses and trying to work with them more. We have a small ward and the sisters get all the dinner appointments so we don't get to see the members often enough. Elder Treadway feels like he doesn't know very many of the members and we also need something to use our time so we're not just contacting for hours at a time. Overall we feel like this week is going to be a better week. A lot of it is just our attitudes.

I've got lots of pictures to send so I'll start now before I run out of time.

Keep working on that man cave, I can't wait to see it when it's done. And enjoy your Scottish company. I've met a number of Scottish people. They're nice.

I've got an interesting conversion story for you but I have no time so I'll share it next week!

A member took us to a pub and bought us some really nice burgers!

The Romsey Abbey.

My New Companion

Hello.

Good to hear from you and see all the pictures. Nice to hear everything is going good over there (apart from the lightning, forest fires, and facial hair).

I thought Godzilla took place in Tokyo, not San Francisco. Was it good? I heard it was amazing.

Not much happened this week except for moves. I think my new companion and I are going to work well together. I just feel like I need a boost of energy. Maybe the heat over here has something to do with it.

I haven't really done much for touring and taking in the history here, I've been around the abbey here, but haven't been in it yet. I understand this area has a lot of history and I've heard a few cool things but haven't really looked too much into it.

There is a member in our ward who is in his late nineties, and he's still driving! There are lots of old buildings and sights in England everywhere you go. I don't think the Stonehenge is in my area but I'll try to find out. It might not be to hard to get permission to go there.

I am adjusting to my new area. It's always hard to adjust to big changes. Actually this time it wasn't as hard to adjust to my new area as it was to adjust on my first move. I think it helps you to grow.

My new companion is Elder Treadway. He's from Texas. He loves music; he was a drum major which is a conductor for marching bands. He's a really cool guy, a hard worker, and a real lady's man by the sounds of it.

 

Peter our investigator is doing good. We saw him yesterday and he always enjoys having discussions with us. We haven't been able to see Damien for a while. We haven't seen him since his mother told us he was sick. We keep stopping by but no one is ever in. There are loads of other really cool people that we're trying to get back in contact with but it hasn't been easy.

Beggars Fair

Hello again friends and family.

Sound's like you're always having fun over there. I love being updated on the things that are going on back home. Do you have any pictures from the street wheelers? I thought that picture of Justin was hilarious. I've got a picture of an interesting car I'm not sure I've sent it yet. There are lots of cars here that you would never see back home.

Sounds like your keeping busy as well. By the time I get home the house probably won't even be recognisable! I did get an e-mail from Braedon this week; haven't heard much from him for a while until today. It sounds like he's doing really good!

We had a lovely DA (dinner appointment) at a members house on the 9th. It was a late Canada day/ 4th of July meal for Elder Wilson and I. We had lasagne that looked like an American flag and a maple syrup cake that had a Canadian maple leaf on it! I will send pictures of those as well.

Things are going good here. Moves is this week. I'm staying but my companion is moving. President Millar told my Elder Wilson who my new companion is but he immediately forgot. So I won't be able to tell you until next week. It seems as though we have lost contact with all our investigators except Peter. Every one must be busy with summer stuff or something. We've been having a hard time contacting people we are teaching as well as people we have met on the street. Contacting has been hard lately due to some summer fairs and festivals going on. Last Saturday Romsey had an event called "beggars fair" and there was live bands everywhere around the town which made it impossible to contact. That and it was just too crowded and there were lots of drunk people. We tried stopping by some people but they were all at the beggars fair. We decided to try contacting in Eastleigh but they were having a big event of their own. No one wanted to talk to us. It was not a very successful day. We also saw a dinosaur at the train station. I'll send pictures of that. He didn't want to hear from us either.

No Mosquitoes

Hello to everyone.

Another week, I always look forward to hearing from the family. I'm glad you had fun on Canada day. We had dinner at the bishop's house. He's not Canadian and didn't know it was Canada day but we had a very nice (and spicy) meal. I guess you can say that's how I celebrated Canada day. You should stop giving Baxter hot dogs. He's getting really fat.

The area is going good. We recently re-organised the potentials in the area book much like we did in my last area. It seemed to help. Now it's easier to figure out who we want to stop by based on where we will be that day. It's better/ less exhausting to contact on the way to something rather than aimlessly wandering around. Especially when you'r dealing with a lot of rejection. At least you feel like your getting something done. There are some people we found that we want to contact but it's not easy to catch them in for some reason. I'll admit; I am losing patience and energy. That's why we're looking for other things to do, so we're not doing the same thing for too long.

There seems to be no mosquitoes at all here. Not that I've seen.

We saw Peter again yesterday. He loves having conversations with us and he's super smart. It's hard to stay on topic with the lessons though and he has a hard time accepting the Book of Mormon as the word of god. We told him to read it and he's up for it but he's busy reading the Bible cover to cover. We are still trying to get back in contact with Damien but now he's got dental problems. We keep calling at a bad time. (In England calling also means knocking or stopping by)