Miracle Monday

It's been a long week but not too bad. It's getting harder for me to keep track of time and remember things that have happened in the week. It started off really good with a miracle on Monday. 

We do a family home evening every Monday for recent converts and investigators at the chapel. As we were on our way to the chapel to get things ready we passed by a man going the other way and simply said "hello" as he walked by. Later as we were just starting family home evening the same guy walked in and asked if he could join us. He said that when he saw us it was like we were glowing and felt something pulling him to the church. He really enjoyed the lesson and got involved and said he felt a "zing" in his body during the prayer. We had a lesson with him later in the week and it went well from what I heard. (We were on splits so Elder Goldsmith taught him with Pedro our new ward mission leader.) He's a really nice guy and were exited to continue teaching him.

Have another splendid week and don't forget to check out the new easter video and website "Because He Lives"!

-Elder Fisher

Good in Basingstoke

Hello once again.

We're doing good here in Basingstoke. Transfers is this week and we found that neither of us are moving. Many of the members were happy to hear that we were staying for another six weeks. We've got a good relationship with the ward but I think we can also do better. We take some of the young men out with us regularly and we see the bishop often but I think we could visit with other members more often. How else are we going to help them with their missionary work. Many of the members are really willing to come on teaches with us so that's great. We got a new ward mission leader and he's great. His name is Pedro and he's a returned missionary. He's really enthusiastic about his calling and he gave a really good talk in church on Sunday. We've been doing a lot of contacting last week to pick up new investigators. We have some return appointments that we're exited for and we've also been trying to contact some of our formers with some luck. But other than that not much to say about the week. So we had the lesson with the lady who came to church and it went really well. She fed us and her husband was there and we taught the restoration. She seemed to understand everything very well, asked good questions and didn't seem to have any problems. She accepted the commitment to be baptised and was really exited for our next appointment. But later we got a text from her and she cancelled our appointment and said she was no longer interested. I'm not sure exactly why but we'll see if we can somehow contact her again. At least she has regular contact with the members as she works with a lot of them.

There are some missionaries here that use Facebook to do missionary work but only those who are assigned to do so. We've got news this week that the mission will be getting iPads sometime in May so I'm not sure if that will change things in terms of missionaries using Facebook. I don't think everyone will get iPads either.

We were walking back to our flat for lunch a few days ago and we saw this guy (probably our age) just laying in the grass with his shoes off not far from the flat. I thought he was just enjoying the sun but we later saw from out our flat window a big police van and about six police officers around him. He was trying to walk and was just falling over everything and stumbling around. He was very drunk. Finally the police put him in the back of the van and drove off. It was fun to watch.

Have a good week.

Christmas Tie

Hello all:

Last week was a pretty good week. We have a new investigator who came to church yesterday. A member brought her and she seems awesome. She really enjoyed church and said she wanted to come back. She got involved in gospel principals class and learned a lot of things for the first time and loved it. She even offered to feed us this week. We're really exited to start teaching her. We are also considering picking up Khai Thu again but we first want to think of what we need to do to help him progress so that it's not just a waist of time. He is still coming to church and I asked him if he's still reading the Book of Mormon and he said he is. I just feel like there's more we could do for him but I'm not sure what yet. 

We had zone conference on Saturday and it was really good. The main thing I took from it is to find more people to teach. I want to focus on that as well as the trying to recognize revelation for the investigators we have. We luckily have a very good relationship with the members so we'll continue to work with them and help them do missionary work. We also need to focus on talking to everyone. I think that will help us get motivated and if we have good planning we should be able to accomplish our goals and find people to teach. After zone conference we of coarse got our mail. I got your valentines card Mum thank you so much. I also got your Christmas gift Britt; Thank you so much for the cool ties! I'll send a picture of me and my companion wearing them.

Until next week:

-Elder Fisher

(The other picture is with Elder Wright.)

Drivers Licence

Hello world.

This week was a slow week. We've met with a lot of new people but we haven't been visiting with anyone consistently apart from recent converts and less actives. We still haven't been able to contact Del. It's like he's just disappeared. We'll keep trying because he's a really cool guy and I think he really has interest. We had to drop Khai Thu because he just doesn't have a desire to be baptised. He still comes to church and reads the Book of Mormon but something is holding him back. He's very hard to understand; not because of his English but just understanding his desires and thoughts. He said he felt something special after we showed him the baptismal font and was asking a recent convert about the feelings she had when she was baptised but he keeps saying he hasn't had an answer yet and when we asked him about what he told us about the baptismal font he denied what he said. We've taught him everything twice so we'll meet to give him some time but hopefully we can pick him up again and help him progress. I think eventually we can figure him out. We also really need some new investigators now. We've a few appointments coming up I hope will go well.

My companion has been taking driving lessons so he can drive here so we've been driving around a lot this week. Maybe that means he'll be a zone leader (zone leaders are the only ones with cars in this mission). Because I'm Canadian all I have to do to get a license here is pay £50 or something. Who knows if I ever will. Have a good week everyone.

wrong Turn

Hello people.

This week has been a good week to say the least. We met a really cool guy named Del in the middle of the week. We took a wrong turn and asked him for directions and of coarse mentioned who we are and what we do. He went on to tell us he was never religious, he's only ever been to churches for weddings and funerals, and he feels like something is missing in his life. He was very interested and said he wanted to find out if God could fill the hole in his life. We exchanged numbers and he called us less than an hour later asking questions and wanting to learn more. We went to his house and taught him the restoration and he enjoyed it. He said he really wanted to come to church. We had another appointment with him but he had to cancel. We have been trying to contact him but can't seem to and he didn't show up to church but we'll keep trying and hopefully get to teach him again. 

We've been working a lot with the members this week and it's been amazing. We've been working a lot with a recent convert who's been struggling and she's doing just fine now. It's been such a great experience to be able to help her.

There are lots of roundabouts all over England. Not noticeably more here than anywhere else; but I suppose that may be because I don't drive. I've never heard anyone call it "doughnut city" though.

When it comes to promptings from the holy ghost, I can never tell when I'm being prompted. Usually I only realize afterward and I'm pretty sure that's how it works. It's not like a voice in my head or a sixth sense. God doesn't need to go that far and he won't if he doesn't have to. I could be prompted by someone telling me something. So I have no idea how many times I get prompted in a day.

Yo-Yo

Hello.

How is everyone? Not much has happened this week. The heating in our flat has not been working this week. We've had it fixed twice now so we're hoping it stays fixed.

I'm adjusting to my new area well. I still don't know my way around very well but getting used to it. There doesn't seem to be anything too unusual that I've noticed yet but I'll keep looking.

My new companion started learning the yo-yo yesterday. He hit himself in the face with it.

The English accents are heavier up north. There not too heavy where I am unless they're from out of the country. There are lots of different accents in the city areas. I've never had a problem understanding people though.

We are trying to get new investigators to teach. We have a lot of really good recent converts here that we've been working with. The members are generally good at getting involved. We go on splits each week with a few of the young men. They are great. We have one investigator named Khai Thu. He is originally from Vietnam but lived in Montreal for a long time. He comes to church every week but doesn't understand why he needs to be baptised. It's a bit hard to teach him.

Keep having fun but din't party too hard. I will look forward to next weeks e-mail.

Basingstoke

Hello,

There is a Gorillaz song playing right now and I'm singing along. "It's Dare!" Turns out we e-mail at the Apple store every week so now I'm on a fancy new Mac as opposed to a really old library computer with Windows 98. So there is also music playing in the background. It's definitely not as quiet as a library. Wow another Gorillaz song; now they're playing stylo.

 It's lovely here in Basingstoke. It's small but it's not too small. The buildings all seem quite new. Travel is fairly easy; we do a lot of walking and we can get pretty much everywhere by foot but we also take buses to save time. It seems really peaceful.

There aren't a whole lot of people on the streets. It's definitely not as busy as Oxford. The people here seem generally nice. Not a lot of them are interested though. I think younger people are more open to at least talk but from what I can tell so far there aren't a lot of young people here. There's more than in Romsey.

The new ward is awesome. The families are so nice and I think the missionaries have a really good relationship with the ward. The members are very friendly and the bishop already had us over for pizza. They also seem willing to help with missionary work.

My new companion Elder Goldsmith is a good guy. He looks like Tintin. He's a good missionary. He's from Arizona and he's a Marine. I'm helping him learn how to play the guitar. He has a pink electric guitar that members in his previous area gave him and he only started playing on his mission. He's already pretty good. He's been out for a year and we get along real good.

I haven't received any letters yet I'll probably get them tomorrow. My companion is district leader so we will be going to reading for DLC (district leader council) and I imagine the zone leaders will bring post from the mission home. I'll also see Elder Lika again because we're still in the same zone and his companion is a district leader.

I hope you all get better. It's no fun vomiting and having bad dreams. I've been having weird dreams too but they're not scary, just weird. I hardly ever remember them anyways. Have a good week!