Elder Talan David: Tracting Into Celebrities

Hello Everyone!! This week has been an epic week! Life just moves so much faster down in London. This week has flown by but some really cool things have happened!

So this week it has been around 30-35 degrees Celsius. That is around 85 to 95 Fahrenheit! Now that may seem like nothing but it is the WORST!! The humidity just is incredible and the heat chases you. I can feel the water in the air. Wearing a shirt, tie, and trousers on all day makes it just a little unbearable. Water is my best friend. I just have to open my mouth and walk a few feet to get a mouthful haha. No but it is so hot. The tube is another method of torture during these summer weeks. Everyone is packed in and there is no air conditioning on most of the tubes so it is roasting inside. I look as if I just ran a marathon after getting off. I have this problem where the only part of my body that sweats is my face. So people see my face and think that problem is happening everywhere else also. I look like a freak. I carry around a towel. I am telling you it is sooooo hot!

The first day I got here was the hottest day of the year but that didn't last long because the next day was then the hottest. "I had all my luggage packed up, my boots tied tight, I hope I don't get in a fight...."(Billy Maddison) I know Janeen and Derric would get that one. It was an adventure carrying all of that around the underground. That morning on Wednesday we had to wake up at 3:15 in the morning to start driving down to London to beat the traffic. I was the one driving since it would be my last time to drive for while. We got into London early so we decided to take Elder Paul and Elder Butterfield on a London North tour. Where Elder Nolan and I both served. It brought back so many good memories. The first 6 months of my mission came flying back into perspective.

After we switched compaions we then were off to our new flat in Earls Court. All I can say about this flat is Posh. It is the coolest flat ever. We live in a really nice part of London. Only 2 tube stops away from South Kensington. We were told that we live in the most expensive missionary flat in the whole world.... I will send pictures of it at the end.

When I got there I was not impressed becuase it was a mess! Today we spent 3 hours of our P-Day to deep clean. I am really pleased with how it looks!

After I got to the flat and dropped off my luggage we were off to work. We went to a place called Shepherds Bush. We were stopping people and Elder Pereira was talking to another man when I stopped this woman named Ioana from Romania. We had a wonderful conversation and she was so interested to learn about what we were teaching. She began to cry as we spoke about the importance of family in our church. She then asked "I am off tomorrow can we meet then so you can teach me more." We agreed and met the next day at the Chapel. We gave here a tour and sat down to teach her. She is now being prepared to be baptised on the 17th of August. She is 27 so we reffered her to the YSA Missionaries who will now continue to teach her. She is coming tonight to the church for family home evening with the YSA's and is bringing a friend who would now like to learn more! It was within 15 minutes of working back in London and it was a great welcome home present.

Later in the week we received a media referral. It gave us the name of this man named Mohammad. Now usually when we get media referrals with this name they usually are some one from the Islamic faith who wants to argue about Jesus Christ being only a prophet and not the Son of God. So we gave this man a call to see what it was about. We begin to chat on the phone and this is what he tells me, "Hello David my name is Mohammad. I used to be a Muslim but recently I have discovered that Jesus is the Son of God and that He is my Saviour. I really would like to learn more about him from you missionaries." I was in shock and could feel the sincerity of his testimony through the phone. I then asked him, "Sir why did you contact us specifically?" He replied, "2 weeks ago I watched this program on the television talking about your church and I really felt inside me that I needed to learn more about this church and I really felt it." So to explain what TV show he was watching. In England 2 weeks ago there was a program released called "Meet the Mormons." This was a documentary based on the life of a Mormon Missionary serving in the Leeds Mission. The church had approved for this documentary to proceed. So this aired on national television here and lets just say it wasn't the most flattering documentary about us. They stretched a lot of truth and made us seem pretty crazy. I was not happy about this release but I guess I did not have enough faith in how powerful God is. This documentary, even though how negative it was, has been the tool to introduce many people to the church and to eventually join! Mohammad is a true testimony of that. Even though what he was watching wasn't the most correct view of the church he was able to feel the Spirit testify to him that he needed to learn more. So we scheduled an appointment and sent a couple of missionaries in our Zone to go teach him (since he lived in their area). He is now preparing to be baptised on the 10th of August and came to church on Sunday as well. He was very prepared for the gospel.

This week we went to visit a member that is in the ward. Brother Cruz is his name. He is from the Philippines and works as a chef for this really rich man! So give you some context this member lives in the basement of this 10 million pound house in central London. It is posh. His neighbors are the Prince of Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Sadam Hussein used to own a house a few doors down and now it is an embassy. Very very wealthy people live in this area. We were talking and he told us that Simon Cowell lives a few houses down as well! I was pretty excited thinking this is my big chance haha! So after we had finished seeing the member we were off to Simon's house. We were taking pictures of us pretending to ring his door bell since there is a gate around the house. While doing so some man walked out of the house and said "Hey what are you doing?" We told him what we were doing and he laughed and said, "okay okay." I then had to ask him, "So does Simon Cowell really live here?" The man responded with the most straight face, "I can not tell you whether or not he lives here.." haha. It was awesome! I will attach the pictures of it all!

Last but not least church on Sunday. It was so good to be back at church in Hyde Park. I was able to see all the members and they were so suprised to see that I was back! Chaminda, who I baptised in January, saw me and ran up to give me a hug. It was awesome to see that he is still doing great. Then Barbara, a Jamaican woman I taught, tried to do the same but I had to awkwardly avoid the hug haha. It was great to see everyone. But I am not in that same ward I am in the Hyde Park 1st Ward. It is always difficult to start from scratch to getting to know all the members but it is a challenge definitely accepted!

Enjoy the pictures!! I love you all and will talk to you soon!