Wise Words

Hey Everyone!!

So this week has been probably the most productive one so far on my mission. Even my companion said he has never had a week like this one. But along with a good week comes some struggles.

In 2 Nephi 2:11 it talks about this. Give that whole chapter a read. It says that there must be opposition for us to experience anything at all. For instance if my favourite fruit is pineapple. I wouldn't know that it was my favourite if I hadnt tried others or tried my least favourite fruit.

We had a baptism yesterday. Her name was Lyla and she is from Taiwan! She is so sweet and had never heard of Jesus Christ before she met us. She was so prepared to hear about the Gospel and is so great. We also are teaching these two young men who are about 19. Oliver and Khalil. They are so great and they are willing to change their lives in order to prepare to be baptised. Their baptismal date is August 18th. Please pray for them and that they may be prepared for that date. They are so great.

In my last email I talked a little bit about the ward and how it is crazy but I love them. I was sitting in church yesterday and was looking at all 50 people that showed up and how it was really a family. The ward looks after each other. They all are so different but the Gospel brings them together. If there was a pen in the middle of a room and everyone towards that pen, then everyone would progressively get closer together. That is how the Gospel works. If we all work towards one common goal and one common truth we all grow closer and the bonds between family and friends grow stronger.

Now the hard day. Friday the 26th. Everything up until this point of the week was going great. But this day was just hard. It was Elder Hutchins B Day and appointment after appointment kept cancelling on us. Everyone we hoped to see just bailed. We then OYMED (Means Open Your Mouth. It is just street Contacting.) We spent 3 hours doing this and every person we met was just rude and had something mean to say to us. We met some strong Atheists and some arrogant drunk people. We were about to head home to our flat and on the bus we sat on the upper deck and were just in front of some annoying drunk kids who were about to go out for a friday night. We sat down and one of the kids got up and took Elder Hutchins pen out of his pocket and was saying stupid things about us and our religion that just is not true. He then threw the pen back and kept on trying to harrass us. I then just stood up and said that everything he was saying was arrogant and rubbish and that one day he will look back on his life and agree that he was just a stupid punk kid who harrassed men preaching about Jesus Christ. He then sat down and shut up. The next bus stop was his and so him and his friends left. His friends appologized for him and were actually cool to us. They said they had respect for what we were doing. Then they left. It was just a really hard day. We walked into the flat feeling discouraged. We went to bed and then woke up the next morning it was just another great day to spread the Godpel. I love this work and I love doing it. The Lord is blessing us and is helping us do this work. We could not do this alone and we are not alone. God is always there. Just remember there is opposition in all things. To experience the good you sometimes have to experience the bad. Just keep pressing forward. Read 2 31:20 and it is true for what we must keep doing.

I love you all

Elder David

Ps Just some P day Fun. We are all laughing for some reason and then the other one explains it all. The three homies then Elder Hein in the back round... hahah priceless.

 

From London To The States

~Hey everyone!

London has been treating me great and the people even greater. This past week Elder Hutchins and I have had a busy week! We are planning to have 4 baptisms this transfer (a transfer is 6 weeks) which is really good and we are so happy for it. The Lord has really blessed us with prepared people to teach. This last week we invited two 19 year old guys to be baptised and they accepted. They are ready to give up their past life and move towards following Christ. They are so great and were so prepared to hear the Gospel. We also baptised a girl yesterday named Kokab. She is a 40 year old Muslim and had a really difficult time being able to baptised. You see when a Muslim gives up there beliefs and becomes Christian it is a big deal and if she would have gone back to Iran they would kill her. And if anyone knew she was doing this they would kill her. So the Mission President would give us the consent to baptise her because it could put her in danger. So President Jordan had to get permission from the President Monson to be able to allow her to be baptised. This last week she got the news that she could get baptised if she became a citizen here in the UK so she would never have to go back to Iran. So the day after her finding out she could get baptised she received a letter saying she was a citizen of the UK. She was so surprised because she has been trying for years and it "happened" to come the day after the letter from the Prophet came. We met with her and as we talked about her situation and how happy she was, I started to cry. I could not control it because I could feel of Gods love for her and her decision to get baptised. I have never felt so much love for anyone like that because it was Gods pure love for her. I could not believe it. There are miracles everywhere and we just have to open our eyes to see them. "Coincidence is just how God can remain anonymous." This Gospel brings happiness and is the only way back to live with our heavenly father in his presence. We need to do all we can to be diligent and to make choices that will guide us in His direction. Me being here serving the people really makes me love them. If we serve those who around us, you will be able to love them more than you already may. I know that there is a God and he loves everyone of us. I know that this is the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. And I know that where I am and what I am doing, is exactly where God needs me.

My ward here is crazy. Haha most people barely speak English and are from all around the world. I will give you an example. A lady named Lisa in our ward. Everytime she bares her testimony she starts praying in the middle of it. Or when she talks to you in the hallway she will just start thanking Jesus and pray for you. She does it EVERYWHERE! hahah the first time it happened I just could not stop laughing and I felt so bad but goodness it is funny. Now we have this old lady in our ward named Sister Ramsley. She is about 65 or 70 and told us this story. "Last week my son (who is not a member) was doing drugs and I caught him and started to yell at him and then all of a sudden I felt my ancestors through the vail give me their pristhood power and told me I should rebuke him. So I raised my arm to the square and priesthood rebuked him." HAHAHAHAHH It is wrong and such false doctrine on every level but it was so funny. She was a convert like 20 years ago so she doesnt have anyone one that would even have that priesthood power in the first place. She is crazy but that is just the start all the crazy people.

I love you all and hope that you have a great week! I will just be baptising people in London. Next person to be baptised? The Queen.

~Love Elder David

Ps here Is the picture of me Imitating the Joseph Smith Piture! Took it this morning.

 

 

ARRIVED

Hey mom! 

So far everything is awesome. I got in Wednesday at 12 in the mission home and met my companion that night and found out where I would be serving for this transfer. My companions name is Elder Dillon Hutchins. He is literally so awesome. He turns 20 next week and couldn't believe I was 18! He actually went went to high school with Elder Munson. He is such a great trainer and is teaching me the ropes. We serve in the London North area in the Hyde Park Stake. Funny thing is that yesterday at church, the stake president and his wife were there because a new bishop was being called. The ward we serve in is super small that it could almost be a branch and full of a ton of weird crazy people from all over the world. But at the same time I love them already. It is so funny to come from our ward back home to this. 

So I live in a flat that cost around 5000 pounds a month. Which comes out to be around 8000-9000 american dollars a month. It is really nice and there is four of living in it. It is me, Elder Hutchins, Elder Hein, and Elder Duncan. They are all awesome and it is so much fun with all of us. I know my address to the flat but I would rather have all the mail go to the mission home because then it will never get lost in the post. Just in case I move or something. 

It has been really tiring doing all this missionary work actually. I am always exhausted. In this mission we don't wake up at 6:30. We wake up at 6:29. It is just to show everyone in the world that we are the number one mission. Which is true because in salt lake they have this huge picture of all the missions in the world. In this mission it has the number one. Because it was the first mission of the church and because it is the best! (Tell Brother Downs I said that) Our motto here is TRUTH WILL PREVAIL. We also have this quote that says "Boys go to South/Central America to become men. Men go to Europe to become leaders. And leaders go to London to become General Authorities." Awesome right?

I'm proud of Dalton for stepping it up! He is a stud already and will be more if he keeps it up haha. But tell him I am proud of him and miss him. Oh and tell Miranda I have lost weight! Haha It is a walking mission and it has been extremely hot here lately. Also my companion and I never eat out. We go grocery shopping and really don't have time to eat for how busy we are haha. So yeah! And we run every morning and lift every other day so tell AJ to watch out when I come back. 

Today we went to see Big Ben and the Eye and House of Parliament! I will upload pictures in a separate email. Oh and I am also in the London Mission Band! We auditioned today and I got a solo haha. It is really fun and everyone in the flat we stay in, has a good voice and is in it. Except Elder Duncan. He just sits and listens. We practice on P days. It is pretty much like choir for Missionaries and we go around England performing for people. Mr. V would be proud! haha. But share this with anyone who cares haha. The transportation here is so fast and efficient. And clean! It is really cool walking the streets of North London everyday and talking about the Gospel. We have someone on date to be baptised and are possible have a few more that are ready. We work so hard and it is showing. We had a crazy good week. 

Tell everyone I love them and will see them in 23 fast sundays!

Love,

Elder David

TRANFER

Hey! So it is transfer week from the MTC and so this means that I will be leaving this wednesday morning for London at 6:00 AM. Because of this being on wednesday I wont be able to email you this wednesday beacuse we are traveling. They gave us permission to let you all know this.

I am so excited to leave the MTC because it feels like I am in a spiritual prison but everything I have learned here is so useful for when I am in the field. I am ready to teach in the real world. I will be informed on where I will be serving on Wednesday after my interview with the mission president. I will also find out at that time who my companion is.

The razor will be so helpful haha. My skin is always irritated from having to shave everyday with the manual razor. So thank you so much. If you could update my Facebook with my new address for my mission home and email that would be great. I love you so much. If you could send me weekly updates on my spending and all that would also be appreciated. So just my balance really. I will talk to you as soon as I can!

Elder, David

MTC WEDNESDAYS

Hey Mom and Dad!

 

So I am just going to combine everything in this message because I only have so much time to do this and I have an extremely busy schedule here at the MTC. So feel free to send this out to who ever wants to hear from me. I appreciate everyones individual emails and try to reply to as many as I can but like I said it is hard so I will try my best. And I like reading them so keep on sending! But I will try to answer all of their questions in this one as well.

 

So like I said I had a pretty crazy experience getting here and it was just nice to sleep that night. The first day I got here we all were assigned rooms and companions. There are four Elders in my room including myself. Elder Farlery, who reminds me of my old friend Mark Campell, then there is Elder Ballstead, who reminds me exactly of Brock. His looks and his personality. Like he is balding and we really get along well so thats why haha. And then my companion is Elder Foster. He is a really smart guy and looks like the guy from Ratatouie! He is really nice and we work well together but there are times I just want to be alone because he is sometimes just overly nice and acts like he is 80 years old but I really enjoy working with him. I will attach pictures at the end so you can see all of them.

 

The jet lag lasted for like 3 days and I was always tired and it was really hard to work but they made it so we could get used to the rigorous schedule. We wake up at 6 and run until 630 then we are up doing scripture study and meetings all day until 1030, which is light out time. The days here feel like weeks but the weeks also feel like just one day. If that makes sense. The actual MTC and Temple is so beautiful. We did a session this morning and I have never felt the spirit so strong in my life. And it was a specific feeling. The spirit told me while in the celestial room, that I must work my hardest throughout life to successful in the eyes of God. At that point I realized that I don't have to be wealthy or have to have a lot of temporal possesions because in the eyes of God he does not care about those things. Instead I must be successful in raising an eternal family and keeping the commandments He has given us. That is the most important thing in life because this is all temporary. But after this is Eternity. And being able to spend eternity in a place like the celestrial room would be absolutly the best.

 

So far I haven't really had any lows. There has only been highs. Some people around are really stuggling with being away from home or having to learn english and such but nothing has hit so far. I hope it stays this way so I don't get depressed or discouraged but that most likely wont happen. There are elders from India, and Germany, Whales, and Ireland and the rest are from the states. And some Sisters are from Australia, Nigeria, South Africa, Brazil, England, and then the rest are also from the states. Everyone is so close because it is only about 50 people so it is way better than being at the MTC in Utah! Which Im so glad I am not there. The teachers that teach us are really great and the two teachers that teach our district (6 people) are so funny. One teacher, Brother Hankst, is from Germany and came to England on his mission and he is the best. The other, Brother Wilkinson, is from here in England and he doesn't like Americans at all but loves us. He has a dry sense of humor and I love it. He is so blunt and the typical Englishman. The President here is great and is really spiritually guided on what to teach and when.

 

Everyday except today and Monday have been rainy. But I love it! It is so refreshing and expecially in the morning it is nice. My companion and I run at 6 every morning and it is just a light mist outside so it is perfect. I have been running so I do not get fat like Miranda says I will. The food is really good and pretty similar to American food so far but I think that is just because they want to ease us into it. I am able to sleep great every night because of how tired I am but when I wake up it hurts because it is the stiffest bed ever!!

 

We just got back from shopping and I bought some superman dress socks, shaving cream (because shaving everyday hurts my face I had to get a different shaving cream for sensitive skin), and some Cadbury chocolate because I guess it is really good. I exchanged 170 american dollars and recived about 100 pounds so that is the ratio here haha. I think I want one of those electric razors Derrick let me use the morning I got set apart.... So if that could come in a care package... that would be smashing.... haha. Learning all the different things they say here is so weird but so much fun.

 

I leave next Wednesday morning for the London mission home and will be assigned a mission then so I will keep you updated!! I love it here and am already so excited to get in the field and serve God!! THE CHURCH IS TRUE!

 

With much love,

Elder David