My apologies everyone! Yesterday was a crazy day and it consisted of singing all day and spending the day at the hospital. I am alright but my companion broke his thumb playing basketball so here is my weekly email a day late!
But our week started off by getting a call from our Mission President, President Jordan, and he said, "Men I have a special assignment for you. I need you to go out and buy a ukulele." That ended that conversation and then went out to get one. There is a place in London called Denmark St. which is a music street. Every shop sells music stuff and so we bought the Ukulele and on the tube ride home we started playing for people and singing. It was quite fun. We go to Presidents flat and then he pulls us into the back room to show us a video of some other missionaries on Youtube playing the song "How can I be?" He said, "This is song you will learn so you can perform it in 3 days at Zone Conference for all the missionaries." So we agreed and were able to learn it and put our own arrangement on the song. So we performed and it was a hit! It was a good time. Sister Jordan will be putting it up on her blog soon and so I will post the link when she does so.
At Zone Conference, which is for all missionaries in the London area to meet and be trained on how to be better missionaries, we talked a lot about culture and discouragement. We also talked about being anxiously engaged! I loved the discouragement part that was spoken about. We all, throughout life, face this emotion. It sometimes overwhelms us but we have to ability and "power" to overcome this. God has given us the amazing gift of agency. The ability to choose for ourselves. We are not forced to make any decision. We have the ability to choose. God will not force us to believe in Him but rather He wants his children to grow and exercise faith in him so that they may use this wonderful gift righteously. We have the choice to be discouraged and we have the choice if we want to be anxiously engaged in a good cause. We are commanded to not be idle. (This one is for you Austin, since you like to lift so much) When talking about lifting weights, there is no such thing as idleness. It is either you get stronger or weaker. You must rip and break down your muscles so you may get stronger. You must always work and try to succeed and progress. This concept is the same when compared to the gospel. We must not be idle. We are encouraged and commanded to use the ability to choose for good so that we may bless our own lives as well as the lives around us. Have you ever wondered why the church doesn't just give people jobs? "If you give a man a fish, he will be fed for a day. If you teach a man how to fish, he will be fed for a lifetime." We must become self sufficient. Not lazy and idle. I look back at before my mission and man was I lazy. I could have been doing so much more. So much more good but I was too focused on taking that nap or just watching the tele. I think there is a wonderful link between being anxiously engaged and being encouraged rather than discouraged. Of course we will fail but when we fail doing the best that we can, we are not disappointed in ourselves but rather we know that we can improve and move on even faster. No more self pity and discouragement. Go and do and take some initiative. Be as Nephi of old who says, "I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded for I know that the Lord giveth no commandment unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." GO and DO because you KNOW it will have a positive outcome. And even if you don't know, pray for help and then go 100 MPH. The Lord appreciates when his children come to him with solutions rather than problems.
I told you all about the pictures of Abbey Road and I finally have them! And a few others of the M&M factory here. So I will share those with you! Also here are some pictures of The National British Museum. It is huge!
Love you all,
Elder David
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