Free Dinner?

Four weeks ago Elder Torgesen and I were walking down Exhibition Road to the Chapel one night and next to us we see a Chinese girl and boy walking together in the same direction. I have been practicing my Chinese and wanted to practice with them so we edge over to walk closer to them and then I say," Nee shu jung gua ran ma?" Which means, "Are you Chinese people?" They looked shocked at some white kid speaking to them in Chinese. They respond in english with a yes! Then again in Chinese,"Wua da minztu Zhao David Jung lau. Wu shu Mormon Zhao da tranzyow shu!" They finally realize I am speaking there language and then start speaking to me in fluent chinese. Then I had to tell them no more Chinese. English please.  We start having a good conversation and walk by the church and I invited them in but they weren't too interested. But we before we parted ways we just told them that every Thursday night there is a free dinner that they are welcome to come to. 

Thursday rolls around and guess who actually shows up. MANSON! The Chinese guy I met a few days prior. He met with the Missionaries in the YSA ward and just yesterday he was baptised! It was so cool to see that a simple invitation to come and see makes all the difference! it really does! 

Next week Malou is getting baptised though! She is from the Phillipines and is so amazing. She has been found by 3 different missionaries and invited to church by a member and she came. Sometimes it God just makes sure that you run into the right people more than once. She referred her family that are in the Phillipines as well. I will send you pictures of her baptism next Monday. 

Tomorrow Elder Cook from the Quorum of the 12 Apostles will be coming to speak to our mission tomorrow and we will be singing him a song as well. It should be a really great day. And of course I will include more info on what the meeting was like next week! I love you all and hope you have a great week.

Love,

Elder David

I'm Sorry Cake

So last Monday we had a crazy P-day. Just singing. All. day. long. And I lost my planner. I don't lose many things while on my mission which is suprising because back home Dad would always say,"You would lose your head if it wasn't already attached to your body." But everyone loses something sometimes, right? This me trying to console myself. But after singing we went to go email and in the middle of emailing all of you, we receive a call from our Ward Mission Leader asking, "Are you guys close?" We then remember with deepening sadness and regret that we were supposed to go to his house for dinnner..... The only explanation of how I felt is recorded in the Book of Mormon, "But I was racked with eternal torment, for my soul was harrowed up to the greatest degree and racked with all my sins." We felt so bad and it ruined the night. I have never hosed a member. And I will never again. So to try and make things right. We decided that the only thing we could do that would pay them back would be to "bake them a cake of somefing"(Napoleon Dynamite.) So we did. I baked my first cake. We were nervous to give it to them because this was our first cake we baked. We knock on the door and sing "Apologize" on the front step. They let us in and we eat the cake together. IT WAS DELICIOUS! So of course they forgave us. Oh and to top it off we printed out the saddest pouting puppy face picture we could find. It would be one of the pictures you see on the Sarah McLaughlin commercials. So sad. "Girls like guys with Skills. Numb chuck skills, karote skills, cake baking skills." (Napoleon Dynamite) I quote this movie to much lately but my companion is literally the funniest man I have ever met in my life. He would play a better Napoleon. He even did the dance in the 5th grade for a school talent show. He means business. 

By the way we are both staying together for another transfer!! Christmas in Central London Round 2!! All the things are getting decorated here and it looks beautiful! 

This week we had another Filipino party! In the course of 5 minutes we sang "Happy Birthday" 6 times. They could not get enough of it! 

Elder Quintin L Cook will be coming to visit our mission and speak to us next week which will be great! I am really excited for it. We are singing a song for him a song called "Come Unto Christ." 

Well this is all for the week. I love you all and hope you have a great week! 

Love,

Elder David

The Wedding Singer has Fake Ipads

This week was a really busy week!!!! It was the longest, slowest, fastest, craziest week I have had in a long time. 

Tuesday: We had Zone Training Meeting and decided to play a little prank on the Zone. The rumor is going around that we are getting I pads soon. Which is true but we are not sure when. So we thought it would be fun to surprise them with I pads. On Monday we put together an apple box with the Church logo and name and made it look semi nice. It wasn't the greatest but it was made just right to fool someone. Then there was a senior couple missionary who had an I pad and let us put it inside with its original box. We filled the box with Hymn books to fake the weight and then placed the bubble wrapped I pad box on the top. After we finished talking about Facebook and how we are doing using it as a tool, told them that we have recieved another tool to assist us in our efforts. All the missionaries started to look around. Elder Hein got so excited because he didn't believe us when we told him earlier but now his wildest dreams were coming true. We go into the back room to grab the box and bring it out. Missionaries start to yell," This is the best day on my mission yet!" We then open the box and give the first I pad to Elder Hein who is shaking. He opens the box and finds a real ipad. Now everyone in the room believes it is really happening. We let him turn it on and as it then turns on we walk over and say, "Just kidding we are not getting Ipads yet." The room went silent. No one wanted to believe us and they did not think it was funny. However Elder Torgesen and I were dying. We are evil but now there is a mark on the back of our heads in the zone. We are on our toes. I have a picture of the box we used. 

Wednesday: We are teaching a woman named Malou. She was referred to us a by a member who met her on the bus. She agreed to church and is planning to be baptised on the30th of November! She is wonderful. So Wednesday was a good day! Wednesday was also Guy Fawkes Day or Bonfire Night. So many fireworks are set off on this night We got to see some good fireworks on that night. I have a nice video on that will go on Google Drive. 

Thursday: We had interviews with President. Great day. 

Friday:  Met Magnel and Mina. They are preparing to be baptised on the 30th of November as well! One is from Giana and the other is from Jamaica, mon! Good day. 

Saturday: We were invited to sing at a wedding for a couple that was getting married in the chapel. Good wedding. We are wedding singers. Got our Adam Sandler on. Pretty great day.

Sunday: The Sabbath is always a great day! We had 8 different friends come join us for church and it was just a great day. We spent that evening with a member who builds, designs, and sells skyscrapers. London just fosters interesting people. 

Well that is our Crazy weeek. Today we went to see Tower Bridge at night along with Tower of London. I will post some pictures as promised of the week. Love you all!

Elder David 

Oh yeah and Elder Torgesen and I got caught in a London Typhoon. So much Water!!!!!!! 

MAN FLU

In England they have a sickness called, "The Man Flu" which is pretty much the flu but they only call it this when the men catch it haha. I guess that they call it this because men alwyas over react when ill so they just name it something manly as a joke. Pretty funny. This week I had the man flu. I have never felt so terrible in my whole life. (See how the name fits). It was pretty terrible. Until last week I haven't been sick on my mission and I was actually thinking that two weeks prior so I guess it was on it's way. It was really hard to stop people on the street when you feel like dying. During Lunch I would make a quick lunch take a nap for a bit and then go back out. We were blessed for it and a few really good things came our way! 

Elder Torgesen's Birthday was on Tuesday. He was pretty excited for his 21st and so we decided as a flat that we were going to pretend to forget. So all wake up and go exercise, eat, and study without saying really one word. I started to notice he was getting a bit irritated that no one remembered. Then right before we start companionship study we always sing a song. We picked nearer my God to thee and as we started we changed it to Happy Birthday and blasted him with silly string and anything else we could through at him. His face was priceless. He looked so confused and was not expecting it. 

This last week we were in a trio with a missionary who was having a surgery on his collar bone. He fell off his bike. So one of the members came down to visit him and took us all our to eat at the coolest pizza place in London. It is where all the celebrities go for pizza. The whole restaraunt is filled with pictures of people that have eaten there. Too many famous people. It was such a good night. I ordered Leonardo Dicaprio's favourite pizza. Good stuff. 

On Wednesday night we were invited to go eat with a family at Nando's. Nando's is a Portuguese restaurant. The members who took us brought friends of theirs who had so many questions for us! He was so interested. We hopefully will be starting to teach this new family this coming week! It was a good night. 

Thursday was at the peak of the Man Flu and was the day we had an exchange. I was with Elder Hein that day who happened to have that same sickness. We were both sharing the pain. It stunk but that evening I got to go visit Margaret and Chaminda again. Elder Adriano and I baptised them last February. They are doing great and it was a really fun time being able to meet again in their home! 

Friday was Halloween and we had Mission Leadership Council. The room was decorated for the occasion. That night after the meeting the Hype Park Chapel was putting on a silent film accompanied by the organ. The film was the 1920's classic, "Phantom of the Opera." My first silent film. We only watched a few minutes of it because we had to go start planning for our Zone Training Meeting on Tuesday. 

Saturday night we met a really interesting woman. Our approach, "Excuse me ma'am? Would you like to know more about the life of Jesus Christ?" Her response in a really thick african accent, "Young man I know more about Jesus then you will ever know. I love Jesus more than you love Jesus and I promise you that." Finishing with a "hmmmm." Like she was agreeing and proud of herself. "That was very bold miss. I can tell you have a lot of Christlike love for your fellow men." She then went nuts and just started pentecostal preaching at us. It got real loud and all the neighbors in the estate came outisde to see this big black woman preach at these two white kids. After she finished she stormed off in a sass walk. Funny woman. 

Sunday was fast Sunday and Elder Torgesen and I were having a special fast for new people to teach!  And a few members introduced us to their friends at church and we will be teaching them this week. I do know that fasting works! 

It was a good week in the mission and now that I over the Man Flu I can't really remember how terrible it was. I only remember the good stuff. That is really how I feel about my mission. I really don't remember much about the bad or hard times as much as I remember the good times. 

Have a great week and I will talk to you all in a short while! 

-- 

Elder Talan Haynes David

England London Mission

64-68 Princes Gate

Exhibition Road,

South Kensington

London, England SW7 2PA