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

Fruit Shaped Cookies to Put in Our Flower Jar

This week we helped one of the members in the ward move out of there house. They are luckily still in the ward boundaries. They took us to a Lebanese Restaurant for helping. YUM! While helping them move they found some things that they have never taken out of the package but knew they were never going to use. "If it is free get it at all costs." So we gladly took some things home. 

1. The Worlds Sharpest Knife (Actual name of the knife). The name of the Knife made me want to burst through a set of doors and yell, "CONGRATULATIONS! The worlds sharpest knife!! (ELF)

2. Fruit Shaped Cookie Cutters. It is obvious why one would want these. 

3. A florescent yellow jar with oddly colored flowers. For our fruit cookies.  

It was a successful afternoon. 

President Jordan was in Portugal last week for the annual Mission President's Seminar. He had his birthday while being there and was going to arrive on Friday evening! So we planned a surprise party for him when he would come home! We decorated his flat and baked some goods for him (when I say "we" I mean the Sisters in the Zone. The Elders did not do much.) We all hid and turned off the lights yelled a big, "Surprise!" He was really surprised haha. He walked in with another area 70 who was also surprised. Sister Jordan loved it and was in on it as well. We had cake and sang songs. 

By the way, I don't know if I told you this but I live with Elder Hein again. The Elder that was in the same flat with me in London North for 6 months! We have way to much fun. So on Friday Elder Hein was making a homemade pasta sauce and it smelt quite nice. But I thought it need a bit more spice. The week prior, I bought some scotch bonnet peppers so that I could somehow put them in Elder Hein's food. So this was the opportunity to use them. I took the peppers into the room and cut them into really small pieces then took them to the kitchen while cupping them in my hands. When he wasn't looking I threw in the peppers to his sauce and out of generosity, I offered to stir the sauce for him. I couldn't hold in my laughter so I had to leave the room and just wait. Elder Hein treats his companion, Elder Hansen, and himself to his nice pasta. They begin to feast. Half way through their meal I walk into the room and they are both sweating and drinking so much water wondering, "Why is this pasta so hot?!?!" Elder Hansen then exclaims in his thick German accent, "Every single bite gets hotter and hotter!!" I told them they shouldn't have used so much ground pepper. They agreed to that. I left the room and then about a minuter later I hear, "ELDER DAVID!" Elder Hein comes running into the room laughing/crying/sweating with his accusations pointed right at me! Of course his accusations were all true. We all died laughing. I made a good decision to buy those peppers. Good times. 

Elder Hein got me back the next morning by tying my basketball shoes together. And let me tell you, untying basketball shoes at 6 in the morning is a challenge that deserves to be on any game show. 

We had stake conference this weekend and it was so great! We participated in the YSA choir and it was really fun. Another 70 was present for to preside over the meeting. 

So on Friday afternoon Elder Torgesen and I got on the bus and sat down in different places to talk to different people. While being on the bus for 10 minutes a man gets on the bus and sits near me. He then looks me in the eye and points to my badge asking, "What is that about?" I thought he was being smart with me so I gave a short response. I am a missionary for this church. He then become more interested. I then realized he was genuinly interested. I then showed him the Book of Mormon and said, "We would like to teach you about this. Can we see you tomorrow?" He agreed and then after exchanging info, he got off the bus for his stop. We saw this man on Saturday and invited him to be baptised next month. He accepted and came to church the following day on Sunday. He loved it and we will be seeing him tomorrow! We asked him on Saturday why he decided to talk to me and he said,"I usually never sit on the bus. I always stand but I felt like I needed to sit and I saw you and felt I should sit next to you. Then I saw Jesus Christ on you badge and knew why I needed to sit next to you." Jeff is his name. After Jeff left church he went to go tell his wife how wonderful the people were and how he loved his experience. We will hopefully teach her this week as well. MIRACLES! 

Sunday! Last Story. We had a fireside in Luton to perform at for the Young Men and Young Women. We loaded up the mission van. Elders Hein, Tan, Torres, Adriano with President and Sister Jordan were all in the Van with me driving. So driving a massive van in London is the worst and is really scary. The roads are just not meant for big cars. But with many prayers offered in my heart we made it safely. We had a great night and met Elder Nolan and Elder Hutchins at the chapel. It was just like the good ol times last year doing the same thing. It was just a great evening! 

Good things are happening and I love my mission!

Have a great week and I will talk to you in 7 days.

Love,

Elder David

Elder Talan Haynes David

England London Mission

64-68 Princes Gate

Exhibition Road,

South Kensington

London, England SW7 2PA

Pumkins!

Good evening for me and good morning for you! 

Last week we had Elder Herbertson of the 70 come visit the mission for a conference. A few Elders were assigned to do a musical number so we chose to do a song called Jerusalem. It is an English song that says Jesus walked in England when he was on the earth. We don't know how factual that is but it is a nice song! We were practicing before the meeting started and as we finished we walked down to finish set up all. Just before the meeting started and everyone was about to take their seats President walks to me and says, "Elder David you will be conducting this meeting." Go get ready in the front." I took my seat next to Elder Herbertson and we began to talk for a few minutes before the meeting began. I was pretty nervous for this one because I didn't want to mess up with a 70 present. I prayed that everything would go well and it turned out alright. It was a really great time. 

So while at church on Sunday there was a quote shared that I really liked. "A man sees in the world, what is in his heart."  It made me think, "What is in my heart and how does that impact my outlook? Does it effect me in a positive or negative way?" It really made me evaluate myself and examine what I saw in the world. Some see all the nice clothes that someone else has on, the car they show up in at work, or how their family life looks from the outside. What we desire in the world is usually what we already desire in our heart. The way we look at people and how we perceive them comes from the heart. 

In the scriptures they prophesy that "in the last days, mens hearts shall fail them." From what I learned on Sunday it all made sense. The scriptures didn't imply there will be more people with heart failure as a medical condition but as a spiritual condition. What are our hearts set upon? "Where you heart lies, there will your treasure be also." 

The only way that we can cleanse our heart and truly have a "heart transplant" is throught the Saviour Jesus Christ and his Atonement. Healing is found there and how wonderful it is to experience it for ourselves. "Come unto Christ and be perfected in him." "Nothing entereth into His rest save it be those who have washed their garments in the blood of Christ." The Saviour can cleanse our heart and help us see in the world the positve things that come fomr our heart. "Remember faith, hope, charity, and love..." These are the traits we want to have. Eternal traits. 

As you study the Saviours life you will be more aware on how He would act in your circumstances. There is your assingment. 

Today we had a Zone P-Day! Woo Hoo! We carved pumpkins together. Really fun day. We also sang a few songs.  

I love you all and hope you have a great week! 

(I carved the HYDE one)

Elder David

Elder Talan Haynes David

England London Mission

64-68 Princes Gate

Exhibition Road,

South Kensington

London, England SW7 2PA

The Band is Back

The Band Started up again to start practicing for Christmas coming up. It was so great to have everyone back. The same group that was there last year minus a select few who have returned home. So weird. It brought back to many great memories. My favourite song is Some Children See Him. I love that song so much! I feel like my music skills have improved since being on a mission. Which logically does not make sense but I see it as a blessing. This last week was really busy with Moves and making sure everyone got settled in. We had a baptism on Sunday for our investigator Joseph! He is such a sweet man and will be getting the priesthood in the coming weeks. He has read all the way to Alma in the Book of Mormon and retells it like he has been reading his whole life. Impressive. 

This coming week we have a mission conference with a seventy who will be coming! It will be on Thursday and I am really excited about it! Halloween is coming up and inside the Hyde Park Chapel there will be the classic Phantom of the Opera silent film with the massive Organ accompanying it! So many good things are happening here. 

I am enjoying my new companion and he is really laid back. We get on well. I have gotten the hang of changing from companion to companion and I think I found the key to success. COMMUNICATION! When you talk more the better things go. It is so simple but now I know it is a true principle. It is sometimes not the best to hide what you are feeling and not express it. But when you council and just talk openly things work out. So my advice to you is communicate. Life just is better when you do. Whether that is with a husband/wife, brother/sister, or even a co-worker, talk it out. 

Love you all and talk to you in 168 hours!

Elder David

Elder Talan Haynes David

England London Mission

64-68 Princes Gate

Exhibition Road,

South Kensington

London, England SW7 2PA