THE BEST-APRIL 24, 2017

Frazer's been baptised!!!! Man, it was so awesome! He's come such a long way and I couldn't be more happy for him! We had a ceremony for throwing away the rest of his tea earlier this week and we took a picture with the empty box and he looked so happy! He is now the newest member of the Harrogate Ward! He asked me to speak at his baptism and I was honoured! I also had to speak in sacrament meeting too so people are probably sick of me haha

So my new companion is such a savage! His name is Adam Walker, he's Canadian, and he's only been out one more transfer than me so we're so new and having a complete blast!! On our first day together we were out doing some street contacting and talked to this olde couple. The lady had on these crazy red and white checkered trousers. When we were done talking and were walking away Elder Walker said,  "I LOVE YOUR PANTS! THOSE ARE THE COOLEST PANTS I'VE EVER SEEN!" They both turned around and gave us such a weird look and then we remembered that pants in England are underpants!! hahaha They call pants trousers. He quickly said back, "I mean trousers!" And then we spent the next 5 minutes dying laughing!!! So funny! You live and you learn. We really get along well, though. We're super similar and our teaching/finding styles go well together! He's an awesome missionary and we're both learning so much! 

So a new group of missionaries came in this week and President Turvey asked if I would come to the intro to the mission meeting and stuff because I missed the last one. So we had a quick meeting in the morning and then headed up to this beautiful place on top of a hill, one of President's favourite places in England. We had a short testimony meeting and he told us to go off and find a nice place to pray to dedicate ourselves to the mission. It was really nice and so pretty. Then we had dinner at President and Sister Turvey's house and it was a lot of fun! It reminded me of those meetings in the mission home in Texas. 

The APs went on splits with us on Friday for a few hours and it was really nice to have a car for a bit because our area is so huge!! We met some very interesting people and found lots of potential investigators. They're coming back on Wednesday to go on splits again because we're going to see this guy who lives in the middle of nowhere in a town called Kepwick. We mapped it and it, no joke, will take us 10 hours and 51 minutes to walk there! That's how enormous our area is!! We'll have to take a train to York, then to Thirsk, and from Thirsk it's a 2 and a half hour walk to Kepwick. So that's going to be fun to make that trip all the time! 

So we have tea appointments with members every single night this week. We're fed so well! That makes grocery shopping a ton easier, too. The members are really awesome! Loads of them are American and are here working at the military base, but we're losing like 35 people or something in June because they're being relocated! That'll be sad; some key families are leaving! 

We haven't seen Kema yet, they've been out of town but they're feeding us on Tuesday so please pray it goes well! Mandy has disappeared... I've called her a bunch of times and we've knocked on her door a few times too and haven't seen her! I don't really have an update on that. Frazer's been baptized!! Jamie is working hard to quit his addictions and slowly gaining more faith. I wish you could meet him. Some lessons with him are out of control but some are the most spiritual lessons I've had out here yet. The Gospel will help him so much and words can't describe how much I want this for him. He's a solid dude. Pray for him! Our other investigator, Diogo is still doing well! He's worked 12 hour shifts the past few days so we haven't heard from him but we'll be seeing him again soon and helping him progress towards his date! We found some more potentials this week, including a single mom and her 4 super cute kids. 

President Turvey has challenged us to visit every active member every month. We went to go see a woman in our ward who is 92 I think. We knocked on the door and her son answered and asked us to come in to give her a blessing. It was a really sweet experience, being in the right place at the right time is key to missionary work! We also got asked to give a woman a blessing after church yesterday. She's not a member but we set up a return appointment for Tuesday. 

Sorry for such a long email, we have so many amazing things happen every single day I wish I had time to tell them all! 

I love you all, the church is so true!! Nothing is better than this. The happiness it's brought me is so crazy! 

Ps. They spell honor honour and color colour here so don'tbe worried about the spelling errors!

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Blessed --April 17, 2017

What's up guys! So transfer calls were yesterday, I thought for sure I was safe because the training program is 12 weeks. So I was positive that I would be staying with Elder Campbell so I could finish out being trained. Nope! Elder Campbell got moved, so I'm left here in Harrogate to run the area after 4 weeks. I was freaking the heck out at first because I'm still so new and don't know everything about our area and stuff but I just have to trust President Turvey and will do my best! My new companion is named Elder Walker and he's from Canada! That's all I know about him haha so hopefully he's very patient with me! I'll pick him up from the train station tomorrow and then the fun begins!

Happy Easter! We got totally spoiled yesterday. A bunch of the members gave us giant chocolate Easter eggs and baskets and stuff! We had a really fun dinner at the Milewski's. Sister Milewski cooked lamb which reminded me of Mak but I happily ate it:) 

Frazer's baptism is on Saturday!!!! You guys have no idea how much this means to me! He's off his esig and nicotine, coffee, tea, and alcohol. He's so thrilled to receive a remission of his sins and get the Holy Ghost. He's grown so much over the past few weeks from a sad lonely dude to being so happy and full of life. He gives God all the credit for it and is so right! The gospel has blessed his life in so many ways. I love the work!! Elder Campbell and I are super bummed that he's being transferred right before the baptism though. He's been here for 7 months no baptisms and literally days before we have one he gets transferred!! So we're bummed about that but it's not about us, it's about Frazer! His baptismal interview is tomorrow so pray for him!!

Our other investigator, Diogo, is from Portugal. He's a super humble guy and came here to find work. He's schedule to be baptized on the 6th of May!  Mandy is a 40-50 year old woman we met, we've met with her a few times and she's scheduled for May 13th! Pray for both of them to keep progressing!

Jamie Newall. He's really starting to feel the spirit and his testimony is starting to grow. The most spiritual amazing lessons we teach are always with him. He has a hard shell but I can see his desire to learn and feel the direction the Gospel gives. He went all clean two weeks without doing any drugs at all but had a friend come in town on Friday and it wasn't good for him. I know the Lord will provide a way, though! I know how much the gospel can help him and I really feel blessed to be involved in Jamie's progression. I swear on my life he's going to be a bishop someday! He has mad potential! He loves meeting with us and is really beginning to see the truth of this!

So I pulled a Keith and got kissed on the cheek yesterday... we were doing some street contacting and saw this lady just walking about laughing hysterically by herself! I thought for sure we'd have to talk to her hahaha. She actually came up to us and said she's not crazy, she just couldn't stop laughing because someone had an Easter decoration of a skeleton wearing bunny ears... so funny! We ended up talking to her for a long time. She had such a sincere story about how her husband cheated on her which caused her to start drinking a ton and her two boys went to love with him. She got into some trouble with the law and was super depressed (this was 4 years ago). She said that one day she was about ready to give up but she felt an overwhelming sense of love and described "feeling like someone grabbed me by the back of my collar, pulled me out of the depression, and said I need to get a grip". She knew it was God and from that day on hadn't been depressed, hadn't had any drinking problems, got her kids back, and has spent the last few years volunteering for a program that helps woman who were like her. She was really amazing! I told her that it really was God and that he loves her so much, and how he allowed her to go through that so she could help other people. She started tearing up and then out of no where grabbed my face with two hands and laid a big one right on my cheek! I think she saw how shocked I was and then just started laughing. hahaha She's really cool though! She's 52, has 2 sons,  and we have a return appointment on Wednesday! 

I got my haircut at this Turkish place today and it was so cool. They did some weird flaming cotton ball thing and burned off hair like on my ears and neck... so weird but really cool! 

It rained constantly the whole week haha. Welcome to England! I LOVE IT! I can't believe I almost lost this chance. I pray my guts out every morning and every night to thank Heavenly Father for this experience. The church is true! It's the best!!

I love you all!!

PS.  Mom, 

I've been super clean and tidy, laundry once a week, made my bed, and everything! You taught me well:) I've even been waking up at 6:25am just to make sure I'm on time!

England is legit mom! I'm loving it. I miss you so much❤️ We all talk about our moms all the time. I love you mom!!!

PPS Dad: 

I just feel so blessed to be here. I'm so lucky you were able to

help me so much. I'm way glad I'm here and not who knows where! I miss

you tons.  I'm also low key freaking out about running the area already!!! It's

insane. Any words of wisdom? President either forgot I was so new, is

testing me, or is punishing Elder W.  haha Who knows, but I'm really

really excited about it. I'm excited to have this opportunity to step

up and show myself, President, and the Lord what I've got! So fun! So

crazy!

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The Church is true!! Week #2

Another amazing week! Time is flying by! P day was a blast last week. I bought a new suit for only 40 pounds! It's black, and super skinny fit. Most of the elders here have suits that are so tight you can see their garment line on their arms! It's freaking awesome. It's the style here! The skinnier the better. I love it! It's crazy how cheap you can get a suit for here. I have to have Elder Campbell tie my shoes for me because I can't bend over that far or my suit will rip! Haha kidding.  Don't worry mom and dad, it's not too tight! 😂 

So we went on 2 exchanges this week, the first was with the zone leaders on Wednesday. We stayed the night at their flat and it was a ton of fun! I was with Elder Hanks who's from Utah. We had a lot of fun! And I learned a lot from him. He's been out for 19 months. We taught this guy named Issac who is 22 and was baptised about 2 months ago. He was supper funny! He's so strong in the gospel and we had a very nice lesson with him. 

The next one was Friday to Saturday with 2 elders from our district, Elder Peña and Elder Jeppson. They're currently serving in York but came to Harrogate, our area, for the day. I was with Elder Peña! He's a freaking savage. He's a black man from the Dominican Republic! He's been out for 21 months and no joke played professional basketball in Spain! He's legit like Keith and Seth in a Dominican black body😂 we had 2 appointments, both that fell through so we knocked doors for a solid 6 hours straight. It was so freaking fun hahaha we were having the time of our lives together and people at the door definitely noticed! English people are typically grumpy but we got most people to talk to us for a little and had them smiling and laughing by the end! We weren't being rambunctious, but we saw some of the craziest people I've never laughed so hard! This one dude answered the door and obviously had some kind of condition because his arms and legs were like wiggling wildly out of control and we greated him with a happy Hey how's it going?? And he just stood there for a solid 10 seconds looking at us while wiggling out of control, said nothing, had no expression, and then just slammed the door. It was the craziest thing ever! When we walked away we were laughing so hard😂😂😂 it was the most random thing ever!!! Man I wish you guys could have seen it. Elder Peña and I had a blast. 

Okay so the coolest thing ever happened this week. On Tuesday Elder Campbell and I had a strong impression to go visit a woman who was a potential investigator a while ago but told the missionaries not to come back. (Her house was 2 blocks away from the Hospital) So we followed the prompting and headed over but when we knocked on the door no one answered. So obviously we were like what the heck is this about, but just after knocking our phone rang and this guy in a ward told us to get to the Hospital ASAP because there was a woman in critical condition and asked for a blessing immediately. This woman hadn't been to church in 6 years, and from what I've been told has been very anti Mormon for quite some time. The fact that she wanted a blessing was a miracle by itself! We sprinted over to the hospital, praying for the Spirit to tell us what to say because we didn't know the woman at all. Elder Campbell wanted to do the anointing and for me to give the blessing. When we got to the hospital she had several nurses around her who shewed us away and said they'll come get us when they're done. She had several brain bleeds, couldn't talk, walk, move, and was hooked up to mad stacks of machines. I sat in the waiting room praying my guts out to know what to say. The nurses came and got us after about 15 minutes and said we could go in. When I got there and was able to look her in the eye I felt a wave of the spirit come over me calming me, and I instantly had love for her because she's a daughter of God and had turned to him for help at this time. I knew that the words would come to me as soon as I started the blessing. I blessed her with a number of things, including for her to know that God is not far from her, and that God can and will heal her according to her faith. I barely got the words out because I was crying, I knew that was coming from God because I would have never said that last part without being told to do so. I ended the blessing and her husband, Paul, who also hadn't been to church in years, was crying as well. We had a really nice talk with her husband, left him with a Book of Mormon, and invited him come to conference. He promised us that he would because he knew it's what God wanted. We left, and didn't hear anything else until Saturday, when Paul showed up at conference. He pulled me into the hallway, hugged me, and told me that his wife had made a miraculous full recovery. Everything was looking good, and she'll be released from the hospital soon. She went from nearly dying to being just fine in 5 days. Totally amazing!! The two of us stood in the hallway crying for quite some time and thanked Heavenly Father for saving her. It was a miracle. If we hadn't listened to the spirit guiding us to that woman's house right by the hospital who knows what would have happened. I'm so grateful that God has trusted me with his priesthood so I can serve Him. 

We had an investigator drop us yesterday which was really hard. But our others are doing well! Frazer is still on track to be baptised, and Jamie is working at overcoming his drug addiction! I love seeing how the Gospel works in their lives and how God helps them overcome struggles. It's the only way to go! God is always there for us. 

This place really is amazing. Everywhere I go, I get to see and meet people that are doing their best to live a good live, and we get to help them along the way. Most people don't want to listen, think we're crazy, or don't even look at us but we are planting seeds! We talked to a man yesterday who said he read that England is 90% atheist, 7% claim a religion but don't practice, and 2% claim a religion and practice, and the other 1% is miscellaneous.  Isn't that crazy??? I have no idea how people can think there's not a god. I'm so glad I know someone is there for me always. 

We spend most of our time finding, and our area is massive so we have a lot of work to do! We use the public busses to get around; we always sit on the top level! We have about 2 tea appointments every week with the members (tea is dinner here) and they're some really cool people! We love teaching with the members! All of Harrogate is just one ward, two sets of missionaries. 

I love Harrogate, I love my companion, the other 2 elders I live with, and I love working my tail off from 6:30 to 10:30! The days go by so quickly! We try our best to use every second how the lord wants us too. The happiness my mission as brought me already is great. Service is the way to go!!! Love you all!

My address is :

98 Kings Road

Flat 6 kings court

Harrogate England United Kingdom, HG1 5HH

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