Staying in Barrow for another transfer with...

"Yes, I am staying in Barrow for another Transfer! And guess what... I have a new companion! :) His name is Elder Matute! He is from Honduras and has now been out for 10 months. He is such an amazing and powerful missionary! He has taught me so much already and we have only been together for two days! :O He is a believer of "Inviting" - not just investigators, but also missionaries. He told me that if there is something that he thinks I could become more obedient in or improve in, he will invite me to make a change once and after that it will be up to me to decide whether or not to accept that invitation. Agency is one of the greatest gifts we've received from God and he doesnt want to take it away from me or our investigators."

"Last Saturday we had a very interesting experience! As we were on our way to see an investigator, one of his neighbours called us over to his house. He asked us why we were always in that street and we explained that we had a friend who lived there. He knew exactly who it was. So he was like "Do you want me to come over with you?" and we were telling that no we'd go by himself, but then he crosses the road and knocks on the door, lifts the post box flap and shouts for the investigator, and even tried to open the door. It was MAD. haha! Then he invited us to his house and he went in. And the crazy things began to happen. First of all he offered us cigarrettes, beer, tea, coffe and vodka. :/ At which point I realized he was DRUNK. Then he started asking us how much knowledge we had in our head. I said that I'd finished Sixth Form and he was like "But how much knowledge have you got?! I've got 500 years worth of knowledge!" - Turns out that apparently he saw some UFOs and they gave him all the knowledge of the world. He started asking us questions about Quantum Mechanics and the Universe :S It was so weird! Then he wouldn't let us call God "God", we were only allowed to call Him either "Heavenly Father" (what we called Him) or ET (what Martin called Him). Oh my goodness! It was crazy. He also kept telling us he knew EVERYTHING. When we asked him if he knew about the Book of Mormon he was like "Of course! I know everything!" So Elder Leimgrub asked him "Who was Captain Moroni?" His response: "He... had... a boat!" LOL! After he said that we were like, "see there is something that we can share with you! We'd love to come back tomorrow when you are a bit more sober" but he was like "No! Tell me about him now!" but we couldnt because we had an appointment and so we told him that and he said "You wont leave till you tell me because Ill lock the door." OH MY GOODNESS!!! AAAAAAAAH! I have to admit, I got scared for a bit! :/ I quickly told him who Captain Moroni was and we left. lol We did go back the next day and he wasn't drunk anymore, but he was still just as crazy about aliens and UFOs :S :P"

Opposition always comes before we see miracles!

"That was this week's weekly focus, and how true it was. There is a lot of opposition out there! I seriously appreciate the missionaries we used to have a lot more, now that I am a missionary!"

"Mount Snowdon... Well! Let me tell you about Mount Snowdon. Because Barrow is so far from everything, on Tuesday, the Workington Elders picked us up and took us to Lancaster. There were 8 Elders sleeping at Lancaster. The Lancaster, Carslile, Workington and Barrow Elders. SO MUCH FUN and so many laughs. We went to bed at 10:30pm.

We then woke up at 3:50am so everyone could shower. Then we left the flat at 5am and got to Preston at 5:45am. We then (the Preston Zone) got on a BIG coach and most of us went to sleep. Others sang. It was fun! The coach then picked missionaries up from Liverpool and Chester and so it was packed with missionaries. And once we got to Wales/Mount Snowdon there some other missionaries there too. Including Sister Garland! It was so fun to see her! haha

The weather was really nice in the morning, so everyone had tshirts on.

We started to go up the mountain.

Then the rainstorn started.

20 mins into the hike it starts raining like MAD. It takes 3 hours to get up there and 2 hours to get down. So it was not fun to be walking all the way up. Especially when the rain drops were as big as grapes and they were going sideways! 90 degrees! NO JOKES! :O It was intense.

I spent most of the hike with Elders Duran and Webb, and with Sisters Horne and Miner. We were climbing it in single file, so I didn't really get to chose who to be with, but they are great! We laughed so much!

Throughout the whole hike everyone was talking about getting to the top of the mountain and having a hot chocolate from the shop up there. Funny thing is, when we got up to the top of the mountain, the shop was closed because the weather was too windy and horrible.

So everyone was wet and cold and just frustrated because cameras weren't working anymore and opposition was all over the place.

After we got back down however, it got sunny. And President Preston got us all SUBWAY! YUM. So our spirits were high again. Everyone came closer together and we had to help each other stay positive. so it was definitely an activity to help us grow.

Unfortunately, the whole bus ride I was quite upset because I found out my journal was ruined. But after a while of being devastated I was like "forget about it! I want to be happy!" So I went up to the front and just chatted with Elders Tellen, Barth, Webb, Diaz, Leimgrub, Kuchar and Schmid. It was great."

Elder Pereira also had his first baptism. He was really happy for the young boy, and the baptism went well. However there are no photos as the bad weather from the climb damaged the camera and no one in the Ward had a camera.

A bit of a tough week!

"So, like the Subject says, this week was rather tough! We had some appointments set up from last week that fell through and the ones we set up this week also fell through. Sad days. BUT!!!! Faith brings about Miracles! :)

There's something called Key Indicators. They are numbers which we report to our leaders and to Church HQ. Our Mission President set up a Mission Standard of excellence, which are numbers that every companionship can reach every week. He came up with it through Prayer and Revelation of course. When we went to the Temple, part of the Temple trip was to recommit ourselves. Recommit ourselves to the Lord Personally, but also to the Mission's Standards of Excellence.

So even though the Numbers in the Standard are pretty high, that's what Elder Leimgrub and I have planned and set as goals for this week! And tell you what... When you thouroughly plan, you can see miracles happen! The Lord helps you out! We spent so much time and effort planning that we have been able to pretty much see how we are going to reach those goals! I am excited for this week!"

"Being at the Temple was so good! I just loved it! I love the feeling of being there! It's like being at home! You forget about all the worries outside of the building. And the Silence in the Celestial Room <3 Love it!

There was so much peace inside of me after that endowment session! But as soon as we stepped out of the Temple doors, there were kids running around, playing with the pond's water and getting each other wet, etc. SPIRIT WAS OUT OF THERE! :("

 

New bikes!

"Because of our new bikes and our "AMAZING" helmets, the ammount of abuse we get has now SKYROCKETED! hahaha! And the other day, as we were riding past quite a dodgy area, three kids started throwing stones at me! :O Thankfully they all missed me because just like with Samuel the Lamanite I am being protected but it was scary! In the space of 30 seconds in that street I nearly got stoned, a kid aimed his nerf gun at me, some men called us "Jehova" and shouted at us saying we wouldn't get anyone, a kid called us "Mormons" and started blaspheming, and a lady in a car shouted through her window "Get a life!" with some swearing in between. It was rather scary... but it also gave us something to laugh about at night! xD

Our Zone leaders, whenever we tell them about crazy things like that, say to us: "Have you thanked God yet?"

You see, it is believed that if we face a lot of opposition is because we are getting close and Satan is not happy. Elder Leimgrub and I like to think like this: Every time someone shouts abuse at us, threatens us, or it starts raining, we get wife points and our future wives get prettier! So expect me to marry an absolutely gorgeous woman once I get back home! ;) hahaha!"

Elder Pereira will have the opportunity to go to the temple this week and he is very excited about it! Two of the investigators made it to church on Sunday which also made him very happy!