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!

A week full of miracles.

This was a week of many miracles for Elder Pereira.

"While I was on an exchange here in Barrow with one of the Zone Leaders, I was the Senior companion for the day, which meant I had to plan the whole day. During tea time, I was looking over our list of Potential Investigators, and I saw a girl who we met 3 weeks ago, that we never got to see. I really felt like we should go and try by her house! So we street contact our way there, and as we came onto the Street she lives in, there was a man on a bike coming out of a house. Elder Delaibatiki (he raplaced Elder Francis) called out to him and we ran over to him so we could talk to him. We ended up teaching him on the spot parts of the Restoration, and teaching him how to pray. He accepted to read the BoM and pray about it, and if he gets an answer to his prayer, he accepted to be baptized! :D But the biggest Miracle came later! When we asked him where he lived - we had set up an appointment with him - he gave us his address, which was the house he came out of, and guess what I realised... It was the same address as the girl's! :O I guess she is his wife or something!

Another Miracle that we saw was Saturday evening. Elder Leimgrub and I were on our way to an appointment and we saw that one of our investigator's door was opened and we both felt we should try by and invite her to church. So we did! She accepted to come to church! And yesterday she was there!! When we asked her what she thought of church, she told us she loved it! Woo! And then at night, when we taught her, she told us that she loved Church so much that she invited her son to come with her next week! :D"

 "We also had Multi-Zone Meeting!! I love that Training meeting so much! It's my favourite! We get training from President Preston, the Assistants and the Zone Leaders. President Preston taught us about Preach My Gospel, and using it to strengthen our areas and member relationships. He gave us a commitment to never enter a member's home without our copy of the Preach My Gospel, so that they start studying from it. So here's my commitment for you. Study from Preach My Gospel as a family on FHE! There's lots of exercises throughout the whole book. I promise you that your testimonies will be strengthened and you will receive a lot of personal revelation! I'm not trying to make you use PMG so you become member missionaries, that will come as a result of you truly understanding PMG, but it's just so that your studies of the scriptures become better! PMG is not Scripture, but it's pretty close! :)"

"I nearly died yesterday. TWICE. In the space of 5 seconds."

"So, after church, we went to the Bishop's home for dinner. It was us two, our Ward Mission Leader, and another member. Now, Elder Leimgrub and I walked to our home and then made our way to Bishop's.

During lunch, at Bishop's home, we were all having a chat and then suddenly I notice that Bishop and Elder Leimgrub keep looking at the WML, so I look at him and he's fallen asleep while eating! So I started laughing (I still can't control myself very well...) and woke him up because I didn't want his face to fall on the ketchup or anything. But yeah, he fell asleep while eating about 15 times. At one point he got some ice-cream from his bowl with a spoon and as he was bringing it up to his mouth, he fell asleep - I know, hilarious!

But yeah, we then went to the living room and he fell asleep on the member's shoulder and slipped down to his lap! xD

Elder Leimgrub and I were feeling super awkward because everyone fell asleep while watching a church video, so we told Bishop we had to go :P But then the other two woke up too and the WML was like: I'll give you a lift!

As a joke I asked Elder Leimgrub "Do you think it will be safe?" and he said "That's what I am wondering too..."

Well....

As we got on the car, he started driving, and then we got onto the main road when he noticed "Ah! My Disabled Parking Badge is still up!" so he decided to take it down.... How did he do that? By holding the steering wheel with his disabled hand and reaching for the badge with his left hand. Now, as he did this, he was looking at the badge! :O So we started drifting left onto Traffic Pillars! :O :O :O So Elder Leimgrub, the other member and myself were all like "WATCH OUT!!!!" Thankfully, he managed to swerve right before we all died, but only after the side mirror hit the pillars 3-4 times!

I started thinking "Pheww! I'm alive!" when I look up and realise we are drifting right... ONTO ONCOMING TRAFFIC!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O

Elder Leimgrub couldn't hold it in and just shouted "WATCH OUT!!!!!!" again! xD (Elder Leimgrub just saw what I wrote and said "What do you mean I "couldn't hold it"? We almost died!")

But yeah.... All that was in the space of about 5 seconds... So I relieved my life twice just yesterday! How sweet is that?! ;) hehehehe"

Elder Pereira is finally getting used to the weather up North, and says that he is so used to the rain that being wet is no longer a bother. 

End of first transfer.

Today was the end of Elder Pereira's first transfer and he's staying in Barrow with Elder Leimgrub! On Wednesday all the greenies had a training meeting with the Assistants and they were told about study journals and taught on some good ways to keep one, which Elder Pereira was happy to know more about as he is excited to learn more through this method.

Elder Pereira was also feeling very happy about a spiritual experience they had with an investigator and with the spiritual growth that was apparent in their investigators. Things became even better when some of the investigators attended church on Sunday.

But this week he had some "exciting news" to tell us:

"Now, for the exciting news!

Yesterday we got a call from the Assistants but couldnt pick it up, so they left a voice mail.

It was the new Assistant speaking and said something along the lines of:

Hello Elders! This is Elder *IDon'tKnowHisName* and this is a message for Elder Pereira! President has asked you that you start making preparations to take a Driving License for Automatic Cars! If you have any questions, just ring me back!

So yeah... I'm going to get a driving license! How weird is that?! haha

According to Elder Leimgrub's it means that I am super awkward and so President is going to send me to the Office... Hahahaha! But he also said that the Office is every missionary's dream... so whatever happens because of this license, I am happy! :D"