The end of the World hasn't arrived!! ;)

"Looks like the end of the World still hasn't arrived! But if I am honest, I am not too surprised! It kind of makes me feel invicible though! In my lifetime I have survived the Year 2000, Swine Flu, the Rapture and now the End of the World according to the Mayan Calendar! And I am not even 20 yet! I have to admit though, it does sort of make life more interesting!

Now onto things that really matter! It's Christmas time! How exciting! I truly have had a great week, and now I am looking forward to this week to strengthen our relationships with members, speak to my family back at home, and play some games!

I really enjoyed the Christmas training at the Mission Home! I had no idea what we were going to do!In the Wrekin District, none of us has had a Christmas while on our Mission yet, so I couldn't even really ask anyone what usually happens. I loved it!
I enjoyed doing the mini Preach My Gospel chase! It looks like my Scripture Chase skills are slightly rusty! I need to start practising properly! I really hope that during this Christmas Season, as we work and go from place to place, that we can find many people that we can render service to and help them learn about the Gospel.

I also really enjoyed the Zone Leader's training. I completely agree with what they said about Obedience and Pride. As our Harvesters say, Everything is underpinned by Obedience! However, just knowing about that does not make it easy to be obedient to every guideline and rule that we have. I really want to make sure that I am as obedient as I can possibly be though. The reason why we have Law is so God can bless us according to our Obedience, and not just us, but also those around us.

What I love about the Gospel, the Plan of Salvation and the Atonement, however, is that we can improve, always! When I went to EFY in 2010, one of my favourite songs had really great lyrics! My favourite part is where it says that "Mistakes of the past don't define you, they refine you" - I am excited for this new year!  I want to bring to pass many things out of my own free will. I want to accept counsel and commandments with a glad and willing heart. In short, I want to serve the Lord with all my Heart, Might, Mind and Strength that at the last day I may stand blameless before God.

We had such a great Sabbath yesterday!
First, the chapel was FULL! Instead of the usual 70 people in Sacrament Meeting, we had about 110! How incredible is that?! A lot of members got their family and friends to come to Church for the Nativity and Carol Services, many of which were Less Active Members and Non-members! After the Meetings there was a Munch and Mingle where I got to talk to some of these Friends of ours! There was a couple that had been to Portugal on holiday so it was easy to get a conversation going with them! And I also had a really good conversation with a lady whose daughter is a member. Apparently, that lady and the daughter still keep in contact with the missionaries that taught and baptized her! I love Missionary work!"

Great week... planting lot of seeds!!

"This has been such a great week! I really enjoyed it and had a great time!
This week I had another opportunity to go on exchange with my great friend Elder Coomes! I am always excited to serve with Elder Coomes as we were in the same District at the MTC, and so, our friendship, trust and faith just makes us see 1000s of miracles!

On Tuesday, our first day together, we spoke to a lot of great people! We were working in an area here in Shrewsbury called Sutton. We were tracting there, and guess what! We didn’t have a single door shut on our faces. In fact, everyone that we spoke to we were able to have a Gospel Conversation with. If our maths was right, we had about 25 quality gospel conversations in the space of an hour or so. I loved it! Even though we weren’t able to get any return appointments, we were able to plant a lot of seeds!

As we were approaching a car that had just pulled into the drive way, the phone rang so I took the call while Elder Coomes approached the man. Turns out that when Elder Coomes first spoke to him, the man actually swore at him and said he’d had a terrible day at work. Elder Coomes asked if there was anything that he could do to help at all, the man’s heart was immediately softened. By the time I actually joined in the conversation the was already smilling and having a great conversation with Elder Coomes.

Also, as we were street contacting in town, we met a lady. The Spirit completely guided our conversation with her. We were able to quickly find out about how she had lost her daughter and her brother, and her marriage had broken up, and how she had turned to Alcohol for comfort. We were able to tell her that she has a Heavenly Father who loves her and knows how strong she is. We gave her the hope that she can see her daughter again and be with her. As we prayed with her, I just felt so much peace and love from Heavenly Father. Hopefully as we visit her, she will want to learn more about the Gospel and take the necessary steps she needs to take to bring her life in harmony with Christ’s teachings.

On Wednesday we also saw a great Miracle together! We were once again Street Contacting. We were making our way to the flat to have some lunch. I just felt impressed to speak to a lady who was walking past us, so I did. She told us that she didn’t believe in God, but she believed in a life after this one. She told us that the only thing anyone can believe in is themselves. We told her about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon, but she told us she thought it was all false and that we could not convert her. As a final try, I bore my testimony of the Book of Mormon. I told her that I know life is not easy. I haven’t gone through the same things as she has, but that as a missionary, life is not easy either! Sometimes things happen, or people do things that demoralize us or just brings us down, but because of the Book of Mormon I have been able to find that Courage to keep going despite what everyone else says or does, because I know that I have a loving Heavenly Father. The lady, then said that maybe what she needs in her life is that courage, to what I said “We can help you with that! When can we come see you tomorrow?” She set up an appointment with us and she was in waiting for us and everything! :D"

District meeting and exchange!!

"So the week started with a great District Meeting from Elder Bunker! I loved it! He is such a great District Leader! I love how humble Elder Bunker is as he teaches the district, and yet at the same time, he is so knowledgeable. The most amazing think is that he already is such a great example of what a missionary should be like, and he is not even a year old!

After the District Meeting I was on an exchange with Elder Watts until Thursday morning. It was really nice to see how he works! He is definitely himself as he speaks to people! In fact, I was able to learn a couple of “tricks” from him to get people to stop and chat before introducing the gospel! It’s fool-proof! Whenever I use them, people always stop for long enough to have a conversation (even if only for about 10 seconds)

We were able to see quite a few miracles together. Last week I had been looking through the Formers in the Area Book and decided to try by a couple of them.

We also spoke to a Jehova’s Witness, and his next door neighbour. Because he was walking his dog, Elder Watts ended up speaking to him while I spoke to his neighbour. We both had really good conversations though! The lady I was speaking with has a son and has gone through some hard times in her previous relationship – that is the reason why she doesn’t believe in God. I pointed out to her that she was a lot stronger due to the experiences she went through, and her eyes kind of changed, almost as if she hadn’t realised that God HAD answered her prayers, but in his own time. I shared with her my testimony of how God answers prayers in his own time, and shared about how reading the scriptures helps me through tough times. The change in her eyes and face made it obvious that the Holy Ghost was working within her.

As for the JW what interests him in his religion is that, in his own words, “we are persecuted! In some countries we aren’t even allowed to speak to people!” I think that once he watches Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration he will realise that Jesus Christ’s real Church on the Earth has suffered even more persecution, as Satan really does not want anyone to know about the truth."

Power of prayer... I love miracles!!

"Although we had a bit of a rough week, it wasn't without miracles or positive events.

Going to the Temple was really refreshing for me. There is just so much peace inside that building! I love to do Endowments! But I have to admit that most of the time, what I am looking forward to, is that peace, quiet and love which can only be felt in the Celestial room. As I think about my feelings and desires, it also makes me think of it as a type for what life is truly about.
As we go through the temple we are reminded of what it feels like to live with our Heavenly Father, it increases our desire to return back to Him. As we go about our lives, there is nothing that we want more than to feel that sense of belonging that come from feeling God's love. Although we have ups and downs, joy or pain, what we cannot wait for is the love, peace and quiet that we will feel when we return to Heavenly Father one day.
I think that one of the reasons why the Temple had to be built, aside from the fact that in there we receive saving ordinances, is that God wants us to keep on having high hopes. He wants to remind us of why we are here, and where we are meant to get to.
I love the temple so much!

The other miracle is something that I am actually quite glad it happened as it didn't actually start as a miracle.
You see, after going to the Temple, the trains to Shrewsbury were all messed up and so we ended up staying the night in Crewe. That was a very long and cold night! I kept waking up because I was cold and because I was sleeping on an armchair. The following day, due to such a terrible night, I was in a bit of a grumpy mood, had a headache, and could not wait for 10:30pm to arrive so I could get to bed.
As we were street contacting, I approached a man in the nicest way possible despite how I felt, however the man took offense for some reason and started cursing at me. Because I was slightly annoyed I was annoyingly persistant even though I knew perfectly that he wouldn't accept the Gospel. After I left the man I just felt anger and tiredness. I'd let the natural man take over, and for that I felt terrible. I felt horrible for the way that I had acted! Whenever I wasn't talking to someone I'd be praying for forgiveness. At night, during my personal prayer I also added the plea that if I ever met the man again, that I would remember him and have the courage to apologise to him.
On Thursday, I was on exchange with Elder Bunker and we had a great day. We spoke to a lot of people and were having a lot of fun. At 9pm, as we were making our way to the flat, Elder Bunker stopped man ahead of us in the middle of a tunnel even though it was dark and noisy. When I finally got close to them, I realised that the man Elder Bunker was trying to speak to was the man who I had enfuriated the day before. God gave me my chance to apologise to him, so I took that chance. After all of that, it felt like a big weight had been lifted off my shoulders! The man actually told me he forgave me and even shook my hand - something he had denied to do the day before.
I just love the power of prayer SO MUCH! I love Miracles!

I am excited for this week! I am hoping to see a lot of changes happen."

Crazy tranfer's week!

"I realised at the beginning of this last week that all the District Leaders I’ve had so far have gone home! What a scary thought! Just shows how quickly a mission goes! But now that I have Elder Bunker as my District Leader, I know he will be here until two transfers before I go home!

Elder Desir and I had a great weekend! We have been trying to be more ourselves, and try different ways of doing missionary work.

On Saturday, we played some basketball with a recent convert and a load of his friends. They are all from the Philippines, and are really nice. Most of them had also met missionaries before in the Philippines so they kept asking us “Do you speak Tagalog? Because the missionaries in the Philippines do, and they are really good at it!” It was fun. We are hoping to play again with them this week, and while one of us plays, the other will be sitting down and teaching whoever else is sitting down. All of them also have families, so we really want to get teaching them and their families! It would definitely help the ward here in Shrewsbury to grow!

Then yesterday (Sunday) we had tea at our Italian Investigator’s home! There are ALWAYS other people there too! Now, everyone there was catholic besides us 2… But I think we did pretty well! At one point they were arguing about the big Cathedrals that the Catholic Church has, some of them agreed that they were necessary and some of them thought they were pointless. The investigator's son, asked us if we had any big buildings, and what our view was about it. I explained about how just like in the times of the Old Testament we have Temples, the House of the Lord – we even showed them pass along cards of the Salt Lake and the Preston Temples – and that the reason why they are so beautiful is because as an offering to the Lord from us, we build it with the best materials we can. The investigator then asked us if we really thought that God wanted such a building, so we used the Bible to reply to her question. I mentioned about how Jesus Christ, during his Ministry, drove the money changers out of the Temple because it was his Father’s house, and so we know for a fact that it is something that is important to God.

It was great! Whenever they were talking, there were multiple conversations going on at once, however, when we spoke, there was absolute silence, and it was almost unnerving to speak up because of how much silence there was!

When we were leaving, the investigator told us that she would like to come to our church in two weeks as she has never been to a “Mormon Church” before but ‘…would like to know what it is all about”.

This week should be really amazing! We are packed with things to do today – from spending time with one of the Priests, to an appointment-packed evening tonight – then there is the temple tomorrow!

Elder Desir and I are so excited to go to the Temple! It’s been so long since we have last gone in! I miss it so much! And now I definitely have a LOT more questions to take in with me than last time!

Can’t wait to feel of that Spirit and Love which can only really be felt at the Temple."

Staying in Shrewsbury with..... Elder Desir! :)

"What a wonderful surprise to be serving with Elder Desir for another transfer!

On Monday, after transfer calls, we went out to do some finding. What a wonderful day it was! We decided to pray and ask God to lead us to families. As we were street contacting, this man walked past us, with earphones in his ears, and Elder Desir spoke to him. We found out that he actually had a partner and 2 daughters. As we kept speaking to him, he told us that it would be a huge feeling of happiness to know that he could be with his family forever, and he set up an appointment with us, for the very same day. We taught a really wonderful Restoration lesson to him and his family. He accepted to read the book of Mormon and pray about it, and he told us he wants to read the whole book before we go over again. Thankfully he is a quick reader, so he told us he will have finished reading it in the next two weeks! We will keep popping by though just to see if we can help him receive the Restored Gospel into his life ASAP.

Praying for families has definitely been a huge help this last week! We have been seeing a lot of success from it! Prayer is the best thing ever! So simple, and yet so powerful! Elder Desir and I are really excited for this transfer, and we know that some good things will happen here in Shrewsbury!

I love being here in Shrewsbury! The people we work with are great! I love them to bits! And so does Elder Desir. I think that is one of the reasons why we have such great expectations for this transfer! These people will feel our love, and hopefully we will be able to feel their love too!

I am so excited to go to the temple next week! I miss it so much! It is such a special feeling to be inside it and feel of God’s love for us. Cannot wait!"

I love being a missionary!

"I love being a missionary so much! You just see so many miracles! It’s wonderful! Let me tell you about a couple of miracles we were able to see today!

So, on Wednesda, we had about 30mins to do some proselyting before our flat inspectors came to see how our flat was looking, so we decided to go out, into town – which we never do as town is always too crowded of “busy” people. Anyway, it was evening time, so there weren’t as many people out!

As we were walking through town, I saw a young man, with really long hair, Punk-ish look who looked sort of familiar, and both Elder Desir and I were certain we’d spoken to him before. However, I decided to approach him anyway as there is nothing wrong with a second chance! Turns out we had never actually spoken to him before. We had a really nice conversation with him about the Gospel. As we were trying to set up an appointment, Elder Desir said “I am sure you are very busy…” to which he replied “Not really… I have about 10 more minutes…” We were both shocked! But of course took this opportunity to sit on a bench and teach him the First Lesson. He was GOLDEN! He understood the need for baptism, and when I felt inspired to do so, I invited him to follow the example of Jesus Christ which he accepted! The only sad thing about it: He is from Yorkshire. We left him with a copy of the book of Mormon which he actually asked for, and a pamphlet of the Restoration. I am very confident that he will read and pray about it.

The second Miracle that amazed me happened on Friday. After we got out of the house, as we were going up the road, a man crossed the road to meet with us. So I approached him and told him about our message. He told us that we’d tried speaking to him before, but he’d been having a miserable day so just brushed us off, however, as we were walking in the same direction, we could share with him our message."

We ended up walking with him all the way to his house, he invited us in, we sat down and shared with him about our message, and before we left we set up a return appointment. He is a Baptist and so he kept asking us about being saved by grace and not works. He also spoke about the dead not having a second chance after this life, and when we mentioned 1 Corinthians 15:29, he said that he had never come across that scripture before.

 

I love being a missionary and meeting so many different and nice people! It’s one of the things I love most! Shrewsbury Ward truly is a great Ward! I love it! The members are really nice, and they really like the missionaries. There is nothing I love more than when members and missionaries work together!"

Following the promptings of the Spirit!

"What a week it has been!

It started with an exchange with Elder Coomes on Tuesday through to Thursday. Elder Coomes and I really had a great time! That was the third opportunity to serve with someone from my MTC group while out here in the field. What made it even more special was the fact that Elder Coomes and I were actually in the same MTC District! We were able to see a couple of Miracles while we were together, as well as some hard times, but I loved every single second of serving with him.

First Miracle was on Wednesday while we were finding. We were tracting a road, up to the point where we actually had knocked at all the houses on the left side. Also, we were running short on time as we had an appointment in 30mins. However, as I looked to the right, the last door jumped out at me and I thought “maybe we should try one last door…” Now, something that Elder Matute taught me, is that if we give ourselves time to rationalize, we will ignore promptings of the spirit and say they were our own thoughts, so as soon as I thought that – to try one last door- I did what Elder Matute told me to do, I turned to Elder Coomes and said straightaway “Let’s try one last door!”

What a miracle it was to follow that prompting! When we knocked at the door, a man opened the door and invited us into his house. He introduced us to his family and invited us to sit down in his living room. We had a very chat with this great man and his wife, and although they were not interested at all, it was a great opportunity to share our testimonies and invite them to get even closer to Jesus Christ.

The second miracle came on Thursday. It was about 2pm and we hadn’t had a single QGC yet! Everyone was being really rough with us. Throughout the morning, I’d at times thought to myself “Perhaps we should pray…” so I brushed that thought aside. However, when we finish tracting half the street we were on, in my head the thought “Pray!” just kept on popping up. So I told Elder Coomes we needed to pray. We moved onto a quieter street and quickly prayed for Faith to see miracles, and love for the people we were going to speak with.

After our prayer, we knocked at a door and a lady opened it. We had a great QGC with her, and we set up an appointment with her for next Thursday! She is married and has a daughter. Before we left, she also asked us if we had a Book of Mormon that we could lend to her, so Elder Coomes gave her his last copy.

I love the power of Prayer! I know that there was a reason why I was being prompted to pray. Maybe if we had not prayed we would have knocked at this lady's door expecting rejection, or maybe she wouldn’t have felt the love from her Heavenly Father as we spoke to her. Whatever the reason it was why we had to pray, I know that it was inspired of God, and that it increased both mine and Elder Coomes’ testimony of Prayer!

During our Companion Study, Elder Desir and I have been talking a lot about the fundamental “The Role of the Holy Ghost in Conversion”. I really believe that that is one of the most crucial fundamentals there are. We may be the best at quoting the First Vision with a lot of feeling! But if we have not the Spirit with us, or if the investigator does not feel the Spirit, nothing is being taught to the Heart of the Investigator.

We visited a Part Member family in the evening. They are from Romania, and so the lessons with them are usually a bit of a process as we try not to get lost in translation. We were able to recognize and rely on the Spirit as we taught about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The wife told us, in her broken English, that she wants to make a change as she has seen the blessing that the Gospel has been on her husband, but first she wants to read and know that the Book of Mormon is true. I love weeks like this! I love it when it becomes so easy to see Miracles even though there are also a lot of trials about! I love how much the Gospel changes people’s lives. I can’t wait for this brother to see his dream (his wife and son being baptised) come true."

Bit of a different week!

"This week was very different from the usual! Why? Because I pretty much was on a week long exchange! :S

On Monday we had a pretty normal P-Day. Tuesday was when we started our exchange! Elder Tellem and Elder Coomes came to Shrewsbury for us to start the exchange. We all had lunch together, and Elder Tellem and I left to Wrekin. When I was in Wrekin I had a bit of a surprise... Why? Because Wrekin is actually in the town of Telford. Does that name sound familiar at all? Well, it didn't to me until I got to the town centre and I saw the "International Centre" or whatever where we went to watch Carina's Cheerleading Competition! :O Haha! It was so strange to be walking around there! xD But, their chapel there is BEAUTIFUL! :O Anyway. On Tuesday night I had my first opportunity while out here in the field to bear my testimony to a portuguese man! Tuesday night was a bit of a crazy night to do proselyting! :/ We literally met every kind of person: Very nice military man who thanked us for what we do, crazy drunk lady shouting at us and threatning to throw a picture frame at us, polish man who could only swear in english, a crazy man, etc.

The members however are great! I only had the chance to meet a couple, but apparently a high percentage of the ward are RMs and they are so good at helping the missionaries out! The ones that I met were super nice! :) Wednesday was a bit of a wasted day really... We had to stay in from 3:30 till 5:30 waiting for the plumber to arrive and fix the shower. :/ In the end we had to get permission for a member to stay at the flat there and wait for the plumber. Apparently he only arrived at 6pm in the end (almost 3 hours late), and he only left at 8:50! How mad is that?! On thursday we made our way back to Shrewsbury for Weekly Planning. After weekly planning I went out with the DL again. and we worked until 9pm. Elders Tellem and Coomes stayed over the night and then we all travelled down to Manchester together. We had to wake up at 5am -_-' Soooooooo early! haha But it was worth it!

 

Zone Conference

So, the missionaries all got inside the chapel and sat down reading the scrips until Pres Preston and Pres Kearon arrived.

Pres Kearon spoke a lot about not being Robots, and how we should be ourselves. The whole reason why we have PMG is so we are no longer robotic but are natural instead. I thought it was a great training! We should be able to pick up on the things people are telling us to befriend these people.

 

On Saturday we finally exchanged back!

 

But yesterday, Sunday, we had our talks! There were 3 speakers. Elder Desir, Sister Jones and myself. All three of us got 10 minutes assignements. This is how it went. Elder Desir did a great talk on Loyalty and Dependability. He linked it to Basketball, and said that we have to be loyal to our Coach so that on Game day we will be ready to suit and he can call upon us and trust us. I really liked it! And he opened it up with a great joke which made everyone laugh: "Since I have been with Elder Pereira, he keeps telling me how terrible I am at spelling... He caught me out again yesterday when I wrote 'Armaggedon'... But come on! It's not the end of the world!" Everyone loved it! :) He did his talk in 11 minutes.

Sister Jones she had four pages to read out! :O Mine and Elder Desir's first thoughts, that's going to be one long talk! I only had a page with bullet points, and he only had two written out pages... Turns out she was done in 4 minutes. I still cannot believe the speeds she was speaking at! :O It was quite impressive :P hahahaha

And then it came my turn... I ended up speaking for about 14 minutes. Church can't just end 10 mins early :P haha I spoke about Kindness. Try giving a talk on that! :/ Haha But I think it went pretty well! At the end I was like "My invitation today is for you to examine yourselves and set goals that can help you develop kindness. One way that you can do that and that I can think about is by feeding the missionaries. That would be very kind. ;)" I think I did actually wink... hahaha!"

Shrewsbury is gorgeous!

"Oh my days! I love Shrewsbury so much! xD

Miracle Tuesday

Last Tuesday was SUCH a miracle day! Wow! So, the average QGCs/Appointments here in shrewsbury is 10/2. However, on Tuesday we were on FIRE! We had 19/5/3? I think that was it! :D Wow! Such an amazing day!

The last "3" were people we taught on the Spot. It was incredible! 2 of them were in the morning between 11 and 12. We went out and everyone we spoke to was incredible! But yeah! This week we have a few appointments set up, so it should be GOOOOOOOOOOD! :D

Zone Conference

This week we had the Newcastle Zone Conference! :D I love Zone conference so much!Because they aren't really a "Lesson", they are more of a council. We all gather in a semi circle, and even though there is someone who has prepared a training/instruction, we all participate. Something that I have been able to learn from the APs is that "when the spirit gives us a thought, it often is not for us, it is for someone else in the room", and because of that I always try to participate as much as possible! :) I know that mum now is probably thinking "Bless him, he probably speaks twice and he thinks he participates a lot!" Well, it's not like that! haha In fact, the other day I was talking to Elder Desir about how I used to be quite shy back at home and he said "Shy? You're not shy. You may be a little reserved, but youre not shy. And if you were back at home, you've been able to overcome that." So yeah, you better be proud of me! ;) hahaha

During the zone conference we also had an interview with President Preston. When I got to the office he was in, he was like:

"Haha! Elder Pereira, I love your letters! Do you keep a journal?" "Yes" "I thought so... but let me ask you, how much time do you spend writing to me?" "About 30-40 mins" "Elder Pereira, I give you permission to write to your family and just send me the same email you send to them. You are spending too much time writing to me!" - Hahahaha! xD I thought that was pretty funny :P But I am still going to write to him individually, because he is my Mission President, he deserves that! :)

Terrible Close to our Wednesday

Our Wednesday didn't end so well though. :/ We had an appointment with our dated Investigator. We confirmed the appointment earlier that day with him and everything, for 8pm. His girlfriend wouldn't go because she had a bad back, he said he would be there but he wasn't. The next day we tried to call his girlfriend to see if she'd be there at church and he was shouting "I AM SMOKING A CIGARETTE!" :'( It's so sad! And the biggest problem is that his girlfriend has been baptised, but her boyfriend has a hold on her so she isn't coming to church or meeting with us now. :( :/

 

Sunday

I love Sundays! And yesterday was one of the best Sundays ever! I'll start from the beginning!

It was Primary Presentation day! :D What a laugh xD hehehehehe I love how something always goes wrong! xD One of the kids didn't want to read his scripture or whatever so he pretended to be asleep xD And then there was a kid that would only whisper and so you coulnt hear anything. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much fun!

I also got to pass the sacrament with the YMs President, and his son, the Deacon's Quorum President .

After church, we went around a Ward family for dinner. They live about 20mins away from the church by car. However, we biked there... And it was all uphill... And if that wasn't bad enough, the bearings on my bike broke so I couldn't pedal. -_-' So we locked our bikes to a post and started walking. Now, to get to their house, we had to walk through a rocky road. The problem was that it had rained the day before and so there were massive puddles from one side of the road to the other and so we were stuck. -_-' haha! So we called the family and told them everything that happened, and the brother came to pick us up.

The dinner was a good ol' Sunday Roast! :) YUM! And for dessert we had Lemon Merangue (???) and ice cream. It was really nice! :) When they asked me about Portuguese food I of course mentioned fish! Especially jaquinzinhos. Their different reactions were hilarious! xD The parents were like "Wow! That sounds delicious. The son and the little girl just kind of looked at me in unbelief. And one of the daughters and Elder Desir were just like "You ate the head?! Even the eyes?! That is disgusting!" xD hahahahahahaha! xD

The lesson was pretty good too! :D Although I am still very quiet at the dinner table, during teaching situations I feel at home, and I just kept making the whole family laugh which was great! :D Their family kind of reminds me of ours when we had missionaries over! :) It was good! I wish they lived closer so we could go over more often! :)"

Week 1 in Shrewsbury!

"Wow! It is so weird to be in Shrewsbury and not Barrow! I was so used to being there already, I knew where EVERYTHING was, where everyone lived, it was great! Here, however, I am always lost! :O

Shrewsbury Ward

The Shrewsbury Ward is great! They were all so warm and welcoming to me! So nice! :) The ward has around... 50 members I'd say. A lot bigger than Barrow! The Gospel Priciples class is great! There were about 10 of us in the room. The Ward Mission Leader teaches the class and he is a hilarious man! Such a good WML! :)

The youth love us missionaries and so they always give us sweets! WOOOOO! :D haha It's the best! :) 

Elder Desir and I keep having a laugh!

Oh my days! It's been HILARIOUS! Seriously! It seems that every day something happens that just makes us laugh for the rest of the day!

Thursday - We were tracting and we weren't being very successful. At one point we were talking to an older gentleman who wanted to close the door, but wouldnt because we kept asking him questions. When we saw it was pointless, Elder Desir asked "Who do you know that would like to be with their family forever?" "No one" "Would YOU like to be with your family forever?" - As soon as he said that, a woman which we didn't know was in the house starts bursting out laughing! xD And Elder Desir can't control himself and laughs aswell! xD So I just tried to keep serious and said "Well... I hope you have a nice evening..." As the man closed the door, we laughed for about 5 mins xD

Friday - We were doing street contacting down a hill, facing incoming traffic. I saw a lady on a bike and tried to stop her, but she said "If I stop...*running out of breath* I won't be able to start again!" LOL!

Saturday - we had just been doing finding with a YM from the ward, and got a lift from his dad back into town, we get out of the car and each one of us tries to speak to someone. The man I approached ignored me, the girl Elder Desir approached stopped:

E.D."We are sharing a message about how families can last forever even after this life, but what would that mean to you?"

Girl "*laughs* That's crazyyyyy..."

E.P. "Wouldn't you like to be with your loved ones forever though?"

Girl "Of course!"

E.D. "Could we share this message with you right now?"

Girl "Ummm... I'm on my way to break up with my boooyfriend..."

Elder Desir gets super confounded

Girl "But... I could give you my number I guess..."

E.D. "Yeah... Uh... Well... Uh..." *he starts taking the phone out and puts it back in his pocket, takes the planner out but puts it back too

E.P. "Ok, if I give you our number, do you have credit to ring us so we have your number?"

Girl "yeah..."

It was HILARIOUS! xD What a timing we have! :P

 

Sunday - We approach an older gentleman and he says to us "It's ok lads, I'm already with British Gas" :S :L haha!

I am actually loving to serve here! And my District Leader is great! So funny! His name is Elder Tellem, and he is actually a friend of Annabel's! :)"

 

Hello from... Shrewsbury!!

"It is true, I have been moved :'( How sad! I had grown to love Barrow so much that I was actually quite sad to be leaving! I would never have guessed I'd be sad 2 trasnfers ago :P haha

Shrewsbury is in the Newcastle zone (Stake) and it is such a pretty town! :D THERE'S A CASTLE!!!! But yeah... ;) haha

As for my new companion......

It

is

...

ELDER....

DESIR!

As in THE Elder Desir! How weird/fun is that?! :D I'll explain how everything happened.

First of all, Transfer calls are on Mondays with the whole Zone. That's the only time you find out if you are getting moved really unless you are training, follow-up training or becoming a leader.

Well, on Sunday Morning while we were doing our Personal Study we received a call from the Mission Home, from President Preston because he wanted to speak to Elder Matute. And then President Preston asked to speak to me.

"Hello Elder Pereira! What did you think of the announcement at General Conference last night, etc... As you probably heard, I called to extend an invitation to Elder Matute to train a new missionary. That means you will be moving from Barrow. And I'd like to extend you an invitation as well. I would like to invite you to Follow-up train Elder Desir in Shrewsbury, Newcastle Zone" :O :O :O "Do you accept the invitation?" Uhhhh... Of course President (I reminded myself of Elder Al-Jamal xD)

So yes... I've been made senior :/ And am follow-up training Elder Desir - that means this is his 2nd transfer.

I didn't think I'd be made senior this soon! Now I need to be more diligent and hard working!

I've only been here for about 18 hours, but I've already had Ward Correlation Meeting. SO GOOD. The Ward Mission Leader is AMAZING! Seriously, he gets things done! OH YEAH! I am so excited to have a good Ward Mission Leader! :D I haven't met many members yet, but the ones I've met are so nice! :D I love it already, seriously.

 

General Conference

OH MY GOODNESS! :O

When President Monson made that Historic announcement, we LITERALLY jumped out of our seats and were like "NO WAY! NO WAY! NO WAY! :O :O :O" We couldn't believe it!

There were SO many amazing talks! I loved it! Even though it was really weird to miss the very last session - and yes, that means I didn't get to hear from Elder Bednar :'(

But oh my days. Elder Holland's talk. WOW! Such an amazing talk! He had done a very similar talk for missionaries and Mission Presidents titled "Feed My Sheep", but this time he focused mainly in Peter. Wow. I was just amazed. If you look at my notes, everything looks really neat and tidy like this email, but then, BAM!

DO YOU LOVE ME?

So yes, I did love that talk. :)

I also really enjoyed Pres Eyring's talk about the Gifts of the Spirit. I have been studying about them, so that really helped me! :D And Pres Monson's talk in Priesthood "The responsibility is upon us, Brethren. *motions towards EVERYONE*" Oooooo. :/

Elder Uchtdorf's talks were so good as well "Dear, this is a journey, not a race! Enjoy the moment!" Hehehehehe xD hahaha! Love it!

But yes! Such an amazing GenConf! It was all about Families and Missionary work though! :O

And oh yeah! Raquel, are you too thinking about going on a mission?! :O - President Preston asked me to tell that if you are, you should write down you'd like to come to the EMM xD haha! :)"

Service... Cultural differences!

"Service Friday!

We went around a member's home to give her some service. We painted her kitchen walls. After Service, I showed my family pictures to the sister and Elder Matute jokingly said, pointing to Raquel, "That's my future wife!" (It's a joke, as missionaries, to want to marry each other's sisters) to which Sister Kennyon replied "I don't think she'd like you"... :S haha OUCH! :P Hahaha.

But yeah, and as if that wasn't insulting enough, we kept talking about marriage and then she turned to us and said "You two keep talking about marriage, but what if no one wants to marry you?" BAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I just found it hilarious :P

But yeah... That was service on Friday!

Cultural differences!

Elder Matute was texting one of our investigators on the other day, and she sent an "x" at the end of the text. For Elder Matute (in Spanish) that means "Why?", "how?", etc. So he replied with a super ridiculous text! xD it was hilarious! I laughed so much! When I told him that an "x" was a kiss, he got so embarrassed xD hahahaha!

 

Right now

Well, I am going to be honest, but mum, if you go into ultra protective mum mode, I won't be able to be honest again! ;) haha I have a cold at the moment and so we werent able to go out and work last night :( Nights have been pretty horrible, but, I feel slightly better today! Thankfully I don't have a temperature though! :D Elder Matute has been great. He has made me soup, and other warm foods, keeps telling me not to wash the dishes, etc :P hahaha

But yeah... Im surprised my nose isn't super sore yet seeing as I have been blowing it so much :(

I am starving right now! Some things never change!;)"

The sleepy Ward member... Golden investigator and... Injured hand!

"The Sleepy Ward Member! :)

So, on Friday a member asked us to go do some service for him. So we did! We prayed all week for sun, and when Friday came around, it was the only Sunny day of the week! Woo! :)

What was the service he wanted from us? He wanted to rearrange his shed. He goes into his house to get his shed's key. Then he opened the shed door. All that was in the shed was one of those scooters for old people, 5 bags of Wheat and two bottles filled with some kind of pink liquid :S And all that he wanted us to do was take the scooter out, and then move the Wheat bags and the two bottles from one side, to the other. So service was done in like... 30mins? The only reason why it took so long was because there's a tree in front of the shed's door and so it was really hard to get the scooter out! haha! Anyway, he then was like, I just need to get something from the house, but go ahead and play a little bit on the scooter. We had SO much fun! xD They actually go quite fast! It's hilarious! haha! Everyone who saw us, looked at us like "Huh?!" haha :) But yeah, after the service he was like, come in, come in. As we sat down on the sofa, he picked up his laptop, turned it on, and while it was booting, he fell asleep :P haha! It was the first time it happened with Elder Matute so he couldn't stop laughing  Every now and then we'd say things to wake him up, but he'd go straight back to sleep! One time I said "have you found me on Mormon.org yet? and he was like "no" so he clicks the browser shortcut and... he was asleep! xD hahahaha

Golden Investigator

So, on Saturday we biked our way back to Dalton to do some tracting there. We were knocking on doors and either no one answered or they opened the door and said straightaway "Not interested!" :P BUT, we kept going! We couldn't lose the faith!

Then we knock at this door which has a glass window which distorts the images from the other side, so all that I could see was that a woman was coming to open the door. Usually, when it is a woman in her 30/40s I have a "database" of opening sentences that I use with them, usually to do with eternal families. However, when the door opened, it was a girl in her late teens. Darn. :P Suddenly I had to look for something new to say really quickly, and I'm not sure what I said. :/ But anyways, we started speaking to her about Jesus Christ and she said she was Christian and she goes regularly to church and stuff. We got onto introductions, and then we moved on to our unique message, the restoration and the BoM! So we asked her if she'd heard about the Book of Mormon before and she said "No, but I like the way Mormons think!" :O WHAT?! haha So we kept talking with her, she said that the only thing she didnt agree with Mormons is plural marriage. When we said it didnt happen anymore she was like "Good!" haha :)

But yeah, we set up an appointment with her for Thursday and she gave us her number, etc. She was so prepared! She also told us that her mum's husband was Mormon :S Less-active probably...

But anyway, on Sunday we realized that we never set a time with her! :O Such a deadly mistake! So we texted her and asked her if she could do it Thursday at 4pm. She said that yes, she could do it right after college, and then she asked "Can we do it at your chapel? I'd love to see it!" Oh my goodness! YES! :D Such a golden investigator! Not even kidding! :D

But yeah... Pray that the appointment will go ahead and that she will accept to read and pray about the BoM and Joseph Smith! :) And that she will accept to be baptized too! :)

My injured hand

Well... Now that is quite a story! :P Mum, just so you know, my hand is my only injury, and it's pretty much healed anyway! :) Don't call president about it :P hahaha! :)

So, after we finished tracting on Saturday, we decided to make our way back home, and try by a LA on the way through Dalton. We were on a hill, and so, as we were making our way down Dalton, our bikes got into a little bit of speed. Nothing that I couldnt control though! We are always going pretty quickly and I've always got my hand ready on the brake! :) However, we were on this curvy bit of road by the Train Station and what I didn't see, was that in the middle of the road was Horse Poo. Rubbish! :P so as I was turning, I saw the poop but it was too late already! :O My front wheel went through it alright but my back wheel skidded over it! So instead of going forward, my bike was going side ways! :O

Somehow though, I managed to jump off my bike before it hit the pavement :S I only had about 2 meters! And as I jumped, there was a "muro de pedra" which separated the road from the Train track. As I jumped off my bike I reached for the wall to stop myself and stay standing. Well, the wall was curved too, so although my left hand landed where I planned, my right hand kept going forward a bit more and got scratched by the wall. Elder Matute was ahead of me so he didnt even see it happening :P So I grabbed my bike and walked onto the bench nearby. As I was getting to the bench he appeared again. And because I was prepared, I had my 1st Aid kit with me! :) So I cleaned my hand, and put some Anti-septic on it! :) No plasters though. I don't like them! :P hahaha :) But yeah. The scratches have been keeping me up at night because i move my hand so much when i sleep, and it wakes me up because sometimes it gets caught on the bed :P haha But it's all good! :) I'll ride my bike more safely now! :P haha"

What a lovely week!

"What a wonderful week this has been! Seriously! Wow! I wish I could just like, share every single second of it with you! However, I do not think you want to know about my trips to the toilet, etc... ;) hahahahahaha! I bet you are now thinking "Oh boy. 4 months and he still hasnt changed" Sorry! But somethings never change! ;) hehehehehe!

Let's see.... THE BAPTISM!

So on Saturday we had Jenny's baptism! :D At about 10:20, people started turning up. There were about 20 members there! :D How sweet is that?! At about 10:25 Jenny got there, got changed into white, and so did we. She had asked me to baptize her, and Elder Matute had to go in the water because Jenny and her family wanted two people to help her.

Oh yeah, by the way, Elder Leimgrub wasn't able to come :( Barrow is too far from Stockport, and it would also have been too expensive :( But it's ok, it was jenny's day, not mine or Elder Leimgrub's.

We took a couple of pictures (waheyy!) and then the service started. It was one of the smoothest Baptismal Meetings I've been in.

When we went in the font I was quite nervous that she'd fall. She is reaching the end of her life, and they got told they'd know that because she'd start losing her balance. That's why we had two people in the water.

Later on Saturday, Sister Kennyon called us and told us that Jenny had told her that apart from her daughters' birth, her baptism was the best day of her life! :D How sweet is that?! :D

On sunday, it was 10:30am and Jenny got confirmed as a member of the church and received the Gift of the Holy Ghost! :) In Gospel Principles she told us that "when you all put your hands on my head, I could feel warmth coming from you!" Sweeeeet! :D Such a great weekend! :)"

 

Busy busy week!

"On Thursday we had a tea appointment at a Ward sister's home. Her husband is a LA member who was probably only baptized because his wife made him be baptized long ago... He is always "insulting" us whenever we go round and calls us mormons, JWs, swears in front of us, puts his headphones on when we start talking etc... But Elder Matute and I decided we'd make him our friend :P So while he was watching TV during dinner, which is right above our heads (so we dont watch it), we started asking him questions about the Paralympics, whenever he insulted us we just laughed, etc... Eventually we asked him if he knew when the Wheelchair Rugby was on, and so he looked on the TV for us. It was yesterday on Sunday! :( We were very upset so we were like "We'll just watch the Semi-finals we guess...." and then... "I guess I could record it... and you could come over and we'd watch it together..." BAM! :D Haha! So on Wednesday we are going to go watch the Rugby with him xD haha! Love it! :P We are allowed to watch 90min of the Olympics.

 

Because of the last two weeks, I don't think I will be a gardnerer anymore when I get home.... I will be a Removals man! We've helped three families move homes in 3 weeks! :O How crazy is that?! :P

Earlier this week we had sort of a scary experience! :O As you know, one of our best friends as missionaries is our phone! We call members for fellowshipping, investigators to set up lessons, mission leaders for reporting every night, etc. Well, On Tuesday we went out for dinner and then we went teaching. When we got to the investigators we realized that we didn't have our phone with us. :/ We'd lost the phone! :O So we looked everywhere... and the phone was nowhere to be found. We had no idea what to do. :/ We were absolutely lost! After we taught the investigators, we went home and guess what... The phone was under a Primark bag on our table in the Living room xD Oops! xD hahahaha!

Now let's talk about Sunday! Jenny and the Kennyons were there for church and Jenny is now ready for baptism! :D Elder Chan will interview her tomorrow and her baptism will be Saturday at 10:30am. She is an elderly lady so she has asked for two people to be in the font baptizing her so she feels safe, and she really wants me and Elder Leimgrub to be the ones to do it. So yesterday I got to speak to Elder Leimgrub on the Phone! :D It was the best!"

Crazy week!

"You see, this is what happened. On Monday, a member from the Ward was moving home and asked help from the ward. Now, everyone in the ward is old so the only help that she could get was from us, the missionaries. We started at 11am and only finished at 3:45pm! We did our best to serve the people so we will be blessed! ;)"

"Last Friday, Elder Matute and I had quite an interesting adventure! Our Ward Mission Leader was feeling quite bad with Migraines and so he cancelled Correlation Meeting. We asked him if he would like a blessing, and eventually he agreed to it. The reason why he was a bit reluctant was because he lives quite far. He lives in a town called Dalton - check it on the map. But we went there on our bikes. Now, the distance even though it was quite far wasn't the worst... The worst thing was the fact that it was raining a lot! By the time we got to Dalton we were wet to our underwear... but we gave the WML the Blessing and made our way back to Barrow. It was raining even harder on the way back! It was mad! Now, it was 8:55pm and we were wet and cold we just wanted to go home. However, we still had 5mins of proselyting time so we decided to knock on one more door. We tried one door and no one answered. So we tried the door next to it. We had the most amazing conversation with this man who opened the door! He even prayed with us! :D Woooo! MIRACLE! :D
 

Then on Saturday we saw another Miracle! We decided to cycle back to Dalton, the WML was feeling better and we were going to have correlation meeting. But we got to Dalton 15mins early so we decided to do some tracting. As we started tracting we weren't seeing any success. The 8mins before our meeting started we knocked on a door, and this young man on his 20s answered the door. He is Irish and he is in the army, but as we started to talk to him we had a really good conversation and found out he had just had a baby - well... his wife did... you know what I mean! So we started to talk about how the Gospel blesses families and he accepted the Book of Mormon and gave us his details so we can call him. :D :D :D"

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!

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"