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.