This week has been slower than most.. But still pretty good. I've had two workovers and a Zone Conference in London! Monday we went to Faversham to switch over with our Zone Lords-- I mean Leaders. I got to go to Ashford and drive there. It seems like I'm doing a lot more driving now.. It's interesting. I think I've gotten completely used to driving on the left side of the road and on the right of the car. I can barely even imagine driving back in the States. Which is a weird feeling. Anyway Tuesday was pretty good. I spent it with Elder Jensen and we got to see a few really cool people. Then when we switched back in the evening Elder Everitt and I had great success and were able to set a lot of appointments and see a few people! It was a really filled day. Wednesday we traveled into London (YES! I miss London..) for our Zone Conference and got to hear from President Jordan and from some stake presidents and some random people in the room. It was great. President Jordan gave us all a good little training on the bible and gave us a good background for that. And then we got started talking about how members can work closer with missionaries. It seems like a lot of the hype lately has been about how members need to start getting involved. It's the only way missionary can be as successful as it needs to be. All members need to do is serve and love one another. It starts within ones ward. On Sunday we had the Area Seventy come and talk to our ward and the other Gillingham ward at the same time for a special sacrament meeting and he admonished all the members to become more active in their ward. People can't just go through the motions and just go to church. They need to magnify their calling as best they can and fellowship with the other members. Then when investigators do come they'll feel the love that a ward has and want to be a part of it. Our stake president did a object lesson. In sacrament. He called the bishopric and the missionaries to stand with him at the front and sing the first verse of hymn 335. Then after wards he invited anyone who wanted to join in to come up. A few joined. About a third of the congregation. We sang the second verse. Then after that he invited everyone to come up and sing with him if they so desired. Almost everyone joined in and it was an amazing third verse. He said that missionary work is just like that. Strengthen the few and then bring your friends. And it just keeps building and becoming better. Thursday was another workover and Elder Piedade and I had a good day. We went and saw an interesting less active old man. Elder Piedade and I could not stop laughing for no reason! And the man thought we were hilarious and laughed as well. I think it brightened his day. Friday we baked cookies with the Rainham elders and then on Saturday played football in the pouring rain again and then on Sunday we went and dingdong doorbell ditched some members and left them cookies! It was great and they loved it. Oh and on Saturday we got to see a few of our investigators and we cooked for them! We made them quesadillas and they loved them! They had never heard of them. Now they keep asking us to make them American food.
This week's been pretty.. normal I guess. Not much to talk about.. My companion and I have been finding lots of things to laugh at, which is good. We've been teaching and inviting. It's been a good week! Monday we went and listened to Elder Zarse play some nice piano and played cards games and made nachos. Those were really good! Tuesday was actually really frustrating because we had to linger in or around our flat because the guy to fix our radiator was suppose to come and they say they'll be there between the hours of 12 and 5.. Pretty specific! So we ended up waiting around and he never came!! He actually showed up on Thursday which was a complete surprise. We're lucky we were eating lunch at the time. Oh the reason he had to fix our radiator was because I accidentally ripped it out of the wall.... We were looking at a map on the wall and I leaned on it and the leaned back while holding on and it just tore away! But not my fault- the wall was rubbish and old. Wednesday we had to get our car serviced so we ended up having Elder Everitts first driving lesson!! I might've been scared for my life.. He was used to driving on the other side of the car so he got us really really close to the edge of the road and into some posts. But luckily we survived! Later on in the evening we had an appointment with a part member family and invited their little 12 year old girl (she lives with her nan who is a less active member) to be baptized and she was excited for it! She's been going to youth for the past few weeks and has been getting on really well with them. Thursday we got to get fed with the bishopric by the young women! They gave us like a four course meal and entertainment! It was pretty fun and then afterward they asked us to share a message and we played a game with them to teach them the importance of prayer. Saturday we had our first sports day! Not many people showed up.. But the few who did had a great time! It was rainy and slippery and I got all muddy. And we met a lady with a beautiful dog named Izzy who popped one of our basketballs and played fetch with me in the mud haha. She ended up stealing our popped basketball. Next Sunday we're going to be having the new Area Seventy come and talk to the whole ward and some! They're combining both wards so he can talk to them. It should be a really cool service! So much in one week! And it's like it was only a day or two! We've had a really really good week. We got to teach a lot of people and help them to understand more of the doctrine of Christ. We had a really weird experience on Wednesday! We went to a potential appointment and the man we saw opened the door and started laughing! He let us in and we saw why. There were already two Jehovahs Witnesses sitting in his living room. We let them finish their message and when they left the man told us he didn't really want to change because he was at a nice old age of 93. We told him we understood but then he started asking questions about the plan of salvation. We were able to testify of the things we knew and bring the spirit into our teaching. It was a wonderful experience and while the man didn't want another visit he was satisfied with our answer and we knew he could feel the spirit. On Friday we had a great miracle. We went to a potential and she wasn't home. It was POURING rain and we decided we'd tract even though it was raining and it was the middle of the day when no one is usually home. We ended up having a lot of success and we're able to talk to many wonderful people. It was a good experience and it taught me that I've got to work through the hard in order to see the good. I hope all is well with everyone at home. So sorry it was short, I had run out of time at the library. But we're at the chapel now! Things are going great. Hope you enjoyed those other pictures. Saturday we got to play a REAL game of football. We went to the park and played it with some random young blokes. The Jamaicans were fantastic at playing! It was awesome and such a work out. We're going to be starting a sports day here just like I did in my last area. It'll help get the people excited about spending time with us ha. And then Saturday night we went to a dinner appointment and parked behind the house. When we came out of the appointment (which was great by the way, you should all check out mormon messages. They're wonderful.) and a huge Range Rover boxed us in!! We were parked next to another car and the Range Rover just parked behind us. We were debating going to knock on their doors and ask them to move it.. But we decided we wanted to avoid that. So we took about 30 minutes reversing and driving forwards. It was intense. We only had a few inches on either side. It was a miracle we actually got out of it! But we made it and I felt very proud of the job ha. On Sunday all the missionaries (4 of us in the ward) got to get up and bear our testimonies in church. It was pretty nice and then the rest of the ward was jumping to get up and testify as well. It was a great fast and testimony meeting and everyone could really feel the spirit. A couple people said there hadn't been a sacrament meeting like that in a long time. -- -Elder Jespersen P.S. I burnt myself on the iron on Tuesday... Not fun. Tuesday morning, I forgot to mention that we had a mission wide conference call where our mission president; President Jordan just wanted to congratulate us. For the month of September we had 40 baptisms! That was the most the mission had since he became mission president. He told us that often times when we reach a milestone we slow down because we feel accomplished. But now is the time to work even harder and continue the progression! We have to work hard to keep this momentum going. And so he told us all to work hard. Wednesday we went to London to switch companions! I got to see a lot of other missionaries I missed ha. So then I met Elder Everitt!! He's from Spring City, Utah. He's been out 6 weeks less than me. Our area is Gillingham 2nd ward and we serve in a place called Sittingbourne which is just East of Gillingham. Our building is in Rainham which borders Gillingham and when I came to the area some missionaries opened the Rainham area. Elder Hristov (22 months old and from Bulgaria) and he's training Elder Zarse (German). They serve in the same ward. For our area we have a car! So I've been driving for the past couple days. And our area is the only area in the mission that has an ISLAND!! Called the Isle of Sheppey. It's cool driving over the bridge! Anyway it's a great area, kinda slow but that just gives us room to go find more people to teach! We have a lot of former investigators we want to work with who the missionaries haven't kept up with the past few years. I've been able to meet a few of the members this past weekend because of General Conference. We got to talk to the bishop about our vision for the area and with 2 extra elders we're all excited to make it the best in the mission. This area hasn't seen a baptism in a long time but all 4 (5 with the bishop) of us have great plans for it. General Conference was fantastic. I wrote a ton of notes. And it went by SO fast. It felt like a couple minutes! But I think that might be because as missionaries we're used to getting trainings and such so it's more normal to hear a good spiritual thought or lesson. It was pretty interesting trying to figure out when all the sessions play.. But it was still a fantastic experience. Now today I think we're going to finish settling and go play some football with our DL! (Elder Piedade from Brazil. I met him my first day in the field and joked with him that he was training me and he said- you never know! He's really cool) -- -Elder Jespersen So not much has happened since my last email.. But last night we got moves calls! We heard that Elder Ho is going........ to stay! And I'm heading to Gillingham! So I'm all packed and ready to head out tomorrow morning! I think I'm sad to go because I have some amazing investigators here that I really want to help progress but I think moving is the best thing for me. I LOVE Bedford and the people I've met. I'm so blessed to be able to be out here and have these opportunities. I've made friendships that will last me forever. I can't wait to head to Gillingham and meet even more fantastic people and be able to teach and help build the kingdom there. I will be with an Elder Everitt (don't know how to actually spell his name..) and he's been out a transfer less than me. So I will be the senior companion. Before I close I want to share a miracle we had on Thursday. So our district leader told us a good idea for us to do in order to get more meaningful visits with members is to go to there house while we're tracting in the area and ask them to pray with us for success. We decided we'd put this into action and so we showed up to a dinner appointment we had an hour early and asked him to pray for us. After he prayed we asked where we should head and he just pointed down the street and said give it a try. We started knocking and on the second door we were met by a woman who had investigated the church a long while ago and still kept in contact with the missionaries who had taught her even after they went home. For some reason she hadn't had a visit from missionaries in a long while. She also said she was friends with the members we had just prayed with! She was excited for us to come and talk to her again and teach her more. She had been to our services and enjoyed and agreed with everything that she was taught. It was a great blessing for us to find her and the members were amazed at the miracle we experienced. We went to them for the dinner appointment and talked about it and had one of my best visits with members. The gospel is true!! -Elder Jespersen |