Week 30: Spontaneous snowstorms and windowsill gardens

Goodness gracious. Honestly, I'm not even sure where to begin this one today, so I guess I'll just start and see where this takes me. 

Wednesday we were able to go visit Mae and her family. We had an amazing meal of Adobo and pancit and oh my goodness I just love filipino food. They're such a good family and I'm so glad God allowed our paths to cross. 

We also had zone interviews and conference! We were in Poole for two days and it was really fantastic. I really just love being able to spend time with other missionaries I don't see often and getting to learn and grow with them. We received a massive amount of training on how we can be better teachers and what we can to do help people come unto Christ. It was all really wonderful. Shout out to my friend Elder Rhee for cooking a fantastic Cafe Rio inspired feast for us as well.

What blows my mind is that there are around 14 weeks left for the existence of the England London South Mission. Much of the training we received centered on pushing hard these last 15 weeks and not slowing down, finishing this 53 year legacy with our best efforts. It's exciting and humbling to be able to see this mission close, and although the only thing changing on July 1st is the name of the mission I'm in, I will always be grateful I got to see the close of the ELSM. 

Saturday was the baptism of Jimmy! He is someone who has been working with the sister missionaries in Exeter for 6 months now and has been investigating the church for about 10 years. Snow almost cancelled the baptism, but it held off long enough for the service to continue. It was just so wonderful. There was a special spirit there and I'm grateful we had the chance to attend. 

Also, I forgot to mention, we were doing service for this one woman and she was getting rid of many pots and so I decided to add some life to my window. 

Sunday the snow hit. Our church service was cancelled but the one in Exeter wasn't so we drove down there for church. It was a beautiful drive. The roads were dry but everything else was covered in snow. We were able to see Jimmy received the gift of the Holy Ghost and that made it all worthwhile. As soon as the first hour ended, we hurried and made our way home. We did so just in the nick of time too because right as we got home, we got a call saying that it was dumping snow in Exeter. We ended up getting around 3 inches here and they got about 7 inches there. So, since we didn't have any other plans and couldn't go anywhere else because of the roads, we went around trying to talk to people while also building snowmen. You thought people didn't go outside before, but that was in normal weather. We talked to a few people and no one was interested but it wasn't all that bad. 

Monday and yesterday just involved a lot of talking to people. What's disappointing to me sometimes is how people aren't even willing to hold a conversation with us, never mind hear what we have to say. They seem to rush about everywhere. While no one was interested, we were able to have some nice conversations, some about religion and some not. Those conversations keep me going. You never know the power your kindness might have to someone else. Don't be afraid to be kind :-)

Today we've mostly been doing some baking and cleaning and we have a pretty normal week ahead. Thank you for your prayers and support.

British Food of the Week: hot cross buns - turns out they are more than just a nursery rhyme and I can see why they are just a penny (just kidding they're really good)

Companion Comic: on the way down to Poole, we were driving the Exeter Sisters and we were having a very heated argument about whether or not the ocean is overfished. Sister Schmidt (remember her first language is german) said something about some data being artificial and the rest of us lost it. She didn't understand and when we explained the pun, she said "that's stupid, there's no point in being funny if I'm not trying". I wish I could be funny on accident. 

British Word of the week: bin day - trash day (I know it's basically the one I did about bins = Trash cans but forgive me I can't remmenr one right now)

Scripture of the week: 2 Nephi 31:3

I love you all loads and thanks for everything you do for me. I've officially been in Holsworthy 6 months now and it seems like it's only been 1. We'll see what the future holds. Much love,

Elder Finnegan McKinley
England London South Mission (for now...)   

Who doesn't love a good March madness analogy to missionary work (whatever March madness is)






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 75: Të Keqen

Image
Sup all you evil people. That's what you'll think I'm calling you if you literally translate this from Albanian. The actual translation is basically "I take the evil from you". Basically imagine an old lady (nona) seeing a little lid trying to tie his shoes. She would say "o Të keqen". So yeah it's my new favourite phrase.  This week has been a bit crazy but it's been crazy good as well. Monday was a bit difficult. I was in denial that I was leaving the Isle of Wight. It was a really great day though. We went around visiting all of the people I had come to love. And packing. Way too much packing. But yeah. It was rough. I maybe cried like 3 times. But no more than 3 times.  Then the fateful day came and Elder Brown and I had to part ways. Tears. But, that kid is tearing it up down in the Isle of Wight and he is so ready for anything. Love that kid.  So here's a bit about my new companion: Name - Elder Allkja  POB - Albania...
Read more

Week 41: The Bolshevik of Bideford

Image
Hello! This week has been fairly interesting but it also feels like I wrote you all yesterday so bear with me as I attempt to figure out what happened this past week and put it all into words put together for your viewing pleasure. You are welcome to read them as well as look at them, but, rest assured, the words will be beautiful nonetheless. So at the end of last preparation day we went as a district to this museum called pitt rivers. Basically its a museum of all kinds of things from all over the world. There is everything from shrunken heads to ancient weapons to a massive totem pole that is three stories tall. There are so many cool things to look at that I have still not seen everything and that was my third visit there. I had the chance to go on exchange with Elder Dos Santos. He is from Brazil and he is a pretty cool guy. We had a pretty good time. Okay, I am going to be honest with you here. I really can't think of a whol...
Read more

Week 96: Two's a Company...

Image
Well, believe it or not, we are here once again. After the events of the last few months here in London, I didn't really think that things could get much weirder. I was already working in the office and speaking portuguese. Then Friday happened.  Long story short, we're now in a trio.  Haha our new companion is Elder Grimaldi from Brasil. He arrived Saturday at Heathrow. Elder Coelho and I went there to pick him up.  *disclaimer* being at Heathrow with only 7 weeks left on your mission is a sublime experience. It may or may not make you think about the impending events WAY more than normal. But hey, we were there with a purpose, so it was all good. But wow, what a blast.  Other than our new companion (he's only companion's with us for the week and then he will get assigned his official missionary trainer next week during the transfer), this week has been pretty typical. We have had a lot of lessons, dinners, and crazy portuguese conversations. I love ...
Read more