I promise that title will be the last really bad one I uses haha. This week has been a really great one. I feel like I am slowly coming out of a funk that last week threw me into so that is always a good sign. I am going to jump right into it for the sake of time.
Monday was a blast. We had district preparation day in Portsmouth and walked around a bunch of different places. It was chill, it was peaceful, it was exactly what I needed. We then stayed the night there and had exchange the next day with the Portsmouth Elders. Elder Toro Diaz, ladies and gentlemen, is an absolute legend. He was talking to every, and I mean every person we passed. He is so friendly and approachable and we had an amazing time. A few funny stories from that. First, we had been in town centre for about 30 seconds when we approached this man and started talking to him and he proceeded to tell us he was too busy to chat. We then asked for a brief moment to ask him a question and then as a response to the question, he spoke for 20 minutes. 20 minutes. He basically articulated how he feels religion is restricting the freedom of the world but we were able to rein the conversation back to our original question and end on a good note. He is by no means interested, but it was a funny conversation. Then we were talking to another guy and this random lady called out to us and asked for help carrying her stroller (there's an american word for ya) down some steps. So we asked the guy we were talking to if he could wait a second while we helped this woman. He said sure. After helping her and receiving a compliment on my accent (for the 1st time ever), we turned around and the other guy was gone. So we had a good laugh about it and carried on. We did see some cool miracles including a really humble man who actually chased after us for a copy of the Book of Mormon, and a woman who was pretending to not be herself but then revealing her true identity after she found out we were only interested in sharing a message of Jesus Christ with her (sorry I do not know any better way to rephrase that right now haha, just know it was a golden moment).
Wednesday was a pretty typical day, involving finding, visiting members, and getting told that Jehovah is not Jesus (if your curiosity is peaked by this remark, shoot me an email and we can have an interesting chat :-)).
Thursday was much of the same and but included cleaning the chapel, being prompted by the Spirit to knock a specific door and getting an appointment with the guy living there, and a really nice lady who gave us food. She wanted to have us come inside her house but her husband was not home from tennis yet and she said under her breath "ugh I just want to kill him" (she felt rude for not being able to have us inside). I love British people.
Friday we went over to a man's home to help sort out his back garden. We just expected the grass to be high and need some mowing. Well the grass was high and it did need mowing but there was also a ton of rubbish everywhere and the only tools he had were a weird fork thing on the end of a stick, a rake, and an electric strimmer. We did out best and had a good time doing it, but it will need some proper tools and care this next week :-) Then we had an appointment with a podiatrist who said that the first surgeon did not do what he should have done on my toe and that they are going to need to operate again :-| so yeah fun stuff. They could have done the operation on Friday but I needed to be able to walk because...WE WENT TO LONDON! We got to stay the night before a big conference we had on Saturday.
The Conference:
Elder and Sister Ucthdorf. Bishop and Sister Waddell. President and Sister Johnson of the European Area. President Kearon of the Presidency of the Seventy.
I do not have time to explain all of their roles but if you go to
lds.org and search "general authority", you will get a quick explanation of their roles in the church. Basically they are just worldwide church leaders and we got to hear from ALL OF THEM. They said some amazing things. They are such lovely people, especially Elder Ucthdorf, who is an apostle. I want to share two things that were said that I loved but I will do so at the end and expound. Then after the meetings we got to have lunch with the entire mission in Hyde park. It was so much fun and an absolute dream. I finally saw Elder Cherrington! Over a year later and we finally meet haha. I saw some other great faces and just basked in the glory of the metropolis that is London.
Yesterday was a bit crazy too but I'll spare the details and just say that God is aware of us and knows when we need uplifting and strengthening.
British Word of the Week - Isle of Wight Edition: Somewhen - it means exactly what you think it does and they only say it here on the island and yes they do actually say it
British Food of the Week: pork pies - its a savory meat pie and I still do not know how I feel about it...
Companion Comic: So this one is not from my companion but actually from the conference we went to on Saturday. So President Checketts, my mission president, loves basketball and made many basketball analogies while speaking and all the other speakers kept it going, including Sister Ucthdorf. She said that she loved that she could embrace basketball when she moved to America because, and I quote, "football is a plague". She said it is too long and boring and basketball is fast and exciting. Also President Johnson, the Area President, said that while President Checketts called him a power forward, his actual position on the basketball court is defense...ive tackle. The collective wit was palpable and almost too much to handle.
Scripture of the Week: So this is from an address given in a general conference but I really like the premise - "We can become educated persons, regardless of our stations in life, if we never quit learning." We all have different circumstances but we are all here to learn and achieve our divine potential. I am learning so much and my invitation to you this week is to learn something new, or at least try to have an attitude of learning.
Okay so final thought. President Kearon spoke of how hard missionary work is and he said something to the effect of "you will have those times where you just want to scream out loud 'I can't do this!' Welcome to the club." He said that life is hard for all of us but our job and our duty is to hold on to hope and keep on keeping on through the good and especially the bad. The other thing I loved is what Elder Ucthdorf said (paraphrasing a bit): "measure your success by your motive, by your desires, by your efforts, not by the numbers." God knows us and He loves us and we do not have to do any better than anyone but our previous selves. We are only in control of so much and if we do everything we can to serve God and do our very best to grow and improve, then we are successful.
I love you all and want you to know that Jesus Christ lives and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is His church on the earth today. I know God lives and loves me and you. Thank you for the love and support and I hope you have an amazing week :-)
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