Tick Tock Tick Tock

Daisy's baptism

Us and Bella

Wow what a busy week!

Monday morning started off a bit crazy. Of course we had to do our weekly call-ins which took ages and was especially electric because everyone was anticipating moves call and any kind of hints about what would happen. I had a little bit of fun dropping invalid hints and suggestions. As soon as we were done preparing the report we headed off to Presidents flat. He sat us down we went very quickly over the missions week then he invited us to his study office, to look at the moves board. That was really cool to sit down and listen to him explain about how he was inspired to make this and that move. Elder Hales was released as an assistant and is opening a new area and training. It was a bit expected but really exciting. We had to prepare all of the travel information which was a headache and then we had to prepare for the new missionaries coming in. To say the least we spent alot of time in the office. We had nine new missionaries coming in so we had to open three new areas across the mission.

Oh by the way have i mentioned that Elder Brower is coming back? I'm so excited to pick him up this week. anyways we had a great time orientating them. It was really motivating to spend time around these missionaries full of faith and scared to death. They had such a spirit of energy. Elder Irving (one of the new missionaries) played in Elder Giboins band two years ago and Elder Hales is now training him. It was cool to see them all become immediate friends. Elder Sridar Paramalingam from Switzerland has been assigned as the new assistant to President Patch. He has a great reputation of diligence, creativity and hard work. He definatly lives up to that reputation. He is a great man and I really look forward to learning from him. 

We spent this week working really hard and prepareing for the transfers. Our investigators are all doing really great. Bella has decided that she wants to be baptised as soon as the other building opens..... and we have a handful of other people prepareing. Daisy was baptised on Monday which also happened to be her birthday. It was a powerful service. We had two Chinese speak the first in Manderhin and the second in English. After the ordinance Daisy bore a powerul testimony. She made a firm promise to all present that she would live up to and keep the promise that she had just made with God. She is going to be a great strength to the ward. Because our chapel is closed we had to go across the river to the Centre for the YSA for the baptism. It is in a building for a ward in the London South mission. I saw my old MTC companion. That was super weird. He has grown so much be hadn't seem to change much. It was good to see that he had accomplished so much. 

We had zone leader council this morning. That was great. President Patch talked about a compass and how reliable it is. then of course came the comparison that we are like compasses to the people we teach. He also shared with us his definition of 'expedient' which is 'urgently necessary'. He then lead us on a scripture chase which talked about the expediency of the atonement and the expediency of teaching the plan and principles of salvation. The he read Moroni 7:33 'And Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me.' Powerful. What a great teaching, through faith in Christ we can have power to do His will. Kinda makes me want to not waste effort in something that is not his will. It will just fail. It would be so much better to just learn His will and recieve power to do it according to our faith.

 

I have never been better or happier then I am now. Thank you for all your support and prayers. I hope this letter finds you all happy and well. 

Love,

Elder Brighton Solomon

Zone Conference X3

What a week! Sunday was great, church went well. Monday was crazy busy trying to get everything done and sorted. We had to do all the reports and then prepared everything for zone conference. Because the Hyde Park Chapel is cloesd for renevation we had to have our zone conferences at three different chapel which adds to the preparation. The night before our zone conference in Wembley, the Elders locked themselves out of the flat and we almost didn't have access to the chapel. Luckily the portly English lad and the lanky Sovenian were able to climb a wall and get in on the upper story. This zone conference was a memorable one. It was my last! My heart dropped straight to the floor when people I was in the MTC with began sharing their 'departing' testimony. Well after hearing zone conference x3 I can now basically quote what was shared. I think ya'll would find that boring so i wont bother you.

Our investigators are doing amazing. Daisy got back from China this week. She had a great time there. She said that living the commandements in China. she completed the Atonement study in PMG (that ususally takes about 12 weeks to do she did it in 1 week). She does alot of blogging and one of her blog entries she shared with us  about love. She talked about how it is wierd that we use the same word to describe how we feel about a sports team or a movie as we do describeing how we feel about our parents or a spouse. Then she testified powerfully about how God's love surpasses all understanding and how we can not accurately compare it to any thing. It was amazing. After she read it to us we all kinda stood their speechless for about five mintues. Every time some one would try to say something it would just kinda die in their mouth. 

We have a few other investigators who are also getting ready for baptism. One is Bella (also from China). Last Sunday we taught her all about polygamy... She asked. So now she is trying to hold onto that as an excuse not to go forward. She also fears that if she joins the church her social life will be seriously limited. She is right on that in England and esspecially in China. Despite all these concerns she is still full of faith and keeping all of her committments. She is crazy every lesson with her is like pulling teeth. She attacks the doctrine at every possible angle and after an hour of close to battling we invite her to do something, ie. live the law of chasity and she says 'ya no problem- i already believe and live it.'  Its crazy. Well transfers are next week. Elder Hales has been here for six months now so we are all pretty convinced that he would be leaving. I'm excited to see who the 'new guy' is going to be. Mostly because I don't want to be the 'new guy' any more. I thought that being so close to President I would get a bit more insights as to what was going to happen. Turns out all the assistants were not lieing when they said they didn't know what was going to happen. 

Well I hope all is well with you all. Dad hang in there. Sheldon give it all you got. Mom thank you for being a great example. Elder Hales and I were just talking today about how gateful we are for our mothers. Particularly how gratefull we are they you would cook dinner for us. We now somewhat can appriceate how much effort it takes to make a good meal.

 

Elder Solomon. I'm so happy that you ran into Elder Hall! He is one of the coolest missionaries I know. We had such a great time with him. Ask him sometime about Chop Stix and chili oil. Hahah poor lad....

 

Good NEWS! Elder Brower, the missionary that I trained, had to go back to the states for almost 4 months for a surgery. Anyways he is comeing back!!! he was suppose to arrive yesterday but he tore a bunch of ligement is his hand playing basketball one last time this week. So now he will be comeing in a couple of week. I'm Still super excited for him.

 

Love ya'll