Hi,
Hey how was your week? mine was great, it has just been chalk full of 'you're going home comments' that are driving me up the wall. I think I'm in denial a bit because I want to work more now then I ever have. Super stressful week. So Elder Giboin was released and sent to Ilford to serve with Elder Newt Wilson. Pretty cool huh? Which by default leave me as the senior companion of the companionship. So that means that every desicion falls on my shoulders and if things go wrong I'm the one to answer. Well we had moves this week and I was just a confused ball of stress! President Patch gave me a B- for how smooth it went on the grounds that I told half of the mission to meet at the wrong station... oops. It all worked out in the end. A couple of weeks ago the mission had a REALLY bad week where every one was super unmotivated, depressed, and lazy. We were all scambling our brains trying to figure out how to help change that. Finally we decided to initiate a special Easter study. There was a devotional by Elder Bednar that Elder Giboin and I read and loved called 'The Character of Christ' so we emailed that to every missionary and invited them to read a gospel before Easter and reflect on it all. The last direction that we gave them was to email President Patch about it all and tell him how they enjoyed it. So on moves day he grabbed me and gave me an A+ for the study. He said the emails he was getting back from it were amazing and that it was having the exact effect that we wanted it to on the mission. So that made up for the dissappointing B-. We had the departing dinner that evening at the Patch's flat. President and Sister Patch have this leatherbond Preach My Gospel that they have every departing missionary underline their favorite line and sign just before they get home. So naturally every missionary thinks about it all the time reading through their PMG 'should I underline this line?' Well at the dinner to put another nail in my coffin President handed me the PMG and asked me to underline my line. That was really weird. If you are curious the line i underlined is 'Being cleansed from sin is being healed spiritually'. Principle One Lesson Three. Great so horrible news yesterday. In the middle of studying President called to tell me that Elder Brower is going home. I was heart broken. So I got to spend the day with him yesterday, we went around and visited Susie and June and Barret in Hayes to say goodbye to them one last time. To pour a little more salt in the wound Barret announced that he was going to be baptised but that he only wanted Elder Brower to do it, just before Elder Brower told him that he was about to go home tomorrow. This morning President came to our flat to take him to the airport. Poor guy. Since he came back out he and been dealing with depression and anxiety attacks. The worst part about it is that he will be going back to a judgemental Mormon communtiy that will see him as 'less valiant'. It is a shame that people pass judgement without understanding. On the flip side it was so rewarding to drive the Sister missionaries to the airport who had finished their missions. They had grown so much. (it is wierd to think that I was in one of their districts when they first came in an then i drove them to the airport when they finished). Missionaries have such a power about them when they go home. Well so it is offical I am in the last transfer of my mission. My head is spinning! This is the time that is okay encouraged to think about home and plans and marriage and BLAH I can't do it. Mum can I please just stay? I know that the prophets say that we need to just move on with our lives but can we make an exception? I finally feel like I understand what I'm doing out here and why and things are going so well! However I do like saying when ever someone asks me a really hard question telling them to ask me in a couple of months...
Hey I got an email from Joelyn Dobson? Super cool I'm so happy that Dalton is preparing to go on a mission! It is incredible how a good environement can really help someone. Hey Richie is coming home soon isn't he? That is crazy I feel like I am the last of my friends out, Ha I out lived them all!
Holy cow I just forgot to tell you we had another baptism on Monday! can you guess where he is from? I'll give you a hint they are a communist country. So Joe was found by Elder Hall (my companion who went to the SLCS mission with Brigg) Joe though religion was foolish and only believed in science. However he agreed to sit down and have a chat. At the end of the 'step in/sit down' lesson Joe prayed and he felt a powerful feeling of love. He passionately studied the gospel and hungered to learn about his relationship with God. Before meeting with us he could only study for a block of 1-2 hours before it became ineffective. now if he read the Book of Mormon he can sit down for 3-4 hours and study chemical engineering with out a break! He now comes teacing with us and has helped us set two more baptismal dates with people from China!
By the way when you all come would you like to go to a musical? I could get tickets pretty cheap early Thursday morning for Thurday evening then we could head down to the temple. They have about every musical avalible here. I went to the Lion King last week (another story in its self) and that absolutly incredible. you would love it! let me know!
Also the Tuesday before we head back we will be in London all day. now we could spend 7 pounds per person for a day pass on the public transportation OR we could spend 1 pound per person and rent bikes for the day. We have done that for the past couple of days and that is really really fun.
A bunch of Chinese people we had a BBQ with
Joe's baptism
Love y'all
