Fingers crossed and God Willing

what a week. tell you what church was so amazing. Elder Sheppard, Bishop NICHOLLS (not neilson but nice 2nd try) and i all spoke on missionary work. it was a wonderful experience cause we had a handfull of less actives and investigators there. That is really funny that Bishop called you! how cool what a great guy! So Highlights of this week. I think im getting a grip on teaching with the spirit. A year and a half ago if you asked me i would have said that the greatest feeling in the world is overpowering someone else with your momentum and smashing them in the ground right before they can throw the ball. I have had a bit of a change of heart and now i would say the greatest feeling is listening to someone's concerns and fears. Listening to the spirit then saying exactly what they need to hear as directed by the spirit. Absolutly amazing! So i think i told you about Joy a couple of emails ago? the lady with 17 german sheppards? So we decided to randomly pop by one day and it happened to be the worst day she had had in a long time. Well by the end of the meeting she knew that God loved her and was proud of her. I love makeing peoples day. Elder Sheppard goes home tomorrow :( super sad i have gotten on so well with him it is a bit unbelievable. For the last week of his mission he decided that he wanted to beef up a bit so he had me be his personal trainer. this guy has like zero percent body fat so after a few days of using an elastic band to work out his arms are looking quite nice. Honestly it is incedible i'll have to take a picture before he leaves.. he is going to have all the girls hanging off of his arms in a few days.

ok so big news transfers are this week! I will be getting my 12th companion now. Elder Jankoski will be my new companion and he is a bit of a funny story. he began his mission up in Manchester but went back home for a couple of months then came back to finish his time here in the ELM. I will be his last companion with makeing him the 6th companion that i served with in their last six weeks. Can anyone blame me for being trunky? half of my companions have been missionaries who next companion will be an eternal one. Anyways Elder J. has quite a reputation. It is really sad but i have not heard a positive thing about him yet. Elder Sheppard was not happy with the call and asked the assisitant why. he response was ' i don't know. i know that president is inspired and he has great confidence that Elder Solomon will be able to keep him in line.' What that is suppose to mean i havent got a clue. I'm really excited for this transfer though cause some really good things are going to be happening. We will be haveing (fingers crossed and God willing) three baptisms in the next month and out of the five wards in the zone we have 12 baptism dates set.

i was a bit down the other day and i realized something that i already knew. I have had very littel success by my own efforts on my mission. the the only time that i ever really have success is when miracles happen and the Lord just drops a bit of gold in my lap. I've seen the harder i work the worse the rejection gets (which was my initial fear of serving a mission) but also the harder i work my self the more i am blessed with rays of sunshine. take for instance Bedford for six weeks i didnt do anything (well very little at least) and i didnt see a single miracle that transfer. Hayes I worked my tail end off and miracles were dropping out of the sky, but not of my own effort. There is a lesson to be learned here.

I love the gospel. One scripture that i have been sharing alot with people is 2 nephi 10:23. i was studying one morning reasons why the Lord has told us to be of good cheer. the reasons include

1. the atonement

2. the chance to serve a mission

3. the gift of agency

2 nephi 10:23 says something along the lines of Therefore cheer up your hearts for ye are free to choose for yours self, Everlasting death or eternal life.

What a wonderful thing to cheer about. God have given us the ability to think, to reason for ourselves and make a choice. I'm grateful for a Father in Heaven who loves me enough to give me this oppurtunity. For a Father who has confidence in me that i will be able to make the right choices and reach my potential. In grateful for a Father in Heaven who trust me enough to allow me to walk by faith.

I'm not sure how this transfer will turn out but i know that there is always something to be learned. Please pray for me that I'll be able to learn whatever God wants me to learn and that i will be able to make a difference in some souls life.

Love,

Elder Solomon

Glory, Glory, Hallelujah

Hi y'all

its good to hear that all is well on the home front. Mother thank you for the kind words you sent on to Sister Jones she was quite complementary of you. She's great isn't she? I had such a good week this week i wish i had four hours to tell you! so early this week i went on a companionship exchange in Ilford and loved it! i got to see most people i wanted and got tons of good work done. I got to see my old companion Elder (brother) Sam Siddiqui and also i got to see my first son in the gospel ( well that is what he feels like to me) Sanjay. He only had a few minutes to see us on his lunch break which is awesome cause now he is working. It was touching to hear his testimony again and he gave a bracelt from India. its a cultural thing for them to tie a bracelt onto the wirst of a really close friend so i was quite honored. it is a cute red and gold braclet with little flower. Then this weekend was Amazing. One of our district leaders is Elder Machen from El Paso Texas. He was in the MTC with me and if im honest he was the only missionary that i didnt like. Well that all changed after the first day i came here and we had a district leader council. So we had an exchange friday to saturday and i had a great time. He told me all about how he thought i was self righteous in the MTC I was a bit embarassed but then he said that the he saw that i had the most potential the do the most good once out in the field i was humbled by that. Elder Machen has made some major changes on his mission and being around him i was able to learn so many things. I think that is one of my favortie part about being on a mission, learning from other peoples experiences. So then on Saturday we had a Leadership meeting in Watford that we left for at 0600. that was a bit hard cause Elder Machen and i stayed up well past midnight the night before talking. Anyhow the meeting was a special one becaue we had two area 70 there and President L. Witney Clayton of the Presidency of the first quorum of the seventy there. it was qutie amazing. He spoke mostly of seeing the bigger picture and looking at things witht the eye of faith. Then of course all of his wifes remarks were concerning the next life. stuff like marriage and raisieng kids.... blah. however i was quite impresed by her she was using words that i didnt even know exisited. to say the least she was educated. the best part was the Area Presidents wife Sister Kopicika (i think thats how you spell it) she had a thick Bulvarian accent and was talking the whole time about being 'wizitoers' which is vistiors. it was very difficult not to smile because it sounded like she was saying wizards the whole time. anyways it was inspireing. When we got home we visited Joy properly for the first time. all the other times we came by she was to occupied with her 17 german sheppard. So we had a great appointment where we talked about our purpose and the investigating process. and the end we said a prayer. during the prayer she gasped and after she commented I felt someone give me a cuddle there!' well Elder Sheppard was praying so i knew it wasn't him and i know i didnt sneak over and give her a hug. so as we were standing on the doorstep on the way out we identified with her the witness of the spirit and invited her to be baptised. she excepted! So now we havbe that out of the way we just need to teach her everything else that comes with the gospel! Sunday morning we didnt have anyone schedualed to come to church which was a bit sad. especially when Bishop Nicholls asked if had had any investigators coming. my shoulder shrunk and my eyes droped to the floor as i said no. then durning the opening hymn a lady from Angola walked in with her two kids. she was real confident walking right infront of the stand that i thought she was just a member that i had not meet yet. Well we proceeded to have and amazing testimony meeting. The Stake president is in our ward and his father passed away this week so many people bore their testimony about the plan of salvation. the best was when a disabled lady stood at her seat and rather then go to the stand just shouted her testimony from her seat. it was so good. Come to find out later the lady that came in had been living by the church for ten years and had been trying to find her faith in Chirst for the whole time. she went to various different churches but nothing could satisfy her hunger. till over the past two weeks she had this prompting to come to our church. during the week she came by, wrote down the name of the church and found on the internet the meeting times... Her hunger was satisfied she loved church and we are going by later today to teach her and HOPEFULLY Inshala (God Willing) set a baptismal date with her.

yea so things are going well.

love Elder Solomon

ps funny story. every one that i saw in Ilford said the same thing. ' man! are you ok? you look horrible. hove you been sick?' I guess i look like i have lost tons of weight... i kont know i feel fine

I'm a licensed driver! Watch out!

Hi there Sorry im late getting this email sent. Monday was a bank holiday so all the libraries were shut down and we couldnt get to one. Anyways big news on my part! I am now a fully qualified British drvers license holder!! YEA!! thats a ton of stress off my back. i know enjoy driving down narrow roads with blind turns and round-abouts at every corner. its ok though cause these little egg shaped cars are well equipt for it. We had a pretty good week. I had to travel back to Hayes for my test so i got to spend another day with Elder Brower. He was so happy. it seems like Hayes kinda fell apart since i left but its all cool now. i only spent one day with my companion all week and that was Sunday crazy huh? we had a ton of companionship exchanges that we had to do. I really enjoy doing exchanges you get to learn how other missionaries do work and take the best from each one. i spent my time with new missionaries while Elder Sheppard went with there senior companions. i had a really humbleing experience. One of these new missionaries has asked President Patch if he could go home. President told him to wait it out for a bit then they would talk again. We had a good time together and i kinda forced him to participate a bit more then he normally does. then it came to do some finding. i was finding like mad putting my whole heart and effort into it trying to set a good example but i just keep getting rude rejection after rude rejection each time they got worse and worse. after 45 mintues i wanted to sit down and cry. This elder hadn't stopped a single person. In frustration and a little dessperation i turned to him and said Elder this is getting really hard for me i can not do it by my self please help me. for the rest of the day he had no problem stopping people. he was actually motivating me to do the work! now he is the humbleing part. As hard a i worked that whole day we only found two people and the other missionary stopped both of them. I learned a really good lesson when a scriputred i had read cam to mind 1 corinthians 3 5-8 'Who then is Paul. and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have plandted, Apollos watereth :but God fave the increase. So then neither is he that plantedth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the Increase. Nowq he that planteth and he that watereth are one; and every man shall reviece his own reward according to his own labor.'

I have learned so much from this scripture let me make it brief

1. Who the is Paul? or rather who then is Elder Solomon? Im not anything more special then an instrument through which God reaches to his children. (which in its self is pretty darn special)
2. I can plant and sow and water and prune and sweat and cry and find and teach and tract but it is God that gives the increase. Like dad said in his letter. true conversion only came come through the testimony of the Holy Ghost which is given to man by the Lord
3. Every man shall recive his own reward according to his own labour. Although some aspects of the gospel can be very algebraic (reading the scriptures=learning, or praying sincerly=coming closer to God) some are not I can not say if i teach 40 lessons a week i will have seven baptisms. its doesnt work like that. God has in reserve his own blessing/rewards which He will give me according to my labor. What it is (or who she is) isnt for me to worry about. I just need to do my labour and trust that he will up hold His end (which he always does or he would cease to be God)

anyways it was good. I really enjoy being a zone leader. I feel that the Lord is increaseing my capacity to serve and fill my responsibilites. Thank you for your prayers i can feel your support. I didnt think i was special enough for President Patch to send a letter to ya'll but that is cool i guess. i hope it wasnt like the first one i got from him

Dear (insert missionaries name here),

To say the least i didnt feel special.

Love you all!

Keep strong and do it. do it right. do it right now!

Elder Solomon

hey y'all

it was good to hear for yous. big things are happening this week! i go for my drving license test tomorrow. it is the hardest drving test in the world so i would really appreciate a few hail mary's in my behalf. I've had a good week with its ups and downs. one day i was in so much pain because of the knots is my back that i was getting physically ill. Elder Sheppard (bless him he is a Saint) gave me a back massage for like two hours. my back was so bad that he had to use a rolling pill and a broom handel to work out the knots. my back is so tender now it feels like i got hit by a train but at least the muscles are a bit more loose. unfortunatly i am right out of time cause i have the Assistants calling me to get the Key Indicator Reports for the week. Im doing well and miss y'all (whenever i think about it)

Love

Elder Solomon

It's a RIOT

Hello family,

ok i dont know where to start. riots arent much of a problem anymore. its really just an excuse for teenagers to smash things and get a new TV. And also minorities to complain about there situation (id be pretty upset to if the government gave me a house, food, transport, and a brand new TV without execting me to work for it) I had a work over with the Assistants on Tuesday it was a really fun experience. If you remember Elder Scruggs (my companion is Iford?) he has been the assistant now for three months. One of his companions is Elder Boer from Italy. Now Elder Boer was trained by Elder Gallagher (like me) but has never served in the same zone as me. In fact this whole time i've been on the mission I have seen him but four times. He has been wanting to serve around/with me this whole time. So when he was assigned to be an AP the first thing he did was organize a work over. It was an incredible experience. although we only knew eachother from the mission reputation it felt like we had been serving with eachother for 6 months. I learned a ton from him and he really influenced how I do things. He was completly complementory the whole time. (i think people have been lieing to him telling him that im better then i am). anyways i enjoyed it. We picked up an new investigator this week. Jake is English, 18 years old and grew up here in Basildon. he is a great kid the only problem is that he had extreme OCD, which prevents him from touching people, stepping on drains, entering unfamiliar buildings, and being around crowds of people. No of which helps him get to church. He really wants to meet with us cause he rightfully believes that finding God in his life can get him over his OCDs. We have had some really good lessons with him and I look forward to teaching him more. Basildon is going to be good. Normally it is a really good productive area but this year it has kinda died out. There is a ton of pressure on me to turn it around which adds to the stress of everything else. I'm feeling quite overwhelmed but optimistic. Elder Sheppard (not Spencer, mom ) is an excellent missionary, the only problem is that he is dieing and drags his feet. We have been quoteing Emperors New Groove to eachother this whole time. at the end when the gaurds are chaseing Kuzco the potions fall on them and they all turn to different animals. the quotation is as follows

Guard 'umm ive been turned into a cow, can i go home?'

evil women 'your excused. anyone else?'

other Guard ' no no were fine'

Evil women 'then get them!!'

Elder Sheppard sympithizes very much with the poor cow. It has become the zone joke.

prayers are appriciated i hope y'all continue to do well

Love Elder Solomon

Comfort Zone

i didnt realize how comfortable i had gotten here in Hayes untill i got a call to move! Last night President Patch called me again to ask me to be a Zone Leader in the Basildon Ward. If i remember right the Bishop of that ward is good friends with the Creagers? Anyways I'm really excited because Ilford is in that zone and I will be able to go back on some exchanges. Being a zone leader also means that i really need to get a driving license so I'm going to need all your combined prayers and faith for that miracle. My new companion will be Elder Shepard!! Aunt Nancy knows there family from her mission they live in Leighton Buzzard! I believe I'm going to be his last companion which will then give me my 4th 'kill' in the mission. its crazy to think that for 25% of my whole mission I'll be spending with missionarys that are going home soon. anyways Hayes area is doing great. Barett (June's son) is doing great he just got back from the stake young mens camp and loved it! He will most likely be baptized on the 13th of august im a bit gutted that i will be missing that :(. We picked up a couple new chinese investigatiors this week who are super awesome! Qing and Yansen. Qing says 'cool' like an American gangster and Yansen (bless his heart) wanted a picture with me because i have a very handsome face? I think the highlight of my week was on sunday though when Raheel blessed the sacrament for the first time. there is a really good story behind that. Saturday we had Raheel come out with us teaching for half of the day and we had a great time. In the evening he told me that he was in a bit of a pridicament. He had been asked to bless the sacrament on sunday and he accepted the invitation but then his boss called him and told him that sunday morning they would have a job that would be double pay. Raheel could not decide what do to. So i gave a lawyers answer and pointed out the pro's and con's of each option and told him to make a choice. he looked at me and said 'that doesnt help me at all'. Then i promised 'Raheel if you go to church on Sunday the Lord will provide another job oppurtunity for you in the week.' He said ok ill pray about it. Sunday morning he finally made the choice to go to church and at eight turned of his phone so that he wouldnt get a call from his boss. Right after church he turned his phone back on and his boss called to tell him that the job had been reschadualed for Monday! how cool is that?! Basically the church is true.

its good to hear that ya'll are doing well. Mom don't wear yourself out. Dad don't kill yourself. Brigg I'm really happy to hear that you are working with Cody and doing such a good job! keep it up! Sheldon its cool that you are going into EVIT it with that i would have done that... Be a pilot. that is where all the big bucks are. the first few years are really hard but once you break the crust you get the nice little jam in the middle and earn $400,000+ a year and get to fly to all the cool places in the world. (I had a companion who was a pilot and told me all about the benifits.... constantly)

keep well be cool

Elder Solomon

Stay cool

Stake Athletic day

Raheel and me

hey there,

I have found it is a lot more difficult to be motivatied to email when you have nothing to reply to. Its good to hear that Preston is doing well. Cool new truck, looks like you can take Mike Jeff and Jerry out to lunch now with out having anyone double up! So things are doing really good on my end. at the beginning of the week i spent three days out of my area on various exchanges and left my poor new missionary companion to wonder around on his own. Well let me tell you how good he is when i got back to Hayes i found that those three days have been some of the most productive days for the whole transfer!! and the day i got back whe had somthing rediculous like 15 appointments schedualed! i think the area is going to do just fine when i get moved out! Saturday was a special day we had our stake athletics event. Basically it is a ward vs ward track meet with every event ( except pole vaulting:( ) so we thought it best to spend a day with the ward members at the event and we had a absolute blast!! Raheel came which was really good we had a good time together. Even though he threw up a couple of times. I lived up to the saying 'im not as good as i once was but im as good once as i ever was' and won both the shot put and discus events. then they surprised me and had me run the 100m twice! i almost died! i think my favorite part though was when we found and American football. oh good ole days. anyways to avoid feeling more trunky i will share a proper missionary success story........ if i can think of one... ummmm... ok got it!

1. earlier this week we taught this guy named Erfan he is from Iran. (by the way Iranian are the best second to chinese) He is super against organized religion because he had Islam shoved down his face since he was a kid so he is more then happy to learn but will not commit to anything. he has studyed various religions and Christianity is the one he said if he ever joined a religion it would be that one. so his lessons have been going pretty rough i felt, not really going any where and i couldnt really see him progressing. our first lesson we taught him how we recieve revelation throught the Holy Ghost then all the other lessons kept getting inturpted by his monologues about his buddist phylosopies. then last week the lesson was getting deeper and deeperand he told us that he would be Christian if anything. I asked why and he began to tell me how when he was younger he watched movies and about Jesus Christ and really felt drawn to him and would begin to cry with out knowing why. A massive smile crept onto mine and my companions faces. then he told us how he would watch American preachers on the God channel and he got the same feelings. Then he explained that he didnt know what that feeling was... before he was done speaking I busted out my little diagram of prayer and revelation and as soon as he was done I retaught him about revelation and we testified that what he felt was the Holy Ghost telling him that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and the Saviour of the world. Then Raheel (who had accompanied us) bore his testimony about being Christian in and Islamic country. Even though we were in the library and it was noisy the Spirit then took its turn testifying. It was so good! One day Erfan is going to be a great preisthood holder. It might take a little longer then some but I have faith that it will happen.
2. We set a baptismal date with Junes son Barret!!!!! he finally has made the decision to be baptised on his own with out us inviting him like we have a hundred times! he even woke up early got dressed shaved and came to church. Everyone at the church loved him and it seemed at the end of the block like he was a regular member Barret is really excited also to be going on the stake young mens campout this week. (that is IF the ward can scrounge up TWO leaders to go with them). Either way he is going to be baptised on the 6th of August.. two days after transfers i hope im still here but odds are i will not be.
3. Raheel recieved the priesthood yesterday! It is super hard to describe how happy i am to see these recent converts doing so well. it is a different kind of joy then i have ever felt. Soon after he recieved the priesthood one of the bishopric pulled him aside and asked him to go as a leader to the stake youth camp how cool is that!? (to be honest they just need bodies but still!)

yea so things are going really good here. i hope that all went well with sheldons camp and that he didnt flop. so elder browers grandpa owns this glass company in utah that do all kinds of temple work and church work (ie bullet proof windows in president monsons appartment and elder oaks home...little things) but he jokeingly said half serious that if i go straight home to utah and work for his grandpa then i could get sent to Itay to work on the Rome temple! probably wont happen but it was a cool thought.

anyways stay cool

Elder Solomon

pictures = Aidins baptism (i dont think i sent that picture yet)

stake athletics me with Raheel

and me with Raheel and the other missionaries