Obedience brings blessings

[unedited version]

motherthank you so much for your email

happy frecking birthday preston!!!!

22 man that is crazy i wasjust telling edlerscruggs abut how weuse to box aslittle kids and i woould getso feedup with getting my butt kickedthat ikinda just lost the fire to fight and i would justdance and fool around. poor dad his favoriteson (thats me) wouldnt grow up to be a brawler like him! (love you dad)

Brigg keep your feakin shirt on you're embarrassing the rest of the fatties like my self!

sheldon dont stop reading! the scriptures are the best booksever because they are alive

so Florent's baptism went amazing even though he didnt show up on time he wasbaptised along with towo other muslim gentlemen that i found a month previous president patch came to the service and bore a powerful testimony to our other investigators that were there and basically meltedtheir faces

i have no more time to talk about anything else we need to run to get home on time

obedience brings forth the blessings of heaven dilligent facilitates them

Love

Elder Solomon

Transfer news

ok so this was the transfers week/ sorry i didnt tell you last week but this is why im emailing a day late. so new from the transfer.... no one is moving!!!!! im so fecking happy about it! then next transfer will only be a five week transfer but still that is five more weeks with the best missionary in the mission in the best area in the mission. also the sisters in ilford will be staying together so we can carry out all of our planned pranks:) Dad im so sorry to hear about your week. i remmeber that hunting trip quite welll. i remember eing freezing and spending hours walking around in the snow following elk tracks into 'no hunt zones'. i also remember going home early for school then you going back out and getting an elk without me. Lance was a good man, the best men believe on the bible and hold to it firmly. as we are converted the Lord writes his law on the 'fleshy tables of (our) hearts' Any one who has the testimony of Christ and lived by it will be in good standing with HIm after this life. Speaking from my own experiences it is really sad to see people who believe that God no longer speaks to men. there is so much behind the statement in the book of mormon that describes Him as being the 'only true and living God' OH man!!! Gift just sneaked up behind me and scared the life out of me and i completly forgot where i was going with that... well just listen to the talk by Jeffery R. Holland 'The only true God and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent' then follow it up by watching 'My Words Never Cease' by the same apostle and you will get what i was saying.

Ok Awesome week! I did not have a birthday half as cool as dads birthday on his mission, but it was good. i spent the day in Romford on a workover with the district leaders junior companion. Elder Barber came form Dublin just about three months ago and is one of the coolest missionaries ever! the day in Romford was so cool i had a great time with him. unfortunatly they have no one to teach over there so we spent the day street contacting which was good cause almost every one that we found that was interested in the gospel lives in Ilford! we'll be seeing them tomorrow so we will get to see if my birthday presents were good or not. When i got back to Ilford i found a letter with two birthday cards in it which just caped off the day thank you Thompsons your timing is impecable. Sister Andersen and Sister Larsson bought me some cookies but other then that i didnt get anything special to eat mostly beacuse we are broke... i have £2 to last the rest of Feburary which i cant even withdraw because it is less then £10. But im not complaning because we have plenty of pasta in the flat and im getting flipping good at making pasta. even better then the Itallians!... well i think so at least.

i had an interview with President Patch this week and we had a great chat about putting off the natural man and the contast between the nature of our spirits and the physical body. it really helped put things in pespective for me esspecially when i was reading in Romans 8 about walking after the Spirit. then i read a really cool quote from Richard G. Scott this morning which goes 'we become what we want to be by consistently being what we want to become each day.' so i spent my whole personal study reviewing and thinking about what i want to become and decideing what im consistently going to do each day to be just that. it was really intresting. i would invite everyone to just take a couple of moments and think about that for themselves.

ok so last week poor Hubert was put through the refiners fire and i wanted to rip my face off during church but we saw him yesterday and he is doing totally awesome. But this week was an exteme contrast to last week. in sacrement meeting Gift gave a powerful talk which he talked about his conversion story and how he was baptised on the 16th of January. the Elder Scruggs gave a General Authority like talk about member missionary work that rocked the ward and melted faces then for gospel principle Gift was again the man of the hour when he taught a spot-on lesson (just had a little hiccup up when an visitor rebuked me for thanking th Lord for the Sabbath Day which he claimed to be the day before). Im so excited about how well things are going in the ward right now with our recent converts.

Except one. Three months back we baptised a man with a few mental disabilites who loves to blame people for his problems. he got offended and cause some major drama. in the mist of it all he gave his bank card to one of the other recent converts and she went shopping mad on it. now he is determined to sue the church and disgrace its name in the local papers... maybe not local, all the papers for London so that is a bit frustrating but never-the-less and not withstanding this the work will go on.

Preston holy cow i have never seen the shop [at work] look like that. except for when i used to clean it ;) that is so crazy that everything has been moved to the Chandler office. i bet Mike was smoking 100 'fags' a day during that whole proccess. Funny story. i was really missin working there this morning and i found my secret stash of golf balls so i took them and sneaked into the bathroom and while elder scruggs was showering i threw them all at him! it was so refeshing to hear the bounce of a golf ball and a grown man scream again. it was like music to my ears.

well the work progesses. we are plannin on haveing a baptism this weekend. Florent David is from Guinea in Africa and did not take long to gain a testimony of the divinity of the Book of Mormon. the peace that he felt as he came to church and the spirit he felt as we taught him about the restoration lead to his conversion to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Currnetly he is being sponsored by his catholic chruch back in Guinea to learn english here so he can come back and teach it. Being baptised will mean losing that sponsorship and being rejected by his family. But he knows that it is true and is absolutly determined to serve and follow the Lord. Im excited to see what miracles are going to happen because of his faith.

continue to pray for me and know that you are all im my prayers

love

Elder Solomon

Hubert is my hero

[unedited version]

ok So first off the baptism of Sanjay Kurmar went awesome! no body really showed up except for some random overly flirty muslim girls who thought it was a part but that was ok just Sanjay just wanted to be baptised. right before the baptism we had a bit of drama. Sanjay got a call from his sister and was very upset and crying forever then him and i went into the chapel and prayed. His faith is so powerful it is amazing. His testimony of the Book of Mormon is so strong i cannot wait to use him to teach with us. we had zone conference this week which was exciteing. President Patch is on the ball as usuall and melted everyones face. there was only two dissappointing things abou that day. first i was fasting and they always have amazing lunches for zone conference and second i was expecting some mail and packages from christmas and all i got was a unexpected but totally for-see-able engagement anouncement (congrats Jamie Kottcamp-soon-to-be-Morris).

Us and the Ilford sisters have become quite competititive about how hard we are working both trying to teach more lessons and do more finding. for the first time in like forever they beat us last week and the first thing President Patch did was rub it in our face at zone conference. that was really funny and gave the sisters a nice boost. Unfortunatly our teaching pool is shrinking again becasue we have baptised four people and some just dropped off of the face of the earth so unfortunatly we are only teaching about 24 lessons a week instead of 30-35. but that is totally good cause now we get to go find new people to baptise! yea.

k Brigg i dont care what anyone else may say, you're alright in my book. its a wonderful thing that we are let into the kingdom of God by the grace of Christ which is obtained through repentence and obedence. it an awesome plan. now you have all the time in the world to focus on other things.... like preparing for a mission :) i dont know what it is like to win sectionals or even to be on a state champion team or even go to state but i can tell you this. There is nothing like the feeling of administering the saving ordinance of baptism to a humbled, determined follower of Christ. It truly is a humbling honor. Preston will tell you this (he had a bit more practice at it). No greater satisfaction can come to any man on earth then being a worthy priesthood holder and being called to use that priesthood in a righteous way. start now. share the gospel with someone that you normaly wouldnt. pray to know who to speak to, who has been prepared to accept the message then resolutly follow the prompting. experience it for yourself so that i dont have to try to explain it.

ok let me tell you about the time i almost ripped my face off in gospel principles. Hubert Borges Da Silva was one of my first baptisms in the middle of January right. well our ward mission leader is not a very good teacher so we suggested that he include Hubert in teaching the class. Hubert has had tons of experience with teaching so it seemed like a good idea and Brother Stevenson agreed. so Hubert prepared to teach the first lesson in the gospel principles book. we visited him and looked over his out line and he had perfect solid doctrine. He was good to go. then right before church the sisters invited a random older oriental man off the street to attend church. he did. He must have been very uncomfortable because half way through the lesson he started to bash and get really angry. he did not agree with our views on the nature of God, i believe he was buhdist. so Hurbert stood at the front of the class being reviled against ridiculed and persecuted. the air was as think as a chocolate cake from the Cheese Cake Factory. Elder Scruggs and I almost lost it multiple times but were restrained. it was amazing to see the gift of the Holy Ghost at work. Hubert withstood all the mans comments insults and accusations of being brainwashed. in the end he bore a powerful testimony of the love of God. at the end of the lesson i took a moment to allow my adreniline to cool down, the man left dissatisfied and angry and Hubert came off a better man. When i told him he was my hero he said he was going to go take a nap.. haha i dont blame him. i love the Lords promise that as we follow the Spirit we will not be confounded by men. it is so true.

i love you alll and truly honestly feel and appriciate all of the support and prayers offered in my behalf.

Elder Solomon

The golden 30%

February 7,2011

I hate computers! I have been on this one for 45 minutes and it keeps not working! Too bad I only have 15 more minutes to tell you about my week. 30% seems to be Elder Scruggs and my lucky number. This week at church only 2 of 6 expected showed up and again about 30% of all our appointments stood us up this week. The best day of this week was Wednesday. That day we had 12 different teaching appointments scheduled and half way through the day we had only seen two people. We spent the first five hours of the day walking around town center looking for people to teach cause we got hosed. That day I was on a work-over. Our district leader Elder Allsop came and spent the day with me in Ilford. Elder Allsop was Elder Rallison’s favorite companion because they both are very similar. He leaned against a pole while I did all the finding. So, after five hours of finding we went back to the chapel and ended up teaching lessons for the rest of the day. It seemed like people just started pouring into the church to be taught it was so cool. It turned out weird though cause my companion decided to ditch me and I taught most of the lessons on my own. He was helping the sister missionaries teach English or something like that (waster). Second highlight was Sunday evening. Sister Andersen and Sister Larsson were teaching Sanjay while I was in a different lesson. They interrupted me and asked me to give Sanjay a blessing. It was an amazing experience. The Lord has some pretty big plans for him when he goes back to India. I felt strongly impressed that Sanjay was lead here to receive the gospel then he will go home and bring it to his family. He is going to be baptized this weekend and I think they are going to ask me to do it. Needless to say I'm excited! Then, we were also teaching Sekar who is a Tamol from Sri Lanka. He came here to escape the fighting between the Tamol and the Singoese which fighting took both his father and sister. He came with £270 and is down to £140 and he sells jewelry that he makes. Mom don’t be surprised if I send you some. But he is Hindi and the first time he read the Book of Mormon he opened to Alma 32 and read about being compelled to be humbled. He bore a powerful testimony about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. The only thing we have to do now is teach him about Jesus Christ and everything else. It will be hard cause he hardly knows any English. But we are in luck because another man we are teaching, Sushell from India, has become his friend through our teaching and helps him out. Susheel is another miracle he was taught everything in India and then he moved here to be baptized. Ha-ha and he thought he came here to study.

So in case none of you knew. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lord’s kingdom once again restored on the earth. Joseph Smith was the prophet that the Lord used to do this, and by reading and praying about the Book of Mormon we can get a spiritual witness from our Loving Heavenly Father that it is true.

Love you all and hope that you are all doing well,

Elder Solomon

Back to High School

Kimallee Roxy Ramsee

It is so good to hear from you all!! I'm sure you are all extremely busy... but every one thinks mom will write the email and it slipped her mind. No worries. I'm not as upset, as you probably hope I'm not. Lucky for me I got some mail today:) I got a letter from Meagan, mom, and I think guy named Jeff, who sent me a cd about the New World Order that all the leaders of the world are a part of supposedly, to usurp power and make us all his slaves.

Here is my paragraph dedicated to Meagan Hoopes. “Thank you so much for your letter! I felt like I child at Christmas I know that you start writing me all the time but a stamp does not always find its way onto your letters before they get shipped to the dark corner of the room or under the bed, so when one actually makes it to England I'm sure that there are many angels in heaven that join in songs of praise and hosannas. It’s like a light shines down from a break in the clouds and I dramatically look up with my mouth wide open as divine voices sing 'hallelujah!!' :)”

K, so my week has been absolutely crazy and my fingers are numb, so please excuse my rubbish grammar. Week started off slow and stayed consistent but we stayed busy. The crowning event was this weekend. So we were looking at the numbers this week and found that about 31 percent of our appointments actually came and out of 20+ first appointments, only 4 came. So is the life of a missionary. We spent some good time finding, as we do, when appointments don’t go through. Funny story I had a gay man try to entice me to go clubbing with him and also move to Paris then New York or Berlin. He kept trying to hint in a round about way and I kept telling him I had no idea what he was talking about. It was hilarious to watch him squirm as he was trying to get the courage to get to the point, then right before he did I introduced the gospel and the book of Mormon and within thirty seconds he was gone. The worst part of it all was that he interrupted one of my conversations with someone else to waste my time.

Ok so this weekend we baptized Kimallee Ramsee from Grenada (if anyone remembers that in Anger Management). She meet the missionaries the week before I came here and had a “Preach My Gospel”[the missionary manual] perfect conversion. She kept all of her commitments came to church and gained a testimony...it was awesome! I got to confirm her on Sunday. The coolest part about it all is that we think she will be hooking up with Gift Medi who we baptized at the beginning of the transfer!

I hate drama. I thought that I graduated high school a while ago but I guess I was wrong. Many of our converts are going through their testing period to see if their testimony is strong enough to get them through the hard times. And some are failing. It is hard when you are looking after 11 or so babies in the gospel who have given up almost everything for the church. One bad comment has started a wildfire, which has spread all though our teaching pool and is driving the Spirit away. It all escalated to a point when one called the other fat. She flipped a switch and pulled out a knife.... I love being a missionary.

So God lives and loves each and everyone of us... bottom line if you don’t believe me, just ask Him and He will tell you He is there.

Love,

Elder Solomon

ps I did get your package today with cds... and watch catalog. Cheers for that!

boo ya

[unedited version]

Hello Family!

im so glad to hear that you are all so busy out of your mind. remember an empty mind is the devils play ground, but a crowded mind is his cover. we had our 'teaching for the times' this week on presdient uchtdorfs talk about slowing down. i liked it. ok i have to admit i have been a doubting Thomas and have not had enough faith. miracles happen al the time let me tell you about some. for instance, if you have one or two investigators at church it is something to get excited about three or four is a really good week. this week between the sister missionaries and ourselves we had about 17!!! and a good handful of them just walked in from the street! it was amazing it was like herding cattle from one room to the next between the classes. mark these words the church is going to explode in India and Pakistan. the Gathering of Isreal is happening in London. people might think they are coming to England to get a job or do a studies but really they are being sent here to except the gospel and then they will go home and prepare their countires and people for the church. that is from a general authority. it is so cool to be a part of that work! i have given away handfuls of Urdo (most prominant Arabic language) copies of the Book of Mormon to honest seekers of Christ. the best moment was when two students from Pakistan named Naeem and Muhammad just walked into the church and told me that they want to become Christian. the i can not begin to tell you how exciting the work is to see the difference that it makes in peoples lives. i think some times we take it for granted that we know the plan of happiness that was created for us by a loving Heavenly Father. Even the simple fact that we can pray and be heard yet less have those prays answered. ok let me tell you the story of Sanjay. he actually is sitting a couple of computers away just now. he is a student from Dheli in India. he is 20 years old. he is currently being taught by the sister missionaries here in Ilford. Last night at a 'fireside' activity i had the chance to sit down and chat with him. of course his English isnt great but im becoming an expert at understanding half English. He told me about his conversion story. He came to England just a few months ago and since he got here has had a burning desire to learn more about Jesus Christ. on day last week he went to the library to look up more about Christ. Sister Anderson sat down next to him and noticed what he was looking at and offered to teach him which he readily excepted. He got the Book of Mormon and has studied and read it ever since. he says that it feels really good when he reads the Book of Mormon because it gives him a calm and peaceful feeling and loves learning about Christ because it gives him and new energy of soul. he has now begun sharing these things with his sister in india and even has the sisters teach her over the phone. his faith is so strong. where he lives six other men live who like to drink. often they persecute him and ridicule him for reading the Book of Mormon. so he comes to church because he just wants somewhere to go and to study about Christ. He is amazing i have never had my heart reach out for someone as mine has for him. that is just one of the stories from this week and there are so many just like it. I had an interview with president patch this morning and he told me that it was over a year before this area even had one baptism when he opened it a year and a half ago. in half a year they had twenty five baptism and are the second highest baptising area in the uk. why is it. because the goepel is for EVERYONE. we stand in front of the chapel and just invite everyone that comes by to come in and learn more. you would not believe the kind of people that actually come in. from suicidal gangsters to exmilitary kickboxers to burka covers arabians. one of my favorite quotes i dont remember where i heard it but it goes. it is not up to use to pick and choose who gets to hear about the gospel. It just comes with taking the name of Christ upon us which all of us did at baptism. To stand as witnesses in all times in all things and in all places. in adittude action and word. what a wonderful blessing that is! and Amazing resposiblity. i love it!!

Mother thank you fo the suggestion. i know that Chirst grace is sufficent for all man but I think that right about now i could use a witness that of it. to be quite honest i feel horrible and accountable for the time that was wasted last transfer in Bedford. i could us the ressurence.

I pray that the preparations for londons run is all goin well. i know that it can get a bit crazy just remember that it is not met that man should run faster then he has strength but at the same time as we are obedient to the commands of the Lord we will 'run and not be weary, walk and not faint' you know i have always wonderded about that phrase and let me tell you about what i feel it means. i have been learning alot about dilligence lately and as i was praying one night this phrase and these thoughts pressed firmly in my mind. k so run and not be weary walk and not faint. running is more strenuous then walking but the more dramatic faint is attached to walking. why is that? well look at it this way as we are running we stop because we are weary the promise is that we will be sustained to mantain the prescribed pace. same with walking think of a wonderer lost in a hot desert that falls (faints) on the sand dunes. the promise is that as we are faithful to obedience that we will be sustained at the prescribed pace to be diligent to the end. but we have to remember to go at the speed limit. i dont know if you remember dad but my junior year when we were playing at Seton high i was on kick off and for some reason on one particular kick off and ran down the field and did not come in contact with at single person. i was usless to the team because i fell three times. for some reason i just keep falling over my self untouch i just went down. that is how i see it being when we run faster then it is 'met' we just tipp and fall. go at the prescribed pace and you will be sustained.

I know that Jesus Christ lives. I know that we have a Loving Heavenly Father that hears AND answers our prayers. I know that as we humble ourselves He will lead and guide us and make more out of us the we ever could with out Him. I know that He is the one true God and the best Source of healing.

i love you all

Elder Solomon

Smell the chicken; come get baptized~

Gift (African), Hubert (older African), and Moses (Pakistan with the bowl hair cut).

Me and Elder Scruggs

Elder Tangilonu and Elder Rallison at KFC

a Lambo in London

A three wheeled car.

So my new flat address is 138 Tomswood Hill Essex. There are other mailing details to that but I have forgotten them. For our zone pday we played basketball and capture the flag for like three hours so I am dog tired right now.

Ok Ilford is absolutely amazing! I taught more in two days then I did the whole of last transfer. The chapel is almost right next to the town center (Ilford Lane right next to the Sansbury’s) and that is were we do almost all of our teaching. So whenever we have spare time we just stand in front of the doors and invite people in for a chapel tour. We show them around the chapel and explain about the sacrament then take them to the baptistery and teach them about the gospel of Jesus Christ and if the spirit is strong we invite them to be baptized and people have gotten really excited about it!! The area is mostly Indian and Pakistani with a couple of Africans mixed in every now and then. Most of them are here as students and have never heard of Christianity and when they find out they love it! It is so cool. One guy named Sanka came in to see if we could help him find a flat and to help him get on a local cricket club and then we taught him and now he is a proper progressing investigator he even came to church this week. Honestly so much has happened in this last four days I could tell you about it for ten hours... if I could remember it all. It is a shame that I don’t really even have time to write all of it in my journal:/

Elder Scruggs is amazing. He is not one of those exceptional missionaries that just blow everyone away with his testimony or even his knowledge of the gospel. What make is the difference in him is that he is diligent and obedient. I love D&C 130: 20-21 that all blessings are predicated on obedience. It is so true! It is like a mathematical equation. Input=output. Obedience=blessings. Elder Scruggs’ dad was the mission president of grandmas mission in Australia and he left from there when he was 18 to come here. Funny thing I'm actually older then him. But he said that he remembered Grandma!! How freakin cool is that? He is the perfect person to work with. It is like I'm getting retrained all over again. Good thing too cause I was really needing it!

Yes, we did have baptisms this week. Three of them. I got my information wrong we are to have five baptisms in January and we have a goal to have at least three in February... with this area it is totally possible. How cool is this. The ward council has limited us to only having baptisms every other week because all the baptisms were draining on the ward! This area is so blessed. My faith has totally been restored in missionary work! I was so happy to get the chance to speak at the baptism on the Holy Ghost. It was a simple talk but it was so good for me to reaffirm my testimony and bear it again. That has become my favorite thing to do now. The confirmations were a bit hilarious how they played out. Our bishop is from Africa Bishop Onulopu and the Africans are known for being bold and blunt. Like for instance a recent convert was complaining about a missionary getting moved out of the area and said that President Patch should have known better. A Ghanaian member the told him that because he was rejecting and not sustaining the revelation given to a presiding priesthood holder he was 'engaging in personal apostasy' HA that has become one of my most favorite phrases. So only one of the recently baptized members showed up to church on time so we confirmed him during the ward business... that was amazing then after the sacrament another one walked in and we confirmed him almost before he sat down. Then the last one showed up during the talks and we confirmed him before the closing song. It was so funny cause Bishop Onulopu called them out and rebuked them in a very African way for being late... from the stand! It was Awesome.

You want to know the secret to missionary work? Well here it is Diligence and Obedience. Simple as that when you show the Lord that you want to work He will give you things to do. I remembered just now, that when I was in Bedford while I was just sitting upbraiding myself for being a useless missionary while my companion slept and my brothers and sisters perished spiritually out sid,e I would pray for a way to get out of the house and do something. Almost every time shortly thereafter, we would get a phone call that a member needed help with something or they had too much pizza and wanted to give us some. If we are faithful with obedience we will be blessed.

Pdays are supposed to be a missionary’s day of rest but that is not the case. We have so much to do we don’t have an idea where to start. I have not had breakfast in four days. We haven’t had time to shop and I don’t have any money to do any shopping. Because of transportation issues I have already used all of my money for the month so I have been eating 'cheap chicken' every day for lunch then nothing for the rest of the day. It is so crazy the whole flat just smells like southern fried chicken. The church also... that is probably why people like to come in.

One of the best experiences this week happened yesterday after church. Normally we grab two of the investigators who were at church and teach them a quick lesson with a member before they leave. I grabbed Abraham (investigator from Cyprus) and Gift (baptized this weekend) and taught the Restoration. It was so good to hear Gift’s testimony of how he learned about the restored gospel. Yea, so Abraham wants to be baptized now. Love it!

Quick notes about Africans they have the best names. I have heard Gift, Heaven, Queen, Prince, Sunshine and many other cool names like it.

Brigg, I was so happy to get your letter my reply is in the mail.... if I finish it today.

Love you all,

Elder Solomon

PS. good luck boys with your wrestling matches please give me and update on you record:)