Emergency Transfer

holy cow lets talk about a crazy week!!

so all was going fine and dandy until thursday. we were haveing a workover and one of our zone leaders was with us. i have to say it was really wierd being in a trio even if it was just for a day. so we were working really hard and getting alot done that day until about 5 o'clock in the evening. we were finding in town center and i just felt horrible, i was so wierd i felt completly seperated from the area and just could not get my thoughts in order. then i saw elder scruggs on the phone and walked over to him. he looked like he had just seen and ghost. i asked him who it was and he said that it was president. i thought that someone in his family had died or something. thankfully not but i didnt like the news that followed. he gave the phone to me and president patch explained that we had to do and emergency transfer. so here is the deal. in the croatia mission (shelby creager?) all the missionaries in serbia only had passports for serbia and couldnt be put anywhere else in the mission. this was causing tons of problems so they decided to just pull them all out of serbia and put them in different missions. so one of the serbian missionaries was going to come and be elder scruggs companion and i was getting kicked out of ilford. at the same time in Hayes (west london) and missionaries was quite ill so they took him out of the area and brought him into the mission home for a couple of weeks to heal. so i replaced him here that all happened on the 11th. my new companion is Elder Siddiqui. Elder Siddiqui converted from islam more then three years ago and guess where he was baptised. Ilford! how cool is that. so he got called to serve in spain but for some reason or another after 21 months got reassigned to our mission. now he is a bit of a crazy missionary. get alot of good work done but tends to offend alot of people. from what i heard his companion is sick kinda cause he couldnt handle it. So president patch said that he felt really good about putting me with elder siddiqui because i have a nice peaceful manner...? ok so i just bit the bullet, looked up and said ill go where you want me to go. our first night together we had a fall out and the air was thick and ice, just as cold to but we got over it and now i know where the balance lays. it will be a bit difficult cause they did things a lot differently in spain much of the differences i dont agree with but nevertheless and notwithstanding this i know there is alot i can learn from him. i was lucky with the move though cause we had a baptism this week and one next week and one the following week (hopefully). so on saturday we baptised Abbey. She is a nigerian from Toranto Canada. her sister was a member there and when she came here she reffered her self twice to the missionaries but they never got incontact with her for like three months.so when they finally did they taught her smoothly and five weeks later she was baptised. she is spot on and will be teaching primary in no time i am sure. the only other bad thing that has happen is that in a traffic jam on a bus i leaned against some fresh paint so now my black suit has yellow spots. was not a good first impression for the ward... thankfully one of the ward members can get me a pretty good discount on a new one so there goes my birthday money

wow i cant believe that it is already spring break. i always loved spring break even though it meant working alot. So you emails are always so morbid. why are so many people dieing? are you getting that old? im really glad that all of you are living faithfully so that you can be in possitions where the Lord can rely on you to do His work. now although im going to miss that king size bed im more happy that you could be the answer to peoples prayers. isnt the ward emplyment program awesome? we used it quite effectively for missionary work in ilford. although they never found anyone a job (mostly because of there illegal status) it kept them coming to the church so that we could teach them :)

anyhow im right but the heathrow airport now so i constently have huge airliners flying over my head. most missionaries would get trunky by that but i see it as a motivation to use every second i have left to do what i can to make a difference.

know that you all are in my prayers,

love elder solomon

ps my usb card reader thing is broken so i send pictures as soon as i get another one

Just in case you were wondering

Brighton on Picacho Peak (1991)

[unedited]

dear family,

you are freakin awesome.

Brigg im not going to lie im really jealous of how much fun things you do. i always made sure i was doing something every night i was free but seriously sitting around and watching my friends with their girlfriends got a bit boring, seems like you always have the coolest idea and have fun doing them. will you be my friend when you get back from your mission!?

ok so i totally remember going to pachco peak i was so excited to go because i was doing a school report on it and i was a civil war nerd at the time. i remember the cable bridge and the breathtaking sights. the only thing i dont rememeber about it all was the ride home. i think i was unconscious (is that how you spell it?)

Dad thank you some much for your email i love hearing from you. i miss you. i dont think i could have asked for a better friend in high school, i wish i could have just realized that you were on my side a whole lot sooner,

ok so i need pictures of my brothers in their new shirts and ties

Mother im so proud of your face melting experience. isn't it a wonderful feeling to say what the spirit directs and see it change peoples lives? i think it is. i miss the temple so bad. the Mountain of the Lord is the best place we can be to feel HIs love and recieve inspiration. the promise that President Monson gave that 'everyone that touches the temple is touched by the temple' is so true. Keep it up mom. Boldness inspired by love is the best way to inspire people because it is the most clear way to present truth. Alma Nephi Abinadi and Mormon were all hated for what they said even to the point of violence and murder. 'the wicked take the truth to the hard' is an accurate statement. But truth undefiled is more powerful then a two edge sword in dividing asunder both marrow and joint(of poor excuses, false doctrines and foolish tradition) it is my goal to be absolutly clear in every statement that i make. its a lofty one but i have a good example (Christ). that is why i love africans:) i cant wait to have a chat with Tim Holmes about his mission.

so this week was pretty good. alot better then the last three weeks. we taught ten more lessons then we have in a while and set another baptismal date for march. right now we have schedualed three. Shuraz is from pakistan and is muslim. he came to the church with a girlfriend a while ago and the other week prayed to know if he should come to the church the answer was in a strong affirmative so he came and we began to teach him. this week he had a really cool experience that he told us about. he asked God a couple of questions and got some spot-on answers

'are the missionaries teaching me truth?'

meet with them and listen

is the book of mormon true

read it and find out

should i live the word of wisdom?

live it and see

is baptism right for me

do it and see

his faith in God is amazing. it is a huge thing to get a muslim to pray in the name of Jesus Christ and a almost bigger thing to have them believe he is the Son of God because the Qu'uran very clearly teaches that He wasnt and the Christians are mislead. but the other day after his lesson Shuraz stayed with us to help us teach someone else. he was our interpretur and basically taught the lesson to this guy. I believed that Shuraz recieved a testimony when he did this because at the end of the lesson he ended his pray but saying firmly 'in the name of Jesus Christ the Son of God! Amen' i was so happy. when descibing the spirit that he felt as he comes to church he said. 'when i come i feel a deep peace and satisfaction of soul that i cant find anywhere else' it is amazing to see others testimonies built by things we often take for granted. Looking back i dont think i have ever realized what it must feel like to not renew my baptismal covenants every week. or have the assurance that God is there and listening to my prays. or know in my heart that i can hope for a glorious ressurection because of Jesus Christ and see those loved ones whom i have lost (or never even knew). to see people realize these things for the first time is one of the sweetest experiences i have been blessed to enjoy.

just in case any of you were wondering 'happines in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded on the teachings and gospel of Jesus Christ' i believe, i know it, im a witness of it. God is there and He does care and continues to show His love to us in everyday of our life. He continues to speak to us through His choosen prophets and the way to salvation (being put out of the reach of your enemies) is clear. find it and stay on it and you will find an inner peace and everlasting happines no matter what happens.

love

Elder Solomon

ps it was so good to hear from meagan and taylor. im going to do my best to send you a letter this week but we do have a pretty busy evening planned. also it was good to hear that Kass finally got my parcel of

Jesus Christ THE SON OF GOD

[unedited version]

dear family,

you are freakin awesome.

Brigg im not going to lie im really jealous of how much fun things you do. i always made sure i was doing something every night i was free but seriously sitting around and watching my friends with their girlfriends got a bit boring, seems like you always have the coolest idea and have fun doing them. will you be my friend when you get back from your mission!?

ok so i totally remember going to pachco peak i was so excited to go because i was doing a school report on it and i was a civil war nerd at the time. i remember the cable bridge and the breathtaking sights. the only thing i dont rememeber about it all was the ride home. i think i was unconscious (is that how you spell it?)

Dad thank you some much for your email i love hearing from you. i miss you. i dont think i could have asked for a better friend in high school, i wish i could have just realized that you were on my side a whole lot sooner,

ok so i need pictures of my brothers in their new shirts and ties

Mother im so proud of your face melting experience. isn't it a wonderful feeling to say what the spirit directs and see it change peoples lives? i think it is. i miss the temple so bad. the Mountain of the Lord is the best place we can be to feel HIs love and recieve inspiration. the promise that President Monson gave that 'everyone that touches the temple is touched by the temple' is so true. Keep it up mom. Boldness inspired by love is the best way to inspire people because it is the most clear way to present truth. Alma Nephi Abinadi and Mormon were all hated for what they said even to the point of violence and murder. 'the wicked take the truth to the hard' is an accurate statement. But truth undefiled is more powerful then a two edge sword in dividing asunder both marrow and joint(of poor excuses, false doctrines and foolish tradition) it is my goal to be absolutly clear in every statement that i make. its a lofty one but i have a good example (Christ). that is why i love africans:) i cant wait to have a chat with Tim Holmes about his mission.

so this week was pretty good. alot better then the last three weeks. we taught ten more lessons then we have in a while and set another baptismal date for march. right now we have schedualed three. Shuraz is from pakistan and is muslim. he came to the church with a girlfriend a while ago and the other week prayed to know if he should come to the church the answer was in a strong affirmative so he came and we began to teach him. this week he had a really cool experience that he told us about. he asked God a couple of questions and got some spot-on answers

'are the missionaries teaching me truth?'

meet with them and listen

is the book of mormon true

read it and find out

should i live the word of wisdom?

live it and see

is baptism right for me

do it and see

his faith in God is amazing. it is a huge thing to get a muslim to pray in the name of Jesus Christ and a almost bigger thing to have them believe he is the Son of God because the Qu'uran very clearly teaches that He wasnt and the Christians are mislead. but the other day after his lesson Shuraz stayed with us to help us teach someone else. he was our interpretur and basically taught the lesson to this guy. I believed that Shuraz recieved a testimony when he did this because at the end of the lesson he ended his pray but saying firmly 'in the name of Jesus Christ the Son of God! Amen' i was so happy. when descibing the spirit that he felt as he comes to church he said. 'when i come i feel a deep peace and satisfaction of soul that i cant find anywhere else' it is amazing to see others testimonies built by things we often take for granted. Looking back i dont think i have ever realized what it must feel like to not renew my baptismal covenants every week. or have the assurance that God is there and listening to my prays. or know in my heart that i can hope for a glorious ressurection because of Jesus Christ and see those loved ones whom i have lost (or never even knew). to see people realize these things for the first time is one of the sweetest experiences i have been blessed to enjoy.

just in case any of you were wondering 'happines in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded on the teachings and gospel of Jesus Christ' i believe, i know it, im a witness of it. God is there and He does care and continues to show His love to us in everyday of our life. He continues to speak to us through His choosen prophets and the way to salvation (being put out of the reach of your enemies) is clear. find it and stay on it and you will find an inner peace and everlasting happines no matter what happens.

love

Elder Solomon

ps it was so good to hear from meagan and taylor. im going to do my best to send you a letter this week but we do have a pretty busy evening planned. also it was good to hear that Kass finally got my parcel of

obedience brings forth the blessings of heaven

[unedited]

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 your 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

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