Royal Shmoyal

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hey

thanks for the email it was really nice that i didnt have to spend to much time reading it!. so i had a trunky dream last night i think it was inspired but Elder Jacob talking about how he only has single digit days left until he is no longer a missionary.... anyhow the area is doing Great, the only way that the royal wedding was a bother was that it was the subject of our testimony meeting. that was not good because we only had one american and three chinese investigators there, the chinese all for the first time. they fell asleep with the rest of us. Elder Jacob concerning the wedding quoted part of moronis epistles to the kingmen and bout proffessing royalty i thought it wa funny. i had some pretty amazing experiences this week that really have strengthened my testimony that this work is in the Lords hands. So at zone conference Elder Causse was talking about how rather then praying to know which street to tract or where to go to street contact he said to pray for a vision of who you need to find then pray for direction in where to find them. So the other night i did just that, then in the morning i was meditating during excercise time and i asked those questions Who do you want me to find today? then and image came to my mind of a couple the girl was indian and the man was african english, i felt that she was super intrested and he wasnt that bothered. as i had them in my head i asked where will they be? and i immediatly knew that they would be at one end of the uxbridge town center. so that day i spent the whole time stopping and talking to chinese students and i tried to stay by the street i knew that they would be at. then later in the day right after i got rejected but someone this lady with her boyfriend came up to me and asked me what i was doing. she was from india an her boyfriend was english african, She was super intrested and he was not so bothered. at the time i had completly forgoten that i had 'seen' them earlier that day but afterwards it all clicked! i was so elated, man the gospel is so true. then for a youth conference we went on splits and i spent the whole day with a one of the super nervous priest. we taught a lesson which went horrible (trinity bash) then we had three hours to tract since another appointment had cancelled. prior to this weekend the stake and missionaries had fasted and prayed that there would be miracles on this day and let me tell you what there was! so after the first 1:30 we had already had two step in appointments which never happen! then when we had thirty minutes left i sat the priest down and said 'i know that the Lord has one more person that He wants us to contact today so we are going to pray for His direction'. i had him say the pray and he asked for it even though he was way nervous and unsure that he would recognize then answer. so after the prayer i asked if he wanted to look at the map or just go. he said just go so we did. as we were walking down the street a question poped into my mind and i asked him what his favorite number was he said either 5 or 16. so quickly we went form street to street knocking number 5 and 16... nothing fifteen minutes to go. we got to a big street at the number 150, i had an idea we went to 165 and knocked... nothing so then i went to 156... nothing. i looked at him and said which way he said right we went right. At 153 we got another step-in with a woman who was from india and grew up in a strong shik family. she recently had begun watching the god channel and got a bible. she said that whenever she learns about christ she feels really happy! so we had a great lesson about the restoration and will be going back to see her soon. I know that Faith proceeds the miracle and I know that miracles come.

Also I had a nice tender mercy a couple of days ago. i was walking in the high street and this built large bald man in a strong american accent came and stuck his hand out to me and asked me where i was from. elder jacob said utah and he said his son had served in salt lake. i said arizona he said what part, queen creek, he was from mesa, went to moutain view, i asked if he know any haynes, yes and solomons too. which ones? Warren? THATS MY DAD! man i was so happy here was someone probably the only other person in the UK who knew my dad! and how cool he is anyhow his name is Casey was mates with Micheal Mills? who is a cousin of Jackie Mills? ring a bell? he has moved here for work but ran away before i could pick up my jaw and set up an appointment. we picked up 8 new investigators this week (6 of them are Chinese:) and set two more baptismal dates, June and Barret Tapper from South African (English South African) Barret has never been baptised and wants to go into the Army. they are the first member referall that i have been able to set a date with. pretty exciting! moves calls should be next week so expect my email on tuesday. president pulled elder jacob aside earlier this week and said this week i might get and new companion early from the provo mtc but that changed so we both are pretty positive that i will be training next transfer. im super nervous for that i havent even been senior companion yet and i am still uncomfortable when i teach. But i know that the Lord qualifies those that He calls. Your Prayers will be Much appriciated these coming weeks.

Keep stong love you all

Elder Solomon

if all goes well on mothers day i will call at 9pm English time

ps special thanks to the Hoopes Family for the Easter basket! your all awesome i have a half finished letter in my bag that im hoping to finish some time today for you.

Time Flies

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it was so good to get you's emails. i really enjoyed hearing about your different trips. honestly i am so jealous of your trip to the river. i really enjoyed those exploring oppurtunities. before i forget mom i think i will just be calling you for mothers day. hopefully everyone that wants to talk to me is round when i call. i dont know my schedual yet for the day so i cant tell you yet when ill have time to call. i cant believe it is time for prom already! incredible. Fancy Lamb huh? good choice you can always beat one of the Lamb girls to excite the evening and make every penny worth it. Brigg im not going to tell you off about missing school. im just going to repeat that i really regret not taking it as seriously as i should have. so for p-day today we went into central london and cooked an 'american' fajita lunch for this guy named kai that elder jacob taught when he was ap. kai is of course from china and is 23 finishing his masters degree and hoping to go to the states to get his phd next year. i think that he and the other chinese students prove that you dont have to be smart to get a phd, just dilligent. if there is one thing that im really glad to have learned on my mission it has been how to study. after a lunch of american food we had rootbeer floats (they did not like those at all) we played ping pong... chinese are SO flippin good at that game. honestly i stopped counting how many times i lost without even scoring a point. i had a great study this morning. i ran out of things to do before it was time to study so i just started studying earlyer. i had a few questions about priesthood responsibilty and a few things about my patriarcal blessing so i decided to read alma13 i read through it once. took side notes on it the second time and then color code marked it the third time i read it. now i did not find anything new that i never knew before but i understood some principles a lot more then i have before. for some reason in this mission you meet missionaries all the time that have crazy connections with general authorities like elder hinckley and elder hales then elder scruggs who has eaten with most of the quromn of the twelve and so on, i get to hear stories about these men all the time. so as i was reading alma 13, which talks about the priesthood i was thinking of these great men and about what they do differently in there lives. i love comparing and contrasting. one thing that really stood out to me was when alma was talking about those who had been called to the holy calling he said 'they choosing to repent and work righteousness rather then parish' i dont know but it really struck me that repentence is a choice that we make that it is upon our shoulders to DO it. this is really hard to explain what i learned. but it was cool.

anyhow we had a great week this week. wednesday was zone conference with Elder Causse from the Area Presidency( he spoke in GC a couple of years ago) they whole time my pen was flying across my paper like mad. he didnt teach anything absolutly profound just went over a few simple things that we over look in Preach My Gospel.

it was a bit different this year(easter) not waking up to a basket full of chocolate and a few ties. instead we left the flat early to go to PEC. PEC is always an interesting experience, the ward feels that they should conrol who and when we baptise because most of the recent converts are not doing so well. (one of them haveing not been confirmed and another having not been to church since her confirmation) so we had to pull some teeth to get a baptism date approved for may. but there is this really old couple who are stake missionaries that always come. he is proper english and is a bit predjudice against immigrates. every time he would open his mouth he would talk about how we should be teaching people who are more stable and grounded here namely english people who have lived in the same house for 20 years. it was funny cause our bishop just kept rolling his eyes then say asomething about the gospel being for everyone of Gods children. but for easter we went tracting which was really good cause i set a record for step-ins in three hours we got two one of which became a new investigator. really excited about that!

the church is ture by the way. let me tell you about the Book of Mormon. i love the scripture in Jacob chapter 2 where he says 'that word of God which healeth the wounded soul.i completly believe it. at the end of long days when i am upset or tired or had to many things running through my mind at once i sit down and just open it while my companion is changing and ever if i just read about how the work of death did commence on both sides, and thousands falling by the sword it still calms me down and i feel the peace of God again. you know why that is? because it is the Word of God which healeth the wounded soul. try it i promise it will work.

well ta for now!

Elder Solomon

Forgotten

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so you'll have to bear with me this week, already this morning i forgot my keys, map, and brain at the flat so if anything doesn't make sense just ignore it. So i got all the travel stuff sorted this morning. never got the travel card back so i had to apply for a new one. the good news is you can save 15 % on your car insurance by switching to Geiko. speaking of cars it is really going to be weird to come home and not see the suburban in the car park. but opportunity cost always hurts and i guess eating is more important anyhow. gas prices here are ridiculous its like £1.50 per liter which comes out to be $8 per gallon. but then again situations are a bit different and cars here normally 100 mile to the gallon and everyone can walk to where they need to go.

we had probably the best week i had had in Hayes, well kinda, we had no baptisms but we had alot of success. we began teaching 6 different new people this week as a result of all our time street contacting last week. On Saturday we taught Ashleigh for the first time and guess what, she is from America! she came to to get baptised but she thought she came to study. turns out that she got excepted into a better school in Missouri which she will go back to in October. she has attended our churches several times in the past with friends and always enjoyed it there. now she is interested in learning about how we can strengthen her faith in Christ and is completely open to everything we teach. well so far we have only taught the restoration but she loved it! so she came to church the nest day and because she was friendly, confident and outgoing the ward loved her! we actually left church before she did because we couldn't get her away from the relief society sisters. it was so refreshing! also we started teaching this Nepalese guy named Ang. He lives in the same home as our recent convert Neng so i get there names mixed up occasionally. he is buddest and has a strong desire to learn about Jesus Christ. Elder Holland in a training given to new mission presidents gave a list of ways we can identify that the Spirit is helping us teach and one of those is that the investigators will ask soul searching questions. Ang totally typlifies that! i love his wonderful questions. he is a really cool guy. is home town is at the base of mt Everest and he has been to the base camp like 36 times or so. get this he and his older brother are guides the the hikers that come through. his brother has been to the top of everest 5 times now. any how he is solid. i wont even begin to tell you about our new Chinese investigators! man they are so cool. so right now we are teaching allen johnny and chao (Allen and johnny of course are not there Chinese names) it is so good to teach people as sincere as them. i fear I'm beginning to catch the same obsession that elder Jacob has for teaching them. although it is not yet to his point where he was signed up to learn Chinese we he goes back to BYU. Johnny became Christian in China after the JW's knocked on his door. since he came here he realized that the JW were not the religion he should be part of but is really happy meeting with us. i think he is going to love the plan of salvation. he made a great (what i hope to be) prophecy. he said, 'my fathers generation was the one to bring business success and money to China and my generation will be the one to bring religious freedom.' in all honesty i can totally see it happening. look at how many missions around the world are baptising the Chinese students who are then going home and preparing the way. remember my last Sunday in America when we went to the farewell in California of the guy that was going to Scotland to speak Chinese? its such a happy thought.

i need a huge favor. someone please give Jared Call a huge hug for me. that guy is awesome and although i never had contact with him while he was on his mission he has had a great influence on me over the past two years he as been out.

don't forget the sun screen

Love

Elder Solomon

Upside Down

Dear Family,

You really are the greatest ever, have i ever told you that? i really think that you are. Seriously though i couldn't be more happy being in any other family in the world. i was looking at some pictures today and i just thought to my self, dang you have a good family. and it is all because of the totally awesome parents i have. Take mom for instance, i think the only time she thinks of herself is when she is... never mind she never thinks of her self. and Dad holy cow look at how hard he works to bring home some bread and then he gets home and grabs some tools and puts them into a wheelbarrow and goes to work, sometimes he comes in when the sun goes down and other times he just grabs some flood lights. Did i mention my older brother? basically he is a stud drudging his way through life standing strong with a hope in a brighter future and a trust in god which is unfailing. (I'm sure his equally if not better wife helps with that) then my cute little brothers. they are just so cuddly and nice i just want to pinch their little cheeks and squeeze them. man I'm lucky.... i need some money. don't kill me dad but the other day i lost my travel card and the mission will not reimbursed me for it. i feel asleep on the bus and woke up just in time for our stop and ran off the bus. it was only when i was trying to get on the other bus that i realized i had left the card on the first bus. im thinking about changing my name badge to Elder Idiot. Seriously i think i have set a record i have lost a travel cad and left the keys at the flat three times once i even left them in the flippin door. anyways it will be about £90-£100, i think that soon with all my forgetfulness im going to become the million pound missionary. i can just see dad shaking his head in shame right now by the way day i laughed at your email toady when you said the da-- rabbits cause here it is more then ok to say damn i dont know how many times i have heard i it in church which reminds me of when i was ordain to the office of elder when i sarcastically asked dad if he remembered my full name and he replied 'Yea its Brighton Damnit Drew Solomon' haha so funny!! i love you dad

Hayes is going really well right now... kinda. We dropped almost all of the investigators that we being taught previous to mine and Elder Jacobs arrival so we spent the whole week walking around town center looking for people to teach. it was really fun but by the end of the week i was gettting really tired of it. thank fully it has begun to pay off cause we are teachin more now. this week we had Khouljaneng TouThang come to church and finnaly get confirmed. Ziggy we only have seen once in two flippin weeks. that one time brought good news cause his girlfriend moved out. but he did not come to church this week so we have to wait another week to confirm him. We had the oppurtunity to teach a Chinese student the other day and i am totally converted to Elder Jacobs love for them! Allen was so humble and polite i was speechlessly impressed so willing to learn and so sincere. and he LISTENED such a wonderful attribute for a student to have. Being the Lords investigator right now that is one that i need to work on a bit more. We had our president interviews this week and it was awesome. so because the whole mission is going to be turned upside down we ended up having a good talk about what he expects us to focus on as we train the new missionaries and learn how to be leaders. it was really good to talk with him and learn what he think we need to focus more on as missionaries. i thought it was interesting that he didnt say obedience or dilligence or baptisms or finding hours it was learn to recognize the spirit. ah what a great thing! he also talked about deepening our pool of knowledge so that we can draw from a deeper well as we teach. then effectiveness. Brigg here is an important note. It is all about the numbers. the more time you spend finding the more new investigators you have, the more investigators you have the more people you have at church. the more people at church the more people with a date the more people with a baptismal date the more people that get baptised. the more people baptised is the more people that are on the right path to salbation!

ok so it looks like i owe ya'll (or yous as they say here) some chocolate. Sheldon i did pick up on that SUBTLE hint that you are jealous of kassidee's chocolate but to that all i have to say is ask her how much she has written me :) so next week ill try to put a package together and send it on down for easter

i have found that my experience on a mission has been a bit different then others. people say that you stop getting post 6 months out then start getting it again when you have 6 months to go.. that hasnt been that case with me, after 3 months it virtually stopped but after a six month break im getting it all again. which i am thrilled about!! i just hope it continues. (thanks mikalieX2, kassidee and sister thompson)

keep strong and stay away from Nepalese curry (trust me)

Elder Solomon

Your future is as bright as your faith

First dad i want to tell you how impressed i am that you were able to chase down a teenage girl IN HER TERRITORY!! Spot-on good chap, I felt really proud to be your son. Its not an easy thing to do dodgeing in and out of computer stand, gobsmacked onlookers and over priced food stands. I want you to know you're alright in my book. i still tell all my friends and companions 'my dad is better then your dad!'

ok so how great was general conference?! i totally loved it, esspecially Elder Bednars talk, the whole thing was an answer to a ton of different questions i didnt know that i had. so had some dissappointing news this week. ziggy recently baptized not yet confirmed is now living with his girlfriend.... yea awkward. but other then that we have had a great week

Elder Jacob is freakin awesome! its like he just got done being and AP. one of the funniest things is that he is completly obsessed with chinese people!! our chapel in hyde park where the mission affice is is right next to the Imperial College where all the rich chinnese people send their kids to get a higher education so the aps spend all of there time teaching them. it is really good, because of the chinnese government they are all completly innocent and their minds have not been tainted by the world and false religious ideas. supposebly they are all receptive to the spirit and keep all of there commitments, also they ask great questions such as 'why do i always have this warm feeling when i meet you guys here?' totally cool!! i laughed the other day when elder Jacob was on the phone with one and they discibed the Holy Spirit as 'warm jelly'. Bless there hearts.

I learned so much from elder Siddiqui. mostly patience and temperance. I really have learned how to have a cool head in stressful times and do things one bit at a time. instead of getting stressed out about things that are out of my control, identify the best solution and take the necessary steps to achieve it. I have found that i have enjoyed my time much more since then. I love the proverbs i invite everyone to read and study them. i hope to be the 'wise and prudent' person it often describes. i feel that Grandpa Solomon was the best example of that. i miss him.

dad good job with the funeral. i knew that it would work out for you. i just hope now that some snot nosed missionary from Idaho will knock on those peoples down and they will remember the feeling of peace they had at the funeral and they will have a desire to learn more.

the gospel is like a Chinese buffet, it is delicious and it doesnt matter how many helpings you get you can always get more.

how about that little bit of wisdom?

Brigg i was delighted to recieve your email i really miss going on hikes so enjoy your next one extra for me. dad told me about the chicken that gave you bad gas and i laughed so hard. so this past week was a tight one on expenses and i had nothing to eat in the mornings but toast and baked beans.... poor companions. hey eat preach my gospel read the doctines and principle in the lesson over and over and over and over again. then study the scriputres in them then read them again.if they are stuck in your mind you will have no problem teaching them in the stressful first weeks out. Dude i need a huge favor k? Newt Wilson i think he still goes to mp get an address from him so i can write him He is coming to my mission and im so excited about it! if he doesnt come get it from bro ashby he should know it... i hope, if not there is always facebook:) if you do this i will send you some english chocolate k ? deal love you bro!!

Elder Solomon

Transfers

Abbey

Neng

Ziggy

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ok so we have had a great week here in Hayes! the best part was that we finally had our baptisms. Neng and Ziggy were both baptised adn it went great. i also had to give a talk in church about the signs of the second coming. it really sucked, im not use to teaching like that anymore. elder Siddiqui and i had a really fun week i dont think i stopped laughing the whole time. so when we got a call from President Patch on Monday we were a bit disappointed to learn that he is going to be a zone leader in Lea Valley. At least he is going to die in a great area! my new companion (the eighth one now) will be Elder Jacob from Utah i think? so he just got released from being the assistant to the president so he is really good. one promotion and one demotion.... I'm hoping to learn alot from him. it looks like i'm going to be here in hayes for a while now so here is my address if you havent got it yet

22 hinhead gardens

northolt

Middlesex, UB5 5AS

so you can have a look on google maps, Preston dont be too jealous this is the smallest flat i have ever been in and it need a fippin cleaning. i found i have became intollerant of messy rooms (mom dont faint it is true)

well i have to run off to an appointment now, sorry but i didnt get to read any of you emails since i am crunched for time.

take care

elder solomon

P.S. I saw in the mission presidents office that Elder Newt Wilson will be coming to the England London Mission. Not going to lie i was soo freakin excited it will be almost five years running that a missionary from queen creek will be serving in the mission of apostles. some congradulate him for me!!!

DRAMA

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ok how is it going? im glad to know that dad at least is doing well i cant say much for the rest of you cause i didnt hear anything.

Hayes is a trip and what i feel is a frying pan. I'm beginning to see that the Lord does have a purpose in every thing that he does and i am learning more an more about the differences i have to make in my life. so this week Elder Siddiqui and I have three different roes after which he would not speak to me once for twelve hours. i have decided that if i have a fall out with my wife (if that ever happens) that i will do what ever i can to make it right as soon as possible because living with someone in complete silence while avoididng eye contact in hell. The first two were petty disagreences about interpretation of rules and priorities. both times i kept my temper but held my ground and in the end everything just blew over and it was all right. that was not the case yesterday. We were suppose to have a baptism after church but ziggy did not come for sacrament meeting so we did not start the water and the baptism was not announced. unknown to us at the time ziggy was going through a lot of stress and pressure so he didnt want to come. in the end he decided it would be great to have a little bit of peaceand go get baptised. well when he got there late bishop decided to cancell the baptism for 'logistical reasons' as he told me and because ziggy was not wearing a white shirt as he told my companion. then he told us that because of the schedual of the ward we could not do any baptisms until the 16th of April so we have to change 3 other peoples dates also. so ziggy when he was told he cant be baptised today had enough and left crying. my companion gets easily stressed out and he got on the phone and began pouring gas on the fire. soon the zone leaders and the ap's were involved the high council and the stake presidency all got calls and the mole hill became a mountain. i kept my cool through it all but on the way home from church elder siddiqui had a shouting match with the zone leaders and he got even more upset and then he pushed me to far and began shouting at me. it doesnt matter what was said but it is a miracle that he did not turn violent when i rebuke him for using inappropriate language. We went home and eat in silence and sat for a couple of hours. it was so wierd because i wanted so bad to just have a proper fight and get another emergency transfer but i didnt have the bottle because i got physcially ill and could hardly stand. i spent about half an hour on my knees trying to pray but i never started. once i had finally cooled down i went in to apologize. for me the most amazing thing began to happen as i was saying those magical words 'im sorry' i felt overcome with love for elder siddiqui and even though trying to apologize was like hugging a cactus i did it. he tried to cut me off several times saying he didnt want to talk or hear it. when i was done we went out to try to find. of course he was still upset and could not even speak. so we had another call from the zone leaders which turned into another shouting match. one of the zone leaders lost his temper and told elder siddiqui to just go home. so he was dead set on the suggestion and told them to come by later that evening to pick me up so i wasnt alone anymore. by this time i have no idea what to do. after a while the zone leader calmed down and talked to me adn we left it at that. elder siddiqui set up some appointments to say goodbye to some people. as we were walking to them he completly opened up to me and told me of all his frustrations, how he doesnt understand how our mission works, how he doesnt feel comfortable teaching in english yet and how every missionary heres has judged him and he feels that he is just figting against all odds. That conversation was one of the most spirit guided i have ever had. i believe that if i had not made the choice to apologize even though i felt that i was not in the wrong he would no longer be here and i would have a new companion today. i learned alot of lessons yesterday about judgeing and loveing. it feels sometimes that i am walking around with a grenade in my bag and that things could explode at any moment but im glad that at least now i understand a bit more where he is coming from. Since then the phone has been ringing almost constantly with people calling to understand the situation a bit more but at least we are talking again. i fell that the emergency transfer is like a pop quiz that was totally unexpected. patience and temperence, these are two of the most difficult virtues to learn because in the procces many people can be seriously hurt. like elder bednar said it is just best not to lose your temper in the first place. im just glad to know that these are all test from the Lord and that if He wants me to learn something He will get me through it if i stay close to Him. i hope and pray that every thing will go well this next week, Inshala (God willing in Arabic)

Elder Solomon

Dad,

thank you so much for your email i really hope that all went well with revy's funeral. i have heard you speak by the spirit so many times, i know that you did well becasue you we humble and relied on the Lord. let me know how it went.