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.

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)

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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

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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