new week, new transfer, new companion

First and for most! We had two baptisms this week!! YEA!!! Susie Jones and June Tapper. So let me tell you about them. Susie is basically the coolest person I have ever taught. She reffered herself to the church. for like 4 years she has not gone to church because she got kicked out of her last church for being a single mother. so she began emailing churches asking if they accepted single mothers. we got the message invited her to come by and she came and was blow away by the spirit. Basically for four weeks in a row every talk and every lesson given at church was tailored (by the Spirit) to her specific needs and concerns. Her and I are currently racing to read the book of mormon and we are both stuck on Jacob chapter 5. our lessons with her are completly amazing she knows the bible better then anyone i know and in fact we had her teach us a lesson last time and the whole time elder smith and i were taking notes. She is the first person that I found, taught and baptised in one transfer. Then there is June. June is from South Africa and basically came here to live off the social system. But she is lovely and super kind. She was introduced to us by her friend in the ward and the teaching process went great. we had to push her baptism date back a little cause she could never get up in the morning. but now she has been for a month in a row so she is in the swing of things. She is most excited about doing family history work and when we brought our family history consultant to her to teach her about it she asked him if someone could go to the temple every day! Her son is Barett he is a full grown man at the age of 17. He really loves us and the church the only problem is he spends 12 hours a day on the xbox and the other 12 sleeping so he has no time on Sunday to get to church. but we are working on him and he really wants to get baptised before i leave and he goes into the army. he is a great kid. just loves sleep more then church. It was Elder Smiths last week. kinda sad. we spent most of the week traveling to and from teaching appointments and did about half as much work as we normally do in a week. We also had to travel to the other side of London (back to Ilford!) to get a baptism dress big enough for June! But we have a really good week set up this week. Big news by the way. I got a call from President Patch yesterday. Next transfer he has asked me to be te district leader. I was realy surprised by the call and tried to get out of it but he wouldnt let me. He said he has been training me for this for the past six months. As well I will be training next transfer. Im super nervous about that but i got some really good advice from yous so i just have to give it a read again! Who ever my next companion is is lucky cause of how good the area is doing right now! we hopefully will be having three more baptisms in the next six weeks. so he wont have to wait until nine months to see his first baptism like me. And we are getting on really well with bishop now! in Elders qourum he took five mintues to tell everyone how good we are and admonished every brother to come teaching with us! He said that we were the hardest working missionaries he had seen in the four years he has been here. this is a huge progress seeing how when i first came bishop was cancelling baptisms and the high priest group leader had told everyone not to help us get people to church! Bishop even invited us over for dinner this week! I really hope that things keep going this well. Elder Jacob taught me somthing that I really focused on this transfer. He said 'how you are in the valleys of your mission will determine how high the peaks are and how long they last' i miss him. He did a lot of good for this area and for me. Oh i also found out some good news! Three people that i found and began teaching in Ilford and now since been baptised! basically I've had a really good week.

hope y'alll are doing well. and i really hope that qc doesnt end up in the burn:/

love Elder Solomon

Life is Amazing!

it was so good to hear from y'all this week. dad i really enjoyed your email! i had to laugh when you told me about Preston and Hilary's dog. it sounded like it was something you weren't to bothered about but mom said to mention it then you did then you talked about Brigg's new pig as if it was the coolest thing that had happened this week! I was surprised at how sad i was to hear about the Forrest fire.... that sucks you mentioned that the hikers dogs were like fried chicken and i got hungry.

We have had a really good week this week. i had a companion exchange one day with the current assistant to the president. the reason for it he said was to have the 'birds and the bees talk'. i was confused until he told me in not so many words that I'm going to be training. i kinda rolled my eyes and said to myself 'not this again, watch i going to have another dying companion next transfer.' let me share with you some of the high points and low points of the week

• Amber had her roof collapse on her and had to miss an appointment cause she wasn't feeling well.:(

• Amber has been trying to give up tea and coffee for a couple of weeks now with out us teaching the word of wisdom cause she wants to be baptized. :)

• Amber went to Greece for the week:(

• June passed her baptism interview and is geared up for her baptism this Saturday:)

• We don't have a baptism dress big enough for June:/

• Susie passed her baptism interview and is ready for this Saturday:)

• Susie told her mother (who is completely against her being baptised) that she would rather obey God's commandments then make her mom happy:)

• One of my favorite investigators has been disowned by her family for turning her arranged marriage husband in for beating her :(

• Bishop gave us a huge complement in PEC for how well we are doing.:)

• President Patch invited Barett (Junes son) to be baptised and now he is more determined to work for it.:)

• One of our Recent Converts from Iran brought her husband to church for the first time and now he wants to be baptised.:)

• A Chinese student stopped me in the street and asked me if i could teach him about God.:)

• This Chinese student wont be back from China until September:(

and the end of the day we had a really good week. Bearing in mind that incremental progress brings great success let us press forward searching for ways to accomplish our tasks rather then allow excuses to facilitate failure.

Love you all!

Elder Solomon

A really good week

hey family,

we had a really good week this week. it was good to hear that you did also. kinda crazy but Elder Smith reached his two year mark and i hit my year mark. Can you believe it? i cant.

This week was stake conference and the first presidency did a broadcast for allof the uk and ireland, it was really good but unfortunatly i missed most of it. Susie Jones came her two kids and they we completly boisterous and crazy. she was getting absolutly nothing out of the service so a quarter of the way through i got a bit tired of every one lokking at her like she had a problem so i took the kids out and played with them is an adjacent room. so i missed the majority of the broadcast. i really hope she enjoyed it though. amber also came. Amber is quickly becomeing my favorite person ever. partly because she is chinese and partly because she is so flippin sincere. she really enjoyed the broadcast. oh and by the way we had a Baptism!!!! i didnt know this but bishop organized that Anibal get baptised after stake conference! the service was great... i think? i didnt really understand most of it cause it was all in spanish! but it was really good and a bit emotional for his new bride cause she had been waiting 13 years for this day. ill attach so pictures.i really dont have much more to say then that. i didnt take time to properly think out what to say in my letter. Oh mom i forgot. i had a chat with president patch he said he would extend my mission but the church will not extend my visa. i was wondering if it was possible that i could get a 3 month holiday visa? could you look into that for me?... when you have time i guess.

Again a big congradulations to Brigg for graduation! i got the announcement this week. i was so good to see the mustang ;) i loved that car. Brigg i think you are growing up thats a bit crazy. i had this crazy dream last night that we were serving together in england. not going to lie i was really excited, then i woke up... that was the saddest part of the dream.

well my well of inspiration has run dry and i have nothing else to say this week. kinda helps that i don't have a email to reply to

love elder solomon

Wasted Anticipation

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So it was really good to talk to you all this week end, i loved hearing each of your voices and being able to recognized everyones right off (except Hilary its been about a year more then everyone else that ive talked to her) it was also a very plesent surprise to speak with nana, paco, grandma solomon and kassidee. each of you said something that i needed to hear at this time. i honestly havent been able to stop thinking about our wonderful conversations. In fact im still trying to recover from the lack of sleep. i finally crawled into bed around 12:30 but because my mind was so occupied i could not fall asleep for another couple of hours.

Moves calls came yesterday and it turns out that i will be a junior companion for the first 13 months of my mission. Ill be serving with Elder Smith who just got released from being a zone leader. He is English so hopefully i will pick up a bit of his accent :) i killed off my trainer, i killed off elder jacob and im going to kill off elder smith also. and to be honest i probably will be killing off me next companion after that! i am a bit put off about being junior companion again, i got my self all syked up and ready for a young one. so it turns out that all this anticipation was wasted. i guess there are still some changes that i have to make and some lessons that i havent quite learned yet bofore then. we my time is super short today cause we are teaching chinese students all day instead of taking a pday so i have to go.

love you all

Elder solomon

Parcel

ok i got your letter telling me that you will be sending a package in may. food really isnt that necessary but rrecipes would be nice. also i have some special request that have been on my mind lately that would make my life if they were included

teeth whitening stripes.

that foot medicine for my flesh eating bacteria (its back with a vengence)

Reese :)

New foot inserts (i have walked through my other ones but if you cant get them i can manage for a while i just put another sole over them)

no golf balls ( i have enough)

AA batteries (there are almost $5 for one here!)

there was something else i know it........

your refried beans, salsa, tortilla,(im just dying for Mexican food) and bread dough recipe

take care love you alot!

ps dad because of your email last week i went a bought a souviner mug for the royal wedding

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