+1 for Jesus

Me and Elder Sheppard with our self tailored shirts...after this picture,

I flexed and tore the shirt!

My zone

Me and the Nicols family

Serveanvaran (Varan) Navaratnam at his baptism

Me and Elder Sheppard just before he died (went home)

OK What a week let me tell you about it. First Vent Time. OK so Elder J started his mission in the Manchester Mission but needed a knee surgery so had to go home for a bout 3 months. that was four months ago. then he was reassigned to our mission. So i have had tons of dreams throughout my mission of me being home for a brief holiday then returning to the mission field. I didn't want to but it just happened that i was there. so he like lived one of my 'dreams' and now i get to hear all about it. i don't mind to bad but he is practically engaged with a professional volleyball player who he gets two letters a week from. Honestly it wasn't that big of deal. but because one of his last companions liked it Elder J likes to interpret his letters and dictate them to me as i am studying. Whatever. I cant wait for them to get married and have tons of kids who eat apple strudel on their weinersnitchel. I got a call from President Patch while i was on an Exchange, Basically telling me that he put me with Elder J cause he has confidence that i can keep him under control. Elder J is great he is tons of fun and there is never a dull moment with him. A great man once said you have two ears and one mouth, use them proportionally. I think Elder J got that mixed up and them inversely. Its kinda funny because i think he is use to people stop listening to him after the first couple of days and he has tried to tell me stories that do not coincide with each other and when i call him out on it he says 'oh you were listening'. English people dont really like braggers and people that only talk about them self. Elder J is great at that. so Now we already have one family in the ward that wont talk to us...

Vent time is over

So i got to have a companionship exchange this week with the Assistants Elder Scruggs came to Basildon with me and we had a blast of a time. I really miss serving with him he is such a stud. We had a great time finding together.It was really cool to see how he has grown as a person and a missionary over the eight months since i was last with him. Earlier in the week while finding i was in the town center and rudly rejected by a not-so-sweet old lady. right after that i turned and talked to a sweet young lady pushing a stroller (or pram as they are called here) She was really cool and we were able to set up an appointment with her. mean while her crazy 4 year old son began climbing a tree. When he was told to come down he grinned and began licking the tree? (British children are loco) Anyhow later on in the week we went by her home to teach her and found out that she is golden as the egg laid by the goose in charlie and the chocolate factory. Amazing! so she now has a baptism date.

OK Highlight of the Week !!!!!!!!! Varans Baptism!!!!!

I was so excited for this day cause Varan is super solid and it one of those great example definitions of one who has been converted to the gospel. The font was a bit funny to fill up cause the hot water is to hot and the cold water is to cold. so i fillied it up half way with hot water then turn on the cold.... and then forgot about it. Well we were all dressed in white ready to go the spirit of God like a fire was burning. then as we all moved to the font i remembered it was still runnning so i ran and shut it off then went to the font to see it near over flowing. well by that time the cold water had overcome the hot water.... to cut a long story short i said the baptism prayer really quick and Varan didnt have to make any effort to hold his breath. The shock of going under the cold water did that for him. Well it was great he was on cloud nine after the baptism. the best discription he could come up with was that he felt light headed. He bore a powerful testimony at his Baptism about the Book of Mormon. His third time openingin the book he knew it was true from the witness of the Spirit. then he gave my favorite quote of his 'Everything about the gospel is here to make us happy' oh how lucky i am to be a missionary and experience these great things. Then on Sunday we confirmed him. The look he gave us after the confirmation was the Greatest. he looked up at us like we had just poured a bucket of cold water on his head. Complete Awe is all i can come up with. After we lifted him out of his chair he absentmindedly shook our hand and with his mouth still open and eyes wide he walked down to his chair in his own little world. He had a similar look when I ordained him a Priest in the Aaronic Priesthood. Later in the day we saw him walking down the road by himself with a smile on his face just enjoying the companionship of the Holy Ghost. ( I love my mission)

Not to end on a bad note but the low point of the week was when i got lost driving back from Ilford and got wrapped up in an intense story Elder J was telling and had my picture taken by a speeding camera.... not happy

Well after reading the email you sent me i feel like i have nothing to complain about. So is there something in the water in QC that is causing and these cancers to come about? Why do people still live there. Am i going to come home and find ya'll with three eyes and four arms from some genetic mutation? (not to make light of the situation.) My Heart is drawn out to Natalie, and the Hahns. They have been such and wonderful support to so many others i guess now it is their turn to recieve that support. Brigg I have a feeling that you wont see this but i love you and im so excited for you to get your call. (I'm praying for England;)

I have to say i have had an amazingly spiritual week. My studies have been bang on (English phrase) and i have just felt the presence of God so near. I know God lives. I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ brings happyness. I know God cares about our families. And I know that through the Gift of the Holy Ghost we can be constantly connected with the Godhead who rule all that is.

Love,

Elder Solomon

New glasses, new companion

Hey Ya'all

Tell you what i had a great week. It was really sad to see Elder Sheppard off. I'm not sure if I have be more insynch with anyother companions then with him. But he had to go the way off all the earth. My new companion is the perfect foil character for Richard Sheppard. Elder Jankowsky's name is Polish FYI but his family has been in Austria for 5 generations now. He is the youngest in his family and followed the family tradition and played as a proffesional footballer (soccer player). He has more confidence then anyone i've every seen and is immune to social barriers. some times this causes offences but more then not it gets the desired result. He has perfected the flirt to convert method and has a powerful testimony. I think i have a lot to learn from him. He refers to me as a Work-oholic and often will sit back and watch me stop people. im not to bothered about that cause he isnt my first companion to do that. What does bother me is that the whole time im working i dont see any positve results but when he does help me that is the time that we do see results. I really dont understand why i am such a bad finder. I think i have it figured out though. If i work as hard as i can a miracle will happen and we have success just not from our own efforts. I can just see Heavenly Father sitting up there watching me. shakeing His head in pity saying 'Well Elder Solomon is working hard. Lets throw him a bone' However it works out. Fine. as long as people are getting baptised. We have baptism coming up this week!! Im a bit nervous cause i will be baptising him. Varan is his short name He is from Sri Lanka so his name will be something rediculous live Sarvasvaran Navaranthi. Anyhow im honored to do it. he has been taught for a while but has progessed the most these past couple of months since he decided to quite smoking.

you'll never guess what happened this week. I blew out another pair of Trousers. Just today I was climbing over a chair and slipped when my companion nugged me. split the seam from the bottom of the zipper to half way up the butt. I'm not impressed that is the third suit i have ruined so far. My comp has a nasty brown suit that i think i will buy for £20 from him.. so What colors go with brown? I have officially walked through both pairs of shoes that i came out with now and have accumilated more ties that i would wear in a year when i go home. So i fit in the ranks witht he rest of the seasoned missionaries. Oh by the way did i tell you that i had to get glasses? Since my junior year of football when i got knocked out when i blized on a pass play and the FB pick me up, my eyes have gotten worse at night. well when i started driving i noticed that i could not read street signs because of the glare. so i got some glasses. So yea almost everything about Elder Solomon is changing.

Well that work is going great we have 5 people now that we are preparing for baptism. Super cool.

Brigg I hope and pray that you can get into the mission field as soon as possible but at the same time i hope to see you again before you come home in two years so pray that you can come to the ELM!

Sheldon love you bud! keep working hard. remember to focus on the important things. Hey how is dive going? i havent gotten any updates.

Will some one please give grandma and nana a hug for me? also apologize for me for not writing them back.

Cheers Elder Solomon:)

Fingers crossed and God Willing

what a week. tell you what church was so amazing. Elder Sheppard, Bishop NICHOLLS (not neilson but nice 2nd try) and i all spoke on missionary work. it was a wonderful experience cause we had a handfull of less actives and investigators there. That is really funny that Bishop called you! how cool what a great guy! So Highlights of this week. I think im getting a grip on teaching with the spirit. A year and a half ago if you asked me i would have said that the greatest feeling in the world is overpowering someone else with your momentum and smashing them in the ground right before they can throw the ball. I have had a bit of a change of heart and now i would say the greatest feeling is listening to someone's concerns and fears. Listening to the spirit then saying exactly what they need to hear as directed by the spirit. Absolutly amazing! So i think i told you about Joy a couple of emails ago? the lady with 17 german sheppards? So we decided to randomly pop by one day and it happened to be the worst day she had had in a long time. Well by the end of the meeting she knew that God loved her and was proud of her. I love makeing peoples day. Elder Sheppard goes home tomorrow :( super sad i have gotten on so well with him it is a bit unbelievable. For the last week of his mission he decided that he wanted to beef up a bit so he had me be his personal trainer. this guy has like zero percent body fat so after a few days of using an elastic band to work out his arms are looking quite nice. Honestly it is incedible i'll have to take a picture before he leaves.. he is going to have all the girls hanging off of his arms in a few days.

ok so big news transfers are this week! I will be getting my 12th companion now. Elder Jankoski will be my new companion and he is a bit of a funny story. he began his mission up in Manchester but went back home for a couple of months then came back to finish his time here in the ELM. I will be his last companion with makeing him the 6th companion that i served with in their last six weeks. Can anyone blame me for being trunky? half of my companions have been missionaries who next companion will be an eternal one. Anyways Elder J. has quite a reputation. It is really sad but i have not heard a positive thing about him yet. Elder Sheppard was not happy with the call and asked the assisitant why. he response was ' i don't know. i know that president is inspired and he has great confidence that Elder Solomon will be able to keep him in line.' What that is suppose to mean i havent got a clue. I'm really excited for this transfer though cause some really good things are going to be happening. We will be haveing (fingers crossed and God willing) three baptisms in the next month and out of the five wards in the zone we have 12 baptism dates set.

i was a bit down the other day and i realized something that i already knew. I have had very littel success by my own efforts on my mission. the the only time that i ever really have success is when miracles happen and the Lord just drops a bit of gold in my lap. I've seen the harder i work the worse the rejection gets (which was my initial fear of serving a mission) but also the harder i work my self the more i am blessed with rays of sunshine. take for instance Bedford for six weeks i didnt do anything (well very little at least) and i didnt see a single miracle that transfer. Hayes I worked my tail end off and miracles were dropping out of the sky, but not of my own effort. There is a lesson to be learned here.

I love the gospel. One scripture that i have been sharing alot with people is 2 nephi 10:23. i was studying one morning reasons why the Lord has told us to be of good cheer. the reasons include

1. the atonement

2. the chance to serve a mission

3. the gift of agency

2 nephi 10:23 says something along the lines of Therefore cheer up your hearts for ye are free to choose for yours self, Everlasting death or eternal life.

What a wonderful thing to cheer about. God have given us the ability to think, to reason for ourselves and make a choice. I'm grateful for a Father in Heaven who loves me enough to give me this oppurtunity. For a Father who has confidence in me that i will be able to make the right choices and reach my potential. In grateful for a Father in Heaven who trust me enough to allow me to walk by faith.

I'm not sure how this transfer will turn out but i know that there is always something to be learned. Please pray for me that I'll be able to learn whatever God wants me to learn and that i will be able to make a difference in some souls life.

Love,

Elder Solomon

Glory, Glory, Hallelujah

Hi y'all

its good to hear that all is well on the home front. Mother thank you for the kind words you sent on to Sister Jones she was quite complementary of you. She's great isn't she? I had such a good week this week i wish i had four hours to tell you! so early this week i went on a companionship exchange in Ilford and loved it! i got to see most people i wanted and got tons of good work done. I got to see my old companion Elder (brother) Sam Siddiqui and also i got to see my first son in the gospel ( well that is what he feels like to me) Sanjay. He only had a few minutes to see us on his lunch break which is awesome cause now he is working. It was touching to hear his testimony again and he gave a bracelt from India. its a cultural thing for them to tie a bracelt onto the wirst of a really close friend so i was quite honored. it is a cute red and gold braclet with little flower. Then this weekend was Amazing. One of our district leaders is Elder Machen from El Paso Texas. He was in the MTC with me and if im honest he was the only missionary that i didnt like. Well that all changed after the first day i came here and we had a district leader council. So we had an exchange friday to saturday and i had a great time. He told me all about how he thought i was self righteous in the MTC I was a bit embarassed but then he said that the he saw that i had the most potential the do the most good once out in the field i was humbled by that. Elder Machen has made some major changes on his mission and being around him i was able to learn so many things. I think that is one of my favortie part about being on a mission, learning from other peoples experiences. So then on Saturday we had a Leadership meeting in Watford that we left for at 0600. that was a bit hard cause Elder Machen and i stayed up well past midnight the night before talking. Anyhow the meeting was a special one becaue we had two area 70 there and President L. Witney Clayton of the Presidency of the first quorum of the seventy there. it was qutie amazing. He spoke mostly of seeing the bigger picture and looking at things witht the eye of faith. Then of course all of his wifes remarks were concerning the next life. stuff like marriage and raisieng kids.... blah. however i was quite impresed by her she was using words that i didnt even know exisited. to say the least she was educated. the best part was the Area Presidents wife Sister Kopicika (i think thats how you spell it) she had a thick Bulvarian accent and was talking the whole time about being 'wizitoers' which is vistiors. it was very difficult not to smile because it sounded like she was saying wizards the whole time. anyways it was inspireing. When we got home we visited Joy properly for the first time. all the other times we came by she was to occupied with her 17 german sheppard. So we had a great appointment where we talked about our purpose and the investigating process. and the end we said a prayer. during the prayer she gasped and after she commented I felt someone give me a cuddle there!' well Elder Sheppard was praying so i knew it wasn't him and i know i didnt sneak over and give her a hug. so as we were standing on the doorstep on the way out we identified with her the witness of the spirit and invited her to be baptised. she excepted! So now we havbe that out of the way we just need to teach her everything else that comes with the gospel! Sunday morning we didnt have anyone schedualed to come to church which was a bit sad. especially when Bishop Nicholls asked if had had any investigators coming. my shoulder shrunk and my eyes droped to the floor as i said no. then durning the opening hymn a lady from Angola walked in with her two kids. she was real confident walking right infront of the stand that i thought she was just a member that i had not meet yet. Well we proceeded to have and amazing testimony meeting. The Stake president is in our ward and his father passed away this week so many people bore their testimony about the plan of salvation. the best was when a disabled lady stood at her seat and rather then go to the stand just shouted her testimony from her seat. it was so good. Come to find out later the lady that came in had been living by the church for ten years and had been trying to find her faith in Chirst for the whole time. she went to various different churches but nothing could satisfy her hunger. till over the past two weeks she had this prompting to come to our church. during the week she came by, wrote down the name of the church and found on the internet the meeting times... Her hunger was satisfied she loved church and we are going by later today to teach her and HOPEFULLY Inshala (God Willing) set a baptismal date with her.

yea so things are going well.

love Elder Solomon

ps funny story. every one that i saw in Ilford said the same thing. ' man! are you ok? you look horrible. hove you been sick?' I guess i look like i have lost tons of weight... i kont know i feel fine

I'm a licensed driver! Watch out!

Hi there Sorry im late getting this email sent. Monday was a bank holiday so all the libraries were shut down and we couldnt get to one. Anyways big news on my part! I am now a fully qualified British drvers license holder!! YEA!! thats a ton of stress off my back. i know enjoy driving down narrow roads with blind turns and round-abouts at every corner. its ok though cause these little egg shaped cars are well equipt for it. We had a pretty good week. I had to travel back to Hayes for my test so i got to spend another day with Elder Brower. He was so happy. it seems like Hayes kinda fell apart since i left but its all cool now. i only spent one day with my companion all week and that was Sunday crazy huh? we had a ton of companionship exchanges that we had to do. I really enjoy doing exchanges you get to learn how other missionaries do work and take the best from each one. i spent my time with new missionaries while Elder Sheppard went with there senior companions. i had a really humbleing experience. One of these new missionaries has asked President Patch if he could go home. President told him to wait it out for a bit then they would talk again. We had a good time together and i kinda forced him to participate a bit more then he normally does. then it came to do some finding. i was finding like mad putting my whole heart and effort into it trying to set a good example but i just keep getting rude rejection after rude rejection each time they got worse and worse. after 45 mintues i wanted to sit down and cry. This elder hadn't stopped a single person. In frustration and a little dessperation i turned to him and said Elder this is getting really hard for me i can not do it by my self please help me. for the rest of the day he had no problem stopping people. he was actually motivating me to do the work! now he is the humbleing part. As hard a i worked that whole day we only found two people and the other missionary stopped both of them. I learned a really good lesson when a scriputred i had read cam to mind 1 corinthians 3 5-8 'Who then is Paul. and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have plandted, Apollos watereth :but God fave the increase. So then neither is he that plantedth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the Increase. Nowq he that planteth and he that watereth are one; and every man shall reviece his own reward according to his own labor.'

I have learned so much from this scripture let me make it brief

1. Who the is Paul? or rather who then is Elder Solomon? Im not anything more special then an instrument through which God reaches to his children. (which in its self is pretty darn special)
2. I can plant and sow and water and prune and sweat and cry and find and teach and tract but it is God that gives the increase. Like dad said in his letter. true conversion only came come through the testimony of the Holy Ghost which is given to man by the Lord
3. Every man shall recive his own reward according to his own labour. Although some aspects of the gospel can be very algebraic (reading the scriptures=learning, or praying sincerly=coming closer to God) some are not I can not say if i teach 40 lessons a week i will have seven baptisms. its doesnt work like that. God has in reserve his own blessing/rewards which He will give me according to my labor. What it is (or who she is) isnt for me to worry about. I just need to do my labour and trust that he will up hold His end (which he always does or he would cease to be God)

anyways it was good. I really enjoy being a zone leader. I feel that the Lord is increaseing my capacity to serve and fill my responsibilites. Thank you for your prayers i can feel your support. I didnt think i was special enough for President Patch to send a letter to ya'll but that is cool i guess. i hope it wasnt like the first one i got from him

Dear (insert missionaries name here),

To say the least i didnt feel special.

Love you all!

Keep strong and do it. do it right. do it right now!

Elder Solomon

hey y'all

it was good to hear for yous. big things are happening this week! i go for my drving license test tomorrow. it is the hardest drving test in the world so i would really appreciate a few hail mary's in my behalf. I've had a good week with its ups and downs. one day i was in so much pain because of the knots is my back that i was getting physically ill. Elder Sheppard (bless him he is a Saint) gave me a back massage for like two hours. my back was so bad that he had to use a rolling pill and a broom handel to work out the knots. my back is so tender now it feels like i got hit by a train but at least the muscles are a bit more loose. unfortunatly i am right out of time cause i have the Assistants calling me to get the Key Indicator Reports for the week. Im doing well and miss y'all (whenever i think about it)

Love

Elder Solomon

It's a RIOT

Hello family,

ok i dont know where to start. riots arent much of a problem anymore. its really just an excuse for teenagers to smash things and get a new TV. And also minorities to complain about there situation (id be pretty upset to if the government gave me a house, food, transport, and a brand new TV without execting me to work for it) I had a work over with the Assistants on Tuesday it was a really fun experience. If you remember Elder Scruggs (my companion is Iford?) he has been the assistant now for three months. One of his companions is Elder Boer from Italy. Now Elder Boer was trained by Elder Gallagher (like me) but has never served in the same zone as me. In fact this whole time i've been on the mission I have seen him but four times. He has been wanting to serve around/with me this whole time. So when he was assigned to be an AP the first thing he did was organize a work over. It was an incredible experience. although we only knew eachother from the mission reputation it felt like we had been serving with eachother for 6 months. I learned a ton from him and he really influenced how I do things. He was completly complementory the whole time. (i think people have been lieing to him telling him that im better then i am). anyways i enjoyed it. We picked up an new investigator this week. Jake is English, 18 years old and grew up here in Basildon. he is a great kid the only problem is that he had extreme OCD, which prevents him from touching people, stepping on drains, entering unfamiliar buildings, and being around crowds of people. No of which helps him get to church. He really wants to meet with us cause he rightfully believes that finding God in his life can get him over his OCDs. We have had some really good lessons with him and I look forward to teaching him more. Basildon is going to be good. Normally it is a really good productive area but this year it has kinda died out. There is a ton of pressure on me to turn it around which adds to the stress of everything else. I'm feeling quite overwhelmed but optimistic. Elder Sheppard (not Spencer, mom ) is an excellent missionary, the only problem is that he is dieing and drags his feet. We have been quoteing Emperors New Groove to eachother this whole time. at the end when the gaurds are chaseing Kuzco the potions fall on them and they all turn to different animals. the quotation is as follows

Guard 'umm ive been turned into a cow, can i go home?'

evil women 'your excused. anyone else?'

other Guard ' no no were fine'

Evil women 'then get them!!'

Elder Sheppard sympithizes very much with the poor cow. It has become the zone joke.

prayers are appriciated i hope y'all continue to do well

Love Elder Solomon