Online Discussion with his Dad

Hey Dad are you there?

 

I'm here kiddo. How are you?

 

HEY, I’m good.  We had to run to the church, so I can email for like 10 minutes, how are you?

 

Good. So good to hear from you. Sounds like life is pretty good in the UK. Are you happy?

 

Yeah, it’s going well. I'm pretty happy. The only problem is like half the people we are teaching never meet with us!! It is driving me nuts!

 

That's very normal. Just remember that working hard and caring a lot doesn't mean being miserable. You are great.  Are you stressed?

 

No I am not stressed, things are good.  I just get bugged at times.

 

I know. Very frustrating. Just remember that they have their choice. Yours was to go and try. You are doing great with your part. Just stay happy and try. What others do is out of anyone's control.   Have you made friends in the mission?

Yeah. Elder Murri and I get along well, and the members in Southend are really good. We hung out with a couple yesterday that I am really good friends with. And there are some other people as well.

 

That's great. You are really amazing and a great example of how to do things right. So proud of you.
 

The Book of Mormon musical is coming to London.  That is going to make things very interesting for me.

 

I know.  I am working on what we will say.  I am told that in NYC it created a lot of interest for missionaries. Hope that is true for you.   Btw, I will send some talking points today. Hope they help. Let me know if I am sending the right topics.

Send me things on:

   Science and Evolution

   Bible and Book of Mormon working together

   Ways to combat atheism

   Shaky Joseph Smith things

   How to build righteous character
 

We get lots of questions and stuff on all of these.

 

I will do my best.  I know if I was searching for truth I would want to hear it from you.

 

By the way, I was reading some D&C and it said something about the church being condemned for taking the Book of Mormon too lightly.  Is this still true today?

 

I hope not. Maybe early on they didn't know just what they had. That may be true for some still but I hope not. To me there have been many people who started churches even during Joseph's time. The thing that sets us apart is that book.

Oh yeah and somebody asked us why all Mormons are Republicans.  What do you say to that?

 

I say they are not. With 14 million members you find diversity within the church across the spectrum--race, politics, nationality, ethnicity, and in opinions on almost any topic. What unites us is a desire to follow Christ.

Cool cool, that about does it.  I gotta go.

 

 

Hadleigh Castle

             Today for P day, Elder Murri and I are going out with a part-member family that we are really good friends with. Honestly it feels like we are just hanging out with them every time we go to their house.  I love those two.  Their names are Dave and Charlotte.  We see them once a week probably and we always end up staying over an hour.  

            We are playing some basketball with Dave today, and then we are going to a castle that is right outside of Southend with the two of them later on today as well.  It’s called Hadleigh Castle.  We pass it every time we go to London so I am stoked to finally go see it.

            If you watched the Mountain Biking events for the Olympics, that is right by Southend.  [The Mountain Biking event was] right by the castle and is probably a 20-minute walk from my flat. So if you saw that you saw where the castle is and where I am.

            I’ll take plenty of pictures.

from Jen:

This is from the Olympic website about the mountain bike venue in Hadleigh Park:

"Located in the Essex countryside on land owned by the Salvation Army, Hadleigh Farm is a 550-acre site that features beautiful grassland and woodland.  It also includes the surrounding countryside of Hadleigh Castle Country Park.  Hadleigh Farm offers some fantastic terrain for mountain biking, with gradients measuring 70 metres from top to bottom."

Check out #7 on the map below to see where Christian is.    

Hadleigh Castle overlooks the Thames estuary.  It was built between 1215 and 1239 then rebuilt in the 1360's.  It stands in its current condition today primarily because of the unstable clay hill upon which it was built.  Several instances of land slippage and the sale of its stonework in the 16th century have led to its present state of ruin.

President Jordan is the Man

           We had another very interesting week last week.  We had to drop like 4 of our investigators, but hey, things are still going well.

            We finally had a breakthrough with a lady named Luchiana. She is from Brazil and her husband is a member. She really liked the church in Brazil and was probably going to get baptized, but then she met her husband (who is English) and they moved over here.  We got her to come to church yesterday and we are giving her some of the lessons.  She is a super cool lady and I really hope things work out.

Christian:  "Spending hours on High Street
every week was getting obnoxious."

President Jordan:  "So what?  The devil can
quote scripture too."

            Zone conference went really well last week. President Jordan is the man.  I was talking to him about all the anti-Mormon stuff and how all these people were quoting scripture at me, and all he said was "So what?  The devil can quote scripture too." I thought that was pretty funny, but all he said to do was to ignore all of that stuff.

            What the mission is really pushing for now is working with members to get referrals and also help them teach their friends about the church.  I think it’s great that we are starting to do this, because spending hours on High Street [every]week was getting obnoxious. However most the members here are kinda shy to talk about the gospel.  I can’t say that I blame them.  They get a lot of crap for being Mormons. But most of them have been pretty open with us thus far.

            This Saturday we played some football (soccer) with some of the members here.  We got absolutely destroyed. We looked like fools, but it was still really fun, and we got a referral out of it as well. I am so out of shape.  It’s terrible.

            We got fed really well last week.  I had shepherd’s pie 4 times last week!!!! at 4 different houses!!  It was very nice of people to feed us, cause we kind of ran out of money --haha.

We Can't All Be Lion Tamers

We added a new investigator.  He is a street clown.  His name is Salvo -- Salvo the Clown.  It’s kinda creepy teaching him when he is in the clown makeup and what not. But hey, who am I to complain?

 

Brotherly Advice

Tell Liam to ENJOY his senior year, and tell him to get into some mischief for heaven’s sakes.  Because before he will know it those days will be gone and then he will be just like me, where the most mischief you can get into is reading Jesus the Christ when you are supposed to be studying.    HA!

           

Jog On

           It is going pretty well this week.  We are having lots of return appointments. The problem is getting the people to actually turn up to the return appointment. (sigh)  We went finding a lot.  As a matter of fact we had 25 hours of just trying to find new people.  We got 10 return appointments, but 9 of them never showed up to that return appointment, so that was kind of disappointing.

            None of our investigators came to church yesterday. So we didn’t really have a class.  It’s kind of sad.  We worked really hard and nobody came -- but hey that’s life, I guess.

            It is hot out here.  It’s like 30°C with 60% humidity – it makes wearing proselyting clothes unbearable! It’s crazy.  I had no clue England could get this hot.  It kind of crippled the work too because people here dress very "casually" when the weather is warm.

            We gave out a baptismal date to a guy named Tom on Friday.  We had a super good lesson with him.  The Spirit was SO strong I almost got choked up a few times. He is super cool and he really likes what we teach him. Hopefully he will read the Book of Mormon.

            Once again I would like to talk about the Book of Mormon.  It consumes all of my study time because it is so good. I mean, if people would only read it. It answers every question people have about us.

            It’s all good out here in the UK.

            Jog on,

            Elder Purdy

Satan Don't Kick No Dead Dogs

           

                This week has been crazy.  There is way too much stuff going on. It feels like I have been fighting for my life.
 

            There is this whole Anti-Mormon stand that is set up every day on High Street, which makes talking to people rather difficult. But it has made things fun at the same time because now I study really hard so I know my stuff, because they always try and ask us questions that contradict ourselves and what not.  It’s a very competitive environment. It is honestly crazy!!!!
 

            However don’t get me wrong.  We work and try and talk to people as much as we can.  I really don’t like talking to the people that are just trying to tear us down so we try and avoid them as much as possible. But no matter how hard we try to avoid them we are always running into conversations with people that end up with Elder Murri and me defending ourselves. They are everywhere!  We can’t step a foot outside of our flat without somebody stopping us and trying make us sound like idiots and bash the heck out of us.
 

            Elder Murri and I got really upset Thursday night about all this stuff going on, and we called President Jordan. We told him about all this stuff, and he showed no sympathy whatsoever. He said "Satan don’t kick no dead dogs" and said that we should use all of this stuff to our advantage, to work hard, and show faith.  Then he said to call him when we did that.
 

            Well after all of this had happened I read this scripture in D&C 123:16 which says: “You know, brethren, that a very large ship is benefited very much by a very small helm in the time of a storm, by being kept workways with the wind and the waves.”
 

            That is powerful stuff!  Being kept workways by all of this crazy opposition. Let opposition push you to be a good missionary.
 

            Anywho I am learning a lot in my studies now. Whenever people question our doctrine and what not I always use the Book of Mormon.  The Book of Mormon confounds them so I study it a lot. 

Meow

A lady asked if we could baptize her cat a few days ago. We really didn’t know what to say. We thought she was kidding so we laughed.

 

But she wasn’t kidding.

 

Working, Studying, Talking, Planning

            Elder Murri and I are doing quite well. We get along just great. We have been working really hard this week and we have a very good teaching pool -- lots of people that are ready to hear the gospel. It is fantastic. I didn’t end up needing to get a new suit! A lady in our ward sewed it up beautifully, thank goodness. The members here are great.

 

            I am still reading the Book of Mormon for most of my study time. I really am trying to get to know it well -- like the back of my hand well. I honestly think that it is THE deciding factor in conversion. I love it!

 

            President Jordan instituted a few new rules in the mission. We can listen to classical music now, so Mom, you should e-mail me some stuff. He is making some pretty cool changes to this place. I am really excited for what is going to happen this transfer.

 

            I am trying to get better at talking to people on the street. We do that for a good portion of our day. I have been trying to be more effective and make it a bit more interesting. I have been working on being an effective planner as well. And believe it or not, I actually really enjoy planning! I wasn’t the most well-planned out and organized person at home but I am really growing to like it.

 

Love you

 

The Ocean

I love and hate looking at the ocean every day.  It makes me think about surfing and friends.  It’s good and bad at the same time.  There is an old guy in our ward who used to be really into scuba diving, we talk about that a lot. So in two years I want to learn how to scuba dive.   

P-Day

Helloooo,

How are ya'll doing? Today was my P-day because we have moves tomorrow. I am not moving anywhere though, so my address will be the same. Elder Murri my companion is district leader now so now I'm just kind of his assistant.

We have lots of investigators going into this new transfer as well so it is going to be pretty fun.

The bad news is one of my suits ripped....some lady in the ward is fixing it but it may have to be retired. We will see when she gives it back to me. Everything else is holding up great though.

The Olympics are still a big deal here. Elder Murri and I are always getting very cheeky comments whenever GB gets a gold. From my understanding they are actually doing quite well, which is good.

The food here is great still. I don’t think I am ever going to get sick of the usual -- chicken, peas, five assortments of potatoes, and Yorkshire pudding all drenched in gravy – which is good because we have that a lot.

Love you guys. Hope you liked your trip.

Elder Purdy

Baptisms!

         

            Our baptisms were yesterday!   We baptized Christine and Mark. Chris got baptized by her brother, and I baptized Mark.  It was great. 

            When I dunked Mark under the water he really wasn’t expecting it, so when he came back up he was coughing haha, but it was still spiritual.

            Mark bore his testimony. It was really really good.  Here is an excerpt of it.

            “Simply put, the ultimate meaning of our lives is to love fully – that is, we ought to have love towards everyone we are connected to.  This obligation to love implies the ability to love. Faith tells us that God is love manifest; He who embodies unconditional love.  Loving God is in and of itself the process of learning to love. Doing thus, we learn to understand and love others. . . . "

            It was a really neat experience.