This Has Been a Tough Week

            Hey there family!

            Well goodness this has been a tough week.

            We did some service yesterday which was good, and I am finally getting over this little cold of mine.

            However, Elder Badger is coming down with the flu, and chances are [we] will be inside for the rest of the week.   I might go nuts!  I have been studying a lot today, but I am so dang bored, haha.

            Anywhoooo, things are going well.  Hopefully we can get back to work soon, or I may lose it haha.

            Well I love you guys and I hope you get back to me soon.

Love, Elder Purdy

later online with Michael:

            Is [Elder Badger] getting better?  Are you feeling better now?

            Yeah, I hope he will get better soon. I feel fine now.

            You OK? A little down?

            Yeah, a little but its good.  Missions aren’t meant to be easy.  I’m learning a lot.  I just miss being normal sometimes.

            I know exactly how you feel. Don’t worry too much about “being a missionary.” Sometimes we add so much pressure to the calling. You are doing great. Being a good missionary and working hard does not mean being miserable. You are allowed to enjoy the experience. You are learning a lot. You are trying your best. You are drawing closer to God and understanding his word. You are learning about people and how to teach. All of that is amazing.

            Be happy, work hard, but enjoy the experience. You are doing great and there is no part of this that is supposed to make you feel like if you are happy you are not serious enough. Does that make sense?

            Makes perfect sense.  I will enjoy myself. I’ll find ways.

            Missionary work is not easy, but it is not meant to be drudgery, either. Sometimes we can drive ourselves crazy with the idea that, no matter how hard we try it is never enough. That is only a path to discouragement. Those who enter into God’s service should be of good cheer and proclaim good news. Don’t let things get you down. You are amazing. Just stop and smell the roses once in a while. Recharge your batteries. Enjoy the sunshine (I assume you have some!). Most of all, know you are loved more than anything and thought of every minute of every day.

Testimony of the Book of Mormon

            I had a really cool thing happen this week.  This happened the same time Elder Badger got here.  I just finished reading the Book of Mormon and I have been thinking about it a lot.  One time we were talking about the Book of Mormon and I told him that I had just finished it.  He asked if I had prayed about it yet and I said no and then he said, "Well, let’s pray about it right now."

            When he said this, I got kind of mad because he had

annoyed me.  But nonetheless I agreed and we both knelt down and I prayed about it. Well after I had asked if it were true and what not I closed the prayer and then I sat at my desk again. After like 30 seconds of just sitting quietly the spirit just full on embraced me and I started crying really hard, and I mean REALLY hard. It felt like I just had the warmest hug in the world. It was one of the coolest experiences.  

           So that just goes to show you that the Lord works in mysterious ways. . . I strengthened my testimony of the Book of Mormon through a prayer with a companion that I don’t always see eye to eye with on everything. Heavenly Father decided to really humble me. 

           

New Companion

 

            I am still in Southend, and I got a new companion.  His family moved around a lot so he isn’t really from any particular place, but he is American. And he has been out a little over a year.  Things are going well, he is a good guy, and I think we will be getting a few investigators soon. So that’s good.

            It has been hard taking over this area and scheduling every meeting and every lesson we have, but I have been doing it because Elder Badger doesn’t know anybody yet. It has been tough, but I'll get the hang of it.  It doesn’t help either that I have a terrible cold.  I have been pretty sick this week but I don’t want to just sit in the flat so we go and work.  Work is the best thing to do when you are having a tough time.

            The work has slowed down a ton since I have taken over unfortunately. On Thursday we got lost in this rural country part of our area and we ended up walking like 4 miles out of our area, but I WILL get better at planning and stuff, even if it takes my whole mission.

            We play soccer every Saturday here and I love it.  I am getting decent but I am still pretty bad.  I found some cleats in our flat that fit me perfectly so I have been having a good time with that.

            Anywho, pray that we will find some good people to teach, and pray that this dumb cold will get out of my body.  I hope you guys have been doing well. LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH.  Thank you for raising me in a proper manner where I can actually contribute to conversations in a pleasant respectful way.

            Love you all, Adios!

 

lost somewhere in farm land

 

Goodbye to Elder Murri

 

            Well Elder Murri is leaving Southend.  He is going to St. Albans zone which is like North London. So this is going to be an interesting day. I will let you know who my new companion is when I know.

            Nothing really new has happened teaching because we really haven’t been teaching many people.  We have that Luchiana lady, and another lady named Debbie.  Debbie is getting baptized this October and we haven’t really seen Luchiana in awhile.

            We spend lots of time with members trying to get them to give us referrals. President Jordan has really been stressing this so hopefully we will see some cool stuff happen soon.  The ward is slowly but surely warming up to the idea.

            It is starting to get a little colder here.  It’s still really nice but there is a noticeable difference. The days are a bit darker, but the temperature in the afternoon is perfect.

            We got fed REALLY well this week. People took us out to a carvery 3 times. I’ve never been so full in my life.  It was like Thanksgiving for a week.  I guarantee that will never happen again on my mission.

            I had a gay guy hit on me this week.  He said, "Take me by the hand and lead me to Jesus.”  That was interesting.

           

 

Teachin'

Carb Loading

My cooking is getting a tad bit better. I can make pasta and stuff like that now. And I make a mean batch of mash, which usually goes along with some take and bake Yorkshire pudding. And cereal of course -- that’s a staple food right thur.

Hooray for the Spirit!

Hey there friends and family,

            It has been a pretty good week for me. The way we have been doing missionary work has been changed pretty drastically.  President Jordan has really wanted us to visit with members, to strengthen them and get referrals. And quite honestly that is pretty much what we did all of last week. He told us to be more creative and to not just go to town centre when our plans fall through. So we saw a ton of members and lots of less actives as well. It was good. We need new investigators really badly though. We lost a lot of ours.

            However, we have a really really solid lady from Brazil. Her name is Luchiana and we had a good lesson with her on Sunday. She was telling us that she knew the church was true when she attended it in Brazil but when she came here she kind of lost it.  She was never baptized but hopefully we will keep making good progress with her. During our talk we got her pretty excited about prayer and what not. I am really stoked about it.

            This is probably my last week with Elder Murri. Transfers are a week from Wednesday. I think that’s the 19th. I really don’t know who will leave and who will stay. It might be either. Either way I think I will be happy.

            Things are getting a bit colder now. It will be interesting to see how I cope with autumn and winter, seeing how I haven’t really been around them for a year.

            All the anti stuff has pretty much stopped. Now we are just having trouble finding people to listen to us. I guess you trade one problem for another. 

           

            A cool miracle happened this week as well. We have an investigator named Linda. She is a British lady who has been investigating for like 6 years and has never gotten baptized. She is really really nice and she KNOWS the church is true but for some reason keeps flaking out on baptism. We went to teach her a lesson on Friday. But the lesson we planned just didn’t feel right. So it was just kind of small talk most of the time. But at the very end of our chat something told me to invite her to be baptized on the 23rd of this month. So right before we left I did...And she got really wide eyed and kind of went silent...which made me kind of nervous. But then she said that she had been thinking about that exact same date!! Hooray for the spirit!!!! Hopefully we get her dunked this time.

            Love you guys,

            Elder Purdy

I Am Way Stoked on Member Finding

            Hope you are all doing well. I am doing just great. 

            We had lots of meetings in London in the first half of the week.  On Wednesday I went into London and I saw all the people in my MTC group which was fun. And we had some good uplifting meetings there as well. President Jordan again stressed the importance of member finding, so Elder Murri and I really tried to get into it this week.

            Most of the members here live in a town called Rochford, which really is kind of your classic British Township, and we went up there a lot this week. In particular we met with the Bowen Family.  I love those guys so much.  It is a family of 6 boys and a mom and dad.  We pretty much just talked to the oldest son and the dad. They hadn’t had missionaries over in like 2 years so it was good to get over there. Because we went and saw them they want us to help baptize their 9 year old son! So I am way stoked on member finding now.

           

Love you guys

Elder Purdy

an internet photo of Rochford's main square 

Juice and Jollies

On Saturday Elder Murri and I spent like 3 hours in a Naval club .... it was actually really fun. We went right after a football game so lots of people were in there getting their jollies in.  We played pool and talked about the gospel.  It was the easiest finding ever. Everyone tried to buy us drinks too, and we ended up with some orange juice haha.