High Hopes and Big Plans

            This week was one of those everything-falls-apart-but-you-have-to-hold-your-head-up weeks.

            First off, it is so hot here -- and it’s way humid as well.  It’s good because people are out on the street, but I always feel so drained.

Anyways I will go from day to day:

Tuesday:  We went out on the streets finding and knocking on doors for 5 hours.  We had 2 appointments but they both fell through and nothing really happened.  Not really a wonderful day.

Wednesday:  Found 2 really cool people, one named Candeece.  I stopped her on the street, and she was kind of rude when I asked her if she believes in God.  She said "No, and I never have" and really seemed like she just did not want to talk.  But I just asked her if she wanted to go sit on a bench and talk. She agreed for some reason and we had a wonderful lesson with her about the love God has for us.  She said she wants to believe but doesn’t know how.  We showed her Alma 32 and testified.  We got a return appointment and parted ways. After that we went to Letchworth and tried to hunt down some less-actives.

Thursday:  I had my district meeting.  I gave a training on how important patience is in this work (something I had to learn a lot of this week). It was really good and we had some lunch after and then went back to our areas.  Once again Elder Torbit and I had a few hours of tracting and finding, and then we went and sat next to a duck pond where we made some calls to some members and former investigators.

Friday:  We planned for the week to come and we went to Letchworth again.  Some homeless guy stopped us and said he was the son of God and wanted to give us his blessing.  He put his hands on Elder Torbit’s head to give him this blessing, but we kindly denied him and told him we had business to attend to. Also we saw lots of black squirrels.  Apparently the area around Letchworth is known for its black squirrels.  Pretty cool.

Saturday:  We helped a less active guy paint his house and we had some lessons with some less actives.

 Sunday:  We went to church.  I gave a talk in Sacrament Meeting on the Plan of Salvation, and we had some dinner with the members.

            Mick and Hearten our investigators are doing well.  Mick had a hip surgery and we were unable to see them, but they are doing good.  I am excited for this week.  We have high hopes and big plans.

Love, Elder Purdy

Frustrating Work

           Where does the time go? 

            This week flew by!

            I have felt pretty frustrated because this area has a lot of potential.  Lots of good things could happen here, but we just don’t seem to be making them happen.  I feel good about the things we are doing, but I am not being very patient about how fast the work is moving here. Just gotta keep plodding along.

            We were in a place called Letchworth Garden City a lot this week.  It’s a pretty decent-sized town, and we were finding a lot of people.  We set up lots of appointments and then they all canceled or just didn’t show up. I hate that.  If there is one thing I cannot stand in missionary work, it’s hosed appointments -- and they happen every day, I swear.

            We did get one new investigator this week. Her name is Nicole.  Her parents are from Ghana I think, but she was born here. She believes in God but doesn’t have a church to go to.  Bingo. We were talking a lot about God, how he loves us and is our Heavenly Father, and we got on the subject of Him having a body.  She disagreed.  I showed her some wonderful verses in the Bible and blew her mind! God definitely has a body, how could Moses talk "face to face" with a God that didn’t, and if bodies were not so important, why did Jesus Christ need to be resurrected? The church is true. We are created in God’s image.

            Anyways, I worked it out ... and I have not been eating much for the past 3 weeks or so.  I haven’t really noticed, so my goal for this week is to eat 3 meals a day! I think before that I was eating one or two. So this will be good.

            Imma go play some badminton.

Love Love Love

Elder Purdy

Some Busy Days, One Tempting Offer, Many Wise Words

            I have been so busy it has been unreal.  I have started to just miss lunches because we are constantly trying to just get things done here. It has been one tough time.  It has been good, but really tough. We spend so many hours on the street just trying to get some appointments. What a journey!  99% of our investigators are Jamaican, which is pretty interesting.  We are going to be adding some colour to the Hitchin ward fo sho! All of our investigators are pretty interesting.  One of them named Hearten is like 55, from Kingston, and she’s really cool.  She likes the missionaries a lot.  In fact, she called her family in Jamaica and handed me the phone so we could talk to them, haha.  It was really funny.  I had a nice little conversation with her family on Jamrock.  She came to church as well and really enjoyed it.

            An African lady asked me if I would marry her.  She wanted a husband really bad and preferred me, apparently because I was a man of God.  Can’t really blame her can you?  Nevertheless, I had to turn down such a tempting offer.

            I sure do love this country. It  feels like home.  Shakespeare can say it better than I ... so here you go:

This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,

This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,

This other Eden, demi-paradise,

This fortress built by Nature for herself

Against infection and the hand of war,

This happy breed of men, this little world,

This precious stone set in the silver sea,

Which serves it in the office of a wall

Or as a moat defensive to a house,

Against the envy of less happier lands,--

This blessed plot, this earth, this realm,

         this England.

            "King Richard II", Act 2 Scene 1

Wise words indeed.

            Elder Ballard surprised our mission and came and spoke to us yesterday, hence the late email.  He talked a lot about how people do not know the nature of God, they don’t know who he is, or their proper relationship with him, and that we are here, as a reflection of God’s love and God’s glory, to bring it to them. Really powerful – that man is definitely inspired by God.  One thing he said that I liked was “You don’t know the person who God knows you are.”

            Very true.  God has a plan for us that will allow us to become something more, to reach something.

            Things are good here.  We are working hard, very hard, and I really want to see the fruits of such labor.

Love,

Elder Christian Purdy

Hump Day!

There is a saying about missionary hump days:

"The first year was for you -- 
          to learn and grow and reach
This second year is for others --
          go and do and teach." 

On June 6, 2013, Christian made it over the hump!

Good Things to Come

Ahoy!

            Crazy crazy week.  It is hard to plan for an area that you are trying to build up from basically nothing! It has been hard, frustrating, fun, and adventurous all at the same time. Our plans this week are pretty free. We have a lot of finding to do up here. I was going through the area book up here and most of the former investigators were Jamaican, so I am excited to try and get in contact with some bruddahs.

            My new trainee is Elder Torbit from Texas.  He is a swell guy.  He is fresh off the plane from America so he is still getting used to the time difference.  I think his feet hurt a lot -- we have done a lot of walking during our few days here. He is an all right guy and I hope we get plenty of things done together.

            Church this Sunday was good.  Hitchin has a big ward -- 130 active I believe, which is a really good size. They all seem pretty missionary-minded.  I am excited to work with them a bit more and get to know them.

            One thing cool thing this week happened on the first night we got here.  Other missionaries from around St. Albans zone called us and we got like 5 referrals -- on our first night!  So this week we are going to try and go hunt them down.

            I was reading in Hebrews chapter 9 verse 11 where it says Christ is the High Priest of  “good things to come” and I really loved that.  How true it is that the gospel helps us see that there are always good things to come through Jesus Christ, no matter our situation.

Cheerio

Elder Purdy

It Will Be Fun to Build an Area From Scratch

On his P-day we were on the computer the same time as Christian and we were able to get a few more details from him.  Here are some excerpts from our on-line messages:

On Hitchin and the area:

            Hitchin is beautiful -- lots of cobblestone.  I like how it is more diverse then Kent, which really isn’t that hard.  It seems like most of the former investigators up here were Jamaican.  It will be fun to just build an area from scratch.

            We are just exploring it. 

            The ward is OK -- 130 active! They all seem very nice and willing to help, but they all live pretty far away.

            I am still very lost, haha. 

            There are  9 people in my district -- 1 comp of sisters in Stevenage, 1 trio of elders in Stevenage, and 1 comp of Elders in Harlow.  Everybody is training in my district!

On his feelings about this new change:

            Traveling here was so stressful!  I had no idea where to go.  We got home at 11!!! And lunch was my first meal after 24 hours.  It’s an adventure.

            I am feeling it all -- happy, sad, excited, nervous, everything really.  Just how it goes, I guess.  I do feel like it is good for me to be here, though. 

            Things are just crazy right now.  I don’t know where I am or what I am doing, haha.  I think things will be fine.

            Our plans this week are pretty free haha.   I don’t know where to work.  Plans for the day are get groceries, call members and former investigators, and plan.  We will go finding a bit as well.

            It has been quite a ride.  It’s fun.  I still miss G2 a lot, but I am glad I left as well.  Lots of mixed emotions, but it’s good to be here :)

            It’s crazy … hard, fun, difficult, all sorts really.  

from Jen:
          He also gave us his new address so I was able to find it on Google maps street view.  This is Grove Road in Hitchin.