Norwich Pics

Here are some pics.  Love youuuuuu

"the Norwich city wall from ages ago"

The East Anglian Federation of Racing Pigeons

            Well, that title sums up my week – a bit strange.

            Tuesday we had Zone Conference, way down in Colchester Essex. President Jordan gave a wicked training on the Great Apostasy. That man is soo smart it is unbelievable. Talked a lot about the things that changed and the things that were lost in the Great Apostasy, and then he talked a bit about how Joseph Smith received revelation which blew my mind!  All you have to do is read the chapter heading of D&C 7 ... I think it’s 7.

Athletes of the sky

            It was a very good meeting, after which I went on an exchange with Elder Adams in Great Yarmouth. It was a fun workover. He is from South Africa. As we were walking around we saw a big lorry that said “East Anglian Federation of Racing Pigeons ... Athletes of the Sky.”  It was pretty legitimate – I’ll send the picture.  

            Also, while I was there I had a lovely conversation with a lady on the bus. I just said hello and it turned into a good gospel conversation about families. The Lord works in mysterious ways.

            I stayed there until Wednesday night and then went back to Norwich.

            Thursday we worked really hard but it just did not seem like things were working. We were happy that we worked hard but it was just one of those times where you wish you knew what to do.

            We also saw Emma. She is as good as ever – loving church, so excited for her baptism and her understanding is pretty good as well. It’s crazy to watch the Lord work in somebody like this. You can just see their happiness, confidence, everything just increase for the better. She is great.

            Friday we made some plans – lots and lots of planning – then went up north and saw some LA's. In Norwich town centre a Christian man gave us a laying on of hands and some blessing and commanded us to feel the spirit. Really weird. I didnt know what to say when he was done hahaha.

            Saturday was a ward activity that we went to. I love Norwich ward, they are fun. I have some good friends up here.

            Sunday we went up to Cromer. Every month a member who owns a bed and breakfast has a sacrament meeting up there at his B&B. All the northern people who usually don’t make it down to Norwich come. It was very spiritual. I passed the sacrament to them all and bore my testimony on how as we have faith in Christ there are good things to come in our lives no matter who we are. There are always going to be good times, success, and happiness as we boldly have faith in our Saviour. It was good, and something I have been thinking of for a long time.  He truly is the Light and the Life of the world.

            Well, I love you all.

"I am Covered in Sunshine"

Hello hello,

            Man, what a week – fast, busy, rainy, cold, and everything in between!

            Well, may I just say Emma, one of our investigators from China, is golden. She is amazing, and our Chinese teaching pool keeps multiplying and replenishing because they keep bringing friends. We may have to rent out a theatre or something soon. Jokes, but yeah, it’s getting pretty crowded. 

            But Emma is so good. She reads the Book of Mormon every day, she prays, she understands things so well, and is very much looking forward to her baptism on the 9th of November. We had dinner with her, her friend Neil, and some members on Saturday and had a good time. At the end we shared the Restoration DVD in Chinese. Afterwards we asked them how they felt. And Neil put it very simply by saying, “I am covered in sunshine” haha. They came to church the next day and it was good.  We are seeing them three times this week – another dinner with more members, I believe. The ward really likes her. So I am over the moon about all of that. 
The only put-off for her was when we showed her the baptismal font at the end of church yesterday and there were like 10 dead spiders in the bottom.  You could tell she was kind of concerned about that haha.  Woops.

            We had a couple exchanges this week. On one of them I went to a place called Lowestoft on the coast – really nice town.  I was with Elder Bright who is in his third transfer. We had some powerful lessons. One was with a lady named Carmen. She has investigated for a few months now, loves the Book of Mormon, but hasn’t been able to stop smoking. We really didn’t know where the lesson was going while we were with her. She got really mad about how she is so stressed and how she doesn’t really want to come to church and all these things. While listening to her I felt really prompted to just tell her to relax, so I did. And I kept going on about how the gospel is there to help us find peace, and that really she doesn’t need to get all worked up about things in her life and that she needs to look at all of the good. Boom! The spirit was there and it was powerful. She looked at us for a second and then I said how she just smokes because she is stressed and if she just relaxes a bit and enjoys life she won’t smoke. Hit the nail on the head. I am so grateful for the spirit. It can literally fill our mouths in the moment we need it. We just need to be worthy and listen.

            Other than that this week was up and down. So much is going on and we are really trying to get this zone to reach its full potential. It is certainly a task but we are working at it.

            Here are a couple pictures of the meals I have had this week. I didn’t know what else to take a picture of.

Elder Purdy

New Address

answer to Michael’s e-mail:

            Yeah, I have been traveling around a lot up to the coast. I am traveling much much more this week though. So bring it on!  It’s fun, but I have a lot of responsibility.

            The ward here is huge. My companion has only been here for three weeks so we don’t know anyone really, but we are getting there. A couple of people thought I had already been there a month haha. Shows how much they paid attention haha.

Here is my new address:

3 Wilks Farm Dr.

Norwich, Norfolk 

NR7 8RG 

England, United Kingdom

Lighting the World With the Gospel

            Blimey!

            I will start with a very delayed Happy Birthday to my pal Natedog Jessee!

            We worked hard this week, and saw some cool things happen, but we are still trying to build up. Our teaching pool is a bit less than desirable. But we are changing that, talking with errrryybody. That’s all it takes. 

            We had a zone meeting about that actually. No matter where you are just talk to people. It is amazing the situations the Lord puts you in that can lead to something really powerful. By small and simple things, I suppose. I think the missionaries liked it.

            Yes sir, this week went by fast. Tuesday we met a very nice man who had lost his glasses and was looking for them. We offered to help and he was very happy for it. We talked with him as we helped him and he said he was a Christian and wanted to get more into it. He was stoked to find out we were missionaries and invited us to his home later in the week. We never found his glasses, but a couple of days later he phoned up and was screaming at my companion about how we were going to hell, that our works couldn’t save us and that we were nothing but a cult. So needless to say, we never tried to pop by. Yikes!

            But we found a lovely investigator named Emma. She is Chinese, from Beijing in fact, and is studying at the UEA. We talked with her about God, who He is and how we can communicate with him. And as we prayed she asked how she can be baptized. Bingo! She is prepared. She came to church on Sunday and brought two of her friends Neil and Jennifer. They really enjoyed it. We should be teaching all three of them this week. You could tell that the light of Christ was burning in them, especially during the hymns.

            On Saturday we went up north to a place called Mundesley to visit a lovely sister who was feeding us our evening tea. We were tracting around her house beforehand and we found a very nice piece of pavement. We walked down it and right before our eyes there was the North Sea! Really really pretty. And there were actually waves. Oh man … it was magical. It made me want to paddle out. We took a picture and breathed it all in then went back to tracting. It was a tender mercy for sure. There is a place in my area where people surf called Cromer, so I want to go tract around there haha.

            By the way, the food we had was your classy English roast food and for pudding we had some delicious orange chocolate and almond cake. I don’t know how to describe it, but it was out of this world.

            On our way home from that lovely dinner, our GPS got us wayyy off the beaten path and we were cruising through some one-lane road through some forest. We got home somehow but it was an adventure haha.

            Things are really cooling down here – rain  rain rain – but it’s good. We are lighting the world with the gospel. This week will be good. Another week of building the kingdom!

            What an exciting time to be a missionary. The work is hastening, missionaries have been flooding in. Last month our mission had 40+ baptisms, which is really good for us. It is good to be here.

Love you guys.

Take care,

Elder Purdy

Norwich, Norfolk

from Jen:

I looked up Norwich and learned that it is in the East Anglia part of Britain.  That area has been inhabited for centuries by many different people – Celts, Romans, Saxons, Vikings, Normans, the French, and many groups of friars.  And now it is inhabited by … Christian!

Other assorted facts:

Norwich lies on the River Wensum, 
It has a medieval centre of cobbled streets.
Norwich has historical as well as modern/contemporary architecture.
There is a 6-day open air market.
It is the county with the lowest crime rate in England. 

Annnnd there you go.

the open-air market

the keep at Norwich Castle

Answers to our Random Questions

from Michael: 

            Tell me about your flat, your comp, your new investigators. Is being a ZL different?

            Well, we don’t have a flat, we have a house hahaha.  Yessir, front garden, back garden, whole kitchen – it’s nice .

            Elder Doudou is from Berlin.  He is good and he helps me work hard.

            Being a ZL is very different. Lots more to do. Have my own phone, travel way more than I ever have, but we see really cool miracles as well. I like it.  I feel like I know a lot more now on how the mission runs.

            All of Norfolk is in our zone – Kings Lynn, Gorleston, Thetford, Dereham.  And Cromer, the only place to surf in Norfolk, is in my area haha. Norwich is huge – much bigger than the other areas.

            There are 20 in my zone – three companionships in Norwich including us.

           

            Any others live in the house with you?
            By the way, how do you pronounce your comp’s name?

             Nope.  Elder Doudou and I have the house to ourselves haha. It’s really nice. We have a room completely dedicated to ironing hahaha.

            Doodoo

            

"Narich"

Hello from Norwich, 

            Well, I must say, I do like it here. The city is really cool – lots of history.  It’s huge and there are tons of people.  There are two massive cathedrals – one Anglican, one Catholic. And Norwich Castle is right in the middle of the city.  Some of the ruins from the wall are still in the city here and there. It’s a funky place.

            We don't have a flat up here we have a house haha, so it’s nice having a back garden and stuff. It’s a nice place to live.

            The accent is a mix between farmer and I don’t even know what.  It’s different. Not everyone has it though, just the proper Norfolk people in the country.

This picture was taken at King's Cross where I saw Elder Torbit.
The guy is a stud.

            Well, when we switched companions in London it was “go” right from the start. We drove up to Norwich which took 4 hours, we unpacked my bags, then we went and had two lessons with some of our investigators. The University up here, the University of East Anglia, is really big and we cover it.  We try to get lots of young YSA. There are tons of Chinese people and they make up a big part of our teaching pool.  We taught one of them named Luke who really has no belief in God. It is so weird trying to teach somebody that really has no background with ANY belief. You really have to simplify things a lot, but I have learned a lot about teaching from these lessons. They are so cool. Helping these people see who and what God is, what creation is – it’s nuts. But the spirit is so strong in these lessons! They are cool. We taught him, and then we taught a couple of our other Chinese investigators, Jessica and Doris (really Chinese names). Then we went home and ate dinner.

            The next day, Thursday, we had to wake up at 4:00, get ready and everything, and then catch a train to London again. Had a meeting there all day then we went back up to Norwich and made lots of calls.

            Friday was the most normal day. We taught some LA's and went tracting and planned for the week to come. We have a car so I get to drive again, We drove up to the north part of our area on the coast. Norfolk is known for its nice beaches, and it actually has a couple surf spots, so that’s nice. It was good to see.

            Saturday we had a meeting with our zone, and then Elder Doudou and I went to the University to go and find some more people. We found a Fijian family. I told them I lived in Hawaii. They were stoked and we got a return appointment with them. We also got in contact with another Fijian named Umi who used to investigate. We should be seeing him this week. And I called a former investigator who was very pleased to hear from us. She wanted us to come around and said, “130 members of my family live in New Zealand and they all are members of your church now. I want to find out more about it.” So I hope that goes well.

            Sunday was General Conference. I thought all of the talks were great as usual. Really missionary minded. Crazy! The Lord really is hastening his work, I can definitely feel it. And I am excited to see the success come from the miracles that follow! Things have been so crazy this week and this next week looks pretty pivotal on the progress of our investigators so I am looking forward to it. General Conference has gotten me charged up. 

            I am looking forward to teaching our Fijian people, our Chinese people, and of course our British people. It’s going to be a good week. 

Love you all,

Elder Purdy

Leaving Hitchin and a Furry Namesake

Also, Isabella, one of our investigators, is buying a cat today and in my legacy she is naming it Purdy haha.

Here is a picture that I took outside of Hitchin Station.

Transfer: Off to Norwich

            So there I was, with a belly full of curry that our dear investigator Ashwani and his lovely wife Eisha prepared for us, walking down the street of Letchworth Garden City, a man drives past shouting something derogatory, we laugh and continue our walk into a little park.  Then we get a call from President Jordan. Elder Botcha answers, hands the phone to me and President Jordan says “Elder Purdy you are off to be a Zone Leader in Norwich.”

            Norwich! I am northbound.  I am off to outer darkness haha.  I hope I don’t pick up that strange Norfolk accent.

            So it looks like I’ve got a 3-hour train ride tomorrow to Norwich. I am looking forward to it. My new companion is Elder Doudou from Berlin, Germany. I think it will be fun. I will miss being around London but hey Norwich will be pretty wicked. I hear it is pretty different up there. I also hear they have some lovely beaches up there so I will have to check them out.

            I'll miss Hitchin. I really have loved this place. I’ll miss Letchworth and my black squirrel friends, and I'll miss this ward. This ward has been absolutely fantastic. They will all be missed. I am leaving at time when we are starting to see some really good success as well. Ashwani and his son Nathan are doing so well and they love having lessons. We taught them yesterday and then they fed us curry afterwards and while we were eating Nathaniel asked if he could have another lesson. He is 9 and he wants to get baptized this October. Ashwani is really sincere and wants to find the truth. We have taught him a lot about apostasy and restoration and he is really starting to pick up on the idea.

            Unfortunately I will have to leave that all behind. But hey ho!

            I am looking forward to a new adventure. Elder Botcha's curry will be sorely missed – and all of his little India quirks. But he is looking forward to teaching Ashwani and Nathan and furthering the work here in Hitchin.

            Well that’s the news from my end. Hope you all have a good week!

Love

Elder Purdy