Lots of Work to Do, Lots of Miracles to Happen

Ahoy,

            Crazy week – lots of twists and turns. Our mission started to use Facebook this week. It’s pretty interesting. I think it will be good, getting in contact with members and investigators. We will see where it takes us!

            Last Tuesday we went to the district meeting in Gillingham. It was crazy being back. It was all very familiar. It was a good meeting, and afterwards we went finding with the elders in Chatham. Spoke with a good guy from Afghanistan, and the other elders saw him this week. Chatham is an interesting place. There are always a couple of crazy people that are roaming around – definitely keeps things interesting. There was a man that had a banjo, which was wayyy out of tune, and he was just strumming away on it for a couple hours. Fun stuff.

            We really don’t have that great of a teaching pool right now. It is definitely lacking, so that’s a big focus for us this week. I've noticed that there are loads of people from Nepal here. Apparently they move over here and then work for the military in Ashford. Most of them are Hindi. Nice people, but it’s hard to communicate with them. To be quite frank, to just have a really good conversation with anybody is proving to be a task, but Elder Kopischke and I are doing a good job at it. We are slowly finding some people that are interested. Just takes a good attitude and a lot of faith!

            Saturday we had a leadership meeting in London. The train from Ashford to London is pretty fun. It’s part of the Eurostar so lots of people on the train are from Europe coming over from France and Belgium and places like that. It only takes about 30 minutes from Ashford to London – much better than the 3-hour drive from Norwich to London. It was a good meeting, and the mission is heading in a great direction!

            Yesterday was a good day as well. It was British Mother’s Day, so most the services were about families and motherhood. Afterwards we went and street-contacted in the park. It has been really beautiful and all the flowers and trees are budding. It was a good time and I really enjoyed it. We saw some good success as well.

            We then had a dinner appointment with some members. They are English but they used to live in India and they made a pretty wicked curry. It was delicious and I ate wayyy too much. Good way to end the week.

            I am sure this week will prove to be very eventful as well! Lots to do and not a lot of time to do it. Lots of work to do and lots of miracles to happen.

Cheers big ears,

Elder Purdy

I am Happy to be Serving Here

Hello Hello,

            Hope you all had a good weekend, I sure did!

            Elder Kopischke and I had a great time teaching and finding over the weekend.

            We are teaching a friend of the Stake President. His name is Brett and he is one of the nicest guys I have ever met! We helped him move a shed in the stake president’s back garden and got to talking. We invited him to take the missionary lessons and he said he would love to! We taught him on Sunday and he knows quite a bit about the church, and said he would be baptized if he feels the spirit. I'm well chuffed about him. He is a star.

            Also we had a lesson with a guy we met who used to live in the States. He has a friend who is a mission president in Uruguay. He just got back from there where he spent two weeks with him. He said he was very curious to learn more about our faith because he really felt good as he went to church meetings even though he does not speak Spanish. We are seeing him this week again.

            The flat here in Ashford is nice.  I agree with the way Elder Kopischke explained it – “it’s just enough” – just big enough to house both of us.  Especially the bathroom and shower – they are pretty tiny.

            The ward here is great. I am really happy to be working with them. They are very supportive and really help us to bring others unto Christ.

            We had a district meeting in Deal on Thursday. It was fun driving by Dover again and seeing the cliffs. They look very lovely around this time of year!

            I’m happy to help the other missionaries as well. We have 2 or 4 meetings this week with them and it will be fun to work with them and go on exchanges.

            I am happy to be serving here. I’ve got about 9 weeks left and I just want to love everybody into the Gospel. I am sure I will see plenty of miracles between now and June.

Love,

Elder Purdy

Looking Forward to Some New Adventures

Transfer Week … Back to the Garden of England

Well well, 

            President Jordan gave us a ring last night, and it seems I will be heading WAY down south to be a zone leader in Ashford in Kent – from one extreme in the mission to another, which will be interesting. My new companion is Elder Kopischke, from Germany! My third German companion. He is a great missionary and I am excited to work with him.

            I'm a bit gutted to leave Norwich. We have been doing great work up here and I have loved working with the missionaries and members up here. When I first got sent to Norwich all I could think about was how far away it is. But it has been amazing and I am so glad I could spend four transfers here. It’s going to be hard to say goodbye to good people like the Baldock family, the Stanton family, the Bikliqi family, and the Simbi's.

            I'm looking forward to some new adventures though.  I am sure Ashford will be good, and quite probably my last area! I'm excited to go and find the people that are waiting to hear the message of the Restoration and God's plan of happiness for us.

Love,

Elder Purdy

Good Times in Gorleston (plus Colchester, Norwich, and London)

Hello Hello,

On an exchange with Elder Call in Gorleston

            Great week this week. The weather has been absolutely lovely. It was like 18 degrees Celsius yesterday! It was brilliant.

            Had zone meeting at the beginning of the week. It was very uplifting. Good things were said, the spirit was felt. I love serving with the missionaries in this zone. We have a good time. I had an exchange in Gorleston this week, which was fun. We went finding by the beach most of the day because the weather was very nice. It was nice seeing the sea again. We met some very nice people and even found a family that was interested in learning more. I always like going to the little coastal towns in this zone. There are some good people there.

            We got a new car this week as well. Had to drive down to Colchester in Essex and sleep there for a night on Thursday night, and Friday we went the rest of the way into London and got the car. We did planning – organizing some things for our zone as we were down there as well.

            We had a great lesson with the Simbi’s this week. They were having some questions about the Book of Mormon, and during the lesson we really felt like we should just read some of it with them. We read 3 Nephi 11 and it was so powerful. We asked them how they would feel to be there when Jesus Christ appeared. And as they answered there was such a good spirit there. Power of the Book of Mormon! They are getting baptized on the 29th of this month.

            We are doing great. England is beautiful and we are having a good time.

Pip pip cheerio,

Elder Purdy

Here are some pictures from Gorleston:

. . . and some other random pictures:

This probably wasn't supposed to be a photobomb, but ...

looks like a rough morning for Elder Vogel

Happy as a Clam

On an exchange with Elder Elliott
from Jen:  no info about this Elder -- I just read his nametag  :) 

Hello Hello,

            Time flew by this week. We had a couple of exchanges with the Norwich elders and the elders in Lowestoft. It’s always fun to go cruise around the beaches of Lowestoft and speak with people – especially when the sun is out. We had a nice lesson with a girl on the sea front about prayer and how God answers prayers. It was a nice setting for a lesson.

            Cool experience – we were talking with people in Norwich city centre. I always like going to city centre because it is filled with the most interesting people! Norwich has a reputation for that, -- it has quite the characters. I had really prayed that we would find success, and we had some cool experiences. A lady came out of a shop right in front of us and I casually said hello. She said hi in a rather glum tone and we asked her if we could help her at all. She has a lot going on in life and we had a great lesson with her. She feels the gospel can help her. And we spoke with a Portuguese family that wants to learn more about eternal families.

            We also went into London on Saturday. That's always a good time. We have to go again this week for some more meetings and what not. 

the beautiful Simbi family

            On Sunday the Simbis fed us some proper African food – something called fufu??? Anyways it is pretty much like mashed potatoes, but it’s not potatoes. It was fufu, and some vegetables and meat. They don’t use silverware so were just going at it with our hands. It was something else. Apparently we didn’t eat it right because they were all laughing at us. It was a good time.

            Spring is in the air in beautiful England. Flowers are budding and popping up, and everything is turning green. It is beautiful and I am happy as a clam.

Cheerio,

Elder Purdy