Wagwan Wagwan

            Wagwan!!!! (Jamaican for "what is going on?”)

            Wagwan is the word of the day, as Elder Jensen and I have been with a member Jamaican family this week a lot.

            How are you all doing?  Hope all is well.

            Sittingbourne TANKED last week! We had 18 lessons planned and set in order for last week, and we ended up with 3.  These things happen I guess, but we are looking forward to a much better week this week.

            First off, we did not really see Marina this week.  She cancelled on us and now her mother is in the hospital.  Hopefully everything will be all right there.  I think she is kinda done learning all about the gospel.  Her family said she is kind of bored learning about it so we really have to make our next lesson a good one.

            Going into London was good.  It was nice being back.  It is weird changing from being there once a week to being there once every six weeks, but at the same time it’s fun being in “outer darkness” because we are just out in the middle of farmland.  Kent is known for being “the garden of England” so I am excited for springtime to roll around. It will be a good frolic.

            Speaking of good times, there is a ward activity this Saturday which I am excited about.  The exact name is the Gillingham 2nd ward "Hoo-Ha" and I think it will be a Hoo-Ha to remember.  We have really been talking to members about bringing their non-member friends to this thing. And lots of them are, so I am excited to see where that goes.

            Thank you all for the birthday wishes. 

            God save the Queen.

Love you guys,

Elder Purdy

A Solid Week in Kent

Ahoy out there,

            Ohhh, what a week.

            First off, I am turning 20, which just mental!

            And we had really good week this week.

            We tried giving Marina a baptismal date but she wanted to pray about it first.  You can tell she is feeling it better though, because she has been reading and praying. We read the Book of Mormon with her and the spirit was there so strongly.  We read Moroni 8 and it was good.  I am really excited to see her keep making these good decisions.

            We found two new people that we are teaching this week.  Both of them are from Poland. The first one’s name is Monica.  She is sooooo cool.  I am over the moon that we are the missionaries that get to teach her.  We stopped her in the street, and she didn't have time to talk so she gave us her address . . . but it was really only 70% of her address.  On Saturday an appointment cancelled so we tried to go find out where she lives, and miraculously we did.  We knocked and she let us in and we taught lesson one right there.  She has two kids, who are 7 and 5, I think.  She is a Catholic but is not that active.  Now she really wants to find out more.  She is so laid back and so nice and willing to listen.  She is wonderful.

            The other guy is Michael.  He has lots of religious knowledge and had some good questions when we met with him.  We gave him a Book of Mormon and he said “I think I will only get done with half of it by next week, is that OK?” and we were in shock. 

            Solid week.

            The Book of Mormon musical is in full force right now . . . and not only that but the church has bought out lots of the underground ads and billboards in London for Mormon.org.  So it is an exciting time to be a missionary.   Unfortunately, we are in an area which we call “outer darkness” which means we are out of the loop as to what goes on in London right now.  In this zone we can’t go in to London because it’s far away, but we are this Thursday for a meeting, so I guess I will see this stuff first hand.

            Everything else is fine.  The weather is nice right now, things are good.  What else can I say?

            I’ve started to study the Bible a lot more, so that will be good.

            Hope you all are doing great.

Love you,

Elder Purdy

Working Around Troubles Is All Part of the Adventure

            We had a good week this week – lots of challenges and lots of success. We are now teaching a couple named Allan and Chelsea. They are really young and have an 18-month-old child named Riley.  They are really solid! It's kind of weird though, because they are normal . . . and usually people like them don't listen to us.  But they want to find out the truth for themselves and I am over the moon to be teaching them. We are actually seeing them this evening . . . so pray for us.

            Some of our other investigators like C, we did not teach this week.  C has been sick with the flu, and Carla just disappeared, but that is how missionary work is. On a brighter note Marina, IS SOOO SOLID.  I don't know if I mentioned this in an earlier e-mail but her mother gave her a lot of anti-Mormon stuff . . . and if there is anything I learned in Southend, it’s how to answer questions about anti- Mormon literature.  So on Wednesday night she fed us dinner, and then she said she had been “looking stuff up” about our church, and then just started pouring questions out on us! Some of them were really difficult as well, but thanks to the wonderful Spirit of the Lord we answered all of them.  It was way cool.  She said at the end, “Man, you guys have an answer for everything.”  We told her to read the Book of Mormon and pray, and that is how she can know if what we are saying is true. She came to church as well and she really enjoyed it. She has come a long way.  In just a matter of 6 months she has given up alcohol and a party lifestyle, and now she is taking steps closer to our Heavenly Father.

            Our ward is struggling a bit.  We don't have a good turnout every Sunday and some of them are really mean to one another (especially in Relief Society). Not too many of them really look excited about being at church, and everybody we bring to church sees it as well. It is frustrating . . .  but at the same time it is kind of fun.  Having troubles and trying to work around them is all part of the adventure, I guess.  It’s exciting to try and overcome things.  Most of the members that come out on Sunday are great though, there are just a few things that need to be taken care of and this ward will be great. I am excited to move forward with this.

Gravesend Gudwara

           Ohh . . . and we went to some Sikh temple in Gravesend.  It was fun.  We had to wear these funny things on our head, but it was definitely interesting.

The Gudwara in Gravesend is supposedly the largest Sikh temple outside of India.
(photo downloaded from TripAdvisor)

The Church is True

Hey thurrr friends and familia,

            Man! we had a good work in Sittingbourne last week. Elder Jensen and I get along really well – too well.  It’s hard to really focus sometimes because we just have fun . . . but that is ok.  We can change that.  I think we can really focus and have fun at the same time. So its allll goood.

            Cool miracle from this week – there was this guy that Elder Jensen had been wanting to call.  His name is C. He gave him a call and the guy said we could meet up with him. When we went over there we just sat down and started talking. He hasn’t met with missionaries for about six months, and he only met with them once. But he LOVES the gospel and he LOVES our church. He has a very crazy past as well. He was a hooligan for Millwall when he was younger, which means that he went around following the Millwall football club and got in fights with large quantities of people. In these fights two of his brothers died, which is really sad. He also was in the armed forces, and felt really bad for some of the things that happened during that part of his life. And he has been to jail a few times for some other bad things . . .  but then for some reason he had some kind of Alma the younger experience.  And all of the sudden, he is the most pleasant guy ever! He is so nice and so gentle. And all he wants to do is come closer to Christ. His brother-in-law is a member in London, and he has talked to C about our church, and C is soo into it.  It’s incredible how the Lord prepares people to hear our message. We shared a Book of Mormon story with C – the story when Alma is talking about his conversion.  C really related to that. He said, “I have never been religious and I don’t like any other churches.  I just want to go to this church.” So we are stoked on that.

            Also, we have a woman named Marina who is the sister of a member.  She is really solid.  She says that she just wants to “feel” the gospel more before she gets baptized. Which is good and all, but she thinks church is boring.  But she is really close to being baptized.  She is wonderful. We also found a young couple named Allan and Chelsea who are super cool.  They are very down to earth and I really hope we can help them feel the spirit.  I love lessons when you really know they feel it . . . and you feel it too. So pray that happens as well.

            Our ward mission leader signed us up to make a pie for some church activity.  I don’t know why but he did.  So pray we don’t embarrass ourselves.

             Ahhh man . . . what can I say, the church is true.

Love you guys and hope to hear from you soon,

Elder Purdy

February Milestones

Christian hit the 8-month mark
and was assigned his first new area since arriving in his mission.

He will also turn 20 years old this month!