Welcome to the World, Prince George of Cambridge!

            Well, Princess Kate had herself a boy, Prince George of Cambridge.  That has been the biggest news in the UK this week.

            But Elder Torbit and I have also had some cool things happen in our missionary work.

            Last Monday we met this really cool guy named M-. He believes in God but doesn’t really practice any religion. We just met him on the street in the evening and invited him to sit down with us to have a discussion for a few minutes. Our discussion ended up lasting 30 minutes and we talked a lot about who God is and how the gospel blesses our families -- two topics that really get people thinking and really help them feel the spirit. He was very intrigued by what we taught and we are seeing him this week, cool guy.

            Also we met a girl named S-. She is 20 years old from Ghana. She has lived in the UK for 3 years now I believe. We went to her house a few days ago to teach her and she was saying that back in Ghana she attended our church with one of her friends, and ever since she came to the UK she has wanted to get back into worshiping on Sunday and reading the scriptures. We told her that we could definitely help her with that and we were explaining what our purpose as missionaries was and she said "I want to be baptized." So long story short, we taught her all of lesson one and gave her a Book of Mormon, which she was way stoked about. She started marking the passages we were reading with her. And we set a date with her for the 25th of August. She is so solid, and we are seeing her this week. The spirit was so strong in that lesson.

            And we saw a really crazy less active person. They invited us over yesterday and we were in their back garden just talking with the husband. He was a good guy. Everything was going good until we saw that the wife was coming outside ... and then the husband saw her and disappeared into the house. The wife came outside and started saying how she will never come back to church ever, and she was proper screaming! And how she went on about her pretty dark childhood and how the Bible says woman came from man, and then once again said she will never come back to church and went back inside.  So … we were left in their back garden alone.  It was pretty weird.  We decided just to go back through the house and leave through the front door. On our way out she stopped us and gave us a watermelon and kindly told us that we were welcome in their home anytime … nice people.

            Anyways, the gospel is the best. The things it allows you to do are incredible. I just want to say that I would not have met the amazing people in my life, or have been able to do the things I have done in my life, if it weren’t for a simple prayer offered by a fourteen year old boy in 1820. That one experience has changed my life and I am so glad for that! I am so glad that I could be here in the UK. I love the people here and I love the memories I have made.

            There are good things to come fo sho here in Hitchin. I am excited to help our investigators see the ideals of the gospel and want those for themselves.

Love,

Elder Purdy

  

P-day in London

          

We went to London today for P-day. Such a cool city -- I really hope I get to serve a bit closer to it. We went to Buckingham Palace. They had lots of flags up for the birth of Prince George. We went to Camden Town, which is the weirdest place in the world -- they have some pretty crazy shops. And we went to Picadilly Circus as well. I feel so happy to be in this mission, and the cool people I have been able to meet.

            

            When we were in Covent Gardens I saw Lindsay Gilson and Eden Sloan who I knew back home. It was so weird. They called me Christian and I kept thinking "why are they calling me that?" It sounded so wrong, and they sounded so American! But it was really funny bumping into them. 

with Eden and Lindsay


from Jen:  Lindsay texted me this photo with the caption
"no hugs, just awkward handshakes"

from Jen:  here's a flashback picture from almost two years ago when Eden, Nate, and Christian

were just starting school at BYU-Hawaii

Awesome Possum

Hello,

            Well another week gone by. 

            We saw our friend J on Tuesday.  He is doing OK.  He spent the weekend in jail ‘cause he got in a fight ... tisk tisk J. But he is still pretty solid. He loves the Book of Mormon.  We read 3 Nephi 11 with him and he was so stoked on the part where Jesus Christ visits the Nephites.  He has been reading and praying about it, so more on him later. 

crazy kids

            We also went and saw a member family, the Jezewskas.  They have all these crazy kids that we go and have fun with (picture included). They wanted us to skateboard with their really cheap board, and I snapped it on accident.  Woops. They weren’t too bothered.  The kids thought it was cool, but I felt bad. 

             Wednesday we walked out to Pirton again – 60-minute walk through farms haha.  We found a couple potentials, but it wasn’t a very memorable day.

            Thursday we had district meeting in Stenvenage. It was good.  I gave a lesson on finding people.  How we need to be good “hunters” and go where the deer are, not where the bears are.  I think as missionaries we could be more inspired as to where we go when we are finding people, instead of just going where other missionaries have gone before.  We then went and saw some members called the Hills.  They are both pretty old.  The man is English and the wife is German.  They told us story, after story, after story of WWII and what it was like – on both sides really, since she is German.  They invited us over for dinner and they want to show us lots of pictures and videos they have from way back then, so that should be fun.  We were there forever because they just loved talking to us haha.

            Friday, trouble came along.  Elder Torbit had a bad blister that he popped on his foot and we think it got infected.  He has had a bad back for a few days as well.  So the poor guy has had to take it easy for a few days, doctor’s orders. Luckily we were in Letchworth on Friday and we ran into a certain Brother Upstone, who is a member.  He demanded that we come to a restaurant and eat dinner with him. We had a good time and I found out that he is going to Salt Lake for like a month to visit his son there. I gave him our address, Mom and Dad, and told him he can stop by and say hello.  He is just crazy enough to do it so watch out.  There may be a random Brit appearing at our door.

            Saturday, nothing much happening.

            Sunday, a French lady fed us dinner after church.  The food was good.  She made us some really good Spanish fruit drink. And when we were teaching our lesson she said she had a friend who is Italian who wants to learn more about our church.  She is Catholic and she has been asking lots of questions and apparently has said “we are only Catholic because we haven’t found something better.” BINGO.  She wants to invite us around again for lunch with her friend.  I really hope that turns out – that would be ideal.

            That’s all I have.  I am still reading about church history and stuff in the D&C.  Good stuff.  There is no doubt in my mind that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God – pretty miraculous. It makes me want to be a better missionary, go and tell the people that a 14-year-old boy saw God and God told him that he still loves all of us.  Haha, pretty fun.

            This Oliver Cowdery quote made me excited:

“I shall not attempt to paint to you the feelings of this heart, nor the majestic beauty and glory which surrounded us on this occasion; but you will believe me when I say, that earth, nor men, with the eloquence of time, cannot begin to clothe language in as interesting and sublime a manner as this holy personage. No; nor has this earth power to give the joy, to bestow the peace, or comprehend the wisdom which was contained in each sentence as they were delivered by the power of the Holy Spirit! Man may deceive his fellow-men, deception may follow deception, and the children of the wicked one may have power to seduce the foolish and untaught, till naught but fiction feeds the many, and the fruit of falsehood carries in its current the giddy to the grave; but one touch with the finger of his love, yes, one ray of glory from the upper world, or one word from the mouth of the Savior, from the bosom of eternity, strikes it all into insignificance, and blots it forever from the mind. The assurance that we were in the presence of an angel, the certainty that we heard the voice of Jesus, and the truth unsullied as it flowed from a pure personage, dictated by the will of God, is to me past description, and I shall ever look upon this expression of the Savior’s goodness with wonder and thanksgiving while I am permitted to tarry; and in those mansions where perfection dwells and sin never comes, I hope to adore in that day which shall never cease.”

            Awesome Possum!

            I have been working on putting more personal experiences and stuff in my lessons.  They have been kinda bland.  I want to show people an ideal, give them the tools to reach that ideal, and show them how I have seen it work. It’s good.  I am finding out a lot about myself.

            Tah for now.

Love you all,

Elder Purdy

Testimony of Joseph Smith

I want to bear my testimony that Joseph Smith was a prophet.  I have been studying a lot about him and early church history recently.  I remember when I was like 6 or 7 we were watching General Conference as a family and I wasn’t listening ... I was only young, but then I think President Hinckley got up and after his talk he bore testimony of Joseph Smith, and I remember feeling so good! Dad, I don’t remember if you remember this, but I think you made me write down what I felt. That experience has stuck with me for a long time.  The church is true y’all!

Gotta Keep on Keeping On

Hello from very very sunny England,

            It has been so warm all week.  I has been in the high 90's for the past couple of days and there has been no sign of a rain cloud for a while!  It has drained all my energy. Every night we come home I am just exhausted.  It has been really humid which hasn’t helped much either.

            We had a couple miracles this week.  On Wednesday we had to go to the chapel to print off a talk.  While we were walking there we met a young girl named Tasha, right outside the chapel.  We stopped her and started talking to her.  She was really nice and we invited her in to take a tour of the chapel.   I didn’t think she would want to, but she agreed! So we took her in there and we had a good lesson.  We talked about the Book of Mormon and she was really really happy when we gave her one. Hopefully we will see her this week.

            We also met a guy named James.  We met him last transfer but he was really hard to get a hold of.   On Thursday he called us and wanted to meet up in Letchworth.  We went and met him and had such a good lesson.  He was asking all the right questions like “why don’t we have a prophet today?”  We gave him a baptismal date for August 25th, and he was stoked.  He really wants to change some things in his life and get closer to God.

            Our teaching has been really good.  We study a lot of chapter 3 in Preach my Gospel and we are doing really well at getting good points across to people. Unfortunately lots of our appointments cancelled on us this week.  We spent a lot of time in the sun tracting and street contacting, and we spent lots of time with members teaching them about missionary work and how they can participate. That is something President Jordan has been stressing so much! Getting into member homes and teaching them, gaining their trust, and finding people to teach through them. It has been really good for us.  The members here are great and we have been sharing really good lessons with them. We share some video called “I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go.”  It really invites the spirit into the room and people really see how easy they can share the gospel!  All you have to do is be really casual about it.

            I can’t really think of too much else that happened this week.   I feel like we are going good places though.  It is that time of year when everybody goes on holiday and we won’t see them for a couple weeks ... sigh, but just gotta keep on keeping on.

                                                 

Love,

Elder Purdy

Stayin' in Hitchin

Hello Hello,

            Looks like I will be staying in Hitchin for at least another 6 weeks, which is not bad at all. I am pretty excited.  I really feel strongly that if we work hard this transfer we will have a baptism, so that’s the goal.  I really want one! I haven’t had one in a long time so I am feeling pretty good about staying.

            This week was really hot.  I was dying.  It made people around here more willing to listen though.  It was pretty successful getting out and about talking to people -- met some interesting folks.

            I had a workover in Essex last week.  It was weird.  I went into Harlow, and while we were there I could see some road signs for Southend-on-Sea.  Boy, did that take me back. Those were good times.  Essex sure is a funny place.

            It was a good workover with an Elder from Brazil named Elder Pereira.  He was really eager to show me some crazy tea they drink called chimarrão.   I think Elder Jessee knows what I am talking about.  Apparently they drink it a lot in the part of Brazil where he is.  Anyways, he concocted this strange beverage and we sat up for like an hour just talking and passing it back and forth.  It was pass-the-peace-pipe basically.  It didn’t taste too bad though.  I kind of liked it.  It was kinda chunky, but it was good. 

with Elder Pereira from Brazil

                           We had a good lesson that day as well.  We were able to find and teach a family which never happens over here!  They had this potential family that we went and stopped by and we were just sitting with them making small talk, and then the conversation turned into a lesson. As the lesson went a long the mum said “out of all the religions I like yours the best.”  Then they asked a lot of questions about the Book of Mormon and their daughters came to mutual that evening and loved it.  It was a good day.

          Everything in Hitchin is going good as well.  We are seeing members like crazy.  President Jordan is really stressing the importance of members in missionary work, and Hitchin has a very strong ward, so we go see lots of members and are helping them share the gospel with their friends and family. We use the story of Philip talking to Nathaniel in the New Testament where Philip tells Nathaniel to “come and see” Jesus Christ.  We tell the members to say that to all of their friends – to say why the gospel makes them happy and then to say “come and see for yourself.”  Hope it works out well. If you look back on church history, the gospel was spread through member missionary work.  They shared it with their friends and family! So we really want to get these people doing the same thing.

            It’s been hot, it’s been difficult, but I am happy to be out here.  I really love the gospel and the way it blesses my life, and it is great being out here and taking it to these people.

Love,

Elder Purdy

Happy Independence Day!

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!!!!

I am definitely in the wrong place to be celebrating such a wonderful holiday.

I’ll be sure to go dump some tea off a boat or go sign a declaration and give it to Queen Lizzy.

Hedgehog Fun

We saw a hedgehog plodding along the pavement in Letchworth on Friday. 

We stopped and had some fun and picked it up.

Another Good Week

Another good week.  Once again I will just take you through my week day by day ...

             Tuesday:  We had a meeting in London.  Got a train down to Kings Cross and went to South Kensington.  Nice meeting, pretty spiritual.  I was there from probably 9:30 to 1.  Went back to Hitchin and then went to Letchworth, where we met a less active/part member family -- the Hamblins.  They are fun and they are very nice to us. It is always fun going over there, and we shared a good message with them about why we pray. Our main focus was we will understand why we pray when we recognize our proper relationship towards God. It was a good lesson.  After that we had a dinner appointment in some village outside of Hitchin.  They made some pretty tasty chicken, and we went and tracted in Hitchin after that.



walking path from Hitchin to Pirton

            Wednesday: I had a workover with an elder from Stevenage.  Elder Hess is from St. George.  Pretty much all of our appointments cancelled that day and we ended up street contacting in Letchworth and Hitchin. At 5:30 we made the trek out to a village called Pirton.  The walk out there takes an hour and the road is a dirt road that is only meant for horses and pedestrians.  It’s pretty scenic and there is nothing but green all around you.  It’s fun. 

           

Hitchin - Pirton sign post

  





"It was a party in my mouth."

           We got to the appointment with the Ansells.  The father is not a member but the wife is.  She is Hispanic and used to live in Rose Park.  She is a funny lady and she made us Mexican food. Oh my days it has been so long since I have had that food! It was a party in my mouth. We had a good lesson with them then we walked home.

            Thursday: We had district meeting.  I gave a training on accountability, which was fun.  There has been a lot of lack of love for England and English people in the mission and that’s pretty much what I talked about.   I talked about loving the people you serve and loving the place you are in. After that we went tracting and ate some dinner. Nothing much.



            Friday: Tracie Stocker from Gillingham came up to Hitchin and took.  I am so glad I was able to meet her and become friends with her.  She is one of those people I think I was meant to meet on my mission. We had a good time and it was nice seeing her again.  She left at about 2-ish.  We went and finished our weekly plans and then took a bus out to Clifton, a little village not too far away.  We had dinner with members and then taught a young 9-year-old girl that will hopefully get baptized soon.  Her name is Emily and we really want her to get baptized and stuff, so we are working on her. After that we went and saw some less active members and had a REALLY good lesson on how the gospel blesses families.



with Tracie Stocker from Gillingham

from Jen:  This April 2013 picture is of
Sister Stocker and her children with
Christian and his companion when
he was living in Sittingbourne.
Tracie's sister was one of their
investigators and Christian became
close to their whole family.

           

            















            Saturday: We saw Mick and Hearten in the morning. We showed them the Restoration DVD and they really liked it.  Then we went to Letchworth to street contact. We had dinner with the bishop, then we went and taught Stuart the Word of Wisdom.  He accepted, and then we walked home. The weather this week has been really beautiful.  Everywhere just smells like flowers.  It’s really humid and warm and everything’s really green.

            Sunday:  We went to church.  After church there was a munch-and-mingle, then we caught a train to Letchworth.  We sat in a park and had a good lesson with our new investigator Nicole.  We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ and she said she would be baptized.  She is 19 and her parents are from Ghana but she was born here.  She is a cool girl.  After that we went to our WML house and ate some dinner.  Then we stopped by a former investigator’s house back in Letchworth.  His name is Ian and he has been investigating for like 4 years.  His wife is Brazilian and they have a 12-year-old daughter.  His wife and daughter just moved back from Brazil after they had been there for 4 years.  They have been back like a month.  Ian really likes missionaries and his daughter is SO solid!  She loves the church, has a Book of Mormon in English and Portugese, and knows a lot of the lessons.  We are going to start teaching them again.  They are so good.  Ian is less solid but really wants the best for his daughter and wants her to make her own decision on things.  He is a good man. Hopefully I will have more on them later.

             Things are good.  I really love the people we are teaching and it’s all good up in hurrrrrrrr.  Transfers are next week.  We will see what happens – could be anything, really.  It will be interesting.