Time is Flying

            Another good week gone by ... time is flying faster than I can think.

  

Gorleston-on-Sea

          Tuesday, we had a workover in Gorleston! It was a good time.  It was freezing because the wind was coming off the North Sea and Gorleston is on the coast, but we worked hard and found a lovely family for the elders there to teach. It’s fun going to different places for a day just to see what they are like, and it’s fun to work with other elders for a day.

            Also, Wednesday we had some lessons and went tracting. Some good success. Weeks ago we found a very less-active lady named Marie. She is not even on the records, but we had such a powerful lesson with her and she said that she had been praying for missionaries for years and we came around! Her kids and husband are not members and I look forward to seeing them and building a good relationship with them.

            I know God answers prayers, and as we follow promptings and use our gifts with the spirit, we can come across people like Marie, and we can help them come closer to our Saviour.

God Save the Queen!

Elder Purdy

Posh

I ate dinner at a recent convert’s house last night – most posh house

I have ever been to in my life. 

It was like being in that palace in the movie Amadeus haha.

No Hard Feelings, Old Bean

Hello Hello,

            Woke up at 3 on Wednesday – had to drive into London and pick up Elder Cuche! And may I just say I love the guy! We get along just great – two peas in a pod.

            The rest of the week was up and down. Neil and Bob, our Chinese investigators, are having second thoughts about their baptism dates. We are helping them out but it’s not looking too good at the moment. Makes me sad but we are going to do all we can. They are just scared about what people in China would think of them and they are scared they couldn’t keep with it. We are going to show them the church’s website in China. Hopefully that will help.

            We had interviews with our president yesterday. He is a good man. I enjoy meeting with President Jordan and the rest of my zone very much.  

            Elder Cuche and I had to get people onto the right trains and what not. We started at 9, finished at 7, then went out talking to students at the uni. The second person we met was a girl named Melany. She is from South Africa. We invited her to the YSA Family Home Evening and she came! Bingo. We are seeing her tomorrow and she is so curious to learn more! We had a fun evening with her and the other YSA. She wanted to know why our church has so many young people when other churches only have old people.  Because it is true!!! And it brings people a sense of happiness that is found nowhere else! And we just have fun I suppose.

            There was some anti-cult thing going on in Norwich today and one of the guys called to me in a rather derogatory manner and gave me a pamphlet and said, "You will need this, Mormon. Worship Jesus Christ not Joseph Smith."

            I didn’t get mad because I thought of Melany coming to the Family Home Evening and the spirit we felt there. And I thought of teaching her the Plan of Salvation and all the questions it can answer for her. So no hard feelings, old bean.

            Well that’s all I have for this week. Love you all.

Cheerio,

Elder Purdy

Baptisms Make All the Hard Times Worth It

Elder Doudou, Emma, and Christian on Emma's baptism day

            Well, I will be staying in Norwich for another transfer! – which I am happy about.  My new companion is Elder Cuche from France. He is a great man and I am excited to work with him.

            The biggest news of the week is that Emma was baptized. It was a great service. The spirit was strong, lots of her friends came, lots of members came. It was good. I gave a talk at the baptism on the Holy Ghost. It went all right and then our Ward Mission Leader baptized her. She was grinning from ear to ear afterwards. One of her friends from Greece came and was very impressed and we are going to start teaching her. We see her on Thursday. Baptisms make all of the hard times and stressful times worth it.

            Also something very miraculous happened. A long time ago our mission received a package from America from a sister in Utah. Inside were some scriptures. In a note she explained that in SLC she had met a man named Calvin Rush and that he lived in Norwich and that he was a good guy and was in Utah for skiing, and she was sending him some scriptures. That was it … no address, no number, just his name and the city he lived in. So my companion and I have been trying to hunt him down for ages but to no avail. All we found out was that he was a builder by trade. So we went to one of the building agencies around town and it just so happened that he worked with them. We got his number and stuff and got in contact with him. He was a bit freaked out ... thought it was a joke. It had been 2 years since he had been to America. But he got his package and we will follow up with him this week! It was really something. He was pretty stunned that this lady went through all this effort.

Doing the Shaka at our Chinese meal!

            Sunday our Chinese gang had us over in their university accomodations for some Chinese food. I felt like I was back at university – it was fun. They made some really good food: noodles, chicken and potatoes with some other things that I don’t know, tomatoes with chili sauce etc. It was a good time. They are great.

           

Bob hard at work

The rest of the week has been good – busy and stressful but good. Lots of things to do. It feels like there is never an end of things to do on the list. We are working hard to find people outside of Norwich since that is the main part of our area. But it has been hard. We are teaching lots of students and it has been good, but exams are coming up and I am not sure how dedicated they can be to learn the gospel if they are studying for their tests. Only time will tell.

            But I am grateful for my opportunity to be here and to serve the Lord here in England. I know that the Plan of Salvation is real, it’s perfect, and it leads to everlasting happiness. And it was good to see Emma make a covenant this weekend as part of this plan.

Love, 

Elder Purdy

Baptism Dates

            Well we had a good week. A highlight of my week was we scheduled an appointment with a guy named Cameron, pretty young guy. When it was time for the appointment we were parked outside his house talking about what we were going to say in the appointment and we saw him come walking down the street. So we got out to say hi, and I don’t know what happened but he screamed and just started running away faster than I have ever seen anybody run before. ...  We never saw Cameron again. When we got back into the car I couldn’t help but laugh.

            Our Chinese friends are all doing well – Emma, Neil, Bob, and Penny. All of them except Penny have a baptismal date for November. Emma is getting baptized this week and everything is looking great for her. She is all ready to go and she is so excited!!! She is a star. We had a good lesson with her and Neil. We were teaching them at the University with a couple of YSA – Alice and Meg. Then one of the workers for the Uni came up and asked who we were and then was rather rude and told us to get out. I was really embarrassed because I didn’t know what Emma and Neil would think but then I looked at Neil and we was starring daggers at this lady. He looked ready to kill her hahaha. Everything was OK though. We just left and went to a little cafe.

            We are seeing Emma, Neil, Bob and Penny tonight at some member’s house for some food and then we are going to watch Finding Faith in Christ. It’s going to be a good time.

            Yesterday was Stake Conference. Elder Charles and Elder Dyches from the Seventy came and spoke. Afterwards Elder Doudou and I were speaking with Elder Charles and we asked him to come teach with us. He was stoked and said for sure but then he had to cancel later on that day. But President Jordan was there as well so he came teaching with us.  We taught all of the Chinese together ... which never happens. It was a crowded room with us, all of them, and President Jordan.

            Well the Church is true! I have felt the love of God so much this week through the Holy Ghost. What a blessing it is to have the Holy Ghost as a gift ... a member of the Godhead ... crazy.

Cheerio,

Elder Purdy

Remember Remember the Fifth of November

Remember remember the fifth of November  Gunpowder, treason and plot. I see no reason why gunpowder, treason Should ever be forgot...

The unfortunate conspirator Fawkes appears before his intended victim.

Well Happy Bonfire Night.

            Halloween is really not that big here but Guy Fawkes night is! I am definitely bringing this back to America. You just have a bonfire and light fireworks all because a man failed to blow up Parliament a long time ago. It’s a good time! Halloween ain’t got nothing on Guy Fawkes.

The pictures are from our bonfire night celebrations with some members.

Storm Update

from Jen:

            I heard and read a lot about the storm that hit England and parts of Europe last week.  How was your area affected?  Are you safe and well?  Crazy stuff.

Hiya Mum,

            Yeah, Norfolk was supposed to get hit pretty bad ... but we really didn’t. Nothing really happened in Norwich so don’t worry.

            Yeah, everything is looking great for Emma's baptism. She is all ready to go for Saturday.  Her friend Neil has a date for the 23rd, he is Chinese, and another Chinese student named Bob has a date for the 30th. And we are teaching a Chinese girl named Penny. They all came to Stake Conference yesterday together. We took up a whole row. Haha. We are seeing them all tonight for a Chinese party at a member’s house. I don’t really know what a Chinese party is but they wanted to show us. It’s funny, we only met all of these people in the last 3 weeks or so and they want to throw us a party haha.

Take care mum,

Elder Purdy

Oh yeah, and Happy Guy Fawkes Night!