Happy New Year!

Ahoy,

            Well Elder Cuche and I finished the year off the right way – with a baptism! Neil got baptised on the 27th. We were at one of our Mission Leadership Meetings in London and had to head home a bit earlier than usual to get everything set up. It was a lovely service. He didn’t want a lot of people there so there were a few members and such. Elder Cuche gave a talk on the Holy Ghost and I gave a talk on enduring to the end. After which we had a musical number where we tried to sing "I am a Child of God" in Chinese – didn’t go well. Sister Lee, the missionary from Taiwan, really carried the team on that one. But everybody enjoyed it I think.  Elder Cowan baptised him and everything else went very smoothly.

Elder Cuche, Elder Cowan, Neil, and Christian

            Jenny is doing really well. She is the lady who found out she was half Maori a few years back and tracked down her family. It turns out over half of them or something are members so she has a huge interest in the church. We really get on with one another. She is in her 60's or so and she is just a lovely lady. She lives a bit south of Norwich in a place called Pouringland in a very English Cottage. We had a really good lesson with her. She has some mixed up ideas about Mormons but her sister in New Zealand is a member and has really been a good influence on her and helped her. During the lesson she said, “I don’t think I could join any other church except the Mormons,” which dropped my jaw a bit. But then she said, “I am too old to do anything about religion.”  She has come to church a few times and has loved it but thinks that she can only come three times or so and then we won’t let her come anymore haha but she has loved attending church. So keep her in your prayers, she is a wonderful person.

            At the end of our lesson with her she showed us a picture of one of her great-grandfathers who was Maori and a member as well. He was some sort of tribal leader, and by his picture there was some quote by him where he was telling his people to love each other and never forsake the church of Christ. It sounded familiar to me and I looked in the Book of Mormon and it was almost exactly like 2 Nephi 31:20!! We showed it to her and she liked it a lot.

Elder Cuche and Neil

            We spent New Year’s Eve with the Carruthers family. They are so fun! We had a good time and in the evening we taught Emma and Neil and played some Monopoly haha.

            I have been really thinking about things God wants me to do, with investigators, as a missionary, as just a normal person. And I love how the phrase “Be faithful and I will be with you” comes up so much in the D&C. That tells me that God wants us to make our own decisions sometimes. We need to be obedient and faithful to what he has given us, and then God will help us with the choices we make. Brilliant!

The Church is true.

Love,

Elder Purdy