Returning June 4!

from Jen:  check out the e-mail we got today!

A Birthday and a Baptism

Hello Hello,

            We had a good week this week! Really mental in fact.

            The families we are teaching are doing well, never a dull moment I'll tell you what. We had a good lesson with the Simbis yesterday. We taught a lesson while we snacked on some sugar cane. Apparently that’s what they do in Africa! They are loving what we teach and we always feel the spirit with them. Lots of our lessons this week were really focused on reading the Book of Mormon. We read 3 Nephi 11 with Yohanna and he loved it. The spirit was powerful as we read it together, and he recognized it for sure. The Book of Mormon is so powerful. 

            Had a couple exchanges this week. I didn’t even see Elder Vogel for 2 days straight haha but we got lots of work done in our area and the other missionaries’ areas as well. Found a cool guy from Portugal that we are going to start teaching. He looks a bit like John Lennon which is cool.

Christian, Neil, Roy, Elder Vogel

            My birthday was pretty great. The weather was really great – sunny and warm. We played some football with our investigators. It was fun, lots of them came. And then we had a couple lessons. And the best part of all – Roy got baptized! Neil baptized him. It was great to see Roy get baptized by another recent convert. We sang "I am a Child of God" in Chinese at the baptism and the spirit was super strong. It was the best way to spend a birthday! 

            The weather is still great today! And I am looking forward to another great week in Norwich! Great things are happening!!

Love,

Elder Purdy

Plain, Small, and Simple

Christian's zone.
Christian is top row, third from the right. His new companion Elder Vogel is to the left of Christian,
and to the right of Christian is Elder Jensen -- a former companion from when he was serving in Sittingbourne.

Ahoy,

            We had a really busy week last week,

            We had to move the baptismal date of the family from Zambia, but they are still doing well. They will be getting baptized in early March now. We also have baptismal date for another family from Africa for March, and we started to teach a family from Portugal as well. So lots of families! It’s brilliant. The gospel is all about families and it’s great to be able to see families here in England accepting it. For me it has been fun to introduce the Book of Mormon to them. As we read passages to these people it is great to see them understand and love what the Book of Mormon teaches.

            We should have a baptism this Saturday. Roy from China should be getting baptised, and Neil should be baptising him! I’m happy for him. It has been cool to see his progress as a member. He passes the sacrament and he gave a talk in church this last Sunday and he should be going to the temple in March.

            The weather has been OK here. Other parts of the country are flooding right now, but Norfolk is fine – blue skies and warm. I really don’t have anything negative. Life is good.

            We had interviews with President Jordan yesterday. It was good to have some time with him and Sister Jordan. They asked if I knew of a good place to eat in Norwich for dinner and I told them to go to a place called the Waffle House. It’s a restaurant where they make different waffles for dinners and lunches and what not. They called me after their dinner and said they spoke with their waitress and she was interested in us going around and teaching her family about the restored gospel. Another family!

            It reminds me of a talk given by a Seventy named Francisco J. Vinas, he says:

“Among the old and sacred values to which we should return are the plain and simple principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ. These should be firmly established in our homes to ensure happiness in family life. It is precisely because these principles are plain and simple that many times they are not considered when there are challenges to face that affect family life. At times we have the tendency to think that the more serious the problem, the bigger and more complex the solution should be. That idea can lead us, for example, to seek help from people or institutions outside the home when in reality the most effective solution will come by applying the glorious principles of the gospel in our homes in the small actions and duties of everyday life. The scriptures remind us “that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass” (Alma 37:6).

           How true that is.

Hope you all have a good week!

Elder Purdy 

The Church is True, The Book is Blue

Hello Hello!

            Well as I said last week, have a new companion from Germany, Elder Vogel. He is a great guy. We have had a good week.

            The downside to this week was I was rather ill until Sunday. I had lost my voice completely, so I was pretty ineffective as a missionary. We taught a couple from the Congo – Cadeau and Sifi. During the climax of my ailment I invited them to be baptized. My voice sounded terrible – a bit like a frog – and my voice cracked right in the middle of it. But they accepted! By small and simple things great things are brought to pass.

photo from deseretnews.com

            Going into London was a bit manic as well. There was a tube strike so all transportation was over ground. It took us so long to get to Euston Station, where we were picking Elder Vogel up. So to pass the time we were handing mormon.org cards out the window to people on the street or to people on bikes. It was really good, We even gave one to a red bus driver who we pulled up next to us haha. The goal next time is to give out a Book of Mormon.

            Recently I have been reading lots of the Book of Mormon in 3 Nephi when Jesus visits the Nephites. I have really enjoyed it. I came across a cool quote from Neal A Maxwell that I like about the book: 

“The Book of Mormon is like a vast mansion, with gardens, towers, courtyards, and wings. My tour of it has never been completed. Some rooms I have yet to enter, and there are more felicitous fireplaces waiting to warm me. Even the rooms I have glimpsed contain further furnishings and rich detail yet to be savored. There are panels inlaid with incredible insights, and design and décor dating from Eden. There are even sumptuous banquet tables painstakingly prepared by predecessors which await all of us. Yet we as church members sometimes behave like hurried tourists scarcely entering beyond the entry hall.”

            Very true, the Book of Mormon has helped me grow my belief in Jesus Christ so much, and I keep learning new things from it!

            The Simbis are doing well. They came to church. So did Cadeau and Sifi and their family. We had loads of people at church in fact, it was pretty incredible. It was definitely the most I have ever had at sacrament meeting. We took up a couple rows of the pews. 

            Other than that, the weather is rainy, but I am happy as a clam. I’m grateful to be in Merry ole England and spreading the good word!

            The church is true, the book is blue.

God Save the Queen!

Elder Purdy 

Flooding in the UK

This is from an e-mail from one of the members that Christian grew close to when he served in Kent:        "I just thought you may be interested to know that the U.K. hasn't had rain as bad as this since 1760. We've had constant rain since Dec 24th 2013 minus a few hours respite here and there. I've been keeping an eye on the weather in Norwich and it's not one of the hardest hit areas in England. The SW of England has taken the brunt of the rain, gales & flooding. We have another 3 storms waiting to hit England from tonight into next week but again it's the SW that will be the hardest hit.        So Christian is in England during an historic weather event...        Hope the weather is calmer in SLC and you and your family are happy & well."  from Jen: Here are some pictures I found on the internet that show the flooding in parts of the UK.  I also found a story about how Princes William and Harry were out helping crews sandbag in areas affected by the flooding. When reporters gathered around firing questions at them, one of the royals said something like, "Why don't you put down your cameras and come help instead of just standing there?" from a report in USA Today, February 2014:        "England, which has been lashed by wind and rain since December, had its wettest January since records began in 1766, and the rain has continued this month. Storms this week have brought wind gusts of more than 100 mph (160 kph).        Floods have drenched the southwestern coast of England, the low-lying Somerset Levels and the Thames Valley west of London, where hundreds of properties have been swamped after the river burst its banks.        Another bout of gale-force winds hit the country Friday, bringing large waves and up to 1.6 inches (4 centimeters) of rain.        As winds gusted at up to 80 mph (130 kph), landslips and fallen trees caused havoc on the rail network, and some arriving flights were diverted from London's Heathrow to other airports amid fierce bouts of wind.        Peter Willison of the Environment Agency said Friday's rainfall would send waters on the Thames and other rivers even higher, flooding hundreds more properties."

Staying in Norwich

Hello Hello,

            Well transfers have come in once again, and I will be sticking around to hold down the fort in Norwich. Elder Cuche is off to Northampton. My new companion is Elder Vogel, another German. This will be his first transfer as a zone leader so it will be a good time working with him. There is a lot going on in Norwich so I am excited to see all of it through.

            We had a good week last week. Emma and Neil are still strong in the faith. We celebrated Chinese New Year with them and some other Chinese investigators as well. Happy Year of the Horse! There was lots of good food going around – lots of dumplings, lots and lots of them. I was really full but they all just kept eating and eating. It was all very good though. A couple more of our Chinese investigators have a baptismal date – Roy and Zhu – both for the 22nd of this month. They are doing really well!

            We had to head into London on Friday again, for a mission leadership council. Those are always a good time. Lots to talk about in the mission. I really enjoyed speaking about family history work. We had a man who is the head of family history in the UK come in and speak about how we can use family history to find people to teach. I really liked the idea, but I don’t know how to use the website or anything, so that’s a goal for the next upcoming weeks is for me to learn how to use it a bit more. We spoke a lot about how that was one of the major things Moroni spoke about in his appearance to Joseph Smith. He spoke about the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, and about the sealing power being restored.  Two major events that have helped people to come unto Christ, and to come unto Him with their families and loved ones.  We related the Book of Mormon to a change of heart, because it gives people a desire to follow Christ, and the sealing power is a turning of hearts, as it says in Malachi to families and the importance of them.

            On Sunday we met a potential investigator named Lorena. She is 20, and she is half Chilean. When she lived over in Chile she met missionaries and even went to church a couple times. She has great potential and we are teaching her very regularly now. We are also teaching a lady from Papua New Guinea who is here studying. She had a neighbor back home who was a member of the church. 

            So those are my thoughts for today. I hope you all have a good week!

Love,

Elder Purdy