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

A Vision of the Work

Ahoy!

            We had a great week this last week – a very cold week, but a good week!  Things here are good. We didn’t teach 22 lessons this week, we taught 18 haha, and the Simbi family came to church which was good. Neil passed the sacrament and did great.  

            Wednesday we had to go into London for a leadership meeting. I saw lots of missionaries that I haven’t seen forever, like Elder Mongelli! He has had to get glasses since the last time I saw him, and he has put on some weight, but it was great to see him again – a joyous reunion indeed.

            The meeting was good. Something that stuck out to me is we were talking about how we need to have a “vision” of where we need to go in our work, and how we are going to help our zones get there as well – which is very true. If we don’t set goals, if we don’t look to broaden our horizons, then we really aren’t leading, because we don’t know where we want to go.

            Thursday I was in Lowestoft. We did lots of tracting and finding on the bus. Norfolk is one of those places where LDS missionaries have been since they came to England in the late 1800's. I actually saw an old newspaper that talked about missionaries baptizing at a mill that’s in my area in a place called North Walsham. So everybody knows who we are. It can make it kind of hard to teach people because they already have an OK idea of what we talk about. But we were tracting in Lowestoft and we met a great lady, who minutes before had been praying for guidance and then we knocked at the door. Coincidence? I think not! She has studied lots of religions and perspectives but never ours, so she was naturally curious and we had a great lesson with her and shared about the Book of Mormon. So even in a place like Norfolk where there have been missionaries since the beginning of the church, there are still people who haven’t heard, and need the gospel in their lives. The Lord definitely prepares people to hear our message!

            Saturday we had dinner with a couple named David and Jemma Masters. David is not a member but Jemma is. We visit them quite often. I really get on with them and we have a good time. They provided dinner and Elder Cuche made crepes for pudding.  I tried making some as well, but mine were pretty sub par. But it was fun, and I took a picture.

            Sunday was great. We had six investigators at church! The Simbi family and two of our Chinese investigators. We were running around frantic to make sure everybody was where they needed to be, and it was all good in the end. They felt the spirit and the ward was very warm and inviting towards them.

            That’s all for me this week. Transfers are next week so we will see what is in store for me! 

Pip pip cheerio,

Elder Purdy

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