A 3D Week: Duly-Ordained Minister, Didgeridoo, Dead Seagull

Hello Hello,

            Great week this week. Haven’t been able to use Facebook very much because it blocked me haha.  Too many people added me all at once so I am very limited as to what I can do on there now – only for a couple weeks though.

            Elder Kopischke and I are doing all right. We have been majorly trying to freshen up our teaching pool. C, one of our investigators, decided not to go through with baptism because she already has a burial plot in a Catholic cemetery, so she thought she might as well stay a Catholic. Fair enough.

having a go on the didgeridoo

            And we have stopped teaching other people due to various reasons.

            We had a zone meeting this week. Elder Kopischke and myself gave an excellent training on our authority and power as missionaries. On a little certificate we get at the beginning of our missions it says we are “duly ordained ministers” of Jesus Christ.  We focused a lot on that and how Christ is the true vine, and if we take him out of the equation, then we can do nothing.

            We did lots of service this week. On Tuesday we were at a member’s house for dinner. He was showing us his didgeridoo and letting us have a go on it. Then a lady from the ward called him and said she had a dead seagull on her roof and asked him to come get it off. We offered to help as well so off the three of us went! I thought she was exaggerating a bit and that it was probably a little pigeon, but when we got there she was right! A huge seagull was just lying in her rain gutter. I hung out of a bathroom window and poked at it with a broom until it fell off. 

Russell Square, London

             On Wednesday I had an exchange in London with the assistants. It was fun going into the big city for a couple of days. We went finding in front of the museums and then we took this big mormon.org display thing to Russell Square and spoke with people there. It was a good day! Spoke with lots of different people from all over the world. 

            We had a great General Conference weekend. We had one investigator watch the sessions as well. My favourite speaker was President Eyring. He is the man! Both of his talks were inspiring. I always feel stoked and ready to go do some proper missionary work after General Conference. It was good.

            I hope you all have a good week!

Love,

Elder Purdy

Saturday morning football

"Narich"

Hello from Norwich, 

            Well, I must say, I do like it here. The city is really cool – lots of history.  It’s huge and there are tons of people.  There are two massive cathedrals – one Anglican, one Catholic. And Norwich Castle is right in the middle of the city.  Some of the ruins from the wall are still in the city here and there. It’s a funky place.

            We don't have a flat up here we have a house haha, so it’s nice having a back garden and stuff. It’s a nice place to live.

            The accent is a mix between farmer and I don’t even know what.  It’s different. Not everyone has it though, just the proper Norfolk people in the country.

This picture was taken at King's Cross where I saw Elder Torbit.
The guy is a stud.

            Well, when we switched companions in London it was “go” right from the start. We drove up to Norwich which took 4 hours, we unpacked my bags, then we went and had two lessons with some of our investigators. The University up here, the University of East Anglia, is really big and we cover it.  We try to get lots of young YSA. There are tons of Chinese people and they make up a big part of our teaching pool.  We taught one of them named Luke who really has no belief in God. It is so weird trying to teach somebody that really has no background with ANY belief. You really have to simplify things a lot, but I have learned a lot about teaching from these lessons. They are so cool. Helping these people see who and what God is, what creation is – it’s nuts. But the spirit is so strong in these lessons! They are cool. We taught him, and then we taught a couple of our other Chinese investigators, Jessica and Doris (really Chinese names). Then we went home and ate dinner.

            The next day, Thursday, we had to wake up at 4:00, get ready and everything, and then catch a train to London again. Had a meeting there all day then we went back up to Norwich and made lots of calls.

            Friday was the most normal day. We taught some LA's and went tracting and planned for the week to come. We have a car so I get to drive again, We drove up to the north part of our area on the coast. Norfolk is known for its nice beaches, and it actually has a couple surf spots, so that’s nice. It was good to see.

            Saturday we had a meeting with our zone, and then Elder Doudou and I went to the University to go and find some more people. We found a Fijian family. I told them I lived in Hawaii. They were stoked and we got a return appointment with them. We also got in contact with another Fijian named Umi who used to investigate. We should be seeing him this week. And I called a former investigator who was very pleased to hear from us. She wanted us to come around and said, “130 members of my family live in New Zealand and they all are members of your church now. I want to find out more about it.” So I hope that goes well.

            Sunday was General Conference. I thought all of the talks were great as usual. Really missionary minded. Crazy! The Lord really is hastening his work, I can definitely feel it. And I am excited to see the success come from the miracles that follow! Things have been so crazy this week and this next week looks pretty pivotal on the progress of our investigators so I am looking forward to it. General Conference has gotten me charged up. 

            I am looking forward to teaching our Fijian people, our Chinese people, and of course our British people. It’s going to be a good week. 

Love you all,

Elder Purdy

General Conference and Looking Funky Fresh

Hey Errybody:

            How good was that General Conference? There were some really good talks.  I especially liked Elder Echo Hawk’s talk. He was really heartfelt and sincere about the Book of Mormon.

            How crazy are those general conference announcements? Those blew my mind.  I think this is going to change a whole lot of missionary work. I have an interview with President Jordan this week.  He emailed me and said he wanted to talk about these things. I think we are going to see more missionaries, and surely more female missionaries.  Tell Liam to read that scripture in the Book of Mormon that says "consider the lilies" When I read that at the beginning of my mission it just told me to relax and enjoy. Don’t fret.

            This week was a pretty good week. We saw some real improvements with our work. I have been trying to improve my planning. I am the one that plans everything we do and I am quickly learning that you need to put a good plan together and be organized to be successful. It has been hard sometimes but I am really learning a lot.  We are definitely learning by trial and error. On Saturday night we had to sleep on some other elders’ sofa because we missed the train back to Southend. So hopefully that doesn’t happen again. Things are going well though.

            It is so dang cold here now. Every morning I wake up there is frost and fog outside.
 

            Teaching is going well. We are teaching a girl named Kamisha. She has never believed in God, or any higher power, so we are really trying to get her a deeper understanding and concept of God. Right now she thinks God is a genie or grants peoples wishes....but I guess it’s better than nothing.

            I bought a tweed pair of pants here for really cheap. They are pretty slim fit and I think I am looking pretty funky fresh.

Cheerio

Elder Purdy