My Last Week

Hello Hello,

            Well here you go. The last real e-mail is coming from a little internet cafe in the East End. Right now it’s raining. The guy who runs this little shop is Indian and is playing some loud Punjabi music. Part of the shop is the internet cafe and the other part is a barber shop. Guess I could e-mail and get a haircut at the same time!

            Well last week was really good. Tanya is doing absolutely amazing. I can’t believe how prepared she is. I am so happy for her. We went to institute with her this last Thursday in Hyde Park and she really enjoyed it. I am pretty gutted that I am going to miss her baptism on the 14th, but she said she would send me pictures. I can already tell a difference in her from the first time we met her. She seems happier and more confident. The gospel is a miraculous thing! She was definitely the person we had to meet this transfer!

            Also this last Saturday we went to Wicked, the musical. It was really good! We were waiting by Big Ben for some other missionaries so we could all go together. It was really calm and mellow because it was at like 6 in the morning because that’s when we had to go get tickets. While we were standing there it just kind of hit me … “I am in the middle of London standing next to the Houses of Parliament. I can see Westminster Abbey, the Thames, and Big Ben.” I had never really felt like that over the past two years. I am going to miss it here so much it is unreal!

            The musical was good. We ended up getting front row seats. The lady who plays the witch that isn’t green (Glinda) is a member of the church. She saw us with our white shirts apparently and during the intermission a guy who works for the theatre told us she wanted to take us backstage after the show. So we got to do that as well. Met some of the cast and got to go and stand on the stage and stuff. It was pretty awesome. I will send the pictures.

            I am really excited just to soak up everything I can this last week – take a deep deep breath and just take it all in. I love England so so much and I am going to miss all the people I have met here. These past two years have been the best adventure, and they have gone by far too quickly. I have grown so close to my Saviour Jesus Christ, and have made so many friends. It's weird looking back and seeing all of the things that have happened! I cannot thank God enough for this experience. I can’t even begin to.

            See you all in a week!

Love,

Elder Purdy

Life in the East End

Hello from the East End!

a popular BBC soap opera /
Christian is living a true "EastEnder" life

            The first night I was here there was a fight outside our window hahaha.

            I am loving it here in London. We are really trying to build up a teaching pool because we don’t really have one, but it’s going really well. Literally nobody is from England in our area so it is really fun to go out and speak with people – lots of people from Jamaica, Ghana, Nigeria, Poland, Brazil, and loads from Muslim countries. A mix of all of this makes for some pretty interesting conversations in the street.

            Elder Harding is my companion. We have known each other for a long time in the mission and it has been really good working with him. We get along great and are having a good time. The ward here in Stratford is great. They all know it’s my last transfer and they want to help me go out with a bang. So I am really stoked to be here. I know this is where the Lord wants me to be.

            One experience this week really helped me realise that. We were tracting in West Ham and there weren’t many people listening. We had been doing it for a couple of hours and we decided to go back home and eat some dinner. I was kind of frustrated that we didn’t find anybody because I really want to have a baptism this transfer. As we were walking back we stopped a girl who said we could walk back to her home and share more with her. Her name is Priscilla. She is originally from Ghana but grew up in Germany and now lives with her Auntie here in London. She’s one of the coolest investigators I have ever had. None of her family live here except her Auntie, and she is only about 17-20 years old. We shared the Restoration with her and she said she would start reading the Book of Mormon that night. The whole lesson just clicked for her. We asked her if we could help her out with anything and she said, “Just come back and share more with me. That’s all I want you to do.” So keep her in your prayers! We are seeing her again this Thursday.

            After that we tried to speak with a guy but he just grunted at us like a dog....

            We also met a girl from Ecuador that seems very interested as well.

            We are also teaching a guy from Brazil. He is a really wonderful guy named Marcello. He knows everything we have to teach him, but just wants to feel when the right time to be baptized is. He loves the church but, but just doesn’t feel ready to make the step into the font. I am excited to work with him.

            Time is really flying and we are making the most of it here in Stratford! It’s a great time to be alive!

Love,

Elder Purdy

Lots of Work to Do, Lots of Miracles to Happen

Ahoy,

            Crazy week – lots of twists and turns. Our mission started to use Facebook this week. It’s pretty interesting. I think it will be good, getting in contact with members and investigators. We will see where it takes us!

            Last Tuesday we went to the district meeting in Gillingham. It was crazy being back. It was all very familiar. It was a good meeting, and afterwards we went finding with the elders in Chatham. Spoke with a good guy from Afghanistan, and the other elders saw him this week. Chatham is an interesting place. There are always a couple of crazy people that are roaming around – definitely keeps things interesting. There was a man that had a banjo, which was wayyy out of tune, and he was just strumming away on it for a couple hours. Fun stuff.

            We really don’t have that great of a teaching pool right now. It is definitely lacking, so that’s a big focus for us this week. I've noticed that there are loads of people from Nepal here. Apparently they move over here and then work for the military in Ashford. Most of them are Hindi. Nice people, but it’s hard to communicate with them. To be quite frank, to just have a really good conversation with anybody is proving to be a task, but Elder Kopischke and I are doing a good job at it. We are slowly finding some people that are interested. Just takes a good attitude and a lot of faith!

            Saturday we had a leadership meeting in London. The train from Ashford to London is pretty fun. It’s part of the Eurostar so lots of people on the train are from Europe coming over from France and Belgium and places like that. It only takes about 30 minutes from Ashford to London – much better than the 3-hour drive from Norwich to London. It was a good meeting, and the mission is heading in a great direction!

            Yesterday was a good day as well. It was British Mother’s Day, so most the services were about families and motherhood. Afterwards we went and street-contacted in the park. It has been really beautiful and all the flowers and trees are budding. It was a good time and I really enjoyed it. We saw some good success as well.

            We then had a dinner appointment with some members. They are English but they used to live in India and they made a pretty wicked curry. It was delicious and I ate wayyy too much. Good way to end the week.

            I am sure this week will prove to be very eventful as well! Lots to do and not a lot of time to do it. Lots of work to do and lots of miracles to happen.

Cheers big ears,

Elder Purdy

Miracle after Miracle!

Christian: We taught 22 lessons this week.

Michael: 22 lessons is amazing!  You must be thrilled. That's how many I taught my entire mission!

Jen: Unfortunately, I don't think Mike is exaggerating about that number!

________________________________________________________________

Hello one and all!

            We had a fantastic week this week! Taught so many lessons and they all went very well! Elder Cuche and I have been fasting a lot and praying a lot for the past couple weeks and the Lord has blessed us in great ways. We have hardly had enough time to eat and what not because we have had so many people who can and want to meet with us. We found lots of new investigators this last week, some from Fiji, China, Papua New Guinea, and England. And we have just been teaching the Restoration as we meet and teach these people. It is very interesting to people to hear about Joseph Smith's experience. And I love testifying that I know that it is true. The spirit is always there as we talk about it.

            The Simbi's are doing very well. They didn’t come to church, but we taught them with a member of the bishopric and it went great. They really hit it off with him and should be coming out to more activities. They came to football on Saturday, and the boy who is 14 tore us up! He was really good. We had a good time.

            The girl from Cameroon who is a strong Catholic is fun to meet with. She really knows her doctrine so it really keeps me on my toes and makes us have to really show her from the scriptures that what we are teaching is true. Right now she can’t get past the idea that families are essential to God’s plan, so I am not sure how we will answer this one.

            This week we are heading to London for yet another meeting, and I am heading to the coast for an exchange as well. I am sure it will be cold.

            Well, I love you guys.

            Cheers.

Love,

Elder Purdy

The Perfect Model of Missionary Work

Scenes from London

          This week was crazy! Tuesday we had to wake up at 4 and go down to London. Takes a while to get down there. Once we hit the M25 it is pretty much traffic all the way into the centre where we had to go. Had a nice meeting with President Jordan there. Ate lunch, met some more, and then we made the long drive back up to Norwich. Harrods was all decorated for the Christmas season so I took a picture of it and Picadilly Circus from the car. On our way back up to Norwich a pheasant flew out in front of the car and we hit it ... peace be upon the poor thing. It was pretty big as well.

       

zone meeting

     We also had a meeting with our zone this week. It was a good time. I also had an exchange that day with Elder Orr from Canada. He was trained by the great Elder Mongelli. We had a good time. We went home teaching all over south Norfolk with a member. Had a lovely meal with a family and then went to the University to find some students to teach.

            Elder Cuche and I are doing well together. We have 17 baptismal dates in our zone which is good for merry ole England – two of which are ours. George, who is from China, and Neil, from China.  Neil is scheduled for the 28th, and George for later in January. Our zone is really enthusiastic.

            Tina the lady I found in Lowestoft with the elders there is doing great. She is so excited to be baptized and is reading everything they give her like crazy.  The only setback this week was some pretty crazy flooding in Norfolk. It’s a very flat place and some of the coastal places were hit pretty hard! Some sisters in Gorleston had to evacuate their flat. But nobody was hurt and all the flats are fine. No harm no foul. Life goes on. 

            Emma gave a talk in church yesterday! She did great. In her very limited English she said “before my baptism I did not sleep well, but after I was baptized I sleep very well every night.”  The ward loves her and she has a very nice testimony. We are working with her and the rest of the Norwich YSA very closely still. They are all very good and helping Neil to be baptized. We have a nice activity with all of them this Friday with some food. Should be a good time.

            This week I have to go to London again, and to Cambridge, and to Gorleston. So I don’t know what next week’s e-mail will look like. But I am looking forward to another busy, but spiritual week.

            Something I have been thinking of this Christmas season – how amazing it is that our Saviour Jesus Christ, the Creator of the universe, humbled himself and was born in a manger. He was here to save everyone, but had concern for each of us individually. He is the perfect model of missionary work as we try and help people this Christmas season, and of course as we commemorate his birth

God Save the Queen!

Elder Purdy 

Welcome to the World, Prince George of Cambridge!

            Well, Princess Kate had herself a boy, Prince George of Cambridge.  That has been the biggest news in the UK this week.

            But Elder Torbit and I have also had some cool things happen in our missionary work.

            Last Monday we met this really cool guy named M-. He believes in God but doesn’t really practice any religion. We just met him on the street in the evening and invited him to sit down with us to have a discussion for a few minutes. Our discussion ended up lasting 30 minutes and we talked a lot about who God is and how the gospel blesses our families -- two topics that really get people thinking and really help them feel the spirit. He was very intrigued by what we taught and we are seeing him this week, cool guy.

            Also we met a girl named S-. She is 20 years old from Ghana. She has lived in the UK for 3 years now I believe. We went to her house a few days ago to teach her and she was saying that back in Ghana she attended our church with one of her friends, and ever since she came to the UK she has wanted to get back into worshiping on Sunday and reading the scriptures. We told her that we could definitely help her with that and we were explaining what our purpose as missionaries was and she said "I want to be baptized." So long story short, we taught her all of lesson one and gave her a Book of Mormon, which she was way stoked about. She started marking the passages we were reading with her. And we set a date with her for the 25th of August. She is so solid, and we are seeing her this week. The spirit was so strong in that lesson.

            And we saw a really crazy less active person. They invited us over yesterday and we were in their back garden just talking with the husband. He was a good guy. Everything was going good until we saw that the wife was coming outside ... and then the husband saw her and disappeared into the house. The wife came outside and started saying how she will never come back to church ever, and she was proper screaming! And how she went on about her pretty dark childhood and how the Bible says woman came from man, and then once again said she will never come back to church and went back inside.  So … we were left in their back garden alone.  It was pretty weird.  We decided just to go back through the house and leave through the front door. On our way out she stopped us and gave us a watermelon and kindly told us that we were welcome in their home anytime … nice people.

            Anyways, the gospel is the best. The things it allows you to do are incredible. I just want to say that I would not have met the amazing people in my life, or have been able to do the things I have done in my life, if it weren’t for a simple prayer offered by a fourteen year old boy in 1820. That one experience has changed my life and I am so glad for that! I am so glad that I could be here in the UK. I love the people here and I love the memories I have made.

            There are good things to come fo sho here in Hitchin. I am excited to help our investigators see the ideals of the gospel and want those for themselves.

Love,

Elder Purdy

  

P-day in London

          

We went to London today for P-day. Such a cool city -- I really hope I get to serve a bit closer to it. We went to Buckingham Palace. They had lots of flags up for the birth of Prince George. We went to Camden Town, which is the weirdest place in the world -- they have some pretty crazy shops. And we went to Picadilly Circus as well. I feel so happy to be in this mission, and the cool people I have been able to meet.

            

            When we were in Covent Gardens I saw Lindsay Gilson and Eden Sloan who I knew back home. It was so weird. They called me Christian and I kept thinking "why are they calling me that?" It sounded so wrong, and they sounded so American! But it was really funny bumping into them. 

with Eden and Lindsay


from Jen:  Lindsay texted me this photo with the caption
"no hugs, just awkward handshakes"

from Jen:  here's a flashback picture from almost two years ago when Eden, Nate, and Christian

were just starting school at BYU-Hawaii

Scenes from London

Christian uploaded some pictures onto our photo-sharing site.  They are from January 14 when he was in London with Elder McCormack for meetings.   Enjoy!

Random Stuff

from Jen:
We happened to be online this week when Christian was sending his P-day e-mail.  Here is some random stuff from our short question-and-answer session:

Hi son. How are things? 

            Things here in Sittingbourne are good.  We are just trying to find some more people to teach. We are teaching Marina again! which I am really excited about because I REALLY want her to get baptized. She is great. We had a really good lesson with her and we have a couple planned this week that will be good also. We set a couple of potential appointments this week.  One of them is Brazilian so we will see how that goes.

            Springtime has hit Kent and it is great.  Things are starting to grow and it is great being in the country.

Are you driving?

            I am learning to drive [a stick-shift] and what not.   [I can’t officially drive all the time] yet cause I need to get a Brit license.  The office said it is in the mail, so any day now.  Elder Mongelli’s driving is crazy.  He doesn’t know what to do in roundabouts.

Did you get to go to London to pick him up?  Did you ever get to go through the London temple?

            Yes, I went into London to pick him up.  I miss going in there.  No, we can’t go to the temple.  It drives me nuts.  I want to so bad.

I was thinking about the people you were teaching in Southend. Did those baptisms go through?

            Yes, Michael Everett from Southend got baptized but his mum didn’t.

Do you travel a lot in your area?

            Yeah, a ton.  We cover from Sittingbourne to another place called Rainham.  It’s a lot of area which is why we have a car.  I like driving here a lot.  It’s good … it’s just a really tough area!   But it’s good.  I am learning a lot

            Hey, I forgot to tell you Elder Murri is AP now.  Crazy, aye?

Well Chuffed Over Two Baptismal Dates . . . and Praying to King Edward Longshanks

Hey there one and all.

            I hope you guys are doing well. I had a fantastic week last week.

            We found two people that are preparing to be baptized on February 10th!  Their names are Michael Everett, and Lucia Everett. I am really excited about them, Michael is Lucia's son.  They have family that are members of the church, and they know the bishop really well.  They came to church last week which was really exciting. And they really fit in with everyone. I am super stoked on them.

             We also found a super rad guy named Thomas Hooke.  He’s like 21 and has a friend in Grays who is a member. He is interested in the gospel.  He asked us questions about polygamy and said he thought the idea of us practicing the polygamy way back then was pretty cool and that he liked it.  Strange, but it is better than the other reactions we get to it.

            Transfers are next week, so don’t send any letters yet till I find out what is happening.

            Had interviews with President Jordan.  He is truly an inspired man.  We talked for a good hour about . . . well all sorts of things -- the Book of Mormon, England, home, and what is going to happen when all these missionaries start pouring in.  It is truly an exciting time to be a missionary. Our mission is like doubling in size.

            Also, we went sightseeing yesterday in London, and because we are ministers we got into Westminster Abbey for free, which was nice.  So we were walking in there (super cool place) and then one of the clergy came up and said, "Oh, you are ministers, come follow me."  So we followed him and he took us behind the coronation seat to the stone casket of KING EDWARD LONGSHANKS.  I had no idea what was going on.  I was in shock.  And then the clergy guy calmly just said, "Let us pray."

            What the heck?????? 

            Anyways, he gives us a piece of paper with a written prayer on it, and we literally prayed to King Edward right in front of where his remains are lying. I don’t think I will ever say "King Edward bless us" as many times as I did in that prayer haha. It was a good time.  There were four missionaries there and we all did not know what we were doing. 

            After that the guy took us around to where Handel is buried and Charles Dickens, and Mary Queen of Scots and explained some of the stories behind them. I loved it.

            Here are some pictures.  Love you guys.

CHEERIO

I Am Way Stoked on Member Finding

            Hope you are all doing well. I am doing just great. 

            We had lots of meetings in London in the first half of the week.  On Wednesday I went into London and I saw all the people in my MTC group which was fun. And we had some good uplifting meetings there as well. President Jordan again stressed the importance of member finding, so Elder Murri and I really tried to get into it this week.

            Most of the members here live in a town called Rochford, which really is kind of your classic British Township, and we went up there a lot this week. In particular we met with the Bowen Family.  I love those guys so much.  It is a family of 6 boys and a mom and dad.  We pretty much just talked to the oldest son and the dad. They hadn’t had missionaries over in like 2 years so it was good to get over there. Because we went and saw them they want us to help baptize their 9 year old son! So I am way stoked on member finding now.

           

Love you guys

Elder Purdy

an internet photo of Rochford's main square 

President and Sister Jordan

excerpts from an e-mail from Michael:

Dear Son,

How are things this week?

I am so looking forward to getting your newest letter today. They are the highlight of our week. You always sound great and your stories are fun. Last week's letter was a perfect example. You had some strange food, ran into strong critics, and also found new investigators. The perfect week!

What is new this week?

Our news is that we were in London for three days. I ended up coming for the world report story I told you about. We did not know what to do about telling you so I sent a note to your mission president and told him we left it up to him. He decided to ask us not to see you thinking that it would be hard and that other missionaries do not have that chance.

We felt if we saw you it might be the wrong choice and if we did not, we would wish we had. Not great either way so we told the mission president  we agreed with him. Hope we made the right choice and that you agree.  Took all I had not see you but wanted to do whatever was best for you. I hope you feel good about it?

We met the mission president and his wife. Nice people.

Love you son. Can't wait to hear from you.

Love, Dad

from Jen:

So while we were in London, we went to church at the Hyde Park chapel.  President and Sister Jordan met with us after sacrament meeting and spent a lot of time telling us about the London mission and the missionaries.  It was so nice to get to know them a little bit.  They were very gracious and it was good to see how they love all the missionaries and are watching out for them.  Christian is in great hands.

Christian replied on his P-day:

Dad, I got your e-mail today.  That is crazy that you were so close and yet so far away haha. I am kind of glad that you left the decision to President Jordan. If anybody should have a say in it he should. And it probably would have been hard to say goodbye again. I actually have been thinking a lot about home recently and I think seeing you wouldn’t have helped. But yeah, like you said, it would have been nice nonetheless. I really don’t know how I feel about it all. But I’m sure that it was a good decision. I guess it will make things even better when I finally do see you guys.