Chatham, Ramsgate, Sittingbourne, and a National Health Experience

Ahoy!

            Things here are good. Pretty mental week. Had three exchanges. Tuesday I was in Chatham, Thursday Ramsgate, and Friday back in my old area Sittingbourne!

            It wore me out traveling around so much but it was fun! Most of the days we spent finding new investigators. I was pretty stoked because I finished the Book of Mormon this week again and I have been really eager to go and tell everybody about it. We met some pretty interesting people. We met a man who believed that the second coming already happened (??) There are some funny people out there!

       

Ramsgate Main Sands Beach

     I especially liked Ramsgate because it is right on the sea. In the morning we woke up and went running down the sea shore. The smell brought back fond memories, and the water looked really nice as well. I was with an Elder from South Africa who is from one of those tribes that speak that clicky language. We actually found a lady who comes from the same background as him. They got talking and clicking away and I just stood there. It was pretty fun to watch.

Click to see/hear an example of the Xhosa language.

            It was good being back in Sittingbourne as well. Saw some dear, dear friends. We taught one of their investigators who is really solid. He went from drinking 12 beers a day to 0! Amazing how the atonement can just totally transform somebody into a better person. It is amazing to see that process as a missionary. He will be baptized at the end of the month. Also, I felt really prompted that we should call an investigator who I taught when I was with Elder Mongelli. Her number was still in the phone and I rang her up. It turns out she lives in Ashford now! I think we will be able to meet up in the next couple of weeks. God works in his own time!

            Also, I forgot to mention I woke up Sunday morning and I my left ear was really deaf and hurt pretty bad. After church we went to the NHS hospital and they sorted me out all right – two hours of waiting for ten minutes of treatment. I may have hurt my ear drum. They gave me some ear drops. Today I can’t hear very well still, but it’s feeling a bit better. I should be all right. National Health was worth the experience anyways! Pretty interesting. Not too shabby.

Love you all!

Elder Purdy

Happy as a Clam

On an exchange with Elder Elliott
from Jen:  no info about this Elder -- I just read his nametag  :) 

Hello Hello,

            Time flew by this week. We had a couple of exchanges with the Norwich elders and the elders in Lowestoft. It’s always fun to go cruise around the beaches of Lowestoft and speak with people – especially when the sun is out. We had a nice lesson with a girl on the sea front about prayer and how God answers prayers. It was a nice setting for a lesson.

            Cool experience – we were talking with people in Norwich city centre. I always like going to city centre because it is filled with the most interesting people! Norwich has a reputation for that, -- it has quite the characters. I had really prayed that we would find success, and we had some cool experiences. A lady came out of a shop right in front of us and I casually said hello. She said hi in a rather glum tone and we asked her if we could help her at all. She has a lot going on in life and we had a great lesson with her. She feels the gospel can help her. And we spoke with a Portuguese family that wants to learn more about eternal families.

            We also went into London on Saturday. That's always a good time. We have to go again this week for some more meetings and what not. 

the beautiful Simbi family

            On Sunday the Simbis fed us some proper African food – something called fufu??? Anyways it is pretty much like mashed potatoes, but it’s not potatoes. It was fufu, and some vegetables and meat. They don’t use silverware so were just going at it with our hands. It was something else. Apparently we didn’t eat it right because they were all laughing at us. It was a good time.

            Spring is in the air in beautiful England. Flowers are budding and popping up, and everything is turning green. It is beautiful and I am happy as a clam.

Cheerio,

Elder Purdy

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

A Great Way to Start the Year

Ahoy!

            Another week gone by! We saw some pretty great miracles this week! Not to mention that it is 2014! Crazy stuff!

            Monday was zone training meeting. We met with the zone and gave some trainings on setting baptismal dates and effective planning. It was a good meeting. After the meeting we had call-ins with the assistants and went finding.

            Tuesday, since it was New Year’s Eve, we went to the Carruthers family for lunch and just a wholesome good time. There was some excellent food – jacket potatoes and what not. And we had fun. We went and taught Neil and Emma afterwards, Emma just got back from Thailand and it was good to see them both again. We went to bed at 10:30 as usual to celebrate the new year. Woo!

            Wednesday we went finding again. We spoke with three girls from Zambia. They are Christian and were very open to have us come around, so we set a time for Sunday. The rest of the day we met lots of different people. We met a cool English guy named Neil who rode his motorcycle from Norwich to Bombay … he said it took him seven. Some people are crazy. He is now planning on driving a Range Rover from Finland to South Africa, so I am sure that will be exciting. He had some pretty far out stories to tell us haha. 

            Thursday we had an exchange with Elder Dominguez. He is from Spain and came up from London to be with Elder Cuche and I. We had a nice time. We taught a less active guy, asked him for a referral, and he said the people across the street were less active and hadn’t been visited in a long time. So we went by after his lesson, and they let us in. We taught them and gave them a blessing. We then asked them for a referral and they gave us their son's address and told us to go by. We did and he let us in and we taught him as well. The power of working with members and less actives! It was a cool thing to experience all in the matter of like two hours.

            The weekend was a bit slow except for Sunday. We fasted and prayed for our investigators and for these African girls we wanted to teach, and when we went by for our appointment with them not only were the three girls there but the whole family was in the living room waiting for us, except the father who was working. All together there were six.  The mother looked familiar and it turns out we stopped her like five weeks ago and she wanted us to come by, but her English was very, very poor and we couldn’t understand where she lived. But we taught a powerful lesson on the Restoration to the whole family plus some aunties. And now all six of them are investigating and they said their father would be as well.

            I’m glad we could fast for them and teach them. They are very sincere and we are excited to teach them and unite this family in the gospel. It was a great way to start this year off. I’m grateful for the Restoration of the gospel, and I am glad I can share this unique message with people like the Simbi family.

Cheerio,

Elder Purdy

December!

            It's December the 2nd and Christmas is in the air in Norwich. The Town Centre is looking very festive and people are starting to break out the mince pies and Christmas pudding.  The latter has probably been aging for 6 months, but apparently that just adds to the flavour!

            Elder Cuche and I had a good week. On Tuesday we went to a district meeting in Gorleston, and then I went to Lowestoft on an exchange. It’s a cold cold place. We were tracting around there in the evening and we ran into a lady named Tina. She was very happy to see us and exclaimed that she had been thinking a lot about what the truth is about God and if having a belief is even worth it. Her friend is a Jehovah’s Witness and had been sharing her beliefs but Tina felt that something was missing. She didn't feel right about it. So she invited us in and she had about a million and one questions which she wanted us to answer. We shared the First Vision, Nature of God, and the Plan of Salvation. It was a really good lesson and I could tell when we were speaking about the three kingdoms of glory she was tearing up a bit because the plan of salvation is perfect ... and she agreed with it. We set a date to go back the next day.

            Yesterday the elders in Lowestoft called me to tell me that they took a member with them, and Tina recognized the spirit as they taught her and finally recognized that she had found what she was looking for! She came to church on Sunday and plans on joining the church! All in the matter of a week! She has found God’s plan for her, and she is A-OK with all of the commandments like the Word of Wisdom. It was pretty wicked.

            Wednesday I was on another exchange in Norwich. We had a good day and saw lots of success. Norwich is a pretty diverse place so it’s really fun to talk with people. I met people from Angola, India, Poland, Ghana, and Russia that day. And for dinner a member served us some stew and dumplings … which is what they ate during the war when food was rationed, so you can imagine how that tasted. And they just kept piling it down on my plate. Mmmmm. And for afters we had some apple crumble and custard.

            We taught Emma on Wednesday. She is the Chinese recent convert. She is doing great and hasn't missed a Sunday since we met her. We taught about temples and eternal marriage, and it absolutely blew her mind that we can be with our families forever. It was a fun lesson.

            Saturday we played some football with some members and then went home and ate some lunch.

            This week was a week when the Plan of Salvation has really stuck out to me. It was the knowledge that Tina was looking for, and as we taught Emma about eternal families she thought it was too good to be true. As I have studied it, it helps me know that this is the Restored Gospel, that God’s plan has been restored through modern prophets!

Cheerio,

Elder Purdy

from Jen:

          I learned that Lowestoft is the most easterly point of the United Kingdom.  It lies on the North Sea coast 110 miles northeast of London and 22 miles southeast of Norwich.  Some of the earliest evidence of settlement in Britain has been found there and the town has a long history.

          Gorleston-On-Sea, also known colloquially as Gorleston, lies at the mouth of the River Yare.  It experienced the highest wind speed ever recorded in the UK during the Great Storm of 1987 -- 122 mph.