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

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

Happy Christmas!

Hello one and all!

Hope you all had a very merry Christmas!

            We have had a good week this week, really not too much has been going on. Lots of people are very busy until after the new year. The biggest news of the week is Neil will be getting baptised tomorrow! It’s going to be a good time. Another missionary Elder Cowan will be baptising him. They have met once haha. I don’t know why he picked him but I am just happy he is getting baptised.

Scottish flag PJ's courtesy of Christian's former companion
Elder McCormack

Christian is wearing the crown from his Christmas cracker.
He told us this joke from his cracker got lots of laughs:
Q:  What is out of bounds?
A:  An exhausted kangaroo

            Christmas was an excellent day. We woke up and studied and what not, ate lots and lots of chocolate, and I wore my new Scottish flag pajamas, courtesy of Elder McCormack. We then went and spent the rest of the day with the Wilkins family, sat by the fire chatting for a while and then ate a delicious meal (picture included).  It was duck, chicken, vegetables, pork, Yorkshire pudding, and stuffing. It was nice and we did the most British thing ever – pulled Christmas crackers.  We skyped home, and played some board games, and watched the Queen's Speech. She gives a speech every Christmas Day. It’s really nice – talks about the birth of Christ and what not. She actually does it from up here in Norfolk somewhere (I forgot where)!

            Today was P-day and we went out to buy some clothes in town, and now we are watching a film. Tonight we are going to have some more delicious food with members and play some Monopoly with Neil!

Love you all, have a good rest of the week!

from Jen:

The Queen spends Christmas through February in Sandringham in Norfolk.  Sandringham is about 60k (37 miles) from Norwich.  Her Christmas speech was pre-recorded in Buckingham Palace and aired on Christmas Day.

Here is the text of her speech:

I once knew someone who spent a year in a plaster cast recovering from an operation on his back. He read a lot, and thought a lot, and felt miserable. Later, he realised this time of forced retreat from the world had helped him to understand the world more clearly.

We all need to get the balance right between action and reflection. With so many distractions, it is easy to forget to pause and take stock. Be it through contemplation, prayer, or even keeping a diary, many have found the practice of quiet personal reflection surprisingly rewarding, even discovering greater spiritual depth to their lives.

Reflection can take many forms. When families and friends come together at Christmas, it's often a time for happy memories and reminiscing. Our thoughts are with those we have loved who are no longer with us. We also remember those who through doing their duty cannot be at home for Christmas, such as workers in essential or emergency services.

And especially at this time of year we think of the men and women serving overseas in our armed forces. We are forever grateful to all those who put themselves at risk to keep us safe.

Service and duty are not just the guiding principles of yesteryear; they have an enduring value which spans the generations.

I myself had cause to reflect this year, at Westminster Abbey, on my own pledge of service made in that great church on Coronation Day 60 years earlier.

The anniversary reminded me of the remarkable changes that have occurred since the Coronation, many of them for the better; and of the things that have remained constant, such as the importance of family, friendship and good neighbourliness.

But reflection is not just about looking back. I and many others are looking forward to the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow next year.

The baton relay left London in October and is now the other side of the world, on its way across 70 nations and territories before arriving in Scotland next summer. Its journey is a reminder that the Commonwealth can offer us a fresh view of life.

My son Charles summed this up at the recent meeting in Sri Lanka. He spoke of the Commonwealth's 'family ties' that are a source of encouragement to many. Like any family there can be differences of opinion. But however strongly they're expressed they are held within the common bond of friendship and shared experiences.

Here at home my own family is a little larger this Christmas.

As so many of you will know, the arrival of a baby gives everyone the chance to contemplate the future with renewed happiness and hope. For the new parents, life will never be quite the same again.

As with all who are christened, George was baptised into a joyful faith of Christian duty and service. After the christening, we gathered for the traditional photograph.

It was a happy occasion, bringing together four generations.

In the year ahead, I hope you will have time to pause for moments of quiet reflection. As the man in the plaster cast discovered, the results can sometimes be surprising.

For Christians, as for all people of faith, reflection, meditation and prayer help us to renew ourselves in God's love, as we strive daily to become better people. The Christmas message shows us that this love is for everyone. There is no one beyond its reach.

On the first Christmas, in the fields above Bethlehem, as they sat in the cold of night watching their resting sheep, the local shepherds must have had no shortage of time for reflection. Suddenly all this was to change. These humble shepherds were the first to hear and ponder the wondrous news of the birth of Christ – the first noel – the joy of which we celebrate today.

I wish you all a very happy Christmas.

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.

Neverending Cycle of Finding and More Curry

          

            Things here are going well, just chillin’. We found a couple new investigators, but people are starting to just kind of fizzle out.   It’s frustrating so we are trying to find some other people – neverending cycle.  I find the best place to find people is usually the time when you are not even trying to find people.  The unplanned, by-the-way person is usually the best person to find.  They are usually put in your path for a reason, like on a train or something,

            Anyways, here is my latest curry haha and some naan.

Another Great Week!

Another great week!

            First thing, Elder Botcha is teaching me how to make some pretty proper curry. I am getting pretty good. I asked his mum to send us some more recipes so we can make some more – it’s good stuff.

            Also we found two families this week. Two families is a ton for us. It has been so good. One of them is a single mum and her two daughters. Her name is Sheryl. We shared some mormon.org videos with her and bore our testimonies that the gospel blesses families, and talked more about how it can help theirs. They loved it and we committed them to say a prayer as a family. It was such a spiritual lesson, and they called us the next day to say that they said a prayer and they felt so peaceful.

            The other one is Ashwani who I talked about last week, and his son. The mum is less active and the son wants to get baptized. Ashwani has been baptized before into a different church and has a concern about priesthood and stuff, but we are sharing the restoration with him this week and it’s going to be powerful! We had a good lesson with them last time and this week will be good as well.

            Also we are teaching a cool girl named Carly. She is 24. We knocked on her door when we were tracting by a member and she was the first door we knocked on. She invited us in. We pretty much talked about faith and how the gospel blesses families and she loved it! We shared Alma 32 and you could literally see her face light up as we read it. So cool. She has been reading lots of the Book of Mormon since then. 

            It is so cool to have investigators that you reallly love, that you really get along with. It is good and it helps me really focus on them and how I can help them accept the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. It has been a very tiring and rewarding experience. I look forward to meeting with all of them this week and we are planning on bringing some members with us. The more the merrier!

            The gospel is true. I know that happiness can come from understanding the simplicity of the gospel and then living it. We can accomplish so much as we do this.

            The pictures are of me taking a break by the duck pond in town centre, and my dank curry! The third one is of Hitchin Town Centre. It has some pretty cool cobblestoned streets and shops and whatnot.

Love you all.

            Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Emilie will be getting baptized this Saturday! Woohoo! I am very excited for her.

taking a break by the duck pond

Christian's curry

Hitchin Town Centre

Another Good Week

Another good week.  Once again I will just take you through my week day by day ...

             Tuesday:  We had a meeting in London.  Got a train down to Kings Cross and went to South Kensington.  Nice meeting, pretty spiritual.  I was there from probably 9:30 to 1.  Went back to Hitchin and then went to Letchworth, where we met a less active/part member family -- the Hamblins.  They are fun and they are very nice to us. It is always fun going over there, and we shared a good message with them about why we pray. Our main focus was we will understand why we pray when we recognize our proper relationship towards God. It was a good lesson.  After that we had a dinner appointment in some village outside of Hitchin.  They made some pretty tasty chicken, and we went and tracted in Hitchin after that.



walking path from Hitchin to Pirton

            Wednesday: I had a workover with an elder from Stevenage.  Elder Hess is from St. George.  Pretty much all of our appointments cancelled that day and we ended up street contacting in Letchworth and Hitchin. At 5:30 we made the trek out to a village called Pirton.  The walk out there takes an hour and the road is a dirt road that is only meant for horses and pedestrians.  It’s pretty scenic and there is nothing but green all around you.  It’s fun. 

           

Hitchin - Pirton sign post

  





"It was a party in my mouth."

           We got to the appointment with the Ansells.  The father is not a member but the wife is.  She is Hispanic and used to live in Rose Park.  She is a funny lady and she made us Mexican food. Oh my days it has been so long since I have had that food! It was a party in my mouth. We had a good lesson with them then we walked home.

            Thursday: We had district meeting.  I gave a training on accountability, which was fun.  There has been a lot of lack of love for England and English people in the mission and that’s pretty much what I talked about.   I talked about loving the people you serve and loving the place you are in. After that we went tracting and ate some dinner. Nothing much.



            Friday: Tracie Stocker from Gillingham came up to Hitchin and took.  I am so glad I was able to meet her and become friends with her.  She is one of those people I think I was meant to meet on my mission. We had a good time and it was nice seeing her again.  She left at about 2-ish.  We went and finished our weekly plans and then took a bus out to Clifton, a little village not too far away.  We had dinner with members and then taught a young 9-year-old girl that will hopefully get baptized soon.  Her name is Emily and we really want her to get baptized and stuff, so we are working on her. After that we went and saw some less active members and had a REALLY good lesson on how the gospel blesses families.



with Tracie Stocker from Gillingham

from Jen:  This April 2013 picture is of
Sister Stocker and her children with
Christian and his companion when
he was living in Sittingbourne.
Tracie's sister was one of their
investigators and Christian became
close to their whole family.

           

            















            Saturday: We saw Mick and Hearten in the morning. We showed them the Restoration DVD and they really liked it.  Then we went to Letchworth to street contact. We had dinner with the bishop, then we went and taught Stuart the Word of Wisdom.  He accepted, and then we walked home. The weather this week has been really beautiful.  Everywhere just smells like flowers.  It’s really humid and warm and everything’s really green.

            Sunday:  We went to church.  After church there was a munch-and-mingle, then we caught a train to Letchworth.  We sat in a park and had a good lesson with our new investigator Nicole.  We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ and she said she would be baptized.  She is 19 and her parents are from Ghana but she was born here.  She is a cool girl.  After that we went to our WML house and ate some dinner.  Then we stopped by a former investigator’s house back in Letchworth.  His name is Ian and he has been investigating for like 4 years.  His wife is Brazilian and they have a 12-year-old daughter.  His wife and daughter just moved back from Brazil after they had been there for 4 years.  They have been back like a month.  Ian really likes missionaries and his daughter is SO solid!  She loves the church, has a Book of Mormon in English and Portugese, and knows a lot of the lessons.  We are going to start teaching them again.  They are so good.  Ian is less solid but really wants the best for his daughter and wants her to make her own decision on things.  He is a good man. Hopefully I will have more on them later.

             Things are good.  I really love the people we are teaching and it’s all good up in hurrrrrrrr.  Transfers are next week.  We will see what happens – could be anything, really.  It will be interesting.

Frustrating Work

           Where does the time go? 

            This week flew by!

            I have felt pretty frustrated because this area has a lot of potential.  Lots of good things could happen here, but we just don’t seem to be making them happen.  I feel good about the things we are doing, but I am not being very patient about how fast the work is moving here. Just gotta keep plodding along.

            We were in a place called Letchworth Garden City a lot this week.  It’s a pretty decent-sized town, and we were finding a lot of people.  We set up lots of appointments and then they all canceled or just didn’t show up. I hate that.  If there is one thing I cannot stand in missionary work, it’s hosed appointments -- and they happen every day, I swear.

            We did get one new investigator this week. Her name is Nicole.  Her parents are from Ghana I think, but she was born here. She believes in God but doesn’t have a church to go to.  Bingo. We were talking a lot about God, how he loves us and is our Heavenly Father, and we got on the subject of Him having a body.  She disagreed.  I showed her some wonderful verses in the Bible and blew her mind! God definitely has a body, how could Moses talk "face to face" with a God that didn’t, and if bodies were not so important, why did Jesus Christ need to be resurrected? The church is true. We are created in God’s image.

            Anyways, I worked it out ... and I have not been eating much for the past 3 weeks or so.  I haven’t really noticed, so my goal for this week is to eat 3 meals a day! I think before that I was eating one or two. So this will be good.

            Imma go play some badminton.

Love Love Love

Elder Purdy

Cooking? Not so much ...

from Michael’s e-mail: 

How are your cooking skills?  What do you make for meals?

            Yeah, I cook curry a lot or I fry up eggs and bacon and stuff.  I have gotten pretty good but Elder Jensen is kind of a bland eater so I haven’t cooked anything good in a while.  We just make sandwiches and stuff.

My Favorite Afters

           Thanksgiving here was good.  People fed us really well.  The actual day of Thanksgiving a Lithuanian family fed us, and it was good.  Friday somebody took us out for Thanksgiving, and Sunday somebody made us a roast. So I have eaten very well this week.   Brits think we are really weird for celebrating Thanksgiving.   I don’t think they know why we celebrate it haha.

           The holiday season is great! People love having us over and keep inviting us to their homes for Christmas!  Pretty much everyone in the ward has asked us to come around that day.  

            I have had Christmas pudding once.  People are always making us roasts and stuff – it’s great. What I am loving is that everyone is making treacle sponge!!  I think that is my favorite afters that people make for us.

            I am doing fine.  I am meeting cool people and I am in the coolest place in the world.

            Love you and I hope you are well.

treacle sponge

An Excellent Week

Friends and Family!

            Well hey there everyone, I hope you are all doing well. Elder McCormack and I had an excellent week this week.

            Well first, a pretty crazy thing happened on Tuesday.  We had to get a train into Ilford, which is right outside of London. There isn’t a train that goes straight there from Southend so we thought we got a ticket to Barking and then planned to walk to the chapel in Ilford. Well, we ended up in the most dodgy place I have ever been! We were walking down the street and there wasn’t a white person as far as the eye could see. We stuck out so badly -- two white guys in suits walking down a street full of people from Pakistan and India and all those places. We got some pretty funny looks. I thought it was fun though, and actually people were saying hello and everything to us. So it really wasn’t a bad place, but we still stuck out like sore thumbs.

            We gave an investigator named J a baptismal date for January!  He has been trying to get off the cannabis and he hasn’t smoked in about a fortnight. So he is doing well.  He came to church on Sunday and had a good time. I am really excited for him.



haggis   (photo from the web)

            I got called a Pikey a few days ago...which pretty much means Irish scum. So I guess the guy thought I was Irish or something. But I really didn’t take much offense to it.

            Things with Elder McCormack are going quite well.  We ate haggis a last week.  It was my first time having it, and I must say it was very delicious. Ours wasn’t a very traditional one.  They are usually made out of pig. Ours was made out of sheep liver, sheep lung, and cow heart. It was pretty good.

            People here are really excited about President Obama. They really like him over here. So that’s good and fair I suppose.

            I still read the Book of Mormon every day.  I am just about to finish round #2 and then I will go for #3.

            Well that’s all I have for today.  You know England really feels like home now. I feel quite at home with all these great people.

Love you guys,

Elder Purdy