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

Times Never To Be Forgotten

Hello!

            It has been a very sunny and warm week! It has made every aspect of life much better. You can’t beat England this time of year. Everything is very green and alive.

            Our week was very good. Tanya and Lavinia are doing great – especially Tanya. She came to church yesterday for the second time and loved it! She prayed about the Book of Mormon, got an answer, and she really loves the story about Joseph Smith. We gave her a baptismal date for June 14th and yesterday at church she was talking about how excited she was for it. Her exact words were “I want to feel like this for the rest of my life.”

            The rest of our investigators are doing all right as well.

            We had interviews with President Jordan in Hyde Park last Tuesday. Not much to say about that. He pretty much said, “I will interview you in a couple weeks” and “finish strong.”

            Pretty crazy. Things are wrapping up real fast, but I am happy that we can teach great people like Tanya and Lavinia. It makes me want to stay for their baptism!

            The weather is good today as well. I am happy to be here and enjoying myself for the last couple weeks of the mission. These have been times never to be forgotten!

Love,

Elder Purdy

P.S. Mom, I went to the National Art Gallery yesterday. You were right, it was very cool. My favourite pieces were the Monet Impressionism stuff. I liked those a lot.

Doing Great

Hello!

            Well first off it was great speaking to you Mum! and the rest of the guys that were there. It was a fun time. I really enjoyed it.

            We have had a great week. It’s been very rainy and we had some very good lessons. Priscilla is doing great. She is loving our lessons and she even invited her cousin to the last lesson – her name is Rebecca. She was pretty disinterested when she first came in and sat down, but she ended up saying the closing prayer because she enjoyed everything so much. It shows that Priscilla loves what we teach because she wants her family to get involved as well.

            We have also started to teach a Mum and daughter – Lavinia and Tanya. We met the mum on the street and we popped by her house and some guy answered and started really shouting at me about how they don’t need what we are teaching. Then Tanya came downstairs during the middle of this and said “Mormons! I want you to help me to not be a sinner.” She saved us! The guy was really kicking off until she came down. Tanya also came to church and really enjoyed it.

            We have had lots of weird things happen to us on public transport recently – people shouting at cars out the window and shouting at us. Pretty much it is just a bunch of shouting as soon as we get on the bus.

            We are doing great. I love you all and I love London.

Elder Purdy

Crazy Week in Stratford

Hello Hello,

            It has been a crazy week in Stratford – definitely one not to be forgotten.

            We had a lesson with a lady on Monday who was having some contact with some “spirits.” We would try and speak with her and she would start a conversation with a man that was not even there … kinda unnerving. We ended that lesson pretty fast. We said a closing prayer and she said, “The spirits say you are welcome back here anytime.” I guess they liked us. That was a great way to start the week!

            Priscilla is doing great. We gave her a baptismal date for May 31^st.  I really enjoy meeting with her. She said, “I don’t understand how people can’t believe Joseph Smith.” She is really digging the lessons. Keep her in your prayers. By the way Mum, I don’t think the Simbi's have been baptised in Norwich yet. Long story but they are still investigating.  I am not sure when they will be. I need to ask around.

            We also met another family from Ecuador this week. We knocked on their door and they invited us in. They sat us down in the kitchen, and then the whole family just was standing there staring at us. It turned out none of them spoke English. It was probably a long five minutes of silence and awkward eye contact before we realized that they were waiting for us to say something. Once we found that out it quickly turned into a game of charades as we tried to help them understand what we do as missionaries and what the Book of Mormon is. We gave up on that and called a missionary from Spain and just had them speak on the phone to him. They invited us back this week. They were really interested in the message, or so we were told by our Spanish friend. I am sure it will be just as fun as last time. We asked them, “Can we have your phone number?” and they handed us their vacuum. ???!

            The weather has been very hot here. Loads of people are outside all the time and we have some good conversations with people from all over the place. I’ve never been so confounded by accents on my whole mission – mostly from proper Jamaican people. When they speak with us it’s like a different language. The rule of thumb is when you think they say “beer can” they actually mean “bacon.” If you can figure that out then you will be alright haha. 

            I am just happy with life right now. I am happy to be here helping people and serving the Lord.

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

I am Happy to be Serving Here

Hello Hello,

            Hope you all had a good weekend, I sure did!

            Elder Kopischke and I had a great time teaching and finding over the weekend.

            We are teaching a friend of the Stake President. His name is Brett and he is one of the nicest guys I have ever met! We helped him move a shed in the stake president’s back garden and got to talking. We invited him to take the missionary lessons and he said he would love to! We taught him on Sunday and he knows quite a bit about the church, and said he would be baptized if he feels the spirit. I'm well chuffed about him. He is a star.

            Also we had a lesson with a guy we met who used to live in the States. He has a friend who is a mission president in Uruguay. He just got back from there where he spent two weeks with him. He said he was very curious to learn more about our faith because he really felt good as he went to church meetings even though he does not speak Spanish. We are seeing him this week again.

            The flat here in Ashford is nice.  I agree with the way Elder Kopischke explained it – “it’s just enough” – just big enough to house both of us.  Especially the bathroom and shower – they are pretty tiny.

            The ward here is great. I am really happy to be working with them. They are very supportive and really help us to bring others unto Christ.

            We had a district meeting in Deal on Thursday. It was fun driving by Dover again and seeing the cliffs. They look very lovely around this time of year!

            I’m happy to help the other missionaries as well. We have 2 or 4 meetings this week with them and it will be fun to work with them and go on exchanges.

            I am happy to be serving here. I’ve got about 9 weeks left and I just want to love everybody into the Gospel. I am sure I will see plenty of miracles between now and June.

Love,

Elder Purdy

Good Times in Gorleston (plus Colchester, Norwich, and London)

Hello Hello,

On an exchange with Elder Call in Gorleston

            Great week this week. The weather has been absolutely lovely. It was like 18 degrees Celsius yesterday! It was brilliant.

            Had zone meeting at the beginning of the week. It was very uplifting. Good things were said, the spirit was felt. I love serving with the missionaries in this zone. We have a good time. I had an exchange in Gorleston this week, which was fun. We went finding by the beach most of the day because the weather was very nice. It was nice seeing the sea again. We met some very nice people and even found a family that was interested in learning more. I always like going to the little coastal towns in this zone. There are some good people there.

            We got a new car this week as well. Had to drive down to Colchester in Essex and sleep there for a night on Thursday night, and Friday we went the rest of the way into London and got the car. We did planning – organizing some things for our zone as we were down there as well.

            We had a great lesson with the Simbi’s this week. They were having some questions about the Book of Mormon, and during the lesson we really felt like we should just read some of it with them. We read 3 Nephi 11 and it was so powerful. We asked them how they would feel to be there when Jesus Christ appeared. And as they answered there was such a good spirit there. Power of the Book of Mormon! They are getting baptized on the 29th of this month.

            We are doing great. England is beautiful and we are having a good time.

Pip pip cheerio,

Elder Purdy

Here are some pictures from Gorleston:

. . . and some other random pictures:

This probably wasn't supposed to be a photobomb, but ...

looks like a rough morning for Elder Vogel

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

The Church is True, The Book is Blue

Hello Hello!

            Well as I said last week, have a new companion from Germany, Elder Vogel. He is a great guy. We have had a good week.

            The downside to this week was I was rather ill until Sunday. I had lost my voice completely, so I was pretty ineffective as a missionary. We taught a couple from the Congo – Cadeau and Sifi. During the climax of my ailment I invited them to be baptized. My voice sounded terrible – a bit like a frog – and my voice cracked right in the middle of it. But they accepted! By small and simple things great things are brought to pass.

photo from deseretnews.com

            Going into London was a bit manic as well. There was a tube strike so all transportation was over ground. It took us so long to get to Euston Station, where we were picking Elder Vogel up. So to pass the time we were handing mormon.org cards out the window to people on the street or to people on bikes. It was really good, We even gave one to a red bus driver who we pulled up next to us haha. The goal next time is to give out a Book of Mormon.

            Recently I have been reading lots of the Book of Mormon in 3 Nephi when Jesus visits the Nephites. I have really enjoyed it. I came across a cool quote from Neal A Maxwell that I like about the book: 

“The Book of Mormon is like a vast mansion, with gardens, towers, courtyards, and wings. My tour of it has never been completed. Some rooms I have yet to enter, and there are more felicitous fireplaces waiting to warm me. Even the rooms I have glimpsed contain further furnishings and rich detail yet to be savored. There are panels inlaid with incredible insights, and design and décor dating from Eden. There are even sumptuous banquet tables painstakingly prepared by predecessors which await all of us. Yet we as church members sometimes behave like hurried tourists scarcely entering beyond the entry hall.”

            Very true, the Book of Mormon has helped me grow my belief in Jesus Christ so much, and I keep learning new things from it!

            The Simbis are doing well. They came to church. So did Cadeau and Sifi and their family. We had loads of people at church in fact, it was pretty incredible. It was definitely the most I have ever had at sacrament meeting. We took up a couple rows of the pews. 

            Other than that, the weather is rainy, but I am happy as a clam. I’m grateful to be in Merry ole England and spreading the good word!

            The church is true, the book is blue.

God Save the Queen!

Elder Purdy 

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

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

Lots to Do

Hello!

            I'm writing to just you guys today because we have lots to do today.

            The work here is good. We taught lots of people this week. Neil got the priesthood on Sunday, and he and Emma are both ward missionaries now so it will be fun to go teaching with them. I am happy for them.

            The Zambian family is doing well. Five of them now have baptismal dates for the 22nd of February, so happy birthday to me! They are struggling to understand the need for the Restoration, but they feel the spirit when we talk about it so that’s a good thing. They really like having us over and get sad when we leave haha.

            It’s cold here, but not as bad as I hear America is. It’s like 7 degrees Celsius every day, so not too bad.

            We are wayyyyy busy this week and have lots to do.

            Give my love to everybody.

Love you,

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

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