Transfers are Good!

I'm staying for another transfer in Kilmarnock with Elder Fabiano! so that means my companion and I are going all in. 

I feel like i'm just constantly emailing, with little naps in between them the rest of the world calls weeks. I believe this one is a 5 week transfer so that means this ends at the end of april. strange thing to consider, it is going to go by really fast.

I haven't got a whole lot to update on. My health is great. I'm feeling good, my companion is doing just fine, the area is working well enough. The ward is getting super excited on getting people to church, we are going to be spending the majority of our transfer training members how to be missionaries, how to invite their friends, talk about the book of mormon, and get in touch with us, and we are already seeing loads of success both on our teaching pool, and the testimony of the members increasing, as they share the gospel with the people they love and care for.

It's a tiring work that's for sure. The work changes when you put your heart and soul into it. when it's no longer a job, but it's an extension of your character, and the works vitality is a reflection of your own, it's something I didn't learn when I came out the first time, but it's a skill I've been able to identify and hopefully carry with me after the mission. I was chatting with a member at dinner yesterday about it, and he was telling us about this experience he had when he was working in a pub, and how he took a small independant pub into a thriving and powerful one because he put everything he had into it, and it became his life, and as a result, MANY people recognized the unique change that had occured and flocked to his pub, because it was different from all the rest. It was a slow, but steady growth, that never stopped till the day he left. He left it thriving, and really well off, and within 18 months, it had shut down, because the people who took over the business couldn't do the same.

My hope for all future or current missionaries who end up reading this is to know that there is no possible thing as a bad area. Just bad missionaries. Now in the Book of Mormon we know it was Alma's lot to fall on a more stiffnecked people, but that should only indicate that Alma's original prosyliting approach, calling people to repentance and preaching, wasn't the way to do it, for those specific people, at that specific time. If we become adaptable, changeable according to the labor by which we are called, and the spirit which will teach us truth, we will find success in every possible area we serve in, even in your future callings in the church, and your callings in life.

$Peace$

St. Patty Party

Wow I can't believe it's already been 4 months since I left home for vegas. I've become so adjusted to how things work around here, it just feels normal.

I have a problem with shopping, I like it too much. Today we went to Ayr and went around all the shops finding nice new clothing and I was VERY tempted. But I ended up buying 5 tartan ties today, 4 of them being labeled from native clans, and one that was just really soft so I HAD to buy it. They come from Stewart Royal, Atholl, Thomson, and Macdonald Dress pattern. They are all really nice, but I am going to need a lot more money because they cost like 12-13 pounds each. I am willling to buy loads more if people want me to buy them here and sell them to you when I'm home.

This last week we helped our investigator family paint all their walls, and afterwards had dinner. Really good time with them. We've found a few potential investigators this week and honestly our schedule is already full of a lot of lessons, which is unique to the average week in the mission. Have to give credit to my Las Vegas trainer for showing me how to work really hard and really efficiently. We are pulling our weight here in Kilmarnock, and we can't wait to keep going hard here. Big teaching pools are really stressful but really fun too.

We learned today that we are getting smartphones soon! We received word that we have to take our smartphone training. Exciting times! That means I'll need to pull out some cash for a phone, but that will be fine!

Smartphones are going to elevate my mission work to a higher level, now that I know how powerful they can really be. If used incorrectly, they can be detrimental to the work, but used right, It's POWERFUL. so Excited.

That's me for the week I guess!

The Days Go By

Wow the weeks are starting to really go by fast now.

Not a whole lot has happened this week, just lots and lots of finding, and this week, lots of teaching! I'm excited to see what this upcoming week has in store. Our interviews with the Mission President are this week, and I'm excited to see him again. 

We are making leaps and bounds to turn every member into a missionary. We are helping the family we are teaching repaint their house this week in preparation for them receiving new floors this Friday.

We weren't able to go to the Isle of Arran today because we didn't get it approved in time to go. So we will try again next transfer. we only have two weeks left of this transfer now?? that's crazy!

I got a new coat that is REALLY comfy.  And I got me a haircut today, and it's good!

Also I went on exchanges this week with another elder just starting his mission, named Elder Cluff, from Idaho. 

Just a couple photos for this week.

That's me for now.

This Week is a Special Week

It's been a great week for sure. I've passed my year mark! YAY.. Well it's been a crazy year in review I'll tell you. This week, right on February 28 we had our Scotland South Conference, and all except for 2 of my mtc group were there, so it was almost a perfect reunion! We ate lunch together and talked about how crazy it was over the last year. What a good conference. Other highlights of the week were we were about to have exchanges, but the district leader got sick that morning so we had to come back. I also tried another super traditional British meal with some members on Sunday, Liver and Onions. I also learned that I'm not a big fan of Liver and Onions this week. It's okay... but I'd be fine if I never came in contact with it for the rest of my life. But that's one more thing I can say I've done on the Mission! It was Lamb Liver, supposedly much better than other forms, but still, I think It was fine.

The work all around is going really good. Excerpt from my letter to President this week since I don't have a lot of time:

Our ward mission leader got up in sacrament yesterday and told everyone just how well we are doing, about how we are teaching a whole family and how the work is just moving along really well, gave us a lot of credit. ( and we didn't even ask him to do it too) and after sacrament meeting we had a lot of members approach us and ask if they could feed us, meet with them this week. Very powerful moment where we are starting to get the members' trust, and I'm hoping this means they go all out in trying to assist us in the work. After all, it's their ward family they are working for, not mine. I'm just called to teach and administer the ordinances of the Gospel in whatever area/ward/branch I get called so it can flourish and sustain itself.

This ward is really good. They hold LOTS of potential. Amidst all my prayers and mediation over this ward, I really feel like the work here is about to explode. Like any moment now we are going to be up to our eyeballs in teaching.

One example of this is as we have gone chapping the last few weeks, I've noticed a few key differences with how these people respond to us, and the general answer as i've prayed about them, even as we talk to them, is that they are prepared. All I have to do is get over my fears, open my mouth, and let the spirit guide.

I don't know when this is going to happen but I truly believe this ward has FANTASTIC potential. As in I believe in our ward boundaries, we could baptize 15 times before I leave. I believe it can be done, I just need to get a grip of myself, repent, and go for it.