Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Missionary Work in England

Hi Friends and Family,

I hope everyone has had a good week. 

A little history of Missionary work in England.  We don't really teach that much.  In my first area Kidderminster, the most we taught was 8 people in the 12 weeks that I was there.  But here in Worcester, we teach one to two a week.  In the whole Mission of Birmingham we have about 20 or low 30 baptisms.  Most of these are students from China or from other places.  We see that people that are native to western England are not really interested in religion at all.  The members here are so so.  They are ether really helpful or want nothing to do with the Missionaries.  There are some that try to help but most of them don't but I keep an open mind that through lots of prayer that the Lord will bless us and help us find those that are ready to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We ride bikes pretty often.  Not every day but most days we do some form of riding.  There are 2 Temples in England, one in Preston and one in London.  I have no idea if I will get to go to the Temple before my time is up.  It is up to Area 70 because it is out of the Mission.  Last week I mentioned that I had been sick.  Around this time of year, I usually get a cold and then it settles in my chest and I end up with bronchitis.  Since I know this usually happens, I got a jump on it as soon as the cold started to settle in my chest and visited with a Sister in our Ward that is a Nurse and thank goodness she loves the Missionaries.  She recommended some meds for me.  England hardly has anything that you can get over the counter. So it took some time to find stuff but it all worked and I am feeling much better. 

This week has just been really busy running around trying to get things done since we had a few days of down time the week before with me being sick.  Not much really happened Monday other than our regular P-day, and Tuesday we had interviews with President.  That was fun with a lot of Missionaries in line waiting to get into the hot seat.  But we had a good interview.

Wednesday was a really busy day.  We had sign lessons which went pretty good.  I am getting better "slowly" but am still improving.  We have been working on translating Preach My Gospel and translating talks and such.  It is a lot of fun.  The member that teaches us has a lot of questions when we read Preach My Gospel.  So it turns into us trying to explain things to him in sign.  Which is good.  Because it gives us good practice at signing and answering his questions makes us rely on the spirit to give him correct information about the Gospel.  After that, we where just running around to a District appointment and a lesson then on to football.  We play football with the Ward every Wednesday night.  But this Wednesday, the game got a little out of hand.  It seemed like all the Missionaries had some rage penned up that needed to get out.  So it was a physical game and it helped that they split the Missionaries up on different teams.  But it was a very good game and everyone went home with out any injuries and tired.

On Thursdays we get together with the other team of Missionaries in our Ward and practice our sign Language.  We try our best but we usually can't agree what the sign is for a certain word.  Two Missionaries have one idea and the other one thinks it is a different sign.  So then it's up to the other to decide which one it is.  So that always turns out pretty fun because there is lots of discussion and laughter.  But in the end it was a pretty normal day.  We had dinner with a family and played UNO and to say the least, Elder Nielsen didn't bring his card game playing from the States.  I averaged about a hundred points against me a hand. I know that I can do better than that.  But it was fun.

Friday was when I saw the cars!  I am a car junky.  Not just any cars, but the expensive cars that are made in Europe and Germany.  Before my Mission, I watched extreme car shows looked at extreme car magazines and sites.  I could and can tell you the name of certain cars what type of engine it has and how much it costs.  So, we were up in our Flat planning for next week and I looked out the window and saw the Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4!!  It was black and slick looking.  I was really excited so I ran down stairs and took pictures of it (picture below with Elder Nielsen in his P-day clothes).  The other pictures is of just an Audi R8 nothing to special.  So after that excitement,  we had a DA clear out in the sticks.  It took about thirty minutes to cycle there.  After dinner we stayed and talked and then cycled back in the dark.  But I did have a miracle happen. When we left the dinner appointment, the lights on my bike did not work.  It was pitch black so I said a prayer and just kept riding hoping that I would not fall in a pot hole or run over something or even worse get run over and all of a sudden, the lights turned on.  It would have been bad if I didn't have lights.

But the high light of the week was Sunday. We had Stake Conference and the Presidency was getting reorganized. We had Elders De Feo and Dyches come to our meeting. They are in the Europe Area Presidency.  They both gave some great talks.  Elder De Feo talked about how we need to start with what we do have and not what we don't.  He talked about 2 Kings Chapter 4 where the a widow comes to Elijah and says I have debts and the collectors are going to come and take my sons and sell them for the money.  And Elijah says okay what do you have?  The women says I have nothing except a bit of oil.  He then says get all the empty containers you have and fill them up.  She does this and then is commanded to go and sell. His point was that we need to give the Lord what we can and he will do the rest.  Elder Dyches spoke at General Conference this year.  He talked about how Penicillin was discovered.  And how it is built on a five sided shape called Thiazolidine Ring that helps it keep its structure.  He then tells us to find five things to center our lives on like Scriptures, Church, Temple, Family, Faith, or Prayer.  But I must admit I was running through my biology lessons and human anatomy trying to figure out what he was talking about.  It was a great Sunday full of enlightenment and learning for me.

I am finding joy in my Mission here in England.  As with most Missionaries I have my ups and downs but the Lord is always with me and blesses me when I am humble enough to ask and listen.  I love this Gospel and the Lord and have a testimony of its truthfulness.  May you be blessed this next week in all that you do.

Love,

Elder Nielsen


I have found what I want for Christmas.  A Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4 base price £253,200 or $409475.04

Then just an Audi R8

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