The work begins!

It seemed like a long time between last Wednesday and today, not knowing where Elder Mitchell had gone! Not that we were worried or anything, we know that he is serving the Lord and all is well with him!  We had a reported sighting of him, but no news as to where his first area, but we figured that it wasn't Brighton (his uncle lives there), nor Winchester, Southampton or Oxford (places with various friends) but that still leaves a big area!!!

Pday was yesterday, but no email.  Perhaps, we thought, he didn't get to a computer.

Today, the postman was early!  He came before 1 o'clock!  There was a letter from Elder Mitchell, but no address on the envelope, not even a note to say where he was!!!!!!  The post mark gave a clue - I saw Bath and thought "Could it be that his first area is the same as mine?" and then saw that Bristol and Taunton followed and realised that it didn't pinpoint where he was, but it narrowed down the possibles!  Hw was in the West Country!!!  A friend and neighbour (also a member of the Church) came calling and showed Shirley a picture of Elder Mitchell that a friend of her's had sent to her with the message "Look who came to dinner", bur she couldn't remember where he lived!!  Big help!!  But then I was able to check my emails and saw an email from our lost missionary!!!

Well well, here I am in the mission field. Moment of truth, where am I serving? I am serving in..... *drumroll* Downend ward in BRISTOL!!!! Dad, if you ever served in or around downend/bristol let me know as some of the members may remember you. I can't believe it though, it is kinda weird thinking that I could be walking the same streets as you Dad.

Well my trainer is Elder Martin, he is originally from manchester, but lives over in Utah. He has been out for 13 months now, and it is great serving with him. He has even passed down the family tie! (for those of you who don't know, us missionaries refer to our trainers as our missionary dads so this tie has been passed down from my great-grandfather) But Elder Martin is amazing, and I think he is doing a good job of training me, and helping me open my mouth to teach the gospel. I am still struggling to talk to people on the street as I have no confidence, and I pray for it everyday. I am getting better, but Elder Martin said not to worry and that it will come over time.

On the thursday before we headed out to the mission field though, I had the chance to go through the temple for an endowment session. I thought the Preston temple was beautiful, and it is, but the London temple just took my breath away! It is so beautiful!! I dunno if that is just me being in my favourite temple or what, but I loved it. Will admit though, I got a bit confused when I walked into the guys toilets and the walls were painted pink... But I loved it there, and cannot wait for the chance to go back, whenever it is.

I have also met President and Sister Shamo. Even though they go home next moves they took the time to get to know me and show their love for me. I love them so much! I am proud to say, I am a Shamonite!!

Also on wednesday night after I was first introduced to Elder Martin, he got a call from none other then an Elder Casey, wanting to speak to me. It was great to talk to him again and so amazing that he called just to welcome me to the field. I hope I get to see him at some point.

I have also got to meet the other missionaries here in the District, as yesterday (P-day) we went up to the Clifton Suspension bridge and played some football there, it was good fun, and we really bonded as a district. Also each morning we have a conference call for district study, which is a little confusing but is great! pretty funny too, and not as confusing as Zone conference calls.

Oh yeah, if you hadn't noticed, I am actually emailing on tuesday. This is because yesterday we were helping one of the members move things out of their house, and it took longer then planned so we ran out of time for emails. (I nearly dropped one of their mirrors, but thankfully Elder Martin was there to help, The mirror was massive though so you can't blame me).

Okay, so biggest miracle of the week, and what a miracle. When we first got back to the flat on thursday, Elder Martin told me that we had no progressing investigators, we had a few "Eternal Investigators" as he called them, they had all the lessons but just weren't committing, and a load of potential investigators, but nothing really to start with, so we basically started from scratch... By the end of saturday, we had 2 investigators with baptismal dates. TWO!! I have no idea how haha! One is from one of those Eternal investigators that our ward mission leader helped us teach and helped him to commit and to take this seriously, and the other is a friend of a member who came to church for the first time two weeks ago. Me and Elder Martin taught him the restoration and Invited him to be baptized, and he said yes! This 2nd investigator has an amazing story though, he is originally from Nepal, and some things that happened to allow him to get to here are amazing, God has truly prepared him for the message. He is like a Golden Investigator.

Unfortunately, this first investigator, named Paul, we were due to teach him yesterday at the chapel, but he did not show up and we couldn't get a hold of him... hopefully we can get in touch with him again, as both he and the other investigator Dhruba (pronoucned "Drew-bar") both came to Stake Conference on Sunday. We are teachign Dhruba later today, so fingers crossed that goes well.

Anyway, hope you are all doing well, and those of you who had birthdays, I hope you all enjoyed them. Hoep the weather is nice too. Down here is so hot just now, I had to ask Elder Martin if we were still in England. We are walking around in just shortsleeve shirts it is that hot, and nice blue sky, I feel like I am in california or something, no cloud in the sky! haha!

anyway, gotta run. Love to you all.

Elder Mitchell

So now we know where he is. The closest I got to Bristol was serving 5 months in the Bath area, along with visits to the Mission home/office, or conferences at the Wells Road Chapel in Bristol. Sorry there are no pictures this time, but hopefully there will be soon.