Hey everyone!
Sorry this is getting sent late, but monday was a Bank Holiday and libaries are closed on bank holidays :(
This will probably be a short email too, which I do apologise for but it is 4.20pm and the libaries close at 5pm so I do not have much time and tomorrow is going to be super busy for reasons I will explain in a bit.
This last week as been pretty good though, well in some ways, and tough in other ways. One good thing about this last week is that we had a Zone training with our Zone Leaders, Assisstant's to the President, and President and Sister Millar were there too. It was a good meeting and lots of inspired instruction was given. That and there was the excitement of while that was going on, there was a bomb scare in the centre of Bristol! Don't worry, we were at the Wells Road chapel which is away from the centre, btu it caused havoc with the buses and traffic etc. Was pretty exciting. Turns out it was only a bag full of sandwiches which, I'm sorry but is halarious that the whole of bristol got shut down because of some sandwiches. Thankfully it was just sandwiches though haha.
This week we have continued to teach Paul and Naomi. Paul we have now taught everything, but I am not sure if he will be ready to be baptized on 1st Sep (plus it will be difficult to arrange considering the news I will tell you at the end of this email) so we may have to push his date back. Naomi we have only been able to teach once this week as she has been unwell, she wasn't able to make it to church again on sunday which is a shame. She still has a lot to be taught before she can get baptized. A surprise on sunday though was that Jess made it to church which was great. In Gospel Principles we were able to have a teach with just her, and as there wasn't a lesson planned we were able to focus on her and her concerns. It was good and it really helped her.
Another interesting experience I had this week is my first proper encounter with some Jehovah's Witnesses. We found this family knocking one day and they invited us back to get to know more about what we believe. We had a feeling that it was not going to go well and turn into a bashing session so we went with just the intention of teachign them and giving them a Book of Mormon to read and inviting them to read and to pray about it. Well it did turn into a bashing session, but from them. They were polite about it, if that is possible, but they just tried to prove that everything we believed was wrong and pulled out scriptures from the Bible that "disprove" the need for the Book of Mormon (when the scriptures they used they misunderstood or misinterprited). It was tough and there was so much I wanted to say, so much I wanted to share with them to prove that this church is the church of Jesus Christ on the earth and the only true church, but somethign stopped me. I couldn't remember where scriptures were to disprove their points or anything. Looking back now though, I know it was the spirit stopping me, and Elder Martin agrees, because anything we did say would have turned it into a big debate and contention which is not how we teach. Plus the spirit of contention is of the devil so that is why we were stopped from saying anything. Since that teach though I have found scriptures that disprove everything that they said, not so I can go back and prove them wrong, just to give my own mind peace, because a lot of what they said hurt, and both me and Elder Martin left that teach completely disheartened. But thankfully after that teach, we saw Alison and Paul and we watched 'Joseph Smith: The Prophet of The Restoration' DVD and the spirit we felt from that was exactly what we needed. It confirmed to both of us that what we are sharing is true, and people can throw their doctrine at us all they like, but they only know the doctrine because they have been taught it since they were very young, we know the truth because the Spirit of God has testified to us that it is true.
Okay, time for the big news..... me and Elder Martin got a call from President Millar yesterday evening.... We are getting Whitewashed. We are both moving to Paignton (in Devon I think... near Exeter anyway) and sisters are coming to Downend and we are going to Paignton. So, we leave on Thursday. So please don't send any post from now on, until I can let you know my new address. My first experience of moving and whitewashing in the one go, this should be interesting...
So yeah, this has basically been my week. I am quite gutted to be leaving Downend but The Lord obviously needs me in Paignton, so I can't really complain.
Well I hope you are all doing well. I will get my new address out as soon as I can. If you do need to send anything before you get my address send to the mission office (although by the time I get it you may as well wait to get my new address)
Anyways... Ciao for now!
Love you all!
Elder Mitchell
I couldn't believe the news! 30 years ago I moved from Llanelli in South Wales to Brixham in Torbay. If any of you are unfamiliar with the area, Paignton is just above Brixham and both were in the same ward. I'm glad to see that the ward I was in has grown and divided in the last 30 years, but these 2 seaside towns on the English Riviera are still in the same ward. I look forward to hearing if there is any one still there who remembers me, but I was only there for 2 months.
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