Saturday 26 January 2013

Can it be 9 months already? Yes it can!

Hey everyone!!

Can you believe I have been out for 9 months at the end of this week? 9 Months!! It's gone by so fast!! Oh and just so you know, this week is not transfers, but next week is and its highly likely that I will be moving. Well basically, I had an interview with President this week at Zone Training and he more or less said I will be moving so I am expecting to be moved. Where to I don't know, President never said, but I will find out next week and let you know asap.

Anyway, this week has been pretty good. Well, unfortunately we have not been able to see any of our old investigators Vanessa, Jane or Elaine. Elaine has come down with broncitus so we weren't able to teach her. Apart from that it has been a good week anyway.

Well we had a workover with the Assisstant's on tuesday. They only got here at 5pm, so it wasn't much of a workover but it was good. Me and Elder Crystal (The AP I was with) found a lady that we will be seeing tomorrow. She is a nice lady, she was taught by missionaries 40 years ago, but never joined, but she was happy to talk to us. She goes to a church of england, but she is not happy with that. She was originally catholic, but left that as she felt it was becoming corrupt, and now she is considering leaving the church of england and she feels it is becoming corrupt too. So hopefully we can see her tomorrow and teach her more about our church and the book of mormon.

Then on wednesday we got to go down to St Austall (I can't remember how to spell it properly, but its a long way away) for Zone Training, and thats where I had my interview with President Millar, and he told me it is likely that I will be moving. It was good to see all the other missionaries and to get instruction from our leaders.

Well I'm kinda running out of time, but this week we found a cool family. We have only met the husband, due to bizzare circumstances (we also found him though a miracle, which I shall have to share more of next time, as Elder Pettersen needs to get on the computer too). Basically, his 7 year old daughter is allergic to a lot of things, so we have only been able to meet him. William (thats his name) is really cool though, and is really open to finding out more.

Anyway, I had better go. I have other emails I need to do.

I love you all!

Elder Mitchell

Wednesday 16 January 2013

He remembers

Hi Dad
That was him? I remember meeting him! Wow! such a small world!! I will definately have to tell Elder Schmokel! That is really cool.
Elder Riki is serving in the London Mission. I haven't heard from him since the MTC, I should send him an email or something, see how he is doing, but I don't have his email address on me today so it'll have to wait for another day.
By the way, in your journals did you happen to note any one that you were teaching that didn't get baptized at all? I could maybe check them out, see if they still live there or might be interested now. Just an idea me and Elder Pettersen had earlier this week.
Take care dad.
Love, Elder Mitchell
Now there's a thought, even if I do find some names, will they still e there 30 years later?
Hey everyone!!!

Can you believe it is the middle of January already? I know everyone said time as a missionary will fly by, but I didn't realise they meant a jet engine would be strapped to the back of it... strange analogy, but that's me!

So my week has been pretty good. I'll get the bad news out of the way first though. Unfortunately we had to drop Ella. We called as we said we would last monday, and her husband answered and as soon as he found out it was us he said she didn't want to meet us again and hung up the phone. Well, you can't get in the way of people's agency. Also, we haven't been able to see Vanessa, Abbie and Lusinda this week, but we will hopefully get back in contact with them, as they do genuinely seem interested.

Other than that, it has been a good week. We got to teach Elaine on tuessday, and she asked some really good questions, and seemed to accept everything we taught her. We invited her to read Moroni 10:3-5 and pray to know if the Book of Mormon is true. We are going back on thursday to see how it went. Also, we got back in contact with Jane! She had been out of town over Christmas and New Years but seemed happy to talk to us again, and she was actually the one that suggested we should go round and see her again. We can't see her this week though, as she has exchange students live with her, and she has new ones coming this week, so she wants to get settled with them this week, but would like to see us the following week. So that was good.

We are also still working with the usual less-actives that we see. We had a miracle the other day though. One of the Recent converts here has been strugglign a lot with the word of wisdom, but this week he has been praying for help and now, anytime he smokes he says he feels sick and the last time he did smoke (which was about a week ago) it made him really sick, so he hasn't smoked for a week and hasn't drank either which is great!!

Also, on saturday we had an Elder Quorum activity (well, it was supposed to be, but us, the Elder Quorum president and his dad were the only ones that came) but that was good. We learnt how to make fires (which was really fun!!) and a bit more about survival. Then they took us up to Dartmoor as we haven't had a chance to go up there, so that was really cool!! It was good fun. Before they could take us up to Dartmoor though, we had to get his car out of his really muddy garden. It was a 4x4, but with road tires so it got stuck, and it was quite a small garden so we had to drag it out pretty much sideways (thats how muddy the garden was) and then somehow tow it so it turns on the spot so we could drive it out the garden. It was interesting.

So that has been my week. This week should be good. We have a Zone training meeting down in St Austall on wednesday, and on tuesday, we are doing a workover with the Assisstants which should be interesting.

Well, hope you all are well!

I love you all loads!!!

Elder Mitchell

Sunday 13 January 2013

First email of 2013

Finally got to update the blog, sorry it's a bit late.

Hey everyone!!
Well this is my first email of 2013 (it still feels weird writting 2013) so I'll try and make it a "good yin!"
We didn't get to celebrate New Years really, we had to be back at the flat by half 9 and in bed by half 10 on New Years Eve, and then we still had to work on New Years Day. We had a good dinner appointment on New Years Eve though with a German family who come over during the holidays to stay. They gave us alcohol free champagne which was interesting haha! Don't worry, it really was alcohol free otherwise we would have passed out from the amount we drank haha! It made for some funny photos though haha! I am working hard, honest...
This week as most weeks has had ups and downs but it has had more ups this week which is good.We had a day of miracles on Thursday, it was fantastic. Thursday we had a work over with our Zone Leaders Elder Jones and Elder Goulding, so I got to work with Elder Goulding and I learned a lot from him. So we went out to Totnes to try by some potentials and do some finding through there. First we stopped by our potential Elaine. We were able to teach her more about the Book of Mormon and more about families which was great. We left her with a passage of the Book of Mormon to read and we have an appointment to go back and see her tomorrow. Then we tried by another potential, he was unfortunately busy as he has just got a new job working from home so he is busy with that for the next few weeks, but he still was happy to see us so I am sure we will be able to start teachign him in a few weeks when things have settled down.
Another small miracle is that we did a bit of street contacting there and one lady we stopped has a member friend in Ireland who just resently as a present sent her a Book of Mormon and marked loads of scriptures for her that she thought may help her which was amazing. We didn't get her contact information unfortunately but she took our contact number and she said she was going to go away and talk to her friend which was great. And then as we were knocking in the area we met a nice lady called Ella who let us in and we taught her about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. She seemed happy to read it and happy to invite us back, but we didn't get a solid return appointment. We are callign her later today though to set one. So that was a great day. And also, Elder Pettersen and Elder Jones found a lot of potentials which is great. We will be trying by them some time during this week.
Also on Thursday we had a miracle with a member as well. We decided as we were in the area we would go and see a family in the ward and share a message with them. They were just having dinner (conveinient, but it wasn't planned) and asked if there was anywhere we could go while they finished dinner, but there wasn't so they let us in and shared some pizza with us. Then we shared the message with them and when we had done we just went back to our flat as it was 9.30, but the next day, we get a text from the wife thanking us for that particular message we shared, as she was going through a real rough time at work, and it was exactly what she needed to hear at that exact time, which was great. It feels amazing when you know, like that, that you have been used as an instrument in the Lord's hands.
Unfortunately we have not been able to see Simone. We called her saturday night to try and arrange a lift for her to church, but she says she is in the process of trying to more and is just not settled down enough to look into the church just now. She wants to keep in contact though which I guess isn't the end of the world.
Also we have not been able to teach Vanessa and her two daughters. We went by to see them on friday, but Abbie is revising for a big exam in a few weeks, so they said they are happy for us to come over, just to see how they are doing and to keep in contact but they don't want us to teach them anything just while Abbie is preparing for her exam. We will keep going round to seem them though as they genuinely want to see us, and they are a great family.
So yeah, that has been my week basically. Apart from the fact that I have had so much chocolate since christmas I think I have actually got sick of it (I didn't think that was possible either!) there is nothing else really to say.
I hope you are all having a good New Year so far.
Oh by the way, Paignton ward needs some youth, any suggestions on what we can do to get more youth?
Thank you all for your emails, letters and prayers.
Love you all
Elder Mitchell

I got a second short email:

Hi Dad, just a quick question... Do you remember serving with an Elder Boberg on your mission? Just wondering, because there is an Elder in my district Elder Schmokel (that's spelt wrong I know) that knows Elder Boberg and he was asking if I was related to an Elder Mitchell he served with on his mission, so if you do remember let me know because that would be really cool!
Hope you are all doing well.
Love you lots
Elder Mitchell

Elder Mitchell has forgotten that my companion, Elder Boberg, now Mike, and his son Alan, visited a few years ago.  Alan was just about to go on his mission.  I always hoped that any of my children that served a mission would get to serve with a child of any of my companions.  I never expected to have a son serve in the area that I served.  If I can't get my first wish, I will settle for a friend of a companion.

Tuesday 1 January 2013

Out with the old, in with the new


Hey everyone!!
I hope everyone had a good Christmas! Thank you to everyone that sent me presents, cards, stamps etc. I loved all of them, although unfortunately I got the raindeer dust a day late, but I will save it for next year!
Well this week had been alright I guess. I survived all four dinner appointments we had between Christmas Eve and Boxing day. I was ill a few days ago (Don't worry, I'm fine now) but that wasn't related to the food (A member, not a planned D.A tried to feed us rabbit... long story, I'll save that one for when I get home, unless you all desberately want to know my horror story?). It was a good Christmas though.
Unfortunately work wise, this week hasn't been as good as other weeks, but that is only because it is the week between Christmas and New Years so this week should be back to normal. We didn't get to see Vanessa and her girls, but they did ask us to come by in the new year so we will see them this week. Also, Simone we spoke to her on the phone and tried to get her to church yesterday, but where she lives just now is right about a club so she barely gets enough sleep on a normal weekend never mind new years weekend so she wasn't able to make it. She said she wants to come this sunday though, and we will hopefully see her again this week.
We didn't get to see as many of the less-actives we normally see, some were unwell, and others just weren't home but we got to see a few which was good. We also got to see a recent convert who has been struggling with some things for the past few weeks and hasn't been out to church. We did lose contact with him for the last two weeks as we couldn't get through to him on the phone and he was never in, but we got to see him last night which was good. He is wanting to come to church still which is a positive but he still has some issues that he is trying to overcome. We are going to do all he can to help him though, and he knows that the church is there to help him.
Well, in 11 hours we can all say "We survived 2012!" (I am going to try and get a t-shirt with that printed on it!) I can't believe this year is over already! Where has it gone? Behind us I guess... but it is a time where we can look forward, make goals and plans to make 2013 better then this year has been. Remember though, new years resolutions aren't just until february :P Hope you all have a good new year!! I know I will be, I'll be sleeping! (bedtime still applies, even on New Years.)
Well take care everybody.
Love you all!
Elder Mitchell