Mother.s Day and other news

Hi Dad, just to let you know, as it is Mother's Day on sunday I should be able to call home. I don't know what time yet, as I don't have any solid plans about it, but I will ask the members to see if anyone will be nice enough to let me use their phones. I should have the new home number, but would you be able to email that to me again asap please? thank you :) I hope you are all doing well. I love you all very very much!

Elder Mitchell

So on Sunday 10 March, we all got to speak with Elder Mitchell.  Thomas had been practising Called to Serve" bit we all had to join in and sing along with him.  Even little Caitlan was trying to talk to him.  It was nice to talk to him again.

Hey Dad, it was great getting to talk to you all yesterday. It was weird seeing the missionaries there too, were they calling their families as well? How is the work going there by the way?

I really did enjoy getting to talk to you all though. I know it will be a long time now until Christmas when I get to call again, but I had to wish mum a happy mother's day.

Well, I hope you have a good week. This email would be longer except having talked yesterday, there isn't much I can say without repeating anything I said yesterday haha.

I love you dad!

Elder Mitchell

When he call, we had the missionaries from Livingston at home, so thet got to meet briefly too.

Mon 11 March

Hey Everyone!

I hope I'm counting the number of emails right by the way, to be honest I lost count about 8 months ago but never mind haha! (wow that's a scary thought, I have been out 10 and a half months already!)

Well this week has been pretty good. We have been working hard and things are going really well. so just a quick run through of everyone we are teaching:

Arthur is getting baptised on saturday which is great! He is so excited and is so ready. He is doing well, and is being well fellowshipped by the youth which is great. We are hoping to get as much of the youth as possible to his baptism and get them involved as much as possible as well. We are actually hoping one of the youth who has been on almost every teach with us to see him will baptize him which would be great, but it is Arthur's choice of course. Christiana still hasn't read the Book of Mormon, but she has an exam today and has another exam on the 19th and so she is focussing on studying for them and then she says, once she has finished with those, she will sit and read and pray about the Book of Mormon, I think once she does that, she will get a witness that it is true and then she will want to get baptized as well. But its still a working progress.

Chanai is doing great! She is also getting baptised, the week after on the 23rd of March. She seems pretty excited and all her family are doing great. It seems that since Ishmael got baptised and is coming to church it is just bringing his whole family which is great! We had a family home evening with them this week and they are doing so well. We just need to get Chanai more involved with the young woman, at the moment she sticks with her sister Martha who only turns 12 in june or july so if we could even get both of them involved with the young women that would be great. I am so excited for them though and for them being able to go to the temple to be sealed.

Cindy still doesn't have a baptismal date yet. We are trying not to get frustrated with her, no, frustrated isn't the right word, thats too strong of a word, but I hope you understand what I mean. She knows everything and she knows she should get baptised and she wants to, she just has something holding her back, and she says she doesn't even know what that is herself so we aren't sure how we can help her. I guess all we can really do is keep teaching her and help her understand. As a quote in Preach My Gospel (I think its from there, it should be in there anyway) says "true doctrine understood changes behaviour" (this is where my memory of the quote gets hazy but basically if they understand the teachings properly, they will be willing to change their actions or whatever, so that's all we can really do.

There are lots of other people we are trying to teach at the moment too, its just getting a hold of them is the hard part.

So it is moves this week. No news as of yet, but I am pretty sure I am staying in Reading. I will be shocked if I'm not anyway. Chances are I may have a new companion though as Elder Holmes has been here 7 and a half months now, but we will see. I will let you know by wednesday at least though.

Well as it was Mother's Day yesterday, I wish all of you women, whether you are a mother, a grandmother, and even if you are not yet a mother or have never had the opportunity to be a mother I am sure you have still been a motherly figure to someone, I wish you all a (little bit late) happy mothers day!

I hope you all have a good week, and enjoy the snow (we don't have any down here yet, and I am a little jealous).

Love you all!!

Elder Mitchell

Moves news......

Hey everyone, Just to let you know, I am...... (trying to build suspense)...... staying in Reading! Sadly though, Elder Holmes is leaving me! I am not surprised, as he has been here for so long. He is moving to Salisbury, which is not too far away, but he is happy as it means hopefully he can come to arthur's baptism on saturday. Anyway, my new companion is Elder Castro who was in the MTC with Daniel Casey! He is from Honduras and he seems a really great guy and a great missionary! I am a little nervous about taking over the area but clearly The Lord knows I can do this, I just hope He knows what he is doing haha! I'm sure I'll be fine though, with The Lord's help.

Anyway, hope you are all doing well. I will email again on Monday.

Love you all!!!

Elder MItchell

Mon 18 March

Hey everybody!

I was just about to start typing this email, but them I stopped to see some skiving school kids get escorted out of the mac store by security, and then the missionaries from the other ward in Reading called us to tell us they have a baptismal date for us, so it has been a good day so far. Will let you know how that goes though.

Anyway, this week has been fantastic, but hard as well. So most important event this week though, Arthur got baptised on saturday!!! It was a great baptism and it was well supported by the ward and his family which was good. The young man that helped us teach him was the one who baptised him which was cool, and yesterday I got to comfirm him, and then after church another of the young men ordained him to be a priest which was great! He is so strong though and I am sure one day he will go on a mission, but we will see. 

Christiana as well has her last exam tomorrow so hopefully after that she will get to sit down properly and read the Book of Mormon and will get a witness that it is true. I'm sure she will want to get baptised after she does that. Arthur even made a joke at church on sunday that when she wants to get baptised he could get to do it. Arthur is so awesome!

Chanai is doing good. We haven't been able to see her lately but we are seeing her tonight. Ishmael though has asked us if we could push her date back a little, just because he wants to make sure that she is reading the Book of Mormon properly and has a witness that it is true. That would probably work better to be honest to push it back, just as there is an all-day youth activity at the chapel on saturday and it will give us a bit more time to teach her everything else and to get everything prepared for her baptism.

Cindy, to be honest I don't know what her deal is. She is happy to come to church and everything, but she just won't commit to baptism. We are seeing her on wednesday anyway, so hopefully then we can work out what the problem is.

Apart form that, this week has been hard at times. We have had promising potentials drop us like a stone, we have not been able to see a lot of our investigators this week as they are busy with work or haven't been able to contact them and I am still not confident with my knowledge of the area and the ward. It is hard taking over the area, especially when things seemed to be going so well. I guess I just have to trust that the Lord knows what he is doing, and that He is giving me this to teach me something and help me be a better missionary.

Serving with Elder Castro is interesting. He is the first companion I have served with that has needed language study in the mornings to help him learn english. He didn't speak a word of english before he came out, only spanish and so his english is really good considering a year and a half ago he didn't speak a word of it, but it is hard for me at times. I hope I will be able to do a good job of helping him speak english properly though. I find it quite funny to be honest, to help him learn english, he gets put with a missionary from scotland where, even though they speak english, its totally different. Reminds me, bishop at church yesterday called me american, I was a little offended, but its cool, we had a good laugh. Just thought I'd share that.

Well I hope you all have a good week.

Love Elder Mitchell