October brings changes

September 30th brings 2 emails, his general weekly one and another telling us of his new assignment.  All will be revealed!

Hey everyone!

So I don't know what is happening, my emails have been really weird today, I've had emails bouncing back saying they haven't sent, but then I have had a reply to them so I have no idea what is going on...

So this week has had ups and downs I guess. It has been a good week teaching wise, we have worked hard and had a lot of teaches and met some really nice people, but we have also had some disappointing news I guess you could say.

So to run you through the people we are working with. Lucy we were able to meet with again on friday, but we are really considering dropping her now. We were on exchange and one of our Zone Leaders came on the teach with me, and he said it might be an idea to drop her too. She says she is open to listen to us, but she isn't. She has already made her mind up about "mormonism" and just wants to bash with us, prove us wrong and convert us. So we feel it is pretty pointless meeting with her again.

Rebecca, we have some sad news about too. She text us this week and thanked us for visiting her, and being so friendly and everything, but she said that she feels that being a mormon isn't the way for her, and that she wants to stick with catholicism. We asked if we would be able to visit her one last time but she didn't reply. So that was a really down part of our week.

Sonia we saw briefly on friday before she headed to an EFY reunion dance in Reading. She is doing good, but has been really busy with schoolwork so hasn't been able to meet with us. Hopefully we will be able to see her at some point this week though.

We have some other people we are hoping to work with , but it is still early days I guess.

It is also moves week this week, and I already know I am getting a new area, so I shall tell you where, and who my new companion is and my new address when I get to my new area, either on wednesday or probably thursday.

I hope you all have a good week.

I love you all so much!! 

Elder Mitchell

Livingston Ward had just sent another 2 missionaries to the London South Mission, and Elder and a Sister. This explains his next email.

Hey everyone,

this isn't my big email, that is why I am only sending it to you guys.

So we normally don't get moves calls until monday evening, but Leadership calls come out sunday evening now so... we already know what is happening.

So.... Elder Davies, he is staying in Wandsworth, he is staying as the District Leader, and he will be training! So what is happening with me I hear you ask! 

So President talked to me on the phone last night as well. He is moving me to a new area. The ward is Aldershot, but I will be opening up a new area in Woking. He also said that I will be whitewashing there, so neither me or my companion will know the area. And that leads me onto my companion.... He also said.... That I'm going to be training a new missionary!!!

I am excited and nervous and just so grateful for the trust the Lord has shown in me in calling me to train. One thing though, none of you tell the Mackay's that I am training a new missionary, just because of who is currently in the MTC.

Oh yeah, just a head's up, I may be sending a package (or two...) home as I have a lot of stuff. We will see though.

I'll let you all know how my week has been in another email.

I love you all!!

Elder Mitchell

As you can imagine the suspense was killing us as we waited to learn if his new companion was to be Elder Mackay or someone else.

October 7th

Hey Everybody!

First of all, I am sorry that I am emailing so late, and also I am so sorry that so many of you have emailed me and I haven't replied. I am not ignoring you don't worry, it is just today has been a little bit rushed and stressful. Hopefully next week we will have more time to email so I can reply to all of you then. Thank you all anyway.

So, for the benifit of those who have not heard what happened with moves (which I have a feeling is not many of you as the word seems to have spread really quickly...) I will tell you what has happened. So, I would say I got whitewashed to a new area, but that would only be partly true. I have opened up a completely new area in Woking, part of the Addlestone Ward in Staines Stake. The other half of that news is that I am training a new missionary! His name is Elder Tidwell, he is from Kayesville Utah, he is 18 (makes me feel old).

So the new area is good. A few downsides are, there is not really any public transport. There are trains and that is about it. So we pretty much have to walk everywhere. Also, as it used to take so long for the Addlestone missionaries so long to get to Woking, there was hardly any work done here, so we are literally starting from scratch. Also, it takes us about an hour to get to our chapel. We have to get a train to Weybridge, and from there get another train to Addlestone. It only really trains like 15 minutes or so, but what takes so long is makign the connections, if you miss a train you have to wait half an hour. Also, I'm not being ungrateful for General Conference, but we still haven't met the members yet, which makes it a little difficult.

On the plus side though, we have such a nice flat! It is really nice and spacious (mainly because there isn't much in it) and the members they gave us so much stuff! Our ward misison leader (one of the few members we have met) dropped off at least 2 car loads full of food, and cleaning supplies and just general stuff for our flat, including a study table and chairs. Also one of the good things about being here is that Elder Holmes, my first companion in Reading is one of my Zone Leaders, so I am happy to serve around him again. And, one last thing I am happy about, McLaren HQ is in our area. How cool is that???!? We passed it on the way to the flat, just passed a massive sign saying McLaren. So I am happy :)

So there is not much to tell you about work wise, so I will jsut tell you how much I enjoyed conference. It was so amazing to be able to hear from our Prophets and Apostles. A lot of it was what we needed (or what I needed) with our new area and the responsibilities we have. I loved both of President Uchtdorf's talks, especially the one where he shared the skiing story. I also loved Elder Holland's talk, and Elder Ballard's talk (not just because he mentioned visiting missionarires in Europe, and I was there :P) they were really inspiring and uplifting. Also President Monson's tlak in the sunday morning session (I think) was really touching.

Well sorry this is not so long, we don't have too much time to email. We were going to the library to email, but all the computers were taken, then by the time we got shopping done, we had to head through to Addlestone to the chapel to meet some of the missionaries in our district, and so we are emailing at the chapel. Trouble is there is only one computer, so I need to let Elder Tidwell on, so I better wrap this up.

I love all of you!

Elder Mitchell 

Elder Tidwell and Elder Mitchell

The Livingston Missionaries:
Elder Mackay, Sister McKay and Elder Mitchell

October 14th

Hey everyone!

Am I really at 77 emails already? I hope I've just miscounted, but I don't think I have...

Well this week has been quite good. We have worked hard, and we are starting to build up our teaching pool. 

We have mainly been trying by less-actives, and former investigators, and then knocking houses either side if they weren't home. We have seen some success and we have had quite a few people invite us to come back. We had one of them flog on us, but never mind.

Church was good. We finally got to meet the members which was nice. It is only a small ward but they were all so welcoming and friendly towards us. One family even gave us a toaster (which Elder Tidwell had been bugging me about getting one since we got here haha!). It was really good, and hearing everyone's thoughts of general conference was wonderful.

I guess last week, as I wasn't able to share my thought on conference due to time, I will share some this week. Everyone has of course been talking about Jeffery R Holland's talk, which was wonderful don't get me wrong, but I'm sure I cannot say anything about that talk that has not already been said. My favourite talk I think was President (I'm going to butcher the name I know) Utchdof. Both his talks in the saturday morning session and the priesthood session were wonderful. Also I think it was Elder Oaks and Elder Packer who both went through the Articles of Faith and the Ten Commandments was really insightful.

Well I am running out of time so I had better wrap this up. I will wrap it up with an interesting act, and then a scripture. 

Interesting fact. Woking is where H. G. Wells (I think that's his name) wrote or based War of the Worlds (there is a big silver martian statue it town centre) which is pretty cool.

Scripture. Jacob 6:12 "O be wise, what can I say more?"

You were expecting something really inspiring there weren't you? fooled you! haha!

Love you all!

Elder Zach Mitchell

October 21st

Hey Everybody!!

So this week has been full of the usual... finding, finding, finding. It has been quite good though, we have mainly be focusing on trying by the former investigators in the area, and we have had quite some success. We have found quite a few people from this.

Just to give you a quick overview of some people we are working with:

There is kayleigh who is a fairly young mum with 2 kiddies and a 3rd on the way. She is married though, but her husband Jamie doesn't seem too interested. But Kayleigh's grandparents are members and just got back from serving a temple mission in the london temple which is cool.

There is also a guy named dave. He is from Dumfermilne, so it is good to hear an accent I recognize (and that sounds better then the weird accent they have down here near london). He has a cousin who is a member in Paisley, and invited us back because she was such an example to him and he was facinated by it.

Also, another guy worth mentioning is Osa. He is from Nigeria. He has seen the church and missionaries around in Nigeria and over here, and has spoken to them, but never about the church. We found him by trying by a former investigator, but they didn't live there anymore. He invited us back and he asked a lot of good questions. He seemed amazed that the Prophet Thomas S Monson is over 80 years old, and he also couldn't get over how Joseph Smith And Hyrum Smith were killed for what they believe in. So he is getting caught up a little bit on the details but there is some potential there.

So this sunday, all of the new missionaries in the ward (3 of us) were asked to share our favourite scripture in sacrament meeting and talk about why they are our favourites. Well I found this a little difficult narrowing it down to one. As I said in my talk, I felt like a little kid who had just been taken to a cadbury's store and told "now you can only have 1!" So I started my picking a topic, and then narrowing it down from my favourite 20 odd scriptures on that topic.

I spoke about the atonement, and how it can bless our lives. I shared, 1 Nephi 8:10-12 and spoke about what the fruit was and why Lehi desired to share it. Then I linked that to 2 Nephi 2:8 and how it is important to share that fruit. Then I went on to talk about Jesus was able to save us an extend us mercy and grace, and I went to Mosiah 3:7 and then my favourite (on this topic anyway) Alma 7:11-13. I spoke about how no matter what we go through in life, the savior knows, as he has experienced it for us, so that when we go through those hard times, He can be there right beside us. Then I shared the 3rd verse of How firm a foundation, then just bore my testimony of the atonement.

I think it went quite well, the members seemed to enjoy it anyway, they enjoyed all of our talks. I just hope I was able to say what the Lord needed me to say.

Well I am going to end this email on a funny note. I have attached a photo, and with it I ask, "At what point does loose change become just ridiculous?" There is £1.90 in 1p's, £2.30 in 2p's and £7.40 in 5p's (this is what I have saved since Paignton by the way, not what I have got since coming to Woking.

I love you all! 

Elder Zach Mitchell

Another major catch up

Email 69 - 19^th August

Hey everyone!

So I managed to get back on to finish my emails properly as we didn't get too much time this morning.

So highlight of this week was, on tuesday we had a special multi-zone conference in Crawley where we got to see Elder David F. Evans of the seventy. It was a quite inspirational conference and I learned a lot from what was shared.

Other then that, we haven't really been up to much this week. We have been in the flat most of the week to allow Elder Coons to recover a little so that he is well enough to go home. It is amazing that I don't know what to do with free time anymore as I'm not used to having any.

We were at least able to see Tara and her mum Joyce though which was good. We talked with them a little about prophets and watched the dvd about Thomas S monson "on the Lord's errand" with them, as in the baptismal interview our district leader said we needed to go over it again, as she wasn't too sure about prophets, or couldn't remember it very well. It wasn't a major concern though, as she is only 9 years old, so it wasn't anything to stop the baptism going ahead. They are doing well though. Tara will be at her dad's for the next 2 weeks though before she goes back to school so we won't get to see her for a little while. We will keep in touch through her mum though.

So Elder Coons goes home tomorrow, his Bishop and mum are coming to pick him up in the car, so until Wednesday I will be with the elders in Mitcham. Just a heads up though, his sister is going to the temple on saturday to go through the temple for her endowments and so he will be there too, so maybe keep an eye out for him.

Well, as far as I now I will be staying in Wandsworth for one more transfer, but we will have to wait and see, the call should come through tonight so we will know soon. I will of course let you all know as soon as I know.

I love you all!

Elder Mitchell

22 Aug

Hey everyone! just to let you know moves news, I am still in Wandsworth. My new companion is an Elder Davies from Merthyr Tydfil, in South Wales. He has been out 6 months and this is only his second area, and he is our new District Leader, so this transfer should be fun.

Love you all

Elder Mitchell

Email 70 – 26 Aug

Hey everyone!

Hope you all had a good week. For those of you who were at the temple on saturday (especially Cameron, Sarah and Heather) I hope you all enjoyed the wonderful spirit there.

So this week has been pretty good. My new Companion Elder Davies is a star! We have been working hard to build up the area again. We haven't been able to find any new investigators yet as everyone we talked to didn't want to set a solid return appointment, but we have been talking to lots of people. We managed to get 20 lessons, and that is just really from wednesday evening when Elder Davies got here (As I was in Mitcham in a tri for Monday and Tuesday). So next week should be good.

I just want to share some cool things that happened this week. First of all, I spoke to my first person on a bus. Normally that is way out of my comfort zone, but this time I managed it. We got on the bus at the same stop, and I saw this girl before the bus came, and felt I should speak to her, but just as I was building up my courage to do so, the bus came. Luckily though she sat at the back of the bus, and the rest of the seats at the back were free too so I sat next to her and started talking to her. It was really good and she was really nice. She was from Atlanta which was cool. I was gutted though because, just as I started sharing the First Vision, she hit the stop button as her stop was coming up. I at least finished the first vision and gave her a pamphlet, hopefully she will read it and give us a call.

Also, last night, we had about 10 minutes before we had to jump on the tube so we could get back to the flat for dinner and to account with the district, so we were outside Tooting (yes there is a place called Tooting, I think its halarious!) Broadway station, and looking for someone to talk to. I saw this girl by the road just standing there and felt we should talk to her, after getting that feeling a few times I said to Elder Davies lets talk to her, so we did. She was really nice and seems really receptive. I just hope she will give us a call at some point so we can meet up with her again.

For me, those are the two main highlights from the week I guess.

Well I hope you all have a good week. And Heather, as you will probably be gone by the time I email next, good luck on your mission, you will do fantastic, and I will see you in 18 months!

Love you all!

Elder Mitchell

Email 71 – 2 Sep

Hey everyone!

A few of you have emailed saying you can't believe I only have 9 months left. Well in that case you really won't be able to believe it when I tell you I actually only have 8 months left. I'm not counting or anything.

Well this week has been pretty good. We have been working hard and things are starting to pick up. We are getting the ward more involved and starting to work more closely with the ward council. The Relief Society President gave us a list of some people she hasn't seen at church in a while so we have been visiting some of them and it has been pretty good and those people has been receptive and friendly so we will hopefully be working with them. We are also trying to work with the ysa and with the youth. There are some of the youth who are a little bit shakey at the minute and so we want to strengthen them, especially one particular youth, who is the son of our ward mission leader, he hasn't been to church for at least a month. His name is Brigham Young, which I find quite funny, having to reactivate Brigham Young.

Cool miracle that we had this week. One of the Ysa brought her 15 year old cousin to church on sunday so we started talking to them. Turns out they both went to EFY this year and the cousin (a non-member) loved it! So we asked her if she wants to find out more, and she said she would be interested in finding out more of the teachings. It is great as the ysa has just started her mission papers and so we can help her learn what she will be teaching and teach her cousin at the same time!

Apart from that we have just been trying by some former investigators and some less-actives. It has been quite good and we have met some really nice people who hopefully we will be working with soon.

Oh yeah, something else exciting. On the 10th, Elder Dallin H Oaks will be coming to Wandsworth for a special fireside, or something like that. Elder Kerian and Herbertson will be with him too, but that is really exciting and the whole stake is excited about it. So this will be the 2ndApostle I've got to see since coming to London, cool or what?

Anyway, I can't think of anything more to share with you guys. There are some funny stories I could share, especially from last monday when we ended up in Peckham for lunch, but I think that is a post-mission story.

Well I hope you all have a good week. Oh and Andrew (Elder Patterson) I'm glad you will be able to re-join me in the harvest! You'll do great bro!

Love you all

Elder Mitchell

ps. Is there a specific wrist men should wear their watches on? We have a less active that if I go to hers again with it on the wrong wrist she will slap me, and she actually will because she is from Jamaica!

Email 72 – 9 Sep

Hello everyone!!

I hope this is actually my 72nd email, if not, ah well!

Anyway, not too much time today as we are currently in an internet cafe emailing as the zone leaders are using the ones of the chapel preparing for Zone Training later this week, and the other computers are out of order at the minute. So I only have an hour this week to do everything...

This week has been good, me and well I would say Elder Davies, but he hasn't been here for part of the week as we have had 3 exchanges this week and he only stayed in his area once! (the joys of being a District Leader) Anyway, we have been working really hard this week. In total we got 27 teaches this week, which is the most I have ever achieved on my mission so far. It's not a competition though (which is good because the rest of our district got more than us!) those are 27 people who we helped come closer to Christ.

Just a quick word about Sonia, we were able to see her twice this week which was good. Her Cousin was there and even one of her young women friends from the other ward was there one time which was great. It helps that both of them have a solid testimony and are there to support Sonia which is great.

Joyce and Tara are both doing well also, Tara is back from her Dad's and was happy to finally meet "the new guy" Elder Davies. They are both doing well though, and Joyce just got a calling in the Young Women's presidency which is cool!

We had a good Ward Council meeting on sunday too, I feel it was effective. We were only in there for an hour (quite a record) and then we had to go as we were teaching Sonia afterwards, but we got the whole hour to talk about the people we were working with and to report back on people they had asked us to see. It was good and I feel the ward council is beginning to trust us more which is going to be a great help. 

Anyway, I just realised we only have 5 minutes left on the computer so I better wrap this up.

I will let you know how Elder Dallin H Oaks goes. I nearly got to be in the choir but one of us has to be free to welcome our investigators so Elder Davies is singing instead.

Anyway, gotta run.

Love you all!!

Elder Mitchell

ps. I have a funny story to tell about Bishop Cooke from Clapham ward, (the guy in the mormon message from jamaica who talks all about the book of mormon) but it is another post-mission story haha!

Email 73 – 16 Sep

Hello everybody!!

So this week, there has not been too much that has happened, but a lot has happened, if that makes sense... It doesn't, does it? I know what I mean!

So, where to start...

Okay, first to let you know how everyone is doing quickly. Sonia is doing good, we saw her at youth night on thursday. She is being well fellowshipped by all the youth which is good to see. We haven't been able to see her this week apart from that though as her dad was back from Dubai, as we works there a lot and only gets to come back every now and then, so she wanted to spend time with him, which I think is reasonable. We will hopefully see her this week though.

Also, I don't know if I told you about Lucy. She is a born-again christian that we met the other week. We have met with her a few times now. She seems to have the mindset of, yes she wants to find out if "mormonism" is right, but if it isn't she wants us to know, which is interesting. She seems to be trying to prove us wrong on everything though. She studies everything we give her, but that comes back and brings all this "evidence" of how its wrong, for example the prophecy in Amos 8 about the great apostasy (well, dual prophesy) she studied and told us it isn't about the great apostasy, so as you can imagine that is difficult. She also can't accept the Godhead being 3 seperate beings (even though it is biblical) and she is hung up on how we believe we can become like God (even though it is biblical also), so yeah, we will see how that goes.

So other things that have happened this week.

On tuesday that Stake had a visit from Elder Hebertson and his wife, Elder Keiran and his wife, and Elder Dallin H Oaks and his wife. It was amazing and really inspirational. Elder Oaks is also really funny. He shared a story from his first visit (of only three) to the UK as an Apostle which was to Hull and he shared how a 10 year old girl gave him a letter which he read part of, but the end is the funniest. It read; "I know you are an Apostle because you are clean, and your head in shiny." But there was so much to get from what was shared, it was truly amazing. If I shared with you everything I got from it, this would be a seriously long email, and it wouldn't even do justice to how amazing the meeting was.

So that was really good, and yes I did get to shake Elder Oaks hand (crazy fangirl moment, I haven't washed my hand since... Joking!). 2 Aposltes down, another 10 to go! Haha!

Also on thursday we had a Zone Training which was really good. The best thing about it though was because of some news I got from on of the Assistant's Elder Curran. I don't know if you remember me mentioning a Blake Jones when I was back in Reading? He was the 13 year old boy, who had seen the book of mormon musical, and signed himself up to meet the missionaries. We lost contact with him for whatever reason. Well, it turns out that, we lost contact because his parents weren't too keen about him meeting with us, but he kept reading the Book of Mormon, he got right up to Helaman, and then somehow got back in contact with the missionaries and now his parents take him to church every sunday. So hearing that news made my day!

On saturday as well, we were supposed to have a Stake Sports Day, but it rained so it was a really poor attendance (really poor, there were more missionaries then members there). It was good fun though, we played some touch rugby in the rain, and my team won of course! The advantages of having a welshman (Elder Davies) and a South African on your team haha!

So yeah, that has been my week.

I love you all!

Elder Mitchell!

Email 74 – 23 Sep

Hey everybody!

It is a scary time for Elder Mitchell just now, the Sister missionaries from my group go home next week. It is a sure sign that my time is coming, and coming fast... uh oh.

So this week has been good. We have been working hard and have been able to teach a lot. Our teaching pool is slowly getting bigger as we have a few more people to work with. I wish I could tell you everything from this week, but we are getting low on time as we are meant to be meeting with the rest of the zone at Elephant and Castle (genuine place name, Elder Davies thought I was playing a trick on him when I told him we were meeting there) at 2pm and its currently 1.39pm so.... I better make this quick!

Just to let you know how everyone is doing. We haven't been able to see Sonia last week as she was busy, but hopefully we will see her at youth night on tuesday. She is still doing good and her cousin is encouraging her which is great.

Lucy, we haven't been able to see either as she was away at a wedding when we normally meet with her, but we have kept in contact and she is still reading the things that we have left for her which is good. Hopefully we will be able to see her this week.

A miracle to share this week. We were in a far out part of our area (so far out that we were nearly in another Stake) trying by a less-active. He wasn't interested, but we decided to knock some doors nearby. We found a house with 7 university students living there (there were 4 there at the time, we later found out there were 7) and the first girl we talked to, Rebecca, invited us to come back. So we went back on friday and we were able to meet with Rebecca. She had a friend that also lives there that wanted to meet with us but she wasn't there at the time. But we were able to teach Rebecca and share the restoration with her. She asked a lot of good questions which we were able to answer, and the spirit was really strong there. All of us felt the spirit it was incredible. She said she would love to find out more, so hopefully we will be able to see her later this week.

So that is all I can really say about this week (mainly because I am really out of time) but I hope you all have a good week.

Just a head's up, next week is the week of moves. I should be able to email quickly on monday, but if not don't panic.

Love you all!

Elder Mitchell

Elder Mitchell was fast approaching his 18 month mark.  I don’t normally include my emails in the blog, but I include this one and his response.

Dear Elder Mitchell,

 I know it’s not often I start my emails to you that way, but there’s a reason.  I’ve been thinking that very soon you will be out for longer than I was.  I’m not sure now if it was 19 months or 18 and a half that i was out for, but for two weeks I was the longest serving missionary in the mission, not even the mission president had been out longer than me!  Well the reason I’m telling you this is that I finally realised that I knew what it was to be a missionary but I was going home.  It seemed to me that it took me 18 months to figure it out but then it was too late.  Maybe I was a slow learner, maybe I was very shy and lacked the self confidence that others seemed to have in abundance (how else can missionaries get to be APs, Zone Leaders when they haven’t been out for very long?)  Either way, I’m telling you now you know all there is to know.  That’s not to say you wouldn’t learn things in the remaining months of your mission, but you know what it takes to be a missionary, you have found and taught and baptised.  I think one more and you will have had as many baptisms as I did.  I know it’s not a competition, but you can still do more.  You will be one of the senior missionaries of the mission – an elder statesman if you like, and the missionaries that have been out less than you will look up to you.  Always lift them up and tell them they can do it.  Be positive and joyful.  When your Mum and I were doing Amway or Kleeneze, they would say things like “You have a bar of gold you want to share, but when you do, they have their bar, but you still have yours.”  I know that that was due to the nature of the business plan they used, but it is also what the Gospel is about – you have something to share that is way beyond gold or jewels, but just because you share it and try and give it away, you don’t lose any of what you had, in fact it’s increased!  This is better than any worldly business plan or model!

 Go to, till the garden, work hard and thrust in your sickle with all your might that ye may lay up treasure in Heaven, not treasure that moth and rust corrupts, but treasures of brothers and sisters who have excepted the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who will be forever grateful that Elder Zachariah David John Mitchell knocked on their door.  They will praise your name forever and call you blessed!

Work hard, these last week months will fly by and before you know it, you will be standing at the steps of the Temple for the last time as a young missionary.  Don’t waste a minute of it.

Take care.  I know you are on the Lord’s errand and you are where you are meant to be.  Jesus is our Saviour and loves us.  All we need to do is to give him all our sins and follow him.  This is my testimony and I leave with you in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. 

Love

Dad

Hey Dad,

thank you very much for your inspirational email, it is really uplifting and insightful. Yeah, its not too long before I will have served as long as you, you part-timer! haha I'm teasing. It is a scary time though as the sister missionaries in my group go home next week, shows me my time is coming, so I just have to work as hard as I can with the time I have left. John 9:4 comes to mind when I think how long I have left "I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work." it is so true, my days out here are numbered so I need to work as hard as I can, while I can.

I love you Dad, and I am ever grateful for your example by serving your mission all those years ago. I hope I am setting a good enough example for my future children.

Love you Dad

Elder Mitchell

Birthdays and baptisms...

Just a few lines reporting on his birthday....

Hey dad , I did have a good birthday thank you. I got the package from you guys, from Linda and dad, and the two packages from Becky, any others, they must have been sent to the office and I haven't got them yet but there is a conference on Tuesday so I should get them then.

It looks like you had a good time in Glasgow, I would like to go when I get back, but that can wait until next year.

Thanks for your emails and pictures and presents and everything.

I'll let you know about the baptism in my big email.

Love you

Elder Mitchell

Then his regular weekly email.

Hey everybody,

I hope this actually is my 68th email, I've lost count haha!

First of all, Cameron, I told you that you were coming to England London south! Haha! Congrats on your call, see you in a few months!

S the highlight of this week is that Tara got baptized on Saturday! I was a great service and there was a great support from the ward and a good turn out. The water was apparently freezing but it was okay for me as I was just witnessing, it was elder coons doing the baptism. I got to confirm her on Sunday too which was good. She was really excited though. I would attach photos but the computers at the chapel weren't working so we are currently at the senior couples, elder and sister Hom, and they let us use their iPads which is fun haha. I'll try and get photos sent soon.

Other then that, I have some, quite sad, but I guess also good news. Elder coons health wise is not doing too good. He has been talking to president and he will be going home at the end of this transfer. He is getting an honorable release though, because he tried to push himself to work this week, but it made him worse. So he is going home at the end of the transfer and I will be getting a new companion.

Thankfully though I have not spent too much of the time in the flat, our district leader has been able to come through a few times which has been helpful. Because of that we have just been able to get 20 lessons this week which is good.

I'm not sure how well this week will go, as president has told elder coons to take it easy this week, but I will keep myself busy.

Well thank you all again for the birthday cards and presents and everything. I love you all so much.

Elder Mitchell 

It's his birthday.....

I asked how his companion was doing and Elder Mitchell replied:

Hey Dad, Elder Coons is doing okay. We were al least able to go out and do some work this week. And our district leader was able to come and do splits with us twice last week, which really helped our numbers for the week haha!

That is exciting stuff to hear. It is good to hear people are coming back. And yes Becky has told me about her going out with the sisters and her helping them which is great! :) Hopefully the work will pick up a lot quicker back at your end :)

Down here, July was the highest baptising month for this mission in the last two years!!! Plus so far in August we already have 8 baptisms as a mission, with 18 scehduled for baptism next week, and 30 something the week after, so the work really is hastening. Hope that that news can help your missionaries (in livi I mean) get excited too, as it isnt a competition between missions, we are all on the same team!

Love you Dad

Elder Mitchell

His regular email follows:

Hey Everybody,

first off, thank you to all of you who sent an email, letter or package to wish me happy birthday. For all of you who forgot, it is tomorrow, so feel bad for not wishing me happy birthday! Just kidding! :)

Well this week has been good. Elder Coons still isn't feeling too great, but we have at least been able to get out a lot more then the previous week. It has also been helpful as our district leader and his companion came through for a workover on saturday, so with their help we got 14 lessons in 1 day! so that boosted our numbers quite well.

Tara is still doing great. Everything is set for her baptism on saturday! We are just getting the last few bits and pieces organised for it but it is all going ahead. The ward is also really excited as it is their first baptism since november last year, so the ward are really supportive. Hopefully Tara will get her friends to come along as well, that would be great!

Well other than that, again there isn't really much to tell, except we have a few more people we can potentially work with so that will be exciting.

Also, keep Elder Coons in your prayers, as he has to go for an MRI scan on wednesday.

Hope you all have a good week.

Love you all!!

Elder Mitchell

You may remember...................

Elder Mitchell had an eventful last moves.  He sent a picture of his suit case.  Here it is.......

What did he do to it?

Elder Mitchell and the month of July

Monday 15 July 2013

Hello everyone!!!

Sorry I didn't send this email on monday, we didn't have much time but at least now I can tell you for sure where I am this next transfer. The news is, I am staying in Wandsworth with Elder Coons.

So this last week and few days has been quite good. Since monday we have been in a tri as a missionary in Mitcham goes home this transfer so His companion Elder Sorenson has been with us. It has been good fun being in a tri again, but kind of awkward street contacting etc. His new companion comes today though so things will be back to normal after tonight.

Main thing that happened this week. We had a member ask us to come do service with him for a less-active called Joyce. We helped her weed her garden which was fun (except the heat) it was good though, she is a really nice lady and she really wants to come back to church which is great. She also has a 9 year-old girl named Tara who is not baptised. When we saw her last week and asked if she was baptised, we asked if she would like to and she said yes. She really wants to come out to church too as she remembers how fun it was when she was younger. We are seeing them again tonight so hopefully that will go well.

We got to see Ruth and Lisa again last week. Ruth's boyfriend was there as well. He seems a really cool guy, and he has met with missionaries before and even has a polish Book of Mormon, but he doesn't want to properly take the lessons yet as he says when he does he wants to be able to put his all into it, which is a good thing I guess. We were hoping to see them again earlier this week but we haven't been able to yet.

Joyce (our investigator) is doing well. She is still not very well, which is preventing her coming to church but since we first started meeting with her she looks a whole lot better, and both me and Elder Coons believe that she will get there eventually.

Felix is interesting. We are still trying to work out how serious he is about the church. He still came on sunday, and he was there yesterday when we saw his member friend, but he doesn't seem to take things seriously. He might just come to support his friend. We will try and work that out though.

Apart from that we have just really been doing a lot of finding. We need people who are going to make progress, but we only seem to be able to find people that we see once or twice and then they flog us. We will keep going though.

Well that is all I can think to tell you about my week. The only other thing I can think of to tell is that the whole of wimbledon seems to be going Andy Murray crazy after sunday (yes I found out he won, which well done to him). As you can hopefully see by the attached photo, they really have taken it too far.

I hope you are getting some nice weather back home. It's too hot down here, I'm dying! It was apparently 27 degrees on sunday, 27!!!! that's like alomst 27 degrees hotter then what I'm used to! I'm kidding, but it is ridiculously hot.

Well I hope you all have a good week.

I love you all!!!

Elder Mitchell

Monday 15 July 2013

Hello everybody!!

Greetings from what currently feels like the hottest part of the planet! (It's over 30 degrees, I start to melt when it gets to 25!...)

I'm trying to think what has happened in the last 4 days since I last emailed...

I guess the bast place to start is Joyce are Tara. We got to see them on wednesday which was really good. We had a really good lesson with them. It went really well. We have invited them to pray about a date for Tara to be baptised and we have been doing the same. They weren't able to come to church on sunday unfortunately as Joyce had to work, but she has changed her work pattern so she gets sundays off, so next week she should be here which will be great!

The other Joyce is doing okay. She is still struggling a little bit with her health. We are just trying to help her recognise if she is getting an answer to her prayers about baptism. She has been taught everything before by the sisters, but we are just going through everything again.

Felix is doing okay, he seems really eager to meet with us, and has invited us over to his house, without his member friend there, so he is opening up a bit more. He was at church on sunday as well. We are still not too sure about how serious he is though, but hopefully this next week or so we will be able to work that out.

Ruth and Lisa are doing good. They came to church as well on sunday. Ruth is moving back to Spain though as she has family that she needs to help look after, but she will be back in london once a month. Hopefully we can still work with Lisa though.

Yesterday we had a really good talk with our Bishop though. We just talked about goals for the ward for this year, and how we can help the work progress. That is something we are going to focus on, is working with the Bishop and the Ward and help them with their missionary work. Whether it is Home Teaching, or taking them on teaches with us, or them inviting investigators over for dinner or whatever, we will try and work out. We will probably try everything, just to see what works and what doesn't. Hopefully we will see some success from it.

Well that is about it that I can think of.

Hope you all have a good week.

Love you all

Elder Mitchell

Monday 22 July 2013

Hey everybody!!!

hope you are all doing well and enjoying the "lovely" summer we are having. I only put that in quotation marks because everyone says it is lovely but when you have to go around in shirt and tie its not so nice. Having said that the other day I saw my first cloudy day in about a month! It was still hot though.

So we have a bit a great news this week. Tara has a baptismal date for the 10th of August! We saw her on wednesday and had a great lesson with her and her mum, and invited her to be baptised on that date. It is amazing as they said that was around the time they were thinking of for her to be baptised, so I guess it is meant to be :) They both came to church on sunday too which was great!

Another Miracle we had this week, was with Ruth and her boyfriend. We got a call from Ruth saying her and Mikel (I dunno how to spell his name put its the polish version of Michael) had a long talk and he would like to get baptised was basically what came out of it. So we met with both of them the other day and had a good lesson with them. The unfortunate thing is that Mikel lives in north london so we can't teach him. We are hoping to at least refer him on to the missionarires in his area though.

So just to catch you up with our other investigators: Joyce we were really pushing to come to church yesterday, but she wasn't sure how she would feel healthwise, So we said we would call her on saturday to see how she felt. We tried calling and she didn't answer. I just hope we didn't push her too much, maybe she just isn't fit enough to come to church just yet.

Lisa and Felix both came to church yesterday which was good. Lisa came with Ruth for just sacrament and Felix came for the whole thing. We are hopefully going to see them both next week but I am not too sure due to events I will explain later.

Tomorrow we have our multi-zone conference in Crawley, its the first one I have been to in the east, I have always been out west or stuck in the middle so it'll be different. It should be good though.

Can I ask that you all keep Elder Coons in your prayers this week. He is still having problems with his stomach and this week (on wednesday) he has to go in for a procedure (I won't scar you with the details, I'm sure you can imagine) so just pray that all will go well and that they will find out what is wrong with him, as he has had this problem for 4 months now.

So that's about it from me this week. I'm trying to think of something whitty I can end my email with but I've got nothing.

Have a good week.

I love you all

Elder Mitchell

Monday 29 July 2013

Hi everyone,

So there isn't really much to tell you about from this week, it has been quite tough.

Elder Coons had his procedure on wednesday, they found some small ulsers in his bowels, but they also found that he has chrons disease. They have put him on medication for now, but it is likely that he will be on medication for the rest of his life. He has taken it pretty hard, and he is considering going home. We have spent most of the week in the flat though, due to him not feeling well, which I totally understand, but I'm getting a little frsutrated with being stuck in the flat with nothing else to do. I think I have solved my Rubik's cube about a gazillion times out of sheer boredem.

So due to that we have not been able to do much work. It has been a little frustrating for me, but there is not much else that I can do.

Tara and her mum made it to church yesterday though which was good. And Lisa and Ruth made it there as well. It was our Ward Conference which was good. The Stake presidency talked a lot about member missionary work which was really good. Hopefully it will get the ward excited about missionary work.

Other then that, nothing much has happened, except for our multi-zone conference on tuesday which was good. It was great to be gathered with all the other missionaries and to see all my friends, like Elder Bendall, and also to see Elder Pettersen one last time before he goes home next month. It was really good and really inspiring.

Well sorry this email is so short, but there is nothing much really to talk about.

I will keep you posted about the situation with Elder Coons.

I love you all

Elder Mitchell

Various photos of Elder Mitchell on his mission

Finally got round to adding some more photos.  You can see more if you search for Elder Mitchell on Facebook

Elder Mitchell in front of the London Temple with Elder Martin

The River Avon running through the City of Bath.  I remember this view well as I was serving in Bath on my mission and was there for 5 months

Elder Mitchell and Elder Holmes - companions

Name tags

Zone Conference

P day (Preparation day) and the missionaries went bowling.  Strange to think that over 30 years before, Elder Mitchell's father went bowling in the same bowling alley

The zone in the Paighton area

Elder Mitchell with The Thames and Tower Bridge behind him