Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat,

Elder Mitchell gets to call home, how about that!!!!

Hi mum and dad

just to let you know I will probably be skyping home around 12 o'clock tomorrow, 11.45am at the earliest. We have been asked to keep our calls to half an hour to 45 minutes.

Also, I did get your big box on tuesday, but as I was training back I had to give it to the zone leaders to bring back, but they are comign up today to give it back to us :)

Love you all, speak to you tomorrow :D

Hey Everybody

so... we survived "the end of the world" it was crazy down here, you should have seen it! nothing... nothing happened, absolutely nothing. but anyways...

This week has been really good. On Monday for P-day we went to bournemouth and played capture the flag against the missionaries in the Poole zone. I'd like to say we won, but either we were too good, or we all sucked so we declared it a draw! (but Plymouth zone won really! haha!)

Then on tuesday we got to go to the temple which was just amazing as always! and the christmas conference was good. We got fed (most important thing) and then President Millar spoke to us a little, then we sung some christmas carols then we got all our post and presents and then headed home. Unfortunately, as our travel plans met going by train, we had to give our packages to the zone leaders so they could take it back by car. This was a great idea as we had to go via london, via the tube (which is always an enjoyable experience...) during rushour, (which added to my joy...) but thankfully we got to stay the night with the elders in Newton Abbot as we got back to their falt at nearly 11pm. it was great though.

Then, this week we had two main miracles. so after Christmas conference Elder Pettersen decided to just call all of our investigators and potentials to try and arrange a time we could see them. At first no one answered, but then almost right away, Vanessa called back and we arranged a time to see her for the next day :D so we went around to see her and she let us in, and we got to teach her and her two daughters Abbie and Lusinda. It was great! We watched the restoration with them and it was a really good teach. Abbie asked a lot of good questions like, whats the true meaning of christmas and how prophets are called which is great!! I think she will definately go somewhere. Also, just a head's up, she is looking at going to Uni this next year and is looking at Aberdeen, St. Andrews or Edinburgh, so I may request some of you keeping an eye out for her if she does go to Uni up there. It was great though. And just before we left, she ran up to our room and quickly wrote us each a Christmas card, which was funny. So that was miracle number one.

Miracle number two. Simone, who we saw last sunday wanted to come to the carol service this sunday, so we managed to arrange a lift for her and she came yesterday! it was great!!! She said she really enjoyed it too. She has been to other churches but says that she liked this one the best as everyone is so friendly and there is a nice spirit there and she really enjoyed it. She wants to come back again which is good :)

So those have been the main parts of our week.

Well I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and remember why we celebrate Christmas (christmas begins with CHRIST).

Love to you all

Elder MItchell

Pictures!

Over the past 9 years I have had the pleasure of working with many missionary couples in the archives in Edinburgh.  Recently, one of the couples, Michael and Linda Flynn transferred from the archives to serve for a while in Ireland, and have now transferred to finish their mission at the London Temple.  There they met Elder Mitchell and they kindly sent us some pictures.

Yes, we saw Zac (Elder Mitchell) today Tues the 18th Dec at the London England Temple. In fact, Elder Flynn received Elder Zac at the veil. He still has that enthusiastic, happy glow and smile. You can tell he is loving his mission. We've attached a couple of pictures that we took of him and with his companion and with us. We'll let you post them on Facebook since we aren't very good at that.

Merry Christmas!

love, Flynns

Elder Mitchell

Elder Bendall and Elder Mitchell

Elder Flynn and Elder Mitchell

Elder Flynn, Elder Mitchell and Sister Flynn

Off to the Temple.....

Hey everybody,

Well if this is a short email I am sorry but we have a stuper long day today so Idon;t have too much time to email. So what's going on is tomorrow we are going to the temple for a Christmas conference (get to go through the temple too, exciting stuff!!) so today, Plymouth and Poole zones are meeting in Poole for a joint Zone P-day which NEVER happens!! so today, we have to leave Paignton at 10, to get the train to Exeter and be there for 11.30 where we are meeting the rest of our zone, then we are travelling to Poole to meet the other missionaries, then tonight or tomorrow we will be heading up to the temple. and then tomorrow we are travelling back to Paignton.... I know, Long day.

So this week has been okay, ups and downs as usual. Bad news out the way first, we haven't been able to contact Jane this week, she is never in and when we call her it always goes straight to voicemail, so I think she may be avoiding us... and we have other potentials but we haven't been able to contact them either.

Some members on Sunday were having a fireside though and asked us to bring investigators (which we dont have much of to be honest) but we did try to call all of them to invite them, but no one answered. Then Simone, someone the senior couple in Newton Abbott were working with before they went home, called back, so we invited her and she wanted to come. She lives out in Totnes though, so needed a lift but some members brought her which was great. So that was good, and she had a really good time. We answered a lot of questions she had about reincarnation and things liek that which was good. She is really interested in finding out more though which is awesome. Hopefully we can see her sometime this week.

We have also been working with quite a few less-actives as always. which reminds me, this week I held a Python!! :D It was only a little one, but it was still cool. We have a less-active who has like 3 snakes, a tortoise, a lizard, a chicken, a tarancula and a dog (and I'm sure he has more), so we saw him this week and he is the one with the Python, so he brought her out and we both got to hold her. I have pictures, that I will send sometime :)

This week should be good. on sunday, the ward is having a nativity and a christmas carol service which they are trying to invite a lot of less-actives and non-members to which should be good.

Well sorry this email is so short, but not too much has happened this week and our train leaves in about half an hour and we need to get to the flat grab our things and get to the station (its not too far but we can't be late because the next train is an hour later).

Hope you all have a good week.

Love you all

Elder Mitchell

ps. incase the world ends on december 21st, I was wrong... if it doesn't end, talk to you on monday :D

Moves came and went, but Elder Mitchell stays put...

I'm back on the road again, so I'm late in adding this to the blog, but as you can see from the heading Elder Mitchell is in Paignton for another 6 weeks, which means he's been in Devon long than I was on my mission.

Hey everyone!!

So this week is moves weeks, so the big news is.... I'm still going to be in Paignton for Christmas and New Years (that's if the world doesn't end on the 21st like the Mayan's ellegedly said it will.) so nothing has changed here. I am still with Elder Pettersen too so we will both be here until end of Janurary at least.

Well this week has had good and bad points. I'll get some of the bad stuff over with. We haven't been able to see any of our Investigators or Potentials this last week. Jane text us early last week saying she would be really busy that week but she should be alright to see us this week, but we are still trying to contact her. Also a potential Vanessa said she was busy all last week too as she is a carer and they get busy around Christmas, but she said this week she should have more free time. We are still trying to get a hold of her though too. And any other potentials we have anytime we go around to see them it is always a bad time. (They say this year is "the most wonderful time of the year," well not when you are trying to teach people!)

So we have been spending a lot of time seeing Less-actives and trying to find more people to teach. Finding doesnt help though when you pick a road on the map to knock, go to knock it and find out it isn't in fact a road but a little path that could have never been in the history of mankind a road, even when people walked everywhere as it is just a little tiny path. So that doesn't help.

A good thing from this last week though, is that on saturday the ward did a christmas Panto (this is the first big event that they have ever done since they got the chapel here in Paignton) of Aladdin. Bishop got me and Elder Pettersen to go around the street nearby to post flyers for it which originally I felt was a bit of a waste of time as I was sure there were better things we could have been doing with our time, but it was a good thing we did that. There was a massive turn out. there were some members from some other wards, there were quite a few less-actives there and there were apparently 42 non-members which was amazing! I didn't get to speak to many of them, but quite a lot of them came because they had flyers posted through the door. Elder Pettersen even gave a Book of Mormon out, but we haven't heard from the lady since. It was really funny though, people kept forgetting their lines, or getting them wrong, or forgetting props, but they improvised really well which made it really good. No one came the following day to church but never minds.

Then sunday was good. Me and Elder Pettersen both spoke. I talked about Joseph Smith and Elder Pettersen talked about the Book of Mormon. I was quite nervous when I gave mind, and didn't say half the stuff I wanted to say, and thought of so much other stuff I could say after I sat back down but apparently it was good. A lot of people came up to us afterwards and said thank you for the talks which was good.

So plans for today, I don't know really. We were going to Newton Abbot to spend time with some of the other missionaries who are waiting for their new companions but I'm not sure if we are or not. I'm sure we will find something to do anyway :)

Well I hope all of you are doing well. If you still have snow enjoy it, we don't have any down here, it is just freezing cold, but never mind.

Love to you all

Elder Mitchell

Hey everyone, I keep losing count which email this is, I always have to go back and check what my previous email was. I have been out here for so long!! but at the same time it feels I only just left. it is strange :S

 

Anyway, my week has been pretty good. It has at least been dry most of the time.

 

Well on wednesday we had the multi-zone conference in Poole which was great. President Millar and Elder Kerian spoke to us, and he showed us something quite alarming. He showed us the number of baptisms in the mission over the last three years compared to the last seven years, and they have dropped over the last three years, quite badly actually. He wasn't using this to rebuke us though, and tell us we are bad missionaries, he did it is inspire us and show us where we can be, and what it is possible to do. They both talked about getting the desire and the vision to baptise so I think the whole mission now is ready to baptise everyone they meet. It was great though and the spirit was so strong there.

 

So this week we did get to see Jane, but unfortunately we did not get to teach her much as she had other things she wanted to talk about, and needed advise with some things. We were plannign to invite her to be baptized if the lesson went to plan, but unfortunately it didn't, maybe next time.

 

We have been working hard to find new people to teach though, and we have quite a few potentials that we just need them to have some spare time so we can see them. Things are picking up though, slowly.

 

On sunday, Elder Herbertson didn't come to church, he cancelled on thursday for some reason, so it was just a normal fast and testimony meeting. It was strange though because quite a few people thought I had already left. I guess, because we did a workover with our district leader on friday, someone saw Elder Pettersen with another missionary and thought I had left, so spread it around that I had gone (gossip, gets you nowhere). I have a feeling I will move at the end of this transfer though, I just have that feeling in my gut. That and Bishop has me and Elder Pettersen speaking next sunday, so that might be my farewell talk to Paignton. We will see though.

 

Well I am getting a bit more confident in speaking with people, thank to Elder Pettersen. He is a great missionary and yeah, there's times when we don't see eye to eye, and we have needed some emergency companionship inventories but we seem to be getting on fine just now. He is being really helpful as well :)

 

Well, sorry this email is kinda short, time always manages to escape me (we only get an hour on the computers and there always seems so much to do!!!) but before I go I will just let you know, on the 19th December I will be at the temple, so if you send any Christmas packages, make sure they are sent by then.

 

Thank you all for your letters, emails and prayer. and to those that have wrote to me, I will get around to replying at some point, I promise!!!

 

Love you all!!!

Elder Mitchell

Safe and sound, if not dry......

Hey everybody!!

First, apologies for not emailing yesterday, I shall explain the situation. So, tomorrow we are going to Poole for a multi-Zone Conference, where Elder Kerian of the Seventy will be there. Unfortunately for the Cornwall missionaries, this would mean that they would have to travel for most of tuesday just to get there, so if they had P-day, and then a day of travelling, obviously they wouldn't get much work done. So the Zone Leaders had an idea that the whole Zone changes P-day to tuesday and then we can have a Zone P-day on tuesday (which normally isn't a big thing, but in this zone, because of how spaced out it all is, is a massive thing!!) So that is why I am emailing today, instead of monday.

So, if I could use one word to describe this week it would be this: Wet! I swear (except I don't because I am a missionary and we aren't allowed to swear) that everyday this week we have had a complete downpour of rain. As you may have heard there has been all sorts of flooding in the west country, but don't worry, I haven't seen any of it. Well... funny story, on wednesday, we were heading to a District Meeting in Newton Abbot, it started at 9am so we got on the bu at 8 (takes about an hour to get to Newton Abbot on the bus), at 9, we were still in Paignton... Just outside of Paignton, there was a river of water, wider then the length of our double decker bus running across the road, which caused all the traffic that made us an hour late. It wasn't deep, but it was still quite impressive if I am honest. And as we were gettign to Newton Abbot all the fields just outside newton abbot were just covered with water. Otherwise we have avoided the flooding.

So our investigators, unfortunately Paco did not make it to church on sunday, and we have no way of getting back in contact with him. We just have to hope and pray that he will get in contact with missionaries in Spain somehow.

Apart from that, we picked up a nwe investigator this week. We finally got to meet with Jane. last tuesday I think it was, we were just walking and we happened to pass her house, and as we did so, she was heading off somewhere, so she literally came out of her gate as we reached her gate, which is awesome! So we talked to her for at least half an hour, and she invited us back on thursday. So we went back and were able to teach her about the plan of salvation and how God has a plan for all of us. She accepted everything we shared with her and it all seemed to make sense to her. She is amazing, as we feel that she is looking for pretty much everything that the church has to offer, which is just a miracle. We invited her to read and pray about the book of mormon, and we will follow up with that and teach her more on thursday.

We have also been trying to find more people to teach. Scariest thing I did this week, we went High Street contacting in Torquay. So Elder Pettersen took one side of the High Street, and I took the other side and we walked up and down it for maybe an hour talking to people. I have no idea how but I was able to talk to people! It was incredible. I can do it, I just need to get better at doing it haha.

So this week should be good. Obviously we have Zone Conference tomorrow which should be awesome, and then on Sunday, Elder Herbertson of the Seventy is coming to Paignton which is quite unexpected, and I am not sure if there is a specific reason he is coming to Paignton but it should be good.

Also, I want to share with you something President Millar shared with us in his weekly email this week:

As of Oct 1,2012 we had the complement of 126 elders and 20 sisters. This has increased to 188 elders and 58 sisters.   That is an increase of 102  proselyting missionaries. That doesn’t mean we will see this increase immediately, but we could see this come over the next few months.  This gives me a sense of urgency that the work of the Lord is hastening.

Impressive hey? It should be interesting.

Well this has been my week, hope all of you are well.

Also just so you know, next week P-day will be on monday as normal.

Well I lvoe you all!!

Elder Mitchell

Earlier I wrote

Hi Elder Mitchell,
We have heard on the news how wet it has been in the West Country.  I even heard that a hole appeared in, or should I say under, a canal, just North of you and swallowed all the water!!!!
The weather hasn't been to bad up here, though Hazel lost a fence panel and Aunty Margaret's fence was blown down too.
We have a new missionary in the Ward, an Elder Alison from Leicester.  He knows Damian and his family.
We finally had a baptism this weekend.  Ann, Pres Campbell's friend finally got baptised.  Elder Neilson worked out that they taught her for over 50 hours, that's including teaching on Sundays in Gospel Principles class. 
Did Becky tell you I was in Brixham in the months of August and September?  It was only a short time.  I remember only a few people.  I had a good time there.  I hope the work goes well and that you will see someone enter the waters of baptism soon.  Have any of your investigators in Bristol got baptised yet?
You'll have to let us know what plans there are for Christmas and for you calling home.  I've offered the use of our phone to the missionaries so we will have to plan.  If you are planning to Skype, then we need to know and let you know who's profile to use.
Looking forward to next week.  We will try to pop in to the office and say hi to the missionary couple there.  As we are flying down we wouldn't be able to bring anything down, but I may be wrong.
The house is beginning to look like it's usual self this time of year - a Christmas Grotto.  Caitlan is fascinated by all the toys and ornaments.
Well It's time for me to get off the laptop so your Mum can get on.
Take care my son and work hard.  Love the people and they will love you.
Till next time,
Love Dad
Hey dad, I have been fine. been drenched by the weather quite a few times this week, but we have avoided most of the flooding, nothing major in Paignton. Have you guys had any snow yet?
That's great to hear that you got a baptism! I hope I can see at least one of my investigators baptized before I leave Paignton, but that's up to the Lord, not me. I haven't heard if any of my investigators from Bristol have got baptized although I have heard that they have had some baptisms, so hopefully.
Well, for Christmas, I am still not sure if I will be in Paignton for Christmas, next moves is 12th Dec, but hopefully I will stay. If I do we will be going to a members home around 1.30 and they will let us use Skype at theres which is nice of them. I think Becky said she will try and set up a Skype account for me, but until I know for definate if I am staying in Paignton I do not know for sure yet what is happening.
I'll let you know more about my week in my big email to everyone.
Love you Dad
Elder Mitchell

Weather update....

Some of you may have heard that the UK has been hit by severe weather this past week.  Zac, sorry, Elder Mitchell is fine.  We had the following email today:

Hi all,

just a quick email to say due to a zone conference we have on wednesday, our p-day has been moved to tomorrow, I will explain more tomorrow, I just wanted you to know so you didnt worry that I didnt email. I am still alive :) I will email properly tomorrow.

Love you all!!

Elder Mitchell

Below is a link to the Daily Mail from last week in case any of you want to check out what's been happening.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2235946/Great-Western-Canal-runs-DRY-embankment-collapses-torrential-rain-fierce-winds.html