We finally taught Fionnuala (it's
Irish. It's pronounced Finula), which went really well. We taught her this week
as well, and she came to church too!! She's got a lot of questions, but I think
she's sincere in her reading of the Book of Mormon and such. She's probably at
Enos now! She came to church this Sunday! She found it very different from the
sunday services she's used to (Catholic), but she even said "I'm sure I'll
get used to it." I'll take that as a good sign! She's got a lot of questions, which she seems
to get off the internet, which bothers me. Last lesson we talked about how the
best answer she can get is from God, and the simplest answer is on whether or
not the Book of Mormon is true.
Bo: still having difficult trials.
He feels very unappreciated. And he always shrugs off our reassurances by
saying that we "have to be nice".
John: we got a phone call from John
one night. He was VERY drunk. He was saying something about how he had been at
the Doctors office for chemotherapy and that he had some bad news to tell us.
But later in the week, when we went by, he was sober and he didn't say a thing.
I'm a little worried, but he seemed pretty normal. Lots of questions.
Armstrongs: yes they are members,
but they don't come to church. Andrew gave me a paper with his conversion story
on it, and it's pretty great!
Vincent: He was going to come to
church this last Sunday, but both of his brothers are in terrible shape health
wise, so he stayed home, "waiting for a phone call". One has cancer,
and the other broke his collar bone by falling. Scary!
Also last week, we had a very
special conference. Elder Holland was in Edinburgh, and they broadcasted the
conference across the UK, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland! So I
got to listen to Elder Holland!!! IT WAS AWESOME!! He bore his testimony of the
Book of Mormon. He had some amazing things to say. He said that the Book of
Mormon was written to "try our faith"! I've never thought of that
before, but for those people learning about the church, yes it really does! He said
so many cool things.
This week was an All Ireland
Conference! All the Missionaries from Northern Ireland and the Republic met in
Dublin. I was in Dublin!!! :) :) It's a nice looking city! Much newer than
Belfast. Absolutely beautiful countryside going down, too! I tried to take
pictures, but they didn't really capture the beauty of it. In the train
station, btw, there was this big screen that kept playing the trailer for the new
Jurassic World movie. Not gonna lie, it looks pretty sweet! Made me trunky! ;)
Anyhow, it was probably the last
time I'll ever see President Brown as my Mission President! That's sad... But
it was great! He made a challenge for every missionary which I'd like to repeat
for you guys: have a small notebook with you at all times. Whenever you receive
a prompting, no matter what it is, write it down. At the end of the day, review
the list of promptings, and write down whether you followed them or not, and
what became of it. I've been doing it. It's interesting! I urge you to try it!
On Wednesday, we committed Hilaire
to be baptized on the 27th! And he accepted!! We met with him again on
Saturday, and he was very different from normal! Hilaire doesn't really display
his emotions. Like, he rarely smiles. Even in photographs. He's also pretty
quiet unless we ask him a question. But not on Saturday! He was so excited to
be baptized!! He was so giddy, it was awesome!! :) He won't be able to come to
Church this past Sunday nor the next Sunday due to premade plans. We'll be
teaching him about keeping the Sabbath day holy next... he's awesome!! :)
Everyone else is doing fine. We were
able to actually commit John to reading the Book of Mormon and praying about
it. He said himself that what really caught his attention was when I was
telling him about how we have Modern day Apostles and Prophets. Bearing
testimony is always the best way to teach!
So yesterday was Zone Development
again! That's why I'm emailing on Tuesday. It was super fun! We were right next
to a beach, and we played a massive game of Zombie Tag. That's where two people
start off as Zombies, and everyone else is a survivor, and they wear a bandanna
tied across their forehead (Rambo style!). The survivors are armed with dodge
balls, and they have to hit the zombies before they tag them. If a zombie gets
hit, they have to spin five times and then keep chasing the survivors! At the same
time, the survivors have to be solving a puzzle, looking for clues and such.
And if they figure it out, they get the "antidote" (a couple of nerf
guns) and they have to shoot all the zombies, which cures them! It was really
fun! I became infected pretty quickly, so if the Zombie apocalypse does happen,
you don't want to be on my team! Haha I'm pretty sore from all the running,
honestly! It's tough being the undead!
Mom asked if I see alot of red
heads. There really isn't, actually. A
few, but not a lot. I see maybe one a day. There are many Mcsomethings, but
again, it's not as common as people think. Also, there is a difference between,
say, McDonald, and MacDonald. One is Irish, the other is Scottish. Just an
interesting bit of trivia! They say
"yous" here so I have started saying it too. I'm drinking in the culture!
Well, that's a good rundown of my
week. Got to hear from an Apostle, saw President Brown for the last time,
committed Hilaire for baptism, had Finula at church, and became a zombie.
Pretty successful week, wouldn't you say?
Anyhow, love you guys! Keep on
working hard! This week is my year mark! A year from today, I'll be sitting
with you guys, eating Monkey Bread, playing Kube, and joking. That's enough
thinking of that. I still got work to do! :)
THANKS FOR YOUR PRAYERS!!! LOVE
YOU!!!
Elder Bates
PS I
love my mother!!!!!!! :)
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