Monday, December 14, 2015

November 9, 2015 Be Bray-pared!

Hiya Fam!

I will tell you that I got called by the AP's last night, so I'm moving! They're "Whitewashing" Cavehill, bringing in Elder Smith and Elder Swenson. I know Elder Smith, he's a cool guy. I'll tell you where I'm going in a minute. But I will tell you that to get there, I have to travel down a rocky road. ;)  I just saw Elder Schippers off, actually. Oh, and I also saw Elder Wells and Elder Dewsberry!! Do you remember Dewsberry? He was in Airdrie when I was in Cumbernauld. It was so good seeing them again! They're awesome. I'll miss them.

 Okay so this week was pretty crazy being Elder Schippers' last week! He was doing so well, I was really proud of him! Until Saturday, that is. 

 On Friday we had a "Blitz" in Newtonabbey.  I had a good time with Elder Harman, and Elder Schippers and Elder Sheppard got dinner! Everybody wins!

 We've decided to push back Ph's date. :( We weren't meeting with him as often as we had hoped. We taught our first Commandments lesson this week: the Word of Wisdom. He accepted it well, said his biggest issue will be giving up tea and coffee. I hope the new Elders will be able to take care of him. He came to Stake Conference, which was great!!

 Unfortunately, H didn't get to Stake Conference. This past Sunday is also Remembrance Sunday. Everybody wears these poppies on their lapels or wherever, and in church there is 2 minutes of silence to remember the fallen. It's kinda cool. But because of that, there were a lot of parades going on, so the police kinda jammed everything up. Combine that with a really bad rain storm, and H just didn't make it.

 I forgot to tell you! Elder Kearon of the Seventy was coming to Stake conference. The Stake Presidency set a goal of having 1,000 people at Stake Conference. Such a large crowd would be too much for the Stake Center, so they hired the Ulster Hall in City Center! It's a beautiful building. Everything went well, too. President Donaldson was there and bore his testimony, which was great. Elder Kearon was good too. But that's why the police were jamming things up around us: we were right in the middle of City Center!

 We met with F in the Library on Wednesday. She's been having some difficulty with the new policy the church put out. Most of her friends are gay. Elder Schippers was the main one handling it, but please pray for her.  We first heard of that from F. She called us and was freaking out a little bit. We stopped what we were doing and decided to pray to know whether or not it was true. As we were praying Elder Schippers said that the scriptures from Jacob 5 came to his mind, the ones talking about the pruning of the vineyard for the last time or something along those lines. Pretty scary! But also pretty cool because as long as we're following the prophet, we'll turn out okay, on the right side of the fence!  This will be difficult for a lot of people to accept. I'm glad I know what I know! And most of what I know is thanks to you, Mum and Dad! Thanks for all that you did to teach us what you know!

We have a new investigator! Her name is Ch. She's a really nice woman who's had a lot of difficulties in her life. She's been to a baptism before, but that's pretty much the extent of her contact with the church. She believes in God, but doesn't go to church often. We met with her on Saturday and spent most of the lesson understanding where she's coming from and what her background is like. She talks a lot! Ha! But it was good. She wanted to go to Stake Conference, but we weren't able to get her a lift.

 Guy Fawkes Day was on Thursday. All the missionaries across the mission were required to stay inside after 6. Not sure why, most people don't go too crazy for Guy Fawkes day. Northern Ireland in particular didn't do a thing. Not like Halloween with all the fireworks and everything! There wasn't even a bonfire! Disappointing.

 Also, I'm happy to inform you, that this week I completely filled up my journal!! I bought a new one on Monday to prepare for filling it up. Same goes with my Study Journal. If you don't have a Study Journal, I invite you to get one. It's so helpful!

 And speaking of which, just yesterday I was studying Moroni 8:25-26. I describe this as the "12 Steps to Eternal Life". See if you can find them all! I find it so interesting how each one is placed in the steps. Why does one lead to the other? Think about it!

Oh, and also, I'm going to Bray! It's in Dublin Zone. Did you get the clue? "Rocky Road to Dublin?" Anyways, I'm serving with Elder Stoker, who's recently finished being trained. It'll be the first time I'll be serving in a District with Sisters! Weird!  Bray is a branch, but it looks like a beautiful area! Really green. And I'm right next to the ocean!

Mom wants to know if I want  a CTR ring for Christmas.  We're not allowed to wear any jewelry I'm afraid. Some things I've been missing are Sweet Tarts, Warheads, Sour Patch Watermelons, Flaming Hot Cheetos, Easy Mac, Lemon Heads, Nerds, potato chips, beef jerky, they're all good.   I don't need any shirts...I still have like 5 in the plastic bags unopened!  I have enough warm clothes, but thanks for asking.  Yes I did buy myself some new shoes! And I swear they're cursed. I've stepped in more dog doodoo in these shoes than I ever have my whole life!!! XP 

Mom asked if they have root beer.  The only good root beer is in the American Candy shops and it's £1.50 per can!

That's all from me today! Signing off!
Elder Bates

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