I'm afraid there is a slight problem
with the voice recorder. There have been times where, with the recorder in my
pocket or in my bag, somehow it switches on and starts recording. This week, to
my despair, I discovered that it had recorded a half hour of bus
waiting/travel! This, as you can imagine, sapped up all the battery juice, and
now it's dead. I will endeavor to purchase new batteries in the coming hours.
Anyways, this week has been
difficult but good, if that makes any sense whatsoever!!
On Tuesday I was on exchanges with
Elder Sheppard, Elder Harmon's trainee, who's actually English! Can't remember
where from, but it was a good exchange.
On Wednesday, we exchanged back and
then Elder Schippers and I had to book it to the church for a funeral that
Brother B, the only member of the Bishopric that's in Northern Ireland
right now, begged us to come to. When we got there, we found out why: there
really wasn't a lot of people there!! It was so sad!! :( But the services were
good.
That night, Brother W (the Ward
Mission Leader) went with us to H's. We retaught him the Restoration
lesson. The meeting was much better than last time. Although H didn't
seem to understand some things, such as how this church is the only true church.
But on the plus side, he bore his testimony to us of the Book of Mormon!! It
was great! Someday things are going to change. I just hope it's soon!
Thursday we went to the L's for
dinner again. Had a delicious pie! Yum! :9
Friday we had a special evening with
F. First off, F's a vegetarian. Or, rather, WAS a vegetarian. She
decided to start eating meat again! So, to celebrate, Elder Schippers cooked up
some chicken!! We also had SB, who has just recently returned from his
mission in Portugal! (It's so funny being with Returned Missionaries out here!
They always have American accents!! ;)) He cooked us some rice, and I cooked up
some sausages. I think we kind of overloaded F with meat, but it was good!
Afterwards, we sat down to reteach the Plan of Salvation.
And guess what?
Her roomate D decided to sit in
with us!!
And guess what else?
During the lesson we turned to Alma
40:11-12. To help D we handed her a copy of the Book of Mormon. She never
gave it back! We kind of "forgot" to ask for it back, but she didn't
give it back! I dunno how interested she will be, but hopefully this will be
the spark! :)
Saturday was really fun! Every
missionary in Northern Ireland met in Belfast to participate in the Belfast
Blitz! There were three stations: a musical station that sang songs and played
instruments; a whiteboard station where we asked people "What makes you
happy?"; and a chalking station, which was very lucky it didn't rain!! I
was at the whiteboard station. There was supposed to be movements around the
three stations, but for various reasons it didn't happen. It was a lot of fun,
and it was a huge success!
How do I know that?
Well, we got a phone call from the
Zone Leaders giving us EIGHT referrals!!!
Woohoo!!
After the Blitz was over, we went
over to Newtonabbey because the Elders over there were having a baptism and
Elder Schippers had worked with her. Her name's C. Its a really interesting story. I don't know the details but
basically she's a foster child. Her biological father made the family promise
to never force her to do anything religious. They were true to their word. Then
one day, apparently the Olympic torch was going to go past the church building,
and Chariss wanted to see it, so she went to church! She's been coming ever
since. She knew the church was true years and years ago, but her biological
father refused to let her be baptized until she was 18. She turned 18 earlier
this year. So what do you know!?
So on Sunday, we went by A, whom
we hadn't heard from all week. He told us that he's moving to Bangor soon, and
wouldn't be able to meet with us before then. We were pretty bummed about that.
We're back to 0 investigators. But hey! 8 referrals! That's gotta get us
somebody!!
Well that was my week! Hope yours
was good!
In Ireland we pretty much always get the
Ensign a month late. We got our August Ensign just the other week. :) No kidding! I never read the Ensign until my
mission!! Such an awesome magazine! I
love it now!
Here's a question to ask yourselves,
and the answer doesn't necessarily have to be "churchy": How can
someone still be happy when everything around them is not, cheerful let's say?
In other words, how does one choose to be happy?
I'd love to hear your thoughts!
I just about started crying when I read about
Harvey. I'm serious this time! I could tell that this was really hard for you!
I wanted with all my heart to be there to help you with this. I feel that every
time something bad happens back home! Just know that I'm feeling for you.
This Saturday is 15 months for me! I'm in single
digits now, can you believe it!?
Did you get my shoes from the Jacobs?
Well the shoes I've got are now worse than the shoes that I sent! Ha!
There's an Ecco shop in Belfast so I can just buy a new pair of shoes.
I'm glad it was a good birthday, Mom!
Love you guys so much!! Have a
totally-awesome-killer-rad-blast week!!
Elder Bates
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