First Lesson Taught

Wow! This week has gone by pretty fast, but I guess it hasn't been a full week since my last email. So I have been in England for a little over a month now. It's strange. I don't really know how I feel about it all. I honestly can say that I feel like I have been away from home for 40 years. Hahaha It's been the longest month of my life. Sometimes when we are biking down the road I feel like I am in salt lake on like an exchange with the missionaries, then I realize they I am the missionary and I'm not in salt lake....I'm in Bedford England. 

So we have struggled this week finding and teaching. White washing is really hard! It's seems like a lot of people know who we are and what we do. When we walk through town centre, everyone tries to somewhat avoid us. And if you ask them if they know anything about Mormons and they always say "yes! It's all rubbish!" Haha but there are a few nice people that I love talking to. So many old ladies that have been members of the Church of England for like 50 years but are seriously the sweetest. They always ask where we are from and say that we are so handsome and courageous for serving these missions. It makes me miss Nana and Grandmother so much. 

So we taught P. the plan of salvation on Saturday. It was my actual first lesson I have taught on my mission!!!!! It was a little scary haha because Elder Fisher just knows everything. But the lesson went really well, except when I started teaching about the 3 kingdoms P just started laughing and it kind of killed the spirit. But he apologized and it was all good. So ya! My first lesson went pretty well I guess. This week we did a lot of less active visits, and I mean a lot.....like 20 on Tuesday and 20+ on Wednesday and another 20 on Thursday. Only 2 answered the door but that's alright we just dropped off the Meet the Mormon Flyers and went on to the next. 

We have done a lot of bike riding, I have so much more respect for bike riders now. We rode like 30 miles one day and oh my goodness it was hard. We were going to a dinner appointment at a members home wayyyy out in the countryside and it took us 2 hours to find this house and we were super late. The member, Brother S, was watching the rugby World Cup game, he told us that he wasn't going to turn it off because it was the opening game, England vs. Fiji. We taught a quick lesson to the kids about the walls of Jericho, watched the game for like one second and had to leave. It was a great night. 

Saturday night we watched Meet the Mormons as a ward! It was wonderful. But we had no investigators or less actives show up, and the sisters had like 6, man! Sister missionaries are awesome!!!! They are so good at what they do. We need more of them everywhere in the world. I'm so proud of Jordan, she's a great example of a wonderful sister missionary. Sister missionaries are the bees knees!!! But ya the movie was great, it was soooo good to watch some American football in the segment with the  Navy football coach. Dang I miss American sports! All the members were saying how crazy football was and that every game is like way to over the top and that Americans are crazy. Ahhh how I miss that blasting roar of Rice Eccles stadium when Devonte Booker rushes for a touchdown, or when Travis throws deep to Clay in the end zone. Glad the Utes are getting it done. 3-0. Pac-12 championship this year. 

Well that's basically my week. It has gone faster than the last few. A friend sent me this quote, "there are no bad days, just good days and hard days." There will be hard days, like almost every day the last month haha. But there will always be good days that make up for hard days. I'm grateful for that. There are a few lines in the song Come Come ye Saints that really motivate me. 

LORDS HAND:

I have seen the lord’s hand in getting one of the less active members to church on Sunday! His name is M. B., we visited him two weeks ago and invited him to church and he said he would never come back, he has some problems with how the meetings are run and some other things. So we were impressed to call him Saturday night and ask if he wanted to meet us at the church earlier for a quick lesson, right away he said he would love to, we met him the next morning, taught a quick lesson and then he stayed for sacrament meeting! It was a blessing! He said that he felt the spirit rekindle his testimony. I am grateful that the Lord can soften everyone's hearts. 

I love you all! I miss you and I pray for you. I miss working in the yard on Saturdays and just being with the family. Keep working hard!! I love you!! 

Elder Parkin        

NO SHORT CUTS

Answers to my questions... 

1. Mom, so shopping, we basically just buy all the food we need on Mondays, we usually have like 3 dinner appointments a week which is soooo good!!! But ya for dinner we just make chicken and rice or pasta, or eggs and toast. 

2. Our schedule just varies, we don't have very many appointments because we don't have any progressing investigators. So we just visit less actives, knock on doors, Come home for lunch around 1-2. We do the first 12 weeks study for an hour or so. Then we go out and find around the embankment or town centre. Come home for dinner around 8 and then plan for tomorrow make some calls to the district and go to bed haha.