Transfers...I'm staying in Bedford!

Hope all is well at home. I'm guessing the resorts are opened. Some member was talking about the west coast of North America and how much snow it will get this year. I hope you have all gotten some powder on your faces haha. While we are on the topic of skiing, I wore my facemask the other night riding and it helped so much, it gets freezing at night here.. It's a totally different cold than what I'm used to. Utah cold is just bitter and dry and just miserable sometimes. Especially on the mountain when it's windy and you're hiking up the snake creek ridge line or something. But here it's humid and wet cold. It's not even raining half the time but you still feel wet. It goes straight through you're jacket to you're bones haha. It's hard to explain. But it makes me miss Utah cold. This will be the first year I will not have a goggle line from windburn or just from my face being so cold. 

A peak at the sun!!

So this week was all right overall. We had some appointments fall through that we were really excited about which was tough. So a few weeks ago we were bouncers at a wedding at the chapel haha. Well we were just helping people with directions, but anyways, the couple that was getting married is a really awesome couple. The wife is a member and the husband isn't. The husband talked to the bishop about meeting with the missionaries because he wants to be baptized!!!!! Haha we were soooo stoked! He's a really cool guy! We were suppose to meet him on Saturday but he called and had to cancel because he is leaving out of town for work and won't be back until the 5th or December! Dang we were so bummed. But we are excited to see him when he gets back. Well either I will see him or elder fisher will. 

We did a lot of finding this week with minimal success to none. It was hard because we felt that we were being diligent and working hard but nothing seemed to be falling into place. It didn't feel like a waste of time because we don't have any other appointments in the day but it's just tough when you feel that you are giving it your all but there aren't results. Elder fisher and I went hard finding on Saturday and found some awesome people that we are teaching next week.

It's crazy to think that we (he and Elder F) won't be together. I can't describe how I feel about the last 12 weeks. I have learned so much. I think the most important thing I have learned is to listen to the spirit and the promptings. Because when I can do that, it helps with everything else. Some days I think back to August 19th the day I left and it seems like that was years ago. And other days it seems like a few weeks. I am grateful for all that I have learned and I am even more grateful for the chance I have to learn even more about myself as a missionary and what kind of missionary and person I want to be in 2 years. I always think of dad and the example of being a missionary but also a father. I want to be exactly like you dad and I always have. I want to come home in 2 years and be like the Man you are. I am so grateful for you and the path you have set for me. Love you dad. 

Well that's basically my week. I'm excited for this next transfer and what's in store. It will be interesting. 

Lords Hand

I saw the lords hand this week in realizing how much I have learned the last 12 weeks and how grateful I was to have elder fisher as my trainer. We learned a lot together and we really had some fun. I am grateful that the Lord placed us together. I don't feel like I know anything to be honest but I have felt the lords help in every single day of my mission so far in helping me feel the promptings of the spirit but to also be positive and happy. I have also seen the lord’s hand in keeping elder fisher and I warm this week, WOW! It got cold all of sudden. The Lord really does look out for missionaries. 

Love you family, I cannot believe that Gracie is in young women's. It is so weird to me. It makes her seem so old when she's not. Love you guys so much! Miss you! "Behold, I say unto you, that it is the duty of the church to assist in supporting the families of those, and also to support the families of those who are called and must needs be sent unto the world to proclaim the gospel unto the world." I read this in my studies. It really made me happy. I love you guys. 

Jake 

NO SHORT CUTS 

Jacobs responses to my questions...1. How do you deal with disappointment and canceled appointments? 2. Are you celebrating Thanksgiving?

1. I just think the best way to deal with cancelled appointments is to have it push you to set more appointments and make up for the ones that cancel. But I don't know how much longer I can do that. I still have a whole out here haha. But I just think it's trusting that Heavenly Father will help always. 

2.  Since I am staying in Bedford, there is a woman in the ward (sister smith) who is from Murray Utah! She is having us over for thanks giving which I'm excited about! It will be good. But not the same as Newport Beach Thanksgiving haha. 

Kernels of corn (What I'm thankful for...) 

1. My family

2. My mission 

3. Jesus Christ and his loving atonement  

M&M Theory

Grateful for Jacob's new bike!!!!!

Wow this week was pretty crazy to be honest. Well I guess just Wednesday was crazy. But overall it was a great week. This is my last week of training, which is crazy. I think I will be staying in Bedford to be honest but it could go both ways. 

So we had almost all our lessons fall through this weekend, which was a bummer. It's hard because we don't really have super solid investigators that have real intent so sometimes it's hard to follow through with appointments. But we did teach W and the Mexican family. They were both great lessons. W is going to take some time, but we are working with the Mexican family a lot, but the mother moves back to Mexico in a few weeks which is a bummer, but her daughter will still be here. They are so kind and loving. We have been showing the "He is the Gift" video a lot this week. It really is so spiritual. It is amazing to see how happy it can make someone in the street. So many people say they don't have time or they are too busy but after watching the video they end up talking to us for 15 minutes. It's just a powerful video and it's a great tool to use. We hook up our iPads to a blue tooth speaker and just play the video in the middle of town and honestly it is so spiritual. People are so interested. And it's amazing to see how many people really do know the true meaning of Christmas. And to hear how Christ blesses their lives. 

So Tuesday was an amazing day for me. This less active lady called us and asked if we could come to the hospital to give her baby a blessing because he was going in for heart surgery the next day. We hurried over to the hospital. The baby was the cutest little guy in the whole world. He was only like 4 pounds and he was tiny. I got to give the blessing and it was just a wonderful experience. I am so grateful for the priesthood and the power that it has. I was nervous giving the blessing but I felt the comfort and help from the Lord in what I should say. It was an amazing experience that will be a highlight of my mission forever. 

Wednesday was a little crazy to be honest. So we went out finding and the first people we stopped were American and I was soooo stoked! They were from Atlanta Georgia and right when we stopped them, they started to bash. And bash. And bash. It was frustrating, Elder F and I probably said a 5 words each for 30 minutes. They had no idea what they were talking about either. They were super disrespectful.  Then later that night. We were walking through town and this huge black guy came up to us and started just going off. Saying that we were liars and that we should never come back to Bedford or he would jump us and that we believed in false prophets. We started walking away and he was just following us around screaming at us in the middle of town centre. He looked like a psychopath so that was funny. But ya he tried to grab Elder F and I. I saw the lords hand in just keeping us safe again. Elder F and I for some reason tend to run into trouble. 

The rest of the week went smoothly. We went into London on Thursday. It's a great place. 

The train station is massive and there are so many people just in such a hurry. It makes down town Salt Lake seem like a ghost town. Hahaha the tube is always packed and you're like 2 inches away from some random persons face and it just crammed and it smells awful haha. But it's a cool experience, totally different from any public transportation I've been on. And South Kensington is amazing. They had a massive ice rink set up and Christmas lights everywhere. I really hope we have a Christmas conference in London in a few weeks. 

London Ice Rink

Hyde Park Chapel Visitor's Center

A few things I learned at zone conference that I thought were interesting and helpful. So the APs gave a training and they talked about the M&M theory. It has to with English people and how they are hard on the outside and soft on the inside. Hahaha I couldn't help but think about Tommy boy. "It's alright, They have a thin candy shell." I was laughing hysterically to myself. I think it's a true statement though. Lots of English people tend to be grumpy and angry and just not very kind. But there is always a way to break that shell. Because everyone, even the grumpiest of people have that soft inside. sometimes it takes time, even years and years, but there is always someone prepared to finish the job and crack that shell. Even if it's a missionary in 10 years. It was a wonderful training that really got me thinking. 

Lords Hand

I saw the lords hand a lot this week. First with the little baby boys blessing. The blessing of this life is so wonderful, I couldn't see it more clearly in this little boy. He was perfect. I am so grateful for the opportunity we have in this life to learn and grow and become more like our Savior. I saw the lords hand in protecting Elder F and I again. He really does look out for us and promises us safety if we are obedient. Last, I have seen the lords hand in President Stevens. He was called here for a reason. He has such a strong testimony and I see the light of Christ in him and Sister Stevens. They make everyone so happy. I am grateful for them. 

I love you guys so much. I saw that Ben went skiing hahaha Freekin sweet backy. Well I love you all! My Christmas package came. It's at the office though.  Love you guys so much and miss you all. 

Jacob 

Homemade cookies and tin foil dinners!!

Alright, so this week has been good, but also kind of a bummer. We had W, on date for baptism on the 14th of November. But on Thursday he said he wasn't ready and that he didn't want to. I'm sure this has happened a lot in the past. We are still going to work with him but we can't figure out what it is that's holding him back. We have worked with him for 11 weeks in a row and we just can't figure it out. If it's Elder F and I that solve it, or other missionaries, it would be a miracle. 

It's crazy! This week is starting week 11!!! I'm almost done with training. It kind of blows my mind. 

So we haven't seen P for a while now. He is always too busy and doesn't have time. We are still going to try and work with him as much as possible still though. Those are really our only investigators, except we found a Mexican family, they are so kind!!! I love them! We went to their house the other day. And the mother, she's older, probably in her 60s baked us cookies and told us if we ever needed anything we could come over any time! Wow! She is so Christ like. The sad thing is that she is moving back to Mexico in 2 weeks to be with her family back home. She has 14 brothers and sisters. So she has a massive family back home. Her daughter and son in law live in Bedford though, we have not met them yet but we are planning to this week. 

I went on another exchange this week. I have been on like 10 already; I'm not a huge fan. But this time was good. Our dinner appointment fell through so we stopped at a member’s home to say hello. THEY WERE AMERICAN!!! She ended up feeding us, She made tin foil dinners! It was sooo nice to have American food!! They work on the military base in Hundington so there are actually a lot of Americans in our stake. It was refreshing to talk to an American other than a missionary. Oh ya, talking about Americans, there was a kid walking through town centre with an Ohio State sweatshirt on, I stopped and talked to him for a bit, he was actually born in orange country, lived in Newport Beach and went to Newport Harbor high school!!! It was so crazy haha, he is on a study abroad over here. Ah it kind of made me miss Newport a little bit. But it really is such a small world. Who would have thought I would meet someone in Bedford England that lived in Newport. Crazy crazy. 

On Friday we had a zone meeting. It was great. The zone leaders gave great trainings on how we can plan more effectively. It really is so important to plan well in missionary work. Sometimes it sucks coming home and having to plan right away but there really are blessings that come. 

So ya, that's basically my week. Something that we are doing now because Christmas is coming around...so on our IPads we have all these Mormon messages. So I decided that we are going to start tracting houses and showing people the "He is the Gift" video. Wow! We did is last night with a Hindu women and she felt the spirit so strong. I'm excited to continue using it. It's such a powerful video. I remember we watched it with the family last year. 

Lords hand 

I have seen the lord’s hand in keeping my attitude positive. We have had a lot of things fall through. Well basically everything has fallen through to be honest. But I have felt his love for me and he really has strengthened me. The sun hasn't been out for like a week and it's just been raining every day. One evening the sun peeked through the clouds and it was absolutely beautiful. The fall leaves and colors illuminated all of Bedford for about 10 minutes. I knew the Lord was there, making me happy and just giving me that extra push to keep going. I am so grateful for that. 

I love you all so much. I can't believe I'm almost done training. Elder E thinks I'll be staying in Bedford, so we will see. 

Love you guys! 

Cheerio 

Jacob 

Jacob washed...AND dried his wool sweater...the only sweater I sent him with!!!

Halloween and a new bike...FINALLY!

Jacob's companion had never carved a pumpkin before!!!

So this week has been pretty good. It went pretty quick. All the days seem to blur together by Sunday and I don't really remember what happened on what day in the week unless I look in my journal or planner haha. I don't know if that's normal but I hope so. But overall it was a positive week for me. 

The highlight of my week was that I got a brand new bike!!! Ahhhh I was so happy, I still am! Honestly my bike was so rubbish. It had just one brake in the front and none in the back. And I would almost die every day haha, but it was good to get some adrenaline again. This one time we were going pretty fast and the light changed so I slammed on my brakes (that I didn't have) so I ran the red light and was honked at by the few grumpy dudes but ya, it was funny. But ya, the new bike is so posh! It's fast too haha. 

We didn't have any lessons this week. We had 4 planned for just Friday and none the rest of the week. But they all fell through and canceled. It was pretty discouraging to be honest but there was nothing we could do so we just went out finding and visiting less actives. We actually played basketball with this less active member who’s about 6'5 and he's 15. He's a cool kid! He's a baller too! I'll probably be able to dunk on Hank in 2 years, I've been getting pretty good. But ya! He came to church with us on Sunday. It was cool to just interact with him and have a good time. I went on exchange with a new missionary who is serving in our district. Well new as in a few weeks haha.  I decided that the best thing to do was just have a killer day haha. We went finding for a few hours in the morning. We tracted, then went finding some more. We had a dinner appointment about 30 minutes away from our flat so we rode out there. I took a little detour, haha well more than just a detour. Like a 15 mile ride out there. We would normally take the bus but I think he needed it. So ya we got some great exercise and then we had the ride home. We got back to the flat and he was dead hahahaha. He told me that we should have just taken the bus. Haha wow it was funny. 

 On Saturday we had a trunk or treat with the ward. It was a good time!!! Elder Fisher and I decorated the Worral family’s car.  It was nothing like the triangle on Halloween though. It made me miss that a bit. Dad and Glen and Crockett out cooking hotdogs and looking like goons all dressed up. Haha I love our ward and stake so much. The stake here is massive and not very many people are involved. It just makes me grateful for what we have back home. I love the Bonneville stake.

Service!!

On Sunday we saw this lady that we had talked to a few weeks ago. She's from Mexico and she seriously is soooooo nice! And I love when we meet Hispanics here, they are so loving and kind. She has a daughter and son. We are going to meet with them this week; I'm super excited about it! 

So yaaaaaah that's my week. Not too exciting but it was good for me. I'm starting to realize that whatever happens happens, if appointments fall through, that's just more motivation to set more appointments. 

Lords Hand

I have seen the lords hand this week in that we ran into the lady from Mexico again, she had been trying to contact us but didn't have our number. It's a wonderful experience knowing that the lords timing is perfect. If we were just a few minutes late out of the flat or early then we wouldn't have seen her. The smallest decisions and acts we take all have a bigger scheme and play a role in the lords plan. I love it!!! 

Bedford, England in the fall...