The General Epistle of Samuel (clean up)

This week our teaching pool has decreased substantially. Though this means we need to find more people to teach, I am confident that the Lord is preparing us to move the work forward in a way we haven't yet seen. Many times I've experienced the truth of the Law of the Harvest in that, the wheat will be sifted from the tares. Though we are no longer teaching some people. We will soon be teaching people who are prepared to receive the restored gospel. 

This week we have done quite a bit of service for the members of the ward. It is always a pleasure to be around these wonderful saints and help them in any way we can. This ward has helped me learn a lot of things and I have grown to love many of the members here. Along with the members, the people we have been teaching have given me a taste of the joy of bringing even one soul unto Heavenly Father. I am so thankful for this opportunity to be serving Him. Seeing His hand in this work is incredible. 

This week should be just as good. We have a meeting in London tomorrow so we'll have a long day of sitting. Plus I have to drive there so we are staying at the other Elders flat tonight to shave an hour of travel off. It should be a good meeting and I always look forward to being in London. It is such a wonderful city. Zone meeting is later in the week and between all of this we need to find and teach. With time narrowing down on me I have been feeling a greater urgency to do as much as I can. As Sister Jordan says, "Make every last day count!"

I hope you all have had a great week and I look forward to hearing from you all again!

Love,

Elder Dalton

My companion found this photo that he had from when I was still in Ipswich.
I accomplished a few photo bombs that day lol

The General Epistle of Samuel (surprise from the mission department.....)

We had a very good week this week. We were blessed in ways we have not seen before. We have had many people coming to us to learn about the gospel. One interesting one started on Monday. We received a text with information regarding an individual wanting a copy of the Book of Mormon as they requested on Mormon.org. We made plans to stop by her after interviews on Tuesday. We stopped by as planned and had a lovely conversation with her and arranged a time to come and teach her again. Before we left I asked how she came across the website (I'm always curious about how people find it) and she told us something surprising. She said she has a friend in Idaho that is preparing to serve a mission and that they had told her to have the missionaries around. She followed through and now we are teaching her. She was surprised to hear that I was from Idaho as well. Small world!

Throughout the week we had many people speak with us and it gave many opportunities to share the restored gospel. We are quite busy now. I am grateful for all the people we have to teach. Now we must sift the wheat from the tares. 

Now for the surprise from the mission department. We had a mission wide conference call a couple nights ago where President Jordan informed us of a mission wide conference that will be held in two weeks in the Hyde Park chapel. We will be visited by a Seventy who is assigned to the missionary department where we will receive training on how to be effective with our new iPads we'll be getting in two weeks. This is quite exciting news since there has been talk of it for about a year now haha. They'll be coming just in time to bring one home ;) It should be an interesting experience. 

That has been our week this week. Thank you all for your love and support. I hope you all have a fantastic week and I look forward to hearing from you next week!

Love,

Elder Dalton

Almost Sent from my iPad

The General Epistle of Samuel (warm weather)‏

We have been enjoying some warm weather here this week. Borderline short sleeve weather. It's always great for us when the sun is shining. People are generally happier and more willing to speak with us. In Folkestone there is a very nice park on the sea front that is great to speak with families in. We are working our tails off trying to find some people that will really commit themselves. It's been a bit of a dry spell lately. Nevertheless we are persevering. 

We have interviews tomorrow in Canterbury. Which reminds me I need to quit procrastinating my visit to the Cathedral there. Fun fact: Canterbury is the HQ for the Church of England. There is a lot of history there so it's on the "bucket list". Time is flying by but we are getting a lot of work done. I'm not too sure what President Jordan and I are going to speak about in our interview. It will probably be pretty quick unless I ask some doctrinal question. 

I'm happy to hear that you are all keeping well. Thank you for all your love and support. I hope you all have a fantastic week this week! I love you all!

Love,

Elder Dalton

The General Epistle of Samuel (Easter Bunny)

We had a great week this week. We were able to get a lot of work done plus enjoy some conference. Our week was filled with appointments which was nice. We have some investigators that are working towards dates to be baptised on. We are helping them every step of the way to ensure they make it. It is such a wonderful blessing to witness people make steps towards improving their lives and following their Saviour, Jesus Christ. 

This Easter season is such a wonderful time to reflect on the great blessings of the Atonement. In the days following other holidays there tends to be a let down as things all go back to as they were. Easter on the other hand seems to bring a newness to the days that follow. Just as everything changed after Jesus Christ's resurrection, so do the days following Easter. Spring seems to come in full bloom, the weather begins to warm and Earth comes alive. The Atonement of Jesus Christ can do the same for us. It brings a newness to life and a feeling of relief. As we access the Atonement we can feel ourselves lifted by our Saviour. I am so thankful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ, which includes not only his suffering in the garden and on the cross but His resurrection three days later as well. I know that Jesus Christ lives. He is the Son of God and the Saviour of the world. He is the "source [we] may look for a remission of our sins. (2 Nephi 25:26)" I invite you all to read the words of Christ and apply His teachings. Allow his Atoning sacrifice into your life. I love you all and hope you have a marvellous week!

Love, 

Elder Dalton

We had some lunch on the nice "sandy" beaches of Folkestone. 

The view from the rooftop of a restaurant in Folkestone. 

The sign on an old toll house. Thought it was interesting....

A nice bright moon on the way home. The lights in this distance are from France. 

The General Epistle of Samuel (Easter is Coming!)

Well another week has flown by once again. It's crazy to think that March is on its way out. We just moved the clocks forward this Sunday so we are adjusting to the new time. It's nice to have some extra daylight though. People are less grumpy when we knock on their doors at half past seven.

The work is moving forward. Elder Claure and I are getting along quite well. After his first three days he said in amazement that he was learning so many new English words. I guess they don't speak proper English in Stratford lol. He is doing well and his English improves every day. Hopefully by the end of our time together He'll sound like and American ;)

We have a few people we are working with that are progressing. As well the church just came out with the new Easter video complete with special pass along cards. It's a great video if you haven't seen it yet it's on helives.mormon.org. Check it out! This new initiative is working well. Members are always more willing to share a video with their friends so we are hoping for the referrals to flow. 

I am happy to hear that everyone is well and looking forward to Easter. I hope that everyone's week goes well! Thanks for all the love and support. I love you all!

Love,

Elder Dalton

Here's another picture of the white cliffs

Lamb advert

France off in the distance

The General Epistle of Samuel (another transfer over)

Another transfer has come an gone in a blink of an eye. A lot of crazy things have gone on. Unfortunately Elder Tina'o is moving. I am sad to see him go. I have had so much fun serving with him and learning from him. My new companion is Elder Claure from Brasil! I am excited to have another Brazilian companion. It should be a great couple of transfers with him.

This week a lot of work was done. We were able to meet with a family that we haven't seen for a while. Gemma and Steve are great. They have been busy with work but thankfully after we sent Gemma a text on mothers day, they invited us over. Turns out they were talking about how they needed to start coming to church and that Steve needs to be baptised and their daughter as well. Then we sent them a text. Funny how that works out. We began teaching them and set a day for their daughter to get baptised. They are great and I look forward to working with them. 

We are gearing up for another church initiative this Easter. I think it will be similar to last year's "because of Him." This year it's #BecauseHeLives. I'm not too sure what we'll be doing. Probably lots of pass along cards to give out. We'll see how it goes. 

Well I hope that everyone has had a great week. I look forward to hearing from you all again soon!

Love,

Elder Dalton

correction: Elder Claure is from Bolivia 

pictures from our trip to Dover castle. I would show you pictures of the secret wartime tunnels but apparently they want to keep them secret so they wouldn't let us take pictures. Or it was something to do with copyrights. Either or. 

Hogwarts? a bit of wizard chess and broom flying.....

The General Epistle of Samuel (curve ball)

It has been a pretty good week here in Dover. We have been doing a lot of good work and things are starting to happen. We've had a few curve balls thrown at us this week but luckily we have been able to hit them.

The first curve ball was our car going into the garage on the 11th. With the car gone and a huge area we were left with an opportunity to walk a lot. We took the train too. We faced this challenge head on and some good came from it. We were able to speak with a lot more people which is always a blessing. Since we spoke with more people we were able to find some that are interested in the message we share. One of these individuals is Mateusz from Poland. 

Mateusz's family is our second curve ball. He was very interested as we talked with him on the street. We set an appointment for later in the week and arranged for a member to take us there and teach with us. We were excited to meet his family and begin teaching them. He told us that he was married and had two kids (twins). When we got there we found out that his wife is from Peru and didn't speak English too well. Luckily I could explain who we were in Spanish (Thank's Elder Martinez). Once she realised who we were she told us how she has family that are members and nieces and nephews on missions. Then she gave us pie. We had a good lesson and their two kids (they don't understand English and are two and a half) enjoyed emptying my bag of its contents and filling it again with their toys. We will be seeing them again this week. The members were elated because it was a normal young family. This was a good curve ball. 

We are pretty happy with how our week went. We always see the hand of the Lord in His work. It is such a great blessing to be in His service and share the gospel with our brothers and sisters. I hope that you all have had a wonderful week and have an even better one this week. I love you all!

Love, 

Elder Dalton