The General Epistle of Samuel (we got wrecked!)

Well this week didn't quite pan out the way we would have hoped. At the beginning things were looking good. Four people ready and willing to be baptised. By the end none of them came to church and we lost one date.

Rachel, who we were preparing for this month was all set to come to church. We had a powerful lesson on the gospel of Jesus Christ and she was super committed to be baptised and come to church. The next day when I messaged her on Facebook to confirm if she was going to come she told us she wants time to think about things because she feels like she is betraying her church. We'll give her space and wait for her to come around. 

As for the clan, since Rachel wasn't coming that meant we had a member primed and ready to bring people to church so we arranged with the clan to have them come with the member. We went over saturday night to celebrate Chris's birthday with them. They didn't have any alcohol while we were there but I saw the two 12 packs of cider hiding in the other room lol. Long story short they didn't wake up in the morning. 

Recently we have been experiencing a lot of adversity. Just last night we were tracting a very nice part of town (we want to baptise people with money that will build the ward, not leech from it). It was a good neighbourhood and we were receiving a pretty good response when it just decided to pour down the rain. Then we had a black out lol. People aren't too keen on opening their doors when their power is off. The funny part of it was the power cut shortly after a man cursed at us at the door haha. 

Despite the rough week we aren't dissuaded from the work. It's fuel to work harder and overcome the adversary. Good things are to come this is just the rainy dark section just before the light. Things are going to get much better. 

I hope everyone has a great week this week. Keep an eye out next week for our great P-day adventure today. It should be good.... ;) I love you all!!!

Love,

Elder Dalton

P.S. Here's a great picture of our adventure to the white cliffs of Dover. 

This is the bishop's family. They're nuts!

Elder T and I enjoying some gifts from his family

I almost fell off the cliff ;) lol

The General Epistle of Samuel (Cultured and blessed)

We had a wonderful week this week. We moved our P-day to Friday so we could go with the Waddiloves to Dover Castle. It was a really cool experience. There are about three miles of underground tunnels that have been used from the Napoleonic war to the cold war. Lot's of history about WWII and the evacuation at Dunkirk. All very interesting. The castle was very neat as well.

Throughout the rest of the week we had some great lessons. Rachel is doing well and we'll be seeing her again this week. Chris and his clan are doing great as well. We have narrowed them down to three people we are working with. Chris, Emma, and Jordan. They have all made huge progress since we started teaching them. The other evening we had an appointment scheduled with them and we were planning on inviting them to be baptised. We received a text from them in the morning saying that Chris wasn't well and that they couldn't meet but we just ignored them. We already had a member lined up to come with us and we didn't want to cancel the appointment. The time came and they tried to text us again to say they weren't well enough to have us. Again we ignored them. We went to the appointment and they were happy to receive us. We taught lesson three the gospel of Jesus Christ and the spirit was very strong. When we came to the principle of baptism they knew what was coming. When we invited Chris he said he already knew the book was true so he was in. Jordan said he was ready but Emma was a bit hesitant. Her family threatened to disown her if she went through with it. The member we brought (an 18 year old young man) bore a powerful testimony that helped her figure out what she needed to do the help her family understand. The next day she agreed. It was a wonderful miracle. We will see them again this week. We have been very blessed as of late and we are very grateful for it. 

The work is moving forward here. I am so thankful for this opportunity to be serving the Lord. I don't want it to end! I hope you are all well and that you have a fantastic week!

Love,

Elder Dalton

The General Epistle of Samuel (turn around)

This week has been crazy as far as people we are teaching. First off, we have people to teach. We started the week by stopping by the address a woman we talked with on the street gave to us to meet her at. When we knocked on the door a man answered and said, "You're mormons aren't you?" We affirmed him that we were and he said to come in. We went into the living room to find four other people. The woman we spoke with on the street being one of them. We were fired at left and right with questions and one young lady in particular had a lot of them. Once we got them all calmed down and explained our purpose as missionaries and that we can share with them a series of lessons that will help them come unto Jesus Christ we were able to say a prayer with them and set an appointment for later in the week. Since then we have met with them four more times and shared the restoration and the plan of salvation along with the word of wisdom(there is some work to do there). Their home has been somewhat tough to have the spirit present but many times we have seen it testify of the truth of what we were teaching to one of the individuals named Chris. They will join us for church on Sunday which we are quite excited about.

The second great experience we've had with teaching people was with a woman named Rachel. We met her on the street last week and shared about the Book of Mormon. She agreed to have us come by with a copy and share more about it. We set an appointment for this past Thursday and went on our ways. Thursday rolled around and we knew we wouldn't be able to go into her house if there wasn't another male there. We had done all we could to get a member to come with us but nothing worked out. We thought about rescheduling but had a strong feeling that we should go anyway. We prayed that it would be made possible that we could go in. When we knocked on the door the first thing she said to us was sorry about how cold it was in her flat because she had a bloke there working on the boiler. We looked at each other with a smile and followed her in. We had an incredible lesson with her and again we could see how the spirit was working within her and testifying of the truth of the message we shared. It all clicked in her head and she agreed to be baptised at the end of march. When we invited her for a specific day she said, "everything in my head is telling me to say no and not to put a date on it but I feel like I should say yes, so yes." We have been in contact with her since and she has been reading quite a bit of the Book of Mormon. We have been richly blessed this week! 

The coming week we will be working hard to help these people progress and to find more to invite. Well we have made plans and got approval to go to the castle in Dover with the Ian and Jo(she was recently baptised). We'll be doing that Friday. Elder T has a good camera so we'll be taking a ton of pictures. Thanks again for all your love and support!

Love,

Elder Dalton