The General Epistle of Samuel (sore knuckles)

This week was quite good. We were able to find quite a few new people to teach so that has really been a blessing. The weather on the other hand has not been that great. It's been classic English weather so that means sunshine one minute and a torrential down pour the next. Despite the weather we've persevered. 

We've spent a lot of time tracting and speaking with people on the street. I've been reflecting on how this was for me when I first started my mission in Stratford. I remember being so scared to stop people because I didn't know how they would react or what they would say. I was always afraid that I wouldn't know what to say. Over time however I've come to experience the truth of the scripture found in section 100 of the Doctrine and Covenants, verses 5 and 6 which say, "Therefore, verily I say unto you, lift up your voices unto this people; speak the thoughts that I shall put into your hearts, and you shall not be confounded before men; For it shall be given you in the very hour, yea, in the very moment, what ye shall say." So many times I have had this happen to me. Sometimes the ideas of what to ask or speak about comes to mind. Sometimes the verses of scripture I need will be given me. Even words have been put into my mouth and later I think to myself, "how on earth did I come up with that?!" I know it's because this is the Lords work and he directs it through us. He will not let us fail. 

The coming week will be quite full for us. We have more people to be meeting with plus we will be traveling to London for zone conference which I'm excited for. It'll be interesting how the conference goes now that everyone has iPads. I am so grateful to be serving and I'm thankful to all of you for your love and support. I look forward, as always, to hearing from you all again next week! 

Love, 

Elder Dalton 

Sent from my iPad

Selfie with George at church

My companion and I with the bishop. Bishop is great!

The General Epistle of Samuel (sprint to the finish)‏

It was great to see most of you yesterday. It's always enjoyable to hear your voices. As we talked about plans of returning home and where to work and what not I was reminded of a quote our mission president shared with us on a conference call with my MTC group. He said, "the way you end your mission is the way you begin the rest of your life." With that in mind I've been striving hard to remain focused on the work I'm called to do despite all the possible distractions. Serving a mission is so wonderful!

This week we were able to get quite a lot done. We are working with George whom you met briefly while we were skyping. We usually meet him at the chapel about once a week and play table tennis and follow up on how his Book of Mormon reading is and praying. He is doing well. He's a great kid and has a lot of potential. We can hopefully help him make the covenant of baptism before I return. I'm praying he will. 

We are figuring out how to use iPads as well. There have been a few setbacks due to data privacy laws on Europe so we currently can't use the area book and planner app. Despite the minor setbacks we are seeing the iPads be quite a good tool. Many people are accustomed to watching videos so that has been great to show people different videos that soften their hearts to speaking with us more about the gospel. 

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

Love, 

Elder Dalton

Sent from my iPad

The General Epistle of Samuel (iPads!)

Well this week has been quite eventful for us. On Tuesday we had a mission wide conference in Hyde Park so we had to make the three hour drive into London. I'm the only competent driver so after a three hour trip in, a five hour meeting, and a three hour drive home, I was quite exhausted. We had a great time though and we were able to drive past a few sights in London. Buckingham Palace, Big Ben and the houses of parliament, the London eye, and across tower bridge just to name a few. We had a great time and learned a lot at the meeting. The theme of the meeting was disciples of Jesus Christ in the digital age. Obviously it was due to our mission receiving ipads but that was hardly mentioned. The greater focus was about agency, the atonement and repentance. There was a great focus on strengthening our testimony of the saviour and how that would help us make good decisions on the internet. It was very inspiring and uplifting.

As I've mentioned we received iPads this week (see picture below). They are iPad mini's and have a lot of blocks on them. I guess the church has learned quite a lot since they first tested them in pilot missions in the US and Japan. We currently can use all the church aps along with other ones like weather, maps, iMessage, email and whatnot. We'll soon be allowed to use facebook and skype to use to teach. The church has developed and incredible app for the pamphlets. I recommend checking it out. It is a great tool and we've seen it help us be more effective. Once they sort out a few legal issues we'll even be able have our area book and planner on the iPads. There is a data protection law here in Europe that doesn't allow personal information to be on the internet so that is what is holding that app back from being released to us. Maybe they'll have it done in five weeks... 

As far as the work is going we are working hard to help people progress. Jo's son George is showing some interest so that is good. We'll be playing some table tennis tonight with him and we'll have a chat to see where he is. It is moving along. I am so thankful for all the blessings from being a missionary. I don't want it to end! I hope you all have a fantastic week. I love you all!!!

Love,

Elder Dalton

I'm pretty sure these are weeds but they look nice

service project

sleepy village tracting in the rain!

Selfie in a bookshop

The General Epistle of Samuel (iPads!)

Well this week has been quite eventful for us. On Tuesday we had a mission wide conference in Hyde Park so we had to make the three hour drive into London. I'm the only competent driver so after a three hour trip in, a five hour meeting, and a three hour drive home, I was quite exhausted. We had a great time though and we were able to drive past a few sights in London. Buckingham Palace, Big Ben and the houses of parliament, the London eye, and across tower bridge just to name a few. We had a great time and learned a lot at the meeting. The theme of the meeting was disciples of Jesus Christ in the digital age. Obviously it was due to our mission receiving ipads but that was hardly mentioned. The greater focus was about agency, the atonement and repentance. There was a great focus on strengthening our testimony of the saviour and how that would help us make good decisions on the internet. It was very inspiring and uplifting.

As I've mentioned we received iPads this week (see picture below). They are iPad mini's and have a lot of blocks on them. I guess the church has learned quite a lot since they first tested them in pilot missions in the US and Japan. We currently can use all the church aps along with other ones like weather, maps, iMessage, email and whatnot. We'll soon be allowed to use facebook and skype to use to teach. The church has developed and incredible app for the pamphlets. I recommend checking it out. It is a great tool and we've seen it help us be more effective. Once they sort out a few legal issues we'll even be able have our area book and planner on the iPads. There is a data protection law here in Europe that doesn't allow personal information to be on the internet so that is what is holding that app back from being released to us. Maybe they'll have it done in five weeks... 

As far as the work is going we are working hard to help people progress. Jo's son George is showing some interest so that is good. We'll be playing some table tennis tonight with him and we'll have a chat to see where he is. It is moving along. I am so thankful for all the blessings from being a missionary. I don't want it to end! I hope you all have a fantastic week. I love you all!!!

Love,

Elder Dalton

service project

service project

sleepy village tracting in the rain!

I'm pretty sure these are weeds but they look nice

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