Ku ku ka Choo!!!

Hi Everyone,

Ok, as far as the week goes, L and her two kids were baptized!!!! Ku ku ka choo!!!! I baptized the youngest boy who is 12, J. Elder Whitehead baptized the daughter, and our ward mission leader baptized L. They are so funny, the baptism went really, really well. It is amazing how stressful this week was but in the end it all paid off! Wow, I gotta love being a missionary.

Now, some stats about Slough my area: Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Elton John, The Queen of England, all of them live in Windsor (in my area) so I am the queen’s missionary! baha

We handed out the Book of Mormon in the following languages: Spanish, Chinese, French, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Persian, Urdu, Swahili, Czech, Italian, Thai, Fijian, Yoruba, Afrikaans, Albanian, Russian, Twi, Croatian, Shona, Arabic, Greek, Polish, Portuguese, Tamil, English, Zulu, Punjabi, and Twana.

I have met people from the following: ( * means I have taught them. The ones in bold mean there are a lot of these people in my area)*Scotland, *Ireland, Portugal, *Spain, *Poland, Germany, *Ghana, *S. Africa, *Nigeria, *Zimbabwe, *Jamaica, * Equatorial Guinea, *Italy, *Nepal, Pakistan, *Morocco, *India, *France, Turkey, Czech, *Fiji, *Honduras, Mexico, *Enguelia, Philippines, Mongolia, Latvia, Slovakia, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Australia, Kenya, *Botswana, China, New Zealand, Greece, Georgia. There are many more but these are the ones I can remember. There are a million African countries and a million Arab countries.

Just some fun things about my area:

Sinky and Lilian are rock solid! We taught them the Word of Wisdom and when we committed them to obey it they said that they had decided to quit smoking and drinking a month ago. That was the time they decided they wanted God in their life and we magically appeared on their door step. Talk about prepared, eh? Well, they are scheduled to be baptized next week. We were talking to them and they told us they didn’t feel like they were ready for baptism. They are more than ready. Elder Whitehead and I pulled out everything we could. We tried telling them about how you don’t need to know everything to be baptized, but they still didn’t feel they could be baptized. I read them the interview questions they answered them and worthily but they still didn’t think they were ready. We talked with them for like a half hour, trying to let them know they were ready... …Then the spirit hit me so hard it was crazy! The Spirit told me in my thoughts, "Why are you trying to convince them? I am the one who does the teaching! I am the one who tells them. Not you. Don’t doubt the Power of God. Tell them to pray and they will receive an answer. Instruct them and I will do my part. Doubt not the power of the spirit for through me all things are possible." It was pretty crazy! You know when the spirit starts speaking for you, it just took over (the Spirit). I told them to pray very specific. To begin the prayer by addressing our Heavenly Father, then ask Him, "Should I be baptized on Jan. 31st?" Then, end it In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. I asked them if they would do this when we left, and when they woke up and again right before we go back tonight and teach them. They agreed to this, and also to read the Book of Mormon. The Spirit also told me that we needed to fast. So today Elder Whitehead and I are fasting. It’s funny because I am not even worried about them. We won’t find out what their answer is until tonight but I am not worried because I know it will be from God. It was a really neat experience. I will let you know what they say next week (keep them in your prayers).

I love you all! You all sound really good! Keep me updated on everything.

Elder Michael White

"Sure, I'll give it a try"

To start off I wanted to tell you a little bit about Dan, the man who we baptized the Tuesday before Christmas. He is so great he is 22 and in the Military. He is solid as a rock, the epitome of faith; he even blessed the Sacrament last Sunday. Before we baptized him, and we were still teaching him, we would teach him something and he wouldn’t question it but he would say, "Sure, I will give it a try." Then he would try living this or that commandment and he would receive a witness to the particular commandment we taught him. He is such a great person. His wife had their baby today and she is doing really well. Hopefully when she recovers she will want to be baptized also. They are about as good as you can get.

The military estate has been amazing! There are about 500 families that live there, and we are teaching a lot there on the estate. It is literally its own village. Whenever we go there we run into people that have seen us or have heard about us. Last week we talked to a lady who helps run the estate. She told us we could use the council hall to do a meeting for people who are interested in our church. We just have to wait until it is finished being painted. We are excited for that.

Our investigators from South Africa are solid. We need to just get them to stop drinking and then they will feel worthy. Their friends are solid as well they just need to get their answer from God so they will know the church is true, but they are truly searching for truth. They also have crazy schedules due to the military so that is really hard to teach them because of their schedules. But, I know that God will help us work all that out.

Lisa and family: they are set to be baptized this Sunday. She has 2 children that want to be baptized with her. They are great so please keep them in your prayers.

OK, now for the funny stuff…..Remember how I said the ward was going to have me sing at the Christmas party? Well, they had another party with a talent show to make up for the canceled Christmas party. The sister over it swindled me into singing a couple of songs from the musical “Joseph”. (“Close Every Door” and “Any Dream Will Do”). Isn’t that funny! Wow, I won’t lie I tore the place up!! Investigators also came so I think it was good for them to see me sing and realize that besides being a missionary I am also a normal person... I will send you the pictures.

Elder White singing from "Joseph" at the ward party.

This Sunday the Mission President came to our ward. We had so many people at church. The chapel was full and we almost had to open the curtains. (that would be a first time). One of the members brought her friend to church. After we talked to her friend and she told us she wanted to be baptized. There was a lot more to the story but it was pretty amazing. She wants to join the church we are hoping we can baptize her the first part of February.

Today we went into the Windsor Castle. It normally costs but a member got us in for free. That is the most amazing place I have ever been to!!!! I saw King Henry the VIII and Lord Nelson’s graves and tons of other stuff . The stain glass windows and the artwork were amazing... WOW, you all would have loved it.

An Excellent Week!!!

This week has been the most excellent week! It is transfers week and I am staying in this area for another transfer. I am so very happy to be staying here and to be with my companion. We are

having so much success! It is crazy good! This week we gained 12 new progressing investigators and we have over 7 baptismal dates set and we are hoping to commit another four more individuals for baptism within the next few days. So that is pretty exciting!!!

One of the couples we are teaching is from South Africa (Faith and Jele). They are very kind and speak Zulu! Dang, that language is fun to hear. We gave them a Book of Mormon in Zulu and they are really enjoying it. They are scheduled to be baptized on Jan 30^th . The problem is he is going to Afghanistan soon. He isn’t really sure when so that might complicate things. His wife also works crazy hours so it is hard to teach them both together so, as a result we are having to teach them separate. They are an amazing family and very dedicated.

They introduced us to their friends who are both from Botswana. They are about as funny as you get. Yet, they are very God fearing people. They don’t have such restricting schedules as their friends so we are able to teach them more. We took them to the temple visitor center on Saturday. They really liked it and while we were there we watched the Joseph Smith video. They are very excited for baptism!

Also (the snowman family, Dale and Chloe) the family who had the snowman in their front yard, they are very close to baptism. There are also two other families who live close by that we hope to commit to baptism this coming week. However, we know that they need a spiritual experience and of course the real celebration will be when they enter the waters of baptism. Then our ultimate goal is to see them active in the church and sealed in the temple as a family.

Here is a miracle story for you. As you may remember several weeks ago I told you about a lady we had been teaching who was a dancer. She had an amazing crazy story but due to family circumstances she moved and her ex- partner told us that she didn’t want to see us anymore. Since then we have been praying we would find her or somehow get a hold of her. Last week we were walking to an appointment and my companion saw her walking out of the post office. She didn’t even live near that area. We just happened to be at that post office when she walked out.. In talking to her we found out she did leave her home for a week or two, and her phone did break…but she still wants to learn more about the church. Her ex-partner had told her that we had moved (the dingaling). But God had found her. Her ex partner thought he could outsmart Heavenly Father. Anyway we were pretty excited about that! We are hoping to get a baptismal date for her soon, she is really good.

Well, I am sorry that this email is short. I don’t have much time.

I love you all.

Love,

Elder White

Happy New Year

Hi family and friends, January 3, 2011

I am so happy to write you all. This week has been very good! Remember how I said that the week after Christmas would be a crazy good one? I was right! Dan was baptized last Tuesday, what a wonderful day it was. How thankful I was to be a part of that wonderful event. We pray his wife will follow as soon. born. This week we gained over 12 new investigators and now have 5 baptismal dates!!! We decided to challenge our investigators on their first lesson, so these newly challenged investigators have a long ways to go but we feel really good about them as well as our other investigators. God Truly has blessed us.

Last P-day because this area is a melting pot, I decided to go through all of our Books of Mormon. We have 27 different languages that we hand out. Yesterday, I handed one out in Zulu and another in Fijian. I wrote all of them down and I was going to send the list to you all just so you could see the different groups of people we work with but I forgot the list at home. I have met people from over 42 countries in just four weeks! It is crazy what a melting pot this place is.

There are tons of different religions and so there are tons of temples. As I said earlier we picked up lots of new investigators this week. One group was from Botswana and South Africa. There are four of them; they live on the military estate. They are very spiritual. They want to receive an answer to their prayers so bad. They have been very receptive to our message.

We are also teaching a Jamaican family on the military estate as well and they weren’t home one night when we went to visit them, so I told my companion lets knock some doors. We prayed and ask God to guide us where we should knock doors. As we end the prayer and I looked up and I saw a snow man and I thought dang that is one big snowman lets knock that door. We walked up to it and I asked the woman who answered the door what her favorite part about Christmas was she said "seeing her girls face when they opened up the presents" so we started talking about eternal families. They love it!!! And invite us in to teach them more. This family was so prepared for the Gospel!!! It was like I was at the MTC teaching in a perfect family situation. It was so crazy good, I even at one point I thought it was another joke! (Like the one my companion played on me when I first got to England) These people were so ready for the gospel. WOW, I am so exited for them! They just need to receive an answer and know for themselves that what we are saying is true. Their names are Dale and Chloe.

It is amazing how the spirit works. Often we think that we have to have some feeling or something when yet really the spirit guides us without us knowing. If you read D and C 80 it is one of the sections that is one verse long and you wonder why it is even in the D and C but it says "you can go east, west, south, or north, but it mattereth not " and David Bednar said that is how the spirit works. As long as you are being a good person the spirit WILL guide you. You don’t have to worry. That was how the spirit guided me that night. Even if it was because a snow man caught my interest. I guess he knows that I have a simple mind and simple pleasures and he knew that if I saw a snowman in the yard I would want to knock that house. Wow... Amazing how God works.

Life out here is good. It is kind of scary at times. There are gangs and we need to be careful. I've seen some pretty crazy things.

I love you all and thanks for your prayers and support. Keep me in them I need them all and keep up the emails. You are all in my prayers every night. I am not homesick. I do miss home and I do think about you all, but I’m not homesick. I am so happy to be here! I love it so much!

Love you all :)

Elder White

P.S.We had a great visit with Elder White on Christmas Day. We were able to skype him and talk for about an hour. He looks great, he was excited about the work in his area and loves everything. He was so happy. He sends his love and appreciation to all his friends and family.