A week of Miracles!

This week has really been one of miracles! I can’t believe all of the miracles that we are seeing. Last week I wrote in my journal that I wanted to see more miracles, I had that desire the whole week, and low and behold, ku ku ka choo out come some amazing miracles!!!

Elder White next to a mile marker

Monday: Monday night we were knocking doors on the Military Estate and we ran into another Fijian family who were well prepared for the gospel. It amazed me. They, like all of the other Fijians were morbidly depressed that they were in cloudy England instead of sunny Fiji (can’t blame em). We taught them and they really enjoyed it. Later we went to a less active members home and I bore my testimony to her, it is just amazing the power of a testimony. There really is no other power like it on the earth.

Tuesday: We went to Cameo.. Her family has been really sick and so it is hard for them to come to church. Her husband is coming home soon too and so keep him them in your prayers that he will accept the gospel. We went to her house and I shared the story of how I gained my testimony. Then we asked her how she knew it was true. It amazed me and really touched my heart to have her tell me her testimony of the church and how she knew it was true and the experiences she had had. I love Slough and I don’t want to move the rest of my mission.

Wednesday: We were in the area by our chapel which we had knocked a few days earlier and as we were passing a home we had already knocked and the lady had told us she didn’t want us near her because she said her mom wasn’t well. As we passed her house the spirit told me to go and knock it again and ask how her mother is doing. Crazy eh? This time she was really nice and she told us her mother was ill from cancer and we could came back. We just need to wait until she was doing better. Another miracle!

Thursday: We were on splits and I was with an older man. He wasn’t able to drive us but I wanted to still to do missionary work with him, so we went to places around the chapel. As we were walking the spirit told me to go to a certain member’s home. So we did and low and behold there at the member’s home was a man who wanted to hear more about the gospel. He is now an investigator of ours. Later on in the day we were passing the big cathedral across the street there were all these drunken people. We see drunks all the time in the areas we work in. They are pretty gross and say pretty sick stuff. As we were passing these drunk people they were making fun of us; nothing new, but one of them came running up to us screaming "Elders!!!" my comp kept walking but I stopped and listened to the dude and boy was he hammered! Turns out he was a less active member. The rest of this miracle comes in later. The other drunks started making fun of us and this less active member who was drunk too says "Hey you leave them alone! You respect them! These are my friends!" It really shocked me! Someone I have never met defending us. It really touched me. Then he looked me in the eye and said "Please can you help me" Many drunks say that to us but with this one it was amazing how I could discern his thoughts and see how he really wanted help. So we set up an appointment for him.

Friday: We were out contacting in an area I hadn’t been in for at least three or four months. I remember this lady Elder Whitehead and I ran into and how she was really ready to receive the gospel. The only reason we didn’t teach her was because she told us to “come back in a few months when I am have recovered.” (She had been run over). I thought while we were in the area we should go see her but I couldn’t remember where she lived and what her name was. With a prayer in my heart, and I remember the general area, we went knocking on doors but no one answered. Finally someone answered and I said the first thing that came to my mind " Hello do you know a Caroline in the area?" I had no idea who Caroline was but it sounded like a good name for the lady. She did know a Caroline in the area and pointed us in the direction. We walked in that direction and I saw a house that looked like the one that Elder Whitehead and I had knocked on. We knocked it and low and behold out came the golden lady we were looking for, and her name was Caroline! The bad thing was her husband was lame and doesn’t want us to teach her.... but still it’s a cool story.

Saturday: We had an appointment with the less active drunk man I talked about earlier. We went to his house and he is one of the chaviest (stoner) people I have seen!! But went in and it turns out he grew up in a family that was active in the church. His sister lives in Utah, his dad is a ward mission leader etc. He went off the path when he was 15 and he got evolved with his teacher who was much older than he was, they eventually got married. His wife (ex-school teacher) is really nice and now looking into the church quite seriously. We are planning to challenge her to baptism this week and he hasn’t had a drink for three days.

Elder White and Elder Johnson

Wow!!! Ok miracles?! I just gotta keep expecting them and acting on them. Emiliano is doing well. He is getting baptized on April 3. He asked me to baptize him. I really wanted a ward member to baptize him but he did ask a ward member to confirm him so that is good.

Dan’S wife does not think she is quite ready yet for baptism. It will just take time for her.

Yemy’S kids are still looking into the gospel they are doing well.

I have to go love you all!

I'm an Uncle!!!

Elder White and Elder Johnson at the temple

I’M AN UNCLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(Uncle Michael) I have waited since my mission call to say that. Truly the night I got my call I thought about when this little guy would be born and the email I would send home. So there ya go.

It has only been 5 days since I emailed you. So I don’t have tons of news to tell you. Tomorrow we have another Zone Conference in Reading. They are teaching us how to work with members more effectively.It is really good training.

This week Emiliano was supposed to be baptized but due to his work we have to wait until General Conference Sunday to baptize him. It is a little iffy we are not sure he can get off work so pray for him that he will be able to be baptized. The bishop of our ward here doesn’t do Saturday baptisms. Emiliano is doing great. He struggles with his English but he has only lived here for three months. When we teach him we have to use Spanish or draw pictures. It is kind of crazy, especially when we talked about the law of chastity…… That was a lesson that will go in the book!

Cameo and family are doing really well. She said she send you guys a message on Face book. She is so nice and good to us. Keep her in your prayers as well. Her husband gets back from the war on April 21.

We are also teaching many Fijians. They are really great people but literally ALL of them which is three or four families are just depressed that they are here in England. They want to be back in Fiji. One of them called me last night and said “Hi I would like to thank you for coming over and I love having you come over but... Don’t ever come over here again." It was literally like that. She said she didn’t want to change religions. I felt bad, but I know it is hard on them because they all live on the Military estate and there are TONS of Fijians on this estate so they all go to the same church they have their own pastor and they really feel at home when they are with each other. So, the way I figure it we just need to convert all of them and then they can feel at home in the right true church!

Sinky and Lilian dropped us as well... it was so sad they told us that they had their pastor from their old church come over and they said it made them feel like they were at home. (They go to a Botswana church). They said they wanted to give their church another shot and if it was lame, then they would come back to our church. (So only a matter of time for them)

Faith another African investigator we haven’t seen for a while because of her crazy work schedule. (70 hrs a week) Still wants to be baptized but we have to wait until May when her husband gets home from war then she will quit her job. She has read almost all of the Book of Mormon. She is solid we just need to reinforce the Apostasy again with her.

Miracle time... This week Elder Johnson and I were tracting near our chapel and we ran into a family from Zimbabwe. We talked to them for a bit and asked them if they wanted to come to our church on Sunday. They said they would show up and call us for an appointment. (yeah right) we hear that 10-15 times a day. So we think nothing of it. Sunday comes around and in the middle of sacrament this 15 year old girl shows up. She came all by herself she told us that she and her family are very interested in learning more. Her parents couldn’t come because they had to work but they all want to learn more about the gospel. Hopefully we will have a baptismal date for them next week.

This coming week we plan on finding new people to teach. We need to build up our pool big time. I have been praying to find those who are "elect." I know that God does hear prayers and he does answer them. It is in times of trial that you find yourself most humble. It is after those times of trial that God blesses you and gives you the reward. We as a mission do feel that something big is about to happen here in England. President Shamo has really been preparing us, that man is so inspired. Who knows what it will be. We do feel that something is going to make the people want to start believing in God. It is tough getting people to believe in God. Especially after the terrible stuff that has gone on is Japan. Everyone we talk to says "why would God do that?" But I know God loves us. I have seen his hand in MY life and especially in this past month more than in my whole mission. It is so great to have the knowledge that Christ lives. He knows me. He knows us all. He is there on lifting us up when we fall down. How amazing it is to know that. I love you all.

Another good week in Slough

Sorry, I didn’t write on Monday. We had leadership training for ZL's and DL's and so that was really fun! I love going to those and seeing all of the missionaries that are there and I love seeing Pres. Shamo, I sure love him. At the meeting they talked a lot about the disasters that had happened recently around the world. It made me so sad, the people who are and have been suffering are in my prayers.

This week was really good. My companion and I are doing well but our investigators are not doing as well. We lost track of Germano. We had no idea where he went. We went to his home a million times and he never answered. He also hasn’t been answering his phone. He does this sometimes, so hey, what can we do right?

Emiliano, is doing great! We taught him about faith at his lesson this week and it really was amazing how the spirit worked! We went into Alma 32 and Hebrews 11 and went into how he had progressed as far as he could and he couldn’t progress any further until he had taken the step of faith and was baptized. We were really blunt with him because he doesn’t always understand some things. He is so good, and really funny.

Cameo and family are great! We keep teaching them, but we still have plenty to teach them. I think next time we teach them I am going to tell them about when I gained my testimony. Maybe I will tell them about Young and his conversion or other personal experiences. After we share with them they often times will share their story of how their testimony is growing with us. I think that is always nice when they hear other stories and then they can share their own too because then their testimony can grow so much when they share it.

We also met lots of Fijians this week. We now have 7 investigators that are from Fiji. I still am amazed that there are so many Fijians out here. When I go into their homes it really make me miss Hawaii. They are all very nice to us. They are a humble people. One woman was telling us how she moved here two weeks ago and how depressed she was because there was no sun here in England. Then she told us what we taught had really cheered her up. She speaks truth though about the sun. In all of the months I have been here I have seen 22 days of sun. I haven’t seen the stars because of the clouds in four or five weeks. But, I hear that the springs here are really nice. We have had much better weather recently than when I first arrived.

Story time... I rarely get to play soccer because our Zone is so far apart it is too hard to get all the missionaries together to play but today we had exchanges with the ZL’s so we met up to play tennis. In Slough they have the soccer cages to play in (just like in soccer clips with street ball) and we were playing tennis next to one and these Lebanese guys were playing soccer. I asked them if they wanted to play some five aside and they said of course. I was the only missionary who played soccer and the rest of the missionaries didn’t know much about it. We started playing them and wow, we mauled them! It was really funny cuz it was obvious that none of the other elders had played much soccer so the Lebanese guys who thought they were really good at soccer were getting really mad at each other and blaming everything on each other for their mistakes. The reason they lost was because they all wanted to be the star. It reminded me of the talk by Pres. Uchtdorf "Lift Where You Stand." None of the Lebanese guys wanted to play as a team. They didn’t support one another. They all wanted to be the center of attention which as a result made the whole team fall to a bunch of wimpy Americans who never played the game (except me). It is also funny because when they heard I was American they thought I would just suck at soccer but boy were they wrong... I showed them what’s up (I know I said I was going to work on humility) but it was really funny.

Last Sunday in church they were doing a lesson on home teaching and they had me give a portion of it and I really gave a big segment on Bro. Hunter. They really liked the stories I told them about him. Mom, I love getting your snail mail letters :) too so keep them coming. I really need them. Sometimes, when things are difficult as a missionary, I have figured that I can’t be sad and get down. Only I can make myself sad. So the other day when I had a tuff time I said to myself "self... I CHOOSE TO BE HAPPY!!!!" So I was happy.

I love you all so much and please know that you are in my prayers each night.

An Interesting Week

This week has been interesting. We had some good success as far as teaching and members present at teaching lessons. The only thing missing is we need to find some more solid investigators.

We are teaching a man named Germano. We met him a few weeks ago. He is from Portugal and he is a stud! He has some problems but he has really exercised his faith. He went from smoking 30 cigs to 6 in one day. He was shocked that he cut it down by that much. We fasted yesterday to stop smoking and tonight we are going over to give him a blessing. He really is a good bloke. He is 31 and lives in Windsor and has one child but he doesn’t live with him. He speaks Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, English, and French. The other day when he didn’t know how to pray I had to try out my Spanish skills. I tried praying in Spanish. He said he understood it. I’m not sure he did. He is set to be baptized on March 27th.

Another man we are teaching named Emiliano is Italian and he is great too. Ya just gotta love that guy! We have been teaching him for a LONG time. We have challenged him to baptism many, many, times but he just feels like he isn’t ready. Last week we fasted with the ward missionaries that he would accept a baptismal date. Yesterday, we taught him. He had run into some anti Mormon material on the internet, so we had to clear that all up, and then somehow that played to our advantage. The lesson started going better and the spirit hit me like a hammer saying, challenge him to be baptized on the 27^th of March. It really puzzled me big time. To be honest I hadn’t even thought about giving him a baptismal date.... but the spirit kept telling me to do that. Then scriptures started coming to my mind and so I starting quoting the scriptures. The spirit told me to read them, and told me what to say and how to say it. So I said "Emiliano how do you feel when you read, pray, go to church and see the missionaries?" He replied with something good that described the spirit. I then said " Emiliano the time is now for you to be baptized." We then read another scripture and I said "That same spirit that testified to those people in this scripture, to be baptized is the same spirit telling you to be baptized. The only difference is they acted on it and you’re not. So Emiliano....." I next challenged him to be baptized and he accepted!!! Oh Snap. Point for the Lord!!!! So, keep him in your prayers. He really wants his sister in Italy, who is a member of the Church, to come to his baptism. But he isn’t sure if she can come. His work is crazy too so pray that his work won’t be an issue.

It is amazing how much you can grow from adversity. Even when you feel like the very jaws of hell are after you and even when you feel darker than dark, and more alone than you have ever felt. It is amazing how God always keeps his side of the deal if you turn to him. You just have to be patient. Last week was tough; every morning I would cry. I can’t tell you how I felt. I don’t think words can describe how I felt. I would pray and pour my soul out to God for it seemed like hours. I literally felt like Enos and Jacob when they say they wrestled with the spirit. I felt this internal conflict within me. This continued until Saturday. Then on Saturday morning during weekly planning the phone rang. I looked at the caller ID and it said "SHAMOS" (my mission pres). My heart dropped. I didn’t know why in the heck President would be calling me. I answered the phone and said, “Hello this is Elder White.” President then said "Elder White, this is President Shamo. How are you" Then he said “Elder White I have been feeling like I needed to call you”. At that moment I looked up at the picture of the Savior in our flat and I knew AGAIN, that I am never alone. I poured my soul out to President Shamo for 20 minutes. He and I talked and boy did he make me feel better! What a great man he is. I can’t tell you how much I needed that call. That was truly an answer to my prayers, for the mission president to call me and to know what I was going through. Then for him to feel for me and to just hear him reassure me. I really do love that man.