The Latest from Slough

This week started off well. In fact the whole week went really well. We have three baptismal dates, all of which are really shaky. I am worried about all of them, however. The first one is named Frida. She is the wife of the drunk man we met recently, who is a member of the Church. She, herself doesn’t drink and her husband hadn’t had a drink since we met him which was about 4 weeks ago. But this weekend he lost it and got drunk. Frida hadn’t seen him for two days, and I don’t know if she has seen him yet, but the cops keep going to their house looking for him. So we can only assume he has done something illegal. Alcohol is sick stuff. We run into way too many drunks here. We haven’t talked to her since Saturday, so I have no idea what has happened. She didn’t come to church and we haven’t seen her in a while.

Next, is a young girl named Sophie. She is 16 and really sweet. We met her by going through the old area book and found her mom’s name. We dropped by their home and the mom wasn’t interested but Sophie was. So we were able to teach her. Last week we dropped by and her mom was as drunk as a person can get. She had drunk 2 bottles of vodka. I was surprised she was still alive and standing. So she opens the door and says "oooooooooohhhhhhhh it’s the Mormons!" Then she grabbed my coat and pulled me to her and said "give me a snog" and she was serious!!! Scared me to death! Well, I got away from her, and we started talking to Sophie while the drunk lady’s son calmed her down. While we were talking to Sophie the drunk lady looked up at me and said "why did you reject me?!" I won’t lie I almost laughed. But my laughter turned to horror as she got up and started chasing Elder White (my companion)! It is funny looking back on it now, but his face turned to horror! She was literally chasing after him and he was booking it away! After that we figured we better go. Yeah... well then Sophie couldn’t come to church cuz her sister was ill and she had to take care of her and we haven’t gotten a hold of her yet to set up another time so we don’t know what is going on with her and if she is serious about this.

We found this golden guy! We taught him the restoration and he exclaimed "So this is it? This is the church that Jesus had?" It was a really cool lesson. Then we found out that he was Muslim. The thing that was lame was that we asked him that at the beginning, before we taught him a first lesson! But then on the second lesson, and after we had already committed him to baptism, and given him a date to work for, he told us he was Muslim. We had already been talking about if he found out that this was the true church what would you do? I am not kidding, the lesson was like King Lamoni’s father and Aaron. It was so sweet! Go read that chapter and that is what our lesson was like. The prayer and everything, anyway he has read a ton of the Book of Mormon. Because of his background he has to have an interview with the President if we continue to teach him and if he gets baptized. But now he has kind of flaked out on us because he didn’t come to church and he doesn’t answer when we have called him. So I have no idea what is going on with him right now ether.

We are really working hard and I know we are succeeding I just hate it when bumps like this come up. But they ALWAYS do when someone has committed to baptism or even when we are just teaching them. Satan is a real. That is why this week is going to be so critical cuz we will find the fate of all of these people, if they are still interested in the Gospel. I have high hopes for them and strong faith that God will lead us to more people to teach. To be perfectly honest, the Slough area is really succeeding right now. We went from 0 progressing investigators to six in one week, the work is picking back up. We just need to get people to church and find more solid committed people. I feel good about the progress in Slough; it is going really well :)

Elder White and Elder White (the mini missionary)

To answer some questions and add a few comments on your emails: I have no idea why there are so many missionaries named White in this mission--funny though. (There is something like 4 Elder Whites and then an Elder Whitehead-my trainer) When we go out tracting or street contacting, people will look back and forth at our badges and then they say something like... “Is that what your church names everyone?” Elder White and Elder White??? Ha, it is funny.

How was Steve’s graduation? Congrats Go BYU! When are you planning on leaving to PT school? Meg, I want to see some prom pics ok? Thom how is Big 5? Young: Little peng yo, how art thou my good man? When are you getting your patriarchal blessing? I ran into some Chinese people the other day. I tried bearing my testimony in Chinese... yeah, bad idea. They just looked at me and laughed. Ha, sad but true.

Know, that I love you all and that I am doing well out here. This week we are going to keep all of those baptismal dates and get those dates solidified. Then, do some more finding people to teach and work with some of our recent converts. It all works out; always does. Love you all. This week I am going to focus on expecting miracles so next email be ready to hear about some great miracles! Serious, I watched “Finding Faith in Christ” yesterday and it really pumped me up and I am ready to go. I love you all!

Reporting from good ole Slough

I know this a few weeks late but here is a picture
at Emiliano's baptism on April 3rd 2011, a great day!!!!

Life here in good ole Slough is going superb! Elder White and I have really been working hard! I didn’t think training would be this hard and I didn’t think that I would feel this exhausted but I love it! I am just so tired from working so hard. This week we picked up 6 new investigators. It is funny cuz for me it isn’t hard to find people to teach or to find people period. I love finding (most missionaries don’t here). But I love it. The trick is to find the solid people. The Pakistani family I told you about last week where their kids sang us that funny song dropped us. :( They couldn’t accept the Book of Mormon. Reminds me of 2 Nephi 29. Go read it. Up to this point on my mission I had never taught any people from the Middle East really, but now we have ran into 3 Pakistani families who are Christian, and two are having us teach them. However they are very firm on the bible and hate the fact that there is more scripture... so that is kind of hard for them. But hey let them read it and the spirit does the rest.

The Baptist church I was telling you about last week--their pastor is way cool. His name is J……he is really kind to us. We seem to see him all the time and we even gave him our number and he said he would like to talk. I don’t think he is meaning for a bash; just to talk. He is a nice guy. Pastors and Vickars are really nice to talk to for the most part. You meet some lame ones every once in a while, but for the most part they are nice.

Here are a couple of crazy stories for you all. This last week I guess you could say I was almost "mugged." Mom don’t get too worried this is funny. We were in an area called Britwell on Saturday (Britwell is on the TV weekly on the national "cops" TV program in England. It is a pretty rough place.) Anyway, we are walking and this kid was smoking a cig and she comes up to me with her buds and said "Hey, go buy me some fags or I will stab you!" This kid wasn’t half my size. This little punk was a girl and she and her friends looked about eight years old. So I laughed and said "go buy your own fags" and then she said "God wants you to buy me fags as a service" I look at her and said "how old are you, 8? Aren’t you a bit young to buy fags?" Then she said "NO!!! I am 17!!!" I offended her big time! But anyway she pulled out her knife to stab me and it was a plastic knife... It was so funny, I laughed and walked away.

Anyway, another story. At church, I invited a former investigator that Elder Whitehead and I had taught named Benita and her two kids Paula, and Nacho. Nacho is 8 and has serious autism. He can’t speak and the only language he can understand is Spanish. It was my job as well as a member in our ward to keep him quite outside and entertained. The kid went wild!!! I was so scared he was going to run into the road and get hit! He was running all around the church then outside, then inside and up to the pulpit playing the organ, then back outside I couldn’t catch him. The kid was un-containable! He literally couldn’t be stopped! We found ways that we could get him to calm down for a minute or two like sitting in our members car or kicking a ball but that wouldn’t last long. Then he would run back inside to his mom. On one of the occasions when he ran back into his mom, he started screaming way loud! Then a one year old child started crying as a result of it. Nacho hates crying. He really hates it! It made him panic and so what did he do? Naturally, he attacked the one year old child! Literally attacks him!!! It was bad. We had to use all our efforts to keep him off the little kid. It was one of the craziest sacrament meetings I have been to.

We had a really good lesson with a lady named B… (?). We really have a pretty good pool of people right now. The only thing is when we talk to them about baptism they don’t feel ready for baptism. We are giving them more time but it is just frustrating cuz we don’t have any dates for baptisms. Please pray that we will get them to progress and accept dates. I am still praying on how to do better on that.

We saw Sinky and Lilian. I forgot how much I love them. They were very kind and said some very nice things to me. They said how before they didn’t have anything to do with God and church but since we started teaching them they now love going their old church. They like it there because that is where all their friends go to church; it is an African church. Sinky is going to Botswana in two weeks and the LDS church is literally by his house so he is going to check it out in Botswana there.

Love you all!

Five days of straight sun!

We had five days of straight sun!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You have no idea how much I have loved that! Wow... you know in the movie Robin Hood when the guy says "is there no sun in this cursed country?" well it is true. I asked that question for the first 5 months of my mission.

I’m pretty sure I will be in Slough for another transfer and to tell ya the truth I think I will be here for another transfer after that, because Elder White will be leaving and they aren’t going to whitewash this place so I'm pretty sure I will be here for at least another three months. That is pretty common for our mission. I am glad of that. Many Elders stay in an area for 6-9 months. The first presidency came out and told mission presidents that they need to leave Elders in the same area for a longer period of time. My mission is doing that.

My new companion Elder White is 19 years old he will turn twenty while he is with me. He is only out on a mission for five weeks. He is from East Grinstead. Which is about five minutes away from the temple? He has been a member for about 2 years and after he goes home he will go to university. He has not served a mission before, but plans to after university. He was going to go this year but his parents were threatening to throw him out and never speak to him again if he went on a mission. So he is giving it a bit of time and hopefully it will soften them. He is the only member of the church in his family. He has a really strong testimony and I sure like him.

This past week was really neat. We weren’t able to meet with the lady who has such high standards and the lady who referred herself to the missionaries. The one who has such high standards, her name is Ch…….(?). She just got married and we are waiting another week to meet with her just so she can settle in. The one who referred herself, her name is B……(?)and we are meeting with her tonight and if the spirit is right give her a her baptismal date.

Right now we have two dates. One for a lady named Frida. She is older and is a heavy smoker about 60 cigs a day; that is hard but she can do it. Our other date is for a woman named J…. and she was a referral. She is interested but I wish that she was a bit more solid/committed.We are meeting with her tomorrow.

This past week, because Elder J. White and I focused our time on finding, we found 8 new investigators!!! Now the only thing is getting them to move along. Four of the eight are a Pakistani family; we knocked on their door. I have never taught someone from the Middle East before (because of the teaching Islam rule) but we knocked on their door and they said they were Christian and sure enough they were! We were kind of shocked at first. They are a great family. They have two little kids age 7 and 9. It was funny because while we were teaching them the children sang us this little song to the tune of "We will rock you" This family is so nice and our goal is to get them to church first. I feel like church is going to seal the deal. The dad is out of work and both the mom and dad are still learning English. They speak Urdu. And yes, we do have a Book of Mormon in that Language. I was thinking on sending you guys one just because the language is so cool. They are a great family; we will see them again tomorrow.

This week we went to a Baptist church. They sure sing a lot. It was really interesting. I won’t lie they had some pretty good songs and now they are stuck in my head. It is so wonderful and peaceful to know that we have the whole truth, other religions have bits and pieces but not the whole truth like we do.

As far as C…… (?). is concerned we haven't talked to her yet. Please keep her and her children in your prayers. That is what is so hard on a mission when you grow to love the people you are teaching so much and they lose interest in the Gospel, it really rips your heart out.

Please know that all is well and I love you all so much! Life here in Slough is going good and the work is starting to pick up. Keep us in your prayers that our investigators both new and old will progress! Love you all and until next week :)

Bitter-Sweet

We had transfers I stayed in Slough and Elder Johnson is now in Portsmouth. This transfer we lost 14 missionaries and didn’t gain a single new one, so the stakes have called six "mini missionaries" for five weeks (this is a five week transfer). President Shamo asked me to train a mini missionary for the next five weeks. I have also

been called to be a district leader. I am excited for this opportunity. Crazy, how things change so fast on a mission. Now, this is the part you will all think is funny. My new comp is from Eastgrindstead (by the temple) and his name is ELDER WHITE!

!!!!! He is a good guy. He was baptized about 2 years ago. His family is against the church and he is the only member in his family. He is trying his hardest. He is still learning about the gospel but it is amazing how God fills in the rest and as long as we give it our best and have a strong desire and testimony then there is no

need to worry; we can rely on God. Elder White Jr. ;) is a really nice guy and very humble and not nearly as loud as me, but a stud nonetheless. I really like him.

For the bitter…… C....(?) dang I love that family so much. She is wondering if God is telling her to keep searching. Please, keep her in your prayers. They are such a great family and would be the best members. Pray for C...her children and her husband who is coming home soon

n PLEASE pray for them.

Now, the sweet …. Emiliano was baptized on Sunday as planned. It was a very amazing baptism. As I look back on the first time we taught him he has come so far. I was also thinking and reading in my journal about the night we challenged him. Wow, that was a miracle. That guy did not have baptism on his mind at all! I was reading how the spirit literally took over that lesson and said what he needed to hear. I still don’t even know what came out of my mouth, but I do know that it was what he needed to hear. He is great. I will send you pics next week of the baptism. He is 26, from Italy, and he is a CHEF!!!! He makes some pretty dang good food. Wow, is his food good, it’s crazy good!!

Emiliano and Elder M. White

Now some more sweet…This week we were tracting and we went to a former investigators home and out in front was their niece who was an 18 year old girl. Her name was Charlotte and the first words she said to me were "Dang I love your accent!" It is really funny how much the English love the male American accent. They think women sound whiny. But they love the men’s accent. When I talk to someone on a bus, everyone will listen because of my accent. It is funny! Sometimes people will ask for our number and we say, "Here it is, but let me tell you a message first." Most the time after the message they don’t want the number any more... hahaha. Back to the girl on the front lawn it turns out she believes in God and Jesus, doesn’t drink, smoke, do drugs, and she hates them all. She doesn’t believe in tattoos and this one right here takes it all.... She believes in staying morally clean!!!!!! She told us all of this and we didn’t even ask her or tell her what we believed. You guys have no idea but this, in England, is unheard of! So we were way happy about that. Charlotte just got married and is on her honeymoon now so hopefully in a week and a half we will start teaching her.

Sweet again…..Then we also got a call from a lady a few minutes later that found one of our pass along cards and called us. She apparently has been looking on lds.org and says this is what she believes, so hopefully we will get teaching both of these women soon.

Dad, your emails have so much wisdom. (I guess that’s cuz you’re so old ;). But when you talked about priesthood I felt the same way. When we watched conference at the church particularly Priesthood session I looked for you guys and I thought, wow... how time flies. It's memories like Priesthood sessions with dad and my brothers that I will always cherish. It got me thinking about things I did before my mission with the family, like the Havasupai hike, the Manti Temple, the Vernal Temple trips, the "Don White reunion." Memories like that have really strengthen me. One day during a hard time I reached into my wallet and pulled out a note that dad wrote me right before I got on the plane to go to the MTC, and it said something like "There will be days when you will wonder if this is all worth it. I did. Don’t forget what you are called to do. Soon you will regain that focus. This will be a continual process." That right there, dad, kept me going. I don’t know if you knew it or not but that was an inspired writing for me at that time. That note is now taped to the front of my journal. Thank you for loving me, and I love you all.