June 23, 2011
Well fam, my days in Slough are now numbered. I am getting moved down to Devon, to a wonderful, pretty town called Plymouth. I am guessing you have all heard of it. I would have moved yesterday (Wednesday), but President Shamo wants me to stay in Slough to finish off some baptisms and finish committing a few other people that are ready. The plan is by the end of the week we should have six other baptismal commitments. Slough is what we call... ON FIRE!!! We had two baptisms on Sunday which is so exciting. We need to confirm them this Sunday (we have Sunday baptisms only in Slough). Victoria, however, could not get baptized just yet. She will have to wait for a month or so but she still has that desire. Her daughter was, however, baptized and so was Jo. Jo is a star, she has already bought a quad and all of this church material. Her kids are excited about the whole baptism thing. At first her 15 year old daughter didn’t want to join the church because her friends were making fun of her. We told her to talk to her friends and tell them how she felt about the church and they would listen, so she did and she said, "They are all behind me on it now."
As far as the upcoming baptismal dates they are all very solid. Two are from our recent convert Louise. She has two older kids who want to be baptized, and Jo has two children who want to be baptized, then Victoria, and a lady I taught when I first came out named Lucy who couldn’t get baptized until she fixed a problem. That problem has been fixed. Now, she and her son want to be baptized.
As far as the upcoming baptismal dates they are all very solid. Two are from our recent convert Louise. She has two older kids who want to be baptized, and Jo has two children who want to be baptized, then Victoria, and a lady I taught when I first came out named Lucy who couldn’t get baptized until she fixed a problem. That problem has been fixed. Now, she and her son want to be baptized.
I am getting moved to Plymouth and not training anymore. President has called me to be one of the new Zone Leader there. He wants me and another Elder ( Elder Muller he is from Switzerland) to whitewash as new zone leaders. The thing is Elder Muller has never been a zone leader before either so this will be interesting. Don’t get me wrong I am way stoked to go, but sad cuz I will miss all of these baptisms of people that I have taught and really love. I need to keep remembering to “lift where you stand” eh? Yeah, God knows what he is doing. The good things about going down there is that it is REALLY pretty! Like amazing!!! It is the pretty part of England, Cornwall is in my zone, Devon. The accents down there are kind of funny, as they speak like pirates. That is the area where all the pirates came from in England. It will be funny. We also get a car, so I am going to get fat! hahaha
Now that I am leaving Slough I can tell you all of the crazy things that have happened to me here that I didn’t want to worry mom about. Mom, Plymouth is a nice place. Slough is crazy. I have been mugged once, Elder Snow had 50£ stolen so now he has no money, twice people have tried to mug us, people have threatened to beat us up four times, another tried to stab us but we booked it out of there, I have had two of my neighbors murdered, twice at night we have had attempted break-in’s, we witnessed stabbings, fights, robberies and much more. This is only the stuff I can think of off the top of my head. It is a crazy; wild city! But God has been very sweet to us missionaries here. I will be leaving behind 12 converts who are all very dear to me and a potential six more who are close to baptism. Wow, I am going to miss them and this great area. 
Let me tell you a good story I just found out about the other day. A while back, we were in Slough at the bus station and I noticed that this bloke was wearing a “Man United” hat and so I commented on it (that is my in……. when I can talk soccer), and the guy said "Are you a true fan?" I said "Did Ole Gunner Solksjaer win the champions league for Manchester United in 1999?" and he says, " Elder White you are a good man!" I laughed with him, and then thought... Elder White? No one calls me Elder White unless they know the church. So we started talking and I found out he is a member of the church. He hadn’t been to church for 30 years and had gone through some very hard time with his wife and kids in the past three years. He and I talk more about the church (along with “Man United”). Then I told him, "Wayne, you need to go back to church." That was literally all I said and he agreed to it. The ward he went to was in a neighboring town. He knew where the chapel was and I told him what time it started. A while later and I found out from the missionaries in that area that he has been at church for 5 weeks in a row. Now his best friend is preparing for baptism, and Wayne is preparing to receive the Aaronic priesthood so he can baptize his friend. Crazy eh? I guess you never know how far little comments like, "Wayne you need to go back to church.” really does go. Also it was funny that he just happened to wear a “Man United” hat that day. I won’t lie, I probably wouldn’t have gone right up to him if he hadn’t had it on. Point for Soccer fans!!!
I don’t leave Slough until Sunday so I can finish off a few things here before I go. I have loved my time here and will miss it. Love you all!
