It was a good week

Hi,

You all sound good and happy. It is transfer week and I have no idea what will happen to me???? I guess I will find out on Wednesday.

Colin (chao Li) is doing well. He is still set to be baptized. That man is a flippin stud. Yesterday he told us that we were some of his best friends. I am really excited for him. He is solid as a rock and loves the gospel. If I stay here I will be able to continue teaching him and that will be sweet to see. Honestly he is the only person we are really teaching as of right now that is a strong investigator. We picked up four new investigators this week... one is a Samoan lady we met the other day who went to an LDS school and graduated from seminary and has read the BofM and stuff but she was never baptized cuz her parents wouldn’t let her. Her whole family on the mom’s side is LDS and so we talked to her and are seeing her today. Hopefully she will turn into an investigator. We are excited about that.

This past week we had to drive all the way down to the bottom of England to a place (called lands end) it is a really pretty area. Penzance is right next to it. Anyway we went down there for a district meeting. After we got there we found out that we needed to go up to the other side of our zone (exeter) up at the top of our zone for a baptismal interview that one of the district leaders couldn’t do. It felt like we drove FOREVER that day. But when we got there I had a neat experience. I was asked to interview a man from Poland for baptism; this man spoke little to no English. The sisters who taught him used pamphlets and a Polish Elder in our mission translating over the phone. (Now let me give you the stereotype of polish people. They are all catholic. They all love God. They all don’t speak any English. I have never known any Polish person baptized in our mission. I have never had any success with any polish.) I was giving this interview (I had a polish missionary translating) this man knew everything. Literally. He knew everything. He had read almost the whole BofM. He knew the POS the Restoration everything so well. I couldn’t believe it. He was so clean and pure and wanted to follow God so much. I could literally see his countence reflect from his eyes. I began to weep as we talked and it was so great. After as I was talking to this man. He told me he had driven from Poland to England. “Driven” to find a job, he has no money, sleeps in his car, he literally has nothing. But he was telling me how his faith is so strong in the restored gospel of Christ. Then this man who probably doesn’t have much to eat pulled out a bar or chocolate and an orange for me and said in his broken English "this for you." I literally couldn’t hold back. What a spiritual giant. A true follower of Christ. Anyway that was really neat for me to meet him and feel of his giant spirit.

Ok well hey I have to get going I love you all so much hope all is going great at home.

Love ya tons!

Elder M. White

The world keeps moving on

Hi Family & Friends,

Sounds like everyone had quite the week! When I left on my mission I thought that everything back home would stay the same! False. It is funny how the world moves on without you. I guess that shows my selfishness and how the world revolves around me, as it should ;), ha, ha.

This past week has been tough and good, on Wednesday I woke up and we literally had nowhere to be, no appointments or anything, and it was soooooo frustrating. Anyway... during companion study we felt that we needed to stay in the flat and read the whole book of Alma (and this was not out of laziness). So we did. We read the first 45 chapters of Alma for about four hours. WOWOWOWOWOWOWOW, talk about what we needed! It was most defiantly a tender mercy from God and he truly spoke to me about how I can improve and how the work should go so that was neat. Later in the week we had zone training and Pres. Shamo was there and we trained the zone concerning baptismal commitments and prayer commitments. It was really good. Pres Shamo was supposed to interview us but he didn’t have time for Elder Hkiss and I , but he got through the whole zone so that was good. We had a Stake correlation right after zone training and we met with the Pres. Martin, the Stake Pres. That man is a saint and I love him and his family to bits. It was a very spiritual evening, and I loved it to death.

As far as our investigators, our Chinese pool is going good! Yo-yo, and now a man named Colin (Chao Li) now have a date!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hale- lujah!!! All I can say is it is about time. They are both from China and both from Beijing. Colin said he added Young on facebook... hahaha made me laugh. I think he wanted to see a Chinese member of the church. If he has any questions he can ask you on facebook, and you can answer them. We do not have any members in our ward who are Chinese. We do have plenty of Chinese material. So we use that stuff. I handed out my 25th language in the B of M yesterday. That was in Persian. That was cool. England is a melting pot; more towards London though, but there are a lot of Chinese down here. In church we had three Chinese students there and they all like it. Colin loved it! He seems the most promising. He told me "I want to follow Jesus!" When we walked into the chapel the congregation was singing "The Spirit of God" and he was "WHOA!!!" he said he felt really good. That was neat. Young if you do speak to him remember to be simple, very simple. This is coming from a man who has no background in God or Jesus. We do feel really good about them and like I said especially Colin. However, only time will tell and they haven’t been taught any of the commandments yet. Colin hasn’t even really been taught the Restoration. We are teaching slowly and steadily at their pace.

Here is a cool stories. Well this week I don’t know if you remembered Della. She is a less active that one of our AP's introduced me to her about three months ago and we have been working with her, and she has been coming back to church. She is amazing and loves us! Yesterday we had dinner at her home and she got me a “B” day present so I thought that was nice of her. She got me three quarters or in America "capris" these are sport styled so you can play soccer in them. Ha; made me laugh. She told us that she wants to make it back to the temple. She hasn’t been in nine years. She is getting there.

Young, how great to go through the temple. Go back again and again and again and again. And go to the Manti temple too. ;) I love the temple.

Love you all, Elder M. White

Young has been a member for 1 year and I have been a member for 12 years

Hey Everyone, Oct. 10, 2011

I hope all is going good for the family back at home. It sounds like it is getting cold there and that snow is falling, and that the weather is lame. I talked to Kade Brewer’s MTC comp (he is in my mission) and I got his email address and sent him an email. Kade said he is sick of the bi-polar weather here. He made me laugh cuz I remember how much I hated the weather here at first too. But now I am kind of used to it. The weather here really is strange.

Thank you for all of the Happy Birthdays. My birthday was good. I didn’t really tell anyone it was my birthday. My zone knew and they all wished me a Happy Birthday. A lady in our ward found out about my B day and made me a cake that was really nice. But other than that it was a normal day of work. Probably the most selfless birthday I have had... Normally, I have really selfish B-days, oh false last year’s wasn’t about me either, because Young was baptized. October 9, 1999 was my baptism date and Young’s was October 9, 2010. That was good. I got up in sacrament meeting yesterday and bore my testimony about how I was baptized 12 years ago and my best friend Young was baptized 1 year ago.

This week we had Zone Leader Council. It was really good. I love going to those. We went up the day before because of travel time. We are way out in the boonies of the Mission. So we don’t see other missionaries much, other than those in our Zone. On the way up to London I stopped in Slough and saw some recent converts. They are all doing well. I never could get a hold of Yemy and Louise though... but the rest are doing great. It was really fun to see them. Emi--- is preparing to get his P-blessing and the Mel P-hood. That is exciting. I am stoked about that. My recent convert down here is doing well also. Russel is great, and he is preparing to get the priesthood. Rebekah is solid. She just needs a calling. Ryan is great.

This past week we have seen much success with finding. We found eight new investigators! They are all foreign. Which is interesting because I have baptized more English people than I have foreigners. It is really strange for our mission. Usually missionaries baptize more foreigners.

We found a ton of Chinese students, and actually they are all really cool. It is so amazing how prepared they are to receive the gospel. I just worry if they will understand what we are saying and the importance of the gospel. It is funny cuz remember, Young how I tried to learn my testimony in Chinese before I left? Completely useless cuz I am horrible at Chinese. But they understand when I say "wo sha bun dun" meaning I am stupid. I remember that one from Connor Snyder. They think that is funny and listen when I say it. Anyway we have taught all eight of these investigators once. Hopefully all of these good Chinese people will see us again so I am not celebrating till we teach them a few more times.

We also ran into a Nepalese family. They were really awesome! I am excited to teach them again. The only problem is they don’t speak English; the church doesn’t publish the BofM in Napoli either. I find that weird cuz I have the BofM in Persian and Hindi but not Napoli. Anyway... we will work with that. The other worry is they will forget about our appointments. The Africans and Asians seem to do that. The African girls we ran into the other week dropped us due to not wanting to join another church. Students are often like that cuz they are away from home and don’t want to change because of fear their parents will get mad.

That is our teaching pool right now. We have all foreigners except a young English couple who can only see us once a week; they want to get baptized but not for a bit. I don’t think I will be here when they do, but they will. They are surrounded by the gospel; literally. We are so happy we have something to work with and we know that God is guiding us.

Mom: How is YW going? I bet that was fun being at the temple ground breaking Saturday. I am excited to go to all of these new temples when I get home. I have got to stay on my game for going to all of the temples in Utah! So Payson, Provo, and Brigham City. Those are the three.

Dad: Things are going good with the Zone, for the most part. We have hit a dip in the Zone and in the Mission as well. Pres Shamo sent us an email talking a lot about what you also sent to me. Funny how the spirit works, eh?

Nate/Bester: Sounds like you two are busy! I am praying for both of you to find good jobs and good opportunities. Keep up the good work.

Steve/Stac: Same for you. Steve keep doing great in school!

Tom: Wow yeah how is Elders Quorum? What does the singles ward cover? What area?

Megs: Stop dating boys. They are no good anyway. Serves you right for spilling steak sauce on your dress. :) Also who is in your region now days? It sounds like you guys play timp and all of these other schools up north? I am guessing Springville still is in your region. What place in region did you take?

Young: You are going to the temple! It was really neat but really different. Just remember the feeling you have when you go in.

I love you all my good family and thank you for your prayers. We really can feel them.

Love you all.

Elder M. White

Young got his call!!!

Hi All, Oct. 3^rd 2011

I have become such an emotional guy while I have been on my mission. I think I have gotten it from President Shamo cuz he cries about everything! Love that man. I cried like five times during conference yesterday; and today when I heard Young’s good news I cried. What a wonderful thing it was to read about Young getting his call to the second best mission in the world. ;) I did sob while I sat here reading your emails. Thank you for your letters. Young, thank you for living worthy to receive the Lord’s call and act upon it. God has been waiting for you to help him provide blessings without number in the land of Taiwan, and he has so many blessings in store for those you are to teach and influence there.

This week has been a bit frustrating. It has, but it hasn’t. I guess that happens. We have been finding, and finding, and finding some more; and people are going nowhere. The other hard thing is getting the members involved. English people keep to themselves, and they don’t like to tell their friends much about the church.

Good stories for the week... ok so here is one. This past week we had a really good mission conference in Poole. Our zone is in the boonies; we have to have elders all the time spend the night in our flat before we all head toward London. We had six elders in our flat the night before the conference. We had to wake up really early to get there (the members we are living with were at the temple for the week so they weren’t home). We were up and showered and getting ready when the house alarm went off! It never goes off. The only other time it has gone off was the time Elder H-kiss tried to crawl through the window to get in the house because we forgot our keys. Anyway, the alarm went off. We were all like, "someone is trying to breach the home!!!" So we all got cricket bats and tennis rackets and went out beat the person who was trying to break in. It was dark outside too and so we went out with lights and all and ready to maul this bloke, and he ran away from us. No need to pursue. It was quite funny.Dumby. Anyway... the conference that day was really good though, and I learned a lot from it.

We have to travel up to London today (another 5 hour drive) for Zone Leader Conference, which is tomorrow. I am going to stop off at some recent convert’s homes while I am up there.

Ok, the miracle of the week was that we found two new investigators, and guess where they are from! China Beijing and Shanghi! They are both university students and their English is horrible. We are taking it slow and steady. One has no belief in God and the other does. She came to England one month ago and liked how there were churches everywhere and wanted to know more about God and Christ. So we talked to her about who they were and why they are so important. Then we talked to her about prayer. When we taught her how to pray she was so humble about it. She was probably the most humble person I have seen pray while I have been on my mission. When she finished she said, "Can I pray in Chinese when I pray at night?" It was really cute. She wants to be baptized. But because of the language barriers it will take more time. She loves the idea of baptism. Her name is Yo Yo. There are so many Chinese here in Plymouth. They really need Mandarin missionaries down here. I don’t know why they don’t, have them here but they don’t. Young we need you here.

Wasn’t conference amazing? We got to see most of the sessions. Only one or two live, the rest of conference was recorded and we will watch the sessions we missed on the internet later.

Thanks for the advice dad. It was a really sweet bit you sent. My driving lessons are going well, my test is scheduled for November but I am hoping to get it sooner. Megs good job with soccer!! Keep it up and play hard! Young congrats again on your call. I am sorry to end this quick but I only have a few minutes left. I love you all.

Elder M. White (There are 4 of us in my mission)