I'm in London

Hi all,

Michael is doing very well, we skyped him at Christmas and he was his same happy self. We talked for about an hour, in the end we were able to bare testimony and have a family prayer together. We all loved it.

He has loved the Plymouth area and learned so much from the missionaries and the members and people he was blessed to teach. Since his last blog he was able to see 2 more baptisms before he was transferred. On e was Lin who is a student at the university and a friend of Chao Li a young man that was baptized a few months ago both boys are from China. They did lots of teaching them together. Also there was Martyn who was the step son of a less active member i n the area he is in his 30s and Michael described him as a really sweet man.

Here is an exce rpt from Michael’s letter on the 16^th of January:

This week has been good. We did have our baptism of
Martyn. He has a great story. His step mum who used to be

an active member. She has been less active for many years and then

3 months ago his mom got to talking to the sisters on Mormon chat.

They gave us the referral and so we start ed teaching them. Martyn
was so shy but he finally came in and sat do wn on the lesson and

three months later we baptize him and the fa mily is coming to church.

Also Chao Li is back from China. Man I totally missed that kid.

He is planning on staying in England for an other few
years so that makes me happy. Yesterday at church we went to the
family history center and did the genealogy for his dad and so we are
now figuring out a time where he can go up to the temple and be
baptized for him. It was cool cuz both him and Lin (who was just

baptized a few weeks ago passed the sacrament yesterday too.

They are doing well. We have seen a lot of great success here in

Plymouth. Yesterday at church I was looking around and while

I have been here I have seen 8 baptisms and 6 of them have been

adults and all six were still at church! That made me really happy.

Jan 18 2012

Just giving you a heads up to tell you my new area. I moved and I moved far away. Elder Simmons stayed in Plymouth. I moved to the area of Peckham. You would better know it as downtown London. YOU know big Ben and parliament? Yeah, they are both in my area. I am in that part of London and it is a zoo. Crazy, crazy.

Life is good! Love you all! I will email on Monday.

Here is my new address

Flat 4, 53 Kelly Ave.

Peckham, London

SE15 5 LD

England

Dear Family, Jan 23^rd 2012 (Chinese New Year)

I never thought I would leave Plymouth. I loved it there. It is by far the most beautiful place in England I have seen. Every time I tell people I came from Devon or Cornwall they say wow that is the prettiest place. It really is. It killed me though to leave all of those recent converts. Chao Li and I just both cried when we said bye. Man I'm going to miss that guy. He said he is going to the temple to be baptized for his dad in a week or two. So good for him. He is a star missionary too. Russel as well is getting close to going to the temple. He is taking the temple prep class. He cried too when I left.

Now for my new area, London, London, where do I begin. My area is predominantly African. At church yesterday we had 120 people at church (biggest ward in London) and I would say realistically 100 of them were black. I was really cool. The bishop is from Nigeria the Stake Pres. from Ghana. At ward council not a single one of them was white. It was great. I feel literally like I am in Nigeria.

There are tons of Pentecostal churches here. We will walk down the street and see church after church after church. They look like little shops but they are churches where they do "divine healing" and give out "the miracle salt." The funniest one is "The Holy Ghost Zone" and it was publicized in a big neon sign flashing. All of the businesses are named after funny things too like "Trinity hair salon" or "Saviors chicken and Chips" . The other day I was walking and saw a moving company that was called "Exodus Removals" and then it gave a phone number and it said " call 07800615265 and ask for MOSES" I am dead serious. They sure love the Lord here but man they do not comprehend one true church. The people are very kind though. I thought that it would be like Slough but no it is nothing like Slough. I am not sure if it has as much crime as Slough. I have had to get used to sirens literally every five minutes though and armored vehicles driving down the street but I haven’t seen crimes yet so I am not too worried. It is literally the ghetto. Up by the Thames there is a very nice area for about four blocks south then it turns into the ghetto and that is my area. When we tell people where we work they ask us why don’t you go north of the river where it is nice and not in this run down place but they obviously don’t understand we can’t cuz that is a different mission, the Thames is the mission boundary. We can go halfway across the bridge and that is it. It is going to be really weird to talk to people who have been to London and they will be thinking of a totally different London then what I will see. I hear that the black market is huge here!! So I am stoked to get some cheap stuff here. 

Here we are really working with two people that have serious dates. One is a young lady named Lorraine and she is very kind. She is from Ghana and has come to church a few times. She hasn’t been taught much though. If she is baptized it will be the first baptism here in six months... this area hit a dry spell especially for London. She has been taught the restoration and the gospel of Jesus Christ. She really is promising. He is from Egypt and his name is Frank. Great kid and really really really knows his bible. So he has been keeping his commitments but it is literally 50/50. Great kid he knows what he needs to do question is if he will. Oh I forgot to say that Lorraines’s date is for the 11 of Feb. As far as the work I won’t lie I am still adjusting. It will take me a while to get how to work in this kind of environment. I am not worried I will adjust well and quickly as I allow God to shape me and mold me into what he wants and expects.

My comp is Elder Amundsen. Really great kid and loves the work. He goes home in a few months. He is from St George big into theater and very musical, and talented.

OK that is a bit about the area. I will let you know more as time goes by.

Well family, really that is all I have time for today. I will send pics of our adventures of London at a later date.

Elder M. White