Y AND HER DAUGHTER WERE BAPTIZED!!!

February 14, 2011

Wow…..First off we had a baptism for Yemy and her daughter Angelique. I baptized both of them and Elder Whitehead confirmed Yemy. It was really neat we loved it. It was one of the most spiritual baptisms I have been to. It was cool when I baptized Yemys daughter she came up and said "Oh that was nice" and then said "I think I should have done that sooner" made me laugh. Pres. and Sis. Shamo came because Sister Shamo was the one who challenged Y. She gave one of the baptismal talks, it was great. I really do love them. They are probably the closest things I have to parents in the world that aren’t my real parents. Oh ya, one of Y sons lives in our area and Elder Whitehead and I are teaching him the missionary lessons. We are excited about that!

Our investigator are on the decline but we both feel another explosion of investigators coming soon! You know when you can just feel it? Yeah, we feel it. We spent one full day trying to find people to teach in Slough but we had no success. We saw these kids playing street soccer and they saw we were American and asked if we wanted to play. Of course I said “yes” so we played for a bit. None of the kids were British, most of them were Syrian, and it was really fun playing street soccer in Slough. It was like on a movie where you see the kids playing ball in the middle of the city, so I felt pretty cool to be a part of it.

February 22, 2011

I was not transferred but my companion Elder Whitehead was. He was a great missionary trainer and I will miss him. My new companion is Elder Johnson. He just came three hours ago he seems like a really nice person.

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I went on an exchange in London with one of our ZL's for two days. That was really fun! I met one of their baptismal dates who are from Nepal named Ramesh. When he was a boy he had a high fever that affected his brain now he can’t walk and is in a wheelchair. He is a way cool guy. We taught him at the church and after he wanted to play basket-ball. Holy cow...I was thinking I would need to take it easy with him because he was in a wheelchair, but false! He mauled me! I know I stink at basketball but he was good. It wasn’t just the fact that I was bad he was just really good! My exchange in London was great and I enjoyed it very much however I was glad to get back to good ole Slough.

As far as our investigators, Sinky and Lilian are still the same so hopefully we can get them feeling like they are "more ready". Cameo is doing great! She is in the same just waiting to be baptized when her husband gets home from Iraq. She also introduced her friend to us who we are now teaching. She is also from Jamaica. There are lots of Jamaican people here. We also picked up another investigator a man named G he is from Portugal. He struggles with many of the commandments. We have only taught him the Restoration, but it is truly amazing to see how much he has changed and too see how much the gospel can change him if he continues to accept it. Dan and Tracy are doing really well. We are starting to crank up the spiritual heat for Tracy and to have her baptized. Keep your fingers crossed on that one.

Funny Story, the Kassinen family in our ward. They are a way cool family. Elder Whitehead and I last P-day on February 14^th didn’t clean our flat cuz we went sightseeing and we had to leave early. That night we got back to the flat and our door was covered in pink hearts! All over! There were no cookies, no name, and no card. Elder Whitehead said “who would do this to our door and leave us nothing?" I replied “I know who, someone who is sick and cheap!" We wanted food or treats!!! I checked the door and it was locked. We went inside and next to the light switch I saw a tiny heart... my stomach dropped!!! I looked at Elder Whitehead and said "we've been breached" Then I turned on the lights and someone had heart attacked the whole flat and decorated it all up! There also was a note left saying that there was a five course meal in the fridge. Our fridge broke last week and so all the food in it went bad making it reek!!! Like when you leave fish out in a warm room for hours? Yeah, like that. So we felt bad cuz our flat was way dirty and our fridge was sick. It was really nice of the Ks to do that for us. They thought it was funny too. They had gotten the key from our landlords who are members of the ward.

Dun dun dun DUN!!!

I am starting to get my driver’s license over here now (Dun dun dun dun DUN!!!!) It is crazy to get it over here, so I am nervous. It cost a ton so I will need you to put 30£ or... 55$ on my card between now and next week and then let me know next week if you were able to put it on my card so I can start ASAP! It takes forever to get a license here.

We have a baptism this week for a lady named Yemy. She is from Trinidad and is freaking hilarious! She had been looking into the church for awhile. She is the lady who came to church with her friend one Sunday at our ward. She never really was interested in the church before but that day. Pres. and Sister Shamo were there, and they gave amazing talks in Sacrament Meeting. In gospel principals we discussed the plan of salvation and she was so touched. Sister Shamo who was sitting by her told her, “You need to be a part of this.” Sister Shamo thought we had been teaching her the missionary lessons and she invited her to be baptized. Yemy said she already had been baptized. Sister Shamo replied, “Yes but we have the correct authority and after your baptism we can give you the gift of the Holy Ghost, would you like that”? Y said “Yes I would like that.” Elder Whitehead and I hadn’t even talked to her at that point. We eventually found out she was interested and set up a time to teach her. She is ready now she has been taught everything and she has been to church 4 times. Yemy was telling us the other night that when Sister Shamo challenged her to be baptized she was very touched by the whole meeting (Sacrament, Sunday school, etc.). But that night she didn’t know if this was really the right church for her. She went to her home that night and prayed. She went to bed and had a dream. That really changed her thinking. She felt it was her answer and She is very solid.

Yemy has had some anti Mormon stuff come up. The other day a guy told her that Blacks couldn’t hold the priesthood in our church long ago and that we were racist (she is black). She told him that we have changed and that it was the true church. She then told us that when she is baptized she will go back and convert him.

Yemy is about 65 or so, and one of the other neat thing about her was when she was younger she never had any of her kids baptized because she didn’t want them to not have a choice. Her children have been waiting for her to find the true church. Now she is getting baptized and her daughter is getting baptized too. Both of her sons and their families are being taught by the missionaries now. So, out of her search for the true church, and now her baptism (one person), literally 20 members of her family are being taught the gospel and may come into the church! Her daughter who is being taught by missionaries in High Wycombe (in our district) wants whoever is baptizing her mom to baptize her as too. That will most likely be me because Yemy asked me to baptize her. This is a great thing and I am very excited.

Cameo is from Jamaica. We met her just before Christmas. What had happened was we were going to a critical appointment/interview and we were running to catch the bus. We caught up to the bus as it is pulling away from the stop at the bus station and we knock on the door to open it and the driver stops, looks at us, and then drives away! We heard some laughter and turn around to this Jamaican family dying of laughter, watching these two neatly dressed Americans just get denied a bus ride. When we saw them laughing Elder Whitehead and I start to laugh too. We went over and started talking to them and we got their information and went to their home to see if they wanted to learn more about the church. By the time we were able to reach them Cameo’s husband had to gone back to Afghanistan (he is in the military). We taught her and she loves the church. She has been many times now and wants her and her children to be baptized, but not until her husband comes back, hopefully in April. They are such a great family.

Well, this week has also been very interesting when it comes to our investigators. The large investigator pool we have had seemed to have died off. Some of them had to wait for their husbands to come home from war (two families are like that) another one was going back to Italy, and some just can’t be bothered to do what we ask; sheer laziness. Hopefully we can get more investigators soon; no, not hopefully but for sure we will be getting more good investigators again. S and L are doing well. We want to give them another baptismal date ASAP, so keep them in your prayers. They really are fun and good people.

An Epic Week

This week has been epic! No; S and L were not baptized. They just do not feel like they are ready. That is OK because that is what God wanted. All things work for our benefit. Right now it isn’t a matter of if, but when. We are hoping to extend another baptismal date to them this week. Sinky and Lilian have the most amazing capacity to love. They are so great and they make the best African food ever.

We are working with Dan Cox’s wife. He is the man; we baptized just before Christmas. They are such a great couple. Last night we stopped by their place and gave a really in depth lesson on the apostasy. We based it off Talmage’s book "Jesus the Christ". I LOVE THAT BOOK!!! The most amazing book! You can really sit down and read it and truly study it. I have been doing a lot of studying in it.

We got another great investigator, Yemy Lewis. She is the woman who a member brought to church a week or two ago. Our mission President’s wife challenged her to baptism. We taught her and she loved what we told her. She said that she hadn’t had any of her family sprinkled (baptized) because she didn’t believe in it. She was waiting to find the right church. Her kids said they were going to wait and not be baptized into church ether; they knew their mom would find a church for them or something like that. Anyway, she told her family about the church and her kids are interested and want to be baptized. They all live out of our area but it is pretty neat to see a family come together like that. She is a very spiritual woman.

We are also teaching a Jamaican family. We met last December when Elder Whitehead and I missed a bus. We had run to catch the bus at the station and the driver stopped for a minute looked at our badges and drove off….we thought what a PUNK. But, it all worked for the best because we saw this family laughing at us. Elder Whitehead and I realized how funny it had been and we went over to talk to them. They introduced themselves as Adian and Cameo Morris. Adrian was in the military and on leave from the war. Cameo and their two kids live in Windsor on the military complex. They have a boy (9) Justin and a girl Dana (4) they are the cutest kids. I can’t tell you how much love these people have for us. They are great. Adrian is back on his tour of duty. But they want to be baptized but now she is thinking she may wait for her husband to come back from duty before she is baptized. Then again she isn’t sure what she should do. Her son loves the church and wants to serve a mission. She said she has never seen her kids or herself so happy, when she thought she would feel so sad with her husband gone. We dropped by on Saturday and she was telling us she has been doing a lot of praying and thinking. She really thinks she should be baptized but she feels too attached to her Church. She then told us how she felt when we taught their family. She said when we come to teach them the house would light up. A spark in her soul would light and her gloom and depression would lift and she would feel better, and for hours after we left she would still feel happy. We told her that was the spirit telling her to be baptized. I think she will be baptized but we are not sure if it will be before or after her husband comes home. They are a great family.

Here is an Elder story for you from our p day. We played rugby and that was fun, after we were through we tried to stack as many elders on top of each other as possible. We got up to three then when the fourth would get on the bottom they all would fall. It was kind of funny.

Ku ku ka Choo!!!

Hi Everyone,

Ok, as far as the week goes, L and her two kids were baptized!!!! Ku ku ka choo!!!! I baptized the youngest boy who is 12, J. Elder Whitehead baptized the daughter, and our ward mission leader baptized L. They are so funny, the baptism went really, really well. It is amazing how stressful this week was but in the end it all paid off! Wow, I gotta love being a missionary.

Now, some stats about Slough my area: Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Elton John, The Queen of England, all of them live in Windsor (in my area) so I am the queen’s missionary! baha

We handed out the Book of Mormon in the following languages: Spanish, Chinese, French, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Persian, Urdu, Swahili, Czech, Italian, Thai, Fijian, Yoruba, Afrikaans, Albanian, Russian, Twi, Croatian, Shona, Arabic, Greek, Polish, Portuguese, Tamil, English, Zulu, Punjabi, and Twana.

I have met people from the following: ( * means I have taught them. The ones in bold mean there are a lot of these people in my area)*Scotland, *Ireland, Portugal, *Spain, *Poland, Germany, *Ghana, *S. Africa, *Nigeria, *Zimbabwe, *Jamaica, * Equatorial Guinea, *Italy, *Nepal, Pakistan, *Morocco, *India, *France, Turkey, Czech, *Fiji, *Honduras, Mexico, *Enguelia, Philippines, Mongolia, Latvia, Slovakia, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Australia, Kenya, *Botswana, China, New Zealand, Greece, Georgia. There are many more but these are the ones I can remember. There are a million African countries and a million Arab countries.

Just some fun things about my area:

Sinky and Lilian are rock solid! We taught them the Word of Wisdom and when we committed them to obey it they said that they had decided to quit smoking and drinking a month ago. That was the time they decided they wanted God in their life and we magically appeared on their door step. Talk about prepared, eh? Well, they are scheduled to be baptized next week. We were talking to them and they told us they didn’t feel like they were ready for baptism. They are more than ready. Elder Whitehead and I pulled out everything we could. We tried telling them about how you don’t need to know everything to be baptized, but they still didn’t feel they could be baptized. I read them the interview questions they answered them and worthily but they still didn’t think they were ready. We talked with them for like a half hour, trying to let them know they were ready... …Then the spirit hit me so hard it was crazy! The Spirit told me in my thoughts, "Why are you trying to convince them? I am the one who does the teaching! I am the one who tells them. Not you. Don’t doubt the Power of God. Tell them to pray and they will receive an answer. Instruct them and I will do my part. Doubt not the power of the spirit for through me all things are possible." It was pretty crazy! You know when the spirit starts speaking for you, it just took over (the Spirit). I told them to pray very specific. To begin the prayer by addressing our Heavenly Father, then ask Him, "Should I be baptized on Jan. 31st?" Then, end it In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. I asked them if they would do this when we left, and when they woke up and again right before we go back tonight and teach them. They agreed to this, and also to read the Book of Mormon. The Spirit also told me that we needed to fast. So today Elder Whitehead and I are fasting. It’s funny because I am not even worried about them. We won’t find out what their answer is until tonight but I am not worried because I know it will be from God. It was a really neat experience. I will let you know what they say next week (keep them in your prayers).

I love you all! You all sound really good! Keep me updated on everything.

Elder Michael White