Things here are going good. I am really enjoying life. I won’t lie this week I really was craving knocking some doors and we were able to squeeze that into our schedule. I think due to president leaving it is really making him want to go on full turbo. Then Pres Millar has been speaking with us about setting up other stuff for when he comes in. We have been busy. 
We have been doing a lot of mission conferences this week. The President has wanted to do his final interview with all of the missionaries. While he interviews them Elder Simmons and I do training. We have been training on pride. Probably because it is something I know tons  about ;) I think that is such a fascinating subject and I love to study it. I think it applies so much to life and how we can truly put off the natural man. I had a few missionaries come up to me after the training and say that they thought some of the things I had said were a bit harsh I told them it was probably cuz they were guilty of it! So what?  So am I. We all need to suck it up and now learn. Pride is flowing out of each of our ears. It has been really good though and we have had a very positive response. We have hit four of the nine zones and are planning on hitting the rest this week.
On Saturday we took our P day and President Shamo took us down to Portsmouth and we went to the D-day museum. That place is really neat. I love things like that. England really got leveled in the war. It was crazy. Pretty much all of London was destroyed. I don’t know how they didn’t surrender. Hitler just mauled them. But Churchill never gave up. He was one dedicated bloke. We also went to a castle which was fun. I love to go into castles. I think they are so fun to see. It was really fun to spend time with the President and his family.

My RC are doing for the most part really well. I have come to realize that they must conquer their own adversities and I can’t do that for them. Man I love them all to bits, but God loves them more than I and will look after them all.

Love you all

Elder White

The Islands

For the first time in two years I am sun burned. For the first time in a year and a half I boarded a plan... and I did it three times. For the first time in my life as well I was hugged by a General Authority.

We had a great leadership training this past week, and then we had Elder Jensen come and speak to us as a mission. It was really good. I enjoyed it. He had each of us go up and shake his hand. But, before doing so he told all of us, "I would like to have a short interview with all of you and so if you could come up here and shake my hand that would be great." I think all of the missionaries began repenting of all they had done! ha ha I was the last one up there, along with Elder Simmons.  Elder Jenson’s his wife saw my name tag and said, "Jay I think we have a winner." Then he asked me if I knew Sue.  I told him she was my neighbor.  So he pulled out of his suit pocket a note from her, and then he gave me a hug. I think all of the missionaries thought I had failed the test, and that he had found something in my soul! But no it was really good, and very sweet of him to do that as well as Sue. Would you pass on my thanks to her :)

Well after Elder Simmons and I went out to the Channel Islands by request of President because  he wanted us to go and see some of the members out there.  Especially, he wanted us to check up on the missionaries and a branch. I think he is thinking on putting a senior couple out there, but I am not sure. So we flew out Saturday evening to Guernsey. It was really weird because I didn’t think I would get on another plane until I went home. As we left I looked at Simmons and said we are leaving English soil! It was weird. Anyway so we landed.  Guernsey is a crazy beautiful place! It is a small island about 5 miles across. The fastest speed limit you can go is 35 mph. The roads are tiny and the whole island is like one village. The airport is a small runway, and that’s it. The branch there has only 10 active members, and 4 of them are from one family. So at the branch they had me and Elder Simmons to speak, and I was humbled. There was a boy of 16 years, and neither of his parents are members. I was humbled to see such a young man and I wonder if I would have had the strength to do that. There was small little 4 year old Joseph who pleaded with the missionaries there to find him a Primary, as he is the only member of his Primary. Since then the missionaries have fasted and prayed to find such and they now have three dates set.  The three dates set include one that has three kids, and the other has two kids.  So each week little Joseph has a Primary. I was humbled to see such faithful saints who met in such a small, one room school house, praising God with such a spirit that you would have thought it was General Conference. It was indeed amazing. It reminded me of the scripture of “Where two or three are gathered in my name there will I also be with them.” Also on the Island, mum you talked about this earlier, but Hitler was convinced that if the allies were to attack France they would go through the islands and so he took them over and he LOADED them up with pill boxes and trenches and bunkers and he dug tunnels, etc. So the island is loaded with trenches, bunkers and underground tunnels. Simmons and I went to the cliff’s edge, to one of the hundreds of bunkers.  We went inside, it was by far the biggest bunker I have been in (much bigger then Hawaii).  It had five floors, it was black as black and went deep; deep into the ground.  We have a ten minute video of us exploring the whole bunker. It scared me to death. The whole time I was waiting for some creepy man to jump out! Anyway so we have tons of pics of that and at the cliffs, and the beaches, the trenches, and at church. It was really good. However Simmons and I got lost up on the cliff side in the bushy area and the forest area and it took us two hours of our p-day to find out way back to the beach.

The Jersey Island is the touristy island. You can see France from there; it is only 8 or 9 miles away. We didn’t stay there long, but we were able to work with the sisters there. One of them is from Ukraine and the other from Samoa. It was really good. They are doing great and the ward there loves them. 

Well family love you tons!

Elder Michael White

Traveling

This week has been a traveling week. Elder Simmons and I went on road trip to some areas that have been struggling to see what is going on and how we can help.  We went down to a place called Cornwall in the Plymouth zone (my former zone). I love Cornwall, and while we were down there we took a P-day so we could go see some castles, and go to "Lands End" which is the very tip of England, or end of England.  One of the castles we saw was this castle that was built out on an island about a half a mile off shore.  When the tide is low you can walk out to it and a cobble stone footpath appears, but when the tide is in then you have to take a boat out to it but man it was like something on Lord of the Rings.  

Before we left we asked President if we could take Chao Li down with us for the day and help us do some work.  He said yes, so Chao Li was our member missionary for the day. He was with us from 8 am till 11 pm. It was nice to be with him. On Sunday he, Lin, and Rebekah all got their Patriarchal Blessings. It was really good to see them again.

The S--- A--- family that was just baptized here are doing great. We will be seeing them in two hours. I want to see their sealing so bad. Manoj who was recently baptized  also is doing amazing. His wife is coming along slowly, but surely. That is the report on the recent converts in this area.

 It was a really good road trip. We talked a lot with the zone leaders about how they feel they can improve the zone. The missionaries themselves are really great missionaries but there is room for improvement and tightening some things up. We also went into Poole Zone were we did a few exchanges. This was over the period of 4 days.

On Friday we have the Mission Conference with Elder Jay Jensen.  After the conference on Friday Elder Simmons and I will fly out to Guernsey and Jersey Islands to check everything out and make sure all is in ship shape. We are excited about that.  APs have only been out there once and that was when they were deciding to open those areas back up (three years ago). Simmons and I are going out there because the new mission president is coming in and President Shamo wants us to go out and make sure the wards are good and the missionaries are doing fine before the new mission president comes in. We have been serving the Crawley Ward.  It is the one of the strongest ward I have served in. They are such an amazing ward when it comes to missionary work. They know how to retain members. 

I don’t have too much time. The weather here has been amazing!!!!!!! Sunny at 24 degrees!!!!!!!!!!!  

Love you all!
Love,

Elder M. White  

Plymouth again :)

This week was really busy working with missionaries, and organizing the mission moves. This last week end we went to Plymouth. President Shamo had a stake conference there and we had a zone training that Elder Folkerson and I did. It was a really good stake conference and training meeting. It was so wonderful to see some old faces. C--- is a great missionary machine. He brought 4 fellow students to church with him. Good guy. He really is going to be a great leader in China. If he was the only person I had seen baptized my mission it would have been a success. We got a missionary this past moves from mainland China and so he is going to talk to C--- about the church in mainland China and how it all works. He may not be able to go to church in China. But he told me he knows the name of the church and he said that when the church does get to comes to China he will be the first one to it. Bless him. Not to mention the gift of the Holy Ghost works like a charm. All of the Chinese converts are doing great. R---- is doing well. And Re---is great also. It was so wonderful to see them all again in Plymouth as well as many of the members down there. That was a tender mercy to see all of them.

After conference on the Sat. night session president took us out for dinner. That is one of the great perks of being an AP is being around him. He told us story after story. Man I love him to bits, what a good man Pres. Shamo is. Dad I am trying to soak up as much as I can from him.

We really don’t have any more investigators cuz we have had to pass them all down to the missionaries in our area. But M--- and his family and the South African couple all came to church this week so they are doing well from what I have heard.

Family I love you guys tons. This week will be good. It is going to be busy as we have three zone conferences and a zone leader council.

Love you all!

Elder Michael White

Moves

I am beat. Literally. We have been at presidents a ton lately figuring out moves and who is going where etc. On multiple occasions (three times in the week). We would be at his house for about 15 hours figuring out moves and where missionaries need to be. Then along with that we needed to figure all of our other stuff with missionaries like accounting, travel plans for the missionaries (that one took forever) and then the departing missionaries and helping them out. I haven’t gotten much sleep cuz we will be up sometimes till about 1 or 2 and then getting up at 5 or 6. Today is when all the new missionaries come in. There will be 17 coming in. We do a training/orientation for them today and tomorrow. Elder Whitehead was released as an AP and so now there are only two of us, me and Elder Folkerson.

The work in our area is going very well. I don’t think we will have much time to work in our area this moves. Since there are just two of us and this next six weeks we have a ton of zone trainings to do, so we have introduced our investigators to the zone leaders in our area so when we are gone they can teach them and when we are in our area we can teach them. Hopefully that will all work out. Manoj is doing well. His family came to church this week. He wants to be baptized but his wife is a little reluctant and he wants to be baptized with her. It is only a matter of time though. We are also working with a South African lady names Debi who is a star and has read a bunch of the BofM. She is really promising. The only sad thing as I said is that we won’t have much time to work in our area. This moves president wants us out and about while we are doing the training and wants us to be working a lot in the areas with the zone and district leaders.

As far as neat things that has happened. I think I have told you but Chao Li is once again the star missionary. His friend was baptized and once again tons of Chinese were there! Chao is doing well and I will see him and all of my Plymouth converts this weekend as president will be gong down there for their stake conference and we will attend with him.

President gave us a p-day on Tuesday cuz he knew that the next week was going to be crazy and so we went to the seven sisters (white cliffs of Dover) and holy cow that is one of the most amazing places I have seen here in England. I loved it sooooooooooooooo much! The tide was out really far so we went out and walked on the coral and I got a bunch of sea shells so that was neat.

Love you all so much.

Elder M. White

Three Day Challenge

How is everyone? I am great. I went on an exchange this past week with a missionary who is a new elder and who is going through new missionary homesickness. I hated that feeling. I didn’t get it until I left my trainer E.Whitehead. It can be a hard time for new missionaries. Then to add to his homesickness this elder says he didn’t feel like he had a testimony. Occasionally ya hear some elders say they are not sure if they have a testimony it makes me crazy cuz you hear it from investigators all of the time and the answers is still the same whether it is from a missionary or an investigator or a less active. They seem to expect some amazing glorious answer the first time they ask but they neglect the little signs and tender mercies the Lord has truly shown them. We see them every day and yet we become so used to it that we expect more from a God who can do anything. I looked at this elder as he and I talked about the "flecks of gold" that Elder Ballard spoke of a few conferences back or Pres Uchdorfs talk on "waiting on the road to Damascus" I asked him about all these things the church has brought into his life and how the gospel has brought him happiness and I said "would you have it any other way?" and he of course said no and so I asked "then why do you question your testimony?" And then he said "Elder White of course I know the church is true." and then he started to cry. I really felt for the guy he has not yet fully read the whole book of Mormon. Once again I gave him the three day challenge. I have done that with 3 other elders and it hasn’t failed yet! The first one I did it too I told you about and he is doing wonderful by the way! Anyway this young elder will pull through he is just going through the adjustments of being a missionary.

Love you all so much and may God ever bless you.

Love ya tons!
Elder M. White

The London Temple

Lots to tell you we had lots of little miracles. The past two weeks once again we have been doing a lot of exchanges. I got to go on a great exchange with Elder Snow (who I trained) in Bath. He is doing great!! I love that kid. The city of Bath is flipping beautiful city!!!!!!!!!!!!! Everything is the same brick everywhere you go and it is in the middle of the country side! I tried to see all that I could while I was there but there is so much to see in the city and not to mention I was there as a missionary and not a tourist. I really want to go back sometime and see the roman baths and ruins there. It is a really neat city. Mom I am sure you would love it.

Do you remember Wayne the one guy I met at the Slough bus station last year? Yeah? He was the less active man that went back to church and is fully active now. He baptized his good friend. This past week I got a call from him and he said "I just got my temple recommend and I would be honored if you came to with me for my first time to the temple.” I started shouting I was so happy. My companions, Elder Folkerson and Elder Whitehead, were with him when he went back to church. We got presidents permission and went to the London Temple on Sat and went through the endowment with him. It was really neat to see. That literally made my week. When I went into the celestial room he came up to me and gave me a big hug and said "Thank you so much for being at the right place and at the right time. You have no idea how much this has changed my life. You came and found me just at the right time. Thank you so much. Thank you and thank snowball (Elder Snow)." It is so wonderful going through the temple with someone you have helped bring into the church. That made my week and was by far the highlight.

Then Manoj who is our star date in Crawley is doing great. We are now teaching his family. He came to church and he loved it. In elders quorum they asked for people to come and help out with service and they asked for volunteers and Manoj was the first to raise his hand and it was his first time at church!!! It was sweet. We have been very blessed to find a great family.

Please pray for me as well as those who we teach and have been baptized, pray for missionary work. This is an amazing work. How wonderful it is to be engaged in the work of God. To see his mighty hand pushing forth throughout the world.

I Love you all so much!

Love,

Elder M. White