Hey everyone!
How are you?
I’m sorry it’s been so long, things have been a little crazy!
I’m staying in London North for another transfer with Elder Farley and to be honest I am really quite happy about it; the thought of packing all my things made me crease at the sides ha! Not the fact that we have a great area with lots of work to do. Also to report, London North district baptized 4 people in 5 weeks and we have two more on date, Andrew and Laura. Laura is from Romania (she is extremely offended that I do not speak Romanian) and is on date for the 9th of March; she is progressing so well. Too well sometimes; each commandment we have taught her, she has just accepted and committed to living it. She has come from an orthodox background but was seemingly not very orthodox… I always find it funny when people tell us that they’re ‘orthodox’ and then begin to tell us of how unorthodox they have been living, making their previous testimonial of orthodoxy an heretical paradox. Hehe. Anyway, Laura is wonderful and Me and Elder Farley feel really blessed to be teaching her. She is at a point where she really wants to make big changes in her life and she loves how the Spirit makes her feel. Please say a pray for her welfare J
London North ward got two more sister missionaries this transfer and so seeing as the majority of our teaching pool was single women we decided it would be a good idea if we handed them off to the new sisters. We now have a very small teaching pool haha Ellie and Akram will be able to have regular visits now and I’m really excited for them.
So as a flat we have entered into what is called ‘Purification’, where we fast from certain habits that poke at our spirit for 40 days with the intention of becoming missionaries that have the spirit with them all the time. These habits range from Getting to bed on time to prematurely thinking about what’s for dinner to fantasizing about the new highlighter pack Tesco have started to stock (Missionaries get weird man). So we write 10 of these things down during a physical fast and then bring them to the Lord and consecrate our performance to Him. I’ve already felt a difference. At the same time I started this Mental Fast I began to ponder on what it means to be a Son of God and how strongly I even believed I was. In the past I have sang the song ‘I am a child of God’ and have felt of the peace and Spirit that it brings, however I haven’t previously asked myself what that actual fact means to me. From prayer and my studies I have started to understand the character and nature of our Heavenly Father and comprehend his greatness and power. He is the governing force of Creation and Order throughout the entire Universe. He stands at the head of the bow of Progression, leading us all to one day become like Him. In every moment He is perfect, He has perfect Judgment, perfect Knowledge, perfect Love and He is our Father. That is quite a powerful thought and I wonder if we will ever fully understand what that means. With this knowledge we then understand that we have the capacity to do anything as ‘the spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God, and if children then Heirs, Heirs of God’ when we understand that we are ‘Heirs’ of God, we begin to understand our true potential and will not be able to ‘sin so cheaply’. We feel a greater desire to repent, an increase of love towards one another and we begin to see just how much He loves us. With this new understanding of our heavenly origin, we will delight in sharing the gospel of truth with our fellow brothers and sisters as we will remember that they too are heirs of God, despite where they might be at this moment.
I know that I am a Son of God and I know that He loves me. If I don’t learn anything else on my mission, I will always be happy in the knowledge of these things. I know that if we all knew this then the world would indeed be a very different place; however there is someone who doesn’t want us to know of our true nature. He would have us define ourselves by our mistakes and our past.
He would make us feel like there is no use in being good when everyone else around us is seemingly being bad. He would have us believe that forgiveness is something that cannot take place and that we must feel the guilt of our actions for the rest of our lives. He does not want us to believe that we are the Sons and Daughters of God; who is infinitely more powerful than he. Do not believe it. Believe that you are a Child of God and that He loves you more than you could ever know.
In other news, the band traveled up to Ely, Cambridge this weekend. I got to drive the van again. Ely is Elder Farley’s last ward and so it was a really great experience for him to see some of the people he had to leave. We played in the centre of town and next to no-one stopped to listen ha! We then had a gig to play in ‘The Beet Club’ and we played really well. Being the only Englishman, I was assigned to introduce ‘Jerusalem’ and it went down a treat. We sang it twice so that the audience could join in. The Spirit in the room was very strong and it has never felt so good to make other people cry! President hopes to send us down to Canterbury which I’m really looking forward to.
I’m so grateful to be serving here in London and with such great missionaries. I’m humbled by their example and dedication to the work. I love all of you and I am so thankful for the support that I have felt and the prayers that have been answered.
I’m sorry for my lack of contact recently; I’m really not too good at emailing fast!
Hugs and Hand Shakes
Elder Nolan
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