Blessings

                                                                     New haircut!

                                 

                                     The wonderful Honn Family!

                                                      

Brother George Stevens from Maldon, great to see him. 95 years old and still cleans the chapel twice a week!

Hello Everyone,

How are you?

This week has been great for our area, we have some wonderful friends

we are teaching and they are progressing so well. We have our friend

called Pare who we found two weeks ago and she is preparing to be

baptised on the 9th August. We found her after praying where we should

go in all of London after a day of phone calls with the zone leaders.

We felt prompted to travel to a place called Vauxhall - and so we set

off with a spring in our step, confident that the Lord had a work for

us to do there. As we walked we were finding by the way and after a

few dead end conversations we stopped this young, Thai student who had

a lovely cross necklace. It's always a great opener to point to that

and ask about their time as a Christian (it's incredible how many

people just wear it as a fashion item!). We then had the most amazing

step in lesson with Pare, the Spirit was so strong and she said she

felt like she wanted to cry. We talked about Ether 12:27 in the Book

of Mormon and it brought such comfort to her. We extended a baptismal

invitation and set a date on the spot. Since then she has met with us

3 times and we talk nearly everyday about her wonderful experiences

with the Book of Mormon. She is keeping the word of wisdom and when

she was taught the plan of salvation she expressed that now she

understands just how much God loves her 'this gives my life so much

meaning and purpose', we feel so blessed!

Next week we have the baptism of our friend Gem who is from Burnley of

all places! She is so great and is progressing really well. She

brought her friend to the church a few weeks ago and we taught them

both with President and Sister Stevens and it went really well. Gem

has quite an incredible story, she had some health trouble and

suffered some memory loss, when she woke up after the ordeal the only

thing she could see in her minds eye was the Book of Mormon despite

not remembering what the missionaries had previously taught her! How

crazy is that? And what a blessing in disguise when you think about

it, I think it really solidified her feeling that this was the most

important thing she could choose to do. So we are really excited for

her this week.

We've been on 3 exchanges this week which has been fun! I was in St.

Albans with Elder Williams , then back to Maldon with Elder Helisto

who's only been out 3 months - he thought he was in big trouble when

he found out he was exchanging with us - he is a really promising

young missionary and we have planned to work more with the young ones

as the mission will need young leadership very soon. And then lastly I

was with Elder Patterson in London. Going back to Maldon was awesome,

I saw Irene again, Mani, Kavita and sveta and of course the Wheelers!

Such great people over there, I love it. Bro wheeler asked me what my

favourite meal was before I came, so I jokingly replied 'steak

and ribs', we got there on Thursday night and he had gone and sorted

it out hadn't he! What a lad! We had some good fun. It was just great

to see how well everyone was doing. Irene is just so pure and faithful

- she is preparing for the temple. Mani swung by the chapel just as

we're teaching a lesson and he was able to join us and bear testimony

of his experience with the Church and his testimony of Jesus Christ

and it was so powerful, it really benefitted our Romanian friend who

we were teaching. I really enjoy exchanges, it's such a blessing. In

the missionary handbook leaders are counselled to always remember that

exchanges are a time for learning just as much as they are a time for

training and I can testify that that is true. I think every exchange I

have been in I have returned as a better missionary because of the

example of the missionary I was with. This mission has awesome

missionaries and in a few transfers it will have the best missionaries

in the world.

                               Organising transfers - Before!!

                                       Transfers done! - After!!

So, transfer weekend. It has been quite the task getting it sorted,

but we got there. It is always a spiritual experience when we work on

the transfer board and organise the missionaries to where they need to

be and more importantly who they need to be with. The Spirit works 

with you in a very particular way. Your mind feels quickened in

organising and discerning what will happen in a certain

companionship. At each stage of the moves a feeling of rightness or

the opposite will testify to all of us in the room and we will know who

needs to stay or change. On my mission, one of the challenges that I have

loved most is problem solving and finding the best solution for

multiple parties and so doing the moves, whilst being challenging and

long, has been a lot of fun for me as well. I'm just so grateful for

these experiences. Sister Stevens cooked a wonderful meal for us last

night as well! Three courses, we were her guinea pigs for next weeks

departing dinner! This meal came after I had been taken by Elder Leite

to a Brazilian barbecue for lunch. So much meat! It was amazing. His

family friend from back home dropped by to take him out for dinner on

behalf of his parents for his birthday! It worked out that his

companion Elder Jackson and my companion had a family they baptised

together come and visit them. So I got to go to this epic feast.

Whenever me and Elder Leite are together we just get taken to the

fanciest restaurants - we got taken to the Langham together last time!

It was a lot of fun.

In other eating outings, the Honn Family came to visit on Friday! They

are from Idaho and Sister Honn was raised in Norwich, their son Ethan

enters the MTC in 3 weeks. We went to a chicken restaurant in

Piccadilly Circus and it was so good! It was such a blessing seeing

them again, they are a wonderful family and I have really bonded with

them. Me and Ethan talked about the mission and he asked for some

advice so I gave him Mosiah 24 to read. I love how many great people

we get to meet on a mission, I really hope I can keep in contact with

all of these great people.

In other news, I bought a suit this week for £30 from tesco's so we

will see how long that lasts. Hopefully for 6 weeks, right? Yikes!

Anyway,

Have a great sabbath!

I love you all

Hugs and handshakes

Elder Nolan