News Update 10th March 2014

Ready for a baptism!

All over London! Thanks!

Me, laura, curtis and Farley

All the people confirmed on sunday with the missionaries

Hey

How has your week been?

Our Friend Laura Puiul was baptised and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints this weekend. It has been such a wonderful journey for her and us since we met her just 6 weeks ago. It has been such a blessing to observe and guide Laura as she has progressed towards baptism and the Lord has been involved intimately, making things happen and telling his missionaries what to do at the exact time it needed to be done. We have all grown together.

My personal  testimony of the truthfulness and divine power of the Book of Mormon has developed into a fortified conviction that this sacred record, that binds our Faith together is truly the work of Prophets called of God and that 'If you believe not in these words, then believe in Christ, and if ye Believe in Christ, ye shall believe in these words, for they are the words of Christ'. I love the Book of Mormon and I love sharing it with the people we meet.

Throughout Laura's teaching, the seed of Faith within her has been nourished by the life giving light of the Book of Mormon; Combined with the Spirit and the growing Light of Christ within her, we have seen a witness of truth begin to descend upon her soul which has brought her to the noble valley of repentance, and as she emerged the Lord welcomed her into the waters of baptism.

So, major miracle this morning. It's p day and so we began our day with a game of football with the district. On the tube home, we found that we had walked in to the shop of a humble european woman. She walked up and down the carriage placing tissue packets on the seats with a note explaining her domestic situation (probably to attract more custom) with an invite to purchase the packet of tissues. I was immediately impressed by the initiative and I really didn't care if the story on the paper was true. I emptied my pockets and exchanged the contents for the packet of tissues. The woman walked by myeand was seemingly pleased by my custom and as she began to leave the impression came that she was Romanian and so I asked her how she was in her native tongue. She smiled and replied and then began to converse with me a little. I got through it and we established that our roots in Romania aren't to far from each other. She then walked on and was greeted by another Romanian (Raluca) in the carriage, who then begins to talk to me and before you know it its a full blown Romanian reunion. Sadly, my level of communication in the Latin language was too basic to carry on so I had to admit that I was actually English and that if any more 'get to know you' chat was to continue it would have to be done in my native tongue. We got to our stop and Raluca was leaving also. We carried on our conversation up and out of the station and I told her that I was a missionary for the Church and asked her about her relationship with God. We ended the conversation with a prayer, the swapping of details and we are seeing her on Saturday! Bravo! This is another testimony of how the Lord works. He played at my love of 'if you dont ask you dont get'. If the Romanian woman had not brought her business to the tube there would have been no purchase of tissues. If I had not bought those tissues there would have been no conversation, no conversation - no reunion, no reunion - no prayer, no prayer - no daughter of God finally receiving the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am reminded of Alma 'By small and simple means doth the Lord confound the wise and bring about the salvation of many souls' (Thanks Grandad).

London North is a blessed Land. 3 people were confirmed on sunday, two were given the Aaronic Priesthood and two Recent converts were advanced to the Melchizedek Priesthood. The Gospel is good.

I love you all,

Hugs and Handshakes,

Elder Nolan

White Men Can't Jump?

Ward Mission Leader took us for a curry! Oh how I've missed it!

                              

Hello everyone!

How are you doing?

The sun is out in London finally! Me and Elder Farley have been in a tag team match with Wind and his friend Rain these past two weeks. They got us on the mat a few times but we ploughed through and sent them both packing. Probably back to Manchester. Ha! The wind down here is definitely more powerful than back home though and finding people to teach in this concrete metropolis has been difficult but we have still be blessed with miracles!

The Lord still sends people who are prepared to receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ to his less than inadequate missionaries. It amazes me how it works and seeing how people’s lives change because of the things that we tell them is something I still can’t comprehend. We had a lesson with Laura last week on the Plan of Salvation. We put her faith and ours to the test and we gave her the reading material for the lesson at the previous lesson we had and challenged her to study it and then teach US the next time. We met in a Baskin Robbins ice cream parlour and used the table we’d taken to place on it cartoon cut outs of each step of the Plan and then let her expound. It was so profound. She understood the whole Spirit of the Plan, she emphasized the need for the Fall of Adam and testified of the essentiality of Christ’s Atonement. She ended her presentation with the conclusion that ‘God is such a good guy’! Indeed he is. This episode illustrates just how active the Spirit of God is within our lives. Whilst me and Elder Farley have taught and testified to Laura of the Truthfulness of Christ’s Gospel, whilst we have been praying and planning for her and whilst we have been busy with all the other things Missionaries do, The Spirit has been carrying the Gospel into the depths of Laura’s Heart and has witnessed to her whole soul that the things she has been learning are True. This is the beauty of missionary work and is another reminder that this truly isn’t out work; it is unquestionably the Lord’s.  (Just to add, laura brings with her to each lesson and pen and pad. She uses this to write down everything we tell her and to record and remember all the questions she has after studying herself. You can imagine how long some of our lessons have been. She is great.)

So fun story; Me and Elder Farley went to visit a less active just south of Hampstead heath, he wasn’t in but we talked to his neighbour and left a note on his door saying we called by and to call us when he gets home; to our astonishment he did and we are seeing him this week! Hurrah! Anyway back to the fun story, so when we were walking back from Fernandos (the less active) we found ourselves a heavily populated basketball court. It was filled with teenagers of all backgrounds and we could see that some of them were infact ‘Ballers’ (correct term used for someone who can successfully bounce a ball from left hand to right and not look a fool whilst in the process.) ha So we saw an opportunity. I don’t think Elder Farley saw the same thing as I did, but we found ourselves both walking towards the court. I quickly became the Promoter for my Humble Utahn companion and challenged the slightly confused teens to decide which of them was the best ‘Baller’ within their group. Reason being; I had a ‘skinny white kid from Utah’ who thinks he can ball wanting a one-on-one match with one of you punks. Little did they know that Elder Farley was indeed a ‘Baller’, a very good one. One of them came forth and confidently agreed to the death match. What ensued was like something out of a film. This was the sequel to ‘White Men Can’t Jump’ with the added caption ‘Unless they’re Mormon’ . Elder Farley straight up dunked on this kid and was dropping 3 pointers for fun. The reaction from the teens was priceless. They were freaking out and it brought such huge smiles to their faces! Elder Farley however was sensitive to what was happening and consequently let the 15 year old giant he was facing ultimately win the one on one, he didn’t want his friends to tease him endlessly about being beat by the ‘Skinny white kid from Utah’! ha. After the match Elder Farley preceded to dunk according to the demands of the teens and in the process he gained the respect of them all. So much so that they began to refer to him as ‘Utah!’. Obviously the goal of this was not just to parade the basketball talents of my companion to the world but to make a connection with a group we normally don’t run into on our usual day. We talked a little bit about the Gospel before we left and gave them all pass along cards. They may not be ready for the Gospel now, but in years to come they will remember the experience they had with the missionaries and who knows what could happen.

We had interviews with our mission President this week and it was such a blessed experience. I really know that President Jordan Loves us all and is so invested in helping us progress as missionaries. He gave us such great insights and answered with clarity the questions we all had. He is someone that I would confidently follow into battle and I guess that’s we are essentially doing in the England London Mission.

I love you all

Hugs and Handshakes

Elder Nolan

PS. I turn 21 this week and I am gradually coming to terms with it. 9 years to 30 is all I will be thinking about come Thursday . 

This is the only photo we have of Elder Nolans 21st birthday - His parcel before it was sent to him!!

27th of January Update

 London bridge Book of Mormon musical style

Forgot about this Anchorman Tribute...

Drums with Medhi Wooooop

Sweet view from Muswell Hill

Hey,

How are you all doing?

This week has probably been the hardest of my mission so far. Since we baptized our progressing investigators it has been a time of rebuilding and I have been quickly reminded how hard missionary work actually is. Plus I have finally had the 'I really miss home' moment. I only allowed myself a few minutes to be homesick and now I feel fine. J

This week has come with miracles though, so I really shouldn't complain. Elder Farley shared something with me which I really appreciated at the time. This was on Saturday night after every appointment except one, either cancelled or wasn't home when we stopped by. We were walking to Tesco to find tasty treats to ease the pain and Elder Farley said 'There is a difference between bad and hard days on a mission. This is a hard day; a bad day is when you go all day without feeling the Spirit.'  It really soothed me! I've been thinking about it and I cannot remember having a 'bad' day in the past 4 and a bit months.

So, Mehdi is doing great and yesterday his girlfriend Nicole attended church and has told us she is ready to learn about the Gospel. We have been purposefully holding back a little with her and have focused on her getting to know us rather than ambush her with doctrine. We want to make sure she is doing this for herself. She is really cool though and the way she has supported Mehdi has been exemplary. We went round yesterday and as Mehdi left the room to make us Virgin Mary's (I'll let you work that out) Nicole asked us some great questions and it really opened my eyes. She asked 'What makes you different from mainstream Christianity?' 'Are the suits you wear uniforms given to you?' and 'Do you go two by two because of Noah and the Ark?' She was so genuine and it taught me a lesson. I think I have fallen in to the trap of perceiving that everyone knows what we are about and that they already understand the scriptures and so what we share shouldn't be so different to what they already know.  So me and Elder Farley were both humbled by it and I'm glad it's happened now and not at the end of my mission!

We visited a recent convert called Mikko this week, originally from Finland and brought up in Judaism. His conversion story is so wonderful and President Jordan had to help teach him because of how much he already knew! He invited us round this week for cookies, herbal tea and deep doctrine. We discussed the King Follet sermon given by Joseph Smith at Kings Funeral. Crikey. Pre mission I was all for plunging in to the depths of the scriptural abyss but since I've had a tag, I've been strictly focusing on the basics. I forgot how awesome it is! It was such a great discussion and we stuck to what the scriptures say!

The district sang in sacrament meeting this week, 'Armies of Helaman' and we sounded really good. The Spirit is always really strong when that song is sung and many of the congregation were visibly feeling it.

So now I'm off to band practice again, we have a performance coming up which is in Elder Farley's old area and he wants to come so bad.

I love you all,

Hugs and Hand shakes

Elder Nolan

I found the shorter version of this quote in my room the other night…

Good timber does not grow with ease,

The stronger wind, the stronger trees.

The further sky, the greater length.

The more the storm, the more the strength.

By sun and cold, by rain and snow,

In trees and men good timbers grow

Virgin Mary'

20th of January Update

Me, Mehdi and Farley

Random Chinese lady #1, me, Random Chinese lady #2, London Eye

Sweet silhouette sunrise big ben photo

'Samoan' (legendary missionary meal, apparently), Diet coke, Title of Liberty

Our new Flat, Me reading a (not missionary approved) book

Hello! Wow what a week. Mehdi Karimi, my best friend in London was baptised on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I had the honour of performing the ordinance and it was one of the most powerful experiences. I have been blessed with to see someone who I have grown to love and respect take that great step and make his first covenant with God.

We have observed the symptoms of a changing heart at each stage of the teaching process with Medhi. He has a great faith in Jesus Christ and the reality of his atonement; He has a profound awareness the effect of righteous living on his personal happiness and well being. I admire him for his courage and his commitment to the gospel; He has just quit his job as a cocktail artist as he has recognised the difficulty of working in such an environment and being worthy of the companionship of the Holy Ghost. He is another testament to that fact that the Gospel of Jesus Christ compels men everywhere to change and 'to putteth off the natural man and become a saint' through his grace. Again, I feel completely humbled by the power that the Gospel possesses and the liberating effect it has upon the children of God. I could write about Mehdi all day, so I'll stop there.

In other news, we had an amazing miracle happen last week. Last transfer Elder Hein contacted a girl woman called Eli, another Iranian Christian. We set an appointment to meet but she had to cancel last minute and we hadn't heard from her since then. About 2 weeks ago Elder Farley and I contacted a woman outside a Persian restaurant, also an Iranian Christian called Akram who attends the Iranian church in Finchley. We had a lovely lesson with her outside the restaurant, she told us of her family and their mutual faith in Jesus Christ. We swapped details and have been trying to arrange a date to meet again. So, last Friday we made some calls to try and set some appointments and Eli miraculously answers and agrees to meet at the chapel. We meet at the chapel and have a wonderful lesson with her along with a church tour. We begin to talk about family and she mentions her mother and her influence on her. We ask the name of her mother and she says 'akky', instantly we respond 'is that short for akram?' 'Yes', 'do you live at 11 roman road?' 'Yes' 'woooooooooooow'! We were teaching the daughter of the woman we met outside the Persian restaurant, the daughter who she had spoken so fondly about and the desire she had for her to more fully commit to Christ. We have been praying for a family and Heavenly Father provided in a way which I would have thought near impossible. There are about one million people in our area and the chances of separately finding two members of an Iranian family, who both want to increase their faith in Jesus Christ is a statistic that I don't even want to think about. All I know is that it happened and it was orchestrated by the Lord himself. continue to be amazed by how closely our Heavenly Father watches over his children.

This mission is teaching me to be humble, to be aware of just how finite my mind is and to accept guidance from above without question or doubt. 'Do not be afraid, only believe'. He is there and He is active in our lives, He has our best interests at heart; what He needs from us is for us to trust Him. We have to let Him work with us and be malleable in His masterful Hands. I love you all and I feel the effect of your prayers, thank you. Please continue praying for those receiving the Gospel and share it with those who need it (everyone).

 Hugs and Handshakes, Elder Nolan