365 Down

NFN (Normal For Norfolk)

Johnson, Torres, Nolan

The first photo was taken at 6. 15 this morning hence the tired eyes

Hello!

 How are you?

This week has been somewhat of a mixed bag, filled with miracles, proud moments and reality checks. I'll start with a miracle; On Monday we were teaching at the chapel, a catholic woman who is really struggling to accept the apostasy. As, the conversation was getting a little heated whilst discussing the 8^th chapter of Moroni, my heart said a quick prayer that the contention would cease, just as that prayer was concluded we see a shining, Chinese smile searching for a place to pray beam at us through the front door of the Church. We beckoned her in and as drew closer we could all sense a Spirit of peace and calm, reminiscent of a new born baby. She tells us her name is Sabrina and that she has looked at the church a few times as she has walked to university and wanted to know if she could join us for worship. As we lifted our jaws from off the floor we swapped details and arranged to meet the next day. Since then we have been teaching her the restoration, (we even watched the film in Chinese) and she has accepted the challenge to be baptised on Oct 25^th!

The proud moment of this week was Sunday, sacrament meeting. We came into the Chapel at 9.25 to see Neil and Buddy sat together ready to pass the sacrament for the first time. It was so beautiful. There was only one problem; Neil hadn't received the priesthood yet! We told Bishop; luckily Neil was sustained last week, so bishop grabbed him and told us to follow! We frog marched Neil to Bishops office, sat him down and conferred upon him the Aaronic priesthood and ordained him to the office of priest. Despite the rush and mild panic, Neil received a moving blessing which visibly affected him. He and Buddy then fulfilled their duties with great reverence and the feelings I experienced were deeply humbling. To go from seeing Neil read the Book of Mormon in Chinese for the first time and tell us of his concerns about the word of wisdom as he was worried if he didn't drink he wouldn't be able to think o good business ideas, from seeing Buddy stare at the ward notice board instead of going into institute on his first night back at church, to today, seeing them fulfil sacred Priesthood responsibilities in white shirts and ties was a little overwhelming, yet wholly comforting. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is about progress and change; it is about liberating an individual to the point that they do things that will have positive eternal effects on themselves and those around them. I love it so much.

The reality check that I was ambushed with was the arrival of a package from home marking a milestone event in a missionary's short life. I opened the box to find the inscription 'Oooh! We're half way there' (lyrics from an unapproved song I might add), nevertheless it screamed at me the harrowing truth that I am half way through my mission. This past year has felt like a life time played in fast forward, taking about a week in total to experience. I still remember the feeling I had driving to the MTC, thinking about whether I should take the bottle of orange cream soda I was drinking in with me or leave it in the car for my mum to clear away. I remember the feelings I had when I knelt down to pray that first night and telling the Lord 'Well, you've got me for two years' Not really anticipating what He was going to do with me. It hasn't been a perfect year, there are many things I could have done better, but I am comforted in the knowledge that a day hasn't gone by where I haven't testified of my Saviour Jesus Christ and the divine orchestration of the restoration of his Gospel in the latter days. I know he lives, I know he loves us and I know his Gospel is the answer to everything.  I feel truly blessed to have another year to bear testimony of that fact, In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

This week we have Zone conference where we will be performing a song that we wrote last week on our exchange with Elder Torres (Assistant). We have changed the lyrics to Jason Mraz'- I'm Yours and have renamed it 'this time is yours (to put people on date)' hehe so hopefully I can get it filmed and send it through next week!

I leave you with a scripture that will cater for a lifetime of feasting upon the words of Christ, we studied it this morning at early morning seminary (we got there in the end Mum!) with the young men,

Doctrine and Covenants  Section 4

1 Now behold, a marvelous work is about to come forth among the children of men.

 2 Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that yeserve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day.

 3 Therefore, if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work;

 4 For behold the field is white already to harvest; and lo, he that thrusteth in his sickle with his might, the same layeth up in storethat he perisheth not, but bringeth salvation to his soul;

 5 And faith, hope, charity and love, with an eye single to the gloryof God, qualify him for the work.

 6 Remember faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience,brotherly kindness, godliness, charity, humility, diligence.

 7 Ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Amen.

I love you all,

Hugs and Handshakes

Elder Nolan

                                                              365 CELEBRATION !!

 

  
                                                            Crazy Mum

5th of August 2014

Elder Johnson found me this morning, wide awake after a night of feasting upon the american treats Sister Teal sent me! 

 

We loaded this truck up this morning! There was so much flippin' stuff! Good workout, felt good to lift things again :)

 

Cromer beach

Previous assistant Elder Dominguez came to Norwich Interviews yesterday

'Are those signs for Manchester?'

Hey everyone!

This week has been busy, busy, busy. We had interviews on Monday which is always a great experience. We received a training on the Holy Ghost being THE teacher and not A teacher. It makes all the difference. I remember in the MTC when president Edwards asked me what I wanted to learn and I replied by saying ' I want to learn how to create an environment where the Spirit can teach and testify to everyone in the room'. For the most part I have learnt how to do that, but somewhere along the line and somewhere in between knowing nothing about the scriptures to feeling pretty comfortable defending the faith strapped with a leather bound quad standard works,  I have stumbled and made the mistake of thinking that I am THE teacher and have forgotten my humble desire at the start of my mission. Pride manifests in so many ways. Thankfully repentance is available to all. 

This week I got up in fast and testimony meeting. A sister had said that she love the fact that our sins are forgiven when we bear testimony of the Gospel. I said that I used to believe that missionaries were these sinless, 'one step from being exalted beings who never made mistakes, hence the shimmering glow that so readily had about them. But now I realise that it is because we bear testimony ALOT and so the gift of repentance is granted unto us continually allowing the Holy Ghost to give us that humbly recognizable spiritual sheen.

We had some wonderful miracles last week, one of them has been the answer to so man prayers me and Elder Johnson have uttered. We had forgotten to print something at the chapel, I was really annoyed I'd forgotten to do it as (despite pre mission habits) I don't tend to forget things now. So we arrived at the chapel and a member approached us and told us that a YSA had turned up to institute who hadn't been to church in over 9 years, 'could you go and speak to him'. We met him and I commended him on just walking back through the chapel doors as I knew full well how hard that can be. He was such a lovely guy. We felt inspired to show a mormon message with him. We found that a new one had been posted, we had not seen it and neither had he. We agreed to watch it for the first time together and the first line of the whole video was 'For 25 years I wandered' the man i was sat next to had also been wandering for 25 years! The video then continued to mirror some of the experiences that he had had and it brought about a great spiritual experience in him. After he assured us that his story wasnt quite as rock 'n' roll as the video, we prayed together and as we did it was clear that buddy was being re acquainted with his heavenly friend. We set up to teach him this week. We have since found out that he has never been baptized and so the miracle investigator we have been praying literally walked into our life. All this time I've been worrying about how we are going to replenish our teaching pool with solid new investigators and the Lord just patiently waits for me to realise that he has got it covered. I love being a missionary.

Me and Elder Johnson are getting along great. He is one of the most genuinely good people I have ever met, I don't think he has ever had a bad thought. He isn't naive though and I am teaching him how to drive so it's all fun and games. 

I hope you all have a great week! 

Hugs and Handshakes,

Elder Nolan

Missions rule!

Maldon chapel,  Jones, Nolan, Martin, Harris

New family we found in Maldon, turned out they had word of wisdom issues and dropped us...

Thanks rachy!! :)

Hello!

Greetings from Norwich,

Sorry for the lack of updates lately, it has been a crazy time but I've been building myself up this week so here goes.

I received some great news on Saturday, Mani who we were teaching in Maldon made his date and was baptised by Bishop West this Saturday. I'm so happy for him and his family, they have had an amazing journey and I'm confident that his wife and daughter will be baptised soon. Mani is such a good man, he gave us a lift to the train station on moves day so we could say goodbye, which also meant I didn't have to carry my ever growing mess of luggage! It was Elder Martin's first baptism and Mani asked him to confirm him into the Church. Maldon haven't had a baptism for over a year, so hopefully this first one will have the effect we have prayed for and the ward will begin to grow. J

Now over to Norwich, I LOVE IT HERE. It really is a challenging few days when moves come round, but the best medicine is to just get to work and that is what we have been doing. The first day was a sweet experience, me and Elder David met at the Hyde Park chapel and our first task was to plan a zone training. (Actually, the first task was to get lunch, oh how I have missed 'wasabi', I spent way too much on sushi that day, so good though)  Being a zone leader definitely has a different feel to it. We were there for the new missionary meeting and as they were walking in Sister Jordan pointed us out to them and said 'here are our new zone leaders' and at that moment everything hit me. Just 9 months ago I was In their shoes not knowing exactly what I was doing, walking up the abundance of stairs in the chapel, noticing it's peculiar scent hitting my nostrils, being interviewed by President Jordan, sweating, thinking I knew everything I could ever learn about missionary work (after two weeks in a classroom), meeting new missionaries and still finding it weird being called 'Elder' and basking in the comfortable naivety of the adventure I was about to embark on, not for one second considering how hard, how great and how unbelievably, body checkingly, mind mangingly, spirit stretchingly real this 2 year sojourn in the England London Mission would be. I smiled and waved at them. We were asked by President to take some of them out finding on exhibition road, and I called on Elder Paul to say a prayer in the street for someone we were talking to, I thought It best for him to get the first one out of the way. We saw miracles in those few moments though, we managed to get four people into the visitors centre and one of them is now meeting regularly with missionaries. I know the Lord is eager to bless his new missionaries with faith building events.

Me and Elder David have been having a lot of fun, teaching a lot of people and talking to a lot of missionaries. I really loved my time as a district leader and I've been struggling getting out of district leader mode. It's hard moving to a new area into a new leadership position as previously I felt I had a hold on things, I knew the ward, I knew the area and I knew what to do. Now I feel  like I don't know anything again and at the same time I feel the responsibility I have to the zone and I should be tip op and filled in on everything that's going on. I guess it will just take a little bit of time and I'll be fine and I have been assured by Elder David that this is normal.

Having a car is such a blessing, we can do so much more in a day however it means I can no longer go for the second helping at dinner appointments as I won't be walking it off! I forgot how much I have missed driving and listening to music. President told us he expects some quality singing from us and so we have taken time to turn up the volume and sing our hearts out whilst driving to each appointment. It's fun.

We had a great car miracle the other day, we were on our way to an appointment and Elder David suggested we go to the church and facebook for a few minutes. Whilst heading down the university road, we saw Cecilia; Cecilia was previously on date for this Saturday but has been in London, unable to meet. We wave at each other and then realise that this is our chance to make a miracle happen and respond to the Lords tender mercy, so we pelt down the road and find the nearest place the park, Jump out of the car and RUN! We were running for what seemed like an eternity, (she didn't know we were doing this), we finally caught her. She expressed her desire to still be baptised and that she knew she needed to come to church the next day. We set a date for this coming Saturday and taught her a little lesson on the commandments! BOOM! If you want to baptise people in England you have to be willing to run down the street to put them on date! We offered a very big prayer of gratitude after she 

had left. I've never enjoyed running as much as I did that day.

Teaching lessons in homes has gotten very hard the past few days, we ask for the tv to be turned off but when the world cup is on that question just seems rude and utterly preposterous. People look at us like we have asked if we could have their new cat for dinner. I don't blame them though, I'm sure Heavenly Father is watching it; but only the Holland games ;). In a lesson Elder David said we need to pray, I felt otherwise for some reason and so we waited, minutes later the RVP wonder goal happened and the room turned into a Kenyan carnival. I put it down to my English football senses being a little more acute than my companions. We prayed as the half time whistle went and everyone was happy.

So in other news, last Monday I completed the Rubik's cube on my own for the first time in my life and I was flippin' well happy about it. For years I have stared at that colourful little cuboid, only to be baffled by its seemingly illogical dimensions and not really understanding the simple mechanics it operates on. Elder Martin taught me how and Elder Nolan went and did. I've just got to get my time down, I won' be winning any competitions at the moment.

Word on the street is that I have been summoned for Jury service and I hope so much that it is not for one of my old investigators. Crikey, it could be. Do you think a full-time missionary has ever declared 'Not Guilty' in a courtroom? It would be a very odd situation, I wouldn't be able to stop myself from trying to explain the steps of repentance to the rest of the group and testifying of the reality of Christ's atonement and that we should see this pending criminal as what he can become, not defining him by his or her  past mistakes but making sure that they refine him and that through faith In Christ, Repentance of sins and Baptism this poor wretch can ultimately be cleansed from their past and begin to be sanctified by Gift of the Holy Ghost, continuing on until the end of this mortal sojourn,  eventually returning to His glorious presence and enter in to His eternal rest.

The Gospel is good.

I love you all,

Hugs and Handshakes,

Elder Nolan

--

Elder Tobias Cristian Nolan

England London Mission

64-68 Princes Gate

Exhibition Road,

South Kensington

London, England SW7 2PA

  

Sister Karyan's last day in chelmsford, we made a funeral service for her at our last district meeting, Dasvidanya! I think that is how you spell goodbye in russian... (she is armenian)

Me and Sister Hill (Maldon) she is so lovely! 

Me and Jason ( Maldon) good kid, teaching him for a while.

​Dinner with David at our bolivian friends house, check the size of the bowl!

Me and Elder Martin moves day

Here's the evidence..

Me and Mani on moves day

End of May Update

Your boy in action

Ukelele with Maddy

Packages from Home

Hey!

How are you all?

Sorry it's been a while, we have been so busy. I couldnt belive the last update I sent was like 3 weeks ago. I never expected my mission to go quicker than it was 3 months ago.

So, big boy moves are going down in chelmsford town (it is actually a city now, apparently). The Queen came to give the locals a wave, the sisters had already booked tickets to the cathedral however we had more important things to be attending to like Zone meeting, so they weren't too happy when I told them!

The District is doing so well. I can feel the faith of each missionary increasing and I see it in their numbers every week. At the beginning of the transfer the district had 0 investigators on date and as of today we have 16 on date for baptism! The Lord is blessing us for out faith and also because we are following the council of PMG. I have come to learn that all the tricks, secrets and 'new ideas missionaries think they have' are all to be found within the pages of PMG. You would think Prophets and Apostles had wrote it. It is marvelous.

We had interviews with President Jordan last week and received training from him and Sister Jordan, I took for granted how much I saw them whilst I was in London. It was great, President Jordan talks about missionary work in a way that cause's any doubt in my mind to dissolve and I feel like can go out and baptise a nation. I have also come to realise that President Jordan doesn't invite us to achieve certain goals, he prophecies of our success and if we do not achieve it we will be held accountable. I would follow him into the Battlefield and I know all of the missionaries in this mission would too. I asked him questions on how I can improve, what he expects of me and what kind of leadership creates change. After my interview I realised there were so many things that I forgot to ask!

So this week we had 6 investigators at church including a family! We are so happy with them. Mani and his family are from india and moved over here about 7 years agao. They have a hindu background but since coming to england developed a faith in Christ. They are on date for th 14^th of June and so please remember them in your prayers! Mani's wife was cooking whilst we taught mani the other day, she came in at the end and asked if we were staying for dinner, we obviously said yes please and it was the best indian food I have ever eaten! She said she had rushed today, she usually takes 3 hours to prepare dinner! Haha

Me and Elder Martin are having a lot of fun, he is teaching me the rubiks cube, I can now throw a rugby ball properly ( we took it finding with us at the park and found a new family to teach after playing rugby with their son!) and we are scheduled to learn the Haka today! Tika tonu atu kiakwa etama! We sang with the young men in sacrament on sunday, 'bring the world his truth', Irene our investigator was blubbering! It had the desired effect!

Anyway, Maldon to Victory!

Thankyou for all the letters, emails and packages!

I love you all,

Hugs and Handshakes,

Elder Nolan

Happy New Year - New year update

One of the seven packages!

We had a sleep over on Christmas!

 My new quilt!

We put this togethr for krissy one of our less actives :) 

they had no green trees left at tesco!

Happy New Year!

Christmas was so good! We watched a tonne of films and skyping home was amazing. Thank you all so much for the gifts and letters I received. It really made my first Christmas as a missionary special and I wouldn't change it for the world.

So New years in London is amazing! We were on the banks of the Thames witnessing the Eye shoot thousands of fancy fireworks into London town's already heavily polluted atmosphere. We saw all the festive delights come to a majestical close as the shift from 2013 – 2014 commenced. Just kidding, we are missionaries of the Lord Jesus Christ and we were tucked up in bed resting after a hard day of labour! Hehe

We had to be in our flats for 7 as the celebrations can get pretty crazy so we've heard. Apparently a mouse was found on a bus last year wearing a crown with its fur shaved reading 'God save the queen through 2013' (copywright Elder Nolan)

So we came home early and wound down whilst watching a film called 'The Testaments' it was pretty good.

Me and Elder Farley are doing great! He is a good missionary, very orderly and obedient which I exactly what this flat needed! He said he needs to learn how to be bold, so it looks like he's in the right place. He came from Ely and was Elder Gore's companion for the last transfer. We have already had some great studies and teaching experiences and so I'm really excited for this transfer. We also have a baptism on the horizon! Wooooohooooooooo! Angela is getting baptised! She is doing great as she prepares so please pray for her. She wants to set the example for her boys. Her aunt is a member in Jamaica and so she has known about the church for a long time. She has received the spiritual witness that the next step in her life is to be baptised and commit to Christ. It's just wonderful. I'll send a copy of the program when it's finished.

I'm beginning to understand my role as a missionary. This has progressed as I have started to really understand prayer. I always felt it awkward to ask Heavenly Father for help with an investigator when the whole point of us teaching that person was so that they could return to God anyway. I thought that Heavenly father would just fill in all the gaps regardless of my faith in asking him to. But as I have come to understand prayer and how it works, I'm starting to understand the whole concept of being a missionary. The Lord could quite easily 'pour out his Spirit' upon the whole world and people would be flocking to the font. He could have people knocking on our door trying to set appointments with us. He could make sure that we have a 100% success rate with every person we talk to and we could sit back and be spectators of this marvellous work. However, although at first it would seem logical and easy, there would be no growth, there would be no faith and there would be no experience for both the missionary and the individuals we are teaching. This is wholly and completely the Lord's work and in his mercy and love for us he has given us the opportunity to play a part in. He has given us the tools and methods to bring souls unto Christ whilst in the meantime we are saving our own. This sacred process of 'forgetting yourself and going to work' was taught by Jesus Christ himself 'He who shall lose his life shall save it'. When we put our faith in God and put our hearts to work we see a change, not only in others around us but mostly within ourselves. As I have tried to thank Him for every blessing we have seen in the field I am filled with joy and the spirit as it eradicates any notion that I am responsible for any success we are having. And if we don't have success even though we have tried our best and have exercised faith, it  simply means that the agency of other is in action and with this, feelings of despair and guilt are muted.

I have so much yet to learn in these short 21 months left and I feel so blessed to be in the London North ward at this time. I'm blessed to have Elder Farley as my companion and we are going to have a great transfer together.

I love you all,

Hugs and Handshakes

Elder Nolan

Ps. If Elder Hein's family read this, please tell him I love him and that his beautiful face has a place in my wallet. He also left his memory foam pillow on my window sill as a surprise for when I got home after I gave him grief for not giving it to me in person. What a man. I'm also sorry about the Glitter incident, he told me of the pain it caused (him and you), I had no idea he had an actual phobia! Haha Happy New year Hein family!