I'm in Maldon Baby!

Me and phelps

My first fried snickers! scrumptious!

Burning of our ties. me, Sister Falcao and Elder Mitchell,

all 6 monthers

It was harder than i thought it would be!

I burnt a nice one aswell so it felt like a sacrifice haha

Leaving Highgate

Medhi, me, Wilson, Andrew and elder Mitchell. 

All three will be blessing the sacrament soon

Service Day

Hey!

How are you?

This week has flown by as me and Elder Phelps have seen so much success in the blessed land of Maldon. The Ward is amazing, In every sense of the word. Elder Nielsen in London North told me all about this place as he has served here for 6 months. When he arrived at our flat in London north he was so homesick for this ward and I can understand why. It reminds me of home, they have long standing members who all have super strong testimonies of the Gospel and personal relationships with their saviour. I could feel their faith in sacrament meeting on Sunday and I know that they are about to burst with missionary work. There is so much potential for growth here.

It’s just as well as leaving London north was really hard. It was like leaving home again. Packing my things up and seeing people for the last time was much harder than I thought it would be, I guess you get comfortable. London North will always have a reserved spot in my heart. I learnt how to be a missionary there, I learnt how to listen to the Spirits promptings and most importantly I learnt how to trust in the Lord. I LOVE YOU LONDON NORTH!

SO We already have a wonderful investigator called Irene. She has been attending church for the past 3 weeks and the ward has welcomed her so lovingly. The best thing is that she has a strong faith in Christ, her desire to follow him is increasing and she has expressed her desire to be baptised. We are currently working out logistics as the next few weeks seem pretty hectic for her but I know we will get there. Please pray for her to continue to feel and be taught by the Spirit.

Our new district leader asked me to give training in district meeting on Saturday on why we need the Spirit in our work. In preparing, I pondered on the experiences of my mission that have not only taught the people I’ve been teaching but have helped me grow and they have all been products of the Spirit. As we help people come closer to Christ by preparing them to make covenants with God and live the requirements to receive a remission of sin, the Spirit prepares us to keep those covenants and truly become converted to the Gospel. Without it we would simply be immersing an individual, but with it the individual experiences new birth, free from their past and is filled with a ‘perfect brightness hope’ towards the future. I once again feel humbled by the power the Spirit truly has in our lives and the cleansing effect it has on our hearts.  

Me and Elder Phelps are having a blast, I am so happy to be having fun all the time! We are so excited for this transfer and we can see the wave gathering on the horizon and its up to us to catch it.

I love you all,

Hugs and handshakes

Elder Nolan

The Only Way is Essex!

STOP PRESS ELDER NOLAN HAS BEEN TRANSFERRED 

Hey!

I am off to the blessed land of Essex, to the Maldon ward! 

It's gonna be a 'reem' transfer for sure. 

I will write a much more thorough update as this keyboard is so bad it is giving me back ache ha!

Just tried to upload photos and the computer nearly crashed haha! 

Until monday!

Hugs and Handshakes 

Elder Nolan

Ps. I think this means I am sadly out of the band for a term!

News from the field 19th February 2014

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 9^th 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