Photo Update

​The Wheelers! They just got sealed! wooo

​I really like taxidermy.....

#Becauseofhim

Hey, everyone! Happy Easter!

Its been a wonderful weekend and we have not gone short of easter eggs thanks to our lovely ward!

Poor Elder De Beer


Waddup original bom


jones, nolan, phelps, de beer (with chicken pox ha)

This is what we have been sharing with people recently and I absolutley love it.. Easter Mormon.org

So, we had moves calls yesterday and Elder Phelps is off to London! He is going to the stratford ward. President called and asked if i was ready for a new assignment and so I've been called as district leader for Chelmsford. So I'm staying in maldon and my new companion is Elder Martin who has been out for 11 weeks. He's from New Zealand and I already know him as he was born in my zone back in London North. I'm excited. The only sad news about yesterday is that i injured my back pretty badly. We were at a ward activity in the morning and i was running and something just 'went'. I walked it off at first and then sat down for about an hour. Big mistake. I couldn't walk! I've neve felt like this in my life! I'm getting old man! I had to walk to the car like quazimodo! The cashier at tesco's was visibly concerned due to the amount of ibuprofen I was purchasing. We got back to the flat and I had to just lie down with an ice pack on it. Today i'm wearing a heat belt and it seems to be improving slightly. Sister Jordan directed me to do most of the above. When President called he told me I have no time to be sick haha so true! But crikey, I know how grandad and grandma feel everyday now!

So over easter we were invited to a pentecostal passover feast by our friend from maldon whom we call 'pentecostal rob'. His church is in maldon and he told us that we would be their guests. It was such a great night! Each table had a plate with bitter herbs and horseradish etc and P-Rob taught us about the history of the passover and instructed us on how to partake of the Jewish Tradition. We sat on a table with all types of people and ofcourse we were the centre of conversation. I was sat next to a lovely man who was continually making doctrinal inquiries (to me) and beautifully explained the wonders of creation and his relationship with Christ. The evening concluded with a feast, headed by a bucket load of roast lamb. It was delicious, me and phelps tucked right in! We are so blessed to have so many different cultures in such a concentrated area. We plan to return and follow up on the pass along cards we gave out!

We have a great new investigator named bill. He is a less active Jehovahs witness and on a last visit he committed to read and pray about the book of mormon which is a huge step for him. He used to meet with missionaries about 15 years and one of them still keeps in touch with him, how amazing is that? I'm sure that Elder felt a need to do this and now hopefully that need is being fulfilled. We did some service for Bill, hedge trimming. I was confident in my skills due to my booming business venture pre mission and asked bill for his electric trimmer so i could give his conifers the shape up they deserved. Alas, after neatly trimming 95% of the hedge, disaster struck and the rookie inside me made a devastating error. I trimmed through the flippin' wire! The amount of times i've done that now! So embarrassing and I felt so guilty! I told Bill what had happened and he assured me that he had done it many times before. Now this experience sparked a moment of brilliance from myself and in my spare time i have been designing a solution to this everyday problem that, i'm sure 1 in 100 (may not be accurate)  males experience in their life time. I have sought advice from qualified engineers and upon my return home prototype production will commence!

I got my haircut last week at the turkish barbers! What an experience that was, never before have I had my ear lobs tapped with a flaming metal stick and paid for it. For the first time in my life I have 'pointy' side burns, not sure if its mission appropriate but as my mother always said 'It'll grow back'! ha The barber also got our his cutthroat and shaved my neck bare before splashing abit of scented alcohol onto the open pores he had just carved out. Owwwww! I loved it though, i think it was the manliest hair cutting experience ive ever had. £10, not too shabby.

So please continue to pray for irene, bill and hayley! They are all such wonderful people and we feel so blessed to be teaching them. We have had a great transfer together me and Phelps and have had a tonne of fun! Something which I feel is necessary in missionary work is to have fun! Its what keeps you up there and can be such a great motivator. The other day we went tracting and it began to pour down. So we would stay under the archway of each door about 5 minutes before we knocked and the thought of us just standing there without the people inside know really humored me. I don't know why. But it kept me from wanting to go home! We must find 'Joy in the Journey' always.

I love you all! I love and appreciate all the letters and emails I recieve.

Maldon to Victory!

Hugs and Handshakes

Elder Nolan

Reminder of our day out

Day of service with a member, we dropped by the dodgiest roadside yard sale ( used to be run by gypsies) to find some paving slabs and we came across some wonderful things

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Paul Hector 

Date: Mon, Apr 7, 2014 at 2:45 PM

Subject: Reminder of our day out

To: tobias.nolan@myldsmail.net

Greetings from Essex

This is a tribute window in the same church. In the bottom you can see the founding fathers of america, columbus and the statue of liberty! Thanks for the heads up mum!jos

Elder Phelps

Me

Pancake night! This is Elder Phelps

Del boy wasnt in sadly!

Hey!

Greetings from Essex!How are you doing?I’m settling into Maldon pretty well. The weather has been glorious and so has the work!So my new companion is Elder Phelps, we entered the MTC together and he has been in Maldon for 3 transfers before I arrived. We actually live in Chelmsford and Maldon village is a 45 minute bus ride away! The area is huge and so we are doing our best to cover as much as we can, we have a balance of street contacting and tracting. I’m really not a fan of tracting and neither is Elder Phelps, I hardly did it in London North and so we have done a lot of street contacting and we have been seeing miracles! We have been teaching a record amount of lessons for the area and we have gotten 3 new investigators every week since the start of the transfer! We go out every day knowing that we will find people to teach, we just have to be prepared to work for it. In a recent talk that President Jordan shared with us, an assistant said to his President ‘If you want to baptise a few people then you talk to a few people, if you want to baptise a lot of people you talk to a lot of people and if you want to baptise everyone then you talk to everyone!’ just a PMG says, talking with everyone is a missionary commandment and we know that ‘20 There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated— 21 And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated’. It sounds simple doesn’t it?So, how good was general conference? It’s sad I only have 2 more as a missionary; my notepad has never had so much attention during conference. I felt a definite confirmation this weekend that we truly do have prophets and apostles among us whom the Lord ‘revealeth his secrets’ too which they then share with us. This is such an important principle of the Gospel that the Lord works through his Prophets and apostles; it is a way of dividing the faithful from the passive, the Latter day Saints from the Mormons. Think about it, it would be very easy for the Lord to open the heavens and tell us all what he expects of us, to tell us where we are going wrong and encourage us to repent. He cannot do this however, firstly because of the Fall and secondly because we would cease to be our true selves. A member in the ward likened it to when we are at school, when the teacher is in the class room the majority of the pupils are well behaved however when the teacher is called out on an errand, suddenly pandemonium ensues and the once reverent class of young sunbeams becomes a jungle of wild acrobats with a distinct disregard for any form of education. (This may just be in my experience)  But the principle is true, when we are left in a state where we ‘can act and be acted upon’ the true nature of our souls comes into light. Thankfully in the Lords mercy he has blessed us with an abundance of Examples with Jesus Christ being the master. He has also placed in our lives, apostle and prophets; seers and revelators who continue to instruct us of what we need to do whilst the ‘teacher’ is out of the classroom so that we can learn how to progress and to ‘act and not be acted upon’.When Jeffrey R. Holland opened conference with his tenacious decree of courageous discipleship he noted that ‘God created man in his own image’ and I thought he was going to add that ‘Man (sometimes tries to) create God in his image’. We rationalise God’s ideals to a level in which we are comfortable with and even try to support it with the Scriptures. As missionaries we come across this a lot and it saddens me more than it frustrates me. Instead of rising up to the true standards of the Gospel, many can sometimes manipulate the scriptures to bring down their majesty in an attempt to make the message more popular. This is done in a society where popular culture demands passiveness and a submissiveness to the vices of the natural man. The general authorities of the Church delivered a message this weekend that edified and inspired me to be better, to do better and to aim for a better standard than I was previously working for.I also loved Elder Ballard’s invitation to study PMG and to let the missionaries know what you have been studying. I can testify that PMG is the secret to success in missionary work and I invite you to follow Elder Ballard’s council and tell me what you are studying!The Gospel is good. Its way good. I love you all, Hugs and Handshakes, Elder Nolan

Just to add,

I FINISHED THE BOOK OF MORMON COVER TO COVER FOR THE FIRST TIME! I feel so great about it, I finished just before conference aswell so I went in super prepared! :) 

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