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

Update May 5th 2013

Hey Great week down in Maldon! We have a huge teaching pool right now and we are putting people on date for baptism! Woooo! We have been blessed so abundantly with people to teach, people at church and working with the members! I'm so happy about the progress we have made in the ward and also in the district, We are all seeing miracles and I have actually felt happier for the other missionaries successes than I have for ours!

 So last week we had an MLC (missionary leadership council) meeting in Hyde Park and the district leaders were invited. We set off at 6.45 and it took me 3 and a half hours to get to the chapel! We left the mission at one point too get through London. (London South just feels different) So we got to the meeting and we find that Area President Jose A. Texiera is there with his wife. Gulp. The meeting begins and he ministers unto us by the Spirit. It was so strong. He had said he had not prepared anything specifically for us today but he taught about what he felt he needed to and he talked about accountability. I had just given a training in district meeting on this and thought I was swatted up on it, but obviously I still had a few things to learn. PMG states that 'accountability is fundamental to Gods plan of salvation' therefore, no accountability means no plan. He then taught us what it means to be accountable. I had previously thought that accountability meant that this is where we are on our own, to prove what we can do in a sense. Elder Texiera taught us that when we become accountable we become humble and we become united with the Lord in our endeavours. When we become truly accountable we become subject unto our Heavenly Fathers guidance and we are able to cast off fear and doubt. Needless to say, this was honey on my lips. It is such a comforting and liberating principle for us to understand. When we are in the service of the Lord we are never on our own. Lunch then came around and I was was tucking in to my subway I felt a hand on my shoulder and I heard 'Eat up Elder and ome with me'. President Jordan is the only person who consistently strikes the fear of God into me. So me and Elder Adriano accompanied President upstairs and he then introduced us to Elder Texiera and his Wife. We were going to be interviewed... on camera! Ha It was such a cool experience. He is handy with a camera aswell. He wife was the sound technician. It was all slightly surreal. There was a wonderful spirit there though as he asked us about our missions, the meeting and what we would say to our district right now. We then had a photo together, it was taking him a while to set it up to which he said 'Elders, when you are sending a photo to church news, it has to be good' haha so look out for it! Since that meeting we have been anxious to help our investigators become accountable and we are doing this through baptismal dates. We have been blessed for our efforts aswell, and we have people on date! We have also been blessed for our dilligence.

Yesterday we went back with a family from church for dinner. We got there and found that we would be having a bbq, we know how long bbq's take to prepare so instead of waiting we left the dinner party to go and work for an hour and a half. We came back and had some proper tasty food and then the father of the fanily we have been trying to get hold of called us and asked if we were coming round to day! Wooo! Brother watling gave us a lift to Mani's house and we met with his family. We talked about their hindu background and there budding faith in Jesus Christ. We taught them the restoration of the Gospel and at the end we extended baptism to them, the Spirit was powerful and both Mani (father) and Kavidha (mother) said at the same time 'Yes, of course'! WOW! Such a blessing. We got the family we have been praying for and we are so humbled by the experience. We told bro watling over the phone what had happened and he said 'Blessings for dilligence'. It's true. I know that the lord is eager to bless, we just have to be willing to show how much we want those blessings and do what we have been called to do! Me and Elder Martin are having a wonderful time. I feel really blessed to have him as a companion and I know we will continue to see miracles together.

 11But Ammon said unto him: I do not boast in my own strength, nor in my own wisdom; but behold, my joy is full, yea, my heart is brim with joy, and I will rejoice in my God.
12 Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever.'

 I love you all, Hugs and Handshakes

Photo Update

​The Wheelers! They just got sealed! wooo

​I really like taxidermy.....

Update 22nd April 2014

 Hey! Short one this week. We had a great week though, we found some wonderful new investigators and we had 3 at church! Whoop! Elder Martin is teaching me several things at the moment, namely the Haka, the rubiks cube and how to throw a rugby ball correctly! Its coming along, Kia Kaha (be strong)! In turn I'm helping him with doctrine and his finding, he is a great missionary already. Jokes aside, I am learning so much from him, I have seen and felt the Spirit working through him several times already during lessons and as we have studied together in the morning. I am really enjoying being a district leader, i didn't think it would require that much of me but it does. Plus I want to be the best district leader I can be and so I have found myself on my knees regularly this week. The Lord knows these missionaries, he knows what they need and I have felt his guidance and inspiration as i've prepared trainings and conducted call ins. I love how leadership compels real growth in individuals and again I've found it to be yet another humbling experience on my mission and it's only been a week! We have the Faith to see miracles, we will work diligently to find them and obey exactly to be granted them! We are all stepping up at notch! Maldon to Victory!


Hugs and Handshakes, Elder Nolan

#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

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 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!!