Showing posts with label Maricel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Maricel. Show all posts

Monday, 18 August 2014

Loving Kindness


Another photo with Maricel plus the craske kids. Benjamin is our third wheel, he even has a missionary planner!

We spotted this view going at the national speed limit, had to get a photo, the reason i am looking to my left; oncoming traffic is also going at the national speed limit! We got back in the car and set off just in time :) 


We  made a tasty vindaloo together, ever since eating that scotch bonnet spicy food doesn't scare me


Hello!

How are you all?

What a wonderful week of blessings, lessons and revelations from heaven it has been. 

Buddy is doing unbelievably well and Maricel is settling into her life as a new member and new mother! 

The zone is halfway to achieving  it's goal with two weeks left, so we are really happy with that. Me and Elder Johnson have had a lot of exchanges recently and it has been really wonderful to be with the missionaries in our zone, to get to know them, learn from them and help them progress along their road of discipleship. 

We have a wonderful friend who we are meeting with right now who's translated name is 'Loving Kindness'. He is a Tibetan monk, he has lived all over the world and is one of the most interesting people I have ever met. We really connected when we first met and our conversation has been on of delight filled with a humble respect for eachothers understanding of God and he has helped me to understand a few things I was struggling with. It has really testified to me that truth is everywhere and the Lord is mindful of all his children. LK is currently feeling that there is a Father of us all and therefore a God who we can turn to and have a personal relationship with. It is a really interesting and fulfilling task in helping him to discover just how close his relationship to God is and that the process in which we become at one with Him is by turning to his Son Jesus Christ who makes intercession for us and is the leader of the rescue party to bring us safely home. His understanding of why we are here is clearly inspired and I can feel the genuine love he has for the people around him. We just have to help him as much as we can before he goes back to the jungle in Nepal.

I once again have been humbled by the words of President Jordan in his recent e-mail to the mission. He always offers words which help me to repent, to change and ultimately become a better missionary. He shared this,
If you love the Lord, your call is to feed His sheep. Could you ask for a greater responsibility? President Gordon B. Hinckley, quoting an unknown author, once said, "Survey large fields and cultivate small ones." He then added, "My interpretation of that statement is that we ought to recognize something of the breadth and depth and height—grand and wonderful, large and all-encompassing—of the program of the Lord, and then work with diligence to meet our responsibility for our assigned portion of that program. Each of us has a small field to cultivate. While so doing, we must never lose sight of the greater picture, the large composite of the divine destiny of this work. It was given us by God our Eternal Father, and each of us has a part to play in the weaving of its magnificent tapestry. Our individual contribution may be small, but it is not unimportant." If you will take a word of counsel from your mission president, it is this: cultivate the field the Lord has given into your care. Preach the gospel in your area. Feed the sheep in your flock.

Wise counsel for young missionaries. I echo his words, could I really ask for a greater responsibility? Cultivate the field. Preach the Gospel. Feed the Sheep.


I  love you all,


Hugs and Handshakes

Elder Nolan

Tuesday, 29 July 2014

28th July 2014 Update

MTC Group reunion at zone conference

Me maricel and elder Johnson!

New suit from matalan, 32 quid! hence the smile


Fufu at the simbis! 

Maricel and the Carters, we taught her in their home all the time. 
They fed us so much Filipino food!
Yes, maricel is pregnant. Heavily.

Elder Nolan, Elder Craske and Elder David

We got a flat tyre!

New district leader Elder Mortensen got hold of my camera during the baptism, irreverent!

Hey!

How are you?

We have had a great week; Maricel was baptised and confirmed! The service was lovely and the talks given invited such a wonderful feeling of the Spirit in the room. Everyone was crying! We had 10 investigators there! J it was just as well as Filipinos really do know how party, there was so much food after!
We also had the baptism of Joel, the son of a member who we have been teaching. His grandfather flew over rom America to baptise him and ordain his brother to the Aaronic priesthood. It was great.

We sang at both baptisms and then sang an accapella musical item at the north Norfolk branch on Sunday afternoon. I love going to this branch, they hold it in their living room and about 8 people come who can't travel all the way to the chapel. We get to take the sacrament twice which is always fun! It was probably one of my favourite Sundays on my mission, it was such a joyous day and at times it felt like I was going to burst or pass out like Alma. These are 'the good old days'.

Me and Elder Johnson have had some experiences this week where for the first time I have actually felt like a zone leader, where I have felt that what we were doing was really having a positive effect on the missionaries around us. We love the missionaries in our zone and we just want them to reach their potential as a missionary and even more so as a child of God. So many great things are happening. I can feel the Lord guiding and pressing us to push this zone so that he can then bless it the way he wants to.

I am really loving my time in Norwich.

I love you all,

Hugs and Handshakes,

Elder Nolan
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