No time for update...... just a quick email to Mum

Elder Nolan's Mum has been  trying to add a video ... but alas no luck - you can see it on Elder Nolan's Facebook page: Elder Tobias Nolan

Hey Mother

Elder David tells me that you and Jonelle have been chatting!

I note my testimony on Sunday and told them about how much time we have been together on a mission and then I  said ' I think God wants us to be friends' it was so funny......

I got your lovely package this week and letter. Thank you for always believing in me mum, you don't know how powerful an effect that has had on the way I respond to opposition. 

















Thank you for all your help on the student finance end. I really struggle to focus on it, this week especially. We have indeed had zone conferences, for the past 4 days! It started in Ipswich and the rest in Hyde park. We gave a training every day, that was the most fun bit! It's pretty hard sitting through the same thing all week but I had some really good experiences. I loved being with the missionaries.Tuesday night president took us for a carvery haha he fed us rice and beans the night before at like 10.30 pm as we hadn't finished preparing.


Love Ya



Can you find Elder Nolan in these Zone Conference photos?

Do you recognise anyone you know? 

Can anyone tell us why Sister Jordan is dressed up as Mary Poppins?

 Elder Nolan caught up with the Deightons when they visited Hyde Park. The Deightons are from Maldon,Chelmsford - Elder Nolan's 2nd Area. Sister Deighton is an old Friend of Elder Nolan's Mum .The Deightons have a son presently serving in the Greece Athens mission.

A man without eloquence

Hey everyone!

How's it going?

It has been a very long week; so much travel, I feel like I have been a taxi driver more than a missionary. Nevertheless the Lord has blessed us with miracles and the work of salvation is definitely moving forward in the Norwich Zone!

Elder Johnson finally got over his sickness and jumped straight back into action, he had KFC for his first proper meal after 4 days of nothing, surprisingly he kept it down and so we are going to celebrate by going there for lunch today!

Buddy received the Aaronic priesthood yesterday! And he is so excited about it, this is what it is all about – progress. I have been amazed at the progress of Buddy, he taught a lesson with us last Monday and his testimony was riveting, in preach my Gospel it teaches that the time will come when someone is backed up to the wall of faith and at that point they must take a stand, this comes after someone bears testimony of the truth they have received by the power of God. At this point all tact, all argument, all philosophy and all doubt is drowned out by the insistent witness the Spirit gives that the testimony given is true. It reminded me of the video 'A man without eloquence' , the power of a simple testimony is unmatched and I am so thankful for the testimonies that Illuminated my understanding  and ushered in the hope of eternal life.

 We had a mission wide leadership conference this week, which is much like MLC but the district leaders are also invited. The trainings given were really inspiring, the mission has a lot of very experience senior missionaries; in priesthood leadership, business and many returned missionaries. Elder Phillips gave training on communication, and we had a game in which we had to navigate across an expanse of pieces of paper, it was almost like a minefield, the whole team of about 10 had to get across, the catch was that you could not speak or point. I was a referee and it was fascinating to see how the missionaries did this, they had 20 minutes, they could call everyone in together for a team talk and re-evaluate their plans, but once that was over they could not talk to one another. This dynamic was so interesting; I really believe they were more successful because they didn't speak. They didn't have one missionary shouting the loudest and taking control, it created a great sense of unity and people actually listened to the team talk and then observed how they as an individual could influence the team's effort for good. In the evaluation given by Elder Phillips he talked about how listening is the most important form of communication, I have definitely found that to be true on my mission. When someone is talking we are sometimes so hooked up on what response we are going to give that we don't even focus on what the person in front of us is actually saying! He also said that 'There is no failed plan, there is only feedback', I loved this, it is such a misunderstood principle. We feel like when our original plan has failed, that means that our goal is now impossible to reach, but it is quite the opposite, it means that you are progressing towards that goal as you have identified what doesn't work! Therefore you now have the opportunity to start a fresh, make new plans and learn valuable lessons in the process. Before my mission I had no understanding of what it means or even what it takes to be successful, now I know that 'failure' is the evidence of fault and success is the quest to correct it. #CaptainMoroni

We met a lovely lady called sally last Sunday as we were getting Elder Johnsons medication, we talked to her about all sorts of things and gave her snippets of the Gospel ; she told us of her time spent teaching her friends how to crochet and how she really loves to give of herself. She was such a lovely lady and had a wonderful spirit. I asked her 'do you know how to sew?', she confirmed that she did and we established that she could sew at quite a high standard, so I put her previous expression of charity to the test and popped the question (we met 10 minutes ago) 'Will you sew up my trousers? You see they have split at the seam and I just don't know how to fix it' to which after a few seconds of neural digestion she replied 'Yes, alright'. WINNER! The next day we dropped them off and the day after we picked them up. It was her birthday on Saturday so we posted a card through her letterbox; we are having an uplifting text conversation and are planning to teach her this week! My mother always taught me 'If you don't ask, you don't get!' Amen to that. PMG tells us that in every conversation we have we should commit someone to doing something; I don't think it meant this though haha

Anyway,

I love you all

Hugs and Handshakes

Elder Nolan

La Bamba

The reason this is entitle 'La Bamba' is because we have a great investigator called Buddy and he is on date for 31st August! This is the man we found at the chapel and showed the new mormon message to, we are teaching him today and going for a chinese buffet together! Shweeeet!

Hey,

How are you all doing?

We have had a good week, with lots of miracles, baptismal dates and even a brand new philipino baby being born! Maricel gave birth to her baby girl Alexandra on saturday morning! We are going to go round and sing to her tonight :)

Me and Elder Johnson are continuing to have a whole lot of fun, to work hard and in a way that the Lord can really use us to bring out his great and eternal purposes. Its good.

So on Wednesday, we were to do service at a members house, we had to grab something from the chapel and as we were the leaving it began to pour down. So we went to check something on the computer and after about 10 mins the Family History patron walks in with two very wet door to door leaflet workers. They sat down with us and we proceeded to chat and talk about life, work and eventually God. We shared with them a great video (i'll post it below) and they asked such great questions. We prayed with them, swapped details and we are meeting with them this week. I thanked the Lord for the rain that day, something which I have always been hesitant to do. They were merely looking for physical shelter from the rain and they left with sunshine in their soul. 

I love being a missionary!

Hugs and Handshakes

Elder Nolan

The District

Video for blog

I love this video...

Video from the Apple Store

Following on from our last post .... With greatful thanks to Elder Hein's dad, we can now share the video the intrepid duo made (with just a couple of modifications)

 "Elder Nolan is one smooth dancer! Elder Hein's four year old sister wants to dance with him :) She studies ballet. Perhaps they can have a go at it when we come to get Elder Hein at the completion of his mission."  Elder Hein's Dad

Hugs and Handshakes

Elder Nolan in the Apple store

Stolen from Elder Nolan's comapnions blog 

This is what happens when you let two LDS missionaries into an Apple store !