May 2nd- 8th

Family,

It was so good to see you and speak to you. You all look great!

Alright mom it is time to spill the beans. Have you had some work done? If yes you look great. If no well then take it as a compliment that you still look young and beautiful!!!

Elder Packer was amazing. He came and spoke to us about the language of the spirit and how to learn and recognize it promptings. After he took a little meeting with a few of us just to talk about what we need to do for the mission. He was great and told us that follow up is the key to success. It was funny he gave the 8 of us all a hug.  

I will just keep this short and sweet. I love you all hope you have another great week.

Love Richard

Ps. Love all the pictures especially with maddie! 

 If I have some dark conservative sunglasses that would be great. I cant remember all the ones I have had but If the blue ones are around you can just through those in the box.  Thank you

*** we all had a great laugh at this email, and the answer is NO...... no work done, just a nice shower before the skype call. 

April 25th- May 2nd

Family,

Wow. I cannot believe it actually happened! Congratulations! It looks like the wedding was quite the event. At least from what I can see... The pictures come up so small on the computer so make sure to send them to me in print please!!!!  Everyone looks amazing. I forgot to write what I wanted to say to Amanda for Rowland and so you will just have to tell her. I wanted to give her some nail polish and then tell her that, “you may be used to having a girl’s day out and getting your nails done but now that you are married to Rowland you’re going to need to make sure he is invited. Just make sure to pick out your favorite color first because who knows he may steel the one you wanted!”  I also thought about getting her the affirmation ball you sent me and telling her that whenever Rowland asks her questions just shake the ball and it will give her the right answer!!!  

This week was great. I may not have been at the family wedding however I did watch the royal wedding. President gave us all permission to watch it for two hours. Although it may have been completely apostate and terminating at death, it was still great to see. I think the princess got the short end of the stick, she is much prettier!   

Also, today is a bank holiday so we were able to go to the temple. It was great. I was able to see lots of people from other wards as well as missionaries because it is the one day that we can go. Famous sister unsworth from bolton was there and still remembers that wonderful package you sent her!

Alright well great things in the work are happening. This week my companion was telling me that in his morning study he learned that you can know you are working by the spirit if at the end of the day you can remember when you received revelation. Later that day I was sitting in the car and out of know where the name of an investigator popped into my head. I realized that we needed to be at a specific spot at a specific time. She was there waiting for us and we were able to have an amazing lesson and resolve some big concerns she has been having. Revelation is such an interesting thing but I know that it is true!!!  

Mother’s day I will Skype you at 4:00 pm your time 8:00 am. I am looking forward to seeing all of your beautiful faces.

Love, Richard

Ps. Osama Binladen news is so exciting! It is interesting. If you could send me some more news on it that would be great. Right now president bullock is being very cautious and we are not to work in any heavily populated Muslim areas just in case.   

April 21- 25th

Family,

This has been quite the week! We were blessed with six investigators at church and we now have six dated for baptism all on the 14^th of May. I know I haven’t been good about writing about each so I will just give you a brief summary.

Sunny- Sunny is from Inner Mongolia (China) and we have been teaching her for a few weeks now. Back in china she had a bad experience where she went to one of her friend’s baptisms in another church and thinking she was just a spectator got forced to be baptized by the pastor. Well fortunately this week we were able to take her to a baptism in the zone and she felt the spirit so strong that she accepted a baptismal date! I think she like the fact she left dry.

Jithu, Tony, Praveen- They are students from the southern part of India, Carla. Jithu is hindi but the other two are Christian. This week we taught about the 10 commandments really emphasizing the first two. They are very pure in heart and have identified the spirit many times. It is sad to take away jithus rich culture however the church is true!

Kayley- A member referral! She was in the hospital and became friends with the woman sitting next to her who happens to be a member of the church. Kayley is 21 and the member is 50 but God works in mysterious ways. Only a few days out of the hospital and kayley was at church excited to learn more about God and strengthen her faith which had been wavering for some time. WOW! Blessings from heaven.

Ako- (Not to be confused with akon) is an amazing man from the Congo. His brother is actually a member but lives between London and Liverpool. He has come to church a few times with his brother before but never been taught. I set up an appointment with him a few weeks ago but it fell through. Yesterday he came to church and we were able to teach him. We walked with him to a member’s home and had dinner/taught him the restoration. He accepted baptism immediately.  

These are just the people who have accepted baptism not to mention the many others who we are teaching.

Just yesterday we had only a few hours of finding and were able to meet and teach this Chinese student who wanted to know what the difference was between all the Christian churches. We were more than excited to tell him.  He accepted baptism and all the other commitments we left him.

This week we had zone leader council at the Bullocks home. It is my favorite meeting of the transfer. We come together and do a SWOT or strengths and weakness evaluation and then make plans for the coming transfer. The mission is doing incredible. Lots of great things are going on and are only going to get better. There is lots of talk about transitioning the mission and making it ready to hand over to President Preston.

Family, I cannot fully explain all the wonderful things that are happening here in Liverpool via email. We have been the recipients of so many blessings. I feel as though each day we go out and work the Lord is guiding and directing us to his children who are prepared to hear His message!

Love,

Richard

PS. If you have any questions ask.

Tell Rowland and Amanda congrats got the invite and it looked really great. AKA Posh

Tell Shelby congrats as well! One day i will get around to writing.

PPS. Have you heard from elder aaron darrow??

April 11th- 18th

Family,

Wow, this has been a blessed week. You would not believe how much can be crammed into 7 little days! Just yesterday, we tried by a potential investigator and had Wu, a recent convert, fellowship with us. The confirmed lesson fell through; however, after our recent trainings from the assistants, we were able to do some street contacting with the member. In just a matter of minutes we taught two lessons and set up 4 appointments! Not only did we see great success but also one of the street lessons was a Chinese student. Wu was able to really help teach and add strong testimony to our message in this young mans native tongue.

This week I was able to go on an Exchange with Elder Welch who is from the legendary Bountiful. He even went to Bountiful high. He is a really good missionary and came out only a transfer after me. We were able to see some great miracles. In the morning we only had a short amount of time to find. Before leaving we prayed with the expectation to teach someone on the spot. The Lord blessed us and we set up many appointments and taught someone right on the spot.

Madhav from the Man South ward was baptised this week. Elder Darrow and I were able to drive over for an hour and witness the baptism. It was really great to see him and many of the members who I did not get to say goodbye to. He was really nervous but after it all said that he felt wonderful. Also, I don’t know if you remember but from Bolton we were teaching a young woman named Lauren (who got baptised) as well as her boyfriend Tom. For some reason after I left Tom did not get baptised but continued seeing the missionaries. This weekend he was finally baptised!

Right now, Allen the YSA who we are teaching is doing really great. He is on tract for his baptism on the 16^th. We have been through most of the difficult commandments and he has accepted everything. He is doing really well.

Tonight, we have to teach FHE to all of the YSA in Liverpool. We are not sure what we are going to do, how long it needs to be, or when it starts, but it should be lots of fun! 

This week we had interviews and trainings. It went really well and I had a great interview with president. I believe we will have one more before he leaves. The new mission president comes if I remember right the 10^th of July. June is going to be a great month. Apparently, President has planned some exciting things before he heads off. This is Elder Darrows last P-day. He heads off on next Wednesday and will be back in the warm sun. I grateful to be serving with him because he just continues to work harder knowing his time is limited instead of some these dead missionaries who just cant wait to go home. This week we taught the most lessons I have ever taught on my mission including all of the extra things we did. Miracles.    

Family i am so GLAD to know that you are having missionary experience! I want you to know that I have been praying for you to have just that. When members do missionary work miracles occur! You are so great. Tell me more about what happened to the woman...did she hit her head or what the letter was unclear. How did they feel about the gospel? Did they accept the missionaries to come?

Sorry my letters are so choppy and I don’t tell you about all of our investigators. It is hard because right now we have been so blessed and it is difficult to decide which ones to write about. However, I cannot complain I could not ask for a better problem to have!

I love you, glad to know things are going well and your back and safe!

Love, Richard

PS. Is it possible for me to get a costco card from you?? If it is that would be  great.  I was just wondering if its a matter of mailing an extra card  lyring around the house.   If not or if there is any trouble i dont need it dont worry about it.

Chareese-

1. How is Pool? On fire!!!!

2. Is it going to get really quiet there during the summer since it's a college town? No it is a big city and lots of people. Many of the Chinese go back but there are still lots of people.

3. Are you eating Indian food? What do you think?! Yes I eat curries all the time. They are delicious!!!!

4. Aren't you getting a new companion soon? Yes but E Darrow is great.

5. What area do you want to go to next? I am going to die here (not literally)!!!

April 4- 11th

amily,

What a blessed week here in the Pool, full of exciting adventures. I was able to go on an exchange with one the district leaders, we had General Conference, and now I am participating in the missions 40 day fast.

Exchanges are my favourite! Not because I don’t love my companion but just because you get the chance to work with missionaries at all different stages of their mission, with each really unique backgrounds, from all over the world. Also, the lord blesses exchanges and we always see miracles on them. This week I was with Elder Jager who is from Germany. We have started doing what is called a consecrated hour of finding each day in the zone. It is where you dedicate an hour to the Lord and pray to see miracles. That is exactly what happened. During our hour of finding we were able to set up many appointments but what was so miraculous was that from that short hour all the appointments turned into new investigators!

General Conference was a feast. We were asked to bring prayerfully sought out questions and promised they would be answered. Well the promise came true. I brought seven questions and each one of them was answered. Elder Oaks and Bednar covered most of them. It was surprising to see how much many of the talks were focused on things that President Bullock has been training us on. It just goes to show that they are all getting their inspiration from the same source!

I dont know if i explained this yet or not but the 40 days leading up to Easter each companionship is taking 24 hours to fast. We are fasting so that the mission can lift to a higher level, see miracles, and achieve our annual baptismal goal. 

This week we were blessed in total to have 13 new investigators! Great things are happening here and we are teahcing lots! Sunny is doing well. School is still very busy however she told us the other day that she feels god is truly answering her prayers. A few weeks ago she did not know who God was!!

A less active recent convert came into church randomly all on his own the other day. It was a pleasant surprise and just explained to us that he had gone through some struggles that caused his testimony to waver but he knows the church is true. We set up an appointment to go and visit him and when we went to the appointment he invited his friend along. His friends name is the same as his, Allen, but he was really interested in the church and so we taught them the restoration and now Allen is dated for baptism. He came to all sessions of general conference and has continued to read from the BOM! He is from England and has had a rough past but is looking for a fresh start.

This week is interviews and trainings. It is always something to look forward to. We only have interviews every other transfer and so I will have one more with president before he leaves.  

Well I am sorry if my letters are starting to get less detailed. It is hard because so much is going on that it is hard to fit it all into one email. I love being here though and great things are happening. I love you lots.

Richard

Rob- that is so exciting! Congrats. I am sure you are going to do great things. Now that you have such a high position maybe you could get the boss to send me a company shirt!

Paige- thanks for the pictures… preston looks so cute!!!

March 28 - April 4

Family,

Liverpool is incredible. This is the promise land. We have just had so many miracles and been able to teach lots and lots of people. Yes, it is a city and we are teaching more immigrants than English people. However, it has been a great experience to get to meet people from all over the world. One the missionaries kept track of how many different nationalities people were from that he spoke to. In a matter of 6 weeks he had spoken to people from over 90 different nations!

Our most progressing investigator right now is a woman named Sunny from china. She is extremely great. We taught her the word of wisdom on Saturday. Tea is a big big issue for the Chinese. It is apart of therr culture and they normally drink it like its water. Sunny has felt the spirit and was able to commit to living it.

We are also teaching a group of Indians studying in the nautical science program. They are some of the kindest men you have ever met. Each time we go to their house they are so enthused about what we are saying. One of the men, Jithu, when he read from the Book of Mormon said he felt a shock run through his body and had an overwhelming feeling of comfort. I think because of the culture in India many of them are sensitive to the spirit and able to feel its great influence. We have big hopes for them and hope to see progress.

This week we had Zone Conference and I am getting anxiety knowing that they are numbered with the Bullocks. President gave training on the great apostasy and the restoration. Scary to see how much evidence there is that support it, both doctrinal and physical. Sister Bullock gave an award winning talk on “being believing” and went through many of the stories in Christ life. They are just incredible people and have a special ability to give fantastic talks. I wish they were all written down so you could read them.  

The tomtom has been a huge help. This is a short transfer and since Elder Darrow is leaving at the end of the transfer I am going to need to know the whole zone in only five weeks. We have lots of exchanges planned and are looking forward to another great transfer.

Love,

Richard

Parents-I am so jealous of this dive trip! I think because of everything that is going on at home you should delay it another year!

Madeline- What has happened family are you not looking out for my future posterity? How can you let a Canadian take my place? Haha, only teasing, tell her congrats!!

Paige-I love the pictures they are the greatest. That is very sad about lynlee’s bro. I will keep them in my prayers.

 

March 21-28

Family!

The rumors about Liverpool are true! This is a blessed area and I am so excited to be here. Due to the busy week, we only had one new investigator by Friday night. Between Saturday and Sunday we were blessed to get 10 new investigators, many of which were from teaching on the spot. The Lord blessed us greatly as we went out and worked diligently and faithfully.

Liverpool is a University area so we are able to work with many Chinese. There are three Chinese speaking missionaries in the ward alone and 6 missionaries in total. From serving on the Isle of Man, I had been to the ward previously and felt of their great spirit. The ward is really strong and about 150 to 200 come on Sunday. Very similar to the ward I just came from but with a much younger crowd. The ward has a very large YSA and many of them are from China!

This weekend I was able to go on a mini exchange with Elder Jin. This was my first opportunity to work with one of our Chinese missionaries. On our way to our appointment we stopped a Polish man and I could not help but feel such joy in knowing the gospel is filling the earth. Each one of us is from a different country, living in a foreign land, speaking about the restored gospel! Prophesy is being fulfilled and it’s incredible to be apart of it.    

Elder Darrow is great and we have been having a wonderful time. This week we have to give trainings for the whole zone and it is going to very exciting.

Miss you lots!

Love,

Richard

PS- Thank you so much the sat nav is going to help out a lot!

PPS- Mom keeps neglecting me and not sending emails? What’s the deal? Only teasing I know something probably happened with the comp or life got crazy. I would love to hear from you next week though!!!!! J