How is everyone? This week has been interesting... up and down really. We've had a lot of things come up that we had to take care of in the zone which took some time away from our own proselyting time. I'll just start with the week though.
Monday was such a sick day, we spent all day with Barry in preparation for him going back to China )': . But we had a great time and that night we were able to take Barry and another Chinese recent convert named David to get their patriarchal blessings. I am so excited for them. When they came out of the room from getting the blessings they were both just buzzin with the spirit. They were so excited. It was really a great experience for them, and it was cool for me to be able to see that. I really believe that they, and especially Barry, will be the future leaders of the church in China. Barry is one of my priesthood heroes already.
Tuesday was a great day as well because we had Mission Leadership Council where all the zone leaders, the Sister Training Leaders and the Assistants all go to Birmingham and have a meeting with President about the mission training plan and how we can improve the mission. It was great to see some of my good mission friends like Elder Steel. It was also really cool to just walk into the room and see tons of tanks sitting around the tables. Elder Harris was pretty excited because he said one of the prayers and I guess that means he is dropping from Zone Leader this transfer. We had a really good meeting about the Book of Mormon and how to use it in our work. After the meeting Sister Rasmussen made us a massive dinner. What she made was just unreal. It was poppy seed chicken that was just perfect. That was really cool. After that meeting we drove back and Elder Harris and I prepared for our Zone Meeting that we had the next day. Then we went and ate at a place called the flaming grill with Reece.
Wednesday morning was a cool experience. We woke up then drove to Leicester and prepared for our zone meeting. We had a district leader council first then held a zone meeting. It was a good experience to conduct zone meeting with Elder Harris. Everyone seemed to really enjoy it. We talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and did a couple little activities to express how we should use it. The spirit was strong, especially when a few missionaries bore their testimony about the Book of Mormon. That book is just the best thing in the world.
After Zone meeting we went over to Barry's and had a Chinese barbecue. And had a great time. We spent a lot of time throwing apples at the tree and playing guitar. We had Alex, Ariel, Barry, Anthea, Ivy and David all over there and the other elders came a little later. After the barbeque we all piled into a room and taught anthea a lesson. The spirit was so strong as we were all in there testifying and take turns talking about the gospel. After that was the worst part of the week. I actually don't remember a single other time I cried out of sadness on my mission. We said goodbye to Barry. Everyone was crying and nobody wanted to leave. I've only known him for 3 weeks but he really has made a profound influence in my life. He's safely in China now. We'll just have to travel to China sometime and visit him and Ivy and Barry and Anthea, and Alex and Arial and I'm sure there will be more soon (: China is seriously on my top priority.
Thursday we went on exchange with Elder Lee and Page. I went to Peterborough with Elder Lee and it was good. I was very impressed because Elder Lee literally talked to every single person there was to talk to. He's a very diligent and very very obedient missionary.
Friday morning I was still on exchange and we were able to see a little miracle. We were near town center and some lady came running up to us saying Elders Elders! She had been looking for the missionaries for about 6 months and couldn't find them. But we were at the right place at the right time. Friday night we exchanged back and talked about the exchange and went over to Ivy's for a bit. Then did some weekly planning.
Saturday was a really interesting day as well. A couple funny things happened. So Boyd K Packers grandson is in the zone, which I think is just awesome. He's such a great guy. But anyways they asked us to come down to their area and help them because they thought they didn't know how to work on a University effectively so we went down there. I walk in to their flat and see a mug on his desk with a picture of him and Boyd K just chilling there which was cool, then we got a call that an investigator from another team just had been missing for a day and needed our help to find him. He's actually still missing, and the police are trying to find him. Then Elder Harris asked Elder Packer what his middle name was and he said 'Boyd'. I just thought that was so funny, because that's one thing that you don't just bring up all the time, because you know he probably doesn't like being singled out because of it. But it was funny. We went on a little workover exchange and I worked with Elder Lindquist from Sweden. We talked to some great people. A couple of them were Chinese students and they were League of Legend professionals in China. They were so cool. Then, the we talked to this Asian looking girl from Brazil that was super interested so that was a good miracle.
Sunday morning we of course went to church and had a good Sunday, then right after we were so tired and fasting that we took a nap for our lunch break. and right after that went over to Bob and Gillians for another Barbeque. It was so nice, they actually printed all of us a picture of us standing on the patio. They have one framed in their house. That's just a huge testimony that what we did really means a lot to them that they'd print out a picture of us and frame it and display it in their house. I love Bob and Gillian. Sound as a pound!
This morning has been good, we traveled to Leicester to take my theory test again and I passed it with flying colours. It wasn't even close to failing. Just shows you how stupid the test is.
But anyways, this week has been great, but slow with our missionary work, and full of ups and downs. One thing that we talked about at Mission Leadership Council that I thought was pretty cool was the patterns of a prophet. We went over only 1 Nephi 1 about Lehi. What happens to Lehi is, he prays, then he receives a vision in which he sees heavenly beings. Then they give him a book to read, he does. Then he prophecies about what he reads, then people mock him and threaten his life. We went over that and compared it to the life of Joseph Smith and talked about 1st, how the Book of Mormon is true, and second how Joseph Smith must have felt translating that and realizing that he was the Prophet and those things would happen to him.
I hope you all have a great week! Love you!
Elder Pogue
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