Friday, January 9, 2015

72nd Letter from England (Loughborough)


Hey everyone!

I think that's cool that I'll hopefully be able to go to Whit's wedding!  I still think it's weird that she's engaged.  I'm happy for her (:  I usually do get pictures you send, I don't think I got any this week though... did you send any?   
I'm not sure what to do about the parcels.  I'll talk to the mission home though.  Do you think they'll just leave a little letter or notice or something?  To be honest I wouldn't be surprised if Elder Gray just gives me a call and says something, that is if the company does somehow get in contact.  
That's way cool that you're having dinner with the missionaries, I really wonder what they're like and what kind of missionaries and stuff they are ahha.  I can't wait to go teaching with missionaries in the future.  

So we've had a pretty solid week.  I'm excited about the things that are happening, we've been fortunate these past weeks.  So monday we had a good day.  We just hung out with the district like we do every monday.  We emailed and then did a little bit of shopping and ended up at Costa Coffee and just all had fun together.  I heard a Belle and Sebastian song come on in Costa (the band we went to see right before my mission) and it was so weird that that was so long ago.  I can't believe the time I've been out and how fast it's gone.  After P-day ended we went to teach our investigator named Jason.  We saw him quite a bit this week and there's plenty of stuff to say about him, I'll share more later.  After that we went to FHE with the district and our investigators.  David Z came and had a good time.  It was a lot of fun at FHE.  We played a pretty fun charades game and everyone thought me acting like a chicken was pretty funny.  

Tuesday morning we woke up and went to Leicester because Elder Haynie needed a lift there so Elder Harris and I did some finding there.  I had the most awkward GQ where I GQed this guy, I was alone because Elder Harris was talking to someone, not out of sight or sound.  I stopped this guy and he asked where my comp was and said it was illegal to be away from him, he asked where I thought he was from.  Then he says "I'm from the CAPITAL"!!  He pulled out a Utah drivers license and then I asked so are you a member then?  He said no, I'm too old to believe in fairy tales.  It was just extremely awkward and then I later found out that he's a less active. It was just a little funny experience.
After that we headed back to loughborough and went to teach Jason.  Jason is way cool and just is so accepting of everything we're teaching.  He has such a desire to learn.  On Tuesday night he prayed in Chinese and it was very powerful. We then went to teach David Z again and try to implement the stop smoking program.  Really just introducing it and setting some goals for it.  We had promised Michael G. a pizza for teaching with us so often and that kind of didn't work out so we went over to his place and one if his housemates named Nina was there and we just started talking about what we do and about Christ.  She's from Nigeria and a strong Christian.  It was ideal to just have a really good lesson that seemed so natural inside that house.  Michael is such a great missionary.  Unfortunately Michael goes back to Zimbabwe next week so we're all pretty gutted about that.  We ended up going to eat with Michael at a pub with Reece.  It was cool because Leicester was playing Liverpool in football and the atmosphere of the room was all on edge and fun.  

So Wednesday morning Mum, I finally met someone from Guernsey or whatever it is. I promise you, it's not even close to our mission.  we had a district meeting and then we went to go exchange with Stamford.  Stamford though is a town that I'm sure you'd be very interested it.  Stamford epitomizes old England.  There were bits of Pride and Prejudice filmed there and it's just an amazing place.  I was with Elder Gull and we had a good time.  We really just did finding most of the time and had a DA with their branch president.  

Thursday morning we went to Peterborough's district meeting which was good and then headed back to Loughborough.  We went over to see David and had a great talk with him. Next we had a good lesson with Jason. We taught Jason about Jesus Christ and showed some videos.  It was really cool because we asked how he felt about Jesus Christ and he said 'hmm, when I was young my dad would point to a really good student and tell me to follow him and try to do what he does. I feel like Jesus is the same.  I should follow him and try to do what he does.'  It was a really cool moment and the spirit was strong.  We had ward coordination that night and were going through the ward list.  We came across Darren Sprintall's name (remember about a year ago with Elder Steel in the Dentist office?)  He's been pretty less active but I felt very strongly that I need to see him.  

Friday morning we spent a lot of the morning working on the area book which was terribly boring, but we had some good music to listen to.  We then went on exchagne with the Elders in Loughborough. Elder Haynie came with me and we just went around to find and teach a couple of people.  So we saw Zoe and David. We had a first lesson with a girl named Omo which was really good.  She said we could see her again on Saturday.  It was cool because  Then we took some time to go and see Darren.  It was way good to see him again.  He welcomed us in and we just hung around for a while then had to head off.  He said we could shoot him a text anytime and we could meet together sometime.  Hopefully it we'll be able to work something out.  Elder Haynie and I had a great time on exchange.

Saturday morning was great.  We all went to town center to do some finding, Elder Haynie and I ended up doing some split GQing with the Sisters so I found with Sister Stone and he went with Sister Chen (obviously still in sight and sound).  It was cool to see how the sisters GQ though.  It was a pretty busy day but it was good.  We then all met together as a district for lunch and I saw this place that said exotic meats from the wild.  So what we ended up eating was a Kangaroo burger and a Zebra burger!  Who would have thought I'd ever eat a Zebra.  To be honest I wasn't the biggest fan of either of them but they were alright.  It was mainly the experience!   Saturday afternoon we went to do some service for Reece which was really good because we sang Christmas carols as a small choir for a bunch of kids.  That was a lot of fun and I'm so excited for Christmas!  We went to see Omo again after that and it was cool because she'd looked up a lot of information about us and said she got a little freaked out and didn't pray because she's scared to know if it's true... sounds to me she already know's it is (:  ahah.  

Sunday was way good as well because he had Church.  Unfortunately David didn't get to come.  But church was good.  Right after church we went to see David and see why he wasn't able to come and he said 'I'm sorry but I've changed my mind about being baptized.'  He felt bad like he was letting us down.  Obviously that's a sad moment, but we started just talking about why and about Christ and the Atonement.  The spirit was incredibly strong the whole time we talked.  It was one of the top most powerful lessons I've been in.  It was amazing.  After the lesson David texted us saying sorry, and is really back to how it was before.  David's great.  After that we had a DA with the Ford's.  Camerons mission President!  They talked about Albania the whole time and it  was great.  For the rest of the day we just had try by's and call ins.  and that was the end of our week.

(maybe take this out... I don't really mind but whatever you think.)  I had a pretty cool dream the other night and it was kind of terrifying.  So in the dream I finished my mission and went home and it was good.  A few days home though I went through the whole day, then went to sleep, then woke up the next morning (still in the dream) and freaked out thinking, I didn't pray or read my scriptures yesterday!  I couldn't believe that I'd gone a day without doing that.  I know there hasn't been a day my whole mission that I haven't prayed AND read the scriptures but for some reason I had this dream and really felt bad when I woke up. I don't want to just spout out a random scripture, but I thought about it a ton and thought about 1 Samuel 15:22 which says ,
'And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.'

It made me think a lot about how reliant I am on the scriptures and on prayer.  It's not that God care's much about what we read or how much we read but really why, and how much we get from what we read and pray.  I felt maybe I'm going through motions really well and really benefiting from it, but maybe it's time that I gain a deeper need for these things.  I guess it was just a good opportunity to set goals for relying on prayer and scriptures and making sure that I am setting habits that last long after I go home.
That was my main lesson learned this week.  

Okay, cool side note.  So remember I? The one that was here when I first came to Loughborough?  She lives in Birmingham now with J, (her fiance) and so Elder Eunice and Lu in Birmingham have been seeing them quite a bit but J has never really been interested.  One day they were there and I. just went off on J. saying 'I want a temple marriage!  You need to listen to these guys!  I'm not giving you an option anymore!'  So he started listening.  I called the Elders a few days later and was crying because she had walked in on J  on his knees saying a prayer.  What a cool moment.  My role has been small with J  but it's cool to know that I've played any role at all.  Also it just show's God's hand in so much because the only reason that the Elders have contact with him is because a long time ago J called us frantic saying he had no place to go and he had to store all of his stuff at our flat.  A couple months later when he got to Birmingham we had to get his stuff to him and we met up with J  and he took us out to dinner and stuff but he forgot one thing in our flat.  We had to give that to Elder Eunice and Lu to get to him and that's how they were able to start meeting with him.  Just a lot of small things working out perfectly.  I'm so happy for that situation!

Well, I'm happy to hear that all of you are having a great week.

Love y'all!
Elder Pogue

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