Dumfernline for days

Ok this place is crazy awesome. I am stoked to be here because; my companion, Elder Powell, is a stud, the ward is awesome and the shower in my flat is pretty nice.

I said goodbye to everyone in Ireland and that was really fun/sad because I made so many great friends  while I served there. I am going to miss them, especially Elder Plewe, but I am so pumped for my new assignment.

I took a train to the ferry, a ferry to a bus, and a bus to a car to get to Dunfermline. Scotland I took every mode of transportation :] but I made it. When I got there I found out that we are dropping our only investigator but that is fine because with this fresh start we are going to get so much work done. We are going to see great things in this area. I have had a dinner appointment every day I have been here so far so that is great. The members here are awesome and their accent is so much fun to listen to. Hopefully I will be able to show you all when I get home. In this ward there are 2 sets of missionaries so it was kind of weird to see more missionaries at church.

One day we were chapping in the rain and this old guy came to the door. It was a normal conversation where he said he was atheist and told us to leave. I accidently said, "Let us in." There was an awkward pause and he said we need to come in and get warm. So we did. We talked to him about religion and he kept trying to reassure us that he is atheist but I think he was reassuring himself because he kept telling us he hopes there is a life after death and that he loves to see are faith. We were like "you can have all of that." sometimes it is frustrating. But he really liked us so he invited us back. We are praying his heart will be softened.  If he gets Baptized he would be the perfect voice announcer for General conference cause it sounds like he could narrate someones life.

yesterday we were able to give a recent convert a blessing. It was pretty cool. We then went to try by an Excommunicated member. He said he fell away from the church because he started to get bored of what people would talk about. Now he doesn't even believe in God. I remember when I was young I got pretty bored at church to. But I got bored because I never did the daily things so I wouldn't learn anything new  because I wasn't even trying. I think this is what happened to him and now he doesn't know where to turn. Doing the simple things like praying and reading the book of mormon are so crucial. It really does bring safety for the soul. 

Well I know that this church is true. The Lord is doing a marvelous work and a wonder. I love Scotland and I will see you later.

Elder Thayne

Saying bye to Elder Plewe 

Saying bye to Elder Stanley

My new Shower

Kitchen 

Saying Hi to Elder Powell

I'm Not a Greenie Anymore!

Good news I am not a greenie any more. I am leaving Portadown. I will miss it so much because I have come to know and love the people so much. The Portadown ward is amazing. they are the ones that helped me out when I first started my mission life. I have been here for 7 1/2 months. I am definitely leaving some good friends here. like Brother Donelly and his famous meals, Pedro Martins the best member missionary in the world, the crazy fun Keery's, Sis. Julie MacNally and Lynda Ross, Bishop Moss and everyone else. 

Elder Plewe will be staying here with an Elder White (former zone leader). I will be going to Dunfermline in Scotland. It is in the Dundee Zone. I will be follow up training Elder Powelle from Rexburg, Idaho who I hear is a beast. I will be the District leader to my Old Zone leader, which will kind of be weird haha. I am leaving but I am going to try to love this next place even more than I loved Portadown, which is hard to do but I am up for the challenge. 

This last week I wanted to leave with a bang. But in the end the lord had something else in mind. around 17 joint teaches fell through and it was just one of those weeks. It was pretty hard, but we know that we can expect those every once in a while. The good news, though, is that the elder coming in has so much to look forward to. with Elder Whites experience, he will be able to get so much done.

Our stake conference yesterday was held in the Ulster hall. The Ulster hall was built sometime in the 18 hundreds. It was pretty great because we had 780 people out at it. Our ward took the bus up to Belfast and it was just a party the whole way. 

I am definitely going to miss this place but I know that Scotland will be great. I missed Elder Holland when he came to Scotland and  I might be missing Elder Ballard when he comes to Ireland but that is ok. I will just pretend I got to shake there hands. 

Well I know that this church is true and I know that there are miracles happening every day. The second harvest is coming. Anyway, I love you.

Elder Thayne

These are just some of the families and people that I will miss a ton from Portadown :]

Brother Donnelly and I in front of his farm sign.

The Gilmor's: Me, Stephan, Robert, Helen, Sister Gilmore.

The Keery's: Mathew, Stephan, Jonas, Clair, Me, Lucy, Holly and Jacob

The Monroe's: Me (holding pip), Brian, Emily, Catherine, Lillian and Allison

The Martins': Me, Pedro, Denise, Joyce, Sylvia and Petra

In My Experience, There Is No Such Thing As Luck

This last week was so great! I was able to go on exchanges with Elder Parkinson. He is such a beast, he has only been out for 3 months but you would think that he has been out for over a year. we went to teach these two 25 year old guys and one of their girlfriends. We got there and they let us in but it wasn't a pretty sight. It was a mess and one of them was only half dressed and the other one just came out of the kitchen with a beer in his hand. They started to swear up a storm. Elder Parkinson gave me a couple looks like, "lets get out of here." But I wanted to stay, so I pretended like I didn't see him. They started to ask us some really good questions and we could tell that they were sincere. It was cool because we told them about the Holy Ghost and told them it would be there. We shared a message and they just went dead quiet. We told them they were feeling the Holy Ghost and they knew it. Elder Parkinson and I were walking away from that just saying, "wow...wow...wow" it was so cool because it just showed us we shouldn't judge people and say that they wont feel the spirit. We need to give everyone the chance. 

Later on in the week I went on exchanges with Elder Penman. He is a beast Zone leader! He would rather find than teach. Yeah he is a rare breed. I learned a ton from him. He taught me that we just need to talked to literally everyone. We went up to people in cars and started having good conversations with them. We actually got a return appointment from knocking on someones car window while they were waiting for someone. It was a great day cause we found a ton of sweet people.

On Halloween our day was looking awesome with 4 Joint teaches. The most I would have ever had so I was looking forward to it a ton. Sadly everyone of our lessons fell through. We went to try by a Mormon.Org referral and we found out it was the wrong address. The day was turning out to be a huge disappointment. But then around 7 we got a random text from this guy asking us if we were doing anything that night. We then called him and it turns out it was the Mormon.org referral. He asked us if we could come over right away. So Elder Plewe and I basically ran to his house that was a 35 minutes walk away. We got there and he let us in. He told us it is a miracle that we were sitting in his house. He told us some of his story and let me tell you it is crazy. This guy is so cool and he has gone through so much. He knows English Irish and french, he was in the army, and now he is a rugby player. He told us that no matter where he turns he can never fill this whole that is inside of him so he typed in "Christ" into Google and our church came up. He started to talk to a girl from Arizona online and he listens to Jeffery R Holland talks. When we gave him the book of Mormon he was so excited. He has a drinking problem but he told us that he will stop drinking because he wants to be sober while he reads it so he can feel the spirit. We were blown away. What we thought was a bad day turned out to be amazing.

We are starting to see the miracles come forth. There is going to be a second harvest over here in the British Isles. So when you start to see a wave of people joining the church just know that it was prophesied by our mission president. I am so stoked. 

Oh on the side we are teaching a Jehova witness that had a dream that the church was true. So that is kind of cool. I am excited to see where that goes.

Anyway I love you. But I hope you know that I love this gospel more haha. I have never been happier. I hope you all can feel this.

Elder Thayne

So this is Elder Plewe and I when we went over the Mcilwrath home. They are an amazing family. Just a year ago there boy, the one in the middle, had an asthma attack and was left almost dead. the doctors said he would never live. His father gave him a blessing and he woke up out of the coma. Then the doctors said he would never talk. His father gave him a blessing and he is now talking. The doctors said he would never have his memory back. His father gave him a blessing and he remembers everything. The Doctors said that he will never walk. His father gave him another blessing and he is learning how to walk. Every fast Sunday his father helps him walk up to the pulpit so he can bear his testimony. He is truly a miracle. He is 16 right now and so he is trying to recover as fast as possible so he can go on a mission. I feel blessed to know that family :]

 The other pictures are of an IRA monument. The IRA are a terrorist group haha and it is in the back of a members yard. haha don't worry he didn't put it there. His back door neighbors did.

Belfast Blitz Take 2

So this last week was miraculous. as a zone we tested the Promises of God and we got together to do another Belfast Blitz. We had 2 white boarding stations in Belfast. One at the University and one in city center. As a Zone we prayed for 220 potential investigators to be found and we got to work with giant smiles on our faces even though it was raining.

I was with Elder Reeder for the Blitz. He is from South Africa. We talked to as many people as we could. It was a great to see how another Elder worked. There was this one time that we were talking to this guy from Nigeria and we were telling him about the book of Mormon. He snatched it out of my hand and then looked at me as if to say sorry then he said, "can I keep this?" haha he was awesome! He started to read it as we were walking away :] there was so many experiances like that for everyone at the blitz. In the end we got 225 potentials as a zone. It was amazing because we tested the Promises of God and we reached our goal. 

There was other good new this week as well. We were able to teach Christian Barona. We taught him the restoration but his little brother Kalum was so loud it was hard for everyone to listen. Luckily he was quiet enough at a point for the spirit to come and we were able to commit him to Baptism.!!! He is already converted to coming to church and young mens because it is fun but hopefully he will see that there is more to it.

This Sunday we wend over Honorio's house. He is someone we chapped into. right when we met him we knew that there was something special about him. His whole family is so ready... dah it is so exciting haha. Anyway, we started to teach him and his Brother the Plan of Salvation. Both Elder Plewe and I could tell that the spirit wasn't there and we weren't suppose to teach that lesson yet.  So we started to pray in our hearts. Honorio then just jumped in and told us that he and been in the house for 2 minutes before we knocked on the door and he had an impression that he needed to pray with us. When he told us that we through our lesson and the window and we all got on our knees to pray. It was a great experience as we all took turns praying for him. We got up and we had the impression to talk about the Book of Mormon. We read the first chapter with them and then they were hooked. We jumped to Alma 32 and they got real excited. Then we hit moroni's promise and the spirit was so strong. It was testifying to us all that the Book was True. Elder Plewe knew exactly what to do. He set up the invitation for Baptism perfectly and they both said they would be Baptized on the 21st of November. It was a great experiance and I will never forget it.

Sadly I won't be able to see any of these people enter the waters of Baptism, because I am probably leaving after this transfer. But that is ok because the Elder that will be coming in will be able to come in on a good note. I wouldn't mind if I stayed in this area for 9 months though. I love it :]

I know that this church is true. The more I study and the more I pray the more I see and feel of it's truthfulness. It is the only way to happiness. There isn't very many black and white things out in the world, but the fruit of the gospel is one of them. It is the only way to being happy about your life and happy about yourself. I love you all. I hope you know how blessed you are.

Elder Thayne

Belfast Blitz with the whole zone

Singing hymns

Asking People to Write "What Makes You Happy?"

Beating the goal of 220 Potential Investigators by 5!

So I realized I didn't take any pictures this week so on the way to emailing I snapped a couple.

So there is west street

The bar/pub right by my flat

The bridge I cross every day...Yeah I am fat, aint it great?

The world on my shoulders 

And just a plain old Joe.

Service Softens Hearts

So this last week was great...in a way. Almost all of our appointments fell through and things were just going wrong all the time but that is ok, because we had a great week. We worked really hard and did everything we could so me and Elder Plewe were happy. It is pretty cool how that happens. We just had to do our best and forget the rest. (P90-X quote) haha.

Tuesday was our last District meeting with the legendary Lorimers. They are the people who did the second rescue handcart pioneer stuff. They have the most interesting life ever. As we were talking about faith they expounded on what faith could do and then they would share a story from their life and it would just blow our minds. We were able to go to their farewell fireside last night and that was amazing because they told us about their experiences with President Hinckley and President Monson. They bore one of the most powerful testimonies about prophets I have ever heard. It was an incredible experience.

Thursday night Lynda Ross, an investigators, called us and asked us if we could cancel what we had Friday and help her out in her garden. Lucky for us we didn't have anything pressing going on. We went over there and helped her dad cut hedges rake leaves and take rubbish to the dump. There was so much to do but we just put our heads down and went to work. Man it was so much fun to do some manual labor again. Working hard with my hands is fun, something my dad always taught me. Anyway, we were able to get her back garden cleaned up. She was so thankful and her father was to. Her father told us that he would never consider joining the Mormon Church but he was thankful for our kindness. So we will keep him in our prayers hoping his heart will soften.

As you can tell from this email not much has happened this last week. Don't worry though this next week is going to be great. There is a new park that just opened up and it will be a perfect place to go GQing in so we are excited for that.

Hey I love you all and I love this work. It wouldn't be any fun if I didn't love this gospel and these people. Love is everything. I hope you love the people that are in your lives, because God has put them there for a reason :]

Elder Thayne

This is Lurgan Park

This is when we lost our phone and a good Samaritan found it and left it at the train station for us 

This is when Lynda Ross took us out to eat after we helped her in her garden. 

Expecting a Miracle

So this last week went extremely well. It was the first week of the new transfer so Elder Plewe and I wanted to hit it hard this week and then keep that goal as a launching pad for the coming weeks. We were able to teach a lot of lessons and able to get some new solid investigators. I can see my last transfer here being the best one :] and I am willing to put in the work for it to be the best one.

On Thursday after finishing up a day of finding we got to the church to do District leader study. I was praying for revilation on what our district needed. I got the impression that everyone including myself needed a boost of faith. This last General Conference talked a ton about faith and how it is Not by chance, it is by choice. The moral of the district wasn't  great to start off this transfer especially because of a lot of investigators dropping people and Baptisms falling through. I know that people could look at that and get into a bad rut. I really didn't want to get into this rut so I was praying and I opened up the Book of Mormon and it turned to Alma 16:16-17 And there was no inequality among them; the Lord did pour out his Spirit on all the face of the land to prepare the minds of the children of men, or to prepare their hearts to receive the word which should be taught among them at the time of his coming- That they might not be hardened against the word, that they might not be unbelieving, and go on to destruction, but that they might receive the word with joy, and as a branch be grafted into the true vine, that they might enter into the rest of the Lord their God. Boom that was so cool. I Got the feeling that 2 of our teams are going to Baptize this Transfer! I know this can happen because God told me it can. So I am expecting a Miracle as I do my Part.

We are still working with Ana Barona which is great. Her family is amazing. I think that her son Christian will be Baptized because of the preparation that I have seen in his life. After hearing his Mom talk about her story and about her son, It would take effort to doubt. 

I love this work. I love being on a mission. I am letting you know now that these next  5 weeks are going to be filled with miracles so stay tuned if you want to read about how the hand of the Lord is blessing the lives of so many.

Elder Thayne

This was a pretty high platform we were on. 

That is the big clock tower in Belfast. If you look closely you can tell it is leaning. 

Those are the Cranes that built the Titanic. They are massive.

and that is a random church.

With Sis. Julie McNally who gives us wonderful pictures and reports on their activities...she is the Primary President in the Portadown Ward.

Riding home after Single Adults Family Home Evening Group, with Elder Plewe.

General Conference

So this last week was awesome. We said goodbye to Elder Blosil, but we have welcomed Elder Allred.

Through this last week we have been doing a lot of planning to make this next transfer the best it can be. This will most likely be my last transfer here so I want to do my best so the missionary that comes after me has something to work with. 

We were able to teach Nadia and Armendez this last week. They are a Lithuanian family and I think they can start progressing a lot. We explained that authority is needed for baptism and she said if she finds out that this church is true then she will be baptized so now she is reading the book of Mormon. I am super excited for her.

Christian, Ana's son, wen to young mens and loved it. I really think that she will be reactivated and he will be baptized. they are so ready to come into the fold. I love those two they have so much potential. 

This Saturday we were going to teach a potential, Honorio. He said we can come over on satuday at any time so Elder Plewe and I decided to go over before conference. We took Pedro with us and when we got there Honorio's son opened the door and told us his dad wasn't home. we asked him if we could give him a message and he accepted. We went in and started to pamphlet teach the Restoration. That lesson was one of the most spiritual lessons there was. Milicar, Honorio's son, was totally focused on what we were saying. We testified that the Holy Ghost was telling him that everything we were saying was true. He just got really quiet. Then we took a Book of Mormon out of our bag and gave it to him. We told him that this is scripture that Joseph Smith translated. He took it and said, "I will read this." He said it over and over "I want to read this. I want to read this." We told him to start at the beginning and prayer before he starts and after he finishes to ask of the Book of Mormon is true. He said he would. We extended a soft commintment to Baptism and he said he would when he knows it is true. Milicar is so humble and such a stud. 

Then we went to General Conference....Wow. wasn't that amazing. There was definitely a theme to this conference, FAITH. I loved it. I am going to down load it and listen to it. anyway I don't have much to say. I hope you have a good day. see you all later.

Elder Thayne

This is a delicious tomato BBQ chicken quasadilla

We are taking Elder Blosil to Belfast to go to his new area and it's pretty foggy. 

That is a selfie of Elder Plewe, Elder Mickelsen, Elder Blosil and me.

Elder Kinvill and me, he is in my group.