Moving to Hereford

So this week has been different than I think I have had before on my mission, I have spent more time out of my new area than I have spent in it. Wednesday we had transfers and we didn't get back from them to Hereford till 8 pm and then on Thursday we had district meeting which was fun because Hereford is in Worcesters district so I got to see my old area but I only got to see a few members then. Friday we had to be in Cheltenham and we went on swaps with the zone leaders there, it was fun because elder Lindquist and Palu were both in the MTC with me. Because a sleep over night is not a common thing in our mission no one has any extra blankets or beds or anything like that so we slept on the ground with no blankets. all I had was a sheet and a towel to keep me warm lucky we just turned up the heat a bit more. Saturday we woke up at about 5 and had to be on the coach by 6.15 and then we had the conference till 12.30 then about a 2 hour travel back.

The conference was amazing and rebuking elder Ballard told us to wake up and stop being robot missionaries, we do the work but we need to get the spirit more with us, he said that just like Brigham Young said that we shouldn't do anything till we get the spirit but. that once we get the spirit we can do anything.

Sunday I got to meet the ward and I found that I already knew a few of the from the time I spent in Worcester and then brother Stobbs the member I actually spent Christmas with last year is the stake young mens president and he was in Hereford with the young mens here so I got to see him. and also brother Stones moved from Worcester to Hereford so he  is in my ward again. and a few I met from stake things. The ward here is really good especially in feeding the missionaries I think we have a dinner appointment almost every night. so things are good here so far.

We did have an interesting experience last night a super less active member texted us and asked if we were free and we said yes and he wanted to meet us in town but man town was really busy because they were doing the presentation and carnival to kick off turning on the city Christmas lights. When we got there he told us that he was part of the freedom church now and he was deeply in it and invited us to come to there open house that night and so we talked a bit with him and we were walking and then we were at his church and so he invited us in and gave us a tour and it is a born again church and they do live video productions also.  Then we had to go to visit some families and it was probably for the best because the band was just starting up and so we left and it was just interesting to see what other people think church is. 

Earlier before transfers this week we had an amazing lesson with J and I am pretty sure she is going to get baptized soon. the other funny thing about Hereford is that it in next to Cwmbran and next to Worcester so now I have covered an entire big strip of the country as a missionary. but also it was funny because the only way to get to Hereford by train is to go through either Cwmbran and Newport where I just was or to go through Worcester and in the last 5 days I have had to go through both so the only one of my area I have not seen in the last week has been Burton. I also realized how much stuff I have when i was transferring my bags were so heavy. i think i broke the wheels on one of them. 

One thing I did find out this week was that transfers are right before Christmas so I am pretty sure that i am staying here but no promises. 

Love and Prayers

Elder Poll

November 9th

So to start let me explain how wet it was this week and how I felt like my feet never got dry. We weren't even on bike we were on buses. and just so you know an umbrella is just about useless in this country because the rain doesn't just come from above or just one direction it come from everywhere.

Other than that our week was good... not as good as we were hoping but it was good. A lot of our investigators weren't able to meet with us this week for various reasons but we were still able to get on some of our less actives to church so that was good. 

We were able to still meet with a few of our investigators which is good because this week is going to be hectic We have transfers this week no guaranties that I am leaving but it is really likely. We don't find out  tonight. at about 9. If so then tomorrow is spent packing and saying good bye and then Wednesday is travel to the new area. Thursday trying to grasp the area and Friday we have to leave to be at the Elder Ballard conference early enough on Saturday morning so ya that is how busy our week is going to be. We even have a few lessons set up tomorrow even if I am packing. 

This past week we had an amazing lesson with B. she is definitely feeling the spirit but she just wont admit it to herself. I know she is feeling it because it is filling me so strong and elder Depries and S our member that come to our lessons with us, so she had to feel it she just needs to accept it. She also needs to get work off so she can come to church, but she told us with the Christmas season now on that is won't happen unless she gets fired or something. so ya sad at the moment.  One of our investigator has already started to live the word of wisdom, and we have a lesson with her tomorrow. other than that our week has been a bit slow, but I was able to go on exchange to New Port on Friday and that was fun and scary because we were back on bikes there and the elders bike I was on exchange, with his bike is a death trap and it was pouring rain so I felt like I was going to die the whole time but luckily i didn't. 

 

Well that is about all for this week. 

Love and prayers

Elder Poll

 Halloween week

This week started out good and just got better then slowed down a bit towards the end.Monday we were up in  Ponty Pool we planned to do a bit of work up there before dinner and follow up on some potentials that we had there, and we were able to set up an appointment with K for the next day. We had a great lesson with her it did get cut short because she had unexpected visitors and so we set up for another day to come back. Tuesday was a bit slow but that's all right everyday can't go prefect. Wednesday we had a lesson with J and it was alright but he is not interested in the gospel just a nice guys that's up to talk so we left him with a book of Mormon and our number and told him to call if he had questions, then we went to Oakfeild to follow up on some potentials and were supposed to meet with P. but he wasn't home we are pretty sure he forgot about our appointment. but then while we were at his we realized he live in 47 but there was also a 47a and so we thought maybe that is C's address and so we knocked and it was hers so she had kind of given us the right address. We had  short talk with her on the door step because she lives alone so we couldn't go in. but we set up to see her on Friday and told her we would bring a friend so we could have a longer lesson and come in and she said yes. Thursday was a bit crazy it was one of those days that doesn't got according to plan but still end up great, two of our lesson had to reschedule and so we were kind of stuck in Ponty Pool with all of our plans fallen apart so we started to track a street and brain storm a few other ideas of what we could do or who we could see but then as we were talking to people the street turned out to be amazing and we got 5 potentials on the same street. Friday was the best day ever!!! 

We had interviews with president, district meeting, and 3 amazing lessons.

So on Tuesday we met a lady ( i shouldn't say lady she is only 4 years older than me ,i still don't think i am 20) but she is awesome. Thursday she text us and said I am really excited to meet with you guys and then on Friday while we were in interviews she text again and said do you guys have some time today and we were like yes and so we met her right after interviews and the lesson was amazing, She completely agrees with the word of wisdom already and she was the one that brought it up and not even that she had read about us and not drinking and stuff but she already believed it herself and we are meeting with her later this week and she already said that she wants to come to church this week so that's amazing.!!

Then bro Slade picked us up and we went to our lesson with C and it went really well also and Bro. Slade was awesome and shared how he came to know how church was true with her. Later we had a lesson with a less active member and talked about how important church was and about the sacrament and I think it clicked with him. Only problem he didn't tell us that he needed a lift to church until Saturday night and so we set one up but the member forgot and so now I feel really bad we talked about the importance of church and then he agreed and then could get there. One of the biggest problems with getting people to church is lots of them rely on public transport and it doesn't run on Sundays and so we have to arrange a ride with members for them but then they become dependent on us getting them rides and never commit to making it to church unless we get them there and if we don't they aren't bothered by not going so they never try to arrange it for themselves and so when missionaries change rides don't get arranged and people stop coming and stuff and it is really complicated. I wish everyone had a car like they do back home it would make things so much easier.

After M we had a bit of dinner and then had a lesson with B and Sheldon came as a member present and it was great she for sure felt the spirit she just won't admit it. 

Saturday Halloween we tried to set stuff up but it just all fell apart and we couldn't really be knocking on doors. It would put a really bad impression on us because the Jehovah's witnesses biggest tracting and proselyting day is Halloween here so we are encouraged not to knock on doors and so we went by some people that we had met before but just didn't have appointment with and as we dropped by a this man we caught him in and had a lesson with him we talked about the plan of salvation and it was really cool, he asked really big question at the end. He has served in the military and has killed people and he wanted to know if God would forgive him for what he had done, and also he thought he was doing the right thing and saving people lives and so in a way doesn't know if he needs to repent. That is a really big personal thing between him and god. we talked with him about some of the wars in the book of Mormon and gave him some sections to read and told him to pray about it and he said he defiantly would. so that was great!

Love you guys 

Elder Poll

Miracle week!!

 

Sorry about last week we did go to the castle last week and we took the bus this time to get out there. Last time we took the train and it took longer, but a less active member we have been working with wanted to come and so i didn't feel good just ignoring him and typing a long email especially because it was on the ipad So this week was pretty awesome, lots of things happened by accident and lots of stuff was planned but it all came together for a really good week. We were able to have a lesson with almost everyone of our investigators and get 4 set up for member presents and that is a lot here. We are hoping to make that the norm because it was great. Anything with a member is better, and one of the main reasons why it has been so awesome this week is because they also gave a lifts to the lessons they came to, so that is way better than having to plan around a bus, and B is doing good and I think she is really starting to grasp what we are talking about, and we also made good progress with S she is doing so good, with her I can pretty much guaranty that its not a matter of if she gets baptized it is more like when. She isn't on a date yet but I don't think it will be long, and the cool part was she is already doing missionary work not specifically for our church but for Christianity. And we are the only missionaries she knows so she invited us over to teach, her brother who is visiting from Scotland. He goes back tomorrow but we did see him at church last week and we had a lesson with him and s and P on Saturday and then they were at church this Sunday. They had us for dinner last night also, he seems really cool we are going to try and get him in contact with the missionaries up there but he is moving down here to England in the next 4 months or so. So even if we can't get him in contact with the elders up there he will see the missionaries down here once he moves. 

We had this really cool experience last night. on Saturday we were trackting and we stopped this lady on the street in between the houses She was really drunk but she said she was interested and she gave us here address and told us to come by. We weren't sure what it would be like but we thought okay can't be that bad, so we stopped by last night just to see if the address was real and set something for this week. When we knocked a different guy answered and said that he lived alone and he didn't know that women but said that he would appreciate a visit. His life had been really ruff the last ten months and he could use some help and we were obviously like sure. We set up a time to see him this week. He is such a cool guy. Yesterday was an amazing Sunday. It was as good as the Sunday after A's baptism and the Sunday I got to bless the sacrament with him. It was that good. and we also got fed dinner and lunch yesterday so no dishes it was great. But anyway back to P as we were walking  away from his house we thought about how we got to meet him and how it all worked. The drunk lady was not planning on giving an address she was going to give us her phone number but her phone kept going off with people trying to call her and so she gave up on trying to give us her number, because an important phone call came through. So she told us her address and quickly hurried off, and it was so cool we though back that it had to be the lord getting us P's address so we could meet him.

So things have been full of miracles this week and I have really seen the hand of the lord guiding us to where we need to be. 

Elder Depriest is doing great he can do most things now. We still can't ride bikes or anything like that but he is out of his sling and can tie his own shoes now so its good.

Love you 

Elder Poll

A little time at the hospital...

So this week has been interesting on Monday we did the normal stuff and had a lesson with B ( we are helping him to stop smoking) on Tuesday we had a work over with the zone leaders and then they gave us a lift to Ponty Pool to do some work up there and that went well had a dinner appoint. and then stopped by some people on the way home. Wednesday we had zone meeting and did some finding.  Thurs we had a lesson with A, then we were on our way to another appointment. Just coming down the hill by our flat and usually Elder D is in the back and I lead out because he is new and doesn't know where to go but this time he knew where we were going so he went first and we got going and then I look up and a car had just cut across the road to do a three point turn and didn't see him and cut just in front of him and he ran into him, he flew over the top of the car and landed on his shoulder and rolled three time and at this point I had to rip on my breaks or do the same thing he did. I stopped and got him out of the road and checked him out, we thought he was fine just going to be bruised so we went on like it was okay and were walking to our next appointment. Then we remembered to call Sister Leopard and tell her and she told us we had to go to the emergency room and get it checked out, and so we canceled our other appointments and the zone leaders came and took us to the hospital. and we got an x-ray. They showed it to us and told us it's broken. Even me not being a doctor could see that it was really broken, like not connected at all broken, so they gave him a sling and told him they would call to set up another appointment in the next week. Friday we had a few appointments and then a family had us over for dinner. They didn't think about the fact that my companion didn't have two hands to operate the knife so it was funny to see him struggle trying to cut his meat and then I offered to cut it for him but he said no so sister S just took it and cut it for him and we all laughed really hard. On Saturday we had a lesson with several others and had to take buses around to all of them. The problem with buses is they take up a lot of our time in travel and stop running around 6, so after that we have to walk back from where ever we are, and they don't run on Sundays.

That is pretty much our week.

Love and prayers Elder Poll

Spending time with the police

Monday we thought we should take elder Du Plessis serial number to his bike to the police so they could just check all the ones they came across just in case the people who stole it tried to paint it or something, that payed off. then we got transfer calls that night and elder Du Plessis was transferred. Wednesday we left for Peterborough and I waited with the zone leaders all day for my new comp to get here, and about 30 min before the coach arrived with him the Cheltanham zone leaders called saying the elder DePriests front wheel to his bike was on there coach for some reason not on ours and so that stunk that night trying to get his bike back to the flat. Luckily for us we had a spare rim at the flat and that worked for a few days, then when we got back on the train to come back to Cwmbran we got to New Port station and some one took one of Elder DePriests bags off the train and stole stuff in it, but we didn't notice till we got to Cwmbran and went to get his stuff of the train and it wasn't there, then on Thursday we were on the train back from the district meeting. we got a call from the police saying they have elder Du Plessis bike, so we went to get that, they take forever at the station 1 hour there, then the assistant the the president called and told us that the Newport police have elder DePriests bag and that we need to call them. got that all figures out, on Friday we had a lesson with one of our investigators and then headed to Newport  and when we got there finding out that lots of his stuff was stolen. We also had a lesson with a less active member. Saturday we travel to conference because most members watch it here on internet, we had to take a  train to the stake center to watch it and train back after. Sunday a member gave us a lift to conference and we were there all day till 7 because on Sunday they rebroadcast the priesthood session and the Saturday afternoon session, then watch the Sunday morning session and then we will watch the Sunday afternoon session later this week. It was all awesome.

I think president Uchtdorf just hit right from the start and just slammed me with the spirit that stayed for the whole conference. 

I also read some of the talks form the women conference and that was cool I really liked the story president Uchtdorf told there.
That's all for this week.
Love you guys.

Elder Poll

Just a little excitement this week!!

So the majority of our week was a bit lame and not much excitement. We had a few lessons and nothing much came of them or so we thought. and it just kind of felt like a normal week until Saturday. normally on a Saturday we have an activity at the chapel for investigators to meet members. but we have been asked not to have them anymore by the mission and the ward because of some stuff with other missionaries in the mission getting hurt and stuff so no more activity but that's okay. So we went up and did some work in Ponty Pool then we went out and were doing some work in a part of our area on a huge hill. and that was all good and then we had an appointment with a LA in town and we got there and he forgot to tell us that he had to cancel, so we were like okay we will do some tracting. So we were tracting nearby a members house and thought we would go and stop by and say hi. and then........

We were talking to this member outside his house and a few chavs walked by. (stupid under educated kids that poke fun at us and harass us all the time) they made some rude comments like normal then they kept walking. Suddenly one of them turned back grabbed Elder D's bike and started running. I was the first to register that he was stealing it and ran after him. I almost had him but then he was able to get onto the bike and ride away, then the other friends of his caught up to me and so did Elder D. As I was turing around one of them punched me then another got in my face I thought that we were about to get in a big fight, then they seemed to calm down, and I just started to walk away because there were too many of them to win probably and I was trying to be the bigger person and represent the Lord and leave it to the police. They started to get mouthy towards us again but they knew that the police had been called so they ran off and we just went back to the members house and waited for the police. Then we went to the station and were there for like 4 hours making statements and stuff so we got to bed at around 1 in the morning. I got to go on a ride along with them to see if I could point out the kids who did it but we didn't find them. Don't worry though I am okay the punch wasn't very good.and the police gave us a lift home, which was nice of them.

We woke up the next morning tired and sore but the member whose house it happened in front of gave us a lift which was nice of him.

We had a lesson with a young man and asked him if he wanted to be baptized he said no but that he wanted to come to church some time. It felt kind of empty with no commitment, but then Sunday at the beginning of sacrament meeting our phone vibrated in my pocket and normal I would ignore it especially because we were sitting next to a less active that called us out of the blue on Saturday and said he wanted to come to church. So I was trying to be a good example but I just felt like I should check the phone. It was our investigator and so we went out in the hall and called him back and he asked us for direction to the church from nearby and so he came to sacrament and Sunday school then had to got but that was really cool.  We had a great lesson with one of our investigators in a part member family and they also fed us dinner twice this week. Nepalese food it was really good nothing I had ever had before but really good.  We were at the house last night for dinner and then they gave us a lift home, that was nice because it was a long walk back. And that was our week.

Love you guys
Elder Poll