Watch out for Birds!!!

So this week was a bit ruff for work in some ways but good in others, we had one of our investigators drop us but we also because of that did a lot of focus on finding and were able to find quite a few
potentials this week. We will follow up on them this week and see if we can turn some of them into new  investigators. We also had a few appointments. One with a drunk guy that we met but he didn't show up,
probably for the best because I think all he wanted was charity from the church, and we were going to have to explain that they look at a persons financial situation and what and how hey spend there money before they will just give you stuff. And from talking with him before it sounds like all of his money goes into fueling his addictions so he wouldn't have been happy with us telling him we would help him to get unaddicted to the stuff so he can use the money to support himself.On Wednesday our main focus was a finding day and it went rather well we went a little further out of town than probably previous missionaries have and did some tracking out there and it went quite
well. The day had started out quite rainy but by the time we were heading out for most of the finding we were going to do it lighted up and finally stopped. 😄 On Thursday we had district meeting, and then we did some service for a member digging a trench/pathway so he could get concrete poured later in the week.
On Friday we had a funeral to attend at the chapel. We were asked to be the parking attendants at the chapel and also at the grave site making sure everyone could fit in and all that, and food was provided after
so naturally the elders were invited for that also. Then we went out and did some finding and then we had an appointment on he edge of town with a student out there and as we were on our way we looked around
because you could hear what we thought was a lot of wind but we did not feel any wind. So we kept going we got there and then we heard the sound again and then what we thought was rain but it wasn't. When we
looked up it was a huge and  I MEAN HUGE FLOCK OF BIRDS and what we thought was rain was POOP. And we took cover but it was no use I was hit multiple times and so was elder Decker. On Saturday our day was filled completely with finding but we had one lesson that night which went well we got him to commit to church
not this coming week but the next but still progress.Sunday we had church, but on our way to church actually
before we even left a member pulled up in front of our window on a bike and waited for us to get the rest of our stuff together and then road with us to church. He is a bit of an eccentric biker and lives farther out from church than us. Then after church we had dinner with a member family and then we did some tracking and it was one of those streets that everyone slams he door but then we did get a few at the end of the street that were nice and said we could come by another day.  Then we went by a less active member and they are way cool we are still trying to find out why they don't come out to church anymore, And that was our week.
Love you guys

Elder Poll

Feb 15

So this week has been a bit of a long short crazy week. short because it felt like it past in a flash. long because all of the things that we did. crazy because we had lots of travel for meetings and stuff. Monday night it was quite funny I had my email mostly typed and was getting ready to send it when the power went out here at the chapel and I lost it all and the power didn't come back on for about a half hour is what we heard. When it didn't come back on in a few min we headed out because we were almost out of pday time and we needed top find some wifi to send our emails from. and we did luckily. We have an investigator that doesn't live to far away from here so we went there and used the internet to send our stuff. then we went to visit a less active member and see how they were doing and we had a lesson with them and they are helping a friend out that is between houses at the moment and so we were able to share the gospel with him. Tuesday we were going around and doing some finding and visiting some less-active members and investigators letting them know about the ward activity that we had this Saturday  then we went to Worcester to exchange with the elders there for a few days. I stayed in Worcester and elder Decker came back with the other elder to Hereford. and it was cool because we had dinner with the Nolan's again and that was really great then John came with us to a lesson with a way cool investigator that the Worcester elders have. Wednesday we did some finding and it was funny walking the same old streets that I have walked before and seeing some of the same people. we also did some stop bys of some less active members that I had taught when I was there to see how they were doing and that was good the one is still quite good at coming out to church. That night in Worcester (when I was there we set up doing a games night every Wednesday night and it was quite good large turn out) and and they still do that and so we went there and had a nice night and A came and we got to talk and catch up on stuff. Thursday we had zone meeting and it was funny because there are 6 missionaries from my mtc group in the same zone as me and so it was good to see them again. and we learned qutie a few new things, and how president wants us to work more with members. It has now become a standard to visit two members every day weather that be active or less active it doesn't matter but at least 2 a day.

Friday was good in a few different ways a electrician came and checked our heater that hasn't been working and said yes its broken and so now we are going to get a new one soon. We were able to see quite a few less active members and we did some service at brother hooks so that was nice some manual labor is nice every now and again. then we had dinner with a cool family from south Africa, and then we had a lesson with Allan. on Saturday we had the ward activity and then we did some finding. 

on Sunday we had a good church meeting and a quick ward council before church and we talked with bishop and got us all on the same page we had both come to talk to each other with the same idea and so as we talked we were both happy that we were on ths same page already and so we put that in to place and that was to get the members more involved in the teaching by scheduling with different members single and couples a night that they have free to come teaching with us and then we will try our very best to fill that time with a investigator lesson if we can and if we can't then we will go and visit different members of the ward that might just need a visit weather they be active less active of what ever. so that we get to teach more with the members. We thought we were going to a members farm today but then we got a call from him last night an he had to go to wales and help a friend move. so we did some shopping and also move the furniture around in our flat because they are coming to install a new heater.

Thats it for this week.

I love you guys and I pray for you always.

Love Elder Poll

Loosing Power

Sorry might be short power just died and lost the long email I typed. Start short then I will put detail in if we have time because now we have to walk back and find some place with wifi to send this. So on Monday we had a lesson with an investigator and he is trying to stop drinking and we followed up with him later in the week things seem to be going well. We also had a lesson with a less active couple and things seem to be going well with them. Tuesday we were both ill with a stomach virus and so we stayed inside most of the day and sister leopard told us to sleep it off and we were both super tired so that's what we did. The couch in our flat is surprisingly comfy. We did make it to ward council that evening for a few min to share our
bit that we needed then we went home. On Wednesday we were both feeling better but still really tired so we took the day rather slow but got quite a bit done. On Thursday we had district meeting and that was good then we went and saw Bro H. He has been under the weather after having a cancer treatment  but is doing quite a bit better and so we also did some service for him moving some stuff around out in his yard. Then on Friday we did some stop by's and had dinner with a family in the ward it was really good.  Saturday it was raining all day hard down pour but we had plans to be in a little village and so we biked out to that village in the pouring rain and by the time we got back we were soaked. Along the way I ripped my water proof jacket when I caught it on my bike. And then I also found out that the water proof trousers that I have had my entire mission are not waterproof any more so I had to get new ones today. But for the most part a good day we had a lesson with an investigator out there and I then we had weekly planning and that kept us out of most of the rain.
On Sunday we had a good sacrament meeting then we had dinner with a family that lives out in the middle of nowhere after but it was awesome.
This week we have zone meeting and exchanges it should be fun back to be back in Worcester for me for a few days yyyyyyaaaaaaa. I get to see Arran.
Any way love you guys got to go.

Elder Poll

The last two weeks

January 25
So this week was pretty cool and long but also super short all at the same time.

It felt long at first from Monday till about Thursday I was a bit on edge from talking to 

Dani right before she packs to go home. Then after Friday I was just thinking that wow she is home and now I think i have gotten over the shock of it all. Otherwise this week has been a bit hectic and next week promises to be about the same. We had a exchange on Tuesday with the Worcester elder's I stayed in Hereford for this one with an elder from Albania he is quite and interesting feller but we had fun and I found out quite a bit about European history that I didn't know before. Did you know that Albanian used to be very similar to north Korea in that no one could come or go and they were fed only the info that the government wanted them to know. they only moved out of that state about 20 years ago. Wednesday we had a meeting in Cheltenham for a world wide training broadcast from the missionary board of the church so we went to Worcester and had lunch with them and then finished traveling the rest of the way to Cheltenham. The meeting was really good and I took quite a few notes of things that I want to try. Thursday we had district meeting in Worcester before getting on our train to come back to Hereford the rest of the way. so ya that was a bit busy. Monday we had a pretty good lesson with Brother Woods. On Thursday we had another lesson with brother W and that went really well we also had a lesson with M and S and that went rather well also. We also had a bit of a accident with the bikes also on Thursday. elder Decker's chain broke and so then on Friday we took it to the bike shop on our way to an appointment and they gave us a bit of bad news the chain was not fixable it needed to be replaced and so did the back sprocket because you can't replace one without the other. and the worst part it wouldn't be able to be done until Saturday at 4 so for the rest of our day we were on foot and most of Saturday we were on foot as well, so that severely limited our movements but we managed, and then on Sunday we went to church and they had a munch and mingle (linger longer)  and that was good. we did get a bit of sad news and a bit of happy news on Sunday, Brother woods suffers from a medical thing and so we wont be able to have his baptism on the 6th but hopefully with a bit more planning later on in the month so that was the bit of sad news, but the happy news was that the Lord has blessed us in our efforts with an investigator who seems to us so prepared for the gospel in his life, he walked in by himself to church but he was in a group of members so we just thought that it was a friend of theirs and the meeting was starting but after we were introduced and we talked and he said that he was led by the spirit to come to the Mormon church that day. We are going to meet with him tomorrow and share with him a bit more about the restoration.One thing that was mentioned at church that was cool that he totally agreed with was the bible being true as far as it is translated correctly so that was cool. 

This week is going to be a bit of a busy one for us as well. We have a meeting at the mission home for following up on training on Wednesday and then Thursday is district meeting so it looks like it will be a bit of a busy one for us this week as well, then they announced that after this transfer coming up that transfers will change to Tuesdays instead of Wednesdays so in March transfers will start to be on Tuesdays. 

Anyway I think that is about all.

 

Feb 1

So this week

we had some news about brother woods, he has hit some walls in health at the moment, but other news is that he is still a member because they took a longer look into he his records and found them and so he is still a member so no baptism but a reactivation is now what we are going for so now we just have to wait for his health to resolve it self, 

Other news about D that guy that came to church last week, we found out that after we had a lesson with him on Tuesday that his in not all there and is not the nicest guy. Our lesson went good at first and finished well but he is very strong in his beliefs about some very interesting things and could not accept anything else. On Thursday he sent us some not very nice text about what he thinks of our beliefs and how it was damning his salvation so we won't be seeing him again. 

That kind of covers our first two days Monday and Tuesday on Wednesday it was a really long day we had a meeting in Birmingham that we had to be there at 10 so we had to wake up at 5 to get there in time because of the train times but it was well worth it and I learned it a lot, we also didn't know how long the meeting was going to be and it ended up being three hours plus a lunch after and so after train time we didn't get home till about 5 and had a dinner appointment ant 5:30 so we grabbed our bikes and went there and then we went from there to youth that night. The young men were learning how to play snooker which is a cool different game similar to pool but with some more balls and a way bigger table and a few new rules as well so it was cool. 

Thursday we had district meeting in Worcester and then had a lesson with brother H a recent convert here and had coordination meeting  Friday we had an interesting request come through from president to the whole mission about not riding bikes that day because there was a high wind warning for the whole country so he just came out and said no bike for anyone that day just to be sure. For our area personally the wind storm passed by the time we were to go out in the morning but we still weren't to bike so we didn't so our day was a bit slow but good. a member from our ward took us out to lunch.

Saturday we had a long day of doing stop by's to update our ward list and also trying to find some less active members who would like to work back into activity, we also did some tracting and found 4 potentials that day they we will go back and follow up on later on in the week. 

Sunday we had a good church meeting and then after we had lunch and did some more tracting and then stop by's and we got a few more potentials.

Other news for tonight it is DODGE NIGHT the night that we get our call to see who is moving and who is staying. for me and elder D I am pretty sure we will stay as we both have not been here for long and and we are training and so I think we will stay, but who know I could be wrong and God needs me some where else but we will see. 

Love you guys have a great week and know that I love you loads.

Elder Poll

Baptismal date set!!!

So we have a baptismal date set with Brother W., I say brother because this is a re baptism he was a member and then got super offended and then moved here and it is now 30 years later and he has gotten over it now, In that time they had asked him if he would like his name removed from the records and he didn't know what that meant but said yes anyway and so he is now getting re baptized but since he hasn't been to church in so long he wanted all the lessons again before he does so we are teaching him twice a week to get him to that point by Feb 6 for his re baptism. On Tuesday we had an inspection from the land lord and it went well and the we did some finding and had coordination that evening we also had a flat tire on the way there it wasn't on our bikes it was on the ones that we borrowed from the Lyons when our bikes got stolen and we were going past there and brother Lyons told us just to drop them off and he would take care of it. Brother Lyons hasn't been able to pick up the other ones so we just took them when we went to dinner and he dropped us home to our bikes so it worked out quite well except the flat tire. Wednesday it poured  down with rain all day and we were freezing mostly just my hands because everything else was water proof besides my gloves, and then we had youth that night (our ward doesn't have many youth so to make it fun for the ones that do come and so they can do more group style activities they want us to come as often as we can)  Thursday we had district meeting in Worcester and I broke a spoke on my bike. We got that fixed on Friday in the morning while we were at an appointment they also adjusted my gears for me and that was really nice. We were on foot for most of the day because of that and because we had a lesson that we were getting picked up from to go out to a dinner appointment. Saturday we we had two lessons and they both went okay but not quite where we wanted them to go. We were hoping to have them all coming out to church but sadly they didn't. Bro W was there and so was a less active we have been working with so that was good. 

This week is going to be really hectic for us, we have exchanges tomorrow and then on Wednesday we have a world wide training meeting that night and then because the meeting runs so late we are sleeping over in Cheltenham and then we have district meeting on Thursday in Worcester so lots of travel and lots of meetings.

love you guys

Love Elder Poll

 Crazy Week

So this week has been quite interesting in its content, on Monday we went out to a lesson with a guy who had his records removed by accident a few years ago in Ireland and so he then moved here and wants to come to church. He goes to get his records transferred and there are no records so now we are reteaching the lessons and he is probably going to get re baptized soon. Tuesday we had just finished our  comp study and were about to walk out the  door when we got a phone call saying surprise we have a meeting in Cheltenham. The assistants to the president forgot to tell our zone we had interviews that day until president had gotten all the way to Cheltenham chapel and the doors were locked and then it all came out that no one knew about it. We got the call but had already missed the train that would have gotten us there in time because it leaves at 9:40 and it was 10 so then we had to take a bus for 2 hours to get close and the zone leaders had to come pick us up for the meeting from there. Also we had exchanges the next day and so I went back to Worcester that night with Elder P (he came out at the same time as me) and we already had zone meeting for Thursday this week so we just stayed on exchange for 2 days instead of one and swapped back on Thursday at the meeting. It was fun to be back in Worcester again. We had dinner at the Nolan"s house my favorite members from the ward and it was great fun. Elder P and I were happy to be together because we are both serving with non Americans so when we say how great America is they think we are boasting but really we just miss some of the things you can only get there. Anyway on Tuesday we had an appointment with an investigator that we had to cancel which stinks because it was really hard to get in contact with her in the first place because she doesn't have a phone so we have to stop by and try our
luck to catch her. So it may take some time to set up another appointment. But on Thursday the train times changed so we missed our connecting train and so instead of getting back at 5:30 we got back at 6:30 and so we missed our appointment that night. Then on Friday we went and did some stop bys and did our weekly planning it was pretty wet that day and I was just really happy I had all my gear on. On Saturday we went out to Bromyard a smaller town in our area to try and contact a media referral that lived out there. We found the house but no one was home and so we may have to go back out there in the next week or so to see if we can catch him in. That night we taught an impromptu lesson. We went to stop by a less active member and invite them out to church and they had a friend over and we taught him about the plan of salvation. And that was cool we are going to ,meet up with him later this week. Sunday we had church and it was really good and then after church we went out to the Garlick family for dinner, they live in the middle of nowhere so it takes about a hour in just travel time to go to there house. They are totally awesome but we don't go out there to much just because of the time it takes. Tonight we are going out to that same guy as last week that we taught the plan of salvation.
Anyway love you guys

Elder Poll

The one he forgot to send last week.

This week was a bit weird we had a lot of referrals come through last Monday and so we have spent most of the week trying to contact them but many of them live out in the middle of nowhere so those have been a struggle. On new years eve we had to be in at 6 but that was really okay because we just did our weekly planning and it was pouring rain. I have realized this week how easily shoes get worn out because I think those shoes I got back in July from you are about to start wearing in holes. I am going to try and get the other pair fixed by a cobbler here so I will have a water proof pair to wear, and I am going to try and find some shoes covers to wear when we bike because elder D has them and his feet stay dry all the time. mine are okay but the rain runs down my jacket down my water proof trousers and into my socks and down to my feet. but for the most part things are good here. Elder D and I get on quite well we are so much a like some times that we get on each others nerves a bit but that's okay. Later this week we both got a bit sick but we are okay now, we just both woke up and weren't feeling well  just really tired and not the normal tired of missionary work, we asked sister leopard and described what it felt like and she told us that a lot of missionaries were getting that and the best thing we could do was take a few extra hours and sleep it off. We did and after lunch we were both feeling a lot better so we worked and went and saw people the rest of the day. We did some street contacting. it was good. our street contacting has not been fruitful much this week but we have had quite a bit of luck in contacting referrals we have an appointment this week with two referrals and plan to try and contact quite a few more, its been interesting we have had 14 referrals in the last 2 weeks from church headquarters a few are legit and some are fake but we will see.

Love you
Elder Poll