From Elder Ferguson

Ok, so anyways, this week has been really great. On P-day last week, right after we got done emailing, we started walking to ASDA (Walmart) and a man riding his bike saw us and stopped us. He said he was a less active member, and he wasn't interested in coming back to church yet, but he still wanted to talk to us since he was riding past us. We gave him our number, and hopefully he will call us sometime. Then when we actually got inside ASDA, we ran into another man, who saw us and smiled and said hello. He told us he was also a less active member, and that he wanted to come back to church. We gave him our number, and he called us Tuesday morning, right afterward. We went over to his house, and he told us that he had had a breakdown, (I think he had a alcohol relapse) and he lost all of his stuff (like his BOM) He said that the missionaries had been talking to him while he was in rehab, but the facility stopped letting them come in. We gave him a new BOM and he said that he would have finished it by Saturday. He also said that he would come to church on Sunday, but his mother got sick, so he had to go up to visit her, and he couldn't come back for church. I don't think he read very much of the BOM either because he has been with his mother, but he said that he would come next week. It was incredible that he was prepared for us like that, and we've met lots of people like that this week.

I don't remember if I mentioned this in my last email, but Thursday before last, we met a lady on the bus. We were in service clothes, but we still had our name tags on. She asked us what our name tags were for, and she said that she would be interested in coming to church. She has just moved into the area, and she was interested in coming. Later, she texted us and asked us if our church did food parcels. As it turns out, she is on welfare (a lot of people are here) and she was using the money to pay the rent, even though the government was supposed to pay for that separately or something like that. I think she misunderstood how she was supposed to be using the money they were giving her or something, but anyways, she basically didn't have any food left, so we called our bishop and he brought her some food on monday. We came and talked to her on Wednesday, and she was on a lot of medication. She has some troubles with her liver and stuff, so she is having a really hard time, but she at least has food now, and I think she will be ok financially once she starts using the government money right or whatever. Anyways, she was raised in the Catholic church, and she still says prayers every day, but she was very receptive to the things we taught her (although she was also really drowsy because of the medication) We're going to meet with her again this week, so that's really cool.

We have another investigator named David, who was already sort of an investigator before I got here. He is really funny, because he's in his fifties, but sometimes he acts like a little kid. He had a really hard childhood, and he didn't seem to understand why God would let those things happen to him, but we talked to him about the plan of salvation, and I think he feels a little bit better about it now. I think eventually, he will understand better, and I can tell that the gospel will bless his life.

Yesterday, on the way to church, we missed the bus, so we had to walk to another bus stop. A man riding past saw us and stopped and came over to us. This is different to the first one I talked about. When he got to us he just stopped and looked at us. Elder Gabler asked him how he was doing, and he almost started crying. He said that he has bipolar disorder, and that he has been having a really hard time lately. He said that he came to talk to us because he recognized us as servants of God and he wanted our help. He gave us his address and we're going to meet him later.

Then after church, a man stopped us and asked us if he could ask us some questions about our church. As it turns out, he was really Born Again, but we at least got to tell him about the gospel, even if he refused to accept it. Before we started talking to him though, another man came up to us and asked us where our church was. He has just moved here recently from another country and he wanted to go to church. We exchanged phone numbers and he left, but we haven't called him yet. We've been really busy lately.

On Friday, we went to the British Pageant. It was amazing! They talked about how the first missionaries came to England, and how the church got started here, and then how they all went to Navoo. It was really cool, and the music was fantastic! I think you can actually download it from mormon.org.uk/pageant or something like that.