Christmas celebrations, relaxation, & back to missionary work - The story of Abinadi

Well, I don't really want to email this week. Sitting around doing nothing really takes it out of you and I really just want to go home and go to bed. On Tuesday we had a Christmas training in Manchester. That was fun. I played the piano for a bunch of different stuff, so that was nice. I can't really remember what I said I was going to play last week, but everything changed last minute, so I ended up playing 'O Holy Night' and 'Still, Still, Still' and some other stuff. It was fun. President taught us all about what really happened when Jesus was born, and he pointed out all of the symbolism. That was pretty fun, but there wasn't a whole lot that really needs repeating at the moment. Just imagine everything you imagine when people talk about the nativity and then get rid of it and make up something completely different, and then you know what I know now. Yup.

Anyways, on Christmas, we went to the same family's house three times in two days. We went Christmas Eve because they had some food left over to feed us after their family left, then on Christmas we went to their house and opened the presents the ward members gave us, and we came back in the evening to have dinner, Skype, and watch Frozen. In this mission, we are allowed to watch cartoons and some other 'family friendly' movies on Christmas and New Year. So this week I saw Frozen, the Best Two Years, How to Train Your Dragon (Thanks for nothing you useless reptile…), and The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, so that was fun. 

Then we finally got to start working again right at the end of boxing day (click on link to find out about boxing day:  Boxing Day) and the next morning, we went over to the other Elder's flat and I went on exchanges sitting in the flat with a sick missionary while Elder H went with his companion to the temple. And I took a nap. Yay. Then I woke up and talked to the other missionary for about five hours (literally) about video games, because he's a gamer, and he knows all the good ones for me to look up when I get home, and then I left, and we did some tracting.

In other news, yesterday we got to see our investigator again, and she is doing good. She said she was going to go to church, but she had to stay home and give her sick dog some medicine, but she's coming next week, and she's been reading the Book of Mormon. She gets it really well, she told us the story of Abinadi, and she remembered it perfectly. She says it's so true, and she was telling us about how there are wicked people and righteous people (she actually used the words wicked and righteous) and she said she wanted to be a righteous person. So I'm pretty happy about that.

I have a cold, so that's why my email sounds really boring this week, because I feel boring right now. 

What is a bear's favorite drink? ……………………………..Koka-Koala! Bye!

-- 

Elder Ferguson

The Cough Syrup Lesson

Do you know the feeling you get when you have to eat some nasty cherry flavored cough syrup, and it's gross, and you do it anyways, and it sticks all over your mouth and you think, wow, I'm glad I got that over with, and then you remember that you have to eat two spoonfuls? And then you choke down the second one, and try to get rid of the nasty taste of it with orange juice and rediscover the nasty flavour of orange juice and cough syrup and that in fact, orange juice does nothing to remove the nasty from your mouth, it just enhances it? And then as soon as you start feeling comfortable and you think the taste has officially gone away, and you realize that it's time for your second dose? Well, that's kinda how my week has been.

Actually, that makes it sound really bad, it isn't that bad, but it's been interesting. In fact, this week we actually went to the temple. That was good. That was like when I realized that I had cough medicine and that I could get better. I love the temple. It teaches about the Atonement. If you go to the temple, you will get better. It's good news. The temple is full of good news, and it's full of things that aren't bad, because Satan doesn't have a recommend.

This week, we have been doing missionary work. It hasn't been too hard, in fact, we haven't even done much tracting yet. (Although it is pretty funny, Elder H. told me last night that he had done more tracting this week than any week before on his mission. He's in for a surprise…) 

I guess the best way to describe why this week was like cough syrup is because this week, is to quote one of my other companions that I did a lot of tracting with. He said that if the work is going bad and you have a good companion, it's not too big of a deal, but even if the work is going well and you have a tough companion, it's not very fun. I like Elder H, he's a lot of fun, but he's very new, and his ideas about how things should be done are pretty different because he doesn't have a lot of experience. In some ways it's good, and I think it can actually help the missionary work go better because obviously, the genius of the church is that it uses imperfect people to bring about a perfect plan. We need diversity and all of that to teach us from each others perspectives, and Elder H. makes sure I get to know his point of view very well. ;)

So that has been my medicine this week. Learning to accept other people's ideas, even when they're not ones I agree with, and learning to be humble. It's one thing to know what you're supposed to do, and it's another to actually do it. I love not being sick, I hate cough syrup. I know cough syrup is good for me, but I don't like eating it all. And then I like to vent, thanks for listening, sorry for the long boring email of wallowing in self-pity.

Next week will be nice. I'm looking forward to Christmas! It's going to be great! I'm happy, even if it didn't sound like it today, Bye!

D&C 3:1-3 D&C 133:26 2 Corinthians 12:10

Elder Ferguson

**********************************

From Amy (Elder Ferguson's mom):

Here's a cute little email Elder Ferguson's little sister wrote to him yesterday and his response to the letter.  I couldn't resist sharing it. 

From Rachel:

How are you? Are you excited for Christmas? I am excited to see you on Christmas! Mary Christmas. do you now where you are going next yet?

I'm hoping I get a puppy for Christmas.  Mom said she already told Santa no though.  I also want an Elsa shirt or doll.  I also want an Olaf pillow pet.   That's from the new Disney movie you haven't seen yet.  I hope you like the presents we sent you.

What's your favorite food so far?  Did you know it's almost the end of the year?  Thanks for the Christmas card ryan lol. (There was no card)

 Rachel 

Elder Ferguson's Response:

Rachel,

I'm good. I'm excited for Christmas. I don't know where I'm going yet. Tell mom that she should get you a puppy because Santa's not going to get you one. I'm going to watch Frozen on Christmas. My favorite food is curry. I didn't know it's almost the end of the year thanks for reminding me. ByE!

--Elder Ferguson

Transfered to Rochdale, surprise!

Well, on Tuesday, we had a zone meeting. It was nice. We did some trainings, but I don't remember them. President Ulrich came to our meeting, 'just to visit,' and he came and watched me and Elder N and some other missionaries role-play, and he gave us some tips, and then he went and watched somebody else for the last couple of minutes. Then we had lunch, and our zone leader pulled me aside after I got my pizza in the oven and said, "Hey, so did President tell you about the transfer yet?" He hadn't. Then Elder O proceeded to bring the whole world crashing down upon my head. Not literally, don't worry, that's just a figure of speech. I don't know what kind though.

 

But anyways, he told me that I was moving to Rochdale and I was leaving right after our meeting ended. Woah. That is a long ways away. And it's almost Christmas. So anyways, I'm not actually that sad about it, but that was probably the most shocking thing that has happened to me on my whole entire mission. I actually got dizzy for a second. I never get dizzy. But anyways, I'm in Rochdale now, which is right next to the border of Middleton. I could walk from my flat to my favorite member's house from Middleton in about ten minutes.

Here is a link to a map of his mission.

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&t=h&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=208902184762411646460.00049dfa9acdb3b0fe918&dg=feature)

 

So anyways, all of the people that I was talking about last week, are kinda gone. They're still investigating, they're still happy, but I don't really know anything else because I'm in the other multi-zone now. :/ I'm mostly sad because I don't get to have Christmas in Shrewsbury, I was actually really looking forward to that, but oh well, I already like the members here, I think I made a pretty good first impression yesterday. Actually, a lot of members asked me if I was English. So I'm doing good. I'm coming home with a Rochdale accent, get ready. This is kinda crazy, because there's a slight possibility that this could be my last area. It probably won't be, but it could be.

 

My new companion is Elder H. He's from Idaho, and he's nice. He has only been out for three months, so he's still really young, but we have a lot of fun. I can't really think of too much else to say just now, we don't have a huge teaching pool right now, but I'm sure next week I'll have loads of miracles to tell you all about, bye!

-- 

Elder Ferguson

Stake Conference/ The church is true, don't forget it, because God won't forget you.

Woah, hey, so I figured out how to connect my ancestry account to my family search account. So before I forget, I'm going to pause and email everyone... :)

This week has been nice. We haven't done very much missionary work, but we still had fun. I don't actually remember what we did at the beginning of the week, but I'm sure it was good. Then on Saturday, we had the evening session of Stake Conference. That was nice. I played the piano while the rest of the missionaries sang for a musical number. I'm getting pretty good at sight reading hymns. I know Heavenly Father must have some sort of purpose for me, cause I wasn't even very focused on what I was doing and I still hit all the keys right anyways. I think my right hand knew not what my left hand was doing. I think that's a scripture somewhere, so it must be ok.

Oh, I almost forgot me clever analogy, just a second. This is kinda like my week this week, "16 ¶Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks."(Jeremiah 16:16) This is what it's been like because every week we find like four investigators, if we're lucky, then three of them disappear, and then we can just baptize them one at a time. :)

So anyways, this week, we went to stake conference. That was fun. And the best part was when we got there, because there's a video broadcast in the Telford chapel where we went, and we got there, and there on the screen was our new investigator that we had only taught once, sitting on the stand next to his friend. And then they sang together with the rest of the seminary students in the stake for the musical number. Haha. Then a member stood up to talk and singled him out and asked him to stand up. And he still says that he believes our church is true after all that! He actually really liked it and he said he felt the spirit really strong! Then we went to a fireside with those two and a recent convert who likes to drive us everywhere. The fireside was in Manchester. It was a lot of fun and President Ulrich spoke and he said a ton of things about Peter, James and John, restoring priesthood keys and all sorts of other fancy church words we had never told our investigator and probably some things that the other two members didn't even know about, since they were both pretty young. 

Then in the car ride home, our investigator told us that he doesn't think it's true anymore, he said he knows it's true. I don't know what's wrong with him. Maybe he's sick. Maybe he actually felt the Spirit. It was a pretty powerful meeting. 

The church is true, don't forget it, cause God won't forget you! These are my two scriptures for the week. They were going to relate to something, but I don't remember what. But here they are anyway; 

Isaiah 1:18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

Isaiah 5:25 Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them: and the hills did tremble, and their carcases were torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

-- 

Elder Ferguson

2 different members sent me pictures via facebook last night.  Yay!  He looks happy!  (I think this was taken at a missionary fireside.)

Investigators / Sharing the Gospel through Social Media

Well, we got transfer calls, and we're staying together. Yay. This week has actually been a pretty good one. We have a lot of solid investigators now, one of them has already told us he wants to be baptized. We are hoping he will come with us to Stake Conference with us this week. He is eighteen and he's friends with a member here, and he just sort of came out of nowhere and asked about the church. When we came to teach him the first lesson, he had already read First Nephi and he had already been feeling the Spirit really strongly and he knows it's true. What on earth... We're not even sure what to do with him. And this time, this isn't even a joke, he's a real live person that we met. We have a couple of other people who are pretty similar too. It's pretty nice. 

Yesterday, we had a 'fireside' that the ward council decided we needed to give at a meeting we weren't invited to. We had nine members show up. One of them was the ward mission leader who was helping to provide the technology, and one of them was on the bishopric. It was a good fireside though. We talked about how the members can use technology to share the gospel with their friends. We showed them some videos from an address Elder Bednar gave at BYU (I think it was BYU). It was really good, you should look it up.  

(I looked it up.  You can view it here below.) I just watched it this morning and I highly recommend it.  It was really really great!  It is 44 minutes long, so keep that in mind, but you won't regret it.  It would make a great family home evening lesson!  & Today is Monday!  How about that?!  -  Amy

http://www.byutv.org/watch/e1f321fe-7fde-40aa-a462-4f76a33efd3b/byu-devotional-address-elder-david-a-bednar-81914

You can watch the whole thing and it is full of good ideas for missionary work, and you should do it because otherwise the entire earth would be wasted at the second coming.(D&C 2) If we don't do missionary work, then we won't have members to perfect, and we won't have their kindred dead to redeem. It is the entire purpose of the church and of our Heavenly Father to share the Gospel (Moses 1:39) so that we can save people. If His purposes aren't accomplished, it just shows that we don't understand the purpose of God's creations. We don't understand the Creation, we don't understand the Fall, and we don't understand the Atonement. So hit 'like.' That's pretty much all it takes now. Watch a mormon message, hit 'like,' and you could save someone.

Bye!

-- 

Elder Ferguson

Exchanges,New Street, A Singer & Hanging around!

Well, I don't know what to do now. I made it to 68 minutes before I started this email, and now I don't really want to write about anything. 

This week, we went on exchanges and I went with a missionary from Essex! He was fun, he just got out and next week he's going to the MTC in Provo and then he's going to his mission in Guam. He came here because he's still waiting for his visa. He is kinda crazy, but he just talks to everybody all the time and it's funny. It might be because he's English or something, but everybody was just super happy to talk to him. I'm going to send a bunch of pictures he took next week, cause his camera takes ten at a time on the timer and stuff. You'll see what I mean next week. 

Yesterday we found some super good investigators. I was amazed, cause we had prayed and picked a street a long time ago, and we couldn't find it, but then we found it on the map later, but we never bothered to go back for it until last night. There was a Methodist lady and she told us that she had stopped going to church when she was nineteen, which was quite a while ago. But she just couldn't shake the feeling that God must be there and we told her the story of the Book of Mormon and she thought it was crazy and she said she wanted to read it and find out if it was true. 

We also got a mormon.org referral from Newtown. In a little town called Dolanog. We talked to the man over the phone and he's really nice. He's in a bunch of choirs and he lives in Wales and he hasn't heard of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Mwahahaha. He doesn't even know how prepared he is yet. We're not seeing him this week because he's singing at a Rugby match between Wales and South Africa in Cardiff, but we'll see him next week and it's going to be epic!

Also, I'm cutting my hair today. ='(

Bye!

-- 

Elder Ferguson

Proverbs from Elder Ferguson

November 17, 2014   

Hmm… 

Today I am feeling considerably less grumpy, so that is good. This week, we did some tracting. It was pretty fun. I imagine that I am going to end up spending a long time during the judgement just sitting at the bar saying, "yup, they said their not interested too, yup, I talked to them and and they were busy washing their hair," (that's a stupid expression that people use here when they can't be bothered to come up with a realistic sounding excuse) 

This week we had a talent show on Saturday. Last Monday one of the Sisters in our ward printed out some sheet music for me to play while the other three missionaries sang and said, here, can you play this? haha. So anyways, I played it and they sang. Also, on Wednesday we went to a "activity" where they practiced for the talent show, but the ward pianist who was accompanying two songs, was in a meeting. So I got to sight read "you raise me up" in D and some classical thing in Ab. A FLAT! That was a pain. I was accompanying a man who was playing a tenor horn though. That was interesting. I was jealous. I should have asked to trade him places and sight read his music. That would have been funny, and it probably would have been way easier for me. Oh well. 

We also had our specialized training and interviews this week, which means that we had trainings from the zone leaders and assistants and president and we had interviews with President and Sister Ulrich. That was fun. I will share all of my insights from the week in the form of proverbs that I will make up because I hate wordy discourses with a bunch of fluffy words in it like "really" and "so much" and "things" and stuff.

1. If you can't find a solution, don't bother looking for problems.

2. If you don't have a solution, don't tell people what they're doing wrong.

3. If you find yourself questioning people's motives, it is a pretty good indicator that they're fine and you are just prideful.

4. You can learn a lot more about a person's character by what they say about others than you can by what they say about themselves.

5. If you keep looking for a perfect person to be your friend, you are going to be forever alone. 

6. If you like to talk to tomatoes, if a grape can make you smile, (darn, I forgot the rest) Have we got a show for you!!!

Have a nice week, bye!

-- 

Elder Ferguson

A lot of Exchanges

HAH! Ok I figured out how to fix my pictures now, I don't know why my camera has suddenly decided to be so difficult... :/

Anyways, this week was good. We didn't actually do a lot of tracting, we did more of trying by people we had already found and being gone on exchanges. I went to the zone leaders area for a couple of days, that was fun, but it was kinda just boring. We went to a ward council meeting for a ward I'm not in for an hour and a half. I got to hear how a ZONE LEADER behaves in a Ward Council, so I got to learn from his immense example. :)

Then I came back to my own area for a day, and got to do our normal stuff, then I went to Stafford while Elder N went to a special mission leadership meeting, where junior companions can't come because of all the deep doctrine and the secrets about disobedient missionaries. Haha, actually I'm pretty sure the only reason we're not allowed is because the meeting is in Manchester and it goes from ten till five. Anyways, I got to go and teach some people that were kinda borderline unaccountable in the rain, and then I went home.

This week I am trying to not be prideful. It hasn't worked to well so far, maybe this week. Sorry this letter is full of cynical sarcasm, I just have developed a strong taste for it lately, there were good things that happened this week, I promise, I'm actually very happy. :)

Bye!

-- 

Elder Ferguson

Here's some pictures.

Lesson in Prayer

Well, this week, we didn't tract one door. We spent the whole week just teaching referral after referral. As soon as I bore my testimony on Sunday all the members felt the Spirit so strong and they knew that I was the missionary that needed to teach all of their friends and family and so we have been driven to all of our appointments and we have just been teaching up a storm. We have seven people dated for baptism this week, and our goal for next week is eighteen. No more finding for Elder Ferguson.

Just kidding. This week, we just tracted. It was actually pretty sad, because we were just going around, knocking on doors like we do, and everyone was saying, I'm not interested and shutting the door. It's weird, I keep thinking that one of these times, they're going to just not say that, but so far, that hasn't happened. BUT, we have been praying a lot harder. Elder N is practically obsessed with praying about what area we are going to find in. I didn't really like that at first, because it didn't seem to be doing anything, but obviously, neither does just tracting without praying first, and 2 Nephi 32 says to listen to the Spirit that teaches you to pray, and PMG chapter one says that if we have Spiritual Power, we will be lead where to go, so I decided that maybe I should be humble and just try it. Alma 32 says that I'll find out if I try it first, so I did, and we still didn't find anyone, but then, the Zone Leaders told us that we should try stating our reason for the things we ask for (Alma 31, "their hearts are precious, I am infirm, etc."), and that we should pray for confirmation (I don't actually have a scripture for that off the top of my head).  I decided to be humble again and just try it, even if I wasn't so sure about the idea, and guess what?!?! We found two investigator families and a less-active member who said that she knew we had been sent to talk to her!! I don't know why, but it seems like every time someone says that maybe we were sent to them, it doesn't matter how lightly they said it, or how much they may not have actually meant that seriously, they are almost always right, and if I don't feel inspired to go somewhere, no one ever says that.  It's crazy.

-- 

Elder Ferguson

New Companion & New Area - Shrewsbury

One of my very favorite members in England from Ryan's first area sent me this picture along with a message saying he got to see him at transfers and so he took a picture for me.  Yay!  Check out the new suit.  I'm going to have to ask about that.  I hear they have much higher quality suits there and cheaper too.  - Amy

Letter From Elder Ferguson:

Hello everyone!

Well, I can't remember if I even said so last week, but I just left Wrexham and now I'm in Shrewsbury. That was the shortest area ever! So now I'm in Shrewsbury, so that's good too. I don't remember most of this last week, because we were pretty much cleaning everything up to prepare for the new Elders coming in. My new companion is Elder N, he's from California  He's nice. I pretty much just barely met him, because I got here on Saturday. I'm trying to think of something useful to say. 

I have been to Shrewsbury once on exchanges, and I feel like I already know half the ward. There is a recent convert here that I used to hear about almost every day over the phone when I was in Newtown. He's super committed  and he gives us rides pretty much anywhere, so that's nice. I think I'm going to like it here. For the next six weeks before I whitewash out of here too. Oh well. This ward has an organist. But they keep telling me they need a pianist, so I'm not sure what's going on there. 

I can't even think of any funny stories to tell. Well, here are some pictures. 

-- Elder Ferguson

Transfers - Shrewsbury & Pictures!

Hey, guess what?!?! I'm being transferred again already! I've been here for one transfer and we're being whitewashed out. I'm actually pretty mad, because the members are great here and I was hoping to stay for Christmas... Oh well, we had a good time, and it's good that I'll never get bored of Wrexham or have any bad memories of it. Unless something happens in the next five days. I'm going to Shrewsbury, which is actually just the next area over, I was in the District of Shrewsbury last transfer when I was in Newtown. It's pretty nice, I will send you some pictures that I took there on exchange. I've heard the members are nice there too. 

Wow, it's super hard to email because I'm on the fast computer today and wow can you do family history fast on this thing.

This week, we did a lot of finding, us usual. I'm kinda sick of finding. So I think I'm going to start doing it better, and then I won't have to do it as much cause I'll just be teaching. I started by reading the social skills section of the adjusting to missionary life booklet, and it has a lot of good tips. It should be good, this will be fun, Shrewsbury has been doing really well in missionary work and I'm going to keep it going. 

I don't really have a lot else to say. I went to Nando's this week for our District meeting lunch. It was pretty good, and they were playing Latin music!! It was so exciting, I was super hyper all day after that. haha. Then we got soaked because it rained really hard, so that was fun. 

Yesterday, we were at a members house, and Elder O. mentioned Llangollen and he pronounced it wrong and they made him say it right, then they told me to say it and I said it right on the first try. They were all very impressed. They also told me I had a northern accent for a minute that night as well. HA.

Well, here are some pictures, bye!

-- 

Elder Ferguson

Tracting in Llangollen

  Font in Pink:  Written by me - Mom of Elder Ferguson  

He had asked me to get some music for him.  Well,  I couldn't find it anywhere.  I searched for the name on Google with no results etc…  I thought it wasn't going to work and gave up, but then an idea came.  I'm on a mission mom's facebook group.  There is 6,441 LDS moms from all around the world and one of them has got to know about this Craig Larson, so I put a feeler out there for it.  I did find someone who knew about him!  Apparently it's this lady's stake president.  He made the album for his mother.  She said he wasn't trying to make it for a profit.  She asked him and he gave her permission to make a copy for him.  She mailed me the CD at no charge.  I sent him the music through the email yesterday.  The way to this boy's heart is music!  This was his response:

Wow! thank you! Do you think it would be ok for me to forward this to some friends? PS Can you tell her or him or whoever you talked to thank you for me? This is great!

I also told him in our letter to him last night about our Relief Society lesson and how Sister Giles asked what the missionaries appreciate or helps them as missionaries the best.  This was his response:  
I think member work is way important. My favorite thing that members do for us is find us people to teach. That is always the best way to bring people in to the church, because everyone thinks that we're brainwashed, but their friends will have a much easier time getting to them. The members that help with the missionary work are the best. The church has three (sort of four) main purposes; Proclaiming the Gospel, Perfecting the Saints, and Redeeming the Dead. Missionary work covers all three of those. When you are teaching your friends about the gospel, you are being perfected, and their conversion will lead to countless others receiving saving ordinances in the temple. That's what it's all about. Missionary work is about making God's work and His Glory, our work and our glory, and it's just as important for 'normal' members to do it as it is for us full-time missionaries.

Wow, I almost forgot to write my weekly letter. This week was nice. We did a lot of tracting. It is fun. Sort of. We found a nice little town called Llangollen. It's basically a tourism town, because it has a river and some hills. It reminded me a lot of Newtown. I took a picture, but unfortunately, I can't plug in my camera or I would have to take out my USB and if I did that I would have to stop listening to my music. Maybe in a little while once I've finished this album. 

Anyways, in Llangollen ( I would say how to pronounce it, but there isn't English for the sound the ll's make), everyone was really friendly. I don't know if it's because they considered us tourists, and wanted our money, or if it's just because missionaries don't come down very often, but they were very polite and a lot of people would at least listen to us for a minute before they told us no. It was nice. 

Last week, President Ulrich made everyone packets to study the Atonement for all month. It's been really good. The only sad thing is, a lot of the talks quote each other and overlap, so it's a little redundant. But it's nice. It has been keeping the Atonement closer to the front of my mind, and that's where it should be. Joseph Smith said that everything in the church is about the Atonement, everything we talk about is an appendage to that. The more I study it, the more I understand how true that is. Every saving ordinance is directly symbolic of the Atonement the Jesus Christ performed for us. 

Here is a joke for everyone. Why did the pie cross the road?

Because he was meetin' potato!! (haha get it? meat and- Meetin') 

Now it's your turn, send me a joke. 

Bye!

-- 

Elder Ferguson

mormon.org/me/C2WV

Here is some peanut butter that expires the same time I come home. :)

A Straight Forward Conversation

Hey, it's October, that means it's almost Christmas!! 

This week was a horrible one for missionary work sort of. We pretty much just did some tracting and tried by some former investigators. Didn't get much out of it. But we did finally teach a Baptist Preacher that Elder O. found just before I got here. Haha, it was funny because it was a really straight forward conversation. He asked what we did, we told him, he asked what we told people and we started talking. Of course, like all people who make a living off of convincing people our church isn't true, he didn't like it very much, but he was still very polite and he listened to what we said. My favorite part was when we got to the subject of the trinity. I don't know why people get so hung up on that one, since the doctrine of the trinity was clearly invented by pagans when they wrote the Nicene creed, but he started getting bashy. "Clearly it says that they're three in one in John 1..." And then I said something amazing. I said, "I don't want to argue with you." Haha, he was shocked that I didn't want to bash with him and then he just took it and it was much easier. After that, everything I said seemed to make more sense to him, and he accepted everything I said as something that I believe anyway, so that was nice. Hopefully next time he will commit to read the Book of Mormon with real intent. :)

So anyway, General Conference was great! There was one point during the third session where I considered calling the mission president and asking for permission to stay for the last session even though it started at 9pm with the excuse that we live across the street from the chapel, but then I realized that the zone leaders and assistants would have had to stay up until we called them to tell them we were home, plus he would have said no anyway, but the first part was good. I loved Elder Oaks's talk about loving our neighbors. I noticed this week that if you listen closely, the messages almost always have some things to resolve people's concerns about the gospel, and it always has an invitation to change, and they are very bold. They don't ask for permission from us to tell us to change. It's expected of us. 

I also thought that it was interesting that there were three talks in a row that all talked very specifically about sustaining the prophet. I can't wait to hear President Monson's last talk, nobody spoil it for me! Although I am going to start it in a couple of minutes, so don't worry about it for next week or whatever, just if you get this within the next half hour or so. Anyways, have a nice week!

 If you have the ability to attend the temple in the next week or so, do it, you will be blessed! 

Bye!

Hey, here is a random picture so no one thinks that I'm not sending pictures home. :)

I took that this morning. Isn't it beautiful?

What a Twirp - Amy (Elder Ferguson's Mom)

Elder Ferguson

mormon.org/me/C2WV

Pattern of Tracting then success!

Ok, Me first! (Mom - Amy)  I got a few wonderful pictures from a member in Elder Ferguson's ward that he's serving in.  I had to share!  I'm so grateful for members that take the time to do small things for us like this!  - Thanks Sister Pierce

Hello everyone!                                        9-29-14

 

Hey, so this week, we did a lot of tracting. I don't know if you've noticed this, but there seems to be a pattern of that in my mission. I do a lot of tracting, then I have some success  then I do a lot of tracting, and that's what happened this week. So we went to a multi-zone conference on Thursday. I don't remember very much of it funny enough. It was nice though. Then we went home and the sisters in our area forgot the keys to their flat in Manchester, so we just sat around at McDonald's with them until the Office Elders came with the keys. It was pretty fun. I have also discovered that when I'm bored, I will just take pictures of myself. This is what happened at McDonalds, and hence, the picture. Haha. I crack myself up sometimes…

 

Anyways, then on Saturday we met with a Preacher that referred himself on mormon.org. He has some members of his congregation that have been investigating with the sisters, and he was "curious" to find out more.  I discovered some weird things about myself. Normally, I am always the quiet companion, and the one who doesn't say bold things, but while I was in Newtown, I saw a clip on the PMG videos where the missionaries told a lady that she should probably look for a new job where she wouldn't have to work on Sundays, and I realized that I could be bold, because I know I'm right, so me and Elder VB were bold. We weren't jerks or anything, but we said it like it was. Now I'm with Elder O. So we were talking with this preacher, and he started asking us about the Godhead. He started pulling out scriptures trying to prove to us the whole trinity thing, and I stopped him and asked us what we were doing there. He changed the subject. In the end, he said that he wanted to "interrogate" us to find out what we believe, but he would listen next time. I hope he does. He was a very nice man, but he asked us a lot of dumb questions about unimportant things and I want him to know the message of the Restoration. I also asked him if he had read the Book of Mormon and he would only tell me that he had a copy. I feel like he is just looking for faults to find in our religion to tell his congregation about, but it was interesting. It was interesting to see that I have changed and that now I am not afraid of anyone, even someone who is supposed to be "high up" in another church.

 

Then yesterday, we had a miracle. We decided to knock some random street. Elder O. felt like we should knock it. So we did and we met a man who was interested! We told him who we were and what we were talking about and he let us in. He said that he has only just moved here and he is interested in what we have to say, he met some Mormons before, but he didn't get the chance to talk to them. We talked to him for a long time, and he has  a very good knowledge of The Bible, but he didn't even try to bash. He just wanted to know the truth and to see if what we teach is contradictory to The Bible.  We had a good discussion and he said we could come back this week. He also has a family that will be moving up soon! Yay!

 

Bye!

-- 

Elder Ferguson

mormon.org/me/C2WV

Learning / Exchanges / Finding

     
This week was nice. We were busy a lot because we went to Manchester for an ALL ELDERS TRAINING and then we came back really late and we had an exchange. And then we had weekly planning, and then we went to Manchester again to go finding for some other missionaries because university is starting in Manchester this week and there's tons of people to talk to. 

So at the all elders training, we had a hour and a half talk by our mission president about the Three Pillars of Eternity. It was nice. It's funny, because President keeps just trying to blow our minds with "deep doctrine" at our meetings to make us excited about the gospel, and he is getting me excited, but he's actually not saying a lot of things that I don't know any more. He already got me excited about three months ago, and now I've done a lot of study and most of the things he can tell us are things I've already read. It's kinda fun. But it was good anyway, and then after lunch he did a question and answer thingy and kinda the same thing happened. Lots of people were asking questions, but I knew the answers to their questions, and I couldn't remember any of the questions I had for him because I didn't bring my list. Oh well. 

So for our exchange, I went on exchange with a missionary that actually served here a few months ago, so he actually knew the area and the members much better than I did. We went to a member's house, and he taught the lesson and made them cry, then we went to an indexing night, and everyone wanted to talk to him. It was pretty funny, but we also ended up spending pretty much the whole exchange visiting members. Oh well. 

Then we went to Manchester. I'm trying to make this letter short, but we did a lot this week, so we were standing on the street just talking to whoever walked past, and a lady walked up to me. I was the fourth missionary that she saw walking along the street, but I guess it took that long for her to finally decide that she should talk to us or something. She came up to me and told me that her brother joined our church a little while ago and he turned his life around. She actually described some of the fruits of the spirit that she was seeing in him. It was pretty cool. Then I taught her the Restoration and she thought it was great. She gave us her number and we're going to pass it on to the missionaries in Leeds.  It was great.

I also met a Muslim man, he asked lots of questions about the things in Christianity that seemed wrong or contradictory, and then I told him how we didn't believe in any of them. Haha, he loved it. I told him about where the Book of Mormon came from and it just made sense. It was like he'd been looking for the gospel his whole life. Then I explained how our Faith works and why it's essential to be a member of our church to have faith enough to be saved and he thought it was amazing. I probably won't find out because he lives in Manchester, but he will probably be baptized.

Have a nice week, Bye!

-- 

Elder Ferguson

mormon.org/me/C2WV