Monday, March 31, 2014

Exchanges & Transfer Day

Well, Elder F is moving to Ashton! I'm staying here and I don't know how to spell my new companion's name, so I will tell you what it is next week. I'm pretty sure he's not American. :)

This week was nice. We had a District meeting, then we went on exchanges with a missionary named Elder M.  I stayed here. Elder M.  is from North Carolina. That was nice. Then we exchanged back Thursday morning and had weekly planning, then we went on exchanges again right afterward with Elder S.  again. I don't know if I've mentioned this, but it takes about five minutes to walk to Elder S.  house back home from mine. Crazy. Anyways, I stayed here again, and we had a lot of fun. Then eventually, Elder F.  exchanged back here and we pretty much just had Saturday and Sunday together. And now it's Monday and he's leaving on Wednesday! 

I don't really have much else to say about last week. We pretty much just did the same things we've been doing and got the same results we've been getting, just without Elder F. On the bright side, one of our investigators who we haven't been able to get a hold of for over a month now finally said we could come see her tonight, so that will be nice. :) Well, Bye! 

Elder Ferguson




Monday, March 24, 2014

Well, this week was good. We tracted for at least an hour almost every day, and it was super good. We found four new investigators this week. And they all seemed super prepared and super nice. One of the ones we found even was going to come to church with us yesterday, but he didn't. :/ But aside from that, everything went really well this week. If any on you are planning on sending me letters, send them to the mission office because this week is transfer calls, although I will probably be staying. I kinda get the impression that most people in this mission stay in most of their areas three or four transfers. But you never know. This week I will be going on exchange twice in a row. Once with Elder M and once with Elder S. So that will be fun. I'm pretty excited, especially because I get to stay here both times, which means I get to pretty much just keep doing what I'm doing but with a different companion. So yup. Bye!

Elder Ferguson

Monday, March 17, 2014

The Glass is still half full!


Hiya!

This week was nice. We don't really have any investigators except for a few that are really hard to get in contact with at the moment, so we mostly go see less-actives now. And tract. On Saturday night, we got a phone call of a ride for our less-active cancelling. It was an honest mistake, but he did. So we called our friend in the morning to tell him the bad news, and he said that was fine, he would just come on his own on the train. Which two weeks ago, he wouldn't have been able to do. No way. I don't know if it was from the spirit when he came two weeks ago, or if if was because he also changed medications or both, but wow, he is doing so well. He must have been a Gentile. It's great! 

Yesterday we went tracting for three hours. It wasn't that bad, and it felt super effective even if we didn't get too many solid people to come back to. On the way home though, we met this girl and we started talking to her and we asked her if she was religious. She smiled really big and said that she was. No one ever smiles. She actually likes religion, and she's not already a Mormon. XD So we talked to her about the Book of Mormon, and we taught the Restoration, and she told us about a series of books that she had read. It was some sort of C.S. Lewis type thing about the second coming. And she told us how she doesn't want to join Satan and have the mark put on her hand or her arm or her forehead. It was great, so that was nice. When we gave her a Book of Mormon, she said thank you and she was really excited to read it. We will call her tomorrow and hopefully set up a return appointment.

That's pretty exciting that Nate got his mission call. By the way, I forgot to mention about Hunter's call last week. Woops. That is also exciting. I didn't know they had a Scotland-Ireland mission. That's pretty weird. Tell him not to buy any clothing before he leaves. It's much better and much cheaper here. 

Nobody celebrates St. Patrick's day but the Pubs. And I don't really go there. Actually, it might not have happened yet. I don't know. I know that mothers day is earlier here. (but I will call you on American Mothers Day still)

This is some food we made when we ran out of curry jars. We just put in a tin of chopped tomatoes and some curry spice stuff, and then we decided that it was too thin, so we also put in a tin of re-fried beans as well. It was pretty good. 

The other picture is 'Come, Come, Ye Saints' but the different way that I've been playing it for a while. I found out that the left hand is actually pretty much a copy of the over-world theme from Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. XD If any man can find the interpretation thereof (read it well enough to play it), so be it. XD Actually, you could probably copy it into Finale and play it back that way if you can't play the piano and you are really bored. 

-- 
Elder Ferguson


I think he either forgot to send the pictures he was talking about or they just didn't send, maybe a computer error, so either way, no pictures to show yet.  I'll update it with the pictures when he sends them.  Check back later.  Amy

Monday, March 10, 2014

Smiles, they're magic, who knew?



This week was good. There hasn't really been a whole lot going on though. On Saturday, we went on splits for a little bit with some other missionaries and went finding.  I started on the first door and taught a lesson on the spot. Then the second door that actually opened was almost a lesson on the spot, but forgot to give a solid commitment or say a prayer. People are being prepared, I think it just requires that we should have faith and use all of the talents we can to talk to everyone. I have been noticing that the bigger I smile, the harder people listen. It's actually pretty funny. I can probably get a door open for a good couple minutes longer just with my facial expression. That's sort of a weird talent I have been blessed with, but it works wonders.

 I actually haven't really taken any pictures that I haven't sent you. I just don't really take pictures.  

For the baptism, it was someone I was working with. I don't remember if I told you about her, but I probably did. 

Yesterday I spoke in church. Do you remember that thing I told you about smiling? Well it applies to ward members just as much as it does investigators. I think this week we will focus on going on splits with members a lot and getting them excited about missionary work. Maybe that is how it would be best, cause I don't know how else to get them excited. I will just show them. :) Well, bye!
-- 
Elder Ferguson

Monday, March 3, 2014

Trains / Recognizing the Blessings of Keeping the Commandments


I got this picture off of facebook, from his mission's facebook page.  I think it was from a zone meeting. - Amy
Hi, 
This week was interesting. I think I already told you about how I went to the temple last week, but I don't remember if I told you I got lost on the way home. We took a train from Chorley to Leyland, and then we got off to take another train to go to Liverpool. Then we had to wait for it to come for forty minutes and a train came at the time our train was supposed to come and it took us back to Chorley. Haha. So we got off and asked the ticket person what was the fastest way to get to Liverpool and he said that the best way is to get a train to Manchester and then go to Liverpool. Look at a map of England and tell me that makes sense. That was great. And funny enough, we still got back in time. haha. That was fun. (Elder Ferguson area is Crosby)








Anyways, this week, we did a lot of good things, but I don't remember very much of them. Actually, somehow I kinda thought that this week was last week, so I'm a little confused as to what happened when. Oh well. This week we finally got in contact with an Investigator that we haven't seen in a long time because he doesn't have a phone that works. We got to his house and we started teaching him about follow the prophet and stuff and then he asked what are some of the things that the prophets tell us to do, and I just randomly told him about the Word of Wisdom even though we knew that he smokes. As it turns out, he smokes about forty a day and he likes it. But it was really good. I think I realized that just telling someone to live commandments they're already living and patting them on the back until you have to tell them about the one's they will have trouble with doesn't work. We need to give them things that they can actually change so that they can experience the power of the atonement and recognize the blessings of keeping the commandments. So I'm going to be pretty bold with people. And I won't do it and try to love them at the same time, I am going to do it because I love them and I know that that is what will help them to be happy. So yeah. 

On Saturday I went to another baptism in Middleton again. It was great. I went on exchange with the missionary who replaced me in Middleton because he's in the area next to mine now. That was pretty nice. The baptism was great, it was really exciting. I think the only sad part about it was that it ended pretty late and I only stayed a few minutes after. And then when we got to the train station we realized that the next train that left left in forty minutes. So we ended up getting back right as we were supposed to be getting in bed. So that wasn't so nice. Oh well. It was worth it. :)

Yesterday we had a tea appointment with a member and they had a dog that was from South Africa and it was trained to hunt lions. It was massive. It wasn't even grown up but they're supposed to be between 14 and 16 stones when they grow up. I don't know how many pounds that is anymore, but that's a lot. That was really fun. :) 

Stones = 14 lbs according to wikipedia if I understand it right.

I asked him about if his umbrella was working out ok, his coat & what the weather was like etc... (Amy)

I don't know where my umbrella is, so I guess it's working fine.
It's not raining like crazy right now. It's actually been pretty sunny the last week.
I don't know if my coat is keeping me warm, I have no sense of temperature, but I haven't caught hypothermia yet, so probably.
I don't need anything.

Bye!


-- 
Elder Ferguson