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

Wrexham - Great People & New Experiences !

Hey! So this week was really good! In Wrexham, it is different than in Newtown even though it is still in Wales. My first day in Wrexham we came back from our transfer meeting and we went and saw an investigator. He had been missing for a little while but they found him again right before I got there. We talked with him and asked him about what had happened for the last few weeks and he said that he had an issue but he felt really bad about it and he wanted to keep going. So he is going to be baptized on the 27th! Yay! I'm so excited for him, he's super shy and super humble. 

This week Elder O. also told me that there was a youth on the front row that he'd just been told was not actually a member, but she's been coming for about a year now. Wow. So hopefully she will be baptized really soon although it is a bit complicated. 

Elder O. is good. He is from Nebraska. It is going to be really weird to go home to America... But Elder O. and I are working really well together. Lately we have been focusing a lot on using pamphlets when finding, which I don't really get, and also using family history in finding, which I'm great at. And Elder O. is the other way around, so we are both learning a lot from each other. I also know a lot about the gospel, and Elder O. would like to learn a lot about the gospel, so it works out well! 

The ward here loves me already because I play the piano. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't know what to do if I got sent to a ward that already had a pianist, I would have to find something else to do to get the members to like me (besides missionary work of course haha). I really like this ward, I could see by the way they talked to me and the way they talked to our investigator at church, I could definitely do a lot of good things here because they take good care of investigators.  They make sure they feel welcome. :)

Bye!

-- 

Elder Ferguson

mormon.org/me/C2WV

From Amy (Elder Ferguson's mom)  

I got a message from on Facebook from a mom in Elder Ferguson's new ward in Wrexham.  She told me she met him and would keep an eye out for him and send me updates every now and then.  She just sent her son out on a mission too.  Yay!!!!  

Shutdown & Transferring to Wrexham England

Hi,

Guess what! We're getting SHUT DOWN! So that means that me and Elder V are leaving and no one is coming to replace us. It's been super weird ever since we got the call on Saturday cause we spend so much time finding normally, and now it would be pointless to find new people because there will be no one to teach them. So we visit a lot of the people we know and tell them we're leaving and pretty much just tell them to keep reading the Book of Mormon and to come to church and then that's it. I'm going to Wrexham which is just north of where I am now. And my new companion will be Elder O.

On Saturday, we were talking to some Jehovah's Witnesses for around an hour because we were stuck in Welshpool waiting for the train. It was super funny, JW's are always really nice. One lady asked me what the difference was between our church and theirs. I told her about the Book of Mormon, but I figured she had already heard plenty about it so then I told her about temples. It was interesting. Because they always try to say that they have the same sort of thing and compare and show that we're not really that different, but she had nothing on temples. She didn't know what to say. (random side note, I just smelled the temple for a second. Weird.)

Yesterday we went to a born-again church. That was a lot of fun too. It was pretty much a concert. It was nice though. They really like Jesus. While we were there, I was thinking about what it was that was different. And a lady asked me what was different as well. And as I talked to her, (it didn't actually go very well, it was kinda loud so it was pretty hard to communicate properly) but I realized that for most main-stream Christians, the only difference is our definition of Faith. Because after that, they don't have any beliefs. Because our faith has three components. It is an acceptance of the saving power of Christ's Atonement, but it also contains a proper understanding of the Godhead and an knowledge that the life you are leading is pleasing to God. If I could explain that to them, maybe they will think a little more about it. Hmm....  

-- 

Elder Ferguson

mormon.org/me/C2WV

Faith - the first principle of the gospel

Hello everyone! This week was nice, we mostly just tracted. 

This morning, Elder H randomly called us and started talking to us. He's going home in a couple of weeks, so I guess he decided that he needed to give us some last words of wisdom since he trained Elder V and I was his next companion. He talked about how we need to have faith and expect our lessons to work out. Then we will have better first lessons and people will be more likely to not flake when we come back. That's good because he was right. We haven't even been saying prayers with people at the end of our first lessons, which is a pretty important part of it. I think prayers are an important part of helping people to feel the spirit, like, a really important part. 

Faith is an amazing thing, and there is a reason that it is the first principle of the Gospel. Faith has to come first before everything else, and faith is not just belief or hope, it is a principle of action and power. And I could go on, but I won't because that would be boring and I can't say it as good as Joseph Smith does anyways. 

Yesterday, we were at a less-active member's house and they were talking about how unfortunate that there were so many people in the church, themselves included, that couldn't make it to church because of health problems. She told us that we should start targeting healthier people. Then I pretended like a cripple answered the door and told them that I changed my mind and I didn't want to talk to them and stuff. And she cracked up. Haha. I am so good at making people laugh. It makes me laugh. Maybe I was a stand up comedian in the pre-existence. Well, have a nice week.

Bye!

-- 

Elder Ferguson

mormon.org/me/C2WV