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