Transfer call-Staying, & Missionary story

We got Transfer Calls!! I'm staying in Rochdale and I'm getting a new companion named Elder M! He is going home, I think this transfer. And then, I will probably go to a new area and have my last companion.  We are going to be one of the oldest companionships in the mission.

This week, we went to teach a less-active lady we only just recently met, and as we started talking to her, she interrupted us and asked if we could find her a ride to church on Sunday, so we did, and she came. She has not come to church in years and we hardly did anything to bring her back. We just knocked on her door one day and she told us that she wanted her faith back. It was great.

 

Elder Ferguson

FEB 16, 2015 Pictures!/ Keeping Focused/ YSA/ 2 New Investigators

Well, this week was good. Have you ever seen The Best Two Years? It's a funny movie about missionaries and one missionary gets a bunch of letters from home and he's reading them and he says, 'This is Trunking me out of my mind!!' It's pretty funny. That was my Tuesday/Wednesday, not because of letters though. It was because we had a tea appointment with a YSA aged member and pretty much all she talks about during our tea appointments is movies, and they're usually movies that I haven't seen yet, but I will be seeing in approximately five months. So that was nice, but then on Wednesday, we had a meeting in Chorley. Which was great.  We got to see Meet the Mormons because it's coming to England! Be jealous, all of you other foreign missionaries. The only thing is, guess what month it's coming to England? June. 

(He comes home June 25th)

Yeah. And then we had a series of activities in groups and the whole time I was thinking, 'wow, this must be what institute/YSA is like...' So yeah, but don't worry, I got refocused and now I'm fine. Plus, we had some great missionary work which I'm going to tell you about via ctrl+C, Ctrl+V. =D

 

 On Thursday in the hour before weekly planning, we went out and tried by some people who weren't in and street contacted on the way. The last five minutes before we got back to the flat, we found two new investigators in a row. One of them, we've already seen him again. He is amazing, he doesn't really look like the type of person who would be interested in the gospel, but he said that he always talks to Jehovah's Witnesses when they stop him and he's really interested in religion and finding out about the purpose in life and in changing his life around. We met him again at the library on Saturday and he told us that he really wants to get forgiveness and he's really excited to learn about what we're teaching him.

We also have another investigator that we actually met last week, but we didn't get a chance to see her until Saturday. She is Catholic, but she isn't practicing and she was interested to learn about what we believe. She is also looking to find the truth and she told us that she has already studied some other religions, including Buddhism. When we came to our appointment, she invited us right in and we taught her the restoration. Our recent convert, (Jill) was there and she bore a great testimony, and she told her that she used to be a Catholic when she was younger, which we didn't even know. (Jill) knew just what to say to help, and it was amazing.

Have a nice week, bye!

-- 

Elder Ferguson

Mysterious Referral Story

This week we got a referral. Which they just send us by text now, but they don't tell us anything but the contact information. So we went to check this referral, and the person's husband opened the door and let us in. We came in and she was just sitting there on the couch and she was like, "Oh, Hi, come in, sit down," and stuff, and we were like, "Who are you?" So she told us that she was a member and she had gone less-active in the nineties. The NINETIES! 

She was doing her family history, and she found familysearch.org and she thought, oh yeah, I used to be a Mormon. She hardly remembers anything about the church, but she remembered that she was a member, so she referred herself to ask for a Book of Mormon. Woo! Her husband isn't a member and they were both really happy to have us over again and she wanted to read the Book of Mormon again and see if it was true.

Well, I don't really have any more time because another missionary just sent me some deep doctrine charts and I don't have the right amount of change to print all of them, so I'm going to read them. Bye!

-- 

Elder Ferguson

The story of Jack & Jill

Well.                

 

I would like to start this letter thingy by informing everyone that I am NOT TRUNKY! (anymore) So don't worry about it. I will just keep my daydreaming about home to pdays until 6.

 

Anyways, this week has been great! We had a training by the assistants and President Ulrich on Tuesday. Guess what we talked about? Not being trunky. They pretty much might as well have just read everyone my email from last week. It was kinda funny. I think that must be what it's like to study the lesson before you get to church. It definitlely makes it more exciting.

 

This week we saw a few of our investigators, but there isn't much to say there. They are all just kinda taking it slow... We are finding a lot of new ones. But then when we go to their houses, we find out that they don't actually live where they told us they live. They must think they're really funny.

 

But, this week I did learn two very important lessons. Yesterday. So this is going to be another rebuking email, sorry if some of you were enjoying my cynical humour and stuff, but that's going to have to wait till next week I guess.

 

So! We have two recent converts. We will call them Jack and Jill because this will get confusing otherwise. So Jack is going back to his non-mormon ways and it's not good. He's friends with Jill, and he goes to her house a lot, but he doesn't want to talk to us anymore, so whenever we go to Jill's he tells her to tell us we're not there. So we pretend like we believe her and teach her on her porch. But on Saturday, we asked Jill if she wanted to come with us to a fireside in Manchester. And she said yes. And then she asked if we could meet at the library that day, cause it's warmer. So we came over and she told us that she was feeling bad because she hadn't been reading the scriptures every day. So she's going to start again and we're going to call her to remind her and stuff. Then when we were about to leave we asked her if she wanted to speak at the fireside (to bear her testimony, a lot of recent converts do it at the fireside). We thought she would say no, but instead she said yes.

 

So then on Sunday, we were in Gospel principles and this was the first principle that I learned/ taught. Jill asked if someone sinned enough, and they kept repenting and going back, could they reach a point where they can't repent. And the answer is no. Actually, I kinda wanted to pull an Elder Scott in class and tell everyone that the philosophy that you can't repent after too much sin is one of Satan's Lies. Because it is. It is never, ever, to late to repent. So just repent already. And here are some scriptures just to prove I'm right. (Mosiah 26:30; Matthew 20:9-14)

 

Then at the fireside, there were tons of recent converts bearing their testimonies, that's kinda what it's for, and I felt the Spirit testifying to me that these people are just as powerful and capable as anyone else in the church. Some of the things that Jill has said in the past two days amaze me. She has only just started reading the Book of Mormon and she is already learning tons of things. The Holy Ghost teaches her everything she needs to know and just like the people in that scripture in Matthew, they are given the same tools and the same Gift as anyone else in the church, and they will still have just as great of a spiritual capacity as anyone else in the church.

 

I lied, there's a third, I forgot it. Also, when we are baptised, we recieve the Gift of the Holy Ghost. The Spirit can give us promptings and give us counsel that all the knowledge in the world can't give us. Do you realize the the Holy Ghost is a God!?!!?? He's a member of the Godhead. He knows EVERYTHING (Alma 7:13)!! So just listen to him, and look for his promptings. Actively seek the counsel of the Holy Ghost, cause he knows. 

-- 

Elder Ferguson

This is definitely a Tikka Masala that I made with a special Paste thing some members gave me, so this is one step closer to making it from scratch. And it was really good.