Which side are you on?

I'm getting a new companion! His name is Elder VB. He is from Holland. He was my district leader in the MTC. He was trained by Elder H. He is nice. It will be an interesting transfer or probably two. 

This week we went to a Zone meeting. That was nice. After zone meeting we went on exchange and I came back to Newtown with a missionary from New Zealand. He was nice. We found a new investigator right outside of our flat. We taught him the restoration right away and he accepted it right away. We gave him the Book of Mormon and he said thank you. It's funny how sometimes people do that. Usually people just say 'Not interested' or just do the universal sign language for 'No thank you; I am happy with my own religious beliefs for now but maybe next time.'  So that was nice. 

We also ran into someone who is a member that doesn't come to church anymore. He basically tried to tell us that our church was wrong, but he was polite and would still listen to what we said. We explained how he was false doctrinally and he accepted it, although he still thought that we were wrong. It's interesting how people will open up a conversation with you like that. 

One time someone was talking to Joseph Smith about all of the Apostasy in the church at the time. He said that if he decided to leave the church, he would just go somewhere else and not bother anyone about it again instead of trying to tear down the church. President Smith told him that that isn't how it works. He said that once you are baptized you have chosen a side and left the neutral ground, and you can never go back. Either you are totally on the Lord's side, or you are totally not. That is what I learned this week. Bye!

-- 

Elder Ferguson

mormon.org/me/C2WV

(Amy)  I looked up what he was referring to and found this story
https://www.lds.org/manual/teachings-joseph-smith/chapter-27?lang=eng

The new area…

This week was nice. We were actually in our own area for most of the week, so that was good. We have an investigator that is a Sunni Muslim, one that is a Born-Again Christian, and one that believes in reincarnation, and whatever else she decides to believe. 
None of them is really planning on changing, but that's ok, because two of them are kinda new, and one of them seems like she actually does sort of want to know, she just doesn't like the idea of organized religion.

Yesterday I read the Bible for bashing scriptures just because someone sort of asked me to prove the church is true with the Bible. I'm not going to actually bash, I just want to know them just in case. I think it helped me to build my testimony of why we need the Book of Mormon, cause the Bible is confusing. No wonder there are so many christian churches in the world. 

Well, bye!

-- 

Elder Ferguson

mormon.org/me/C2WV

Zone Activities & Meetings

Hello!

This week was a nice one, but we almost got no missionary work done. Because our area is at the bottom of the mission, we have to travel forever to get to any of our stake/zone stuff. This week we had an activity with half of the mission in Manchester on Thursday. We had to leave on Wednesday and stay at another flat and then the activity went too long so we ended up not making the last train back to Newtown that day so we had to stay in the Shrewsbury flat. We came back on Friday, and then on Saturday we left at one to make it to the Saturday evening session of stake conference. And then we stayed the night there and went to stake conference in the morning. We stayed in four different missionary flats this week including our own. That was pretty fun, but it wasn't that great of a week for sleep because I was always sleeping on couches and armchairs and stuff. Oh well. It was still really fun.

When we were at the activity thingy, President Preston talked to us about being courteous and polite and stuff.  He also talked about being humble and stuff, which I guess I could probably do better on. I don't want to be known as the missionary that just thinks he's better than everyone else.

We also had a talent show and a relay race thingy that day. I played Moonlight Sonata again, because it's one of the only songs I remember all the way through still. I would have played a hymn, but I'm pretty sure everyone is super tired of hearing the hymns. So that was nice. Then we had the relay race and I had to race someone to eat a bagel. I didn't eat it very fast, but it was fun.

At Stake conference, we had Elder Donaldson, who I'm pretty sure his name is spelled different than how I just spelled it. He was funny. Something that I remember at stake conference was to just be happy and keep doing what's right. Hopefully this week I will get to do more missionary work because there aren't any special things going on. Bye!

-- 

Elder Ferguson

mormon.org/me/C2WV

New area - FaceTime Mother's Day Call

Hello! 

This week was pretty boring, nothing too exciting happened. We ran into an investigator that has been hard to contact yesterday and we taught him a lesson. That was nice, because supposedly he was really good before I got here, although the first thing he said to us when we got in was that he wouldn't convert. That's alright, we know better, don't we? ;)

Anyways, I don't remember if I told you, but Elder G is from Utah.  We have a lot of fun.  Newtown is really small. There is some other towns that we went to on Thursday, but we had to get a ride with a member, but that was nice. We go down and see less-actives that will probably not come back for a while because at the moment the place where we meet for church is about and hour and a half drive away from them. Also, because we're just renting a little hall, it looks like the Kingdom hall, just fyi. 

I don't really have anything else to say. Keep the commandments, read the scriptures. Bye!

-- 

Elder Ferguson

mormon.org/me/C2WV

Mother's Day Call run down from (Mom) Amy:

I figured out a way to screen record the call, so I can go back and listen to it whenever I am missing him and his big smile.  He told us in his new flat/apartment there is a Keyboard.  He is pretty happy about that.  He said that he's fed just about every day that he's been there so far.

He said that this area that he's in right now is one of the biggest, if not the biggest in his mission.  He said it's made up of a lot of people from Birmingham.  Some of the signs and such are in Welch, but everyone speaks English.  He told us his clothes and shoes are still holding up fine.  He said that even though he's in a bike area they are mostly on foot because one of the bikes has a flat tire.  He told us his new companion is from the same town in UT that he will be attending college in when he gets home.  (Snow College).  He asked us if he sounded different (in his speech).  He sounded pretty normal to us.    He thought we sounded weird.  (No English accent.)  I asked him what advise he had for those preparing for a mission.  He said, Read The Book of Mormon.  

Transfers

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Haha, woops, I forgot to tell you this week would be a bank holiday didn't I?

This week was nice. It's tempting to not just say anything and make you wait until Sunday, but I guess that wouldn't help the missionaries who can only see what I send out anyways, would it?

Last week, Elder T found two new investigators while I was gone on exchange. Sort of a third as well. It's pretty exciting, except for I haven't met them and I am leaving first thing tomorrow morning because it's transfers! But at least the area is doing good now that I'm leaving. ;)

So I'm going to Newtown, which is the furthest area south in the mission. I'm going to be in a branch this time. I'm pretty sure I'm always going to be in pretty small wards because they are the ones that need people to play the piano... I get to be ward pianist again. Yay. Haha, at least now I can play all the hymns instead of the three that I could play in seminary. My companion's name is Elder G.  I think he's from California. I can't think of anything else to say. My next area is a bike area. I'm pretty excited. Bye!




For Mother's Day - OK! I will come on Skype about two o'clock I think. That's when we are planning on doing it anyways, so see you then!
-- 

Elder Ferguson

mormon.org/me/C2WV

The picture of Elder Ferguson is one I got from a member of the church in England that likes to watch out for all of our missionaries and was nice enough to send me this today.  (This picture is from today!  Transfers were today.)  She wanted to get more, but her batteries in her camera died.  That's ok.  At least we got this one.  :)  -  Amy

Indexing /Transfers soon/ Curry Smell

Here's a little video that explains about indexing, that Elder Ferguson talks about in his letter, from the familysearch website:  
Just click on this link BELOW:  They have several short video clips to walk you through it.
 http://bcove.me/628xt280

Hi,

Well, this week was nice. Yesterday I did indexing and it was great. Everyone should do it it's really easy, just go to familysearch.org and click on indexing!

It's super easy, I bet Dad could even learn to do it on the Mac. You just type the names in. I think that all of the youth are going to get super involved now because they can do gospel stuff with technology. You should definitely teach Jessica and Spencer and maybe Paul how to do it so they have something fun to do on Sunday. 

This week we have been doing some tracting and in between doors, we talk about weird things. This week we decided that we are addicted to oxygen. And water and food and stuff too. We also tracted into a born-again who said that he was praying against us. Heh. He also told us that we didn't know the Bible. I find that kind of ironic considering that Jesus Christ specificaly says in the New Testament to pray for your enemies. Oh well, some people just don't really understand the purpose of prayer or the laws that govern the answering of prayers. It was pretty funny. :)

On exchange this week, I saw a missionary hit a bumble bee to the ground and step on it. That was interesting. One of my favorite quotes from this week was, 'I'm just here for the chippy.' 

This week is transfer planning which means that next week is transfers. I am pretty excited because I am almost definitely leaving. I hope I go to Chorley so I can go to the temple on Pdays when we have bank holidays, we have a lot this time of year. 

The week before this one, or possibly the week before that, I made a curry and I messed it up bad. I still don't exactly know what happened, but I think it had something to do with the fact that I left the chicken on the pan while I tried to dump out the curry sauce and the sauce was a little bit thicker than I had expected so it took a while and I think I burned the chicken in the meantime... Haha. I could still smell it for two days afterwards... 

Well, I actually can't think of anything else to say this week. The hymn that I like best right now is 272, Oh Say What is Truth. I wish I could index on the computers at the library, but you have to install a program and the computers won't let you. I have way too much time on here... Bye!

-- 

Elder Ferguson

mormon.org/me/C2WV

Family,

hmm… Actually, I will probably be transferred on May 7th, so I will probably not know about my companion or my area until then. It would probably be best if you could get home from church five minutes early in case my companion is a  Utah missionary and is in the same situation. Next week I will know where I'm going and who my companion is so I can at least tell you a little then.

Learning about Accountability

Well, this week was Easter so the libraries were all closed. That is why if you are a missionary and already emailed me twice you have two emails from me now, and that's also why I am sending an email on Tuesday instead of Monday if you aren't a missionary. :)

This week, we pretty much did the same things we've been doing. We just kept working and trying and doing stuff. This is weird because I'm on exchange in St. Helens and the computers are super posh and I keep accidentally going into a weird programming console thingy whenever I try to hit backspace...

This week we had a specialized training, which is a fancy word for a zone meeting with the assistants and president. It was pretty fun. We talked about accountability. It was really nice. We have been focusing on accountability this transfer and I finally figured out why it is a good thing at the specialized training. 

I thought they were just doing it so that they could micromanage us,  and the Zone Leaders just wanted to know everything we did, so they could tell us off. But that's not it! 

It's about recognizing the consequences of our choices and accepting responsibility for them, as well as repenting (making changes) when we need to. Accountability is really just making sure that you know what's going on. It helps you to learn, and that's pretty much all we're here for as missionaries here. :)

We also did the service I mentioned last week. The weather has been super sunny all week (except for today it is raining). I got a sunburn. But it wasn't as bad as my knees a few years ago, so it was ok. XD We just painted fence for almost the whole day. And then we went home and went to a tea appointment. So that was nice.

Just so you know, transfers is in two weeks, so you should probably not send any post to my flat in case you actually happened to want to. Haha, bye!

For Mother's Day, I think I will probably be able to call or Skype you at 8pm which would be an hour after your church, or something like that. You would have to go straight home though just in case. I will talk to my companion. We are on exchange right now so I'll let you know for sure next week. Maybe.

Elder Ferguson

mormon.org/me/C2WV

No talking after church for me on Mother's Day  :)   I can't wait!  :)  - Amy