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

"Do I look like I need to be saved by you two?"

Hello!

This week has been very fun! We have been having a good time! Here are some questions that my mom told me to answer...

 What has been your biggest success? 

My biggest success was probably that I loosely transcribed about four minutes of music in about half an hour last night so that we could re-word the mission song with cynical sarcastic remarks about the mission instead of the hopeful meaningful words that the song really has. I will send you the mp3 of the real thing next week if I remember. Heh. I think my biggest success missionary-wise was that I have had a renewal of faith as I have continued to carry on. I have great character, and this question is doing wonders for my humility. :)

• Who has been your favorite person this week? Why? 

My favorite person this week is Jesus Christ. I don't mean that sarcastically either.  He atoned for my sins. He gets what I am going through. He is the reason that I have no excuse to not do my best. Without Him, all of this would be a waste of time, and I hate to not be efficient. 

• What are you looking forward to this coming week? 
• I am looking forward to doing some service this week painting a lady's fence. There are so many people in this one small area that always ask us for service and it is great to be able to go out and help those people. I think one of the great ironies of missionary work are that now that we are not being paid, we love to cut people's grass.

• Do you have a goal set for this coming week? Tell me about it. Of course I have goals for this week (see PMG ch. 8)! I always have goals. My biggest goal for this week is to find new investigators so that we can go and teach them. That would be nice. :)

Well anyways,  this week has been nice. This morning I discovered that I have tan lines underneath my glasses. Yes. Tan lines. In England.

 Some of my favorite quotes from this week have been:

'Do I look like I need to be saved by you two?' 

'Go eat your tub of ice cream and love it!' 

'You are the best district leader we've ever had, and we're not just saying that.' (I am not a district leader fyi) 

and also a line from our rewording of the EMM song (I don't remember the first part, it was something about obedience) '-because I'm aspiring.' hehe. Well, anyways, I'll talk to you next week. Bye!

-- 

Elder Ferguson

mormon.org/me/C2WV

Week of General Conference

Well, this week was nice. We had transfers on Wednesday. It was pretty exciting. Elder T is really nice. He's from Canada and his father is from Samoa. He's pretty funny. We didn't get to see the last session of General conference because it was at nine and we were in the flat already. I will download it today and watch it at the flat. I liked Elder Oaks's talk in the Priesthood session about priesthood keys and authority. I think it's very interesting how things work in the church. I also really liked President Uchtdorf's talk about gratitude. He said that gratitude is the father of all Christlike attributes. That's pretty nice. It's also very simple. I also liked President Monson's talk about Charity and saying kind things to others. I was listening to them and thinking, why do they just talk about such simple things? Don't we already know this as members of the church? Then I realized that we probably don't. Obviously if the President of the Church thinks that it's important enough to talk about to the entire church, it should be important to us. If we want more deep-doctrine talks, or exciting announcements about lowered age limits or sealed portions of books, we should probably start really working on the things the prophet tells us. Maybe we should drink the milk they're giving us, and eventually we actually will get meat. If you aren't already studying Preach My Gospel like Elder Ballard has invited and followed-up and re-invited you to do, maybe you should start in chapter six and see how you're doing on the basics. :)

I also liked Elder Holland's talk, but I don't remember what he said, and the text isn't available. Oh well. Have a nice week. If you didn't get anything out of Elder Ballard's talk, read it again! 

This week we also had a great tea appointment with a member. She invited another member as well and we had a great time. I think that they are probably my two favorite members. The food was really good. The members in Crosby are all really nice. =)

Bye!

-- 

Elder Ferguson

mormon.org/me/C2WV

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

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

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