Week 3

Monday (Oct 22): Last day in the MTC! This has been a really great experience and I have learned and grown so much. Also I have met so many wonderful people here. It's crazy how you can feel so close and have built great friendships with other Elders after only 2 weeks. We ended the day giving blessings to every Elder and sister in our district. The spirit was really strong and then we finished by singing "God Be With You Til We Meet Again". The whole night was really spiritual and I am grateful for my time here at the England MTC.

Tuesday: Today was filled with a lot of traveling! 6 hour bus ride from the MTC to the mission office. Where I got my trainer who's name is Elder Stoddard. He is from St Anthony, Idaho. I guess Idaho companions are my thing! But after a while at the mission office we took a 2 and half hour train ride to my first are called Hastings. It is right on the South border of England next to the ocean. It was quite adventurous and fun to haul 3 suitcases up and down stairs and all over in the underground train station but I managed to do it and we didn't make it the flat until 9:15 pm (Keep in mind that I woke up at 4am that morning) It was a long and exhausting day but I love it already and it is super nice besides the fact we didn't have electricity or a working fridge which smelled terrible because there was rotten food in it. But other than that it is great.

Wednesday: Wow first day in the field was a struggle. It was hard. Our hot water didn't work so I took a freezing shower in the morning. After a lot of calls and effort we finally got that figured out thankfully, along with the electricity. We spend about 3 hours street contacting and got no one that we know of. then we spent the afternoon "Talking" to less active members in the area but only about 3 out of 10 actually wanted to talk to us. I got home absolutely exhausted! But the area is beautiful and I really gave it my all with Elder Stoddard. There is always another day.

First day in Hastings right by the ocean!

Thursday: Today started out much the same as yesterday. We had a lot of struggles and this area is tough to find people of interest. We did have a really funny experience though that a guy told us a story about how his spirit left his body and he saw his body lying there and his spirit went up to heaven and met Christ. He then told us to hold his hand and he prayed for us haha. After his prayer he made a cross on our faces and gave us "The blessing of God." Me and Elder Stoddard are determined and will continue to obey and work as hard as we possibly can and trust that we will find the people who have truly been prepared by the Lord to hear our message. 

Friday: Another day with so much hard work and effort to try and find people of interest. It is so devastating because I know that the message of the gospel can completely change the lives of these people but no one is willing to listen. It makes me sad. We did stop by the houses of some members later tonight though and got some referrals from them so we are going to pray and hope for some luck with these people. Me and elder Stoddard are going to continue to give it everything we have and trust that the Lord will provide. I know that there is a reason we are in Hastings and I am determined to work hard to find that out. 

Saturday: Not gonna lie today started off kind of rough. I didn't have much focus or a desire to work at the beginning of the day, and I was thinking about other things. I can truly testify that Satan is real and he will do whatever he can to stop us from doing good. Through a couple prayers and scripture study my whole attitude changed and I was so excited to work! Today we did some service and painted a fence for an older lady in the ward and it was awesome. 

Before

We did some service and painted this fence so here is a before and after. I say we did pretty good. 

Then tonight one of the members invited us over for dinner and he is so awesome. I promise that missionaries love to eat at members houses. So I invite all of you to have the missionaries in your area over for dinner!

Highlight of my week, my first dinner appointment ever! We had fajitas and they were pretty dang good. 

Sunday: This was one of the best Sundays I have had in a long time. The ward is tiny though and only 50 active members go to church. But it was great to meet some people in the ward. It has gotten colder and colder each day and I am starting to freeze my cheeks off (both kinds!) We got invited over for another dinner appointment so that was great. I also believe the Lord has blessed me in smaller ways as well as big ways. I ate mushrooms and they didn't taste too bad, also that house had 2 cats and I didn't even have any type of allergies or stuffy nose. I then had some cereal and the milk didn't even give me a stomach ache. I know that the Lord blesses his missionaries and his people as long as they obey everything with exactness and work hard to bring themselves closer to Christ. 

That is all the details for this week. Next Monday we have zone conferences so my P day will actually be on Tuesday. But 95% of the time my P days will be on Monday. So I guess I will see you all again on Tuesday!

Me and my companion Elder Stoddard right now cuz we forgot to take a picture together this week lol.

Questions we asked him this week:

It sounds like you don't get fed a lot.  What kinds of meals did you cook this week?

For breakfast I have either a bagel or a banana, then a ham sandwich for lunch, then just some kind of soup for dinner.  That's what I do pretty much every day.

How do you get around your town?  How far to get to church?

We walk mostly everywhere but sometimes take a bus.  We got a member to drive us to church this week but it's about a 15 min. drive or 30 min bus ride.

What is your monthly living expense and what do you need to pay for?
All we have to pay for is transportation (bus) and food.  So, we have about £100 a month which is like $120.

Do you email from your phone or somewhere else?
My phone doesn't have service so we have to go somewhere with Wi-Fi to email so we use the computers at the chapel.

How is the new area and what is the area like?
The area is right by the ocean so it is really cool but super cold.  Since it is by the ocean it is somewhat like a retirement area so there are lots of old people who are not really willing to change anything about their life so it is so hard to find people to teach.

How is your companion?
My companion is pretty cool.. We get along quite well but he is obsessed with reading and studying so it is kind of hard for me to relate to him at times.  He is definitely a great missionary though and we are getting to be pretty good friend.  He is from a small town called St Anthony Idaho and has been on his mission for 14 months.

How was meeting your mission president and did he say anything to you about you being named Stockton?
Meeting my mission President was great.  We only talked for about 5 minutes but he is super cool and definitely has the "In" about the basketball world.  I told him you you guys were debating between Stockton and Jordan and he said he was glad you chose Stockton.  He told me he has a secret dislike of Michael Jordan because he kept him from 4 championships.  2 with Utah and 2 with the Knicks.

How often are the members feeding you?  We have been fed twice so far.  I don't think it is very common in this area.  I think we would be lucky if we got just one every week.

Have you had to eat anything you don't like yet? Yes actually, but it was out of choice.  I tried some mushrooms and they were decent.

How big is the ward you are serving in and is it only one ward? The ward is tiny.  On Sunday there were only about 50 people.  We only serve in one ward and there is only one ward in our area.

How was the bus ride down from the MTC? The bus ride was 6 hours to the mission offices and then Hastings was another 2 hour train ride.