Final Mission Thoughts

 I recently received an email from my dad who gave me an invitation to read Alma 26 about Ammon describing his story and his experience as a missionary, and then to write my own mission story down. I decided this would be a great experience and I know my ideas may be a little out of place in some moments and that I might forget some details, but I hope and pray my writing will capture and portray a small portion of the joys and challenges of my full time missionary service. I hope this will bless my future self and all who read this story. All things contained here are true experiences and moments that helped to shape the course of my young life up to this point. 

On Tuesday October 9, 2018 I was dropped off by my family at the Salt Lake City Airport to fly to the Preston, England missionary training center. It was a very emotional day and tough to say goodbye for the next 2 years but I know that I was doing the right things and fulfilling my duty as a priesthood holder to serve the Lord. After a long flight from Salt Lake to New York, and then New York to Manchester, I finally arrived in England on Wednesday October 10, 2018. We were picked up from the airport to be dropped off at the MTC via a coach, which is a large bus. I was still very nervous and uncertain while on the coach but as I was looking out the window while driving past the countryside of England I was amazed at how green everything was and also how small all of the cars were! At this moment I was overcome by a peaceful feeling and it seemed as though I heard a voice speak to my mind which said, “There are people here who are waiting for you, this is the right place to be.” I grasped that impression and took that as my witness from Heavenly Father that this was the right thing and that I had made the right choice. We arrived at the MTC and I was given my name tag and received my first companion; Elder Wyatt Jenkins from Goshen, Idaho. We roomed with another companionship of Elders who were also going to be serving in the England, London Mission. Their names were Elder Indiana Brown and Elder Maxwell Richards. All 4 of us had lots of fun together and we enjoyed our time there. I was only in the MTC for a total of 13 days but in that short period of just under 2 weeks I was able to learn about the missionary lessons, and to practice my teaching skills. There was one day that we traveled to Piccadilly Square in Manchester to practice talking to strangers. We were there for 2 hours and I can honestly say I was scared out of my mind. I think I only had about 2 or 3 conversations and the rest of the time was spent standing around in a very timid manner. 

Although it did not help me to get used to not being around friends or family anymore, the MTC did not do a whole lot to prepare me for life in the mission field. We mostly spent our time messing around, making jokes, and having fun. One thing that was a cool experience though was that every night while we were in our dorms many of us Elders would gather together to sing a few songs before going to bed. It was lots of fun and I’m grateful for those small experiences which helped me settle into this new lifestyle. 

Other memories I have from the MTC were visiting old church history sites on a tour, ripping my suit pants and having a sister sew them back together for me, always having fun with the best chairs ever! The constant consumption of Cadbury’s hot chocolate, and having fun going into the little town of Chorley on P day, also playing lots of proper football for our exercise time.

After 13 days it was finally time to go to our assigned mission. We woke up early and had a 5 hour coach ride from Preston down to London where we first arrived at the mission office in the Hyde Park Chapel. WE had a little meeting as new missionaries and also had an interview with President Checketts. Afterwards we met our trainers and found out what areas we would be starting our mission in. My trainer was Elder Bryson Stoddard from ST. Anthony, Idaho, and our area was going to be in Hastings which is down on the South Coast by the ocean. The journey from Hyde Park to Hastings completely blew my mind and I had absolutely no clue how the public transport worked, and I was certain I would never be able to figure it out. Thankfully I had a well experienced companion who had been on his mission for 14 months to show me the way and take us to Hastings.

On the 23rd of October, 2018 we made it back to our flat at around 10pm, and it turns out that we actually had no electricity. On top of that, there was some meat that had been in the freezer for a few weeks and because there was no electricity we had some rotten smelling meat which did not leave a pleasant smell in the flat. It had been a long day of travel and I was very tired so despite the rough circumstances I figured I could just get to sleep and it would be all good and get figured out in the morning. We woke up the next day and paid for the electricity as soon as possible, then came back to the flat to get going on our day. Turns out the boiler was broken as well so I had to start out my first day in the mission field with a freezing cold shower. I had many negative thoughts on this day but I was able to remember my experience on the coach and the feelings of the spirit that I had and they were able to help me get through this rough start. One of the most important skills that I learned from Elder Stoddard was having good solid personal studies and companionship studies. I began to read and study the scriptures, Preach My Gospel, and conference talks like never before. This was a huge blessing to me because I gained a knowledge of the doctrine and confidence in the Lord very early on in my mission.

It didn’t take long for me to realize that missionary work was TOUGH! It required a lot of effort and diligence in order for anything good to happen from my own efforts. We spent hours on end, day after day contacting people in the street and I was not confident at all. It took me months before I could actually speak to someone without my companion. I hated it! I did not teach a single lesson for the first 3 weeks of my mission and it was so discouraging. I became well acquainted with the streets of Hastings and I had many long, cold, and hard days. Despite this, I knew that I was doing the right thing and that kept me going through these hard times. I also experienced small miracles and tender mercies many times while in Hastings and throughout my mission. I want to share 2 of them from my 3 transfers spent in Hastings. 

The first one I like to call the pizza miracle. After a long day of little success from being out working all day, we passed a pizza shop that sold an extra large pizza for just 5 pounds. We ordered our pizza and began to walk home when suddenly it started raining on us (as it typically does in England). I was already devastated from the rough day and did not want my pizza to get soggy and ruined. I said a prayer in my head that our pizza would be protected. Immediately after finishing my prayer we found a small broken down umbrella on the corner of the road and I was able to use this umbrella to protect our pizza. We made it home and enjoyed a delicious, non soggy pizza. This experience really touched my heart and I had my testimony strengthened that God hears and answers prayers, and that he cares about the small details in our lives.

The other miracle that I experienced in Hastings was having the baptism of Mohammad. When we first got together Elder Stoddard suggested that we should pray and ask God to help us achieve our goal of having one baptism before the year 2018 was over. We spent so much time and effort working hard to achieve this goal. It seemed as though we would never find somebody to teach when one day a guy from Iran came up to us and said he wanted to learn more about Jesus and asked us if we could teach him. This guy worked at a barber shop on the high street so we saw him nearly every day and started teaching him the gospel. One of the greatest joys I ever felt was when he quit smoking in order to be ready for his baptism. Mohammad was baptized on the 22nd of December, 2018 right before the year was over. This was a miracle and a huge blessing from God because it wasn’t anything specific we did in order for Mohammad to get baptized, but God led him directly to us and he was prepared to receive the gospel. 

One other thing that I did many times while in Hastings was participate in lots of service opportunities for members, especially with the Hobbs family. During my time there we spent nearly one day every week with Brother Hobbs working on their house because they were extending it and trying to give it more space. These days of service really kept me going and gave me something to look forward to each week and I have many great memories from working on their house with Brother Hobbs. We did this while I was with Elder Stoddard and also my 2nd companion, Elder Mashu Hori from Tokyo, Japan. 

I loved Elder Hori and really enjoyed my time with him but we were only together for a short time before we got an emergency transfer to another area in the zone for just one week because there was a missionary whose visa expired and he needed to go home a week before the transfer was over. So we moved to an area in South London called Croydon, and served in the Selsdon ward there for one week. 

I do not remember a whole lot from my time in Croydon but one thing I did love was that time in a trio with Elder Hori and a missionary from Park City named Elder Jake Chipman. We had lots of fun together for this week but the biggest take away that I got from my week in Croydon was that I started to enjoy finding a little bit more. The high street there was amazing and we had so many great conversations. Also in Croydon was when the new missionary safety zone videos came out and we had so much fun watching those it was like a little TV show. After a week we got our transfer calls and I was going to be moving to open up a new area called Maidstone, which was still in the same zone as Hastings. My new companion would be Elder Andre Cavalcante from Setubal, Portugal. 

The fact that we were going to be opening a new area was pretty exciting to me and I didn't really know what to expect. Because it was new though, they didn’t have a flat for us to live in so we had to live in Tunbridge Wells and for the first week we took a train just to get to and from our flat to the area each day. It was an hour long train ride both ways so we spent loads of time just traveling. After a week of that we were able to convince the mission office to get us a car which made life so much easier and also lots more fun! Especially considering the fact that I was the only one who could drive so I spent my 3 months in Maidstone driving. I enjoyed driving in England and it wasn’t really as weird as I thought it would be. 

One thing that I really loved most about serving in Maidstone was we had such a great ward and the members were really supportive. We had loads of meal appointments, probably 5 or 6 each week, and that  just made life really great. Alos, most of the missionary work that we did was member missionary work, because it was a new area and my companion was also not the most motivated to go out and work hard. I definitely think I should have been more of an example to him but I was still young and not very confident in my abilities. Despite not working as hard as I would have liked, I still had so much fun with Elder Cavalcante and we got along super well. Another thing that was amazing about the area was that our chapel was just huge! WE had everything you could ask for in a chapel and more. We spent a lot of time working with a recent convert named Chloe, and also teaching her friend named Shelly. I was only in the area for 2 transfers and the week after I left Shelly got baptized! It was great working with her so I loved being able to join the baptism on a video call. After just a short 3 months of serving in Maidstone we received our transfer calls and I was going to be moving to Stratford which is in the East part of London, and in the Hyde Park Stake. My new assignment was as a district leader and I would be following up training a young missionary named Elder Quinten Wood. 

Stratford was the area that really helped me to grow the most as a missionary. It was the most challenging area in my mission because of my responsibilities as a leader, and because of the work, as well as having to train multiple new missionaries. Even though it was my most challenging area, there were still countless experiences that I loved and multiple times where I felt so much joy. For starters, let’s talk about this missionary flat. It was so nice! We lived in a brand new building called Sky View Tower and not only that, but we lived on the 30th floor with an incredible view of London. This place was posh! We each had our own bathroom, plenty of space, and there was even a gym that we had access to inside the building. With each of my companions we all would have lots of fun throwing things out the window of the flat because there was a river below us and a big open space of concrete which we never saw any people on. That’s enough about the flat though, let's talk about the missionary work. Serving in London for the first time was SO much FUN! There were always people to talk to and we stayed really busy most of the time teaching lessons to friends, and working  a lot with returning members (less actives). Much time was spent finding at the Stratford Station which was always busy and right next to the Westfield Mall, a place where we spent lots of time on P days. I was really enjoying my time there at the beginning and we even received a referral from the sisters in Ilford of a muslim guy named Rashid who lived just inside our area and was practiciallly ready for baptism. It was amazing to experience another baptism so early on in my time in that area. Things were going really well but my companion had some mental struggles and ended up asking to go home in the middle of the transfer. So what did that mean for me? It meant that I was going to be training a brand new missionary and leading the area that I had only been serving in for 3 weeks. I did not really know the members and I was really nervous! 

The missionary who I would be training was Elder Helmut Bakman from Romania, but he lived most of his life in Spain. He spoke Spanish and Romanian, and was learning English here on the mission=. It was definitely a challenge because of the language aspect of things but Eler Bakman was so determined to learn English and he worked very hard to study it. Sometimes it was annoying how much he would ask me for help but he really learned quickly. Elder Bakman was one of the missionaries that I had the most fun with while on my mission. We were always laughing and just having loads of fun together. Not only that but it was when I was Elder Bakman that we taught one of the most amazing people I have ever met, Zane (pronounced Zah-nay). Zane is from Latvia which was a country that I honestly hardly ever heard of until we met her. She is someone who I can honestly say just has the most pure heart and was extremely prepared by the Lord for the gospel. We used to teach her in a park one or two times each week for four months. That process of being able to watch her grow every step of the way, and all the challenges that she faced yet was able to overcome was just incredible to witness. Her testimony came over a long time just line upon line. One experience that I remember about teaching her was that she was studying to become a personal trainer and there was this test that she had taken and failed multiple times. I remember the spirit prompting me to tell her that if she reads the Book of Mormon every day, and during the break she had halfway through her test, then she would pass. She had the faith to do it and she ended up passing the test. We all rejoiced together after this wonderful moment. After the long process of ups and downs Zane was finally ready to be baptized. On August 11, 2019 there was a baptismal service for Zane and Frank. That’s right, we had 2 on the same day!

Frank was another miracle as well. He just showed up to church one day wanting to know more. He said he had a friend who suggested he should attend this church so he did. Before he got baptized he was very willing to accept the Book of Mormon and all the commandments and so he was baptized along with Zane. It was really cool because on that day I baptized Zane, and confirmed Frank, while Elder Bakman baptized Frank and confirmed Zane. WE had a big munch and mingle afterwards to celebrate as well. This was another one of those days where I was just overcome with joy!

Other experiences that I remember enjoying in Stratford with Elder Bakman are going to visit Angjelo the recent convert, always taking lots of pictures together, spending some P days in London and having lots of fun doing that, crazy moments with Esther from Nigeria who would always give us food but would also talk our ears off! WE had many fun experiences together but one day we received a call in the middle of a transfer that there would be an emergency transfer. Elder Bakman moved to Gillingham, and I would be staying and training yet another new missionary. This time it was Elder Shane Ramsey from Rock Springs, Wyoming. 

Elder Ramsey was a cool missionary to train and to serve with because he was assigned as a Mandarin, Chinese speaking Elder. So he would always have language studies and also I thought it was awesome when I would get to see him interact with other people who spoke chinese. While we were together we met this guy named Walt who was from China but lived in London. Elder Ramsey and Walt would have a little Chinese study session together once a week and we always tried to get Walt interested in the gospel but that never really happened. But he was still really cool and willing to help Elder Ramsey study Chinese. 

One experience that I had with Elder Ramsey that I really learned a lot from was a day that we had almost no appointments and so it was just a day filled with a whole lot of street contacting I think by the end of the day we had spent 5 or 6 hours street contacting and we did not have a single good conversation with someone who would be willing to meet up with us. It was just about time to head back to our flat for dinner and we were just devastated, but a scripture came into my mind. It was Mosiah 4:27 which talks about being diligent. I really had a feeling that we should keep going and skip our dinner time because there was one person out there who we needed to speak to. We felt like we should change our location and we went to the other side of the high street but there was hardly anyone there because it was late and getting dark outside, but it felt like that was where we should be. We stayed and tried to talk to anyone that we could and finally when we were about to give up we spoke to this guy named Alex from Germany who said he had met missionaries before and that he would be more than happy to talk about the gospel. We started teaching him pretty regularly from there on out and Alex never got baptized or even came to church, but this small experience left a big impact on me. I learned the importance of hard work and diligence, along with a little bit of sacrifice. That shows God how important something is to us and he loves to reward effort. 

My time with Elder Ramsey was too short, only one transfer together. When we received our calls for the next transfer I was very surprised to be called as a zone leader. Not only that, but they were going to be having the zone leaders split up and not together as companions. So I was going to be a brand new zone leader but also I would be training another new missionary for the 3rd time in a row. My new companion ended up being Elder Spencer Hathaway from Rexburg, Idaho. 

Elder Hathaway ended up becoming one of my favorite companions. We both loved basketball with a passion, and also enjoyed many other sports. It was great to be with a super sporty companion. He was much taller and bigger than me though that is for sure! I think he was about 6 foot 3 and maybe like 260 pounds so he was practically twice my size!

It was only after a couple of weeks of serving with Elder Hathaway that I hit my 1 year mark and the best part about it was since I was a zone leader I was able to go on exchange with one of my great friends from the MTC, Elder Brown. We spent our one year mark together in Whitechapel, which is the area in our zone that covered practically all of Central London. We had a really amazing day and celebrated completing the first half of our mission together. 

Neary one week after my exchange with Elder Brown we received a call from President Checketts telling us there would be an emergency transfer and that both myself and Elder Hathaway would be moving over to Lea Valley. One main reason behind this transfer was the fact that Elder Hatch (the other zone leader) had an injury on his knee and was going to need surgery. So for the last 3 weeks of that transfer we spent week 1 in a trio, week 2 was just Elder Hathaway and I , and then week 3 in a trio again. We worked hard and had lots of fun over those weeks as a trio and I started to figure out the ins and outs of Lea Valley. 

There was one week in Lea Valley where I was able to have the blessing of meeting 2 members of the quorum of the 12 apostles, Elder Cook and Elder Bednar. Elder Cook came to speak to all of us as a mission so we were able to gather together and hear him speak. I remember at the end of speaking, Elder Cook shared his testimony and in a very real sense he testified to us “I know the Savior’s voice, and I know the Savior’s face.” The spirit that was felt in that room was indescribable and I knew that what he said was true. Elder Bednar happened to be in London for a roots teach family history eent and he decided to attend the Lea Valley sacrament meeting on Sunday. It was so cool to meet one of my favorite apostles and to have him speak to our ward about Faith. This week was an extremely spiritual one and I can never forget how blessed I was to witness these 2 Apostles of Jesus Christ speak to me. The new transfer began and Elder Hathaway and I were going to be staying in Lea Valley together. We were so happy because we really loved this place and loved serving together.

Another experience that I had with Elder Hathaway that really strengthened my testimony was on a fast Sunday. I was really wanting to let Elder Hathaway have the privilege of seeing someone he taught get baptized, so on this particular fast Sunday I decided I wanted to fast for the opportunity for me and Elder Hathaway to find someone who we could teach and baptize before one of us was transferred. I was spending the whole morning and all of sacrament meeting with that purpose on my mind. Right after the sacrament meeting was over the Bishop came up to us and wanted to speak with us in private. He said that there was a semi-less active family in the ward who had 2 children that were not baptized, ages 9 and 11, and that they wanted their kids to be baptized! Not only was this a huge miracle but it was even greater to me because in Lea Valley there were 2 sets of missionaries. One companionship of Elders and one of Sisters. Why did the bishop come to us to ask to help teach this family? I firmly believe God was aware of my fast and of my desires and he blessed me with a very big miracle. We spent the next few weeks teaching this family and helping the kids Samuel and Elijah be prepared for baptism. They were absolutely golden, and on the 30th of November 2019 Samuel and Elijah were baptized by their father. As I watched this baptism take place my heart was truly grateful and filled with joy. I felt a strong impression of the importance of families and loved being able to play a small part in helping this family have such a tremendous experience together. 

The blessings of my fast did not stop there. There was one day Elder Hathaway and I were at the chapel waiting for a lesson. At this particular time we had been focusing a lot on a scripture in Alma 37:6-7 which talks about the small and simple things bringing about great things. We had only a couple minutes until our lesson was going to happen but we felt like we could just spend those minutes outside of the chapel trying to contact people. As we were outside there was a man who stopped to talk with me. He said he was a Christian and he just moved here from Pakistan, he was looking for a Christian church in the area to go to. We invited him to come and from that moment onward he never missed a single week of church. We taught him all of the lessons and within only 4 weeks of first meeting him, Sharoon was baptized on the 15th of December 2019, the last Sunday that Elder Hathaway and I were together as companions. Sharoon was a miracle and I believe that my fast on that one Sunday played a big part in him being led to us. He had no issues with any of the commandments and was the quickest person I taught to get baptized from starting the lessons until the day of his baptism. This experience taught me the value of the small and simple things, and I know that if we had not spent that extra little bit of time outside before our lesson, Sharoon would not have been led to us, and we would have missed the opportunity to experience his conversion. I am so grateful that God answered my prayers and fasting, and that he blessed our small efforts to just give a little bit extra. Elder Hathaway was the companion with whom we had the most baptisms together (3) and I know that it had very little to do with ourselves, and everything to do with God blessing our small efforts. 

Other great memories that I had with Elder Hathaway include playing ping pong for hours every P day, trying to learn some hymns on the piano, always working hard to memorize scriptures each day and each week, enjoying our studies, playing ping pong with Alen and Salvador, and going to the temple for our December zone conference. I enjoyed every minute of the 2 transfers that I spent with Elder Hathaway, and I'm so grateful for everything we learned and experienced together. When our transfer calls came, we learned that Elder Hathaway would be moving to Oxford, and that I would be staying to train a brand new zone leader. My new companion would be Elder Israel Grimaldi from Porto Alegre, Brazil. 

I learned a lot about working hard and forgetting about yourself from Elder Grimaldi. He was the companion that I served with who worked the hardest and would always help to push me to do better and to be better. We also had a lot of pretty crazy experiences while leading the London North Zone as zone leaders. 

One night we received a call from President Checketts where he told us there was a companionship of Elders in our zone who got in a big argument together and that we needed to travel there to help them resolve their contention. It ended up being a long night of travel on buses and we didn’t make it home until a little bit after 11pm by the time we got everything settled. I thought it was crazy how this companionship that we had to help consisted of a 25 and a 26 year old, and here we were as two 19 year olds helping them get along. I feel like this experience helped me experience what it will be like to be a bishop at some point.

We also were able to spend Christmas together and because it was around Christmas time we did have the opportunity to work shifts at the giving machines in London on Exhibition road, right outside the Hyde Park Chapel. Working shifts on the Giving Machine was so much fun because we basically stood out there in the cold and tried to get people to come inside and donate to people in need through the machines. We always had a good time trying to break the record for the most people coming inside during our shift. On Christmas Eve we were allowed to watch a Disney movie so we gathered all together as a district and ordered pizza while we watched Toy Story 4. It was literally so much fun! Then on Christmas day we had 2 meal appointments with some families in the ward so we spent the day hanging out with them and the sisters. The Holiday Season stayed exciting because we had exchanges in Stratford on New Years Eve. I can not even begin to describe how incredible it was to be 30 floors up in London and just watching all the fireworks off in the distance and over the horizon. We all stayed up to experience it together and I have to say that this was hands down the best New Years I had ever been a part of in my life. It was simply magical. 

One spiritual experience that we had while serving together was that in our first week together we didn’t really have anyone to teach, so we prayed that we would be able to find someone who we could teach and baptize. On the Sunday right before Christmas this woman walked in the chapel for church. Her name was Tahira (pronounced tar-uh) and she ended up really enjoying the service. We started teaching her and she kept coming to church every week. Tahira was a little bit different but wow did she have an incredible understanding of the scriptures. Anytime we would invite her to read something she was always so excited to tell us about what she learned and she could explain things in so much detail, I was really impressed. Tahira always carried around a little bag in her hands everywhere she went and it was funny because she thought that the name of so many people from the scriptures was King Benjamin haha. She made us laugh all the time. On the 26th of January 2020 Tahira was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church. It was such an amazing day as always when a convert is baptized. 

Another cool experience that we had while I was with Elder Grimaldi was when we were out on the High Street finding in Seven Sisters Station. It was a bit rainy and we were not having much luck. We both had the feeling that we should walk down the road towards theTottenham stadium and contact people along the way. While we were walking after a few minutes we saw this van that was on the side of the road and a guy was trying to push it all by himself. For some unknown reason the van wouldn’t drive so we jumped right behind that thing and started pushing as well. I don’t know exactly how far we ended up pushing but I think it was somewhere around a quarter of a mile by the time we got it to the right palace. We hardly spoke with the guys in the van because they didn’t really speak English, but it was amazing to know that we felt a prompting to walk in that direction and end up being in the right place to help someone in need. We were exhausted after pushing the van so we stopped and bought a powerade to get our energy back and then we just sat for a few minutes before getting right back to work on street contacting. 

After one transfer with Elder Grimaldi, we received transfer news and found out that we would be getting another set of Elders in the area, and they would be living in our flat with us. The Elders would be Elder Maia and Elder Mepania. I knew Elder Maia very well because we served in the same zone for many transfers before. So we were a little bit sad having to give up our space in the flat, but we were also excited to have 2 more Elders with us, that meant party time! It ended up being a lot of fun having a 4 man flat. We spent many nights playing cards together and also switching off who would cook/clean dinner, and all that fun stuff. Elder Maia and Mepania were great and it was a blast serving all together. 

One of the most amazing and incredible days of my whole entire mission happened on the 1st of February 2020. One of the coolest parts about having the temple in our mission is the fact that we were able to go with recent converts to the temple for their first time doing baptisms for the dea. On this day we woke up bright and early to go with Sharoon and Tahira to the London Temple along with a  few other members of the ward. We took a big van that could fit about 10 of us and Bishop drove us all down there. While on the drive I was sitting next to Sharoon and just looking out the window looking at the beautiful greenery of England, and I had a spiritual experience which was identical to the one I had while going to the MTC, only this time the words that I heard were, “This is one of those people that you were sent here to find.” I can not put into words the feelings of joy and peace which I felt during that experience. I felt like I was the happiest person on Earth. We had a tremendous day visiting the temple and having a little picnic afterwards. Sharoon even was able to perform some of the baptisms and it was incredible to watch, and also a little bit humorous because he never practiced before that time, so he was pretty funny. But spending this day at the temple with 2 recent converts was the most amazing experience and much better than I ever could have imagined. 

One other thing that we did while I was with Elder Grimaldi that was really fun was spend a day with the Tech Elders on waterloo bridge near temple station making a facebook video. We asked people on the street questions and asked if we could film them to put it all together for a little video. I had so much fun on that day and it was really cool.

 There are many more stories and experiences that I had but I do not have time to write them all. But I also want to talk about one of my favorite members that I met on my mission, Sister Laudi! Every single Sunday while I was in Lea Valley we went over to Sister Laudi’s house after church for lunch and spent some time together. It was always all of the missionaries so when I was first in the area there were 4 of us with Sister Laudi and her son Tiko. In my last transfer in the area there were 6 of us missionaries. Sister Laudi is from Brazil and she is one of the nicest and also one of the craziest people I have ever met in my life. She also cooked the most amazing food and her rice was the best tasting rice I have ever had. One of the many memories I have of Sister Laudi is that she had a Spongebob cup that I always wanted to use when we went to her house. No one ever used that cup except for me. When I got transferred from Lea Valley, Sister Laudi gave me that Spongebob cup as a gift. It was one of the best gifts I have received because it comes with so much love and so many memories. Sister Laudi’s house felt like a second home to me and I really love her so much. I’m thankful for all the memories I have from my time spent in her home. 

Other memories that I have of my time in Lea Valley and with Elder Grimaldi include having a P-day in London where we got to see tower bridge at night, having lots of fun making videos to hype up the zone, good fun with sister Ramos and Avila, our dinner appointments at Anna’s house where she played music for us and we played games, all the hours spent grinding on the high street at Seven Sisters and so much more. It was one of the best times of my mission serving in this area, but eventually the time came for transfers. I received my call and I was going to be heading off to Basildon in the Romford zone, and my new companion would be Elder Nicolas May from Manhattan, Kansas.

Well I said goodbye to Lea Valley, to the wonderful city of London, and to the fun 4 man flat and got ready to move to Basildon, or as some like to call it, Bas Vegas. On the tube while we were traveling into Hyde Park Chapel I prayed to know that this was the right place for me and I received confirmation that there was a reason I was transferred there. A nice thing about Basildon was the fact that we had a car which made getting around so much easier. The flat was quite small but it was cozy and quite nice. The only negative thing was the fact that the hot water only lasted for about 10 mins and then it would need another hour or 2 to get warm again. We tried to take quick showers but we just had to switch off who got to go first because the second person always froze mid shower. 

It was a pretty big adjustment for me to go from serving in London for nearly a year to being in Basildon. There was a massive difference in proselyting. I was very used to being on the street contacting all the time and always having someone to talk to, but there was only one main place that we could go to for street contacting and even then it was pretty barren. While traveling there was rarely anyone who we crossed paths with so we had to do a bit of tracting and spend some time knocking on doors. It was a different type of approach than I was used to but missionary work is all about adapting and switching things up. 

One of the times that we were street contacting in the town center I had a great experience where I received an answer to a prayer. I was just kind of feeling in a drought in terms of finding people to teach and I felt a little off my game in finding. I stopped and took a moment to pray and ask for someone to be placed in my path to help me gain a little bit of confidence in myself again. As I continued to talk to people there was a very nice guy who came up to me and said he had met missionaries before and that he enjoys having conversations with them. He agreed to meet with us the next week and I was so happy and grateful for that tender mercy of the Lord to answer my heartfelt prayer and help me gain a bit of confidence. 

After only spending one week in Basildon we were hit with some pretty big news. Because Corona virus was beginning to get worse, the First Presidency of the Church announced that church meetings in person would be canceled, so I never actually got the opportunity to go to church in my time while serving in Basildon. A few days after the announcement of churches being closed, we also received guidance as a mission that we should not proselyte outside anymore, and we could also no longer have meetings with anyone in person regardless of if it was a member or a non member. Essentially we were instructed to stay inside our flats for the whole entire day, and we were only allowed to leave for exercise or to buy food and things that we needed. 

At first, things were alright, in fact it was a lot of fun. We would travel to Southend which was another area in our district and play basketball with those Elders each day; for our exercise time and it was a great time. We also were given permission to not only call our families once each week on P day, but could call another time during the week as well. Also, we were so blessed to have a car during this time because members would prepare food for us and leave it on their porch for us to come pick up. Someone would either do that or order us a pizza every single day so that was a massive blessing which I was so thankful for. I also had so much extra time to study which I really loved. I was able to truly dive into the Book of Mormon and conference talks which blessed me with a greater knowledge and understanding.

Things were awesome for the first week or 2 but after that I just started to feel like I was just wasting my time being here. Each day the church would announce a new country where all the non native missionaries serving there would be sent back home. I watched online as many of my friends went home and nearly every single country besides European ones had sent their non native missionaries home. I was just at my 18 month mark in the mission and any missionaries who were serving in a foreign mission and had been out for 18 months or longer would be sent home and finish their mission without being reassigned. Deep down I hoped and wished that we would get a message saying that all missionaries from America who were serving in England would need to be sent home. Each day my desires grew stronger and stronger of wanting to be done and to go home. This was not because of fear or worries about health and safety of myself or my family, but rather it was because I lost a sense of my purpose, and the reason why I was serving a mission in the first place. It got to the point where the missionaries from every single country in the world besides the ones in Europe got sent home, and at that time, my desires were not gratified. For some reason the Lord needed me to stay in England and continue to be a missionary. 

The rest of my time in Basildon was spent just trying to adjust to life in quarantine and honestly we struggled to do missionary work online. A little bit of that had to do with the fact that it was new to us, but most of it had to do with the fact that we had bad attitudes and were not humble enough to try our best despite our lack of experience. Surprisingly I only served in Basildon for 1 transfer, and it was even a short transfer so it was just 5 weeks in total. Other memories that I have from my short time there include going running and playing soccer for our exercise time, a really cool member who had a super nice house who invited us over to exercise and play some basketball, always having food provided for us from the amazing members, the new lockdown music playlist that our mission came out with which meant we could listen to some disney music, throwing ping pong balls in pringles cans to keep myself entertained, and many more things like playing lots of games to keep from going crazy. When we got our transfer calls I was shocked to learn that I would be transferred, but not only that, I was going to be released as a zone leader, and reopening an area in the Stained zone which was called Guildford, and my new companion would be Elder Gabriel Shirotori from Sao Paulo, Brazil. 

The transfer to Guildford was pretty crazy! The Hartvigsen’s (a senior couple in the mission) came to pick me up from Basildon and drove me all the way over to Guildford. It was about an hour and a half drive and we all wore face masks in the car the whole time. It’s definitely something I’ll remember. When we arrived at our flat in Guildford it was an absolute mess! The missionaries who were serving here before they closed the area left this place in pretty bad shape. The kitchen was super dirty, there was lots of junk all over the place, and even there was no bathroom door! Yes, there was no bathroom door, it’s a long story but we hinged the door back on because it was in one of the closets. Considering the fact I’m practically a clean freak, I could not live in a flat that was in this condition, so we immediately got to work and spent a few hours cleaning the flat until it was night time. By then we realized that we also didn’t have any food but it was too late to go out so we had to go to sleep that night in a dirty flat and on an empty stomach. I must admit I was crying a little bit while praying that night and asking Heavenly Father for some peace and comfort. Our top priority the next morning was to get some food and to get some cleaning supplies because we had spent the night before wiping things down with baby wipes. We spent loads of money but got everything that we needed, ate some food, and then immediately got to work on cleaning again. We practically spent 3-4 hours each day deep cleaning and organizing the flat in that first week. Thankfully by the time everything was finished and we threw away so much unnecessary junk , the week was over and I felt so relieved. 

Another one of the first things that we did was get some clippers that we found in the flat and cut our own hair. Because of the national lockdown, barber shops were closed for 3-4 months and it had been a long time since I had a haircut so we just risked it and did it ourselves. The first time was rough but we got better each time after that. We had lots of fun exploring this historic town of Guildford and were able to see many cool places like the high street, Guildford castle, the mount, lots of hills, and some cool old buildings. It was also upon our arrival in Guildford I started to develop my love for exercise, and particularly running at the time. We started running everyday and got to the point where we were going about 4 miles each day so it was really awesome. 

We got the problems with our living condition solved pretty easily but the bigger struggle was trying to get the missionary work going in the area. Since it was closed previously we had no contacts of former investigators or potentials to call. We couldn't do any outside proselyting so our online options were facebook finding, and working with the members. We figured the best thing we could do was start reaching out to members and trying to get to know them as best as we could through having a short video call to talk with them and share a brief gospel message. Our area was pretty special because they had just recently combined 2 wards together (Guildford and Aldershot) in order to make one ward which they called the River Wey Ward. We had a lot of members to get to know and our area was massive! We had no car and were not able to use public transport so we were very confined in our little circle near to where we lived. Luckily we had a few members who would come and drop food off sometimes, and our bishop was an absolute legend and would order pizza for us every single Tuesday to be delivered. We were so very thankful for that blessing.

 It was quite a rough time trying to get an area going during lockdown and for the whole first transfer we didn’t have a single first lesson with anyone. The only people we taught were the members. And we were even more surprised when our calls came at the end of transfers and my companion was going to be moving to Lea
Valley. We both whitewashed the area and had only been together for a transfer but apparently it was time for some unexpected change. Meanwhile I would be staying in the area and my new companion was going to be Elder Charles Mepania from the Philippines. It was quite exciting because we lived together previously from our time in Lea valley so it was going to be fun since we already knew each other. 

Serving with Elder Mepania was pretty fun! Another thing that was great was that on this transfer that I was companions with Elder Mepania, we also got a new zone leader and it was Elder Hathaway! So that made things really fun and exciting. Elder Mepania and I really worked hard to try and get things going in the area. We made some videos for facebook, did a lot of facebook finding, and tried to contact people in any way we could think of. It seemed like nothing we tried was really doing much good. I remember during this time I was very discouraged and being placed in a tough situation made it so I was really pushed to work hard. There was one week while I was doing my usual studies of the Book of Mormon and I was in the middle of Alma at that time. Every single morning of that week as I read the Book of Mormon there was at least one verse of scripture which mentioned something about being patient in our afflictions, and that we are blessed from going through challenges. This really helped to give me the comfort and the courage that I needed to keep going and to know that this time was for just a small moment, but we would be blessed for our efforts. 

One thing that ended up being very positive and helped uplift our spirits was that we were finally able to have dinner appointments with members again. Our travels were still limited but because the ward we were serving in had such great members, they let us borrow some bikes and we increased our range by more than double what it previously had been. The members were so great to invite us over and some of them even came to us and we ate outside. This was something that really kept us going even though our situations were not ideal. 

Eventually we were able to get a couple people that we started teaching. Most of them we would speak with from facebook and kind of chat for a little bit and then they wouldn’t really be interested to talk to us anymore. There were, however, 2 people who we started having frequent lessons with. One of them was someone we found on Facebook named Julia. The other one was a part member family where the wife was not a member, and her name is Lizzie. They were both really great and we started to have video calls with them once or twice each week. Another thing that we started to do because church was still not open, is having our own Sunday zoom call as missionaries. We invited people we were teaching as well as some of the members who lived on their own to join us on those calls each week. We just would share some thoughts from the Come Follow Me chapters of that week and it was lots of fun. 

Elder Mepania and I had been together for 9 weeks now and things finally started to get rolling, then one day we received an unexpected call from President Checketts informing us that there was going to be an emergency transfer. This time Elder Mepania would move to Portsmouth, and I would be receiving a new companion who was actually originally assigned to serve a mission in Chile, but because of Coronavirus he was sent back home and would be reassigned to this mission. His name was Elder Jonathan O’Brian from Bradford, England. My first English companion!

We had to head into London the next day after receiving the call to drop Elder Mepania off in Hyde Park and then I went with the zone leaders to Kings Cross Station to go find my new companion. It took a bit of searching but we found him and after getting everything all sorted out, the Checketts took us to 5 Guys for lunch and then we headed back to Guildford. The greatest blessing about this emergency transfer was the fact that my new companion has an English drivers license so now we got to have a car! This made things in the areas even better and we could travel way more efficiently than with bikes. The car also opened up opportunities for us to visit new places in the area, go to any member's home for a dinner appointment, take the sacrament to the sisters in our district, and do service for members! All of this helped life be so much better and time started passing even quicker. We had an idea to start a weekly Facebook live video on Tuesdays which we called “Tuesday Tunes and Testimonies.” Essentially we would sing 4 songs and after each song one of us would share a testimony relating to that song. We did this every week until the end of my mission and it was actually a lot of fun!

A cool memory that I have from a P day with Elder O’Brien was when the sisters in Oxford locked themselves out of their flat. The car that we had was their old car and they left a spare set of keys in the car, so we had to take it to them. At first it was annoying that we needed to change our P day plans but it actually ended up being a huge blessing! We went on a road trip to Oxford, it was about a 90 minute drive, and then we spent our P day exploring around and doing a little bit of shopping. That ended up being loads of fun and such a great memory. I’m grateful for the blessing that we had the spare set of keys, even though it seemed like a burden at first. 

The 2 people who were the most amazing to teach during my time in Guildford were Julia and Lizzie. I want to talk a little bit about their stories. I will start with Julia. Because of the missionary lockdown almost all of our missionary work needed to be done online. This meant video calls, phone calls, and Facebook. Because of the fact we didn’t really have any former contacts to call, most of the finding that we had to do was through Facebook. We found Julia on Facebook while sending friend requests to members of a group for the local University. It started off as a simple conversation and eventually things progressed to the point where she was willing to have a video call lesson. She really liked that call so we began having lessons every week over video call. It was a long process of ups and downs and she had doubts and questions all along the way but it was mostly just seeing her faith grow that took place during this time period. We had a group chat with all 3 of us on Facebook and each day we would read the same chapter from the Book of Mormon and then share something that we learned or something that we liked from the reading. We did this every day and had lessons with her every week for nearly 4 months all over video call without ever meeting each other in person. She lived in Coventry which is a city near Birmingham which was not in our mission, and she also spent a few weeks in Germany during this time but we were still able to have lessons through the miracle of technology. Finally at the end of September just 2 weeks before I finished my mission, she moved back into Guildford to start school at the University again. After about 4 months of video calls we were able to meet in person and it was incredible! Just this one person that we had taught made the entire 6 months of lockdown worth every single second to me. My testimony is unshaken and I will never be able to deny that if it were not for the situations that we were placed in because of covid, we never would have met Julia and have the privilege of helping her come unto Christ. She told us on the first meeting that we had in person that she most likely would never even speak to missionaries on the street, let alone schedule an appointment to meet with them. But because it was all down online everything worked out perfectly. I know that God prepared Julia for this gospel and he even prepared the way for her to receive it, even though the missionary lockdown circumstances were not ideal, but God’s ways are higher than ours and He has a perfect plan to accompl;ish his work. How amazing it is to be a part of that!

Then there is Lizzie. Lizzie is the wife of David Clifford who is a member of the ward and has been for most of his life, he even served a mission. The way we started teaching Lizzie was actually not intentional. Since we were new to the area we just wanted to reach out to as many members as we possibly could and share a short spiritual thought with them over video call. The Clifford’s were one of the families that we had a call with and we had no idea that Lizzie was a non member. After sharing our short message David asked us how many missionary lessons there were and if we were teaching very many people at the moment. We told him no and explained that there were 3 main lessons plus a few commandments and other things we taught about. That was when he told us that Lizzie was not a member and asked us if we would start teaching her the missionary lessons. She was very hesitant at first but eventually agreed and so we began calling them on one evening each week to talk about the gospel and to teach the lessons.

 In the beginning Lizzie did not want anything other than a better understanding of the church and what we believe. She was very firm and even told us that she did not want to be baptized, she only wanted to learn more. For many many weeks we would teach them but we recognized that we were missing something in those lessons. So we invited members to join in with us to help teach and share their own experiences. We asked during our ward missionary correlation meeting who would be good members to join in on those lessons. We were told the Phillips were a couple that were good friends with the Cliffords so we asked them and they joined most of our lessons from then onward. Having members that Lizzie knew and could relate to was the missing piece that really made a huge difference. She began to be more open to keeping the commandments and learning even more, but she still did not want to make the commitment to be baptized. We learned that one of the major things which helped her back was the word of wisdom, she liked to drink wine and coffee.

 One day the Cliffords took us out to dinner at 5 Guys and we had a great time talking with them and enjoying some lovely food. We got on the topic of the word of wisdom during our conversation and a thought came into my mind which I have no doubt was the spirit. The thought I had was to invite her to live the word of wisdom for 2 weeks and continue to pray and see how she felt during that time period. It would be easier to commit for just a couple weeks rather than the rest of her life, and she agreed. This commitment has since been named “The 5 Guys challenge” by David and Lizzie. Lizzie did amazing to live the word of wisdom and even shared with us a very spiritual experience that she had during that time which helped her keep her commitment. After the 2 weeks were over and she had kept the word of wisdom, we were going to have a lesson with her and on the morning of the day we had the lesson scheduled, I was impressed by the spirit to invite a member to join with us who had never been apart of our lessons before. Luckily she agreed to join us and in the evening when we had that lesson it became clear to me why we should invite her. Her story was almost identical with Lizzie and what she was currently going through, and having this member on the call was exactly what Lizzie needed at that moment. We had the most amazing lesson and it was so spirit guided that Lizzie told us she wanted to be baptized on her birthday, which was the 27th of September, just 2 days before I went home from my mission. 

The final weekend of my mission was one of the best weekends I’ve ever experienced in my entire life. Julia was baptized on Saturday the 26th of September 2020, and Lizzie was baptized on Sunday the 27th of September 2020. Julia’s baptism was great, there were only 5 of us there but it was still such a special spirit and I felt so much joy with her on her special day. The baptism of Lizzie on Sunday was just unbelievable. President and Sister Checketts were able to attend which was really cool. Then after I performed the baptism for Lizzie, they closed the curtains and she hugged me and just cried and said, “Thank you so much for everything.” In that moment I had a feeling for just a few seconds and I was able to feel the way God felt about her, true charity. This feeling was indescribable but I can never forget it. I cried so much while getting changed because I could just not believe how much joy and love I felt for her and David. I’m so grateful to have been a part of their spiritual journey and for the great blessing of teaching during lockdown over the last few months of my mission. I could never have even dreamed of a better ending to my mission than I had on my last weekend. God is just so good!

At the moment that I am typing my mission story, it is currently summer of 2022. I have been home for nearly 2 years now and every day I think about experiences and things that I learned from my mission. One of the members who I met on my mission, Brother Simon Hobbs, shared something with me once that I feel is completely true. He said, “A mission wasn’t the best 2 years of my life, but it was the best 2 years for my life.” I have never heard something more true about serving a mission than this simple sentence. In just the short few years that I have been home I am able to recognize an endless number of blessings that I experience to this day as a result of my one decision to serve a mission. There is no possible way to share everything I have learned, witnessed, experienced, and become all from being a missionary in the most blessed land of England. Serving a mission is undoubtedly the greatest decision a young man could make in order to shape him to become the best man, husband, father, and child of God that he is capable of being. I will eternally praise my Heavenly Father for the person He shaped me to be during these short 24 months of my life.