Blog post:
Hey! This post might be a little short because I'm low on time. This week has been extremely busy! Surprisingly, our numbers were lower than last week, despite having 3 more days than my first week. It seemed like appointments we had scheduled were dropping left and right. We did a lot of unnecessary walking. People here have struggles keeping commitments, but like I said last week, we do have some really good people who are progressing. We had 3 new investigators this week, but we already knew them from before, this was just the first time we got appointments in with them. Still waiting for my first baptism, but the 12-year old boy I mentioned last week will probably be the first. He is very excited about being baptized and is willing to keep all the commitments we leave him. We have another man from Scotland who is a lot of fun to teach because he does a ton of research on the church all on his own. He doesn't know how he feels about baptism yet, which is funny because he said he pretty much knows the Book of Mormon is true now and that Joseph Smith is a prophet. He has the seed of faith planted in his heart and he is nourishing it well.
The members in this branch are wonderful. They love to feed us. We love to eat. It's a win-win situation. I am starting to feel more British. I've come to the conclusion that if I keep missing America, I'm just going to struggle the whole way through my mission. Don't get me wrong, it will be a joyous day when am home, but I'm really starting to like things here. Even though they don't know what American biscuits are.
It's still great to hear from all of you though! There will never come a point in my mission where I won't appreciate a letter.
For those of you reading this who are preparing for a mission: be prepared to work, work, work. There is no time to sit and rest except when we sleep. Even eating is usually on the go, unless we're eating at a member's home. You are a missionary 24/7 when you come on a mission. It sounds obvious, but you really have to leave behind everything that would hold you back as a missionary, including distracting thoughts and desires. Laziness is one of the worst things to bring on a mission. I heard a good quote in the MTC that has stuck with me: "If you ever have doubts, get to work". It's funny, but completely true. Everytime I start getting a little homesick or tired of getting rejected, I just get back to work and the thought eventually goes away. Negative thoughts can't dwell in your mind when you're being a dilligent missionary. Or working at anything, really. Hard workers get places in this life, whether you're a missionary or a student or whatever. If you have a good idea, don't just sit on it. No one who ever did anything great did it just because they hoped it would happen. They just went and did it. So if you want to be a really good missionary, getting excited about your mission is great, but more important than that is preparing yourself to work. I didn't do that and I'm regretting it. I'm pulling through though and I have faith that the Spirit can work through me. I've heard that if you can serve a mission you can succeed in any career whatsoever. We're just worked on every possible end you could think of. But you know what? My life is good. Real good. I love missionary work.
You know what else I love? All of you! And if you love me, you should, uh, write me letters. For real. If you write me, I'll send you something good. Real good. Deal? Deal.
That was longer than I thought it would be. Well, pictures will be up soon if they are not already up. If you ask me to take pictures of specific things in England, that would make my life pretty fun. Just one extra challenge to add to the day. In fact, yes, I'd love that. But in order to do that, you have to write me. Remember to send letters to the mission office and not the MTC! I'm pretty sure DearElder works here too. Somebody try that so I can get a sure answer. Or if you want, you could even give messages to my family (2269 Ripresa Place, Henderson, NV) and they could relay it to me since they have my email and flat addresses. So there are a variety of ways to keep in contact with me. I am a missionary of many flavors. Anyway, yeah.
That's uh, all for this week pretty much. Stay sweet.
Elder Winder
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