Hello Everyone!
It is a BEAUTIFUL day over here in jolly 'ol England! Smashing! Canny, even!
And what a great day for a P-day ha ha ;)
So! Lots of stuff happened this past week! The main thing was we had a general authority visit the mission! Elder Teixeira, of the first quorum of the Seventy visited and spoke to the England Leeds Mission on Wednesday :) He, Sister Teixiera, and President and Sister Lindley all spoke to the northern half of the mission here at the York chapel. The focus of Elder Teixiera's talk was on the power and authority of our calling as missionaries. It was a very insightful meeting, where he shared about his conversion story, and how because of missionaries teaching his uncle, and then asking his if his distant family would also be interested, there is not a single known relative of Elder Teixiera who is not a member of the Church :)
An hour before the main meeting, we had a leadership training meeting with him for about an hour with all of the district and zone leaders in the north. Some insights include our most powerful tool we can put into practice, which is our example (ie while on companion exchanges with another missionary in the zone/district) and also how the mission has just aboutreached something miraculous. Just a few more tweaks here and there and it will be the most powerful mission in Europe! (Muah ha ha ha ha!)
And it all starts with the leaders. :)
Also in the Zone Conference, Elder Teixeira also introduced a new assignment for each missionary team. Every team has now been asked to contact each convert in their respective area who had been baptised in the past three years. ''So, why do we care about this?'' You may ask... Well, that takes me to the first miracle of the week...
Molly!
With this new assignment ready in hand, Elder Stettler and I set off the very next day to find some of these people. We first felt prompted to seek out this guy named Jack on the list who was baptised about 2 year ago. So we went to his house, knocked, and this pretty tall guy came to the door. So we say ''Hey... Jack?'' He said no, and he offered to get him for us. The next person we saw was a little boy about 9 or 10 years old... And that was Jack :) Jack was baptised when he was 8, and nobody in his family got baptised with him. We later found out that he was pretty much 100% active in York 1 and had even been to church the previous Sunday. We asked him if anyone else went to church with him and he said that his twin sister did, but that she hadn't been baptised with him. And that's where we met Molly :) Molly is just as active as Jack, and just as knowledgeable. When we asked her what baptism was, she was able to explain the definition, pretty much in detail. And then we asked the big question. 'When you come to feel that the things that we teach are true, will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptised by someone holding the priesthood authority of God?'
.... Yeah.
WOOOOOOOOO!!!
We then set a baptismal date with here, drew up a calendar for her to see her progression, and set up some appointments!
We feel quite blessed for this happening, and we are very excited to see her progress!
Lets see, lets see... So, Ive been feeling rather blessed with each area that I have been sent to serve in... First starting out at Leeds 5, the heart of the mission, the place everybody wants to serve... then going to Doncaster, one of the most diverse towns in England, with an old castle where Richard, Duke of York was born... Then going to Peterlee, a small yet majestically beautiful town right on the English coast, where they also filmed and based the movie/musical 'Billy Elliot' at... Then York, the former capital of England, with its ancient history and museums everywhere... I also discovered one more amazing historical fact about the York 1 area... The largest battle with the most English deaths on British soil was the Battle of Towton during the War of the Roses. I remember hearing about Towton during the first couple months of my mission, and wanting to go there... Towton is in York 1 area!!! And on Saturday we were knocking in the area right next to it! So for our lunch break after knocking we went to the legendary field... It was pretty eerie. Mist covered the entire field (which was also something that the Towton fields was known for, its creepy mist that never leaves) and Elder Stettler and I took some pictures of the ''Bloddy Meadow'' the place where the climax of the battle happened! (Also, for those of you who knew me in High School, I was standing at the place where Lord John Clifford was killed with an arrow- the actual person I played in King Henry the VI Part 3) Ha ha needless to say, I was pretty excited :) See first couple pics! (pic one, me at the beginning of the trail, pic two, the 'bloody meadow')
Pretty exciting stuff :) I love my areas!!!
Also, (my time is running out!) I just thought I'd include a funny picture :) We are currently teaching this guy named Harry (Solid guy, really) and he has this dog named Oden, who just LOVES me... We don't know why. Every time Harry opens the door to us Oden jumps out at me and just about knocks me over. I guess it doesn't help that Harry always gives me dog treats to give to Oden to ''calm him down''. Anyway, I guess its just better to see it, than to hear it, so see pic number 3 :)
Have a fantastic day!
Love,
Elder Gabriel G. Spencer
PS Special Thanks to my brother Dahveed! For helping me our with University stuff while I'm out here!
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