In his E Salvadorian Football jersey from Drake



Hiya!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! I certainly did. 

Here's a joke for your enjoyment:

If sheep could talk, what would they say on Christmas? 

Fleece Navidad!

I shall now tell you about my life :D

So, on Friday 18 December, we had a Christmas Conference in colchester. It was fun and spiritual; the best combination. President and Sister Stevens gave all the missionaries an England London Mission Pillow case! So sweet of them. 

Fun fact, I'm 19.5 years old now. My half birthday was on 22 December. 

On Wednesday 16 December, we received a call from a number not in our contacts. I picked up, and talked to this person. He told us that he had read some of the Book of Mormon and felt good. This call seemed too good to be true! The man's name was Mark, and we set up an appointment with him. We went over to meet him for the first time on 22 December, and we were pleasantly surprised to find out that he had a wife! And she's amazing, too. At some point in the past missionaries left Mark with a Book of Mormon and with the missionaries' cell number. During our meeting, The Spirit was definitely there. We had a wonderful member with us, and at the end of the lesson Mark and Julia expressed a desire to go to our Christmas Service! Sadly, Julia (the wife of Mark) was sick, so they weren't able to go. But we have an appointment with them for this week! The Lord is preparing His children to accept His Gospel! I love it.

Later on Tuesday 22 December, we had a door lesson with Laura Greatwood (less active member). At the end she called her boys down to say the prayer. Caylum began the prayer with "Dear Heavenly Father" and then Jamie said the body of the prayer. Caylum then closed with a quick "We say these things in the name of JEsus Christ, Amen". What a funny prayer! At least Caylum contributed... :)

Jamie

On Christmas Eve, Elder Marzahn and I talked to a homeless man. His name was Tony. We talked with him a little, and said a prayer with him before walking away. Since we were close to our flat, we walked back, and wrapped some things to give to him. We put these in a grocery bag, along with a Book of Mormon & a Mormon.org card with our cell number on it. We gave him this grocery bag to share with 2 other people that we discovered he was with when we returned. 

Christmas was wonderful! It was a very special day. We went to the Futter's (Bishop's family) for breakfast at about 8am. Afterwards, we went to the Chapel for the Christmas service that began at 10am that lasted for about an hour. It consisted of Christmas Songs and Narrations! I sang with 2 choirs; in one of them we sang "What Child Is This?", and in the other we sang "Hark the Herald Angels Sing"

After the Service we dropped off a care packaged from the Chelmsford 2nd ward that Bishop gave us to deliver to a member of the ward. 

We also drove to visit a woman named Joan Williams, a 93 year old woman, who was in a care home. We sang "Joy to The World", "Angels We Have Heard on High", and Silent Night". We then blessed the sacrament and gave it to her (we had Bishop's permission) It was a nice visit. 

We then went to the Bigwoods, getting there at 1:40 for Christmas Dinner! It was a great meal and Great fun!

I FaceTimed home from the Bigwoods and that was so fun. It was great to see my favourite family in the whole wide world. Very special. After the FaceTime call ended, I went back to the Bigwoods home and played games. 

Christmas call home!!!

Best looking family in the world. :)

That same day we went to the Deightons and got there at about 6:15. We talked, played games, snacked, and just before Elder Marzahn and I left to return home, we watched my mission call opening video on Youtube. That was fun to see. It seems like ages ago!

This is from an app on Brother Deighton's phone.

 

 The day after Christmas was Boxing day! Fun fun. That morning we played football. Which was fun! I wore my new El Salvador football jersey! It was great.

After football. Thus the mud on my forehead^

And on Sunday, the ward was sparse. So, Elder Marzahn and I were privileged to Bless the Sacrament. 

I'm just so amazed at how fast the time has gone! I've been out on my mission for 7 months. Craziness. It's been a wonderful 7 months and I've really learned a lot. 

Something that I read in Personal Study this morning really stand out to me. I read it from the Book of Mormon Student Manual under 2 Nephi 2:2! Here it is:

"Elder Richard G. Scott of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles explained that God provides us with challenges that are designed to help us grow spiritually: “Just when all seems to be going right, challenges often come in multiple doses applied simultaneously. When those trials are not consequences of your disobedience, they are evidence that the Lord feels you are prepared to grow more (see Proverbs 3:11–12). He therefore gives you experiences that stimulate growth, understanding, and compassion which polish you for your everlasting benefit. To get you from where you are to where He wants you to be requires a lot of stretching, and that generally entails discomfort and pain”"

It's so true! God gives us challenges that will stretch, polish, and induce growth in us! Without opposition, we would never improve! The reason that God gives us trials and hard things is because He loves us, He knows who we can become, and He knows we can handle it! I love it.

I hope you all had a wonderful week and a wonderful Christmas! May the Lord bless you in all things!

Love,

Elder Withers