Letters from London

Alec in London

Alec and Big Ben

[SENT 6-20-16]

Familia!

After serving in the England London Mission for 1 year, I am finally serving in London. I absolutely love it here.

On Tuesday I said some goodbyes to members. We ate at the Greig's on Tuesday night. I love that family so much! I said the closing prayer before leaving the Greigs and Sister Greig got emotional... yikes.

Alec, Elder Jensen and The Greigs Family

Goodbye Elder Jensen!

Elder Parkin is from SLC Utah (East Bench, specifically), Born in Passadina, CA. He's 19 and has been on his mission for 10 months, today. He has 3 brothers and 1 younger sister. His oldest brother is serving his mission in Chile and comes home in 1 month. He played american football and lacrosse in high school. And skiing is his passion. His family is strong in the church, and he's got mad flow. And he's always wanted to serve his mission in England.

Alec and Elder Parkin

Mom and Dad; i opened a letter from each of you that you sent with me on my mission. The one from dad was about ancestors that were in England, and the one from mum was advice for a missionary (the one with all the suns around the border). Thanks padres :) Those were the first letters I've opened from the ones I took with me.

This is the hardest I've worked in my entire mission. I'm really grateful to be here. There are just so many people everywhere. We talk with everyone on the street, on buses, on the tube. There's always someone to talk with. Saturday was probably the hardest I've worked in a single day in my entire mission. We talked with so many people, and my legs were tired at the end of the day. I've also been able to work on my Spanish! There are lots of Spanish speakers here! Mucho Colulmbianos.

We're teaching a man named Alex that'll get baptised this Saturday! He's a wonderful man and I'm so excited for him. I just love his family! His wife, Rhoma, will hopefully get baptised in the not to distant future. They have a cute little son named Benjamin, and they speak Portuguese.

We found a cute couple (both around my age) recently! We had our first lesson last night. We taught the Restoration to them, they both understood, and the Spirit was totally there! They both said a prayer at the end of the lesson and felt good. Miracles. We'll see Jonathan and Cindy on Wednesday.

Funny:

- There's a recent convert that says "Elderly" instead of "Elder"

-There's a fruit stand near the chapel that Elder Parkin and I frequent. We've gotten peaches (multiple times), bananas, grapes, pomegranites, pears, and apricots. I love fruit.

- There wasn't a piano player for the hymns yesterday in sacrament meeting. We sang the first two hymns a capella, but it sounded awful. For the last two hymns, I got up and played/struggled through the hymns, but at least it sounded better than no piano at all.

Love you all!

Love,

Elder Withers

P.S. I had my first P-day in London today!