[SENT APRIL 24, 2017]

Alec with Elder Andrade

Hi fam,

I'm emailing from my iPad right now, so my desire to send long emails is weakened. I will attempt to endure and move my thumbs at rapid pace. 

Funny

Quote from my companion: "I tried making sentences just for him, which was hard because it was like making friends"

The work

Things are great. Cherdale is progressing really well. She came to church on Sunday and had a really good experience. Faozia also came on Sunday. And Christopher, another guy we're teaching, came for the first time.

We're working hard and that feels good. Although I've felt more resistance recently, due to me nearing the end of my mission. I feel it's pretty much impossible for me to not work hard, which is nice. We plan our days effectively, and then execute our plans. I try to just take things day by day.

Alec with Elder Burgess

Miracle

Here's a cool story. On Saturday, we got to our bus stop and we're waiting. A woman appeared at the stop and I start talking to her. She says she's Christian already, kinda putting up a front/no wanting to talk with me. I continued talking with her and she opened up more. our bus came, and I asked if it was her bus too. She said no, and we kinda scrambled to get a Mormon.org card to give her, but she said she would just get on the bus with us because she wants to talk about Jesus. So we got on, and talked with her. She knows Mormons from when she was in Hungary. She said they seemed so distant there because they were giving out BoMs at a stand in TC, but that we were friendly and chatty in approaching her. She's been in England for 2+ years, as a nanny. We set up an appointment for Sunday, and then talked for the remainder of the bus trip. When the time came for us to get off, she got off too. And proceeded to walk and talk with us for the next 12 minutes as we went to a dinner appointment. Then we said goodbye, and she walked/bussed all the way back. Craziness. We taught and ended up dropping her yesterday because she struggled understanding/appreciate the Book of Mormon/Restoration. But it was pretty cool nonetheless.

Love you all!

Elder Withers

Alec with Elder Jensen

Alec with investigator and Elder Andrade

Greetings familia,

It's been a good week thus far! Definitely some changes. On Wednesday I met my new companion. His name is Elder Andrade. He's from Lisbon, Portugal. He's 18, and played professional baseball before his mission. He loves volleyball, too. 

6 LoL stories that describe my companion:

- When I met him, I said he has perfect Portuguese. His response " I don't like it when people say that" Lol

- We were about to take a picture together, and I asked him if I looked good. His response: "no" lol part 2. Elder Burgess got a kick out of that

- I asked about brothers and sisters he has. He answered with a smile, "with or without dead ones?" lol part 3. He has 1 older brother, 2 older sisters, 2 younger brothers, and there were 2 babies that died at birth. 

- During dinner time he asked me "What are rules I should know about", and then proceeded to read some of the flat rules on the cabinet. lol part 4

- I made him record the voicemail for our phone and his response "I hate this. Come on. I hate my voice. Why can't you do this..." My response: "That was a good experience". Then his response: "yeah great. You just become my enemy" lol part 5

- Also, he said he learned English by playing video games lol part 6

FaceTiming investigator with Elder Andrade

It's definitely been another adjustment for me. Elder Nelson and I had quite a few things in common, and we had a good time together. I miss that goofy kid :) Elder Andrade is less social, and obviously comes from a different cultural background. He's quite military, too, because his dad was in the military. It's a good change for me, because I'm developing even more patience, and working on charity, too. I love Elder Andrade, and have had a few moments when my heart is really softened towards him. The mission will be great for him. Some rough edges will be smoothed over, he'll improve at relating with people, and he'll grow mucho. It'll be a great transfer!

The Work

Things are going great. Long story short, we aren't meeting with Zeph anymore. His life came crashing down recently (again), and his temporal needs outweigh his desire to meet with us. When he can get things sorted, he'll want to meet again. We extended some baptismal dates this past week, 2 of those dropped already, and the one left doesn't speak great English. 

On the plus side, we found 2 super cool people. One of them comes from a quite different religious background than ours, and desires to learn more about Jesus Christ. The other just moved from a non-Christian country due to her family's conversion about a month ago, and we will teach her tomorrow. Definitely some good potential! I really hope to be able to baptise this last transfer. If not, I'm doing everything I can to find those that are prepared for the gospel. 

Love you all! Have a great week

Elder Withers

Alec and Elder Nelson at Hanwell Zoo

Alec and Elder Andrade with the Velasquez family

Living room in the new flat

Mom, Dad, Drake, Brock,

I thought I'd change up my greeting. Isn't that fun?

Missing Memories

I somehow lost my flash drive with ALL of my mission pictures..... ): Gratefully I've sent a bunch home, but prayers that I can find it would definitely be appreciated.

Fresh Fruit

I was on exchange in Wembley, and we got off the bus near our flat to go home for the night. A member was coincidentally there, by a shop, and he said Elders do you want something? He bought us bananas and pears. How nice of him. 

Super Sophie

On Thursday we had spent some time in Ealing Broadway street contacting. We were walking towards the buses to take one back to Greenford. We had spent more time talking with people than planned, and I considered just walking to our bus (letting people pass by in the process). As we walked, there was a person that was walking in the opposite direction as us, and I had a strong prompting to talk with everyone, including the Chinese girl that was now practically right next to us. We stopped her, and she was super excited to see me, and thought she recognized me. She pulled out her phone contacts and showed me my contact saved in her phone with my old phone number. My name was saved as "jesus christ elder withers". I don't remember ever meeting her in Britannia (she was one of the many people I talked with during that 6 month span). She's been having a bit of a hard time recently in her life, and even got a bit emotional on the street. Sadly we haven't been able to meet with her since (seems like that's how things often go in missionary work...), but I know that Heavenly Father used me to touch his daughters heart. 

Patriarchal Power

President Stevens sent out an email, regarding "my plan", as something missionaries are meant to do to help them transition into home life. One of the things I was asked to do was to go through my Patriarchal blessing, and circle words that describe me, and underline phrases that describe actions I should take. Pretty neat. 

General Conference was great! I have been able to watch all sessions except for the Sunday PM and the Womens session (mainly because I'm not a woman). We watched Sat AM session on Saturday at 5pm at the Ward Mission Leader's home, Priesthood was Sunday morning at 10am at the Stake center, we watched Saturday PM session on Sunday afternoon in a members home, and we watched Sunday AM session in another members home Sunday at 5pm.

Gear up for Greenies

Things have been great with Elder Nelson. The past 6 weeks with him have been like a dream. I feel like I met him, and blinked, and now here we are. Yesterday we got a call from Elder Burgess regarding transfers. Elder Nelson will be leaving Hayes and going to Britannia! I'm super excited for him. He'll love it. And I will be training another new missionary. I didn't expect this, but I know it's an inspired decision. Elder Nelson and I have gotten into a nice groove recently. I still feel challenged, because missionary work always is challenging, but Elder Nelson has grown a lot this transfer and we've been doing well together. I think training again in a lot of ways it will help me continue to work hard through the end of my mission and continue to push myself. Good times ahead!

Love you family! I hope you enjoyed the alliteration station. It definitely took some brain power, time, and energy to come up with each section title, so I hope you can savour each one of them. 

Love,

Elder Withers

[SENT 3-20-17]

Three-week meeting

Hi familia,

It's been another great week. Time is such a blur. I couldn't believe yesterday was already my 4th Sunday in Hayes ward. 

Compeñero

We played some 1 v 1 basketball last week. Elder Nelson is a baller. He dribbles really well, can jump, is quick, and can shoot well. My back was sore from it for a bit... Haha definitely not in basketball shape. 

The work

I've been trying to really love members into doing missionary work. We've mainly invited members to have friends over in their home for fhe, or pray for an opportunity to invite friends into their home. I feel many members here want to do missionary work, but have fears or competing priorities that interfere. 

We've talked with a lot of people recently. It's been really good. I determined just to be happy no matter what and really enjoy talking with people as opposed to having this self imposed pressure of channeling every discussion in a particular way. This makes a world of difference

If you ever wonder what it's like to be a missionary, here's what basically my life consists of. Wake up, pray, drink some water, go for a run, push-ups/lift, get ready for the day, breakfast, planning for the day, personal study. We leave the flat at 10, talk with people as we travel to an appointment or something else. Sometimes we pack a sandwich wi us (literally putting it in our pockets) so we don't have to come back to the flat for lunch. We'll travel on buses or tubes, talking with people as we go. We teach people in their homes, ask them for referrals, have dinner with members, and teach and ask them for referrals. We spend 30-60 minutes during the day with companion study, and another 30 minutes for "12 weeks" a study program for new missionaries and their trainers. We return to the flat by 9 or 9:30 exhausted as we get ready for bed, pray, sleep, and wake up the next morning ready to do it all over again. That pretty much sums up missionary life. Let me know if you have any questions :)

Our Friends

We found an older gentleman at a bus stop. He's Christian from Egypt. Super willing to meet with us and come closer to Christ. He speaks English and Arabic. He came to church Sunday for the first time! We're working towards 22 April for his baptism. 

Also we found a girl from Brazil on Saturday. I talked with her in he bus, and had a lovely discussion (mainly in Spanish). We did some arrangements for her to get to church and bishops wife gave her a lift. She is so cool and we're excited for her. 

On the bus!

Funny

Often when I run in the mornings Elder Nelson likes to put a big stick on the path, providing an obstacle for me to hurdle over. What a goof.

We had lunch with Brother Hidalgo (Ecuador) last week. He PILED the food on our plate. 2 chicken breasts, hecka potatoes and beans, and literally broccoli he size of a tree. And then dessert. Haha what a guy. The food was probably the 2nd best quality I've had on my mission. 

Random thoughts

I've thought a bit about the difference between that living the gospel makes. Those that follow the gospel definitely have a light and joy to them. I find it so ironic when we talk to people offering to "share a message about Christ", to which the response is "I'm alright I'm catholic" or "I'm Christian". Or even when people aren't willing to have a discussion on a bus or tune, or street. There are people that are cranky, disengaged, and standoffish at even the invitation to speak with them. True happiness only comes from living the gospel and I'm grateful for the many blessings that come from that. 

Love you all!

Elder Withers

[SENT 3/27/17]

Alec and Elder Nelson and investigator

Hi family. 

The People

We had a wonderful lesson with a brother in our ward last week. I felt the spirit so strong as I testified of Joseph Smith and referred to his experience of being in front of God the Father and Jesus Christ. He came to church on Sunday, and is making slow progress. We'll see how things go this week. 

We had a great lesson. That was another powerful spiritual experience. He had a recent job offer to work thurs-sat nights, which would impede him coming to church. As prompted by the Spirit, we changed our lesson plans to teach the Sabbath Day instead of the Word of Wisdom. We committed him to decline his job if it interferes with Sunday. He said the closing prayer, asking for repentance and expressing gratitude that we were helping him. Sadly though, he took the job, and hasn't been in touch with us recently. Opposition in all things. 

Miscellanious/Funny

We went to a Sikh temple because of a guy we met on a bus. That's an interesting story... haha we accitentally sat on the left side of the temple with the women, with our feet facing towards the front (both of which are no-no's), all the while wearing orange head scarves having removed our shoes and socks when we came in. We were also wearing our name badges, white shirts and ties, and looking rather western amidst the group of people we were communing with. Exciting stuff :) Hence the title of my email. 

Alec and Elder Nelson in front of Sikh temple

Last P Day we spent some time in the church taking a bunch of trick shots with b ball. I'll send you a vid or two. 

Miracle

On Friday we were street contacting in Ealing Broadway. For We had 15 minutes left to find, and so we said a prayer that we could find someone. We kept talking with people for the next 15 minutes, with no luck. Eventually we decided to talk to one more person. There was a guy walking next to a girl. I awkwardly asked "What do you do to have a strong relationship together?" The guy stopped, and the girl kept walking. I repeated my question, and he asked "What do you mean?" I responded, (realising he wasn't with the girl) "What do you do to have a strong relationship with your family and frinds?" His response, "I have none". Without going into further detail, his life has bsically turned upside down recently. The SPirit was quite strong during this converstaion. We taught him the restoration on Saturday, extended a baptismal date, and he came to church and had a great experience. We will teach him tonight!  

Life is good! Have a great week.

Love,

Elder Withers

Ready to teach!!