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