Hampstead

Time flies when on the Lord's errand. I cannot believe my first week is already over. It feels like I was just on the plane yesterday. I flew over here from Atlanta Georgia with the four Sisters, and I was the only Elder. Our Mission President, President James and his wife, and his assistance missionaries, welcomed us at the airport and took us and our luggage to his home (the mission home). We took photos and they served us dinner, and we got to introduce ourselves to everyone. We ate hot wings, cheese potatoes, and salad. For desert we had banana pudding pie, mmm. I stayed the night at the assistant missionaries apartment the first night, and it was the best sleep I ever had. We had breakfast at the mission home and we had waffles, and they put vanilla ice cream, apple sauce, and maple syrup on top apparently haha, but it was really good. We were given our areas, I will be serving my first twelve weeks in Hampstead! Everyone tells me they dream of getting this area haha, because it is the closest to the beach. I was pretty stoked. The sisters and I got to meet our trainers at the stake building, and that's when we all separated on our journeys. My trainers name is Elder Reed. I truly believe that the mission President was truly inspired to put me with him. Elder Reed is the most obedient person I've ever met. He pushes me to be the same. We make good use of every minute we have. He is so precise with the time. But I'm so grateful to be his companion, he is a really good missionary. Every day we wake up at 6:30 and exercise, we've decided to run 2 miles everyday for exercise, and than we get ready for the day and have personal studies at exactly 8:15 not a minute later, till 9:15. Than we plan together our day, and than backup plan, so there is no spare time in our day. Than we leave out the door at precisely 10:00 no later. We do so much tracting. Door knocking is the scariest thing ever, but my companion always tells me "Fear no man" and "Let nothing get in the way of people's salvation." We cannot enter into our apartments before 9:00 if for some reason we finish early, we find something productive to do till than. Going to bed at 9:30 has been the best change for me ever. It feels like i'm sleeping for weeks. Anyways, The biggest highlight of my week was we went to go check up on a potential investigator someone I've never met yet, but Elder Reed has only once. His name is Christian, and this guy is nuts. He saw us and was SO stoked he took us into his backyard to show us his overpowered dirt bike, and took it off a jump a few times and than he invited us into his home and this guy, he just goes a 100 miles an hour he's so full of energy, he's all tatted, he is an ex heroine addict, his wife died in a car accident five years ago, he has a ten year old daughter, and he told us that he just wants to change his life around, he's about in his early 40s, but he said he wants to follow his dad's example and take his daughter to church every Sunday. We sat around this small table and taught him a brief lesson about the restoration, with a hunting rifle and an ashtray on the table I was like, there's no way the spirit is here. But he was buying everything we were giving him.  His friend was in the house and he was getting in on everything to. And he became an investigator. There is hope for everyone, the enabling power of the Atonement reaches out to all of God's children. And my testimony of that was definitely strengthened through Christian. I am so excited to meet with him again haha. The Lord will also definitely reward you for your obedience, that is something I learned from Elder Reed. The last doors we knock on are always the one's that make our day, or become an investigator, after having no luck for hours, we don't stop till we reach our time. We watched General conference at our bishops house on Saturday, and At a members house on Sunday. I've never enjoyed General Conference so much before. It was a blessing to here hear from our beloved Prophet. He said we must gain and strengthen our own testimony through daily prayer and scripture study and through obedience to the commandments so that whenever we get a missionary opportunity we will be ready. He also said if you do not teach with charity you do not teach with the spirit. I can testify that that is true. Anyways that's all the time I have for now. Hope you all have a great week!

President James, Elder Reed, Elder Miller, Elder Wihongi. At Airlie Gardens.