Weekly Update 25 February 2013

Hello!

 

I've had the time of my life this week. It was fairly fun, yet again we have been running, driving, travelling like crazy people. It is a good feeling to be busy, I'm sure it isn't good for you to be as busy as we are and the stress it causes, perhaps compared to your lives it isn't stressful at all but I would say our average moving speed is above 30 miles per hour. This week we even went as far as Blackpool, hence the title. It is the Vegas of England and people definately need the gospel over there. It seemed to be a good place. We have driven about 1600 miles from the beggining of this month, this is a relatively calm month. We would higher with our mileage this month but we have been smarter and more tight with what we do.

 

My companion Elder Webster doesn't have his licence yet, so there have been weeks from Tuesday - Saturday he has been away from Runcorn and I've been with different missionaries. Sometime people wonder why we have such a great companionship, my simple reply is that we never seem to see each other. We have been from Manchester - Blackpool - Northern Wales this week. We seems to be spread far. Although a lot of miracles have taken place in Runcorn pretty recently. We taught just under 30 lessons this week and the area seems to be very alive. I love the members here they are just great and seem to be so understanding. I feel a little guilt when they have the desire to feed us everyday and at times we are just too busy to be fed. Carnally, my mind tells me "Elder Sapaden... are you really saying no to food? That's really unlike you" Members have been good and they have even dropped off food for us when we only have a few minutes to eat instead of a usual hour. If I could describe in a sentence what I learnt form experience this week I would say: Consecration is the only surrender which is also a victory. Really think about that one. The gospel isn't about sacrafice, the gospel is sacrafice, hence... the Atonement isn't part of the gospel. It is the Gospel.

 

I had an time to do some service this week, a part of me seems to crave just hard physical labour. We did some gardening, not a usual favourite passion/ hobby of mine before my mission but it definately is rewarding. The ward is calling more and more ward missionaries and my vision is to have a very serious missionary ward where perhaps even if they did lose missionaries they would be fine because the ward are finding and teaching non- members on their own. I feel way old as a missionary, I'm not counting down or counting my days on my mission because of want for home or anything of that sort, but I hit my 20 month mark yesterday and I feel quite old in the mission field, but it really does seem to fly by quite fast. It is such a great time to be a missionary.

 

With Love,

 

Elder Sapaden

Weekly Update 18 February 2013

Hi!

 

We have been running round like madmen this week. I find that we just teach, teach and teach. Since Thursday nothing major has happened. I don't know if we have been bad missionaries but it doesn't seem that we get any rest at all. I suppose it is better to be busy anyway. Actually, that's a lie. I had a very interesting Valentines day. It seemed like something out of a horror film. We took part in an exorcism, but that is a story to be revealed after my mission. Pretty interesting stuff.

 

Referals have been falling from the heavens, all we do it teach and contact refferals, any average missionary would think we were in Utah, it is exactly the polar opposite of what my mission was like in the beginning where we were out for a good 5+ hours just talking to people on the streets. Don't get me wrong that stuff is effective too, but I would rather teach.

 

I'm getting aware that my e-mails might be getting shorter, but. We don't have much of a Preparation Day any more. I'm going to hit the Gym hard today, we have a home made gym in the 3rd floor of our flat, it is pretty nice if you ask me. Our flat is really nice, just super cold.

 

This week should be pretty busy, we are going to spend a lot of time in North Wales. Another Tuesday - Saturday away from my companion, hectic, eh? Something that I was thinking about is Scouse people. I love people in/ from Liverpool. Here in Runcorn, it just seems to be a spill over town from Liverpool, consequently I would say over 90% of people are from Liverpool. I would trade my accent for a scouse accent with out hesitation. A pattern that I notice in my missionary work is: the closer things get to Liverpool the better things get, the people will talk to you, they will give you the time of day, any time, any where. I love hopping on a Bus and talking to someone from Liverpool, they just open up and tell you the whole story of the lives they have lived. In a very comical way.

 

Part of our area, is very into the Country as soon as we move out of the vicinity of Liverpool and towards the country it just seems that the people are proud and they slam the doors shut. I would say there is a very real reason that the early apostles came to Liverpool first out of America, they knew that the people back then just like today would welcome them with warm hearts and open up to them just like they do today. I love Liverpool!

 

With Love,

 

Elder Sapaden

Weekly Update 14 February 2013

Hello!

 

It is a new beginning, a new transfer and a time to work even harder than before. Life seems to be racing by. Let me tell you of a fun experience we had at a dinner appointment. We were able to go to a family home evening this monday where the member asked me if I had seen the Ensign, I hadn't. He showed me a picture of a some missionaries, I saw Elder Miranda, I thought I saw another missionary of Samoan desent, but It just turned out to be me, the member thought it was a polynesian missionary aswell. It was pretty funny, pick up your ensigns look in the middle pages, in the UK section of this Febuary's ensign. What I find most funny is in that picture you see all the other missionaries working very hard, then you see Elder Miranda standing around and me smiling at the Camera. Golden! eh?

 

I've consumed so many pancakes this week it is unreal, we had a pancake eating competition with some members for lunch this week and it was very intense. I hope I never eat another pancake until next year. In other news, I have a new companion, I'm showing him the ropes of being a Zone Leader it is his first time being one, and so I'm training him on all the things we need to do. His name is Elder Webster, just like the dictionary. He is from Mesa, Arizona, he currently is working to get his english driving license, so it looks like I'm doing all the driving for the next few weeks, I mean that would be okay in normal life, but when you put things into perspective, we have driven over 1000 miles already this month. Yesterday was so intense, I went to transfer day, there are so many new missionaries, espcially a bunch of Sister Missionaries, this influx of new missionaries with the age limit for missionary service is hitting our mission hard. They are just all so young.

 

We have had a fairly average week, teaching non- stop, we are aiming for 30+ lessons these up coming weeks, hopefully we can throw some records out the window, with that being said, it was pretty interesting to watch our car windscreen being replaced. Well, I'll be e-mailing again on monday so take a look at that Ensign bit in the UK pages this Febuary.

 

With Love,

 

Elder Sapaden

Weekly Update 4 February 2013

Hi,

 

This week has been busy we have been all over from Manchester to Chester to Wales. It has been quite hectic and full of trials. We have been teaching quite a bit, I suppose it is good to be busy, it keeps your mind off of things. We were over in Wrexham doing work over there with the missionaries, it often reminds me of when I was a newer missionary when I'm with the newer missionaries and all the adventures we have had.

 

I had a lot of new experiences this week, from having a cracked windscreen to changing a tyre and replacing it with a new one and even getting complimented on my driving skills when I dodged a potential car accident. The great thing is none of these things happened all at once, they progressively happened this week on seperate occasions.

 

A highlight of our week is summarised by a word "refferals" we are getting them like Utah here, we have about 9 to contact, which is the highest I've ever had on my mission, it seems that as long as you can gain the member trust and show them you love and care about them and they can trust you with their friends and family they will give you someone to try by, if Preach my Gospel ever teaches a missionary anything... it is that every member refferal gets baptised.

 

With Love,

 

Elder Sapaden