Weekly Update 08 February 2012

Hi Everyone!

So much has gone on since I last e-mailed, the reason why I'm e-mailing on Wednesday this week is because well it's transfer week and Elder Peterson got transferred! My new companions name is Elder Raybould and I worked with him for a little bit while I was in Rochdale, but now he is my companion again for the next 6 weeks.

So, you know how I usually try to describe how I feel with words, metaphors, visual imagery... well I've decided to take a picture this week to show you how I kind of feel. Doesn't it just scream... happy?
This week has been pretty all over the place.

An amazing experience I had this week is an Exchange with a younger missionary, it was the first time I had ever worked with a younger missionary so I didn't know what to expect, Elder Peterson went to Manchester with another Chinese speaking Elder so they could go and teach Chinese people, it was great... whilst I was left with the Younger missionary in St. Helens. We took the train to Manchester Piccadilly. Here is a great experience: we were waiting for the train back to St. Helens from Manchester Piccadilly, I was making a couple of phone calls, the younger missionary I was with just keeps on saying "I'm hungry" over and over and over again to me in Hushed whispers. We were in a fairly crowded area and it was a busy evening where people were taking the trains back home after work. When halfway through a phone call this man approaches me with a Chocolate bar, a Dairy Milk nutty one it's a pretty big one too, he hands me the bar and says "Hello" to me in Chinese because I was wearing my Chinese badge, I was stunned open mouthed and halfway through this phonecall with a member in St. Helens. He wishes us a good evening and then walks away. I gave the Chocolate bar to this younger missionary I was with to keep him quiet and after I finished the phone call we try and find him, but we lost him through the crowd. Since when do angels just stop by and give you Chocolate? It works for me. I like that Miracle.

Anyhow, we had to go and create a mormon.org profile, check mine out: http://mormon.org/me/87DG/Jared/ or just type in Jared Sapaden on Mormon.org

Anyway we went back two days later and I got Elder Peterson back I bumped into Elder Miranda again it was great! We met at Bolton because a Chinese investigator was getting baptised in Bolton it was fabulous. It has gotten considerably colder here aswell, but you find ways to keep warm, like running after people to share the gospel with them... it's always the best way.

Who wants to hear another miracle... so I was working with this younger missionary and this one day I was with him, we just happened to have no lessons planned for that day so we spend almost all our time talking to people on busses, on the streets and knocking on there doors. On this day I had planned to stop by an investigator called Janet. After lunch we headed straight to Janets home to fill some time and try and teach a lesson. Then I feel a distinct impression to stop, "Stop... Elder Sapaden, you need to talk to that man" so I did, well as soon as I looked at him he said "tell me something about Jesus" if people start out talking to you and start like that, you would think it wouldn't be the best conversation, but it was marvelous, he said "tell me something about Jesus" and so I did, he introduced himself like he knew me and I introduced myself like I knew him, it was a weird feeling, like you knew each other before somewhere it was amazing, he listened to what I said and we had a lesson right there and then, we taught him on the spot a lesson just there on the streets, we prayed together and we saw him the next day in his home... his name is Paul... and he is a miracle!

It was Elder Peterson and my last few days together, we have been best friends and St. Helens is now on a whole new level of missionary work, it started that we had no investigators to begin with and now it's a gold mine! Elder Raybould and I are going to get alon great together he has done alot of music theory himself and knows quite a bit, he is a percusionist, aswell as a great missionary.

Talk to you all on Monday as normal next week.

Love,

Elder Sapaden

Weekly Update 30 January 2012

Hello Everyone!

We have a picture of my first day just before entering the MTC and a picture of me 7 months out and back with Elder Peterson. So much change, it's unbelievable! Oh and Shout out to the Lowrys in St. Helens!
This week has been incredible, if you could get missionaries who were ever too busy, it would be us, being busy is a good thing! This week has just flown by and I can't believe I'm e-mailing you all today already. So we start the week with a Zone Leader exchange, Elder Peterson goes to Liverpool for a bit because he has to keep up his Chinese and Liverpool is a Chinese speaking missionary area. We mostly find on Tuesday, I can empathise with those people stopping you on the High Streets for Charities and such, it is a noble cause trying to speak to people to tell them about the wonderful message you share. Some messages are more important than others, but it takes a great deal of courage to talk to them, and that is what we did for a whole day.

One of the greatest feelings as a missionary is coming home tired, knowing that you have achieved a great deal, I love coming home in the evening tired, I wouldn't have it any other way. One question members ask missionaries the most is: how do you manage to go to sleep at 10:30pm, well I'll tell you... when you are that tired, your bed becomes salvation! until 6:30am. You could say, the only personal time missionaries get is those 7-8 hours of peace and quiet. We managed to even teach a wonderful investigator on Tuesday evening, such great times!

Miracles always happen in St. Helens, so we found a couple this week, we live near a Cineworld (a Cinema) in St. Helens and some of the best places to talk to people are along those busy roads, however alot of the times where there are busy roads there are busy people so we look for the prepared people who are willing to stop. I love getting in the mindset of "ok Elder we have an hour to talk to people, lets go teach a lesson" I don't like finding people for the whole hour, I enjoy when I have that expectation and we end up teaching someone then, we taught a new Investigator called Danny in front of the Cinema, it was great, his grandparents had just passed on, and the Lord just loves preparing peope for us to teach. We taught danny again the following day, he is just a miracle and now he is going to progress to Baptism. The power of setting aside an hour to find people a day and expecting to teach.

We met as the Liverpool Zone (all the missionaries in one Stake) on Friday, it was the best, we learn and grow off of each other as missionaries, and I even saw my trainer Elder Misbach. He really has grown and it feels great to talk to the Missionary who trained you how to do things and it feels great for him to see how much I've changed. I love how missionary work works!
So on Saturday we went to a Chinese activity where we had over 60 Chinese people attend, investigators, recent converts, members. We met at the Preston Temple site in Chorley, it was great we interacted with all the Chinese people and I even used the Chinese I had learn't (I also got to wear my Chinese missionary badge, shown in Picture 2) we celebrated Chinese new year with them, it was of epic grandeur (the ensign material, methinks) I got to use alot of my chinese I had learnt and well people were convinced I was Chinese.

Funny Story: A Chinese man approaches me speaking Chinese, he hands me his Camera and gets into a pose with his friends, so I suppose he wants me to take a Picture of him and his friends, so I did so, I didn't speak a word... it was funny to see that people were really convinced that I was Chinese. Gift of Tongues.
This Sunday was great we were privilaged to see a Baptism, we had some visitors from Rochdale, so it made me feel at home, a less- active we have been working with also came to Church and Elder Fielder was there aswell...

Miracles happening in St. Helens! What a wonderful time it is to be a missionary!

Love,

Elder Sapaden

Weekly Update 16 January 2012

Hello!

Today I have a few sentances that could try and describe the way I feel right now. "I wouldn't trade my mission for the world", "Have you ever had one of those days that you would never ever take back?", "This is what destiny feels like!" that is how I feel.We started off this week great and it finished great. My only worry right now is if we make St. Helens so righteous it might be taken up like Zion. We had a fantasstic Monday, I cannot stop but ask myself "is this really happening?" we open our mouths, people set up appointments, we are obedient and the powers of heaven descend upon us and the people we talk to are just so prepared. Missionaries in the past haven't had tremendous success in St. Helens, but right now, we are corssing boundaries that have never been pushed in a while.

My Chinese is going fantastic by the way. I can confidently hold up a conversation with a chinese person up to this point. "Hello! How are you? My friend and I are sharing a message about Jesus Christ and his Gospel. Do you have a belief in God? What brings you the most happiness? I know that God lives! My name is Elder Sapaden, what is your name?"
By the way, interesting fact:

Wo cher Sapaden Jaing Lao. Can mean "my name is Elder Sapaden" or "I am Jedi Master Sapaden", or so my companion tells me.

We are beginning to teach alot of people here, investigator after investigator. People are even beginning to stop us on the streets.
Just to tell you how clean our flat is, this week we had a flat inspection. Which usually makes missionaries feel like they have just run a mile. I was calm. The member who is assigned to inspect our flat is retired, so as you can imagine he has a very clean home, and he works in the temple! what a member to have to inspect your flat. We passed with flying colours. Our flat I would like to think is close to temple standard.

Last sunday a non-member who has been going to church for a long time, who just hasn't been baptised finally decided to approach us and ask us to be taught! It's only the beginning of a marvelous adventure. We also met a drunk man who sang to us on the street, surprisingly he had a really good voice.

So let me tell you about yesterday. It was just one of those "Epic" days.
We went to Church that was all good, I met Elder Fielder, who is doing great! he says "hi" to everyone in Staines, after that we have a tea appointment with a member. The member has us over for tea, we eat. Then he goes upstairs and pulls out a box and unwraps it and it turns out to be a keyboard so, we gave him a very musical spiritual thought. This is when the Miracle of the week happens, well you can't really rate miracles but... He told us that he felt an impression that we should deliver a package he has for a less- active member that he was supposed to deliver but felt prompted that we should do it, and so we did it!

We brought this package to this less- active family who gladly let us in their home, we were also able to have a nice conversation with them and they even gave us refferals! Giving refferals to missionaries just sparks fire into every missionaries eyes, try it sometime... stare into your missionaries eyes (not for too long, we don't like that kind of thing) and just see the excitement surging through the brain. I was given two Phillipino refferals because... well yeah. So we knocked on their doors, and not knowing too much fillipino but just full of excitement I managed to say "hello", but they shut the door on us. Was it a failure? Of course not! We are going back to that less- active family again, telling them that they weren't too keen on listening and getting more refferals and the process keeps on going!

We spent the rest of the evening with a member who has just recently returned from a mission, he is helping us with alot of investigators, and we just completely have the trust of our ward mission leader. We shared our miracle with him, he said "You know why this is happening elders? Because you are working! I dropped you home before it was 9pm you had 15 minutes left till it was 9pm, but did you stay in? No, you went back out again." We are just so supported by our ward.

I even just found out that one of my investigators in Rochdale is getting baptised. Let me tell you a little about him. My investigator in Rochdale was the most unlikely candidate for baptism, he had written books on Satanism, he had been involved in many different theorys, he even proved to us that Rochdale was going to be the New Jerusalem. Intense, right? God really works in mysterious, wonderful, marvellous ways.

I love you all!

Elder Sapaden

Weekly Update 09 January 2012

Hello Family!

This week in St. Helens has been an absolute miracle, of course we are still getting fed by members everyday! That is a wonderful thing about St. Helens, we are always fairly full.

Lets start with a miracle:
One evening we had an absolute miracle, my companion had forgotten his bus pass and I had a swollen ankle due to injury, we couldn't walk far and we couldn't take the bus because we have to stay together. The member we had a tea appointment with lived fairly far and our flat was quite a distance and even after the tea appointment we had a few teaching appointments which were spaced quite far apart. In the end we got a lift with the member who had us over for tea (by the way tea means dinner and is OK with the word of Wisdom for those foreign readers) so we had dinner with this member, by the way it was a lovely dinner a nice roast beef and everything (you can probably tell I'm hungry whilst writing this e-mail) anyhow, we left them with a spiritual thought and without asking he offered a lift to us to our next appointment. We taught our next appointment, he was very nice and he dropped us home. We didn't have to walk, we didn't have to take a bus. It was incredible. We were stranded but yet we made it through.

This week has been fairly quiet, just doing the good work and enduring to the end. We had to travel to Southport to exchange, my companion went to Southport and I stayed in Rochdale with another missionary also from London, we had some great conversations, we had been brought up in the "London" way. It's great to have people you can relate to. So I found out that the Bishop of Southport used to be a member of the Staines ward about 30 years ago, his name is Bishop Turner, we going to see him some time, but that isn't the end of the miracles.

So, Does anyone remember Elder Fielder, he is welsh and served in the Staines ward about 2 years ago? Well he is in St. Helens! it's is an amazing thing to know return missionaries who have served in your home ward, they'll look after you, they'll come teaching with you, they are just a great asset you have on your mission, I've met about 3 of the return missionaries I know who have served in Staines ward and Elder Fielder is the 4th. The Miracle doesn't stop there.

When I came into St. Helens it was the start of the new year, 28th of December, so my first sunday here was the 1st of January, and you can assume alot of people were visiting family. I had heard the Bishop of St. Helens was called Bishop Bradley and he was visiting family "down south", I wondered if he would be related to any of the Bradleys in the Staines Stake, I met him this sunday, I asked where he was from and he gave me the magical answer "Weybridge" his Father is Chris Bradley, his brothers are Peter and Phillip Bradley. Coinsidence? No. Miracle? Yes.

This work truely is directed by revelation, I was put in St. Helens I already know many people here, return missionaries, bishops and others. I am just so "in"

My Mission President actually just paid us a surprise visit this fast/ testimony sunday. I love my mission president he really is inspired, he put me in an area where he received revelation that I should be in.

I get fed alot here, I know alot of the members here, I work hard here. It's a wonderful time to be on a mission.

Love,

Elder Sapaden

P.S I got the Ukulele, thanks it is great, I Love You!

Weekly Update 05 January 2012

Hello!

Hello everyone, it has been quite a while... we were supposed to e-mail on Monday but the library was shut and we have been busy ever since so now it's thursday and it's been quite a while. We have had some amazing success in St. Helens, it's funny although it isn't too far from Rochdale, it really feels like it. St. Helens feels like it's in a whole different country. So I'm in Liverpool territory and everyone just speaks a little bit... different. It's great though, I love talking to people from Liverpool, and they are always up for a talk. In fact, I've never met more people who want to talk than people from Liverpool. It's great having a Chinese speaking companion, now I can hold my own in a conversation with a Chinese person, you wouldn't believe how receptive they are to the Gospel.

St. Helens is also a place for getting fed, Dinner appointments every night! This could be the best area in England for getting fed. Dinner appointments every day, President must have known I eat alot, otherwise I would have no hope here.

We had a great New year, as missionaries in the England Manchester Mission we are allowed to watch animated childrens movies and play the Wii for these few days, so we spent it with members just eating alot watching Ice Age 2, the Road to El Dorado, playing some Wii Sports and eating some more! What more could you wish for?
We were allowed to stay up and welcome in the new year, it was weird seeing "1-1-2012" on my watch, it was strange knowing that I'm going to spend the whole of 2012 on my mission, although I wouldn't rather be anywhere else, plus if the world really ends in "2012" i'll be okay. Not that I'm thinking like that.

As part of my new years list of changes, I've started picking back up the weights. It's amazing the missionary flat in St. Helens has lot of weights perhaps even more than 80kg and a big bar, it just feels like home when you know you can always pick up the wieghts after a long day of work. Elder Peterson used to play American football so he is working out with me, it really is a unifying thing when you have a companion that you can work out with, it's not like one of you is working out and your companion is staring at you whilst eating Pizza, trust me, I know.

I think I've instantly fell in love with St. Helens and St. Helens has fallen in love with me, wait... can I say that as a missionary? Yes... I do love St. Helens. It was great going to church the first day of 2012 and since you're a new in the area you have to bear your testimony, get introduced, all that good stuff. It felt like I was at home again, it felt like I belong. During visiting members this week they all told me how they felt I just instantly fit in. It's a weird thing, but it's perfect.

I do have worries that I will pick up the scouse accent. I don't think it'll happen, since having so many American companions, everyone truely believes I'm American, after church a sister came up to me and said "so... what part of the states are you from?" to which I quickly replied "London" I don't think she understood. St. Helens has a different feel to it than many other Areas it's fairly big and to get to our district meetings we usually take busses, but in this area, it fairly spread out so we have to get alot of trains sometimes.

Yesterday, I spent sometime in the heart of liverpool because Elder Peterson was at the mission home planning some Chinese activity with alot of the other Chinese missionaries. It was a place called Tuebrook, one of Elder Knights old areas, it was great finding there almost 90% of the people we spoke to stopped for us, I love people from Liverpool!

Love,

Elder Sapaden

P.S Be sure to e-mail me back before Monday because I'll be e-mailing on Monday again, and send me my uklele as soon as possible, love you!

Weekly Update 29 December 2011

Hello Family!

So I have moved! I've moved from Rochdale to a place in Liverpool called St. Helens. It's funny I am now serving with a missionary called Elder Peterson from Utah, and the funnier thing is he sounds exactly like Brother Paul Peterson. St. Helens is so very different it is much different from the usual areas in the England Manchester Mission.

In St. Helens everybody talks quite different, they have such a Liverpool accent, it's amazing! It was hard saying bye to alot of people in Rochdale, it was even worse than saying goodbye to my own family. The Rochdale ward members made me feel like their family and when I left some even cried. It's a hard thing getting transferred but I am excited to be in St. Helens. Upon leaving Rochdale one of the members in Rochdale, Brother Hoyle texted me telling me to "make St. Helens my new home" it was one of the most beautiful things I had ever read, he acknowledged that he knew that I had made Rochdale my home and that I had to go and make a new home.

By the way singing at the christmas carol old peoples home service was amazing the Ward choir and I felt such great unity as we sang to these elderly people christmas songs and the spirit of Christmas, even the spirit of God was present. We had such an amazing Christmas in Rochdale it really was something special, we felt loved so much, I even got many presents from the members, alot and alot of chocolate. At Christmas eve we spent it at one of our investigators houses and we just had a great time, it really was a spirit filled occasion! We also spent the rest of the evening with our ward mission leader, he was fantastic, I love the support we get from members so much.

Christmas really is a special occasion for missionaries and this year it even happens to have fallen on a sunday so we had a wonderful time at the ward Christmas Carol service, we then spent the Day with The Hoyles and The Roses. Rochdale ward members are just so special I've never felt more at home on my mission than at members homes in Rochdale. Talking to my family was great, it seems like nothing has changed. I got the call to get transferred on Boxing day, it was hard, but I knew that I had been privilaged to spend 6 months in one of the best places in the World.

On Tuesday, I had to say goodbye to so many members, it was heart breaking, painful but I knew that they were happy for me, they had watched me grow from a shy young man to something much better. They had watched me sit in their homes a little shy and timid to what it felt like part of their family. Some members even protested they said "I'll call your mission president it'll be fine, you can stay a little longer" it was sad to say bye, missionaries have many names written on their hearts, "Jesus Christ", "Elder Sapaden" and "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- Day Saints", "Rochdale" is one of the names written on my heart but it can't be seen, it matters just as much to me as any of the mentioned names already. I'm making "St. Helens" my new home now.

Love,

Elder Sapaden.


P.S write back to me before monday, we will be e-mailing this monday aswell.

Weekly update: 19th December 2011

Hello Family!

I hope you are all splendid! This week has been a great one, so I'll start off by talking about the weather. It is just so Cold! It is freezing all over, it has snowed and it is staying, in some parts of our area we have places which are over a foot or two feet of snow, it's crazy. It feels funny being wrapped up so much, I'll tell you what I have for my winter gear, so I'm nice and wrapped up with my scarf, I wear both pairs of gloves, one glove over the other, and a nice pair of ear-muffs. So usually I'm pretty warm, it's fun knocking on doors in this weather, people tend to give the excuse "it's too cold to stand here", I wonder if they ever consider how cold we actually were. But thats okay! Our smiles warm up even the coldest of people.

This week we actually went to the mission home over at Altrincham to have Christmas dinner with our mission president and his wife, travelling from Rochdale to Altrincham was fun I love talking to people on trams, it is much more open than talking to people on busses and trains and it's very easy to talk to them because they come and go, even just talking about how their day was, it must be nice to have a person to talk to about how your day is going.

So this week in Rochdale we have been focusing on alot of Less- Active work, I love visiting less- actives, it just feels quite different going to less- actives homes when you are a missionary, sometimes it's only a missionary who can bring that special spirit to their homes and bring them back to church. I have had so much success in Rochdale from visiting less- active members homes, we have just seen family to family come back to church, and now even some of the children whose family was less- active are getting baptised. Although I was not actively part of the teaching and baptising of that child, I do know I was part of that process. We got them back to church.

I was even given a nice little invitation to the baptism which is happening on the 31st of December. I came on my mission and I wanted to baptise thousands, I know even though I might not be actively part of the actual teaching and baptising, I know that I helped it happen. You know I might just baptise thousands in that respect, the little boy will go on a mission, that little boy will someday have a family, that little boy will someday be a bishop. I did baptise thousands. My new goal... Millions.

So from visiting some more less actives houses I went to a house where Irene lives, Irene is amazing she is from Zimbabwe and used to go out teaching with the missionaries quite alot. I had the privilage of going to her home for a dinner appointment. African food is amazing!

Another success that Elder Lintusaari and I are having is the amount of member refferals we are getting, I know that by asking members who do they know who would be interested in the message we share is something magnificent. We have received many contacts that our members have given us, something I firmly believe in is that the missionaries have to earn the members trust for that refferal and serve the members for that. Now you might ask: Elder Sapaden how have you served on your mission?

Well... I love the members so much, the love my piano playing, you put two and two together and you have a great tool to develop member- missionary trust. Every sunday before Christmas in Rochdale the primary put along a Nativity presentation. Unfortunately the pianist didn't show up for one reason or another. The primary president approached me, she looked very distressed and she needed someone to replace the missing pianist urgently. She called upon me, I hate sight reading (playing music without rehearsing beforehand) but I continued to do so, I know as I played those intricate and difficult pieces that my fingers were guided to the keys I needed to play, I played beautifully. The primary Nativity presentation was a success, and the spirit of God penetrated everyones hearts. I love being able to serve. In fact, I'm playing for a Christmas concert at an old peoples home this coming wednesday, wish me luck!

Matthew 25 teaches us this important lesson:
And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more.
His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.

For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.

If this e-mail ever gets around to bishop, I have a message. "Yes, Bishop, you could say I was "Tearing it up" in Rochdale!"

I love you all!

Elder Sapaden.