"The Lord doesn't only lead us to the elect, He leads the elect to us."

Bore Da! Hiya Hiya!

I know I keep talking about all this sun we've been getting...This week was different. Downpour...but nothing changed! We've still been running all over the town!

We saw Kirsty this week! She is doing so good! With her busy schedule, we've only been able to see her once a week, but she still is coming along. We are now in the "good stuff" teaching the commandments. We taught the Word of Wisdom this past time and it was a surprise to her but after our member's testimony, and some promised blessings, she accepted. She has some things to overcome, but she is determined. She even said, "Ya know, it is about time I stop smoking. I've done it before, I can do it again."

We knew the Word of Wisdom would be one of the hardest for her so we went in bold and started with it.  She really needs a faith building experience, and overcoming the Word of Wisdom and seeing the blessings is one way to see that faith grow.

I don't know if I ever told you about Liam. He was a man we taught and then saw him come to church with us. The only problem was that he dropped us right after sacrament meeting. He said, "I just cant believe in God, and I don't want to waste your time."  We tried our best to convince him that he wasn't, but it didn't seem to work, and he left....

Well, since that time we spotted him in the Rhyl town centre, and ran him down to see how we was doing. I told him to give us one more lesson. He agreed and, oh, we had an AMAZING lesson with him. We read Mormon 9, and focused on how he could gain faith. This lesson was 10 times better than the first in that he wasn't having a negative "I can't" statement every 2 minutes. We ended the lesson with a kneeling prayer and committed him to do his own "kneeling prayer" that night. He didn't accept a commitment to come to church, but said he would read and pray

Well at around 9:10 that night we got a text..."Hey Elda, I prayed for my son and family. See you at church on Sunday." And he surely did come! And stayed the entire time! The ward was AMAZING at fellow shipping him. I think he met the entire ward. He was even introduced in Priesthood. (He loved that). And our High Priest Group Leader would stop during the lesson and explain our "terms" as members. (Home teaching, Priesthood, etc). It was a much better time at church for him this time. We are planning on playing football with him this week, and seeing him tomorrow to teach!  What a miracle..

Also, he is from Liverpool. That makes 3 of our investigators from there. Kirsty, David, and Liam...No wonder they're so great. I cant get enough of their accent. "That Book is well nice Elda"  -Liam

This week I headed to Colwyn Bay for an exchange with Elder Hansen. (I came out with him, and was in the same district in the MTC). While in Colwyn Bay Elder Hansen and I were blessed to be apart of many miracles. We had the day planned out for finding pretty much all day with no investigator lessons planned..  We ended up teaching 3 lessons with 7 new investigators. I credit that to Elder Hansen's urgency and finding skills. He has been working on applying our "finding" training and was able to keep finding "interesting" which as a result kept us up beat, on our toes, giving full attention to our finding. We were able to teach 2 on the spot lessons...one being in the rain!  What a trooper she was!

The other reason for the miracles was simply out of the tender mercies of the Lord. We had a mother run us down to have us speak to her son. After speaking to him, she invited us over that evening. We went and taught the entire family. It goes to show that Lord doesn't only lead us to the elect, He leads the elect to us.  We just have to be ready and worthy to receive them.

I don't know why but in the past two weeks we have had TWO flat inspections. No worries though the flat has always been clean.

Elder Corbin and I also learned this week some interesting things about a town called "St. George," which is just a couple miles to the west. We were told by the members that back in the early days the entire town was baptised, then migrated to the U.S. There is so much history in this mission...

Sports Day is this Wednesday.. aka Showtime...

LOVE YOU ALL!

Elder Eliason

Zone Conference Letter from President Bullock

Dear Parents,

We had two special zone conferences this week with Elder Allan F. Packer of the First Quorum of the Seventy.  He was visiting the England Manchester Mission with his wife Sister Terri Packer as they were here on assignment that included other meetings in the U.K.  It has been over a year and a half since we had a General Authority visit our mission so we were blessed to have them here and feel of their spirit and listen to their instruction and counsel. 

Attached you will find two pictures: 1) one in front of the Preston Temple (#55) which is next to the Chorley Stake Centre where the meeting was held for the Ashton, Chorley, Liverpool and Preston Zones, and 2) another one in front of the Manchester Stake Centre (#77) where the meeting was held for the Manchester, Chester and Newcastle Zones and for all Chinese speaking missionaries.  You should be able to find your son/daughter in one of those two pictures.   

We feel so blessed to have such wonderful missionaries in this mission and we marvel at their faithfulness and diligence as they go about the Lord’s work.  This is a reflection of them being raised well in loving homes.  You can be very proud of your missionary and we are grateful to serve with them.     

Warm regards,

President and Sister Bullock

England Manchester Mission  

Picture #77 -- Me and Elder Corbin are peeking out from the back just left of center, back row.

Picture #55--Going to Miss President and Sister Bullock!

The Little Things Matter...

At Zone Conference I ran into my trainer, Elder Moss (to my right). To my left is my trainee Elder Corbin.

HIYA!

Weeks are flying by! I cannot believe school is almost out and Dallin had a birthday...

But this week was fabulous. It started off unbelievably with the Mission Conference up in my hometown (Wythenshawe), that you got a picture of. How great are the Bullocks!

But the mission conference was a great experience, one that I will remember for a long time. President and Sister Bullock spoke, then Elder and Sister Packer spoke soon after. Sister Packer really touched on some topics that have been ringing in my mind all week. Some quotes I took from here talk were..  "The Lord is in the details", and "don't let the little things trip you up." Each of these statements have reinforced to me the importance of the "little things". 

Leaving the flat 2 minutes late, filling in half of the back-up plans are just some examples of ways we can look over the "little things" which in contrast are very big and influential things. If we break one rule, we can justify to break another.

Elder Packer stood up to the pulpit and simply said, "Lets have a Q and A session." So we did, we fired questions, and he definitely answered. It was a learning experience for all of us. When we would ask a question, he would answer and use it as a topic to teach us something. So all in all it was like 30 talks squeezed into one. It was great. One thing that stood out to me was when he said "The Mission President receives revelation on where you serve... It's up to you to receive the revelation on why you have been called to serve there."

Elder Gallacher (our Assistant) and I were tracting in the late evening and came to the house of Ollie. We QGC'd him at the door and asked to come in. He reluctantly accepted and invited us into his room. We were able to teach him about the Book of Mormon, and then very early on commit him to baptism. When we hit him with that commitment he really understood the importance of the message we were sharing. I again am grateful to be a missionary at a time where we invite to baptism in the first lesson. It makes all the difference... Ollie's lessons have since fallen through. But I know we made who we are, and what is expected of us clear for him in the future.

Kirsty is still in Liverpool...aka the blessed land of the UK.... She has had to stay some extra time because of a friend, but has been in contact with us making sure that we come see her on Wednesday.. She is still going very good.

We have been teaching a kid by the name of Tom recently. He is 17 and lives up in Dyserth, which hugs the mountain range behind us here in Rhyl. We taught him the Plan of Salvation this past Saturday. It was a great lesson where he really understood everything. He is our second most progressing investigator at the moment..

Now that I have been out for a little bit now I have really been able to gain a testimony of "Preach My Gospel." President Bullock has instilled in us the importance of it. He always explains to us that we should revere it as scripture. Knowing it has been written by the Apostles and First Presidency. Elder Bednar has challenged us to "become Preach My Gospel, and not just merely know it."

I can say that it has helped me learn to become a greater tool in the Lords hand by knowing how to work "smarter" and not "harder," while also giving me an understanding of my purpose as a missionary. One of my favourite lines is "As your understanding of the atonement of Jesus Christ grows, your desire to share the gospel will increase." I know that to be true because it has happened to me. People need to know about these things! And when I have felt the magnitude of the gospel and the responsibility that I have to make it known, I have no option but to work hard! Thats the same for members! How's your missionary work going?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY D! 

Love Love, Love

Elder Eliason

Love Zone Conferences...Spiritually Fed

The Royal Wedding. It was quite an event over here as you can imagine. 

Our best attempt at a ping pong table.

Another winner past Elder Corbin. I've still got it... Like the matchy shirts?

Zone Conference! Zone Leaders in coats.

Hello, Hello!

I hope I answered most of your questions yesterday on the phone call!  but I'll add some little tid-bits on the week that I might not of mentioned...

We had Zone Conference this past week and it sure was a good one! I got to meet up with Elder Moss and catch up. He is now a Zone Leader in Newcastle and is doing great. We had our "generation" picture. Him with me and Elder Corbin. He still is as funny as ever. We had a good laugh talking about our times together, and all of our experiences. Crazy to think it has been 6 months since I was walking the streets with him.

President Bullock during Zone Conferences likes to speak on something for our benefit, rather than a "training." I love that he does that because it really helps us build upon our own testimonies and learn more in-depth about the gospel. Topics he has spoken about in the past:

• Allegory of the Olive Tree in Depth
• The Great Apostasy
• Sign of the Second Coming
• 2 Steps to Personal Apostasy

A s you can see, they are some pretty interesting topics that always get us as missionaries excited for Zone Conferences. 

This one was "True Evidences of the Reality of the Book of Mormon." He of course started off telling us that a testimony of the Book of Mormon is only true and lasting when based on a witness through the spirit. But he went on to add that "evidences" can act as appendages to a testimony. He went through a PowerPoint of all of these so called "witnesses" he would call up to the stand. It was very interesting! 

I know I touched upon the Tea Appointment with Elder Donaldson on the phone call but it truly was a memorable experience. He has so much knowledge about the gospel and such a conviction for missionary work. Elder Corbin and I asked all the questions we could. He also printed off  a "Prophecies about the U.K" that he got from another Seventy. It was written by Parley P. Pratt and Joseph Smith and isn't widely known about. It was about some things that are to come and some that have already happened. It was profound! 

On Tuesday we contacted a 20 year old, David Gallacher on the street. He accpeted to be taught right then, and loved the message. He just moved from Liverpool (no wonder he was so great!) and is staying with his grandpa. After he walked away we got a text from him saying "Am lookin forward to learning more about this. Everything you said makes sense. See you Thursday, David."  We indeed did see him on Thursday and he was well excited for everything. He had read 3 chapters of the Book of Mormon and is doing great! The only problem is that he is a chav, and they have a reputation to lose contact. But we'll see!

Tonight I will be back in Wythenshawe! We are heading there early to stay the night in preparation for Elder Packer of the Seventy.

LOVE YA'LL!

Elder Eliason

Royal Wedding...Passed Theory Test...Faith in the Lord's Timetable

Bore Da!

Well after this so called "Royal Wedding" and 4-day holiday I am finally writing!  It's been a good week. Sun is still out all the time and the face is getting quite tan...while the neck is staying quite white. Tan line looks... well... nice.

I passed my driver's theory test! The same lady was working the counter and you better believe I got my signature on the first try! She even made a comment when I came up, "Oh, I remember you." But now that I have passed, it is time to get some driving lessons and learn how to drive a stick.

This week we spent a lot of time teaching Leon, our miracle kid who ran up to us. We taught him nearly four times and he was doing very well. We even found him a white shirt and tie for Sunday. But as Sunday arrived, his phone was turned off and he didn't show. Later in the day we called him and his Dad told us he wanted to slow it down. It was hard for us to hear but we will give him another call in a week or so. I know Leon is amazing and he will turn it around! 

On Sunday we had two appointments fall through, while also having Leon drop us, so I started to get frustrated, but while walking through the bus station Kirsty ran us down and said "I'm back from Ireland!" This was while she was sitting there with her friends who were mocking her for talking to "Bible People." She was not phased and was excited to see us. She said she was headed to Liverpool for two days then would be back. She said "text me Wednesday and I'll see you then!" It was such a tender mercy for us that we needed.

That's one of the biggest lessons I have learned here in Rhyl. God is in control. We do not know what is in store or what will happen in a week. All things are done in wisdom. I have seen it again and again. I will get a little bit down or frustrated, wondering why no one will listen. Then BAM...we see a miracle. I have learned bit by bit how patience is necessary in missionary work. It has taught me to put away my "time-table" and have faith in the Lord's.  

This past week we were able to be at a tea appointment with an older couple in the ward. They went on about the history of the church in this area. I was amazed at all the events that have occurred here. The first church in Northern Wales was in Abergele, (which is where we found Kirsty). Dan Jones and John Taylor were there preaching. And in the town just 10 minutes away, Rhuddlan, they used to ring a bell in the town centre to have everyone come out and listen to the missionaries. It brought back the rush of excitement I felt as I read about the history of our mission in our binder at the beginning of my stay in the Preston MTC.  I truly am grateful to be apart of the EMM (England Manchester Mission), and to continue in adding to the history.

Yes, we did get to watch the Royal Wedding! It was quite the event. We watched it at the home of a less active Bonnie and Martin. There have been flags and banners everywhere for the past couple of weeks. It was exciting to be over here for the event, something I will remember for awhile!

Tonight we have Dinner with a member of the Area Seventy, Elder Donaldson. He is a member of the Rhyl ward and has just gotten back into town. So that will be exciting!

I wont be able to Skype this time, but I will call you around 3:00 over here, which will be about 9:00 am over there.

Talk to you soon!

LOVE,

Elder Eliason

THANK YOU FOR THE CARDS! did you get a deal on the big size cards? I like it. Whats next... poster size? All I need is a poster size card of Dallin flexin it at the gym. That will give me the will power to workout.