Two Years to Write My Own History with Clarity, without Regret

Visiting the Ashton 1st Ward Bishop and family from my last area.

Attending our recent Zone Leader Council

Elder Cunningham and me on the bridge of the River Ribble, where the first baptisms in England were performed. 

Elder Cunningham gets up and close with a ram or ewe?

Dear Family!

Wow! So much is going on in the Eliason home...and it's good to hear! I love the updates! Tell Connor congrats on the football news. I remember wishing that I had played football at Ford Middle School, such a good choice! He’ll be in tip-top shape come basketball season...

As well with the Duke ACT invitation! Wow. I didn’t realize he scored a 100% on all of his TAKS testing...stud!  Keep up the good work!

As for my week...

We had the Church History Tour this past Wednesday and were picked up at the Liverpool chapel by a massive coach bus. We started with the Liverpool Docks, toured the museum and looked at the church monument that was given to Liverpool signifying the leaving of many people for America.

During the entire tour we had a man who is good friends with the President teach us about all the sites, who I found out was the man that I sat next to in the temple on Monday! He knew everything there is to know about UK church history. 

We then headed to Preston, and viewed the River Ribble, which is where the first baptisms were done and then on to Downham. I wish I could just explain all the things that we were taught while visiting those places! I will have to send you our church history packet that we received about it…

More importantly than just the information was the motivation that the tour gave me to continue to fulfill my missionary calling. I felt humbled as I walked in the steps of some of the early apostles and prophets. I could not help but feel grateful for their sacrifices and the mark that they made on this land.

It’s an amazing thing to think that all of us here are continuing to write that history. We have a lot to live up to but the organization is still the same. The Lord is at the head of this work and is leading us to His children just as He did to the missionaries here of old. It's an amazing thing to think that we are now continuing to write to that history! The Lord has given me two years to write. I know that I must write with clarity, and without regret!

The history is so rich here!  Everywhere I go!  Whether church history or just plain history!

Ahh! So many good things happening here in Chester!

This week we also have been teaching a couple from Scotland, Bianca and Richard. They have two kids and are so amazing! Richard expressed in our last lesson that he was able to pray specifically to know if the Book of Mormon was true, and that he received a unique witness that it indeed was! We taught them three times and even saw them come to church! It was definitely something new to them, but they commented how much they loved it, especially the friendliness of the members. We will be seeing them regularly this week, and are progressing very well!

This week we also have been spending a lot of time with Carol and her daughter Claire. We did some service for them by cleaning out a fish tank, and then taught them 4 times this week. They are doing well...it's just that Carol needs to work on giving up smoking. She is doing well in working on it and so we’ll see how it goes this week. 

Claire was able to spend an entire day with the young women (she’s 12) at a water park in Stoke-on-Trent. She loved it, and it was so key to have her go! She made some good friends and is really getting used to church.

It is such a blessing to be teaching families. They have immediate support groups and are able to do it as a family. So good!

This week we were also able to start on our "Member Efforts," which is a new system that we will be implementing into the mission in a couple of weeks. It is broken down into 5 sections:

1. Teaching in a Members Home : worth 10 points each

2. Service for Members : worth 5

3. Asking for Referrals: worth 2

4. Variety of Different Fellow shippers to Lessons : 5 each

5. Acts of Kindness: 2 each

The Zone Leaders for the mean time are "test-running" it. And let me tell you this week was filled with member work! 

We are to hit the standard of 100 points each week and Elder Cunningham and I were blessed to earn 106. The point system is to ensure accountability and drive missionaries to work with members. Well, it did just that this week!  Elder Cunningham and I loved doing some "acts of kindness" for the ward such as thank you cards and delivering treats. It's such a great way for us to give back to the members who do so much for us, while also knowing that their referrals are what we need to "earn"!

President Preston is bringing such a new spin to member work and it has gotten off to a great start! Again I cannot say enough of how grateful I am to learn from two Mission Presidents. They both are remarkable men and I just know that I am supposed to be here to learn from them!

Lots of Love,

Elder Eliason


New address:

54 Wemyss Road

Blacon

Chester

CH1 5PZ