"Be loyal to the royal that is within you." -- Elaine S. Dalton

Dear Family,

Wow, I got to hear from just about all of you this week! You are all doing so great! As you can see I am coming to you a bit later than usual, that is because this week is transfers! But the good news is that I and Elder Cunningham will be staying together for another! That makes 3 transfers together. More than any other I have had. Don't change what's going good, right? 

This week was packed, and we finished off with conference. Honestly, there is not many things that you look forward to more as a missionary than Conference. We get to watch all the sessions but the afternoon Sunday session. We watch Saturday morning here on Saturday evening. And then Sunday morning we start with the recorded session of Priesthood, and then watch Saturday Afternoon, then Sunday Morning, so its Conference all the day long. Smashing.  

The only unfortunate thing was that we could not get any of our investigators a lift to the chapel. Most of the families stayed at home and watched it.  

Updates:

Lorna:

Well as I said, nobody was able to make it to Conference but that didn't stop Lorna. On her iPad she watched every single session that she could (including the Relief Society broadcast). When I asked over the phone how she enjoyed it, she said, "Oh marvelous darling, it was marvelous." Haha. She is just the best and is doing so well! As you can see she is just so pro-active and ready for baptism! This week we taught the Word of Wisdom and she just knew it to be true and loved it. She then asked, "What else do I have to do? Do I have to memorize anything? If so what is it?"  Haha. We reassured her that there is no memorization needed. But as you can tell, she is doing very very well. She is set to be baptised in two weeks. 

Rowell:

Now Rowell is someone that I don't think you know about. A little background on him... he has been taught for the past 3 years. He is Filipino and married a member of the church. His sister is also a member. But he has been in a stand still for quite awhile. Elder Cunningham and I saw him once before he left for vacation, and committed him to read and study the Book of Mormon while he was gone. 

Well he came back and we saw him last Friday. He informed us that he woke up early every morning and read and prayed over the Book of Mormon. He said that he knew it was true, with real conviction he shared how his prayers were answered. And so he set his day to be baptised. It is this Saturday, the 8th!  It is such good news for their family, and most of all for Rowell, he is excited, and ready! 

Nicky:

Nicky has been doing well, we have seen her four times since I last emailed, and so many things have been covered. The most trying lesson was yesterday, when we taught her the Word of Wisdom. She didn't handle it as well as we had thought. With her non-existent background in God it was hard for her to connect that the Word of Wisdom comes from God, and is not something that just was made up. The good thing is she knows that the Book of Mormon is true. And so we re-emphasized how that is evidence of Joseph Smith, which leads to the Word of Wisdom. 

She has had some sicknesses in her life, and so she feels mad at God for the way that she is, she then went on to say that she didn't feel that God loved her. And that was a blow, because of  how untrue that is! If there is one thing that I do know,  is that God loves his children. 

We did all we could to help her to understand, but in all reality, we can't. She must be willing to ask the question: How has God shown me that he loves me? She needs to pray and find that out! And so we committed her to pray about the Word of Wisdom, and to seek ways that she has seen the love of God. 

To be honest it was a great lesson. She needs faith building experiences that will fortify her testimony. She still loves having us around and will be coming to church this weekend. In our next lesson we will give her the talk "Broken Things to Mend" by Jeffrey R. Holland. Look it up... it is a powerful talk to those who are struggling.  It will be perfect for her.

Richard and Bianca:

They are doing very well, lessons continue to be smooth, and they are keeping commitments. Bianca is in Alma, and Richard is on the 4th disc of the Book of Mormon on CD.  Everything has just about been taught, all they need to do is get married! They are working towards the end of this month to have it.

This week we have had a lot of interaction with "Gypsies" or "Travelers." We had a couple pull up in a van, and ask us what we were doing. Long story short we taught them on the spot and soon came to found out that they believe in great morals. They live the Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity. It was something that drew them to our message. It was quite interesting to ask them about a Gypsy lifestyle..

We also received a referral from a missionary who served here last year, who baptised a Gypsy and was teaching his family. So we headed down to their site in Wrexham and talked to his wife. She said, that he was going through a hard time, but would love to see us again. She also said that she would be interested in taking the lessons again...

We went to Rhyl to watch the sessions of Conference because Chester doesn't have a satellite. It was so great to see some of the members and to see how they were doing.

During the break between session of Conference, Elder Cunningham and I were part of a great miracle...  While street contacting the Rhyl bridge we contacted a girl from Hong Kong. We soon found out she was a Christian, and had even been to the temple we have in Hong Kong. We asked if we could walk back to the church to teach her. She agreed. Elder Jin, who is serving right next to Rhyl was there, and so we grabbed him, and taught her! She was amazing, and has only been in the country for one month.  

It was just the best feeling to have heard many talks on the blessings of missionary work, and then to go out and experience something like that...just made me so proud to be a missionary.  

I took a lot from Conference, but my time is short...

But can I tell you that I loved Elaine S. Dalton's talk! Wow, how powerful that was... I loved her quote, "Be loyal to the royal that is within you." As a holder of that Royal Priesthood, it really hit home. It is a sacred responsibility to bear His priesthood, and I know that as long as I am loyal to it, I will be worthy of power needed to bless his children.

Have a great week!

Love, Elder Eliason