Sunday, September 2, 2018

Tyson's Homecoming







Tyson shared his homecoming talk on the same day as Pearce Nally gave his farewell talk.  It was an amazing sacrament meeting.  Tyson shared a beautiful testimony of the Savior.  He shared a couple of  experiences he had with people in England but the feeling of love he had for the Savior and the growth of his testimony is what I remember feeling.  He did not go with what he had written down so I can't share his talk here but the Spirit was powerful from both he and Pearce that day.

We made an attempt to make Yorkshire pudding to have with a roast for his dinner and then we had a dessert bar on hand for some of his friends who came to visit with him that evening.

Elena, Nichole, Grandma, Nichole's kids (minus Ethan) and Rachel's boys all came to support Tyson along with McKay and McKell McIntyre.  It was a wonderful day.

Not sure if I posted the airport picture with the Turvey's but just in case....

Post Mission Joy



Elder Omoruyi, Tyson's last companion, (the tall missionary on the right) posted this picture of Fahad on his baptism day.  Tyson loved Fahad and he got to Skype in and be a part of his baptism long distance.

Tuesday, August 28, 2018

WELCOME HOME!






















Tyson came home July 18, 2018.  He was scheduled to arrive at 4:00 p.m. but his flight from Salt Lake to Phoenix was delayed over two hours!  Thankfully we knew he was traveling that part with high school buddy, Cameron Taylor, so he wouldn't be hanging out alone.

It was absolutely wonderful to have him come home.  Hugs were not quite comfortable for him but President Turvey's council to not hug at the airport was ringing in his ears.

We ate at a quick Mexican restaurant and then met President Hinton for his release.  President had just flown in himself and had two others to release so he only talked with Tyson.

Sunday, July 15, 2018

WEEK 103/104: Depressing Week





Shout out to the lads with the three lions. England has made it to the semi-finals of the world cup and will be playing against Croatia on Wednesday.

I honestly don't have much to say. I have been thinking about it for a little while and I still don't have anything. We got dropped by about four people this week. Other than that, nothing out of the ordinary happened. 

Have a great week,
Elder Pace

Not sure what these pictures are other than it looks like a soccer ball.  Sadly England lost to Croatia on Wednesday in overtime.  

Monday, July 2, 2018

WEEK 102/104: A Missionary's Greatest Joy

Happy 4th of July! We bought some rootbeer to celebrate. We are also going to make cookies and just go hard. We might even get 5 guys pizza which is super expensive over here. I love America

This week was my final fast and testimony meeting in England. Once a month, we fast (don't eat or drink for 24 hours) and the church service we have that day is called fast and testimony meeting. During that meeting, people have the opportunity to go to the stand and share their thoughts and feelings of how they have found or built their faith in Christ and to declare things that they know to be true. This is often a great chance to be strengthened in our own faith as we hear about how others feel the same way as us. 

This week was that meeting and it was really touching to me. Our friend Fahad came again. He is only 12 and is the only one of his family who comes to church. The rest of his family is either not religious or is of a different faith and they sometimes give him a hard time about going to church and believing this. Yesterday he unexpectedly got up in front of a congregation of roughly 110 people and told us he wanted to share how he has felt learning about this message. He briefly recounted his story of meeting the missionaries and told us how grateful he was that he can know about this. As members of the church that have these meetings monthly, we often fall into a routine of saying very similar things out of habit. Fahad doesn't have any of these preconceptions of what to say and his comments were totally based off his feeling. He spoke in the clearest way he could about how this gospel has changed his life and outlook and how it has brought a "giant ball of happiness" into his life. He talked about how much it is meant that he can be here now even though he is on his own. He shared about how as he keeps learning, he has felt more and more faith and has gotten his own relationship with God. Hearing him speak about how this changed him touched me and really got to me. If I spent 2 years here and did nothing except for this, it was worth it. Realizing how much Fahad will be changed by having found truth was a precious moment. No matter how tough some weeks were, I would never ever stop that knowing that it will mean this much to even one person. It was one of the happiest times of my mission.

Love you all,
Elder Pace

I never answered your questions from this last week. We have a few people that we teach. We teach a lad called Fahad who is 12. He is so cool and is a really great friend. We also teach a man called Danny. He is English and has been doing great. We have known him for about a month. He likes snowboarding and Japanese. We also are teaching two lads who are about our age called Chris and Hadrian. We just met them this week. Another person We are teaching is an older lady called Maurine. She is probably the most open old person I have met. Most of them are too set in what they have been doing for their lives to change. 

Elder Omoruyi is my companion. He is really funny and is a nice guy. He does really well at helping people see what they do good. He highlights their best skills and traits which is so good. We find by street contacting and knocking. Nothing too crazy. Members here have done great at being friends to the people we teach. They are welcoming and helpful in relating to them and strengthening them. They don't do too much finding. I think it is extremely hard to get a ward excited to find people to teach. Every so often It happens but in my experience it isn't that common

Monday, June 25, 2018

WEEK 101/104: Charity




This week we had to do a deep clean and we spent a solid 5 hours cleaning the flat. It was brutal. Our flat wasn't even that dirty. It just is sparkling now.

Also this week, we got to do some service. That was really fun.  We spent a few hours helping people sort out their front gardens. And can't send this email without giving England a shout out! They won their world cup match 6-1 and are looking good going to their upcoming match with Belgium.

This week at church we had ward conference and they taught us about charity. The point was made in our lesson that charity is more a state of being rather than what you do. When you have charity, you have become more like Christ. It is your character. It is something that shows itself in how we think and act. And it comes through earnest prayer in behalf of others. It comes through consistently choosing to give our attention to others especially when we have needs of our own. That is something we all need to develop. I think if we try our best this week to recognise when we are thinking of ourselves and choose to help someone around us who could use a boost, we will all move more toward becoming charitable and making the world better.

Love you all,
Elder Pace 

Monday, June 18, 2018

WEEK 100: Peak District









We went to the peak district which is a huge area of hiking basically. It has some nice views. We went as a district and got some good pictures so I can send those in. It has taken me an entire year of being in the Sheffield Zone for me to get there.

This week was zone conference and it was good. We had fun and got to see a bunch of the lads. I learned a lot but the biggest thing was about repentance. We talked of ways that we can repent ourselves. 

To repent essentially means to change ourselves with the help of Christ to become more like Him. It is a rewarding process. As we talked about how we can repent and change ourselves through sincere and earnest personal prayer and consistent effort, it made me realize how much that can mean in our lives. Sometimes we feel stuck in a corner. Sometimes we feel like we just aren't moving forward. Other times we may not think that we have the strength to make new better habits. But through it all Christ patiently waits until we are ready to turn to Him. He is perfect at changing people. He never fails. He always opens doors and fills lives with hope. No matter what our life is like or who we are, we can all repent. We simply recognize something that should change to bring us closer to Christ and allow our remorse to lead us to ask for forgiveness. We also ask for strength to never go back. I know each of us can feel greater hope and become a better person this week as we willingly choose to repent.

Love you all,
Elder Pace 

Side note from his letter to me:

Yes We do have Fathers Day here. It's the same day as well. It was a nice service on Sunday except that Fahad brought his dog which we had to manage out in the foyer! That was a bit of excitement.