WEEK SIXTEEN: President Nelson!

(Tyson is on the right 2nd from the end in the yellow tie....This is the whole Leeds Mission gathered for the Conference with President Nelson.  I sent the picture to Tyson and he sent me back the following notes about it.  He was grateful to get it because they hadn't received it....
Elder Klingler is our other Zone Leader and is to the right of Elder Rhea in the picture. The Assistants to the President are in the centre on the very bottom. They are Elders Dobbs and Jackson. You can see the White of their shirts more than the others. If you go up one from Sister Turvey and left 6 you will see an Elder with a red tie standing. He is Elder Leavitt and is a good Elder. 6 more to the left is his companion Elder McTavish who I like as well. If you go one to the right of Elder Tuita, you can see the face of Elder Poggeman popping up over that Elder's head. It was so good to see him again as well.

Brother Turley in our ward has a sister and her husband who are serving as a senior couple in the Leeds Mission.  They had this picture of President Nelson with President and Sister Turvey.

There were some definite highlights this week as well as some things I should probably mention regardless of what I thought of them.

First things first, I played my first game of football last P-day!! It was so insanely fun! I loved it and it made me so happy to do this. I don't get the chance to play tons since Elder Buckhoff really wants to spend P-day emailing the whole time since he has lots to send. I relished the opportunity to play football. It was indoor, but still great. My touch wasn't that good, but I don't care.

We taught these two new investigators named Renata and Robo and it was so amazing. We had the Spirit and taught together so well. I felt seriously accomplished after that lesson. Not to worry, I had other lessons that reopened my eyes. It was a miracle we found them again because they had moved and changed phone numbers, so it was seriously unlikely that we would find them, but we saw them on the street the day we planned to meet with them and I know the Lord was behind it.

Also, I had Sister Crowley's pizza this week and that was amazing. It was so good and so plentiful! There were 6 pizzas and 5 people. That was amazing. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and ruined all the work I had put towards dropping my weight back to normal. But it was easily worth
it. Other food stories, I made crepes this week and they turned out great! Thanks Grandma for teaching us how to do That! I also made poppyseed chicken and that was nice to taste home, but it didn't turn out quite right.

I went on exchange with Elder Peck and that was a blast. He is such a great Elder and the Spirit is so strong when he talks. He was telling me about how he wished he could have a better approach at talking to people on the street. He walks up and says "when can we talk with you
about God". It is very direct and they understand what he wants. I saw miracles with finding people who want to learn. He talked to everyone and the Lord qualified his efforts. We challenged this man to be baptized if he finds out the truth. He agreed. I really like him. He is starting his family and he is really wanting to find out more about God to lead them right. In general I had a blast with Elder Peck for another day.

I learned a lesson this Friday about being prepared. We were told by President recently that they would change the cleaning checkups to be in random Friday's with no warning and this would help us always be clean. Our flat is clean, but isn't sparkling. The punishment if you don't pass is that you spend p day cleaning and don't get to shop or email. On Friday, we were finishing our exchange so the other elders' stuff was sitting out and made our flat look more cluttered. We hear a knock and look out and see the people in charge of cleaning checks. We passed, but the heart wrenching fear that gripped us when we looked out to see them through the windows was remarkable. I learned that much like in life, if we are always prepared, we have nothing to fear.
One day, we will die, and we will have to face God at the judgement bar and account for our actions. We will all make mistakes, just like our flat will get dirty as we live in it, but as we repent daily and always remember that we can change and improve through the Atonement
of Christ, we are able to keep our flat clean so that when we have an accounting, we will pass. This is the goal of our life. We need to keep ourselves ready at all times to face our God. He loves us and wants us to return to Him, but we have to make choices that will allow this to happen. I remember a scripture that talks about not wanting to stand before God at judgement if we don't repent because our guilt and shame will make us want to hide before him. It is sad to think that we would want to hide from our loving Father, but if we are guilty, it will be like that. The actual scripture is Alma 12: 12-15. I love it.

The next day we met President Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He is an amazing man and being in his presence lets me know that he is truly a servant of God. He spoke to us and gave us some wonderful promises, but what stuck out the most to me was that he asked us to remember the blessing of obedience. That struck me that obedience really is a blessing. Sometimes, we feel it is a burden to follow the commandments of God. But I know that our obeying God is really helping us to be safe and happy in life. I learned lots from the other leaders of our church who attended but most of it helped me to know how I could better fulfill my calling as a missionary. It was amazing to see how my questions were answered very specifically.

The other highlight I had this week came at church. Our branch struggles with having members who follow the commandments. Many of them lie to us about changing until they are baptized and then go back to their old habits. It is sad to see. It sometimes feels as if the work we do is not accomplishing anything because of this. But, this Sunday, we were able to listen to one new member speak. Her name is Katka and she used to have a really rough life. She was in a
relationship with a man in Slovakia who was in the mafia. She got into some really bad stuff through this such as addiction to cocaine and several other hard drugs. She found her partner hung one day. He had killed himself and she tried to save him, but was too late. She had no
confidence or happiness in life. She did not want to listen to us, but after a while of her father Milan asking her, she agreed to listen. She read the Book of Mormon and she felt the love of her Father in Heaven reach out and surround her. She began to find comfort and peace in reading and read more frequently. She gained a testimony that this is the true church of God as restored through the prophet Joseph Smith. She now serves in the Relief Society and helps people and has changed her life so much. She has quit all the drugs she was addicted to and has stopped smoking and drinking as well and continually changes her life to better follow Christ. Listening to her speak helped me see that if all the work we do comes to nothing except that we helped Katka change to follow the Savior, than it will all be worth it. I was glad for the week I had and the uplifting moments that came with it.

WEEK FIFTEEN: Being Humbled

 A couple pictures of their apartment.  Not bad!!  Tyson's bed has the brown blanket.  His companion has the dresser (looks just like the ones I grew up with :) and he says his stuff is across the room.  I thought it was interesting how they have two small refrigerators stacked on top of each other.  He said they also have a freezer.

Well, this week was a good one, but we had our ups and downs, didn't we?

We began the week with meeting with some great people who were recently baptized. That is Justin and Patricia. Justin is a funny little dude. He is part deaf and has a hearing aid, but he is fun to teach and gets me laughing. He is super nice to his little sister Nancy, even though she can be right nasty some times. Also, I found out he is a Bruce Lee fan so we showed him the Bruce Lee Ab workout we have and he was in heaven. He started immediately and the next time we were there he showed us his progress and was so proud. He also doesn't get the concept of pointing at someone's shirt to make them look and then flicking their nose. We did that once, and he has been trying ever since. He will point at something on a wall across the room and have me look and then will flick my nose if I do. We tried explaining, but he doesn't get it.

I went on an exchange this week with the Polish elders. This means that I was all by myself with Elder Larson in an area where the people only know Slovak. That was a challenge, let me tell you. We are two of the newest elders and both don't know the language that well and he doesn't even know the right language. They only understand some Polish. So that was an adventure. We got stiffed by tons of people and did lots of walking that day. I quite enjoyed it and I think he did as well. This week I am going on exchange with Elder Peck! That's going to be a blast!

The next exciting thing that happened was when we went to visit some people who are struggling in their faith with Brother Nettleship. That was so great. Brother Nettleship is one of the greatest men you will find and we all love him. The best thing is that the Slovaks do as well. The people who normally would not let us in allowed us to come and teach since he was with us. He bore some strong testimony of the truth and touched the hearts of everyone we visited that night. We visited the previous branch president who has stopped coming to church and it was one of the best meetings with him we have had in a long time.

A man named Milan also told us about Communism in Slovakia this week. That was fun. He had some great experiences about declaring his belief in God even knowing that he would be beat and thrown in prison for it. He always told them that it would end and they would be free so he supported his beliefs. I was so proud of him. Despite all this, he has fond memories of communism. He told us about his job during the time. He would plant small trees. He describes them with such care and tenderness it is hilarious. He was very passionate about this work and is so sad that he can't do it here in England.

The bumps: The bumps in the road this week were mainly related to the language. I was told on our exchange that my Slovak is really bad... 

Any ways, I suffered several more blows to confidence this week. My companion has been pretty up front this week on how I can improve. It stung a little. One that hurt the most was when he said that I really needed to step up my teaching in the lessons and to stop asking questions about words because it makes the investigators confused on if I know what I am saying and they will doubt the message. I have learned a lot about taking advice humbly this week.  

To add some salt to the wound, we watched conference in Czech and even though they are insanely close languages, I barely understood anything and it made me sad. I was

feeling pretty down, but then I took a moment to say a heartfelt prayer and reach out to my Father in Heaven. I was so comforted in that moment that it made everything alright. I knew I would be able to communicate and do my calling as a missionary. 

Later that day, a man only wanted to argue, but I felt impressed to share my testimony of the Book of Mormon with him when he finally let us speak. Before, things felt wrong and contentious, but after, he was willing to listen and the Spirit testified it was true. We were able to share a quick video to help him with a concern he had in life and it was good for him. I knew this was God telling me that my limited language skills were enough to bring the blessings of the gospel to the lives of the people here if I listen to the Spirit.

All in all, the week was good.

Love you all,

WEEK FOURTEEN: Getting More Comfortable

This week was a great one in the books. I wrote down all the miracles that happened, but I forgot to go over them before I wrote this so I will do my best to remember a few.

Elder Rhea, our zone leader and a great missionary who used to be part of our Slovak unit, asked us to check up on a previous investigator that he had taught. His name was Diones. He told us his address. We went there and it was not Diones. It was just some random Czech family who decided to give it a try and let us teach them about our church.  We met with them and they are very religious and have a great knowledge of the Bible. This is good because many Roma people don't have any knowledge of the gospel and therefore they don't see how having a belief in God will help. It was a miracle to meet with them and have them want to learn.

Another miracle was that our investigator Alex has finally started to change. He is so great and is a good friend of all of us, but he doesn't have motivation to do anything. In the past, he has always wanted to stop smoking but doesn't think he can. He knows what he should do, but doesn't do it. This week something changed. We fasted this week and I know that this effected this. He is happy and willing to make changes. He is making a plan to stop smoking which he would never do before. The change in him is so easy to see and I hope it continues.

Also, we had two people see us and tell us that they want us to teach them. That was unique. Usually, we introduce ourselves and ask if they want to learn, but they just went for it.

I have also seen miracles with my language. I have been improving and trying to dedicate myself more so I can receive heaven's help. It is amazing to see how much better I can understand and speak. People are so amazed when we tell them how long we have studied the language. It shouldn't be possible to learn as quick as we do, but it happens.

Also, in my personal studies, I have seen how the Lord will bless our efforts if we are willing to act. As I have asked specific questions in prayer and studied and tried to apply the scriptures to my life,
the Lord blesses me with so much knowledge so my questions are answered.

I have been getting more comfortable here and as I have focused on my perspective and keeping it trained on seeing the blessings, I have felt at home and like I am making friends.

I love you all and miss you,
Elder Pace

WEEK THIRTEEN: Conference from "Across the Pond"

Pictures:  a Sunrise; the fish and chips from their adventure and Elder Leavitt (?) trying jello for the first time!

This week was a great one if I will be honest, but we did have some bumps in the road.

Monday- Today we had some serious email time at a chapel and tried playing some basketball with a terribly deflated football (soccer ball). It was reasonably successful as long as we played horse. I got
beat a few times. We taught a few people that were recent converts in the evening. They are super good people and still have a testimony of the truth, but they are struggling to stay away from temptations. It is really sad to see. Peter and Rastio are really starting to make some progress though and I hope they will be able to get over their issues soon.

Tuesday- Today we had tons of lessons planned and we were going to see lots of people and it was going to be great. We then remembered that we had to prepare for our baptism on Friday for Jenny and wanted to be done with things ahead of time so we don't have to stress out like we did last week. So that really killed our time. Also, people were not available to meet with us when we were there. So we talked to lots of people and walked all over Eastwood. We then went to teach our self-reliance class. It was interesting. The Branch President just talked about how they need to be proactive in doing the self-reliance activity he has created. He gave them all a schedule. I got some practice translating, though, so that was good.

Wednesday- We met with our district today and with our branch mission leader, Brother Whitehouse. The meetings were great and we have again emphasized raising our standards so we aren't simply living by the rules, we are exemplifying them. It is good. We then got to meet with some new young members of our branch. They are Martina and Martin and they are super nice. Their dad is not the best and it is sad to see. We also met with Peter again and he is making some great progress. He is really humbling himself and I think he is starting to have desire to come back to church.

Thursday- Today was a regular day. We met with some people who are struggling in their faith, and also with Jenny to prepare her for her baptism. We also finished translating some mission papers into Slovak since we have to give them to our investigators. By "we" I mean Elder Buckhoff. My vocab is not that advanced yet. Neither is my understanding of grammar.  We have tried personalizing our messages to people more that way they are able to really apply the principles of the gospel. This way, the joy will enter their lives and they will gain a testimony it is true.

Friday- This morning, I listened to Elder Uchtdorf's address in the general women's session of conference entitled "Fourth Floor, Last Door". It was amazing and talked lots about faith and perseverance. I was on exchange with Elder Armstrong as well as Elder Barber who is an English Elder. He was with us because all of our companions were in Leeds for the day at the same meeting. We had only a small amount of time and lots of people we wanted to see, so we gave up most of our lunchtime.  We only ended up meeting with two people in the space of four hours. No one would answer. The few people who did answer were unable to meet with us. It was disappointing. We did lots of walking and lots of talking to people on the way, but not much success at meeting with people. We had our baptism which ended up being a no go. An hour before, we finally get ahold of the person getting baptised to let her know some things she needs to bring and she tells us she doesn't want to do it anymore. We talked to her about it, but she got real mad and we just said we would stop by sometime later to talk more. We then rushed to call all of the people who were helping with rides or the program or refreshments and let them all know. So that happened...

Saturday- We had to do some iPad training and weekly planning and studies and then watched general conference, but only the Saturday AM session. The strangest feeling was watching at 5pm knowing that my family was probably just waking up and making breakfast for the conference time. It was probably really warm and sunny and in England it was dark and rainy and it tripped me out to think of that happening across the pond. Afterwards, we went back and studied the language and then went on an excursion to find some fish-n-chips for dinner. Man that was nice. We put the address in the sat-nav (gps) and started the adventure. The GPS was really confusing and took us all over the place and it was dark and Elder Peck is still a new driver. The English roads are really skinny and that makes it interesting. We ended up on some backroad of dirt with cornfields on either side and no light whatsoever. We were about to go back and then we found a really classy fish-n-chip shop which was surprising. Most of the time, it is a sketchy shack-like building and you just hope. This was really good though. We felt so English.

Sunday- We had church, and then I watched six straight hours of general conference which was so spiritually uplifting, but also I burned out a little the last 30 minutes. I missed the first part of
the Sat PM session and we didn't get to watch the Sun PM session since that would go from 9-11 pm in England and that is against the rules. We will have to watch it some other time. It was so good to hear from our prophet and hear the words that he chose to share with us. He is supported by the Lord I know it and hearing from the apostles helped me feel the Spirit. They are all men of God and share his words with us. I am so grateful for what they do.

I love you all and I would encourage anyone that has questions or struggles or concerns in life about anything to watch general conference. The words are inspired. They are from God and carry his
message to us. They will lift us, answer our questions, and heal us.

Elder Pace

P.S.  We are having a mission conference on the 22nd of October and there will be many church leaders present. Elder Nelson, Elder Kearon, Bishop Causse, Elder Hallstrom, and Elder Sabin will all be coming. I am stoked!

WEEK TWELVE: Baptism!

First things first, this week I was supposed to play some soccer with
the branch but due to a last minute time change I was unable to
participate. It was a let down for sure. Another let down so far has
been the chocolate milk. I have tried a few varieties of mixes and all
have been poor quality. On the bright side, I have found that nesquick
exists here and I will probably get that before long.

We didn't have tons of time to do normal missionary work this week
because of some abnormal circumstances. First one, was the language conference in Leeds. President Turvey wanted to meet with all language speakers in the mission to see how he could more effectively use us.  There were Portuguese elders, Mandarin, Slovak, and Polish all there.

It was an amazing meeting. I learned a ton about how I can improve my
study of the language and it is always a privilege to be with President and Sister Turvey. They are so loving and at the same time expect a lot from us. This is great and they really encourage us to evaluate how we are personally and make improvement that way rather than telling all these rules that are all you have to live by. 

I was so excited to go to Leeds. We went there on the train and I loved
looking out he side of the window so that I could see the countryside
as well as the last bits of the sunrise. It was amazing and so beautiful. I tried talking to the people around since it was a long ride and I needed to do something, but English people are not very fond of talking to strangers. Their moms taught them well as kids.

When we were in Leeds, I saw a man wearing a kilt and playing the bagpipes. It was the coolest. I wanted a picture with him, but we were on a time schedule. What a shame.  Because of travel time, that took almost the entire day. We didn't get to do much after.

On Wednesday, we had district meeting in the morning, followed by
branch coordination followed by prepping stuff for our baptism on
Friday and then had a dinner appointment (called a "tea"ching
appointment here). We had no time whatsoever on that day. 

On the plus side, we received some really amazing advice at our district meeting.  President Turvey reminded us that as missionaries we represent Jesus Christ. He then asked us to evaluate our language and what music we listen to. This was great for everyone. Some people have adopted the English culture too much. Some of the swear words from America are not here and we were encouraged to reflect on this since some have started using them. Also, this applied to everyone since he also invited us to reevaluate our use of the substitute words like "freak, flip, shoot,dang, etc." This was good for us all since most of us have adopted the English sayings like flippin heck! We have, as a district decided to
eliminate these and strive to use more uplifting words to compliment
rather than tear down or degrade. We are all evaluating our music and
trying to see if it is in accordance with a calling as a servant of the Lord. Luckily, all I have for music is Mormom tabernacle choir and
some BYU choir and that is fine in my opinion. 

We then went to our coordination meeting with Brother Whitehouse who is hilarious and has a super thick Yorkshire accent. He fed us potatoes and chili which was really good. Dinner with the Nettleships is always a highlight of my week.

We had a baptism today as I sort of mentioned. It was for Patricia
Gulyasova and Justin Balog who are mother and son. It was a great
service but super stressful for us to put together. We were stressed
for time and also had a hard time getting everybody there. We filled a
giant pot with water and heated it and then poured it in the font. It was so funny watching Elder Peck and I carry it through the hall. I will try to send a pic for you of the pot.

Also, we had transfer calls this week. This was a super fun, but sad
time in the mission. One of the zone leaders who lives above me is
leaving for Hull. His name is Elder Candia and he is great. He has
been super fun and welcoming. He bought me a kebab which was actually not bad. Also, Elder Poggemon got transferred out of the district and zone which never happens for Slovaks. In the past, the Slovak elders have all stayed in Sheffield 4 where the branch is, but after the language meeting, they are sending one to Leeds to have an English companion and search for Slovaks there and see what the potential is.That Elder is Elder Poggemon. It was crazy to hear that. It will be sad to see him go. Also, Elder Rhea is now a zone leader so he won't be doing as much with the Slovaks. Elder Rhea stays in our area and will now live above me. Sadly, Elder Peck has a new trainer and he
took that a little hard. He will be with Elder Armstrong, the other
Slovak elder. So now we have 4 Slovak elders in our branch which means that I might have to translate soon. That's scary.

That's all the crazy stuff for this week. I gained about 10 pounds
which was a shock. I am going to lay off the sandwiches and crackers
this week and try to get it back under control. I feel like I got it though.

I met someone this week named Rainbow David Dove. He thinks he
controls the weather and is a prophet and he alone can save the world.
Quite the character. He gave me a sticker of a butterfly and also
tells us "you're welcome" whenever the sun is out. He is pretty funny.

We have one family investigating that I am really excited about. Andre
and Monika. They are really searching for truth and want to come
closer to Christ. They are excited and don't smoke or drink which is
amazing for us. They have a car so they can come to church and he
doesn't work on Sunday. It is amazing.

I am getting better at Slovak, but I still don't understand a lot.

Love you all,
Elder Pace