Sunday, June 25, 2017

Closing of the Slovak Branch

I think this picture was actually at a baptism!





It was sad to have the ending of the Slovak branch but it was fun to see these picture pop up on Facebook from the faithful sisters who have served in the branch with their husbands.

Saturday, June 24, 2017

WEEK 50: Baptism in Leeds





Jason's baptism; a sunny day; his first finished journal; the last page!  It appears he wrote his entries in Slovak!  Quite an accomplishment!  It also appears he was writing a Father's Day letter which waa fun to see since it hasn't arrived yet.

Jason was able to meet his goal to be baptized! It was so exciting. He is a real guy and I hope that I get to be working with him a lot in the future.

I had an exchange with Elder Buckhoff this week! That was super cool.  Even though we were working in a predominately English speaking area, we managed to find a pocket of Slovaks entirely by accident and we
ended up spending the whole day talking with Slovaks. It was great to be with him now that I am not as stubborn as I used to be. It was great to spend that time with Elder Buckhoff my mission dad.

I have been working on not complaining as much this week. It's amazing how much you actually complain if you take time to think about it. I never realized.

As well, thus week taught me that the Lord answers prayers. Even though I already knew this, it was confirmed to me this week as I had lots of questions answered!

Love you all and a Happy Father's Day to everyone,

Elder Pace

Note:  None of us would describe Tyson as stubborn or as a complainer so either he's developed new traits or has become more sensitive to inner qualities that he never expressed before!

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Tyson's Zone


Elder Peck had this picture of their zone with his letter this week.  Thought I would include it for Tyson.

Monday, June 12, 2017

WEEK 49: Field Trip to Temple Newsam





















Where they went on their field trip:  Temple Newsam is one of the great historic estates in England. Set within over 1500 acres of parkland, woodland and farmland landscaped by Capability Brown in the 18th century, it is a magnificent Tudor Jacobean mansion. Famous as the birthplace of Lord Darnley and home to the Ingram family for over 300 years, the mansion houses rich collections of works of art. Over one million objects collected since 1819 give us all insights into the evolving natural world, human history and culture of Leeds.

The garden is renowned for its Rhododendron and Azalea walk and features the National Plant Collections of Delphinium, Phlox and Aster novi belgii. One of Europe's largest working Rare Breeds Farm, with over 400 animals, is set within the original estate Home Farm. Plus the botany collection includes 1000s of mounted plant specimens and seeds, as well as dried fungus, mosses and lichen and the new Museum to Meadow project makes it all more accessible to the public than ever before.
Not much time this week. We took a trip for P-day. This week was great, but Jason wasn't able to make it to church this week. He is still excited for his baptism and we are excited for him.

We had some great visits from Elder Rhea and his companion Elder Thompson. They are both so great and they talked to us about learning to control our desires and follow the will of the Lord. It was pretty interesting and they had some really good thoughts.

We had zone conference this week. It was amazing and we got to connect all of the Slovak speakers together again. That was fun. I have loved my time here and what has really stood out to me is that God is always
preparing us for life with him. He is always allowing us to pass through trial because it will let us show ourselves and force us to decide if we want to follow him or if we want to follow our own thoughts. Sometimes it is hard, but with prayer and an invested study of the scriptures, we will always come out changed from the better. And we will understand why God allowed us to have that experience.  Keep it up to anyone that is struggling.

Love you all,
Elder Pace

Thursday, June 8, 2017

WEEK 48: Hello Leeds!

I have loved my first week up here in Leeds. The district I am in is awesome. I got to spend a day with Elder Rhea and learned so much. He really set the pace for our area. Things have been booming. We are finding tons of people and trying to help them all to grow closer to
Christ. We cleaned our flat for about 6 hours today. No joke. Sister
Turvey gave us a list of everything to do and it took forever. It was
for everyone though, not just us. We have one of the biggest flats in
the mission though. My new Companion is Elder Rex and he is a crazy good missionary. The more I am with him, the more I learn. He is so excited to do the Lord's work. The funniest thing he said this week
was about Elder Rhea. "Elder Rhea is the kind of person that keeps
Satan up at night". And to be fair, watching him work in Hare Hills,
where we spend our time, it was pretty true. He talks to everyone and
they all feel the light that he has. It is so cool to see the responses he gets.

The ward is super cool. We have some Romanian members, some Portuguese members, some English members, and some Brazilian members. One of my favorites is a guy named Max who is from Zimbabwe. He is hilarious and
super nice.

I made a new friend this week. His name is Jason. He is planning on
being baptized the 16th of June. He is so ready. He is super nice and
I have liked meeting with him this week.

Love you all,
Elder Pace

Found out from Elder Peck's letter there has been an outbreak of bed bugs in the county so that's why they all had a long and detailed cleaning assignment today.

He lost six pounds this week.  Elder Peck said "Elder Peck hit the ground running as a district leader" so I figured it was pretty literal and he has been running around more than usual but Scott said it's because he wasn't taking time to eat so that's not good!  Hopefully he'll fix that this week!

Friday, June 2, 2017

WEEK 47: Good-bye Sheffield







I got the call on Saturday that I am actually leaving Sheffield 4 branch. After 9 complete months in this branch, I am going to Leeds. I will be with Elder Rex who is great. He doesn't know Slovak, so we will be doing part English work and part Slovak work. Anything in Slovak will be translated by me. And I am going to be a district leader (a missionary in charge of helping and instructing a small group of missionaries called a district). There are 8 missionaries in my district. I will meet them tomorrow. I am kind of nervous to be honest. I feel like I am leaving my home again. I have not been out of Sheffield for a whole day ever.

But, this last week was good. Elder Campbell lost his second badge at
the Chapel when we played basketball one morning with the Assistants so he was borrowing one of mine all week. He funny thing was that only one person noticed. Miroslav couldn't come to church because he was going to a doctor appointment about a potential hernia and he was hurting pretty bad. But I hope that while I am gone he will keep moving forward and keep giving this new lifestyle a try. It is so
worth it. Every thing that we give up as members of this church doesn't come close to the blessings we feel from it. I'm so glad that I will have the chance to try stepping out of my comfort zone a bit more to be a district leader in Leeds.

And the most exciting news is that today, Katka is going through the
temple. Elder Poggemann and Elder Armstrong are doing with her to translate and to answer any questions she has. I'm so excited for her.

This week I gave a talk in church. It really helped me to see how much
the Book of Mormon has blessed me. If any person will spend 20 minutes
studying it each day and pray with a sincere question, they will find
an answer to the question. They will be happier and they will understand more how much God loves them. That has been true for me.

Love you,

Elder Pace

(Thanks to Facebook, I have a picture of Katka with Elders Poggeman and Armstrong and other ward leadership!)



A sister from the branch (the lady in white on the back row)  told me on Facebook that he did a great job with his talk and talked about paint balling and got everyone's attention and some laughs as well.  She said they will miss him!