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

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!

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!

WEEK 46: Good-bye Zdeno

The beautiful green area is on their way to Kristina's house through a shortcut.  The family is Zdeno and his family before they left.  The view with the buildings is by Elder Poggemann's flat.  "We made the food". 

This week was pretty good. Quick recap, we saw Kristina and her family a lot. They are doing very well and love to read the Book of Mormon. We are trying to help them make the changes that they want from life. They are super nice and we love getting to know them.  They weren't able to come to church, but we don't know why. They just didn't show up after they had been promising us they wanted to.

Miroslav is still doing well and still had to work this week on Sunday, but he is trying to get time off so he can come visit church this week. We went on exchange with Elder Poggemann this week, but I was with Elder Christensen. I got wrecked again as I translated sacrament meeting, as you do.  We have been trying to do more finding.

One of the highlights was our second weekly lunch with Fero Dunka (the former president of the branch). They are super cool and make good food.  We love talking with them and getting to know them.

Zdeno left us. (Pictured with his family above) He moved back to Slovakia for good. We will really miss his family. And his support for our branch and area. He was the only active member in our area.

Katka taught her first ever lesson in relief society that she prepared alone and it was so good. She has come so far and has this wonderful light in her that is so good to see. She was especially happy this week because she got her temple recommend. She is so inspiring to me because she has made the changes in her life and seeing how it blessed her has really taught me how true the principles we teach are. It has completely altered her forever and she now has the chance to go to the temple, the house of God on the Earth, and feel the joy and peace
there as she makes covenants to bind her to God. I hope that I can help someone to have the same difference in their life that Katka has seen.

Love you all,
Elder Pace

Mother's Day!

It was so wonderful to see and hear my boy!!  We only had 30 minutes so the time flew by!  He has a bit of an accent which was fun to hear.  He looked great and looked happy.  I was a bit sad when we hung up because I realized how much I missed him and how little time we had.  But then the next day I got the mail and discovered a beautiful Mother's Day letter!  Made me bawl!  Tyson is so very thoughtful and he made my year!

WEEK 45: Miroslav

Miroslav, who is probably our closest friend in Darnall, is still doing well. He shared with us this week his concern of being baptized.  He was already baptized in another church and he doesn't want to turn his back on any covenant to God until he knows beyond any doubt that this church is true. He is so solid. His kids are awesome and we really enjoy having some fun with them all. It has been harder to meet with them recently since he is totally wiped out from work every day.  He really tries hard to support his family. I really hope he keeps moving forward, but even if he doesn't, I hope I stay in contact with
him. In meeting with him, I have felt so much more love for these people and I have been even more sure of the blessings this gospel has for us. And for our families. Ever since he has met with us, things have been going better for him. Now if we can help him take the next step and go to church on Sunday, the Lord will bless him so much for his obedience. The Sabbath Day is so wonderful and it will help him cope with his week I know for sure.

We had stake conference this week, so we did the translation at once with the aid of a microphone and headsets. It was definitely more challenging. I was lucky enough to have Elder Armstrong and Elder Poggemann take the brunt of the translation. I only had to do a small portion.

My new flat got some spare furniture from some random flat that they closed. That was a huge blessing and we fixed our washer so what else can we ask for. The address is

6 Fielder Mews
Firth Park
Sheffield
S5 6GY
United Kingdom

Letters can go there, but no packages.

Finally, we got to Skype our families since it was Mother's Day in America. I was so grateful to talk to my wonderful Mum along with the rest of my family. They are so amazing.

One thing I have studied recently is about how to receive direction from the Lord more in this work. I have realized that a lot of it depends on serious, sincere prayer. Sometimes I forget and don't talk with my Father in Heaven like I should or as frequently as I should. I regret the time I lost in building a relationship with him these past 19 years. I think it would make His day if we all took some time to go
to a quiet place tonight and thought for a minute or two what we want
to tell Him and how we can seek His help. And then we can kneel and pray and engage in a thoughtful conversation with God. He loves to hear from us.

Love you all,
Elder Pace

WEEK 44: New Flat

Elder Peck sent me this picture this morning of Elder Campbell with his trainer, Elder Pace, with his trainer Elder Buckhoff....their "family tree"

We are finally moved into our new flat. There still isn't too much in
it. We have a bed each, a washer, a fridge, a pan, some knives, a pot
and something to hang our clothes on. We still are waiting on the
study desks and a table and a freezer and some chairs. It has been
nice though.

We tried a Parma this week. That is a pizza, but instead of dough as a
base, it is a giant flat piece of fried chicken. It was surprisingly
good, but I feel like rubbish if I eat out too much so we don't get
them a lot.

Miroslav is doing great. He is our friend that is preparing for
baptism soon. We are getting to know him a lot more and I really like
him. He loves his family and wants to do anything for them. He is a
good father. We are also starting to see an old friend of mine named
Kristína. We got back in contact with her and I am so excited. She and
her family are really cool and are going through  a hard time right
now.

Happy Mothers Day this week to all the moms and future moms. Love you all,
Elder Pace