Hello everyone,


I hope everyone had a great 4th of July. Mine was pretty quiet. It's
not the most popular holliday here in Britain. haha. We lucky enough
to be able to have a BBQ for it though. There is an American couple in
the ward so we had a cookout...in the rain. Typical English weather.
Hot dog in one hand, umbrella in the other. Nothing was going to ruin
the 4th for us though so we endured through the rain because the 4th
of July is such an important holliday. So important that it speaks
about it in the Book of Mormon. Alma 10:6, Amulek was liberated from
sin on the 4th of July! I laughed so hard when I read that. You learn
so pretty random things as a missionary.


Anyways, we've had a pretty hectic week here. After all the miracles
we had last week everything fell apart. All the people we met didn't
turn up for the appointments we made! It was pretty heart breaking but
it's our of our control. That's something I learned in basketball that
has carried over here. One of Coach Briggs favorite lines, "Focus on
what you can control". Sometimes other people's agency is very
frustrating but we just do what we can and stay dilligent. I actually
found a scripture that talks about that, Ether 12:37. Read it...It's a
good one. I'm very glad i played a lot of sports because it really
prepared me to serve to come out here.


The end of our week was pretty jammed packed with meetings. On
thursday we had a Zone Training and interviews with President Preston.
We discussed the need for continued improvement. I told him now that
i've been out almost 6 months that I feel the growth stopping. It
feels like i've kind of a plateau. The first few months in the field
are full of new exciting experiences. Now the challenge is just to
keep applying myself and making steady progress. The interview really
helped me a lot and the past few days since then I have been able to
see improvement.


Saturday was probably the most exciting day of all. That morning we
got a ride to Liverpool to attend two baptisms of investigators the
Elder White taught, both chineese, then that night we had a huge
concert in Avenham Park to celebrate the 175th anniversary of the
first baptisms in the U.K. People came from all over the country to
see it. I got to see a lot of the members from Stockport! We were able
to spend some time with a lot of the other missionaries as well. It
was a lot of fun being able to see old friends.


That's most of what's going on. We have our transfers on the 18th of
this month so this is our last P-day of the transfer. It's crazy to
think how fast it went. Since we white washed into Preston we have no
idea what is going to happen. We both might stay, or either one of us
could go, or we both might go! It's up in the air. Next time I email
it possibly could be in a new area. Transfers are a pretty exciting
time and we're looking forward to find out what is happening.


Well... I'll speak to you all in about a week and a half! Love you all!!!


Love Elder Ford




Pictures:
1. Our 4th of July BBQ
2. Elder White and I at our Zone Meeting.