(This post is out of order. Notice it actually takes place a week prior to the previous post!)

Aug 13, 1012

Hello Everyone!

This week has been pretty eventful and full of miracles. We've seen a lot of good things happen and we're keeping VERY busy. Things are rolling forward.

We've been extremely blessed this week with a lot of miracles. Every week we do something called a "weekly focus" were we try to apply a certain principle in our missionary work and then we report on it to our leaders. This week we were envisioning people that we were supposed to find that day. To do it we set the alarm for 6:28 and then lay in bed for two minutes and just try to envision a person that we were supposed to find. IT WORKS!!! The first day, I saw in my vision a chubby Chinese girl wearing glasses standing outside the library. You better believe she was there! Elder Chan envisioned an African lady carrying shopping bags outside the Chinese Buffet and when we went there....she was there.

The biggest miracle happened on Thursday though. I envisioned a black haired English girl. We didn't have any time to speak with people that day though because we were rushing from appointment to appointment. We only spoke to one person who was right outside our apartment. Her name was Emma, and she is a black haired English girl! haha. We spoke to hear for about 5 minutes and then she said "I know this might be weird because we're strangers but do you want to come back to my place for a cup of tea?" haha. BOOM! We taught her on the spot and saw her the day after that. She is really good. She's going home for a few weeks then she'll be coming back to Preston and we'll start teaching her again.

...This week was just great. I got to go to the temple for the for the first time since the M.T.C. I'd forgotten how fantastic it is. I might live in the temple when I'm home. Funny story though, the morning of the temple trip the zone leaders called us and reminded us to bring our temple recommends. I thought it was no problem, then I remembered it was in my wallet...that was STOLEN! haha. I panicked. The temple president came and took my name and then disappeared for a few minutes then came back and told me i was all clear to go in. He must have done a background check or something. I received a lot of revelation during our session. A bit of my patriarchal blessing suddenly made sense to me. it was fantastic.

We got our mail after the temple too. Nothing like a package from home!.. and Orange sauce from Panda. Elder Chan and I have been loving it. It is his first experience with American Chinese food. He actually likes it better. Bad news though, I can feel myself gaining weight. I think I've pretty much gained back the 23 pounds i lost in Stockport. I feel like a whale. I'll probably end up in a bike area next transfer and die.

Saturday was another super busy day. We had to wake up early to catch a train to Manchester to the mission home. We were planning for the Chinese activity coming up this Friday in Liverpool. We are planning on doing an Olympic theme. There will be lots of games on more importantly lots of Chinese food. It should be quite the adventure. After the planning meeting we caught a train back to Preston, Had a dinner appointment with the Senior Couple here, and then went to a members house to watch our 90 minutes of the Olympics.

We watched the U.S basketball team destroy Argentina in the semi-finals. It was a lot of fun. I was the only American in the house though! The family we watched it with is from Zimbabwe, Elder Chan from Hong Kong, Elder Webb from here in England, and Elder Delaibatiki from Fiji/New Zealand. Very multi-cultural. They didn't like it to much when I put my hand over my heart and started singing the national anthem when it came on(they were all for Argentina). It felt like I was back home watching a game with a bunch of friends because there was a lot of smack talk and fist pumping going on. Basketball is the best..hands down.

We've got another busy week coming up. We're climbing Mt.Snowden as a mission on Tuesday, We've got the Chinese activity on Friday, and we have a few exchanges this week as well. The 29th(end of transfer) is going to come real quick. We should be teaching quite a bit as well. It's been by far the busiest I've been since being here. All is well here in Preston. Hope to here from everyone soon.

I LOVE YOU!

Elder Ford