Nov 25, 2012

hey everyone,

Another week has come and gone. England is preparing for Christmas as well. They had a pretty big lighting ceremony in the town where we live so now the town center is all lit up with christmas lights. Nothing like our house looks like though. England can't really do Christmas lights because all the houses are connected. It's pretty different.

Thigns have been pretty busy. We've been trying to figure out the area a bit. Since there are two companionships in Blackburn now we jsut split the teaching pool in half. We're trying to work in new areas that we haven't been able to go before as well. It was a difficult first few days but things are moving along. We're teaching some great people.

There are also going to be two Baptisms in Blackburn on Saturday. Umesh and Judith! It's going to be pretty exciting. Umesh has been investigating for almost three years now so it's been a long time coming. Judith is the sister of Sylvia who was baptized my first week here in Blackburn. We've been blessed to have a lot of success in Blackburn. There is still so much potential in our teaching pools as well. We have 3 families that we're teaching and all of them are great!

Elder Reali and I are Enjoying our time. It's a bit different being with a brand new missionary. I've almiost forgotten what it's like to be new. Sometimes I'll forget he's now and just start doing things without explaining why we do it. We do a lot of study as well. For new missionaries we do an extra hour of companion study to help them learn the lessons and to practice teaching. Elder Reali is also trying to learn English so we do an hour of language study. It's a lot of study A total of 4 hours a day! His English is improving steadily though. The language has been a bit of a barrier but we're working through it. The English/Italian dictionary has been our third companion..and the spirit of course. haha.

I'm learnign a lot about patience as well. I've been reminded about how difficult the transition into missionary life is. You have to do a lot of things that are extremelly uncomfortable. I've had to be very patient and help him to make the adjustments. It's been a great learning experience for both of us.

I'm looking forward to this transfer. We're going to the temple this week for one of our Zone Conferences, We have a christmas meal at the mission home later this transfer, and Christmas and new years. It's going to be pretty exciting. Plus, I'll get to Skype home. I'm really going to try and enjoy the holliday season because it might be the only i get since President Preston usally sends the January group home for Christmas. I've heard that Christmas's on your mission are the best. It's hard to believe it's already almost Christmas again! Time is cruising

Well, things are going great here. No complaints. Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. Love you all. Talk to you next week!

Love Elder Ford

1. Three generations of missionaries (my father and my son)
2. My and my first born haha.

Nov 21, 2012

mia famiglia, (its Italian)

Happy Thanksgiving! A new transfer is here! I'm going to be staying in
Blackburn and i'm training a new missionary! His name is Elder Reali
and he is from Sicily, Italy. Magnifico! haha. It's been a really busy
last week and a lot has happened.

Elder Adair and I are both stayng in Blackburn and we're both training
new missionaries so now Blackburn has four missionaries living
together in our brand new flat. It's pretty nice. I've had two of the
nicest flats in the mission and two of the worst. Everything evens out
I guess.

I'm going to learn a whole lot this transfer. Not only am I going to
have to try and teach a new missionary how to be a missionary but I'll
need to teach him English too. haha. He didn't know english before and
he was only in the England MTC for three weeks. It's already been an
experience. The english/Italian dictionary has been our 3rd
companion...and the spirit of course haha.

We had a really good thanksgiving today. We went to an elderly lady in
the ward named sister willianmson. She is one of my favorites in the
ward. I think it's because she reminds me so much of grandma ford. It
was a good teaching opportunity for Elder Reali as well.

All of our investigators are doing well. Haydon's baptism went very
smoothly and he is a great addition to the ward. Judith and Umesh's
baptism will be on the 1 of December. Elder Adair and i have just
split the teaching pool right down the middle to be fair. We've still
got plenty of people to find and teach.

All is well here. Working hard and doing my best. Everyone is starting
to get excited for Christmas. I'll offficialy start preparing now that
it's past thanksgiving. Love you all!

Love Elder Ford

P.S. Here is the new Address.

11 Gladstone Heights
15 Eagle Street
Accrington
England
BB5 1LN


Pictures:
1. Crumpets and Pancakes
2. Haydon's baptism

hey!

This week was another crazy one. The weather is officially cold now and they're getting ready for Christmas here. The stores start getting ready for it as soon as it hits November. It's a shame the don't have Thanksgiving. One of the best holidays by far. Monday was a holliday called Guy Fawkes Night. I'm not sure what it's all about but we had to stay in the flat that night again just like we did for halloween. There is a lot of crazy drunk people out on the streets on the holidays haha.

A lot has been going on with the missionary work here in Blackburn. We're going to be having two baptisms this Saturday(Haydon and Umesh). We had a few miracles with each of them this week. Umesh has been investigating the church for 3 years. He comes to church every Sunday and has been taught all the lessons multiple times. He comes from a Hindu background and his father is very religious. He was afraid to tell his father that he wanted to be baptized because he thought he would throw him out of the house or something. We met his father this week. He said that he would support Umesh if he wanted to be baptized! After 3 years it's finally going to happen.

Haydon is also going to be baptized on Saturday as well. He came to church yesterday and had a lot of questions. We had a lesson in Gospel Principles class about temples and Family history. The lesson went a little too deep. haha. We had to take haydon into another class room and re-teach the lesson and answer all of his questions. It was a close call. haha. Members sometimes forget how new everything is to these people who are coming their first few times.

Judith, another person we've been teaching, is now going to be baptized on the 24th. Things are just moving! It really has nothing to do with us either. People are just coming up to us and asking us to come and teach them. Sometimes my mouth just hangs open because i'm so shocked! It's a great time to be in Blackburn. To make things even better we're probably going to be moving into our new flat this week too! It's super nice. No more pathetic showers. haha

Today is the last P-day of the transfer. it's hard to believe. I would imagine that i'll be staying here in Blackburn this transfer but we'll see. I hope everyone has a great week! Love you

Love Elder Ford

Nov. 5, 2012

Hey everyone,

This have been busy as usual here. We still have so many things to do
and not enough hours to do them. We actually had a ton of things fall
through this week but we were still super busy.

Halloween was pretty lame. I dressed up as a "Mormon" haha. We only
were able to go out a proselyte for part of the day. We had to stay at
home during the night so I wasn't allowed to go trick-or-treating.
Halloween is not very big here. The isn't much of a kids holliday.
Just another reason to go down to the Pub. haha.

All of the people we are teaching are still doing really good. Haydon
is still at home down south so we haven't seen him all week. He's
coming back today though and we'll see him tommorow. He's still
preparing for baptism on the 17th. Another one of our investigators,
Umesh, is also going to be baptized on the 17th. He has been taught
for almost 3 years so it's taken quite a bit of work. They're both
great.

Steve and Naomi(Mormon.org refferal) are still doing great. They're
really busy though. Steve has to work a lot so it's been tough to see
them more than once a week. We had a miracle at our teaching
appointment with them though. We've been trying really hard to make
sure that we have a member at every teaching appointment with them. We
called everyone and no one was able or willing to come out. We both
prayed that somehow we would be blessed with someone to come teaching
with us. We went throughout our day and we worked in their area for a
bit. 45 minutes before the lesson we got a call from our Elders quorom
president saying that his Presidency meeting had just been canceled
and that he could come out teaching with us! Prayer works. It's a
fact.

Steve and Naomi are going to do great things for the ward. Steve is
working sundays right now so he is trying his best to change his
schedule around. After that they should cruise to baptism.

This next week should be packed. A lot of lessons and our Zone
Conference with individual interviews with President Preston. This
week was one of those weeks that was just one big blur. It's hard to
believe it's monday again and i'm sitting in the library emailing.
haha. Time is flying by. The transfer hit the halfway point on
wednesday.

Well sorry the email is so short. It was one of those weeks haha. I
love you all so much. I'll be getting the pacakge and post one
thursday at the zone conference. I'm looking forward to it! I hope
your week is "spot on". Love ya

Elder Ford

Oct. 29, 2012

Familia and Amigos

We have had a great week. One word to describe it...miracles. There
has been so much going on! We're almost to the point where we have
more going on than we can handle.

Last Monday while we were doing our shopping we got a phone call from
the mission office telling us that they had a mormon.orgrefferal for
us. Those are golden! It means someone goes online and enters in all
their information and requests the missionaries to come around.
They're basically asking to be baptized. haha. We taught that refferal
this week. It was an entire family! Her name is Naomi and her husbands
name is Steve and they have 4 kids! They were taught for awhile in
Lancaster about a year ago. Steve new it was true and wanted to be
baptized but Naomi was a but skeptical and not ready. Steve felt like
it was causing a family divide so they stopped meeting with the
missionaries. Then they moved to Blackburn. Naomi was the one who
reffered herself on mormon.org and when we called her she said that
they had been talking about it for awhile and now she thinks she is
ready! BOOM! We taught them and they are what every missionary dreams
of teaching on their mission. "Kingdom Builders".

We're also teaching another family! There names's are Dan and Naomi.
They have 3 kids. They're really interested as well! I've never taught
an entire non member family my entire mission and now we're teaching
2! its a miracle. Plus everyone else we're teaching. Haydon went back
home to Kent(in the south) for the week. He was planning on telling
his parents that he is going to be baptized on the 17th of November.
We got a text from him last night that said, "Gents, i've told my
parents. All is well. See you next week". Another miracle. Blackburn
is on fire right now.

We had an interesting meal appointment this week. We had dinner with a
Recent convert named Roselyn. She is from Nigeria(Yoruba tribe).
African food is pretty exotic. We had something called amala and what
she called "slimy soup". The soup had cow liver, cow skin, and a
gigantic turkey gizzard. haha. I ate all of it. The turkey gizzard was
actually alright. Just like chicken. I love the African culture so
much. Sometimes I wonder if I wasn't supposed to be called on a
mission to Nigeria. I feel that i'm pretty good at speaking to them
and i've taught loads of them on my mission so far. I can even speak a
bit of Yoruba and I know a lot of their greetign customs. It's pretty
funny when you meet them on the street and do the greeting. They go
crazy and they'll listen to whatever you say. works every time.

We had our zone conference this week as well. We had Elder Patrick
Kearon from the seventy come! He's a member of the Europe Area
Presidency as well. It was amazing. He spoke about the importance of
being REAL as missionaries and using our personality. He gave a lot of
really good insights because he was a convert to the church at age 26.
I learned a lot from him. We got our post as well...no birthday
package. Hopefully it didn't get lost in the mail.

It's hard to believe this transfer is half over already(half on
wedensday). It's gone by so quick. This week is going to be even
bussier than the last week. We might be getting another companionship
in Blackburn because of the success we've been having. We'll see
though. We're probably moving flats soon as well. We viewed a really
nice one last week. It'll be a serious upgrade.

Well thanks for all of the support. I love you all so much. Hope to
hear from you soon.

Love Elder Ford

Mon Oct 22, 2012

Hello everybody!

Thank you for all of the birthday wishes, It's much appreciated. In
all honesty I forgot it was my birthday untill I was sitting at
church. haha. We've just been so busy. I even gave a talk in Sacrament
meeting on my birthday! We didn't have time to go anywhere for a
birthday dinner either. We'll hopefully find time this week though.
I'm looking forward to Thursday when i'll get this birthday package
i've been hearing so much about. I laughed when I heard that mom was
wearing her Manchester United jersey all day. She's not going to let
you all forget who her favorite child is. haha.

This week has been...interesting. A lot of very unique experiences. I
went on an exchange at the beggining of the week In Chorley with Elder
Osborn from Provo. Chorley is a bike area, one of the few in the
mission. There is a saying people always say that goes something like
"It's like riding a bike. You never forget how to do it." Well... I
think I came as close as you possibly can to forgetting. haha. I
almost killed myself on the ride home from the Chapel. We walked the
rest of the exchange.(Embarassing) Let's hope I'm never in a Bike
Area.

I also had a pretty funny experience on the exchange. We street
contacted a young lady who didn't really want to talk to us. She said
" I know who you are and what you believe". I said "OK, what do we
believe". She said "You believe that you came from some planet, you
have arranged marriages, and you're not allowed to eat chocolate." I
just started laughing. I asked her where in the world she heard that
and she said that it was just "common knowledge". It's funny how
misinformed people can be.

We met another man the day after who was from Norway. He said that he
was full viking and he believed in the almight thor. He was walking
his dog named wolf. He said that it was 3 quarters wolf, "so much wolf
that it should be illegal" haha. Then he started telling is about a
time he was in a field with his dog and he got down on his hands and
knees and yelled "Thor" then lightning starting striking all around
him. He said doesn't that mean that's an answer? Then he put his fist
to his head and yelled "Thor!". You meet all sorts of people here.
haha. It so much fun.

On a bit of a sad note. Elder Adair and watched a man die. no joke. We
got of the bus at the bus station and one of the drivers was just on
the ground with a few people standing around him. A few seconds later
an ambulance game and the starting doing C.P.R. Then they used the
shock pads. It went on for about 20 minutes. There was hundreds of
people just standing there watching. It was dead quiet. Then they just
stopped and slowly loaded him into the ambulance and left. Thank
goodness for the Plan of Salvation.

Like I said, It was a very eventful week. A lot of unique experinces.
I've been sick all week but i've been battling through it. I've got
got an amazing streak of about 7 straight months of not having to stay
in because of illness. I haven't been sick since my first few weels in
Stockport when I had the flu. I'm hoping the streak will continue my
entire mission. We'll though.

The People we're teaching are doing great. Haydon came to church on
Sunday and really enjoyed it. His baptism is on November 17. The last
weekend of the transfer. The could possibly be two or three baptisms
on that day but we'll see what happens.

Thank you for all of the birthday wishes. It means a lot. I love you
all so much! The Gospel and the Church are true! Talk to you next
week!

Love Elder Ford

Mon Oct. 5, 2012

 hola mi familia!

 (To bad i'm not a chinese speaking missionary)

 The first week in Blackburn has been really good. I've come into an
 area where there is already a lot of good things happening. We saw a
 lot of miracles this last week as well. This transfer is probably
 going to be one of the busiest of my mission so far.

 We had the baptism of Sylvia Kenyon into the ward on friday. I only
 taught her once before the baptism but we're teaching her sister as
 well so i'll get a chance to get to know her a little better. I felt
 kind of like I was intruding a little bit being there. haha, but
 that's ok. The baptismal service was a big sucess and we saw a huge
 miracle there. We had one of our investigators there named Hayden. He
 has agreed to be baptised on the 17 of November but he still had a few
 doubts about whether it was right for him or not. At the Baptismal
 service there was a solo sung by a return sister missionary in the
 ward who served in the Salt Lake Mission. I talked to him after the service and he said that while she was singing he received a
confirmation to know that he needed to be baptized on the 17 and he
 now has no doubts...BOOM! I was pretty pumped.

 We also had another miracle this week. We're working with a
 less-active man named Mark and he is progressing very well. We were
 teaching him the other day and his ex-girlfriend of something(Not sure
 what the status is haha. We don't ask). was there. In the past she
 usually gets up and leaves when the missionaries come over. She did
 when we were there but she came back in after about five minutes and
 listened and we taught her. She comitted to be taught and accepted
 baptism. We went back to teach her last night and her 13 year old
 daughter was there and her 9 year old son. Now we're teaching all of
 them. It's amazing. This are just happening. I feel extremelly blessed
 because I know that I haven't really done anything to deserve the
 blessings...I'm not complaining though. haha.

 My first sunday here was very good as well. There are a lot of really
 solid members here. The ward is a little different though. haha, but I
 can tell that i'm going to grow to love them.

 We're in another really bad flat. haha. It's like Preston all over
 again. They're going to try and move us out by the end of the
 transfer. We have some pretty crazy Polish neighbors who like to party
 every single night of the week. The shower is pretty funny too. It's
 way worse than the one in Preston. It was only made to be a tub but
 the've fastened somoe kind of makeshift tube with a shower head on it.
 It's held up by a bungee cord tied around a hanger. The hanger is
 hooked onto an elastic workout band that is tied across the top of the
 curtain. You have to be really careful not to turn the water pressure
 to high because if you do the nozzle will explode off and send
 scalding hot water everywhere. (It's happened to me pretty much
 everytime haha). It's building some character. We're able to laugh
 about it though.

 It sounds like things are going great at home. October is the best
 month of the year. It's not the same here though. The leaves don't
 change as much. Everything just gets colder. We're already wearing
 jackets every day. Hopefully everyone isn't too mad at me for blowing
 everyone else's birthday present to mom with my gift. haha. I stil
 can't believe dad is bishop either...so weird.

 We're going to have a very busy week this week so i should have more
 to say next week. Hope to hear from everyone real soon. :)

 Love Elder Ford

 Pictures:

 1. Elder Adair and Sylvia at her baptism