Week 7

Hello everyone!!

Thank you so much for all the letters!! I don't have a lot of time to write, and I am sorry about the confusion on monday. It was a bank holiday here so the library was closed and then we had zone conference yesterday so this is the first opprotunity I have had to email!

North Shields is doing fantastic. We are finally seeing some progress with our investigators which is such a blessing. I cannot believe how much I am learning! I am finally over my cold as well which is fantastic.

Zone conference yesteday was so powerful! President Pilkington is so powerful and funny. The way he speaks reminds me of the manager of the museum in Night at the Museum. No, we are not getting ipads! at least not right now. I did hear a rumor that ever mission will have them by the end of the year but President hasnt mentioned anything about it. We do have an hour set aside each week though to go on any church websites, such as mormon.org, and find videos and other things that could be beneficial to our investigators.

We officially have a new flat! We aren't living in it...but the church owns it. They are waiting till after transfers to move us in. We might be getting two more elders in the area.

Oh yeah, its almost transfer week! I can't believe it! That also means I'll be having P-Day on Tuesday next week instead of monday. I should be staying in North Shields though so no worries.

Hmmm story of the week.....well I am going to talk about Charlie again just because he cracks me up so much. If you havent been following along, Charlie has been investigating the church for years. When we first met him we thought ahh maybe we shouldnt spend much time with him he doesnt seem that solid. But then we brought a member over named Bill Johnson. They hit it off so good. Long story short, Charlie knows the gospel is true, has a baptismal date, and has been coming to church. Miracles!

Love you all!

Elder Gurney

Week 3

So apparently Nick sent a letter on July 29th that I never received.  I finally got ahold of it and will post it now.

Wow where do I start?? This has been the hardest week of my life! But it has been so amazing! My companion is fantastic. His name is Elder Krylborn and he is from Stolkholm Sweden but he sound more American than me!

He is super nice and loves all the same music as me so we get along great. I'm his second 'son' or trainee. Also he loves hockey! But he is a LA Kings fan and loves Jonathan Quick (stupid.) But we somehow work past that! Also he is a celiac so yeah that sucks.

So my area! I'm in the North Shields ward which is part of Newcastle so I am way up north! Jordy land! They don't speak english I don't care what anyone else tells me. But Elder Krylborn is teaching me! We are whitewashing so we are both new in the area and the last missionaries litterally left us no teaching pool so we have been knocking and working with the ward and calling a lot of former investigators to get appointments. I litterally have not been in one lesson. Other that asking people on the street to be baptised. But I'm loving it. The ward is pretty small about 65-70 active members but we are working our hardest to build that! The ward mission leader is amazing he works as hard as us!

So Sister Thompson deserves a paragaraph to herself, she deserves a whole letter! This sister is AMAZING. She is paralized from the waist down because of a motorcycle accident and she is a widow. But she is the happiest most amazing member of the ward. She is the one that makes sure we have tea (dinner) appointments EVERY night! She works so hard to bring the ward together and does such a great job!  Love that woman. Also our flat is a joke so our post gets broken into so if you want to send me any packages or letters send it to Sister Thompson:

Elder Nicholas Gurney

3 Cleehill Drive

Preston Grange

North Shields, Tyre & Wear

NE29 9EW

England

So everything in England is tiny. Everything. Cars, houses, garages (never have I seen someone park their car in a garage). Nothing is really much more expensive either. Some things are a lot cheaper. Like suits. I am never buying an american suit again in my life. The suits here and so nice and so cheap. Oh and yes this last couple weeks especially while I was in the MTC was hot!!! But yesterday in dumped rain all night and in the morning and we had to walk for 30 minutes to church! Me and my compainon are both broke till like the first then we will buy a bus pass for the month which we will be reimbursed for!

The flat is getto. But roomy. I hated it at first but I have come to love my extremely humble abode. The shower is the only thing I don't like.

SCOTT! Elder Paris Thomas was a zone leader in my mission when my companion came out! (about a year ago) so thats pretty cool i guess!

Story of the week: so yesterday we were walking home from our bishops house after tea which was a bummer cuz it was like a 50 minute walk and i was on the phone setting up and appointment with a former investigator when something hit my leg. I looked down and there was egg all over my suit! I got egged on day 3! I guess I am doing something right! I kept my cool and set up the appt and then hung up and laughed. Then right after we went knocking and this guy yelled at us and tried to tell us there was no God and that we are stupid (he was trying to say since Jesus is a Jew we should all be Jewish if we believe in Christ....? Ignorance at its finest) but we decided to leave instead of start bashing. So it should have been a terrible day right? Wrong. I could not stop smiling. The first few days in the field I was super trunky and missing everyone and scared and confused but then I realized after these things that it wasn't about me. I mean I've always known that but now I understand that it really is not about me at all. It doesn't matter that i got egged or cussed out on a doorstep and told that my religion is a joke. Because it's God's work I'm doing. So I just walked the rest of the way home with the cheesiest grin on my face.

Also the jordys are fantastic they are super nice and straightforward. But sometimes they are just straightforward by throwing eggs out of their car.

I love you guys and pray for you ever day! If you're reading this write me! I want to know how you are doing!

Love,

Elder Gurney

Week SIX??

Family and Friends!

I love all of you! The mission is doing great, I am doing great as well. I wish I even knew where to start.

So the beginning of this week was rough, I got sick, blew a lesson, and got really fed up. But the Lord has only made me stronger! I look back now and all I really remember is the good!

Tuesday night I went on exchange to Newcastle City with my zone leader, Elder McAlister. I might of mentioned him before but he is brilliant. He comes from Richfield Utah so naturally his dad builds jeeps for a living. Ha actually his dad is loaded and he owns a company that builds jeeps for a living, but redneck none the less. He is hands down one of the best leaders I have ever met and he is only 21! He told me that he came out and hated his mission, asked the president to send him home. Now he is a zone leader and one of the best missionaries in the mission. The Lord changes people for the better! Well wednesday ended up being terrible in terms of missionary work because I got really sick and he was just super busy with zone leader stuff all day so we stayed exchanged on thursday as well. We got a lot more missionary work done thursday which was a treat. I love newcastle! I would not mind coming to school there some day. Oh thursday was also his 21st birthday so we went to lunch and stuff it was so much fun.

So let me tell you about Anna! While on exchange a few weeks ago Elder Krylborn and Elder Harris (I was in Gateshead on exchange) knocked into this 65 year old lady. She was interested in talking about religion and invited the elders back as well as warned that she is an extremely solid Roman Catholic and basically runs her church and she knows she already has the truth because Jesus Christ passed his authority on through Peter. So we went back on friday, and that was one of the best discussions I have had! We taught her the restoration and she loved it and we asked her if she would be baptised. She answered "If I was baptised there would be uproar in my church, ...but if I knew the Book of Mormon comes from God I would jump in with both feet" she committed to reading and praying about it! Me and Elder Krylborn are so pumped!

Everyone send me post! My companions girlfriend sends him something like every week I am looking pathetic! and include pictures!

love you guys!

elder g

so that is mine and elder mcalisters selfie exchange pic adn then below is some famous bridge in newcastle lisa will probably know it.

Week 5 with pictures from the castle we went to last p day

Wow thank you so much for all the love and support and LETTERS! I love letters!

These week has been great! I finally feel like I am getting this down! I wish i had time to write everyone back but I dont i am really sorry! But your letters do get read and i do appreciate them so much!

North Shields is doing great. We have a new goal of baptising ever month here which is ambitious for an area that hasnt baptised in over 6 months but we know we can do it!

So elder ballard came to huttersfield and spoke to us last wednesday as well as president rasband of the 70. That was amazing! His words were so inspired even though they are what we have been hearing for a year now. We need to work with members! the statistics are like 1 in 3 member referrals get baptised and 1 in 2000 missionary effort finds get baptised. Which is easily believable. No dad we are not getting ipads any time soon we havent heard any word at all about them. But hey we do have interviews with president tomorrow so we will see. but i doubt it.

So we aquired an absolutely massive bible this week from one of our investigators named charlie hall. It probably weighs 15 pounds. This man is a character. He is a former investigator who is starting to seem more solid but hey all you can do is work your hardest and pray the lord will do the rest.

I am not sure if i told you about chyvonne and rebecca. their religious views are absolutely wack but they are amazing people. Chyvonne is rebeccas mom and she is a spiritualist. so they like summon spirits at church...super dodgey. then rebecca is a wiken of sorts and i guess buries half her food in the ground and gives it back to mother earth. but fantastic people!

We are moving soon! from our super ghetto 2 man flat to a really posh 4 man flat! and we heard rumors we will be getting another set of missionaries!

sorry no really cool pictures or stories this week!

Love you all so much!!

Elder G

me then elder krylborn and our zone leader elder mcallister from richfield!

5/8/13 Week Four!!

Wow where do i start?? This week has been brilliant! Like I honestly don't know where to start. Being a missionary is HARD. Like really really hard. People told me too often that I'm going to love my mission and not often enough it is the hardest thing ever. Both are true. If anyone out there is heading out soon grit your teeth and go for it. The MTC was great. But when you come out in the field the first few days are really rough. If you dont want to come home at some point there is something wrong.

Okay now that I've scared everyone, It is so amazing. I have honestly never been happier in my life. It is the BEST decision I have made so far in life. You will never regret sticking it out.

Okay so last week i mentioned that we are white washing, what a blessing! It has been so good to start fresh! We went from 0 investigators and 0 lessons to NINE new investigators this week! Nine is unheard of! These people are amazing. It is amazing how you find a love for some of these people!

Constantly I feel the Lord's hand in everything I do. Like a couple days ago we were walking to an appointment and as I was walking past this house I was like I need to knock on that door, so without saying anything to the comp I just walked up and knocked. No one answered. Huh okay thats weird. Then as I turned to walk away I felt like I needed to do more. So I walked back and slipped a pamphlet in the post slot. No idea why I did that but I'm only praying it planted a seed or something.

After this we kept knocking on this street and just a few doors down a Chinese man answered the door and told us he had no religion but he wants faith and committed to being taught and getting a chapel tour this week. Tender mercies!

Christians are great. Spiritualists are great? Ah they are so apostate! But good people. We are teaching this spiritualist lady and her wiken daughter so its a little different but they both committed to reading the BoM and praying so they'll be fantastic!

Scott and Sarah's wedding reception sounded like a ton of fun! I'm almost a little jealous but then again I get to go to the beach for P-Day today anyway.

The weather has been great for the most part but last sunday we got rained on like mad on the way to church and didn't have bus passes yet so we had to walk for like 30 min in pouring rain. But we made it! We also have bus passes now.

Mom thanks so much for the package! It got here super fast. Like Thursday, maybe friday. Also, we get the ensign ever month;) but hey i appreciate it so much!

I love you guys and pray for you all the time!

Elder Gurney