Elder Evans in Birmingham: England Birmingham Mission Part 6

On P-day exploring Wolverhampton

Hello everyone!

This week hasn't been much different then the last. We have been working hard and doing the best we can to be productive and successful missionaries. Though it is kind of hard because we spend so much time knocking doors. It gets really repetitive and Im not gonna lie, it gets really boring really fast. We are really hoping to get a couple more solid investigators so that we don't have to knock doors all day. Teaching is way more fun and the more we teach, the less we have to be out in the freezing cold all day.

This week I had the opportunity to go on my first exchange! I went with Elder Lauener! He is from Switzerland and he is 23 years old. It's kind of funny though, he was born and raised in Switzerland, yet he speaks perfect English and has an American accent. His parents both speak English, so during the first few years of his life they only spoke English to him and he eventually learned German when he started going to school. He has the American accent though because he the only TV he watched was American tv. So that's a little bit about him. He's a really really cool guy. His area is in the Wolverhampton 1st ward, and that includes the town centre, so that means we spent tons of time street contacting instead of knocking doors. Street contacting is so so different, and to be honest, I'm not a fan! It's so much faster paced and the people aren't as nice in city centers. It was a really good learning opportunity though and it was fun.

We also went and taught a less active member that day. She was very nice and I am hoping she will come to church soon. There was a member in that lesson with us and he told us about his conversion story. He told us that one day he was at his house and he got a phone call from his neighbor. She told him that the Mormons were down the street and to not answer his door. He said he remembers seeing the shadow of the two boys who walked up to his door, but he never answered the door. He said just having those boys walk up to his door was all it took to plant the seed in his life. That made him curious and he eventually came in contact with some other missionaries, Long story short he was baptised 2 years later. Litterally just because some missionaries walked up to his door. That surprised me and really made me realize that everything I'm doing can impact someone's life so so much. It was a cool lesson. Afterwards he took us to get all you can eat pizza at Pizza Hut. So that was a bonus.

On Thursday, after the exchange was over, we were riding our bikes to go to district meeting. We were riding next to the canal and coming down off of one of the bridges my bike tire slipped on the brick and I crashed super hard. I don't know why they use brick for everything here it is so slippery when wet (and it is wet all the time here.) I tore my trousers, ripped up my knee, and also bruised my knee really bad. I have been limping for a few days so that sucks. Anyways, after I crashed I shouted "dang it I tore my pants!" and like 5 English people were walking by and they started laughing. My companion was like, "they're trousers not pants." So then I shouted again "sorry I meant trousers not pants, I'm american!" And then the English people laughed harder. So yeah that's my funny story. After that was all over, not even 10 minutes later, i crashed my bike again and made my knee and trousers even worse. Let's just say It was not a very good day that day.

One of our best investigators, Ron, is someone that I have really developed a love for on my mission so far. We teach him 3 times a week so that we can work really hard with him to set goals to overcome some addictions that has. He loves the church. He comes to church with us on sundays and he loves to read the scriptures amd learn more and more. All he needs to do is work through his addictions and he will be ready for baptism! I failed to mention this in my last email but we were able to set a baptismal date for him on January 6th! That was really exciting when he said he wanted to be baptised. Ron definitely has a love for us too, the other day he gave us a present to thank us for all we have done for him. He gave us video games hahah. He just doesent understand that missionaries can't play them. So we took them because we didn't want him to feel bad. They are useless without a PC so we figured we would just add them to our collection of weird things in the flat. Ron is great.

We are still working hard and working with other investigators too. Ron is just one that we have made some good progress with recently! So yeah! That's about it for this week. I am still having the same issues with anxiety and not being able to sleep. I feel bad because I am never able to wake up on time, but my companiom says it's better for me to sleep in then to get almost no sleep at all. I am trying my best and I am really hoping to get some sleep soon, and also to get some relief of the anxiety soon. I went to the doctor last Monday and they prescribed me with some medications that should help with the anxiety, so I am hoping and praying that over the next week they start to kick in and I start to feel better.

Well I hope I didn't leave anything out! Sorry if this email is a little confusing! I love you all so much! Thank you again for all the love and support! I am reading all of your emails! Sorry if I have not responded to some, it is really hard to keep track of who to respond to on PDay. Just know that if I haven't responded that I got it and I love love love reading everything everyone has to say! Thanks again! I pray for you all and I love you all so much!

- Elder Eric Evans