10/21/13

Dear Family,

Can you believe we only have one more week in October?  Time goes by so fast here.  Maybe it's a London thing.  It's been a really good week.  I'm feeling much better.  We had Stake Conference this weekend.  The Saturday session was really cool.  Apparently all of the Saturday night sessions of Stake Conference are now supposed to be completely focused on "the work of salvation."  It was a really good meeting.  The missionaries were also invited to the priesthood leadership meeting, which was cool as well.  The hastening of the work is happening.  The missionaries are out in numbers like never before.  Now it's time for the members of the church to answer the call and find people for the missionaries to teach!  Missionary work would be so much more effective if the members did the finding.  There's nothing wrong with knocking on doors or stopping people on the street, but if the members would just bring their friends around to be taught, the work would explode.  The Stake President is really great and is a super advocate for the missionary work.  I just hope the members here follow his lead.  He gave the charge to every member and family in the stake to bring one person in to the gospel - non member or less active member - in the next year.  That would be amazing.  One person a year really shouldn't be that hard in London if a little bit of effort is exerted.

Our investigators are doing really well this week.  We had Johnny and Charmaine on date for baptism this coming Sunday, but unfortunately, neither of them will make that date.  Johnny, because he hasn't been meeting with us enough and there's still a lot he needs to learn, and Charmaine because she has had a really stressful week and just doesn't feel ready.  We're going to try to help her realize that she is ready, but ultimately it's up to her.  She accepted the Law of Tithing like nothing I have ever seen before.  After we taught it, I asked her if she would be willing to keep the Law of Tithing after baptism and she said "well, if that's what The Lord requires I guess I'll need to, won't I?"  She is such an amazing woman.  She's had a hard life as a single parent, but she's made the best of what she's been given.  She says she really wishes that she would have brought up her daughter in a church so she would have that foundation to build on.  Her hope now is that her daughter will see her example and want to join her in her own due time.  

We are so blessed to have been born in the church.  It's amazing how badly we take that for granted.  There are people who want nothing more than what we have.  Never forget how amazing of a gift the Gospel is.  Share it with others.  I know the opportunities for missionary work in Utah aren't really at their peak, but there are still opportunities if you'll look for them.  Sometimes they're right in front of your face and you don't even recognize them.  Do you remember my friend Eric Wilson?  He is one of my biggest regrets in life.  He wasn't an active member of the church. I'm not sure if he was even baptized.  I know his parents were born in the church, but they never made it a part of their home life.  One day when I was at his house we were sitting in his room talking and he said "I hope I go on a mission somewhere really cool, like Asia or the Pacific Islands or something."  I just said something like "yeah, me too" and then changed the subject because I didn't think he would actually go on a mission because he never went to church and probably didn't even really know what all a mission would entail.  I din't invite him to church, I didn't ever talk about the gospel with him, and over time we went our separate ways and I haven't seen him for years.  I wonder what might have happened if I would have just invited him around to church with me.  What would have happened if I would have just said anything other than what I did say.  There was a great opportunity to bring him into the gospel and my 14 year old self just ignored it.  I'm just hoping that someone else did what I was too prideful to do.  Don't let yourself miss out on opportunities to share the gospel just because you don't want to open your mouth.  What's the worst that can happen?  They can stay exactly the same as they were before.  What's the best that can happen?  You can bring them into the gospel and have the eternal rewards for participating in The Lord's marvelous work and wonder by saving one of your friends.  Never be afraid to share what you have.  If you don't know what to say, just say what you know.

I enjoyed the emails this week.  You guys have been finding some really interesting restaurants since I left.  The pictures in part 2 of dad's email came in with the captions, but the pictures in the fist email were all just attachments that I had to separately open.  The way you did  it for part 2 was much easier.  The beef jerky here is terrible.  I don't know why anyone even buys it.  In your next package, could you send some beef jerky?  It sounds really nice right now.  Also, some of that good super fluoride toothpaste would be nice.  Everyone's teeth here are terrible and I don't trust their oral health products.

Me and Elder Nolan are doing well.  Apparently his family has found my blog and has been reading it, so I can't say anything mean about him now.  I was going to devote a little segment of each email to "all of the reasons why I hate my companion," but that's probably not the best idea now.  So, to the family of my lovely companion, I say hello.  I hear about you guys all the time.  You've got a great son, grandson, friend, cousin, neighbor, acquaintance, creepy stalker, whatever he is to you.  He's a pretty great guy.  He thinks he's better than he really is, but he's still pretty great ;)

I love you all.  I hope you have a great week!  Go do some missionary work!  Go to Taco Bell and eat some tasty American food on my behalf since most of you didn't get around to doing it last week.

Love,

Elder Hein

p.s. If you're ever feeling like doing something really nice for me, there's this really cool thing you can do.  The local grocery store, Tesco, does deliveries. You can go to Tesco.co.uk or something like that and send some tasty treats or groceries to my flat.  Elder David's parents did it last week and it was super awesome.  Love you guys!