2/17/2014

1) Getting ready to eat some tasty food.

Dear Family,

I haven't been too affected by the storms.  I've been hearing a lot about it, though.  It's causing a lot of damage.  The worst thing the storms have done to us is that they broke Elder Hart's umbrella.  Over the last few weeks both of us have lost our good umbrellas, so we decided it was time to buy some new ones.  We live like a 5 minute walk from the mall, so we picked up two umbrellas on our way home after District Meeting.  When we got home, this was the state of our umbrellas. Obviously Elder Hart has not mastered the art of umbrella yielding as I have.

2) Elder Hein has mastered the art of umbrella yielding

3) Elder Hart’s new umbrella – needing training on umbrella yielding :(

Congratulations to Catherine on the History Bowl!  Is Mr. Andersen still coaching that?  If so, tell him hi for me.  Who knew Catherine was such a nerd? ;)  How did Camilla do in her story telling?  If it was anywhere near as good as that persuasive essay she wrote for her Christmas present, I'm sure she did just great.  Who were the 8 young men that sang to Mom on Valentine’s day?  Looks like fun. Valegrams were always a lot of fun to give, but always very embarrassing to receive.  I know how Cadee feels.

Other than the broken umbrella, we had a pretty good week in Hatfield.  We have a wonderful new investigator from Nigeria named Camilla. We met her with two of her friends near the University and taught them about the Book of Mormon.  We set up a time to see them later and only Camilla showed up.  We taught her about the restoration.  She was really open to it and said she'll read and pray.  She made an interesting comment when we were explaining how the answer to her prayer might come.  She said, "I don't think I'm very good at listening for the Holy Ghost."  We talked a lot about how it feels, and how it works, but then my mind flashed back to the Gospel Principles manual and I realized that "The Holy Ghost" was the topic of the lesson on Sunday.  It was a great way to invite her to church, because I was able to tell her exactly what she would be learning, and miraculously it was exactly what she wanted to learn.  We met her again before Sunday and read 3 Nephi 11 with her and confirmed for church.  Unfortunately when Sunday rolled around, her Aunt living in London told her she was going to come to Hatfield to pick her up for church in London with the family.  We'll get her next week.  She's only been here for about 3 weeks, so she's not tied to another church yet.  That will be a nice change from most of the Christian's we teach.  Also, her father owns an oil company in Nigeria and is very wealthy.  Her laptop's charger broke last week and she asked for him to order her a new charger for it.  Instead, he just ordered her a new laptop.  She thinks it's a bit much.  I agree.  Her flat is full of all sorts of stuff that her father bought for her that she really just doesn't need.  She says the only reason she keeps it is to not be rude.  She prefers a lot more simple living than what he provides for her. 

It's amazing the spectrum of different people I'm meeting as a missionary.  I meet people from all walks of life.  Everywhere from the homeless man living at a bus stop in Muswell Hill to the daughter of a Nigerian Oil company owner.  It's crazy.  I love it though.  It keeps things from becoming routine.  Our whole schedule revolves around other people.  It's quite bizarre.

In other good news, after a very long (2 hours!), yet very good lesson Daryl has accepted an invitation to be baptized conditional upon receiving an answer to his prayers!  I love Daryl.  He's become one of my best friends on my mission so far.  He's so sincere and really desires to follow Christ.  The ward has done a great job at fellow-shipping him as well.  This was his third week in a row at church.  He comes to Family Home Evening and Institute and everything.  He's great.  I need to start taking more pictures of people here in Hatfield.  I was pretty good at it in London, but have gotten much worse since I left.

We had our first performance as the new group on Saturday.  I felt like it went really well.  We went to Ely.  I'm really beating myself up over the fact that I didn't take any pictures.  We did a street performance before the fireside and it was really fun.  We were in the middle of this really old town center, with a big huge cathedral in the background singing songs about Jesus.  I never would have imagined myself doing this on my mission a year ago.  It's been such a great experience being part of the band.  I love it

I'm all out of time for this week, but I look forward to hearing from you in another 7 days!  Take care, stay warm, don't drive drunk.

Love,

Elder Hein

p.s. Could you put the driving money onto my card?  My first lesson is tomorrow morning.  Thanks!

4) Sushi from a Recent Convert named Annie, and her soon to be baptized sister Kat. YUM!

5) Our family sized meals for half off from our favorite pub.  So Full!