This is the story of how I die – June 20, 2018

…Actually it’s a very happy story. 100 weeks later and now I’m here. At the brink of the end. Seven days and it’s back to home. I’m done, cooked, gone with the wind. I’ve bought the farm, kicked the bucket, passed over to the other side, bit the dust, given up the ghost, had my last dance. It’s been quite the ride. As expected I’ve had some of the greatest lows and the greatest highs of my life. Like Elder Holland I hope I’ll be able to say that I have been incredibly changed in my two years out.

This email I want to do something a bit different and share 101 of the lessons I’ve learned over the course of my mission. In no particular order.
1. God loves me!
2. Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Only Begotten, and the Saviour and Redeemer of the world.
3. Their is such thing as the Holy Ghost
4. Their is power in priesthood blessings.
5. It doesn’t rain in the south of England every day. In fact theirs quite a bit of sun, especially in the summer time.
6. If there are some things you don’t buy cheaply it would be shoes, beds and cans of tomato soup.
7. Talking to people is way more fun if you love them.
8. The best sort of people are open minded people.
9. Your never happier than you are grateful.
10. People without purpose perish.
11. As you draw closer to Christ you will draw closer to those around you.
12. Nothing has more power to change no has changed so much as Jesus Christ’s Atonement.
13. D&C 90:24
14. Keep the commandments and you will prosper.
15. We shouldn’t endure to the end but enjoy to the end.
16. You can’t say to a fire “give me heat and I will give you wood.” In the same way we cannot say give me the blessings and I will keep the commandments.
17. There are patterns in all things.
18. God has a great sense of humour.
19. Songs have real power.
20. False doctrine is taught far more in church than some might think. The vast majority is accidental however.
21. Testimonies cease to be testimonies if we have any other motive than to share what we know to be true.
22. Kirkland Signature pancake mix is the best food for having people over in the morning.
23. England’s goal is to make everything as inconvenient as possible. Especially for drivers.
24. They build brick buildings over here because wooden buildings would rot too quickly.
25. The English Countryside is beautiful, if you can see past the hedges that are absolutely everywhere.
26. In England you can say damn and hell but not bummer or fanny.
27. DA means dinner appointment, ZL means zone leader, and b-dates are for baptisms, not birthdays.
28. If you exercise enough to make you sweat it will make you happier and put you in a more positive mood.
29. Mixer taps are the best thing ever rather than a separate one for hot and cold water.
30. You need more than a light sweater to handle English weather.
31. Miracles happen according to our faith and our diligence.
32. Never tell a depressed person to simply buck up and get on with things.
33. Anything worth having takes effort and time.
34. Better to use an Oxford comma to provide clarity than to not use one.
35. Cornish pasties are crimped along the side while Devon pasties are crimped along the top.
36. You find what you seek.
37. You can give your blessings from heaven to other people.
38. English chocolate isn’t even too much better. What you really want is the high quality specialty chocolates.
39. You never know if you pronounce the name of a place correct until you hear a local say it. But even then you don’t know what the name is because their accent is so different.
40. Their are an infinite amount of roads named “London Road”
41. Sunday roasts are only slightly against the sabbath day.
42. Always accept someone’s kindness.
43. Hygiene brings forth the blessings of heaven.
44. You have to wait for everyone to receive their dessert before your allowed to eat yours.
45. To make good rice for 2 hungry people turn the stove on to max, put a small pot on and pour in one cup of rice to two cups of boiling water. Cover and let the water come to a boil again and stir after a minute. Re-cover and turn the temperature down to a simmer. After most water has been absorbed or boiled off remove cover, stir, and leave until not soggy. If rice is still tough add a small amount of hot water.
46. Remind those about to be baptised to wear white underwear.
47. It is never good to film in vertical or portrait mode. Horizontal or landscape is a must.
48. If it’s broke turn it on and off again.
49. If you don’t want to pray, that’s when you pray until you do.
50. If you want to be able to direct traffic, go into any construction site or pretty much do anything where you need to be “authorised” simply wear a high-vis jacket and you’ll be alright.
51. The four things that will keep you on the covenant path simply are reading the scriptures, Ernest prayer, selfless service, and continuing obedience.
52. We are all loved by God equally but not everyone is trusted by God equally.
53. The more righteous we are the less we need the spirit.
54. You can get bitter or get better.
55. There is no such thing as predestination and even though God might already know what we will do we must still prove it to ourselves.
56. The thing that will strike us the most about the afterlife won’t be who is there or what it’s like. Rather it will be the surprise we have when we see our Heavenly Father’s face and remember just how much we loved him.
57. You don’t need to know everything to know enough.
58. If you feel like going less active as yourself. “To who shall you go?” Where else will you find the blessing of the church?
59. Polished shoes make a difference.
60. Be obedient and look for the blessings rather than excuses not to.
61. Our Heavenly Father is kind enough to give us snippets of what he sees.
62. Patriarchal blessings truly are from a loving Heavenly Father.
63. The best thing a husband can do for his children is to love their mother.
64. Faith is action, fear is inaction
65. Always set expectations and always extend commitments.
66. Their are good days and bad days. Good days are when you walk with God, bad days are when you don’t.
67. When parking a car, your further than you think you are from everything.
68. Lemon squash and summer fruits squash makes an excellent pink lemonade.
69. You are a hero for someone.
70. Smiling makes the days go faster.
71. If someone says “you alright?” They don’t expect a response.
72. The best thing you can do to help someone is to give them the restored gospel. Unless they need urgent medical attention.
73. Don’t do drugs.
74. If in doubt, hold a meeting.
75. You can work out to Mormon Tabernacle Choir
76. If you peal the outermost leaves of a head of lettuce it will stay good for a day or two more.
77. Know your neighbours.
78. Knocking at 8 pm Sunday night in the rain makes you look sketchy.
79. Crockpots are amazing.
80. England has way better internet.
81. There is such thing as evening and daytime as well as seasonal perfumes.
82. Eye contact in conversation does a ton for people’s perception of you.
83. Mary Magdalene could totally have been Christ’s wife.
84. There are three versions of the restoration movie. One from Lucy Mack Smith, another from Emma Hale Smith, and another from the view of a convert. All are slightly different.
85. Singing hymns fixes a whole host of problems.
86. Muslim people are pretty neat.
87. Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved.
88. Kangaroos lick their forearms so their spit absorbs the heat from their blood vessels and then evaporates off, helping them to cool down. You can do the same. It’s better though if you just run your wrists under cold water for a minute.
89. Keeping a dream journal helps you lucid dream more.
90. The way to be happy is to choose to be and to keep the commandments.
91. All swans on the Thames river belong to the queen.
92. If the Book of Mormon is true than Joseph Smith was a prophet and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is God’s true church on the earth.
93. We should all be striving for our calling and election.
94. The best kind of curry is the Makhani one. Unless you like it spicy.
95. The Confrence version of “Let Us All Press On” is the most quality hymn in the history of hymns. possibly ever.
96. English people’s favourite question is “What do you think of Trump?”
97. It’s better to say thank you than to say sorry.
98. Hotdogs are just as good coming from tin cans.
99. Nando’s is overpriced.
100. Central heating is better than radiators.
101. The mission is worth it!
It’s been a good two years. Thanks for making it even better with you emails, prayers, love, and faith! I’ll see most of you very soon and other in the not too distant future.
Love, Elder Palmer 

April 11, 2018 – I’d rather be sad in a Lambourghini

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When rain pours so do the miracles. This week has been a wet one, in many ways. Most obviously with rain. It has been incredibly wet with nothing ever really being dry. Luckily a lot of the rain has come in the nighttime making it a lot more bearable. I can not keep my shoes or trousers clean at all. They’re usually mucky after 15 minutes of being out. Good times.
The absolute highlight of this week has got to be that we baptised our awesome friend Vilte. She is a superstar and it was so great to see her not only have her sins washed away but start afresh with the Holy Ghost. It was a bit of a panicked service. Due to the fact that we had been in Crawley for two days I had to really rush the preparations for he baptism. Elder Parcell being new to the area and situation was still a great help.
The baptism was in the afternoon on Saturday and we went early to set up. A miracle was that the only bishopric member we thought was available did not have keys for the font. We went on a bit of a panicked search trying to find a key before it was too late. It was at that time only an hour from the baptism and the font took that long to fill. To our surprise the keys the bishopric member had lost were stored in an unlikely location in the clerks office. With keys in hand we quickly swept out the font and got the water running. It would turn out to be done with minutes to spare.
We also weren’t really sure who was coming. We were a bit slow with our invitations but as all baptisms seem to go, the ward pulled it out. We had more people than we expected there and everyone had a great time. Vilte invited three of her friends who also brought their parents. We also invited our assistants, zone leaders and district members. All seven of them came. It went out without a hitch was the best.
Vilte truly is a super star. She would say things during our teaches like this,
“God makes the best books. He should be an author.”
 
The spirit was in her eyes before her baptism and is there even more so now. She would read and pray every day and is very self motivated. I’m so grateful to work with her! I got to participate in her confirmation as well which was an extra special blessing. She will be a great young woman.
Also this week I got to do my first baptismal interview. It was for one of our zone leaders dates and that was a special experience for me. This dear sister has had some roadblocks out of her control that have stopped her from being baptised. Finally, however, those roadblocks were removed and she was cleared for baptism. She has such a great and firm testimony. It was a joy to sit wit her and listen to how she had grown. Those covenants are so special and Heavenly Father helps us create lasting memories and spiritual experiences as we worthily participate in them.
On a different level we did quite a bit of finding. One man we met was rather interesting. We approached him and he started talking about polygamy. We did our standard oh don’t worry about it we don’t do it anymore and back then it was necessary, blah, blah, blah. He responded with something along the lines of
“well why don’t you practice it any more? Most animals aren’t monogamous and so why should we be?”
It was an interesting conversation talking about things from prophets to flat earth theories. Apparently something about Lake Michigan being super big and the horizon being smaller but still being able to see the other side of the lake, yada, yada, yada means that earth is flat. Also apparently you have to be past Saturn to see the curvature of the earth properly. Good times regardless. We’re seeing him soon to talk about the Book of Mormon.
We had good times with members this week as well. I love faithful members of the church. They’re great to around pretty much anytime.
That’s about all the exciting things from the week. Thanks for your blessed emails!
Love, Elder Palmer 

June 13, 2018 – That’s Just a Lil’er Burb Right There

 

Bonjour!

Hello friends, family, acquaintances and other. How has your week been? I hope it’s been good! Well this little weekly of mine is about to come to light and I want you to read it. I’m not really sure what I will write so I can’t really give you a preview of what’s happened. I don’t usually do much editing with these. I think sense make it.
This past week has had some great highlights. We had our interviews with the mission president and stake confrence bundled into one weekend. Let’s talk about that first. We had our interviews Saturday morning. It was my departing interview this time and so it was a bit different than past interviews. Both President and Sister Gubler said nothing about the work and instead talked about what would happen after the mission. The things that were most strongly emphasised was to stay faithful and focused on the gospel and to find a wife. President was super straight about both things.
It was also fun because me and Elder Dickey had part of ur interviews as a join interview where he talked strait about my plan and how to best use it. I’m really going to miss the Gublers. They are my second parents. They’ve taught me a lot of lessons. After our interviews we had some training and then went out as ten missionaries to do some finding on the Reading Highstreet. That was fun as it always is. Me and Elder Ndala talked to this Muslim man for a good long while. We also talked to another lady who’s first question was “why do you only let people with special underwear in your temples?” It’s not only totally wrong but also just so loaded. You act positive when they go off like this but man it does get to you.
Ignorance is a plague of this world as well as those that feel know something then as a result feel they know everything. I really hope to avoid that state of mind and instead to keep an open mind and be willing to be wrong. It not only make others happy but makes me happier in the long run. It was fun finding though. Afterwards we had stake Confrence which was a real good time. We had Elder Saban from the area presidency at this stake confrence which made it extra fun. We learned about journeys and receiving personal revelation and how to gain faith. One of my favourite quotes from the Confrence was by Elder Saban who said “The thing Jesus loves the most to do is to extend mercy. Especially to those that feel they don’t deserve it.” Me and Elder Parcell have done a lot of talking on the subject of mercy and this has enlightened me a little bit more.
Also this week we had a teach with an atheist guy named Ben who is awesome. We played pool with him at a sports bar and talked about anything and everything. Turns out I’m still rubbish at pool. We then taught him again yesterday and got proper deep into things. You could tell it all made the gears in his head turn. He decided not to be ignorant but to be open and was blessed because of that, even if in the end he might not have agreed.
To be honest the rest of the week was pretty naff. It was finding and studies mainly. We walked pretty far to this less active families house to have a 2 min awkward conversation. We called our baptismal date a dozen times and sent him a letter in the post but have received no response. We made quite a few other phone calls and found someone to teach out of it which was nice.
That’s all for now I think. I’ll write again next week and share a little of what I’ve learned. Have the week of weeks now.
Love, Elder Palmer 

Lessons learned and many more to go – June 6, 2018

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Hey there!
Times a tickin, but that’s not important. It’s been a very exciting week. Some really quality times were had. So on Wednesday night we were able to teach our baptismal date Ben again. It’s been too long since we had last taught him so it was good to get back to it. The teach happened right outside the big Church of England chapel and was rather serene. Ben is a great guy with a big heart and a firm desire.
On Thursday we had an exchange. This time I was with Elder Ndala here in Newbury. Elder Ndala if I haven’t said before is from South Africa. He’s really good at martial arts and is very good at teaching from the scriptures. Together we did the regular stuff of finding and studying and all that good stuff. One of the highlights of the day was that we got to go to the farewell of a sister in the ward as she is now in the MTC to go to the Alpine mission in Germany. It’s exciting that she’s gone! It’s always so great to see other youth go out on missions and them come back. It changes you so much for the better and really sets you up for success in life.
On Friday we ended the exchange and then me and Elder Parcell did a who lot of planning and stuff. It was a pretty relaxed day. Not much happen actually. On Saturday we did some service for a part member family in the ward. We had never talked much with the husband but he had texted us the night before. He started the text with “Hello missionary peoples…” and ask for us to come and do some gardening ASAP. We were a bit befuddled at the very unexpected text but decided to go the next morning. It was a really good opportunity to get in the dirt and get to know them as a family more. Service always feels good.
On Sunday we got to do an activity called guess who’s coming to dinner in which people sign up to host or attend a meal and then all are assigned to eat with certain people. It allows the ward to mingle in ways it wouldn’t usually and me and Elder Parcell really enjoyed it. We went to a single sister with another sister and a brother in the ward. It was a nice warm day and we had a great roast. It’s moments like these that really make the mission such a wonderful experience. Connecting with people and in turn helping them to connect with the Saviour. It was really great to be with some people we haven’t been with in the past as well.
On Monday we had accounting and all the regular missionary things. We had to travel to Woodley’s area (Elder Dickey and Ndala) for the night as we had Zone Confrence on Tuesday. It’s always great to stay with them. On Tuesday me and Elder Parcell woke up at 5:00 to catch our train which came at 6:15 that morning. We had a hope to do a bit of travel through north London. We succeeded in this endeavour and got to do some things I never thought I would get to do. We saw Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster, A bazillion Cyclists and since it was all before 8 am it was really not busy.
After our escapade we traveled down to Zone Confrence. The last one of the mission. President and Sister Gubler decided to do a face to face event. It turned out to be nothing like the face to face events that the church puts on but it was great nonetheless. They pretty much took the past three years of their teaching and hopes for the mission and boiled it down into one Confrence. It wasn’t anything new to me but it was an amazing reminder. They came up with an acronym which they felt was what was needed for anyone to succeed. Here’s the acronym:

D: Diligent Scripture Study: Study the Book of Mormon every day

I: True Identity: Set your true self free and never forget who you are.

S: Sacred Time – Prayer: Take adequate every day to be holy and turn to the Lord.

C: Consecration: Be all in to be worthy of the spirit.

I: I Will Obey Him: Obey every day his council and the council of his chosen servants.

P: Prophets, Follow Them: Listen to the watchmen on the tower.

L: Listen to the Spirit: Live worthy of and follow the Holy Ghost.

E: Every Day, Every Day, Every Day: Never stop, never let up.

S: Saviour and Redeemer: With Him its all possible.

To be a DISCIPLE we need to do all these things. We need to study, pray, obey, and serve. We need to have faith, charity, the spirit of prophecy, and the spirit of revelation. We need to never give up. We need our Saviour.

As part of the Zone Confrence and as part of the departing group I got to participate in a special musical number. One of the Elders in my group, Elder Urpi, who was also in my MTC district composed a wonderful medley to sing. That was a special experience.

Another lesson I relearned from Zone Confrence was the importance of bearing pure testimony. Pure testimony is sharing the truth we cherish. It is say “I know … and I know because …” Too often testimonies become anything and everything from thankathons, travelogs, shout outs, unrelated story times or they simply become a talk. Testimony was never intended to be these things but rather it is the purest way by which we can convey the truths of eternity. It is so much more powerful this way and give so much of a greater focus on Christ and his gospel, which is what the meeting is suppose to be all about right?

We got out of Confrence pretty late and as a result stayed with Woodley again. This morning we went to a museum and had some fun playing dress up and dancing to music from the 12th century. It was pretty neat.

Anyways… it’s been a good week. To close off, remember who you are and remember who he is. You’ll get through life alright if you do. I promise.

Love, Elder Palmer
 
P.S “Satan is a crafty bloke.” -Elder Tunnicliffe 

Why Don’t People Get It and Other Insights – May 30, 2018

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Hey there! What’s up? How is life, what is happening, what’s new, what’s the weather like over there? I hope life has been as good to you as it’s been to me lately. It’s so awesome to be happy, have some sunshine and some great things to do. I know your not all full time missionaries (We’re still all missionaries though) and so you might not have such a special joy but nonetheless, I hope there is joy there. I now hope I can show a little amount of why I can feel such joy, but first I have a little insight to share.
So… here is this little pyramid. It’s called Maslow’s Pyramid of Needs according to Elder Parcell. It have changed it slightly as I’m no scholar regarding it but I believe I have the general gist of it.
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Obviously it’s a triangle. But you might ask why is there this weird deep red to light yellow colour gradient on it. And what are these words? Food, Security, Comfort? What does it mean? Well, to explain, the pyramid helps illustrate what we as a human being need. And not only that but help us see a prioritisation of needs. With this we can see that we really need Food, Water, Warmth, etc. and that we need it before we can even consider things like comfort or respect. As an example, it’s pretty darn hard to care about respect if we’re starving. No matter how foolish we might look, What if you haven’t eaten a cheeseburger in forever and the world had run out of cheese. Suddenly  you find some cheese in the dirt. In this situation your not really going to worry about what others think of you. Rather you’ll probably wipe of the dirt so you can put it on you cheeseless burger.
It’s simple that we need some things more than others. It’s not really until we have those greater needs that we can move onto higher levels of them. This brings us to how this pyramid applies to the gospel. Everyone has the triangle that we’re all trying to fill. Chances are we’re struggling in one form or another. Most struggle with the middle three levels, some with the bottom one. As a result for many the point or “spirituality” is neglected. They can’t prioritise it due to the many other problems they face. This a problem us missionaries run into a lot. The gospel is not a priority for them simply because most people aren’t at a stage where they are comfortable enough with the first four layers. As a result they can’t dig into that fifth one. However if you know a thing or two about the gospel you’ll know that the gospel will help with all five layers of the pyramid. So regardless of where people are as missionaries we try and help them work on it. This presents a problem.
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We try and help people put it first but as seen here, it’s darn hard to balance a pyramid on a point. If even a small wind were to come it would probably topple the whole thing. Spirituality is very hard to prioritise first if not done right. Compared to the other needs it feels almost expendable and extraneous. but chances are if your reading this you know enough about the gospel to disagree. In 3rd Nephi 15:33 and Matthew 6:33 It say “seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” We are promised that if we put God first or “spirituality” than we will have success in all other things. I believe this is because of some very important pillars.
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If we have the Atonement of Christ to carry us and covenants to bless us we can properly balance all other needs. We’ll be blessed with the ability to put confidence in our perfect saviour. We will be blessed with a better understanding of how to prioritise. We’ll be blessed with the capacity to fulfill our physical needs and will have help from those who share the same beliefs. We know all these blessings will come but those who nothing of the gospel it’s a hard concept to grasp.
 The point I’m trying to make here is that we expect a lot of people. We expect them to put aside working to support their family and instead to come to church. We expect them to put the pleasures of smoking aside to obey God’s commandments. We expect them to give up relationships so they can grow their relationship with God. These are not easy things. There hard and sometimes it can be hard for our friends to see the benefits. It really does require a ton of faith to move ones priorities around in such a drastic way. Is it worth it? Always! But is it easy to understand an apply? No. It takes a huge level of humility and trust.
It is a miracle what our friends do to be worthy to be baptised and to continue in the path. Every baptism really is a miracle and we should recognise that. Priorities are important and I hope that we will help our friends, coworkers, family, neighbours or whoever to see the blessings of putting God first and to still love them when they struggle though it.
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I also said I’d write about this week didn’t I? It’s moments of revelation like this that have made my week great. It’s not been a terribly good week with our friends but we’re trying so darn hard to make it good so I’m not worried. Put in your effort and let God worry about the rest. This is his work after all. One of the lessons I’ve been learning is the importance of keeping up contact with our friends. If we don’t text, talk, teach or testify to our friends every day it’s hard for them to have progress or to remember what their fighting for. If we’re not fighting with them they’ll probably fall and they can fall so quick! Daily contact really brings blessings.
Last Thursday I was on exchange again with Elder Dickey. We taught a ex US marine which was fun. He’s staunch Roman Catholic and a solid dude. We had a great chat with him. It important to stay open about things and to be super friendly always. We didn’t bash and that made it nice. I couldn’t have done that if I was closed minded and frustrated. It was also fun because on the exchange we did some finding and the third people we talked to were triplets. There was only two of them but they both decided to meet up another time. Sadly we haven’t seen them but it’s always cool to meet two out of three triplets right?
We’ve been trying to set daily finding goals as well. One of my favourite goals as of late was to talk to the scariest looking guys, the hottest girls and groups. It helped Elder Parcell and I really step out of our comfort zones. It also tends to be more exciting. You talk to really weird and wonderful people. The name of one man we talked to was Ben. Ben is a neat guy. We’ll be playing pool with him tomorrow.
As another insight, I can’t remember where I heard this but it was regarding miracles. Often we think as miracles as something unexplainable. However a better way to look at in my opinion is to see it as a time when God has a hand in things. Is not divine intervention or influence a miracle. I think in our lives we have a lot of intervention, influence and inspiration, more than we realise. So when we think of miracles I think we can name many times daily where they occur. It’s helped me see just how miraculous our Heavenly Father is.
Another though is regarding confidence. We can have confidence in ourselves or in God. One connects with pride and the other with humility. One is also much more limited than the other. I sure hope you can distinguish which is which.
I don’t have many other interesting things to share from the week.
As a final though! never ever give up! You might feel like all you do is sin but giving up is just giving in to that very idea. As long as we really keep honestly trying to get up we will be okay in the end. Grace works.
Love, Elder Palmer 
If you want to watch some great insightful talks check out “Hope Works” in the media library on lds.org

May 23, 2018 – Exerting All My Strength and Typing With All Energy of Heart…

 

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…I might be able to write a good weekly.

Welcome back to this weekly instalment of my life. It’s been a week. A week full of hours of finding and not finding. There were a few quality highlights to the past seven days and I’ll share those. However with fewer and fewer week left before I return, I find almost everything has an element of repetitiveness to it.
Friday was fun as we had a ward Aaronic Priesthood Commemoration Barbecue. There I had my first English hot dog of my whole two years. The difference being between a Canadian and English hot dog being that one comes chilled in film and the other come room temperature and in a can. Canned hot dogs seem less appealing but are of about the same quality. We also had a large bonfire on the chapel grounds. It was a really lovely evening.
Saturday we had a great Teach with our young Brazilian friend. She has so really great real intent and it is such a blast to be able to work with people like her. A mission really is about working with people like her. Sometimes I wish I could have more experiences working with people like her but I’m just grateful I get to have these experiences at all.
On Sunday we had some serious struggles. We didn’t have any new investigators for the week and that was tough. So to help us out the ZL’s came by to find with us for two hours. The miracle happened when in those two hours we found four new friends! They really did us a solid and I am really excited to meet our new friends! It was funny because me and Elder Botta were out visiting formers. We got lost as we went around but us being lost lead us to a road I’ve been to a dozen times. It was because we went there that we finally after a dozen visit finally came across this one woman who we were told if we met we would be able to teach her. That promise came true! Lost finding gets you where you need to go sometimes.
I’ve run out of time so that’s all I can share. Have a great and wonderful week! Love you like a love song. 💕
Love, Elder Palmer 

May 16, 2018 – Do you like spaghetti?

 

It’s ya boi! Here with a fresh and hot weekly straight from Newbury, England. I just want to start this off with saying how nice it is as always to share with you some of my thoughts. Let’s give er’ a lil’ snoose and let er’ loose.

So this week has been a fun one. Thursday last week me and Elder Dickey went on exchange. We had ward council again which was nice. We always get home late though. The ward has decided to do a “guess who’s coming to dinner” in a month or so and that’s exciting. On Friday we continued our exchange and actually had a really good teach. It was out in the park and the weather was fair and the wind was light to nonexistent. Our friend who we taught that day is going through some pretty big life events. He may have his first daughter in the very near future. We talked with him about how the Gospel of Jesus Christ will really help him as he becomes a father and showed genuine interest in connecting with God. So being missionaries we gave him the opportunity to really get on the pathway to Jesus Christ and he accepted a date to be baptised! It’s literally days before I get home from my mission so hopefully things will go through for him rather smoothly.

Also on exchange we did some whiteboard contacting where we invite people to write their answers to a question on a whiteboard. When we were about to start we were called over by Issac, our most powerful finding tool. To give a brief description of Issac he’s incredibly extroverted, is often relaxing on the high street, and always wants to chat. Why he’s our most powerful finding tool is because he draws so many people to him. We sit there and chat, then someone else comes along that he calls over. Then we’re not only talking to Issac but with his friends as well. On this occasion he called two uni aged guys over and we started chatting. Somehow, I can’t remember how but I got talking with a guy named Ben. Really nice guy and as we talked I just really wanted to relate everything to the gospel, so I did. This must have struck him because he wanted to chat again. He was more keen than 99.5% of the people I’ve talked to and so it was pretty exciting to what happened on that next appointment.

But before we get into that let’s take a look at Saturday… Not much happened actually so let’s hop on to it. Anyways we set up an appointment on Saturday but Ben had to postpone. So we tried to reschedule for Sunday afternoon but got no response. We went to church, had a jolly good time and afterwards got a text from Ben. He said that he’d meet us in town in 15 minutes with a friend. A bit late notice but it was no worries so we hurried off. That teach went really well. Ben has a deeper understanding of gospel principals than most anyone I’ve met before. For someone who doesn’t have a too religious background he’s a real gem. Maybe even golden? Like our other friend from earlier in the week, God decided to use us to give Ben a chance to get on the path back to him, and Ben accepted! Finally after weeks of a famine of baptismal dates Heavenly Father blesses us with two wonderful people to work with.
They’re not everyone though. We have a young woman from Brazil that has a lot of promise as well. We also have some other friends who are progressing slowly, very slowly. God has been very good to us!
For Monday and Tuesday things were pretty nominal with us going along. Finding has been a bit of a struggle for us. People usually are not super keen. But on the bright side we have had fun as we’ve done it. I now have a tan on 10% of my body and larger legs to show for my efforts. That and some investigators as well.
I’m not sure what else to write for this week. It’s been fun, cheery and not all that dreary. Changes are happening inside the ward and people are generally happier, including me. I really have a testimony that we do have a Heavenly Father and that Jesus Christ really was and is the Son of God. The Book of Mormon is true! Russell M. Neilson is a prophet of God! If your not sure about it then read, study, pray, act, and hope. Ask for help and you will find answers. Nothing will bring you as great happiness than what Jesus Christ can bring you.
God bless!
Love, Elder Palmer 

May 9, 2018 – Weekly email turned half-baked essay

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“Once the realization is accepted that even between the closest human beings infinite distances continue to exist, a wonderful living side-by-side can grow up, if they succeed in loving the distance between them, which makes it possible for each to see the other whole against a wide sky.” —Rainer Maria Rilke
I have no idea who Rainer Maria Rilke is but I like this quote I saw from him. Loving the differences between each other has a power to make miracles happen. A great example of this is an older couple in the ward who have an amazing sense of unity even though they refer to themselves as “chalk and cheese.” They may be very different in the way they do things and the way they act. Regardless however they have learned to live side-by-side, unified in their purpose. This idea has power.
That couple has been able to live as Rainer teaches because of the teachings of another. When we see how this idea connects with the teachings of Jesus Christ it has even greater power. As a prime example of this take marriage. Most any man and woman if they both earnestly try to live the gospel can make a marriage work. The gospel—the teachings of Jesus Christ—allows us to love the distance between each other. Even to the point where we can succeed in those most intimate and most powerful connections, regardless of how far we may perceive that distance between us to be. It broadens the scope of the wide sky to an eternal one, stretching endlessly across the horizon of time.
It can also help us in less intimate settings such as with friends, missionary companions and work colleges. We can love them anyways and look not through a lens of contempt due to a lack of uniformity, but with a view of what we can gain from another’s understanding. We can love them regardless of circumstance or opinion and see them as they truly are, as royal children of a heavenly father. In truth, we will always have differences with everyone, even an identical twin. Those differences are there for a reason. We are after all here to be together, not apart. Together with our differences we succeed, we grow, we learn, we become something more. As we strive to love each other we allow ourselves to see others whole against the wide sky of eternity.
We as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints should be some of, if not the best examples of living lives where see those around us with the eternal eyes of our Heavenly Father. We must love with tolerance, not to condone all actions but to never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved. We must stand for the oppressed and downtrodden. We must love when it is hard. If we do these things than we really will have a wonderful growing up side-by-side with each individual we grow with. We will find greater joy in the journey of life. We will be more prepared to return to our Father in Heaven.
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Anyways, it’s been a good week. We had interviews on Thursday last week, a district meeting yesterday and some hot weather over the weekend. What’s made this week a joy is serving and learning from Elder Parcell, spending time with other missionaries and meeting some much more solid people to teach. It’s also been a bit of an awkward week at times. On Mondayit was a bank holiday and as a result everyone was at the park to the point where I got overwhelmed of how to approach a mass of people who already were being haggled, enticed and bombarded by so many other groups and people. It was a whole for me as I have always been surrounded by slow paced parks and quite towns.
Also this week with interviews Elder Parcell and I decided to make food for our zones interview lunch. We purchased food for some delicious deli sandwiches. We had given the zone two choices. One was a bbq chicken and the other was a turkey and bacon. We even went all out to the point where we bought freshly baked bread the day of for the sandwiches. It was pretty great stuff. That was a really fun part of the week to do that for the zone. I think it also really took a load of the zone leaderships shoulders.
Thursday at District Meeting something interesting that was shared by the Wells (Our stakes YSA senior couple) was about how the spirit isn’t something that you can simple pick up and put down. It takes effort to gain but can disappear in an instant. It’s interesting really how good things in life take time and effort while those things that aren’t so good come quickly and easily.
We also met a man named John last Saturday and every day thereafter except for Monday we’ve seen him and talked with him for a while. He’s a good bloke and we really hope to teach him. He struggles to keep focused but how interesting is that to meet him so frequently. God really has a hand in this and I hope that more good will come from it. It’s always fun when it’s so easy to continue to meet with someone.
I’m not sure what else to write about this week. I’m grateful for it and for all you guys and what you have done and do for me. If you want to drop a line I’d be more than happy to respond. You have my email and I’d then have yours.

 

Love, Elder Palmer 

Feisty and Exotic – May 2, 2018

Getting free Coke Zero is pretty great when your finding on the high street. It’s even better when your in the sun and they’ve got Feisty Cherry and Exotic Mango flavours. It’s been a good week for me. Dropping into things like Shawn White probably drops into a half pipe let me share my adventures.

This week is one of those ones where life is good, but you thought you had retired the winter jacket for a season and now your pulling it back out again. Unlike last week with its brightsun and warm air it’s been the opposite. On the upside however we’ve adapted our meals accordingly. We’ve had some delicious mac and cheese as well as a great chilli con carne to warm our evenings.
Thursday we finally had ward council. It had taken two and a half months to have it as it was cancelled, twice. We needed it and hopefully because we had it we should see some progress for certain members. Something I’ve learned over the course of my mission is action points. If there are no action points at the end of a meeting then it’s been in vain. Also follow up is key. Follow up in my opinion is what is going to make or break ministering. When improvement is measured and reported the speed of improvement increases.
Thursday we got destroyed by the rain. We hiked out to Thatcham which is a decent ride from our flat. It was fine on the way there but as we waited for our friend to show up to the teach it started to pour. We waited, eventually calling him, only to find out that he was in Newbury and would catch a bus soon. Turns out he never caught a bus and was still in Newbury a half hour later. My friend! why? Anyways while we waited we stopped by a member who is struggling and she want home. To get to her we biked and got drenched. Later as we realised this teach wasn’t going to happen we travelled back, and got drenched even more. It was quite the experience, one of those ones that makes you feel both very alive, and dead, at the same time.
As you can tell I haven’t been to keen on the weather. But eh, what can you do? Enjoy the sun while you can and make the most out of the cloudy days. Sunday we had a really fun DA. Something I learned from it is that if we truly keep the Word of Wisdom our health will be so much better. This includes eating healthily i.e. eat meat sparingly. You can eat well, but we shouldn’t be a people prone to excess. Also with the DA we had great food, a cheese course and desert. The blue cheese tasted like ash and the goat cheese was intentionally coated in ash. I’m a fan of a Bree or Wensleydale, their lighter and much more palatable.
After we also tired some single origin chocolate. Like wine there’s actually quite a bit of variety to chocolate. Their were two from Venezuela and one from Peru. All three were 70% dark chocolate. The first was a bit grainy, the second was better with a hint of earthiness and the third was much smoother and carried hints of raisins and dates. As I said it was a fun and adventurous DA.
The lesson we taught at that DA is one of my favourites. I learned it from Elder Neuendorf and have used it a lot since. I might as well share it with you. So, I want you to think of the number 86400. Say it aloud. It’s a big number isn’t it. Imagine you have a bank account where in it you have 86400 dollars deposited. You can use every dollar of this money however you please. As well, the account tops up back to 86400 dollar every day. The only catch? You can’t save it. No matter how much money goes unused at the end of the day you won’t have more than 86400. Now before you read further I want you to think about what you would spend your money on? What would you do after a week of having this bank account, or a month?
After you’ve thought about it here’s the trick. In a day there is 86400 seconds. We have that amount each day, that doesn’t change. So what do we spend our time on? Like that money do we spend our time wisely, putting the necessary things first? Do we spend it on others or hoard it to ourselves? 15 minutes equates to 900 seconds. If we needed to pay 900 dollars a day out of that 86400 to keep our connection to God would we pay it?  How can you better spend those 86400 seconds? Just as we budget money, focusing so much on how it is spent, what if we took the same energy into budgeting our time? I know that as we budget our time—being a missionary has taught me this—that we will find more joy in the busiest and slowest of days. Spend wisely.
Monday was pretty chill, lots of studies and the like. It was also on Monday that we started our exchange with the Zone Leaders. In the evening Monday me and Elder Albacite got a kebab and taught a family. Good times. We also stopped by a less active and he told us 5e church was conspiracy to hide the children of Israel. It is so important to not only talk but to listen. Tuesday was pretty lit. So we did some fun finding on the high street. It was sunny, we got free coke and we found success! In our time finding we found some solid people. We also talked to some charity people who would approach people with “I like your face. I’m awesome, talk to me!” We saw a wee bit more success than them. There was also the JW’s and a half dozen other organisations. Surprisingly people were pretty chill with us. I really enjoyed it!
Later Tuesday evening we had a baptismal interview for the ZL’s friend. Interviews are an awesome time as a missionary. The one on one atmosphere and spirit that is there is powerful. He passed which is awesome so the ZL’s have a baptism soon! Afterwards we went to stay with the Woodley elders for the night so we could spend preparation day with the district. We’ve been spending preparation day with the district and it’s been a good time. Basketball, football, an all you can eat buffet and some shopping. It’s fun to be with the lads.
Get in lads! Have a blessed week, bless up.
Love, Elder Palmer image1image2image3image4

Blue Skies and Meetings – April 25, 2018

Hey again, glad to see your all still alive, or at least I expect you to be? I sure hope you are! It’d be pretty darn sad if you were to go and do that, think of the children! My advice for the week is don’t go on dying. As you might now be wondering, yes I am alive and feeling pretty good at that. I’m feeling healthy and have had some awesome spiritual experiences. Life has been so exciting. Let’s hop into the rundown of the week.

Thursday was Zone Confrence. What was taught? Well it was focused on life lessons we needed to learn. Throughout although the content was very applicable to the mission it was also applicable, and sometimes even more so applicable, to everyday life. One thing I might have shared long ago is the four things we can do to have a lasting testimony. They’re very simple, as most things in the gospel are. They are fervent prayer, feasting upon the words of Christ, exact obedience and Christlike service. I know that if we do these things every day, every day, every day we will not fall away. You could also say that they are faith, works, obedience and accountability.
What the final takeaway was for me is that we need to have the power of heaven. Sometimes we might have to fix our vineyard. Taking from Sister Gublers presentation we learned that our vineyard (Think Jacob 5) can look like different things. Is it wilting, is it thriving, is it dead? We might have to prune things back a bit, use more water and distribute it better. We might have to give it time, or start again. We might need to seek outside help. We have all eternity to reap the harvest of our labour and so there’s no point in saying “I have enough, I won’t pursue more.” Something I really hope I can do is to overcome my fear of reaching and instead fill it with a desire to go beyond.
We had an awesome DLC on Friday, I’m pretty impressed with our zone leadership. They delivered a quality time full of insight. There’s not too many times in my mission where I’ve felt a lack of unity in the district or zone but this time I felt a level of unity I haven’t felt since my time in Crawley. These missionaries so quickly become your friends. They are all such quality people. One of the Elders I learned was super good at improvised jazz piano. He would take the chords from hymns and on the fly at full tempo make a jazz rendition of it. It was so impressed that I couldn’t help myself from smiling.
What made DLC such a roaring success was the powerful testimony, solid laughs, and constructive counsel. I could tell that our leaders had put a lot of effort into it. Great times. We came up with a scale to gauge how solid people are. The top was creamy investigators as they were the “cream of the crop” and the lowest being rice cakes as they were “dry, flavourless and dissolved when they got wet.” So how creamy are your investigators?
After DLC we had a great exchange with the Woolley Elders, Elder Dickey and Elder Ndala. Both are from South Africa. This time around I was with Elder Ndala. It was his first ever exchange and my first exchange being the district leader. Before I was only with sisters so never hosted them. The exchange went very well as we went finding in the pleasant weather. OnSaturday we did some whiteboard contacting and during it found 4 new friends. We also had a great moment where a lady came up to Elder Dickey and Elder Parcell. The first thing out of her mouth was “Where is the chapel in Newbury?” She was a less active member who simply didn’t know where the church was but really wanted to come back.
To celebrate the harvest and to cool off we grabbed some magnum ice cream bars and chowed down as we watched a street performer who is in the Guinness Book of World Records for juggling chain saws. Sadly there was no chain saws in sight and we had to crack on before things got too interesting. After that we had weekly planning in the evening as well as all our studies.
Sunday we had church, Elder Parcell spoke and gave a great talk. The ward is going to love him. Monday was a bit of a slower day. It’s harvest week this week and as a zone we have a goal of 81 new investigators during the week. We’re doing pretty good so far. Our district is really pulling them out.
Tuesday we had district meeting which went over pretty well. Had some good presentations by members of the district and everyone was involved. Afterwards each companionship got a 18” pizza from this pizza place. It sat like a rock in my stomach afterwards and it was only half the pizza. We then got stuck in Reading for a long while due to replacement busses running rather than the trains and so walked around talking about teaches and the like. We stopped by the Berkshire Lion which is the biggest bronze beast I’ve ever seen. Looks pretty legit.
Eventually we got home and missed a teach with our friend. We rescheduled however for soon after getting home but he didn’t show up, probably due to the rain. However we called again and turns out he was available then. We went to the decided meet up point but he didn’t show again, or at least on time. We continued to wait, thinking he might for some reason be messing with us but eventually him and his girlfriend arrived. We only had 10 minutes with them but hey, the teach happened. Afterwards we went for a DA with our favourite friends and got shown some excellent models made by one of them. Darren is very good with creating and engineering Mecano models. He designed from two pictures a moving and steering traction engine built to scale and looking exactly like the original.
Today we went to Reading and had a great time playing sport with our district. We also stopped by a store with a very nice South African lady that worked there. I felt prompted this morning to invite her to learn about the restored gospel and lo and behold she said yes to meeting up. We will be seeing her tomorrow hopefully.
That’s about all for this week, sorry if you get this late, I finished before 6 p.m. but don’t have WiFi at the moment.
Love, Elder Palmer