Week 15: Manchester Mission: Southport

My dear family,

It has been a lot of finding efforts here in Southport. It has been fun at times and there were some instances where it was frustrating. I have put a lot of effort in these past two weeks. We led the mission last week with 90 Quality Gospel Conversations and I have a feeling we will lead this week as well with 110. But we have no investigators still. We have some potentials. We have a couple of Portuguese men we feel good about that we are teaching tomorrow. I have been trying to study a little bit of my Spanish at meal times so the language barrier isn't as difficult. As missionaries, we are encouraged to not fast more than once a month. We can fast for special purposes on rare occasions. Families are allowed to fast for us but in the white handbook it says that we do not ask families to join in special fasts. I will fast this Sunday morning though.

I had the opportunity of working here in Southport for two days with Elder Darrow. The leaders of the mission are so inspired and are a great strength to the missionaries that they serve. Elder Darrow is another wonderful example of one of those Elders. We obviously had a lot of finding. I remember we were waiting for a bus and no one was stopping to talk to us. He asked how I felt. I told him that I was bit frustrated but I know that it would all be okay. He told me in our exchange inventory that one of my strengths was my diligence. He said that I knew the best way to handle adversity: Plow through it. I hope that I will continue to be urgent and diligent and while plowing I will be able to find great people to teach. We had a lot of fun together and I enjoyed the counsel Elder Darrow gave me. It was a great two-day exchange.

I got a lot of post this Thursday. I received Tom and Lonni's Christmas card, Duncan’s box (Ukraine will be awesome! Maybe Anja can teach him some Russian! I will be writing him back today), Wesli Peay, Bre Bate, Brooke Budge, Bishop Fagan, and the YM President. Tell them all thank you for the wonderful letters!

As a mission we are reading the Doctrine and Covenants and marking any scripture that 1) talks about missionary work in any way and 2) teaching especially by the Spirit. I applied that to a little study this morning I did on teaching from the heart. My study journal says, "Listen to your heart. It tells us so many things. It tells us right from wrong, what is true and what is false, and what we should say. The Lord gives us what to say in the very moment and puts it into our hearts. Like Samuel the Lamanite we need to speak as a trump as well as with solemnity and meekness. The Lord is with us through this great work! (Jacob 5:70-75, Helaman 13:3-5, D&C 33:8-10, 75:2-11, 100:5-8).

Thank you for your prayers I love and miss you all!

Love,

Cameron