A Light unto England Manchester

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Week 35-Manchester England-South Ribble/Leyland

Hello family!

Well I am still here in South Ribble but I have a new companion. Elder Le Cornu is from Austrailia. He has been out for a year and a half and the call him the grandpa of the mission because he is the oldest in age. He seems really good and I am excited to serve with him here.

President Bullock also sends his congrats for Colton:

Elder Starr, congratulations on the call of your brother to Brazil. We had 3 sons serve in Brazil and he will have a wonderful but very different experience from you. Please send my congratulations to your family.

You are doing great, keep up the good work. With love, President Bullock

Kim and Robert are both doing well. We taught both of them yesterday. Robert's only issues holding him back is some minor smoking of cigars and he needs a dog sitter to go anywhere. He has been keeping all of the commitments, and even applying the scriptures to his own life (which you don't get very much out of investigators), now we just need to get him to church. He says he has a great desire to be baptized and you can see it. He has a humble personality and is a very eager learner.

My testimony of teaching people and not lessons has increased as well this week. We had planned to teach a certain lesson during our exchange and the day before we were to teach Kim the lesson it didn't seem right. I then prayed on the matter and the thought came to teach on prayer. We had already taught that both to her personally, addressed it many times in lessons before, and it was also taught in our Gospel Principles class at church. On paper it didn't seem to make sense, but that is the direction I felt that it should go. I was impressed on what direction to take the lesson and the end result was her overcoming some of the apprehensive obstacles that were in her way. Yesterday, she then told us she wants to move her baptimsal date to June 11. I'm thankful for the counsel I recieved from the Lord on that occasion and for the blessings I now see from it. All we really need to teach is tithing now. Pray that she will be willing to accept and understand the law of tithing.

I was able to exchange with Elder Hughes from Stillwater, Oklahoma. We had a lot of fun together. Talked a little bit about football. The second and last day of our exchange, we had nothing planned but nine hours of finding. I have had quite a few days like that on my mission, but as you're diligent they fly by. That day full of nothing was really something after it was over. I was able to learn a lot from Elder Hughes and I am grateful for that.

In response to your comment, Mom.....Everyone seems to want to do whats easy and fun rather than what is right and meaningful. The small pleasures and vices don't will never endure. Living in the moment only lasts as long as the moment. We must continually build in order to become. Becoming endures and is everlasting.

Thanks for the letter Matt! It was good to hear from you. It's okay to start with a bang, I like it like that :) Thanks for your prayers, counsel, and example. You are completely right when it comes to obedience. Something I have learned and taken to heart is the more obedient we are, the less we have to sacrifice. Alma 57:21, always obey with exactness. Even though the Lakers were complete rubbish this year, its okay, because I wasn't there and I still love you uncle Mateos.

I love and continually pray specifically for each of you. I hope you enjoy this fresh start to summer and I look forward to hear from you on Monday!

Love,
Cameron

P.S. Big scriptures are amazing to study with! But I would not reccomend hogging them around all day. You can mail the Ensign to the office. I will send pictures on Monday. Do you have any to send from graduation?