Elder Coleman Thompson: Hello from England

This week has been amazing! Every Sunday night I sit down to write out
my e-mail to you guys and I talk to Elder Kearl and we try to think of
all the things that we need to put in our e-mails home, and I remember
some, but there are just so many things that happen that I couldn't
possibly put them all in!

On Tuesday was Zone Conference! I think I sent a picture (a blurry
one) that was taken at the meeting of all the missionaries in the
Leeds, Huddersfield, Sheffield and Hull zones - but the conference was
really good. This was my first Zone Conference without President
Pilkington and I was thoroughly surprised at how different it was! The
AP's called me a few days prior and asked me to open the meeting with
a talk about the new mission Vision that President Turvey has given
us, and that went really well!

On Thursday I took some of the missionaries in the district on
exchange! So the rules for exchanges have changed since I was gone;
what we used to do was we would do an exchange where one missionary
from my area would switch and go and work in the other missionary's
area for the day and vice versa, Now however, what happens is that we
switch companions for the day, but both sets of missionaries work in
the Leader's area. So basically on Thursday we got double the work
done because we had 4 missionaries working in Bradford instead of just
2 - so that was sweet!

On Friday night the Priesthood in Bradford had an activity where we
played football! They rented out a pitch and we got to go and play
football! It was so much fun and a really good missionary opportunity
as well, there were quite a few non members and less active members
that came as well and had a good time playing with us. English people
are all really good at football...

On Saturday the whole Leeds Zone got together in Leeds (so about 36 or
so missionaries I think...) to go and sing Christmas Carols in Leeds
City Centre! We set up these tables full of Church swag like copies of
the Book of Mormon, mormon.org / Christmas cards, joy to the world
DVD's etc. and we took turns going out and talking to people that were
listening and giving stuff out to them while the rest of us sang
Carols! It was so much fun! And it was such a good missionary
opportunity! Leeds is really really busy, especially on Saturday
afternoon while we were there, it was really sweet! I had such a good
time singing too. We're going to be doing it again in a different area
of Leeds in a few weeks from now as well!

Saturday night we went to visit an investigator named Sharon. So
Sharon is married to a member from Tonga, and her son Ethan was
recently baptised. Sharon really loves the missionaries and what we
do, and really likes to take care of us and help us feel at home when
we go and visit the family. She has a few concerns with the church,
and doesn't come, but loves to talk about it, and is really opening up
to the idea of joining. Earlier in the week she called while we were
out one day, and she didn't sound too happy, and I could tell over the
phone that something was wrong, but I didn't know what - but I offered
that we could come and give her a blessing. She didn't really know
what a blessing was and so I explained to her over the phone a little
bit about the Priesthood, and how it is the power of God given to man
to act in His name, and we can use it to bless people. After I
explained I asked if she wanted one, and the phone was really silent.
I realised that she was becoming a little teary, and after a long
pause she said that she would really like that. So on Saturday we gave
her a blessing, and she was really grateful. She has a lot of faith.

On Sunday we went and visited this family from the Congo that we'd met
on the street a few days prior - who don't speak English very well,
but they speak French!! We just taught the wife and the oldest son
this time, and I brought them a French Book of Mormon, and taught the
Restoration to them in French! It's been a long time since I've spoken
that much french, or talked about the gospel in French, but it just
all came out - I didn't really have to think about it that much! It
was really cool - and the wife, Leonie, is going to talk to her
husband about the Book and we'll be going by again soon!

There are so many more things that happened - but those are the major
highlights! I love you all so much and I hope your week has been
amazing too!

Oh - and if you haven't already, or don't know about it yet, the
church has released a new Christmas Initiative! It's called
#LIGHTtheWORLD! You can go on Mormon.org to learn more about it, but
every day they're going to be releasing new videos and suggestions for
how we can offer service the same way that Jesus Christ offered
service while he was on the earth! Go check it out, do the suggestions
on there and share it on social media! Jesus Christ is the light of
the world, but he needs us to do his work.

This is a little canal boat in Saltaire. Last week we helped do service by planting a bunch of flowers in the park and we took a picture in front of this boat because it looked cool. It says saltaire on the side - that's the town right next to where we live - it's an old mill town that used to be run by a guy named Salt