DUSTON WEEK #7

Howdy!

This week was really good and I actually have an update on somebody we are teaching! #rare
But anyway, we have been meeting with Nancy and she is great!  She came to church on Sunday and I realized that she is the first person on my mission that I was in the first companionship to bring to church.  Everybody else had been to church before with other missionaries, even if they hadn't been in a long while.  So that's cool!  She soaks up everything we teach her, though we invited her to be baptised which sadly she didn't accept but just because she doesn't feel like she has enough knowledge about the church yet so we will keep teaching her and try again.  She has two really funny kids named Reggie and Chelsea and they are so great.  Chelsea was just making me turn to different hymns for almost all of Sacrament Meeting yesterday.

We also went to the Milton Keynes District Council on Thursday and then we were on exchanges with the Milton Keynes Elders after that, which was good fun.  I was with Elder Davey from Australia, who I was with in the MTC.  It was a good time and there was a carnival/fair going on in town which increased the regular mayhem of the city center, so that was interesting!  It has also been absolutely freezing this week.  haha  I've been wearing a jumper like every day because I made the mistake of not wearing one one day and it was awful.  I have learned. The rain hasn't been too bad, thank goodness, but wow it has been freezing!  The colors are pretty here, but I don't see them too much because I am in the city most of the time.  Nothing like the Forest of Dean, sadly.  (Mom note:  jumper is the British word for pullover sweater.  He's not wearing women or childrens clothing.)

This week we get our flu shots, or flu jabs as they call them here, so wish us luck!

Not loads else happened this week, but life is good!  If you all would pray for Nancy that would be fantastic.  She just needs a little help realizing she is ready for it.  Thanks so much!

I haven't done a spiritual thought in awhile, so I'll leave a couple of scriptures here...

Joshua 1:9
Have not I commanded thee?  Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed; for the Lord they God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.

Joshua 3:5
And Joshua said unto the people, Sanctify yourselves' for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.

Joshua 24:15
And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.


Love you all!  Have a wonderful week!  Celebrate Halloween a little extra for me!

-Elder Lott

Milton Keynes District Council.  

For some reason Elder Tollestrup and I are glowing 

like Celestial beings.  Not bad if you ask me!

Exchange with Elder Davey

A cool Obelisk we found in our area

DUSTON WEEK #6

Hello All!

It has been a really good week here!  Nothing crazy has happened but we've been busy and it has been a good one.

We have a new friend named Nancy who we are going to start teaching tomorrow.  The Sister missionaries in Northampton found her but she lives in our area so that's nifty.  We unfortunately had to cancel on her last week because the member we were going to bring with us fell through.  But she looks really solid!  We are hoping that this goes somewhere because we don't have a lot in the way of teaching right now.

We came up with a way to help the Zone make and follow up on daily goals.  It was originally a pdf, but everybody wanted a physical copy of it, so our Ward Mission Leader figured out a way to make a copy of it for everyone.  It was quite a process and it took him ages.  Brother Ford is a legend!

I'm so glad that you and Dad were able to go to Temple Square and meet Sister Woods.  It was fun seeing the pictures with all of you guys together. It's a group I never thought would be in one place at the same time at the beginning of my mission.   Her family was one of the reasons I loved serving in Forest of Dean.  There were so many great people there.

My provisional license has come!  Which means I can now take the written test.  I'm booked to take it on November 13.  Hopefully that goes well!

We're making a transfer calendar for our Zone and the tradition in the Zone is to put peoples faces cropped onto images of a picture.  Last transfer we did the whole Zone, but it took so much time that this month we just did Elder Tollestrup and me. We had two options to choose from and in the end chose The Lion King.

Those are the biggest things this week.  Keep being good and do something nice for another person!

-Elder Lott

The new Zone Goal Cards!

The New Zone!

Calendar Background Option 1

Calendar Background Option #2

(we chose The Lion King)

We went to visit Sister Woods, who is from Whales.  

Her family lives in Zach's first area and took wonderful care of him while he served there.  

She is currently serving in the Salt Lake Temple Square Mission.  

We were able to find her and take her and her companion, Sister Drennan, to lunch this past week. 

DUSTON WEEK #5

Hi Everyone.

Just a short note this week - I'm out of time.

We've had a good week.  I have been sick the past couple of weeks but am starting to feel better.  We are going to be getting our flu shots soon - not excited.  I'm kind of dreading the day but it will happen sooner or later though, so might as well get it over with.

It sounds like lots of fun with the Prescotts in town - sorry to have missed their visit.

Exciting to hear that we have a new Bishop in the ward.  Bishop Brady was a great Bishop, and Bishop van Dijk will be an awesome Bishop as well!  It sounds like he has chosen some great counselors.

Our Zone is doing really well.  The work isn't super busy right now, so some of the missionaries get a little sad and feel like what they are doing isn't always worth it, but we still have a lot of good missionaries who are working hard.

I'm working on getting my British drivers license.  It's a much bigger process than in the States.  It is still early days in the process, but I'll be taking my theory test in a few weeks.  I'll get my provisional license (same as a permit) in a couple of weeks hopefully - it depends on if I filled out the forms right- and then I'll be able to take the multiple choice test.  After that I'll take the driving test.  We will see how it goes!

Have a good week everyone!

-Elder Lott

Photos from DLC

DLC

Our Bishop's classic Mini Cooper

DUSTON WEEK #4

Hello All!

It has been a good week.  Wow!  We have been here, there and everywhere so it's been a bit crazy!

We had a chapel tour with Lily and Wayne last Monday evening which was pretty good.  Lily is a member referral and Wayne is her Dad, but we think that a little interest sparked in him as well throughout the tour.  It was a good one!

We also had an exchanged with the Assistants on Tuesday so I was in Birmingham with Elder Kinard for that.  We spent pretty  much the whole day in the city talking to people and it was loads of fun!  I think the coolest thing that day was that we just sat down by a random guy to eat our lunch and we ended up teaching him and his wife the whole Plan of Salvation over the next 45 minutes, so that was pretty neat.  We also ran out of supplies because we were handing stuff out like crazy and it has been awhile since that has happened for me.  I love cities!  The Conservative Party had a conference in Birmingham that day so there was loads of security and we walked past some protesters.  I think we even got on TV when a Member of  Parliament walked by.

On Thursday we were on exchange with the Ramsey Elders in our Zone.  I was with Elder Stock who was in my MTC District so it was fun to be with him again.  We were together over our year mark as well, so that was cool.  It was a good exchange.  Crazy to think that I've been out here a year now.

Friday we had MLC (Mission Leadership Conference) in Birmingham and that was really good.  President Hughes is such a champ.  He's an amazing guy and the leaders in the mission are all great as well.  It was a fun meeting.

General Conference was great too!  Crazy about 2 hour church though.  I think it's a great thing because it puts more responsibility onto the members for their own spiritual welfare.  One thing I've noticed recently is that the Church is doing a lot to make members more personally responsible for a lot of things and I think it is great.  It helps everyone learn to stand on their own two feet.  President Nelson is making moves over there!  He came in and is getting some work done!  It's really cool to see.

I love you all!  Have a great week!

-Elder Lott

Exchange with Elder Kinard

Exchange with Elder Stock

The MTC one year ago!

Elder Staheli!

With half of my first District @ MLC

(the other half is home now)

MLC  October 2018

DUSTON WEEK #3

Howdy!

This was a good week, really busy but really good too!  We had Zone Conference, which is always a great time, and a spiritual one.  We did a training for our Zone as well and that went pretty well. haha  It was was wild giving a training to so many people - never done that before!  We were assigned to speak on the Book of Mormon and we had a little presentation with it. 

We also had an exchange with the Kettering Elders, Elder Bluth from California and Elder Ferreira from Brazil!  I was with Elder Bluth for the exchange and he is such a champ.  He's hilarious and it was loads of fun to be with him.  Elder Ferreira is the happiest person of all time and he is super funny as well, so being with them for a couple of days was a lot of fun.  They got to stay an extra day because we drove them to Zone Conference the next day.  There was a lot of Uno played.

I've recently discovered that I can cook some amazing fried rice.  Just though I would let y'all know because I really have nothing else to say.

Love you all!!!

at Zone Conference with

Elder Misalucha

at Zone Conference with

Elders Bluth and Misalucha