FINALE

Hello Everybody!

Sorry I've been absolute rubbish at sending out weekly emails this last transfer.  It's been a really good 6 weeks though and I've enjoyed it a lot.  We haven't had too much happen on the teaching side of things as far as people looking into the church but we've had some miracles and have been able to work with some members, which has been good.  This ward is really solid and Woverhampton is such an awesome place for missionary work!  Elder Northcott has been a good companion and we've built a really strong friendship with the Zone Leaders here.  I'll miss them all.  The area is being white washed, so we're all getting moved somewhere else which is kind of nice because now none of us has to deal with it being different next transfer or anything.

We've helped out with an English class every week here, which has been loads of fun, and we've also helped at a Baptist church with their weekly soup kitchen, which has been amazing.  It's been nice to stretch a bit out of the ward and do some service in the community as well.

I'm really grateful to the Lord for the chance to come to England and serve a mission.  It's been good and amazing and bad and sometimes just downright brutal, but it has helped me grow and really develop a better perspective on the things that truly matter and on things that I should be concerned about.  Jesus Christ is real, His Atonement is available to, and works for, every one of us.  Heavenly Father lives and has a plan to give us the most joy possible.  All we have to do is what He asks.  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the Lord's church and kingdom re-established on the earth today.  If you don't believe that, please do all you can to find it out for yourself.  It's the most important thing you'll ever do.

Love you all and see you soon!

Elder Lott

WOLVERHAMPTON WEEK #2

Hello Everybody!

I've been absolutely loving Wolverhampton.  It is such a solid place and things are absolutely wild!  The people are hilarious and the accent is even funnier.  The ward is really awesome and I name dropped Elder Roth in my talk yesterday, who a lot of the people in the ward love, so hopefully that gets us in the door to a couple of houses.

We were on exchange with the Zone Leaders this week, who are also in Wolverhampton, and that was really fun!   I was with Elder Fenton and we had a lot of hilarious and cool conversations while we were in town.  We met a guy who called himself the "Wolverhampton Elvis" and a man who used to play for the football team in Wolverhampton and was even on one of the national reserve teams!  Cool stuff!

Well, I am loving life and Wolverhampton!  Trying to enjoy everything while I still can!

Love you all and hope you have a smashing week!

Elder Lott

the infamous Wolverhampton Elvis

Dreaming of future facial hair....

FAREWELL BOURNEMOUTH!

Hey Everybody!

So I'm leaving Bournemouth and will be going up north to the Lichfield Zone again to be serving in the Wolverhampton 2nd Ward!  I'm super excited because I'll be finishing in a city which is one of the greatest blessings of all.  My companion will be Elder Northcott from Canada who has also served in Bournemouth before.  Exciting times.

This was a good week though.  We taught Joseph, did some service for a few people, and had an awesome lunch yesterday with a guy named Tony, his mom, and some members in the ward.  It was a great time.

Also something cool that happened this week is that Elder Konan received his Patriarchal Blessing!  He wasn't able to get it at home because of a few different circumstances so we asked the Patriarch here who has one of the coolest names I've ever heard, Patriarch Wigglesworth, about it last Sunday and he spoke to the Stake President who spoke to President Hughes and then next thing you know we had an appointment set up.  It was a cool thing to do our last Sunday together.

Love you all and hope that this week is awesome!

-Elder Lott

A late picture from Zone Conference

Lunch yesterday

Final District Picture. 

I'm so white it hurts!

BOURNEMOUTH WEEK #17

Hello Everybody!

We had a stunning week over here.  We had interviews on Tuesday or Wednesday and those were really good!  It was good to see President Hughes, have a chat with him, and get some advice from him as well.  He's a very good man.  It was fun to see some of the other missionaries in the Zone too!

The biggest highlight of the week though, was that LUCAS GOT BAPTISED!!!  He's a champion and we had a really good baptismal service for him.  Elder Konan and I were the witnesses for the baptism and we participated in the confirmation as well, which was nice.  Loads of the ward were there too, so that was nice.  It has been really good teaching him and getting to know his family.

Other than that, some of the highlights of the week were:
-Elder Konan totally shocking me by knowing an Alicia Keys song
-Tearing out loads of weeds at a members house so they can
   move a fence
-Seeing some people hiding from the police
-Chocolate fondue after Lucas' baptism

Love you all!!!

Elder Lott

Lucas' Baptism

Clearing out weeds

This branch fell off a tree next to our chapel.  

Kind of random but I don't have many pictures to send, 

so here we are! 

IT'S BEEN AWHILE!!!!

Hi  Everyone!

Sorry that it's been a while since I've sent a group email.  We've had a good few weeks and I'll try to put down all that I can remember

Biggest highlight is we've been teaching a boy from a part member family for the last few weeks and he'll be getting baptised this Sunday, so that's super exciting!  Teaching him has been really mellow because he already has a good idea of what we believe and he's still young enough that he's very humble and teachable.  He has had some really good question though, so we know that he's been thinking about it for himself!

We've also been working with a YSA who has been coming back to church and who wants to serve a mission!  Teaching him has been fun as well because his knowledge of the gospel is kind of all over the place.  When he was a kid he left the church because he dove into the deeper and harder to understand parts of the gospel which of course make no sense if you don't have a solid foundation and understanding of the fundamentals.  Because of that when we teach him, he'll occasionally bring up the deepest stuff but not really understand simple principles so teaching him has been exciting, to say the least.

Some other highlights from the last few weeks:
-Pouring tea into the English Channel to celebrate the 4th of July
-Finally getting moved up to midfield in our Saturday football matches
-Getting Elder Konan to teach me some of his tribal language
-Zone Conference
-Having Nandos

I love you all and hope that your week is fantastic!

-Elder Lott

Also - HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MARISSA!!!

Pouring tea into the English Channel to

celebrate 4th of July

Old District

New District (Sis-trict)

Zone Conference

Elder Konon and me feasting on some A-1 curry

and spicy rice from Nandos!

+

Bournemouth Week 12!

Howdy All!

We had interviews this week which was good as always!  President Hughes is a champion, so hearing what he has to say and having a chat with him is good fun!  He's been here for a year next week, which is so crazy to think.  I've had him as my Mission President longer than I had President Leppard.

Cool experience I had a couple of weeks ago!  In our ward there is a family from Greece and their son was the first non convert baptism in Greece either ever or in like 30 years - I can't remember which - but because they're really solid members and they speak fluent English and Greek they work for the Church translating things into Greek.  A couple of weeks ago we were there for dinner and the Sister asked me with some help translating an email as she had a question on something which reminded her husband that he had a question about something he was working on too.  Long story short, I've now helped (kind of) translate the Doctrine and Covenants into Greek.  So that's pretty cool.

Love you all and hope you have a great week!

-Elder Lott

Elder Konan thoroughly unimpressed with the lunch I made

Elder Konan with his new scriptures!

BOURNEMOUTH WEEK #10

Hey Everybody!  We've had a smashing week over here!

It has been rubbish weather the whole week so we've been pretty drenched for about half the time, but it's still been a party as per usual!

The days are pretty similar one to the next and I can't believe how fast time is flying now.  It feels more like a day or two between Preparation Days than a full week and each day feels like it only lasts for about 6 hours or so.  I remember thinking time was moving quickly 6 months ago and even a year ago but it was nothing compared to what it has been lately.

The work in the area isn't too smashing right now and our main challenge is finding people who are really interested.  It isn't too difficult to have a good chat with somebody and get their phone number or even set up another time to meet with them, but actually meeting up with them again seems to be the real challenge here.  Hopefully we're able to find a couple of solid people over the next week or so. 

I don't put a spiritual thought at the end of these enough, but today I just want to add my testimony that God is real, Jesus Christ lives, and they both care about us so much.  The love that they have for us is expressed in many different ways and coming to know them is the most important thing we can do in this life.  Do something this week that draws you closer to God and then keep an eye out for how He blesses you for it.

Love you all!

-Elder Lott


We went to the beach today!!!  (Yes, in missionary attire) 

BOURNEMOUTH WEEK #8

Howdy Ho Everyone!

We've had a stunner of a week over here!

We had Zone Conference on Tuesday which is always good, but this one was super good as we had Elder Johnson from the Area Presidency come and he of course had some really cool stuff to share.  We got to stay with some of the Elders I'm good friends with as well, so that was a good bonus.

We also got to have a meeting with all the District Leaders and the Zone Leaders so they could pass along information from Mission Leadership Council and that was good.  Elder Orr goes home in about 16 days, which is really crazy to think because I've seen him almost everywhere the past 16 months of my life!  It'll be strange to not have him around.

Hope you all have a stunner of a week!

Service we did this week - we helped this man move apartments

BOURNEMOUTH WEEK #7

Hello everybody!

Another transfer come and gone!

This has been a good week!  I can't remember what happened at all other than one or two things so I guess I'll tell you about that!

The last couple of weeks we have been teaching a Primary boy in the ward who was ba ptized last Saturday, so we went to that and it was great!  We even were invited to be in the confirmation circle so that was really cool as well.  It has been a lot of fun teaching him and getting to know the family a bit.  They are awesome people!

We also have a new missionary in the District.  We got a new Sister missionary from Australia this week which keeps things exciting!  Brings some diversity in accents to the group which is nice!

We also went and had a proper cheeky Nando's today with some of the District so it's been a stunning Preparation Day.

Love you all!!!

-Elder Lott

Harry's Baptism!

Elder Konan's first Fish 'n chips.  Iconic!!!

Random selfie because I took almost no pictures this week

BOURNEMOUTH WEEK #6!

Howdy-ho everybody!

Elder Konan has finally arrived!  Two transfers after I was supposed to get him he is here!  He's from the Ivory Coast and served there a bit after the Ghana MTC and before his Visa came through.  Luckily he does actually know some English so we're able to communicate pretty well too!  He is really quiet outside the flat but inside he is very chatty and I can understand what he's saying most of the time.  I am getting crazy flashbacks to Elder Raicevic though.  haha  It's all so similar!  Training is going well so far though!

I took the 4 hour train ride to Birmingham to pick up Elder Konan last Monday.  By the time I arrived in the afternoon and we met up it was quite late and we weren't able to make to all the way back to Bournemouth that day so we trained to Bristol and stayed the night with Elder Cribbs and Elder Erickson, which was good fun.  They are awesome guys.  Then we came the rest of the way on Tuesday and got Elder Konan settled in.  It was a lot of time on a train.

The Christchurch Sisters had a baptism last Saturday so I got to do the baptismal interview for the guy getting baptized which was good too.  Baptismal interviews are always really fun.  I really like seeing the faith of new converts and the baptismal interview is so focused on the the faith they've developed.

We've also been teaching a lady named Alia this week over WhatsApp, which has been really good.  She doesn't live in our area but was found here.  She doesn't want to meet with the missionaries where she is, so we're trying to get her to the point where she will meet with them.  She said she didn't want members from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to visit her so we were a little confused about her messaging us, but later found out she missed the name tags the first time around.  Her heart has softened to the church quite a bit over the last week though so that's good!  We are teaching her again tonight.

Not too much else to report on.  We have a couple of people in the works, but, as per usual, we need to meet with them a bit more to see where it will go!

Love you all!  Keep doing the right things!

-Elder Lott

Elder Lott and Elder Konan on the train back to Bournemouth

3 Generations

Elders Konan, Lott and Staheli

Loads of Northampton Zone from the time I served there!

Elder Waterbohr and most of his companions!

Talking to Zach and Elder Konan this morning

May 20, 2019

Look what I found!!!

BOURNEMOUTH WEEK #5

Hello Everybody!

We have had a good week.  Not anything that is too exciting, but a few good things here and there!  One exciting thing we did was meet with a guy who asked us to come over to his place.  When we asked him for what reason he didn't really give us one but we went all the same and just sat there and listened to him talk for a full hour.  The two of us combined got in about 15 words so that was an experience to be sure!

It was great talking to my family yesterday for Mother's Day.  TBH, I didn't realize it was Mother's Day until the day before because Mothering Sunday (as they call it here) was on March 31, so there were no signs or cards to remind me.  But it was great to talk and get caught up.  I won't be calling today because I will be on the train for four hours heading to Birmingham to pick up my new companion.  His Visa finally came through and he should be arriving today from the Ivory Coast.  It will be an exciting experience to be sure.

We also had interviews with President Hughes this past week, which is always good.  He's an awesome Mission President and it's fun to be able to have a few minutes to talk to him in a more informal setting than usual.

We've also been teaching a boy in the ward who is about to be baptized.  The whole family is super awesome. When we had just arrived in the area the parents asked us to come and teach him so we've been going over and teaching him the basic lessons and it's been a lot of fun.  They are such an awesome family and he's getting baptized in two weeks so that will be exciting!

Love you all and hope you have a great week!

-Elder Lott

A little Mother's Day pampering for Zach

Staring Contest with Sebastian

Sebastian wins the crown!  Rematch coming soon!