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| Guernsey Island! |
We have had a wonderful last couple of days as we have been island hopping from Jersey and Guernsey! They are two islands right off the coast of France and you can even see France from where we are (not clearly so don't get to crazy). It wasn't for a holiday either... Missionaries don't do that but it has been a blessing to see the islands and work on them because I never thought I'd have the chance. It's been fun and I've been gotten quite the tan while over here (yes, I can tan apparently...) It's been eventful and it's also been a crazy busy week! Sad news... I have only 10 months left as a missionary after hitting my year mark and also, all of my friends are finishing up which is something to be joyful about! Can't wait to see what's in store for the lot of them as they return home. Here is the recap of our trip to the islands which ends tomorrow night and then we'll fly back to Crawley in preparation for Tri-Zone Conferences.
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| Flying to Jersey! |
Monday: July 4th, 2016
Super good day! We played some basketball at the chapel today and we crushed it. It was super fun and then we headed to account and prepare for MLC and cover a bit for moves coming up in a few weeks.
Tuesday: July 5th, 2016
MLC today in Staines and we covered a few points that the Lord needed us to work on and we came away with a super cool idea from one of the Elders who suggested we have a small A6 size laminated copy of our Mission Training Plan so we could have a copy to fill in each day. I'll send pics at some point because this probably made absolutely no sense to you haha.
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| First Ever Zone Leader Training in the ELSM! |
We had our new meeting today that the Lord gave us through revelation. So, as Zone Leader Training about, we covered major portions where we lacked in the mission field (Planning, Zone Ministering, Finding, and Accounting). It was super successful and all of the western zone loved it and we were super pleased with the results that came about.
Thursday: July 7th, 2016
Round two of Zone Leader Training for all of the remaining eastern zones and it was another good day! We had to leave early because we needed to head to the airport to catch our flight to Jersey (one of the Channel Islands right next to France) (you can see France way off in the distance) We are only about 28 miles away. When we are at MLC, our Mission President and his wife pulled us aside and were like, "we have a crazy idea..." Elder Tunnicliffe and I both looked at each other and then came the words, "you should head to Jersey and Guernsey on Thursday." WHAT! But we were cool with it because they needed some assistance and help because it's a bit of a struggle but we moved our trip to Thursday compared to our original plan for September. So yeah, we had fun packing and heading and flying out again. It was crazy to be on a plane again, it was a super short flight (45 minutes) but it was fun again! We'll have five days on the islands and then we'll head back to the main land.
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| Jersey has the highest and fastest tides, exhibit A. |
Friday: July 8th, 2016
Today on Jersey was amazing! We had 15 lessons as a group of four and we found 10 new investigators and just had a blast! We did some beachside contacting and that went super well! Elder Moorcroft and I met a super cool guy named Stephen who had a Book of Mormon but never read it but as he was going to leave the conversation, we asked a couple of questions that grabbed his attention and he took another Book of Mormon and accepted the invitation to read it. Really good day and Jersey is super beautiful! I never thought I'd have the chance to ever see the islands during my mission but the Lord blessed me with an amazing opportunity to see them and also work on them and see great success. I'll also get to spend my mission birthday on the islands which is super cool, quite the blessing huh? God is good!
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| Elizabeth Castle in the Distance |
Year mark and let me tell you, it was definitely a day to remember!!! I can't believe I've been in England for a year. It's amazing how fast time has flown by... With the privilege we had to be on the islands, it was quite the year mark! Beautiful scenery and just a wonderful day full of almost everything from biking up and down hills (which I nearly died of exhaustion) to climbing up more hills with a scenic view to performing an accidental front flip on a bike and falling on my butt. It was hilarious and I came out with no injury at all. God was definitely looking out for me there haha. I'll share the full story some other day but basically, my companion I was on exchange with does mountain biking and he went down these stairs (it was only like 6 steps) with ease and I was like, "I've done this before, I can do it again..." As I went down, I braked to hard on the front tire (the brakes over here are reversed so on the right handle bar, it controls the front tire instead of the back tire like my bike back home and I totally spaced that) and the bike did a stoppie and the whole bike then did a front flip as I went down the stairs haha. Quite the experience, we were just laughing and I paused and just amazed at how nothing bad happened. Truly blessed. What I learned is don't do something someone else can if you've never fully done it before or if you're not skillful at it. What was crazy about it, is later as we were going down another hill, the elder I was with pulled braked way to hard and performed a stoppie of his own and also did a flip of his own... It was crazy and again... We laughed. Over the course of these past two days in Jersey, I've biked just over 50 miles! Let's just say my legs are super sore and I have taken the privilege of having a car for granted. The Lord taught me a lesson there! But I was super happy with how my year mark has turned out and how much has happened since last July!
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| Ping Pong! |
We were delayed for a few hours due to the weather over Guernsey and so we sat around the airport for a few hours until things finally cleared. We made it safely after a 15 minute flight (it was ridiculously quick) and then we arrived to the mansion of a home with the Elders and the Dame's (Branch President and wife senior couple). Following that, had a chance to work a bit with Elder Hart and then we finished up accounting and then had some late night ping pong!
Verse of the Week:
Alma 42:31
"And now, O my son, ye are called of God to preach the word unto this people. And now, my son, go thy way, declare the word with truth and soberness, that thou mayest bring souls unto repentance, that the great plan of mercy may have claim upon them. And may God grant unto you even according to my words. Amen."
I hope everyone has a great week! I made sure to take lots of pictures so please, feel free to enjoy the beauty of Jersey! (Guernsey pics will be later on)
Love,
-Elder Rivera
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