Hello mommy =D,
Things are great here. It truly is a blessing being here in the MTC. We went into the city of Manchester the other day for a first time out experience and lets just say, I stick by my slogan of I HATE CITY LIFE. lol. Manchester has some old buildings, but their train stations are like our airports and are 10X busier. I was split up with an Elder Schwalbe who can say hello and, I dont know English. SO haha it was me and a guy that pointed at people dead on to talk to. It was a good experience and I definitely have some growing to do before I walk up to just anyone. But we teach everyone and that is something to remember.
I try to apply different aspects I learned from work into my work. I think if I am ever asked to give a talk in sacrament meeting, it will be about how the members of the ward need to step it up. Members need to be better. Our family can do better, take this as a challenge to be the family that brings in 10 others this year. It can happen. We can have lessons in our home and you do it all the time, you are not the worst ones we have heard of, but the fact that we have heard of better should make us want to strive for more.
The lord is preparing the hearts of many and one way he is doing that and the easiest way he does that is not by sending them bills or foreclosure statements. It is by having them come in contact with members! The Gospel is a WARM MARKET approach when it is BEST put into action. That is why we love to have members give referrals! Any missionary will tell you that Tracting is the WORST way to proselyte! I can testify to you all. That if you are looking for those opportunities that each one of our family members can bring at least 1 into the gospel and the one that gets this the best will bring 3 or 4! I know you can do that.
With that being said Elder Cook spoke to us last night. That is Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He was here filming his testimony by the River Ribble and Downham where the saints set sail for America after hearing the call to Kirtland. He spoke about how in 1837 when the first Baptisms were performed in England that there was a depression much worse than this one. This is about a 60% drop at worst. 1837 dropped about 80% and houses were 1/5th the price they had been in 1836 so with that said there is one similarity to now. Also the young Queen Victoria at age 17 focused more conservatively on the family and if you have been prying into my life you would know that the British Government was in a hung parliament and that the Conservatives are in power for the first time in over a decade. He spoke of how great and how clean England was from Queen Victoria to WW1 and then WW2 came around people lost faith over here. The destruction to their lives so terrible by the wickedness of that day that they lost faith and hope.
Hearts are being turned and his message was that England is on the verge of a spiritual renewal. I had felt that ever since I was here. I had this feeling that, in my words, England is going to get a wake up call. Whether it was just by me or my whole mission. I know now that my feelings are confirmed by an Apostle of the Lord to hold on to your seats! This is going to be crazy.
Bob was right about the diversity of this city. Every single person i spoke to was Muslim! It is very hard to teach I have found for myself people that believe Jesus Christ was a prophet instead of a Saviour.
I still have an American accent, but I am working on my terminology =D. We hoover(vacuum) the whole main floor for service and then have one of the upstairs bathrooms. I am not really sure what else to talk about...
Oh, ok. Well I mentioned earlier that we were split up. Well Elder Richards was split up with someone that could at least speak English so he had great success. I was a tad envious of him, but he got 5 people out of that and taught the restoration 4 out of those 5 times and did a fantastic job. He just opened his mouth! He was great!
I love you all very much! I pray for you and am so glad when I hear from you! We only have 30 mins to write hwile in the MTC and I leave next Wednesday and so this is probably my last email for awhile considering wednesday is our email days and we wont have that next week...
TIMES UP!
I LOVE YOU.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Leaving On a Jet Plane
Here are some pics of Elder Blackburn, newly set apart, getting ready to leave!
MTC Week One-Skylar's First Email
Ello!
We are all so pumped up to write home, first off can I say I do not remember mom's email so I am glad Dana's is easier to remember. Also, know that English Keyboards are different than American Keyboards so that 6th grade class does absolutely nothing for me besides the letters sort of. Anyways, I love you all very much and do miss hugs, but rest assured that the Missionaries in the England Missionary Training Center are getting theirs lol. Last night, I shared with my district of 8 other Elder's and some of whom were homesick the story of the Stripling Warriors and that their mothers knew it, then flipped to page 329 (I remember because Elder Turner kept repeating it, not my companion) anyways, I flipped there and That is where it talks about if all men were unto Moroni, that the very powers of hell could be shaken. As I was speaking to them about that, the connection was made that Moroni had Christlike attributes and at the beginning of the week Elder Richards and I had been able to set 4 Christlike attributes to work on. I know that if we turn to Chapter 6 in Preach My Gospel that we can become at least a part of how Moroni was/still is. I imagine as Dana would say, that he has [rippling pectorals] =D. I also SPARKed the rest of my district this morning during Personal Study because some had migraines still from jet lag and waking up in the middle of the night.
I wrote a letter to some people when I first arrived but they did not make it out until Monday. Please send this on to everyone and you know all that should get it. If not, I will send you a separate email for that and the info. It will most likely take about a week for each Post to make it from my area to home. I look forward to reading anything you guys want to send me haha.
So after I get done here, we have about 2 and a half hours of Personal Time to exercise/laundry/blah blah blah. So let me tell you about the scenery here, because the English take advantage of it BIG TIME!
First off, Yes-it does rain, but a lot of the time when our teachers tell us it is raining outside and we can look out on the lake/pond/retention pond...you see little droplets hitting it so you would think oh ok, ya it is, but then you walk outside and it MIGHT be spitting. The sad thing is when it is nice and there are no clouds in the sky, ITS FREEZING. You will see in my pictures that I was already wearing the Coat on the second day. I have adjusted though and put it back in my TINY little closet lol.
The scenery is amazing. Everything is green and full. Mom would be jealous of how easy it is to take care of a garden here. The Temple is huge and I probably have about 150 pictures of it. One thing I did not do however, was ask for a second chip to ship back and forth to you all so i can be taking pictures while you are receiving some. If you want to do that, you have the address =D I am glad however, that I have the pictures of everyone from home, because besides that and the few in my wallet, I did not bring any. My district leader got busted for hanging pictures up of his GF and she is only a half hour away. LOL. He is funny and his name is Elder Bowles and no Logan, its not pronounced like going to the bathroom...it is pronounced like a Bowl with an s and then a spice of English accent.
A funny experience you may like to know is that while I was praying at night this week, I noticed I was a thinking/mouthing in an english accent haha. Some of my sentences/phrases have changed in the ending and tones that I have noticed, but I just laugh about it and let it do what it wants.
On the Flight over here, When I arrived in Atlanta, I was expecting probably 3-6 Elders there with me. There were about 35 Elders/Sisters in Atlanta haha and the Airport Services when we walked in to get a bite to eat at the eating area in the Terminal reserved us half the area. We just laughed and said OK. That was nice. There are about 60 people in the England MTC right now being trained and the complex is beautiful. I tried to take a picture of everything, but you probably wont be able to piece it all together. We live in 1 building, there is a court yard and then the Couples live in one that is kitty corner to us and then across from us, is where the Temple Patrons live. At the head of the Courtyard is the parking lot and across the parking lot is the distribution Center and other things. The Center is off the main road that leads up to the temple which may be a 5 min walk or saunter if you will =P, so you can walk up the road or you can walk up the Gardens...You will see what I mean because I got a picture of IT ALL. There are arches and grasses surrounded by perfectly trimmed bushes that act as walls, If I could do my studies outside on the lawn within the walls of the bushes, it would be SAWEET. As you continue walking there is this tree...and this tree sort of looks like a humungous bonzai tree and that has a cement sitting area around it and then there are metal arch ways making a semi circle about 60 feet in diameter all around the [bonzai] tree and they are covered in vines. The walkways are all brick or have brick designed in them. and then you are to the Gates of the Temple which I only have 10 mins to explain to you and WOW we are getting ready to go to the Temple today and you can just see that everyone 1. is excited to be getting out of our normal routine and 2. to go to the temple again haha So I think everyone but me has revisited the Temple since they took out their own endowments...oops...But I also think in talking with others that I adjusted a little bit better my first time around due to the preparation Brother Keller gave me. HES A GENIUS haha.
Temple: The spire probably rivals in height the DC or Salt Lake Temple...Its design is like the Nauvoo temple well with the spire in front and then a rectangle...it has columns on the outside and it is pure gray stone marble. The designs I have tried to take pictures of are the Sun Stone, Various Moon stones that I think depict a really good variation in the Terrestial Kingdom that we will find, and then the Stars. There is a cement patio and that is at the back of the Temple you will see that has steps just leading to the walls, I believe this would be the BEST place to get married or at least take my pictures. There is a stone track all around the temple with the infield being grass and there are pools in the front with it all stone, and I also Know that this work is all about Love.
Until next time I send you something,
I love you all and Hugs are coming,
Elder Blackburn
We are all so pumped up to write home, first off can I say I do not remember mom's email so I am glad Dana's is easier to remember. Also, know that English Keyboards are different than American Keyboards so that 6th grade class does absolutely nothing for me besides the letters sort of. Anyways, I love you all very much and do miss hugs, but rest assured that the Missionaries in the England Missionary Training Center are getting theirs lol. Last night, I shared with my district of 8 other Elder's and some of whom were homesick the story of the Stripling Warriors and that their mothers knew it, then flipped to page 329 (I remember because Elder Turner kept repeating it, not my companion) anyways, I flipped there and That is where it talks about if all men were unto Moroni, that the very powers of hell could be shaken. As I was speaking to them about that, the connection was made that Moroni had Christlike attributes and at the beginning of the week Elder Richards and I had been able to set 4 Christlike attributes to work on. I know that if we turn to Chapter 6 in Preach My Gospel that we can become at least a part of how Moroni was/still is. I imagine as Dana would say, that he has [rippling pectorals] =D. I also SPARKed the rest of my district this morning during Personal Study because some had migraines still from jet lag and waking up in the middle of the night.
I wrote a letter to some people when I first arrived but they did not make it out until Monday. Please send this on to everyone and you know all that should get it. If not, I will send you a separate email for that and the info. It will most likely take about a week for each Post to make it from my area to home. I look forward to reading anything you guys want to send me haha.
So after I get done here, we have about 2 and a half hours of Personal Time to exercise/laundry/blah blah blah. So let me tell you about the scenery here, because the English take advantage of it BIG TIME!
First off, Yes-it does rain, but a lot of the time when our teachers tell us it is raining outside and we can look out on the lake/pond/retention pond...you see little droplets hitting it so you would think oh ok, ya it is, but then you walk outside and it MIGHT be spitting. The sad thing is when it is nice and there are no clouds in the sky, ITS FREEZING. You will see in my pictures that I was already wearing the Coat on the second day. I have adjusted though and put it back in my TINY little closet lol.
The scenery is amazing. Everything is green and full. Mom would be jealous of how easy it is to take care of a garden here. The Temple is huge and I probably have about 150 pictures of it. One thing I did not do however, was ask for a second chip to ship back and forth to you all so i can be taking pictures while you are receiving some. If you want to do that, you have the address =D I am glad however, that I have the pictures of everyone from home, because besides that and the few in my wallet, I did not bring any. My district leader got busted for hanging pictures up of his GF and she is only a half hour away. LOL. He is funny and his name is Elder Bowles and no Logan, its not pronounced like going to the bathroom...it is pronounced like a Bowl with an s and then a spice of English accent.
A funny experience you may like to know is that while I was praying at night this week, I noticed I was a thinking/mouthing in an english accent haha. Some of my sentences/phrases have changed in the ending and tones that I have noticed, but I just laugh about it and let it do what it wants.
On the Flight over here, When I arrived in Atlanta, I was expecting probably 3-6 Elders there with me. There were about 35 Elders/Sisters in Atlanta haha and the Airport Services when we walked in to get a bite to eat at the eating area in the Terminal reserved us half the area. We just laughed and said OK. That was nice. There are about 60 people in the England MTC right now being trained and the complex is beautiful. I tried to take a picture of everything, but you probably wont be able to piece it all together. We live in 1 building, there is a court yard and then the Couples live in one that is kitty corner to us and then across from us, is where the Temple Patrons live. At the head of the Courtyard is the parking lot and across the parking lot is the distribution Center and other things. The Center is off the main road that leads up to the temple which may be a 5 min walk or saunter if you will =P, so you can walk up the road or you can walk up the Gardens...You will see what I mean because I got a picture of IT ALL. There are arches and grasses surrounded by perfectly trimmed bushes that act as walls, If I could do my studies outside on the lawn within the walls of the bushes, it would be SAWEET. As you continue walking there is this tree...and this tree sort of looks like a humungous bonzai tree and that has a cement sitting area around it and then there are metal arch ways making a semi circle about 60 feet in diameter all around the [bonzai] tree and they are covered in vines. The walkways are all brick or have brick designed in them. and then you are to the Gates of the Temple which I only have 10 mins to explain to you and WOW we are getting ready to go to the Temple today and you can just see that everyone 1. is excited to be getting out of our normal routine and 2. to go to the temple again haha So I think everyone but me has revisited the Temple since they took out their own endowments...oops...But I also think in talking with others that I adjusted a little bit better my first time around due to the preparation Brother Keller gave me. HES A GENIUS haha.
Temple: The spire probably rivals in height the DC or Salt Lake Temple...Its design is like the Nauvoo temple well with the spire in front and then a rectangle...it has columns on the outside and it is pure gray stone marble. The designs I have tried to take pictures of are the Sun Stone, Various Moon stones that I think depict a really good variation in the Terrestial Kingdom that we will find, and then the Stars. There is a cement patio and that is at the back of the Temple you will see that has steps just leading to the walls, I believe this would be the BEST place to get married or at least take my pictures. There is a stone track all around the temple with the infield being grass and there are pools in the front with it all stone, and I also Know that this work is all about Love.
Until next time I send you something,
I love you all and Hugs are coming,
Elder Blackburn
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