This week Elder Mattu and I were street contacting and we see a girl with pink hair walk past, who we stop of course, we had just an awesome conversation about her hair and her tattoos and we just had a fun conversation for like 25 minutes, she had to run because she was late to meet her friends for the Hull fair, but she told us we could go over the next afternoon, so we did. There were three of them there that day and we started by having a down to earth conversation about life, movies, music and we just had a good conversation, to when it transitioned in to what we do, with them asking the question, no effort of our own, we testified of God and the cleansing effect he has on our life, spoke of personal experiences, conversion stories, this that and the other and how we're really just normal teenagers, but with one difference.. our religion.. None of them flinched an eye-lid through the whole conversation and they want us to come over and teach the more of what we believe.. It really just shows that we are normal people, we're interesting people who have actual lives too, but not many people know how the gospel can change us ..I love how even though we're normal people, we can bring incredible things to pass!

Elder Jackson cleaning the toilet.

The joys of being a missionary....

I just had an incredible week, we found 2 new people to teach, Our investigator came to conference at the chapel and our other investigators watched it at their home..

I thought conference was amazing...The gospel is wonderful and I want to know all the answers, but these things take a long time to understand.. Sometimes when we teach people, it always seems to go into deep doctrine.. But I really do appreciate the fundamentals of the Gospel, having a testimony of a living Prophet, Joseph Smith as the prophet of the restoration and now Thomas S. Monson, knowing
the Book of mormon to be the word of God and that I have been able to receive that answer for myself.
The most significant thing from conference that I've figured out on my mission was when I learnt for myself that repentance is even for saints, not only sinners.. We all need the atonement, we need to apply it 24/7, without the Atonement, we would all be nothing.
I love these Quotes from conference ....

"Something changes within us as we testify of the restoration of the gospel. He will go before us, on our right hand and on our left, his spirits in our hearts and his angels round about to bear us up . "

"Sometimes it is not comfortable to stand up for Christ . But we need to stand up and testify with power and without hesitation. "

There has been a renewed energy in our area this week. We have an increased teaching pool. My district all had an incredible week, the best I've seen in a district my entire mission! I have zero complaints!:)

Things are going really well over here, I've found training again to be a great learning experience for me. 

So, I think this week I found out how to really pray, I thought I had learnt how to already, but this week was the actual learning experience, I remember one day just feeling exhausted physically and spiritually. I focused on the spirit to guide my prayer and it was literally like I was having a conversation with God. I felt like he was talking back to me and I spent this time on my knees. I remember having concerns about the area, wanting to improve as a missionary and so I went to him with them concerns and I felt like we literally had a conversation about everything. Elder Christofferson said that "to come to a point where you have nowhere else to turn, but to God, one truly learns how to pray" normally it is just a feeling that everything would turn out alright, I found that to be so true, I could only rely on God for the immediate need for help, I needed to realize that I need to take the day at the time and just do what the day requires, I need to rely on God to improve myself and the area to which I serve. Whenever I found that I went to bed after that, I've found that I'm having conversations with Heavenly Father rather than just talking at him. I found that he's very easy to talk to, but it takes us wanting and knowing that we need to walk through life with him and so turning to him.

This week for us was good ..we had an investigator come to church, we had a few 

lessons, one more person to start teaching ....I also can't wait for conference ! :D

Elder Jackson and Elder Mattu

This will be a short one from me because it was transfer week but...

Yesterday we had an amazing miracle, whilst walking down the street we hear "are you God's people?" It was a guy who's life was running in to the ground and he said that he felt someone was different about us, he was attracted to us spiritually, he felt like we had what he needed. He was a man who was planning to commit suicide and he happened to come in to our path and we are able to teach him about faith and the atonement on a park bench, he's meeting with us this evening. It's not by chance that these people come in to our paths and I think it's incredible that I'm able to emanate the light of Christ to the point that people can approach me when they long for hope !

My new companion is called Elder Mattu. He's from Coventry and I'm so glad I am able to train him..he's an awesome guy, I've never seen anyone with so much faith ! 

Turns out I'll be staying here for another 3 months, I'm going to be training a new missionary! I'm excited for it, I think it'll be another experience that will help me so much as a person and missionary.I will have spent literally half of my mission in the 12 weeks programme which is crazy! I'm excited to be helping a new missionary again.... so I'm staying in Hull for General conference and Halloween . I'll post next week who my new companion is !  

This week was strange, I thought I'd be moving so we saw some of our investigators, some came to church, they're doing super well and the good thing is, now that I'm staying I will hopefully be here for a baptism. So I'm happy!  

We had a lot of finding this week, I feel so comfortable talking to people now, it's so strange but so awesome because I know that without the powers of heaven I wouldn't be where I am. !

Anyway here is a small thought for the week. Because of the grace and mercy of the Savior, we don't have to be what we have been..You can move past any situation, any problem or any struggle.. But only by relying on the Savior, we can draw on the powers of heaven to change and to move forward.. It is only through Jesus Christ that we can be saved, it is only by letting him guide us to eternal life that we can get there.

It's been a great week for Elder Dobbs and I . We had 3 people at church with us . We found a couple of new people to teach, we've scheduled another of our investigators but we also got rained on a lot too! 

Yesterday we were knocking and a guy came to the door and spoke to us, he rejected us, (obviously..other wise this story wouldn't be so funny )but then the door to his living room closed super hard and crushed his fingers.. moral of the story, don't reject God! haha

I was thinking this week about the heart.. The heart is always the most important thing to have in the right place, if the heart isn't in the right place we will not be focusing on God and the blessings which he gives us. In the scriptures it's always when people harden their HEART when they cannot see God's influence in their lives and which stops them from progressing, it's the same in missionary work.. If we're not focusing on God and all that he's doing and done for us, we will eventually be relying on ourselves and put him aside, we won't get the blessings he has to offer because we won't be willing to open up to them. So I'm always striving to keep my heart in the work and those whom I'm privileged to be working with!:)

I think the topic that I've been reflecting on the most the past few weeks is repentance, I've taught it many times and I've been speaking to people about it, the church is also releasing some videos called "12 steps to change" today talking about 12 peoples personal experiences with overcoming addiction and there was one powerful powerful video which is Step 1, which says a quote:

"because of the love and grace of the savior, you do not have to be what you have been." I have come to love repentance and I used to think that it was always a bad thing to do, he wants to make us become what we want to become.. We can draw on the powers of heaven to change, if we rely on him.. We don't even need to do something bad to apply repentance to our life or the effects that repentance has.. We can become the best selves that we can be, we can improve constantly for the better, we can ask for our problems to be removed, we can ask for our weaknesses to be changed and I have seen that so much especially this past week. I was never the best at finding people on the street, I would do it, but I was never the best.. even whilst knocking, I will admit, I struggled.. But we went on exchange with the AP's this weekend and I was doing both knocking and street contacted with one of them and I just flowed.. I had improved in that very moment, I don't know what I did differently, I don't know how.. But I know that I changed the way I was finding, I know something had changed within me, I remember praying that night and asking for my finding to be as it was that one day.. Ever since it has been better than ever, I have been a good finder and I know that's because of the strength and promises that the savior has given to us.

I have found as well that I have no problem writing down my faults on to paper as well, I found it very hard to find what I was good at, I tried to think so hard at what I was good at, but realized that I always have more in my faults than I do in my strengths, it's always so easy to find our faults, but as I repent of them faults, as I say to my God, I'm sorry for not doing this today, or I'm sorry for not talking to everyone, I'm sorry for being irritated and repenting of them things and then asking for strength to overcome them faults, I have found strength, it's easier to move past them, God had removed them short comings which were stopping me from becoming the best missionary I can be.