Chinese New Roadtrip

 It has been an incredible week! On Sunday we had Rafael and Ricardo come to church. Sadly, Rafael doesn't live in our area, but he had a great time. We are going to try and work with Southmead though and start helping him get to know the ward he lives in. He live so much closer to us, but is barely over our boundary. He is really amazing though and incredibly prepared to learn about the gospel. The members love him too, a toddler kept hauling toys over to him in sacrament and his mom apologized to Rafael after the meeting saying that he was the only adult her boy hasn't run away from!

We were also notified at the beginning of the week that a woman named Chanelle wanted a Bible. We texted her within 5 minutes of her filling out the request and she responded quickly. A couple hours later we were on her doorstep with the requested item. We gave it to her and told her we had a church building less than two minutes away and she said she wants to come! Fast forward to yesterday and we get a text from an unknown number. Turns out, she told her friend Danielle and now Danielle wants a Bible for her son and she said she can just come to church too and we can give it to her there! We are working with the ward now to make sure they get a warm welcome.

We also celebrated Australia Day on the 26th with an Australian family as they told us all about their home country. It has some crazy cool stuff. The Hendersons are amazing, we have been helping build a conservatory in their backyard. All the practice my dad gave me with a shovel is coming in handy, haha.

Today we are heading to Exeter to film a Chinese New Years celebration. Since it is our P-day we are going to then hang out in Exeter a bit and see some parks and a museum. 

If you can, pray for Ricardo, we are having alot of difficulty meeting with him other than at church. He is really amazing, we just want him to be able to feel the Spirit more in his life, especially when we aren't around.

Thanks!

Elder Killian

Pic #1 - big spider in the bathroom at the zone leaders flat in Trowbridge. England gas big spider, all apparently harmless though. Youre welcome mom

Pic #2 - the nerd herd (aka, this is all of us missionaries who handle social media in the England Birmingham Mission)

Pic #3 - pic we took in Bath while filming last week, felt surreal driving around, people were all so kind too

Roadtrips

 Had a few roadtrips this week. Our mission is going Zone Conferences missionwide that I am training at. We combine two zones per conference and there are ten zones total. Last week the zones were all really far away so we attended over zoom, this week however, one was in Exeter and the other in Wales, which are both only a couple hours drive. For that reason, Sister Gallacher lent us her car and we trained at both in person. In person as opposed to zoom is so much better. Everyone participates more and all the technical problems are far less of a worry. The drives were georgeous as well, driving here is much different, but I would almost say more enjoyable as well. Although I did almost turn into the right lane rather than the left one was, I had to back in the middle of an intersection...

After the conference in Wales we drove back to Bristol to pick up equipment and then went on the Bath (called so because of the Roman Baths) to film a video with the Digital Finding and Teaching Coordinators who are the sisters we work with frequently. The video went unbelievablely well. We were concerned no one would participate but we almost had the opposite problem. Here is a link to the video so you know what I am talking about! Off camera we spoke with dozens of people, gave out a good number of cards, got several numbers, and even found someone who really wanted to come to church! It was a busy day, we literally ate breakfast in one country, lunch in another, and dinner in the same country we started in!

Otherwise, the work here is going well, we are really trying to work with local members and leadership rather than just going off doing our own thing. So far it has brought many blessings. It is a true testament that the power for missionary work in the area lies within the bishop's priesthood keys.

Have a great one!

Elder Killian

Pic #1 - Elder Hansen is a district leader in Wales so I got to see him this week, my mtc comp for those who don't know

Pic #2 - us crossing the prince of Wales bridge going from England to Wales

Pic #3 - selfie of all of us preparing for one of our zone conference training

Meetings and Miracles

 Elder Hoopes lent me his bluetooth keyboard. There is alot that has happened this week so I will need it.

First and foremost, it has been an amazing preparation day. For those who don't know, preparation day goes from 8 AM to 6 PM. That didn't quite happen today though because we had a musical number to film in Weston Super Mare (which is about an hour away). We were originally going to film from 6-9, the problem there was it would be pitch black outside. Therefore, we talked to President Gallacher and got permission to go in the middle of the day instead. It was alot of fun, we had three cameras and two microphones going. While there, the English members who were singing really got a kick out of our accents. Especially when I said 'gorgeous", of all words. 

In other news, we were told today that we three need to speak in church tomorrow so we are getting our thoughts together this evening. It works out super well because we have a returning member family and an interested friend who we want to come to church, so our speaking may be just the extra incentive they need!

I have been driving all week as well. My two hours of prior driving experince apparently qualified me as the designated driver. It has been so much better than before, going back to the bus will be rough. We still have another day with the AP's car though, and then on Wednesday we are moving so we won't have to bus so much.

We saw some really amazing miracles. We had only a few hours each day to go out finding but the Lord magnified our efforts. President Gallacher really wants the office to baptize and so we are all working so hard. It seems like life is nonstop meetings and then frantic finding and teaching in the afternoon. I wouldn't have it any other way though, it is incredibly fulfilling.

Till next week!

Elder Killian

Pic #1 - chicken kebab from the Bristol Kebab House alongside the free soda the Turkish owner gave us for being regular customers

Pic #2 - picture elder Hoopes took of me down at the coast in Weston Super Mare tonight

Pic #3 -selfie we took as we were preparing to send teaching videos out

New Transfer, New Me

 Transfers happened, couple things have changed. First off, Elder Hoopes and I now have another companion, Elder Jonathan Hopkins. He has been out for about 7 months, all of which has been in England. This is my first trio, it's a different dynamic, luckily we get along well so it works well.

With this transfer we are going to try and improve our social media efforts by being more structured. Elder Hopkins coming in was a gentle reminder that we won't always be in this position. Future missionaries need to be able to hit the ground running. In light of that need, we had a four and a half hour meeting with the Digital Finding and Teaching Sisters where we set transfer goals, expectations, and roles. We will have a meeting on Monday to go over much of this with President Gallacher.

We are going to try and merge the two pages into one called "Consider Christ." Additionally, we have a roadtrip to Burton-Upon-Trent to record two videos with members. We either will take a train for several hours, or borrow Sister Gallacher's car and I will drive. My two hours of drive time with an English companion have apparently qualified me. I am really looking forward to it if that happens though!

Thanks for reading!

Elder Killian

Pic #1 - pic by a telephone box, had to happen eventually, that one was on our way to grocery shop today

Pic #2 - boxing day dinner with some amazing members

Pic #3 - p-day at the office, within played four hours of basketball