Sunday, March 13, 2022

Tracting the Neighbourhood

 All the missionaries we are generally around went to Coventry and then Birmingham for Zone Conference trainings this week while we stayed back. It was nice having some time to really focus on our area instead of going and training with them like we did last transfer. We have even been able to tract just about every day this week. Even the content schedule fell into place perfectly to the point where we have a small backlog of videos building up. Elder Hoopes and I are getting much better at filming quickly and in great quantity!


We are currently planning a video filming trip down to the far southwest corner of England. We are wanting to film three videos in two days and and three different cities. It has been a headache to coordinate but it's coming!

We have a super cool family we are teaching! Carly requested a Book of Mormon but then changed her mind after a quick Google search, happens alot. A couple days later she tells us she still is going to church. We assumed she meant another church but lo and behold, her and her daughter walk in on Sunday. They had an amazing time! We all went with her daughter, Libby, to primary so she wouldn't be alone. Even the primary kids went above and beyond helping them feel welcome. Now Carly is in the ward announcement chat, wants to meet with us, and yes, she even took a copy of the Book of Mormon. We have been in frequent contact with her and she is coming to church again!

Sincerely,
Elder Killian

Pic #1 - eating at a burrito place that just barely opened today for the first time named "tortilla"

Pic #2 - drinking Roman Bath water with Elder Hoopes and Elder Kintner, this is water straight from the spring that fuels the baths. It was kinda gross toasting

Pic #3 - selfie with everyone at the Roman Baths, the whole place was amazing and crazy historic






Friday, March 11, 2022

Sunday Visitors

 Every missionary understands how hard it can be to help people come to church. Meeting throughout the week? Easy. Reading the Book of Mormon? Easy. Coming to a service Sunday morning? Sometimes it seems impossible. Many times they sleep in, or get cold feet, or life happens and something comes up. 


These week is on track to be different though. We met with Danielle, who was referred to us by her friend, Channelle, who we gave a Bible. After that lesson, Channelle made a group chat with all of us. They are both keeping each other accountable to come this week along with Danielle's family.

Then there is Moses, a gentleman I messaged on Facebook who plays the accordion. He came last Sunday and brought his grandson and friend with him and they were all super awesome! Him and his grandson plan on coming again this week.

After that is Annerine. She saw an ad for Bible Studies on Facebook, we got went over and did one and told her about Come Follow Me. This past week we got her a manual of her own. Upon explaining the references to the Book of Mormon within Come Follow Me, she asked if she could buy a copy off of us. We said no, but we can give her one instead, and we put a bookmark in 3rd Nephi 11, but she insists she will read the whole thing! She also says she is coming.

Finally, just moments ago as Elder Hoopes and I were hauling groceries into our flat, our neighbor was putting his German Shepherd out and it barked at us. We just kept on heading in, but he rang our doorbell, apologized, asked if we were Christians, said he was one too, and invited himself to church! He said if he isn't busy he will come by and we will all walk together tomorrow morning!

It has been a amazing seeing so many miracles these past few weeks. Starting up social media again within the mission has been no small task, and many times these past few months, it took alot of faith to move forward when we had no one to teach and no time to go finding. Now that the ball is rolling, about ten people are being being found a day from ads and Elder Hoopes and I have been blessed as we spend whatever little time we can do work for our area rather than the mission social media! Speaking of which, the latest videos we filmed Thursday, edited Friday, and one is out now and the other comes out tomorrow. We went to Bath to film a band made up of three young women who are raising money for a charity in Africa. It was easily one of the easiest videos we have filmed. The Saturday video is them talking about what they do and the Sunday one is of them performing, go check them out!

Warm regards,
Elder Killian

Pic #1 - Elder Hoopes and I editing yesterday, we do it all on one go so we can focus on our area most of the week

Pic #2 - this comes from Dundry, we were up there again because that is where Annerine lives

Pic #3 - dinner at the mission office with the AP's and office elders, a member in our ward feeds us every Sunday










Dundry, Homeless, Shelter Videos

 Elder Hoopes and I have made a goal to teach more this transfer than ever before. This week was definitely a success. We had a couple points where it didn't seem likely lessons would happen, but miracles happened and they did.


For example, on Wednesday we made plans with a lady named Annerine to go to her home and study the BIble with her. The plans were made over a quick call a few days prior, so they weren't super solid. Wednesday rolls around and we had loads to do with planning for meetings, trainings, and videos, so we worked on that all morning and then put it on hold to go and teach.

Annerine's address took us through the standard English streets lined with crammed houses until one such street on the edge of town turned into a single lane muddy country road lined with hedges. Traversing that resulted in an incredibly dirty car and one period where I had to back up about 100 yards to let another car pass who was heading the opposite way. After continuing into the countryside surrounding Bristol another 15 minutes, little cottages start sprouting up. Then, out of thin air, a massive gothic spire springs out from behind the trees. Around the spire, sprouting from the Church of St. Michael the Archangel, is the village of Dundry. The address Annerine first provided took us straight to the pub, so we went in asking around for her with no luck. A couple phone calls and some door-knocking later, we found her house and she is actually super-interested! We are going to start doing Come Follow Me with her each week and hopefully help her start coming to church.

After studying with her we zipped back into the heart of Bristol to a homeless shelter ran by the Salvation Army to teach a man who referred himself. The shelter had signs saying "No Visitors" hung on doors that were locked and secured. We hit the buzzer though and they let us in. The people were incredibly nice and happy to see us. They had us fill out some waivers for visitors, and then let us commandeer the chapel for our lesson. It was really cool, the gentleman has had a lot of hard points in his life but he seems ready to turn a new leaf. We have weekly lessons set up with both Annerine and the other man for the foreseeable future!

We had some other lessons through the week, all of which forced us to push our Social Media obligations closer and closer to the deadlines. We had faith things would work out as we were trying our best however, and as a result, the Spirit truly helped us accomplish what we could not do alone. The videos will he published today and tomorrow, check them out!

Sincerely, 
Elder Killian

Pic #1 - the spire at Dundry as we searched for Annerine

Pic #2 - high winds from Storm Eunice, this pic was also taken at Dundry, you can see Bristol in the distance behind us

Pic #3 - our video set for our video which will be published today, it's just the inside of our flat haha






Staying at the Office Elder's Flat

 First off, before I get into all the new changes for these coming six weeks, go and check out the latest video on Finding Christ in the UK! We got it finished in the nick of time, wrapping up the captions just last night! There is also another video on that same page coming out tomorrow featuring a unique song written by a sister who just went home. So check that one out too!


Elder Costello, one of the AP's from Exeter just barely went home yesterday. At the beginning of the week, all the AP's were crazy busy preparing for the new missionaries coming in, and Elder Costello wanted to end his mission proselyting rather than building furniture for flats so while his two comps went on a roadtrip, I went on exchanges with him for two nights doing lessons, transfer calls, and some service. It was amazing, but the day I got back to my own area was the day we had our trip to Birmingham to film a video with Rising Generation representatives for the area. Birmingham is a two hour trip from Bristol that included a bus ride, two train rides, another bus, and a small walk. 

After filming for a couple hours, Joel (the Rising Gen rep) bought us kebabs. We were starving so we hurried back to the church and were just about to tuck in when a lady came in and said her car got a flat and she wanted to know if she was okay to park in our lot. We offered to fix her flat and she said she hoped we would help but didn't want to ask. I would like to say this is the third flat I have changed as an elder, but I really just watched my comps do it as I got the lady's number and talked about the Bible Study she was going to when she got a flat. We have been messaging her since then and are hoping to have a lesson soon! It is amazing how God leads us to people and puts us in the right place at the right time.

Anyhow, after all the filming we stayed with a couple elders at their flat in Solihull. We got up at 5:45 the next morning to catch our 6:22 train which got us back just in time to drop Elder Hopkins off at the church since he was leaving. We then picked up a couple new missionaries from a hotel who got left behind, dropped off a couple other missionaries at the train station, and then trained at a stake wide meeting over zoom. The meeting was cool since I knew most of the ward mission leaders. I have only been in the Bristol Stake my whole time here in England, but it has been in three different areas, two of which Elder Hoopes and I opened! Either way, it has been a great week and we are looking forward to this coming transfer!

Sorry for the long one, they will probably be shorter for the next couple weeks!

Elder Killian

Pic #1 - the original SMS crew, sister sowby and elder Hopkins both left this week

Pic #2 - filming Joel in Birmingham for a video

Pic #3 - service with Brother Arnold, a really cool member from Australia who does major landscaping projects. He goes home soon though, great guy though







The SMS can help!!!!

 With this transfer coming to a close, things at the office have gotten really busy. On top of that, the senior missionary couple on the office went home for a couple weeks to take care of some things. Since they were gone, the office companionship took over their jobs, which resulted in them being incredibly busy so we stepped up to help them too. We have one exchange this week where all three of us went seperate places. Elder Hoopes went up north to help one office elder furnish flats, Elder Hopkins went to Downend to be with a missionary who's companion was going to the London temple before he went home, and I stayed with the other office elder in the office so he could do his administrative things and I could lead a technology council meeting. 


We also drove to Wales on a whim when President asked us to escort an American couple to their new flat. We went pretty slow the whole way there since he was new to driving on the left, and then we zoomed back so we could be at a meeting.

We had a cool lesson with a man who went to church for 27 years without being baptized. He even was a cub scout leader. Eventually he and his member wife stopped going though. Sadly, his wife passed away and so we talked to the Bishop and he told us to try and meet with him. We were warned not to push too hard because he has met hundreds of missionaries, so we talked to him and had a great chat. When it came time to go we asked if we could say a prayer and he said he would allow it. I can honestly say that was one of the most spiritual prayers I have heard my whole mission. It was the only thing we could do without scaring him off and I think God knew that.

That's about all,
Elder Killian

Pic #1 - dinner appointment we went to with the AP's, we had some amazing smash burgers

Pic #2 - president for us all five guys to celebrate elder kintners birthday, right after we went on our roadtrip to Wales

Pic #3 - us three SMS doing our office work






New Flat

 Hey everyone! We have had a chaotic last couple of days so I am relieved it is P-day! Basically, we try and post two videos a week, one inspirational video and one music video. We had our weekly plan set up to where we could film on Wednesday, edit Thursday, and have it scheduled to come out on Saturday for the inspiring one, and Sunday for the musical one. The problem is, we couldn't film until Thursday, which actually would be fine (but a little close) because we could just edit Friday. Well, that was the plan until the AP's messaged us and asked if we could take care of a service project and lesson for them on that day because they were away for Zone Conferences. We definitely gave those things priority, but now we are rushing to get some social media work done. It is a good time though, and we are making plans to be better prepared in the future!



The service project with a man and his daughter from Australia was really cool. His name was Brother Arnold and he served in Florida as a missionary too. He shared some cool stories and experiences as we were shoveling a pile of muddy clay (or spoil as he called it). The lesson that same day was with a really cool family that has pet turtles, rabbits, guinea pigs, finches, cockatiels, parakeets, doves, and lovebirds. They are trying to come to church more so we shared a spiritual thought with them! They are really sweet.

Last thing, we moved into our new flat a few days back and it is so nice. It is only a ten minute walk from the mission office. That opens up three hours everyday where we won't be on a bus anymore. It is also really clean and modern looking. Such a relief compared to the last flat!

That is about all this week!
Elder Killian


Pic #1 - the spoil heap we shoveled for service, it was straight molding clay at some points

Pic #2 -one of the three aviaries that houses the Liech family parakeets, apparently they are pretty use to the cold

Pic #3 - all us tech missionaries having chippys for lunch after four hours of meetings