Travel Trouble

Well let me start off by telling you all how much I love hearing from all of you--even my two best friends Josh and Travis out in the mission field--who keep in touch so well.

On Sunday, we woke up and had no way to contact the outside world because the cellular phone was dead. We had no way to call all of our investigators. We had one investigator show to church, but had no idea where the others were. But, we continued to have faith and go out and do the work. We traveled and Sunday evening we got locked out of our flat (haha, typical thing for myself to do). Actually, Elder Johnson left the keys this time. We sat for 3 hours and finally got in.

The next few days were a struggle. We bought a cheap Sim card and texted everyone instead of calling--haha, it was hilarious! We texted because the phone calls cost too much. It was still hard because we did not always get a reply. By Thursday, the phone finally worked, and we were so happy about that. We started making calls like crazy and we set up loads of teaches.

On Friday,we were out of money, and could not top up our oyster card (these are our bus passes) so it was hard to go anywhere but we had appointments to make. We both are broke and we decided to walk. We walked to Sutton (about a 7 mile journey) on foot and back, and we also walked to Ashtead (2 miles).

The next day, we met a cool Brazilian guy and he invited us to his church. We accepted, but we had teaches all day, so we walked to Sutton and back to Epsom and then to Sutton again. We walked around 16-20 miles this day, we sat for a total of 1 1/2 hours. Though we were both so tired, we kept a smile on. We arrived at their church and it was all in Portuguese--it was cool, we had translation headphones to listen to the service.

Sunday came, and we were blessed. Brother Williams told us he had located 4 bikes for us to choose from to ride, so we did not ever have to worry about travel money--woohoo! We were excited to get the bikes, hopefully after church. Neil was at church, and that was awesome. We hoped we could help him out, because he has had a rough week.

Only one out of three of our investigators came, and we were wondering why. We talked with Brother Stewart, he is a lovely guy whose family is back in Canada, he is not a member and his wife is. As we talked, he said "I want to be baptized. I want to get the priesthood so I can bless my kids, I want to be able to go to the temple and I want to be a member!" His words were so powerful and he told us, "All my family lives in Canada, but I want them to be here for the baptism." I thought of Maria Stewart--funny she had last name the same, and also had family in Canada. She had wanted them to be there too, but they could not make it. I bore testimony of the blessing I had seen in Maria's life since she came back to the church, and the great change I noticed in her boys (or even, as I call them, my little brothers, James, Aaron and Jack--I love them all dearly). I testified of how it will strengthen his family at home in Canada, and that he will be far more blessed for choosing now. The Spirit was strong, and I felt a little bold. We are now going to visit with him this week, and we will talk with him about his options. We know he was prepared.

Sunday night, we got 2 bikes--really nice ones donated by very humble families, and we thank the ward for their support. We have taught over 8 teaches in 2 days and found 2 new less-active families to work with. We can travel the length of our area in 20 minutes--it's been a real blessing!

If we consistently try to endure, put our faith in the Lord, try our best, and bear with patience our trials, I know we will be blessed! I have seen it countless times, and I have been so blessed and happy. I feel the Saviour's love for me and it is overwhelming. I know that the blessings come according to our faith. I could have not walked all those miles to go to one teach, I could have complained. But we smiled, we were happy, we laughed about it, and we were blessed!

I know God is waiting with his arms wide open to all of you, if you just put your trust in Him. Accept the invitation to let Him in. He will always bring blessings and joy beyond compare, if we enjoy this life and faithfully endure trials that come with mortality.

I love you all!
Elder Coon
This is me in "Nonsuch Park"--the bike paths cut through the whole town and they are all very straight.

This is the view from Boxhill Outlook--you can see our whole area.