Home Stretch! (Week 101)

Well here we are. I have recently entered the final week of my mission!! That's pretty weird to be completely honest. I don't think the fact that I'm going home will hit me until I'm actually home so we'll see how that all goes.

This past week was pretty legendary, and mainly for two different reasons. One story is about Connie and another story is about going to the Temple. 

Connie is someone we found on Sunday May 22nd. We were out trying to stop by a member who hadn't been contacted in awhile. We showed up and turns out that member had moved 4 years ago or something like that. Nice. So we carried on the conversation with the people who lived in that home. Connie is the mother of that home. She has her daughter, Chloe, and takes care of her Dad while he is in his final stages of life. We struck a conversation with her that transitioned over to what we do as missionaries and why we were there.

About halfway through our conversation her brother popped his head out the door. He looked pretty angry. He asked Connie in kind of an aggressive way who we were. She told him it was the missionaries. He kind of shrugged it off and went back inside to get something. Yikes. We kept talking to Connie and set up another time we could come over. Then we continued with some small talk. Her brother popped his head out the door again and then came outside with something in his hand. It was a jar of lollipops. He offered us one and we accepted. I was not expecting that.

Later that week, on Friday, my companions went back over to Connie's home to share a message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That day was also the day I went to the Temple with the group of departing missionaries. 

It was the second time I have ever been through the Temple to do an Endowment. AMAZING!! I loved it and can't wait to go back. The London Temple was a cool temple and the peace felt there is indescribable.

My companions had an amazing lesson with Connie on Friday. We went back on Sunday the 29th with a member from the ward and shared another message with Connie. She is golden. We invited her to be baptized July 9th. She accepted!! Haha, very exciting. It's been a good last couple weeks of the mission. I'm grateful for everything God has let me experience as a missionary:)

-Elder Hayden Shockley 

*I will be speaking in church on Sunday, June 19th at 9 am. Address is 1158 East 1240 South, Spanish Fork. 

"I Retired to the Woods..." (Week 98)

This week was a pretty solid week. We did A LOT of driving. Possibly the most I've done in a week. Possibly. Anyway, on Tuesday we were down south in this place called Holsworthy. We were with those Elders for the day. Around 2 or 3 in the afternoon we had a lesson with one of their friends. Her name is Bet. She met us at a trailhead that was just kind of out in the fields.

 

She also had her dog with her. We started walking and talking about life and the Gospel. We had this amazing conversation with her as we went on this trail. On the way back, we stopped in this very wooded area. Up to this point we had shared with her the entire message of the Restoration except for Joseph Smith's first vision account. Elder Christensen (one of the Elders we were with) voiced this part of the History. 

As he began speaking, it got brighter outside, the clouds had moved from the view of the Sun. As he finished expressing the sweet experience and explaining how we can know the truth for ourselves, a confirming witness of the truth was granted to me from God. That was one of the coolest teaching experiences I have ever had. We were literally in a grove of trees telling her about the greatest thing that has ever happened in a grove of trees and inviting her to come and be a part of it. I am very grateful for that experience.

On Friday we just had gotten back for the week from our exchanges. It was around 2:30 PM. A few moments later we got word that we needed to take a car down to some missionaries who live an hour and a half away. 

We got another Elder to come with us and he and I drove down together in the car that we were giving to this other set of missionaries. Hopefully that made sense. My companions drove down in our car so that they could take us back. While we were down there we met the Sisters at a lesson they were having with a returning member. The returning member invited us in for dessert. After a minute we asked the returning member if she wanted a blessing. She did. We were able to give her one. No matter where we may be physically, there can be an opportunity to minister to the one.

-Elder Shockley  :)

Final Transfer (Week 97)

Hello!

Well about a week and a half ago we had transfers. Turns out I am staying here in Bristol for my final transfer! My new companions are Elder Bagley from Rexburg and Elder Wilhelmsen from Meridian. This is the second time I've been in a trio and both of my companions are from Idaho haha  but they grow them good up there in Idaho so it's been super fun to be with these guys the last little bit. 

It's been fun to get out more to do some tracting and what not when it's light outside for a lot longer. A couple days ago we knocked on this door and a lady answered it. She looked us, then at our name tags, then back at us and said she wasn't interested. Before she could close the door we asked her if she knew what she wasn't interested in. She looked at us and said "No, sorry." And proceeded to close the door. Nice.

This past week we had MLC here in Bristol. President had told us that he wasn't going to talk until the very end and that we had lead the whole thing and answer everyone's questions. He taught us how to do that and then left it up to us to figure it out. So on Tuesday night and Wednesday night we stayed up until 1 AM just thinking and planning questions. It sounds like it might suck and it probably would have had we not gone to the Gas Station for some Ben and Jerry's ice cream two nights in a row.

Anyway kinda crazy how fast time is going...... love you all!

Love, Elder Shockley

Another Good Week (Week 95)

Well, it was another good week. One of the highlights was that we got to make some reinforcements to this old wooden fence. Some members in our ward have some some fields that they needed help fixing. It's always the best being outside doing things like that.

Back in December we had gotten a media referral. They had requested a copy of the Bible. We went and gave it to them. For the past four months we have been trying to share a message with them but they have been really busy. Earlier this week on Wednesday, we got a text from them. The guy's name is Paul and his wife is Kim. Paul said they would be at the church in the afternoon. We got to the church and waited for awhile. We sent a few text and even tried calling but we got no answer. So we left and decided to go tracting. While we were walking to this neighbourhood, Paul sent us a message that he was at the church. Then he sent a picture of the Church Parking Lot and the Church. We rushed back over to the church and greeted them. They are from Thailand and have only been in England for about 7 months or so. We gave them a church tour and very simply taught them about Jesus and His Atonement, Joseph Smith and the Restoration, and about Baptism. It was awesome!! Hopefully things go well with them.

I'm trying to think of a funny experience to write but I got nothing...............

Anyway, I Love you all!!

-Elder Hayden Shockley  :)

Remember Him (Week 93)

Hello! Sorry it's been a few weeks since I last wrote an email.... haha I hope everyone is doing well. And if not. Then dang it. 

Well in simple terms, General Conference was pretty sweet. There will be a new Temple in the UK. It has been over 20 years since a temple was announced to be built here. Amazing!

Bath

I am still in Bristol. And am still with Elder Kintner. This is our 5th transfer together in total. He is a legend and we are literally just brothers. This is his last transfer ,  but we are doing our best to enjoy it so far.

"Hayden Cottage"

It would seem like I would have a lot to write about because I haven't written in the past 3 weeks, but sometimes when I start thinking about what to write about I can never think of anything. Haha so we'll see how this one goes.

Elders with President Gallagher

I heard a testimony from an awesome missionary in our mission recently. She made a good point about how she hopes that in some way or another, someone will remember her because of how she was able to help them. A lot of times we hope that people remember us. Then she said that Jesus just wants us to remember Him. She then talked about how it wasn't important to her that we remembered her, only that we remember Him. Jesus asks us to do something very simple, but very demanding: Remember Him.

P.S. It snowed one day when we were in Cardiff. Kinda sweet.

Love, Elder Shockley 

Tracting (Week 89)

Well this week was another week. Yay. Haha it was actually pretty solid. I say that every week, but it's the truth. Sunday the 6th was a good day of work. There is this neighbourhood in our area that is a little newer than everywhere else. It was in the back of my mind for a place to go tract. We have since gone there to start finding.

Literally the first door we knocked on the dude asked if he could be baptized! Just kidding haha that would have been cool, but what actually happened was this really excited dog came running out the door and started jumping all over us. I love dogs. This one was very happy to see us but would not pay heed to its owner to come back inside. I was also urging the dog back inside but he wasn't having it. So I started taking small steps towards the door and as he was jumping over me, he slowly got to the door. I kept moving until I was in the house and halfway through the hallway leading to the door. Legendary. Sadly the people didn't want to hear a message.

On another occasion we knocked a door, and this dog started barking violently and came and body slammed the door. Then it starting biting at the mail slot in the door really hard until it had ripped off the mail slot with his teeth. It was the most terrified and impressed I have ever been. That person wasn't interested either.

Just yesterday I got to go tracting with my old companion, Elder Olsen, in my old area, Kidderminster. It was a party. We found this neighbourhood where just about everyone was insanely nice, which is uncommon for Kidderminster haha. We found great success there and found several people who invited to come back. We offered many if we could share a brief message of hope. 

Elder Olsen

"And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal."  Moroni 7:41

Sorry if my emails are starting to suck. The weeks are kind of just blending together and if I don't write things down then I forget a lot of details haha. Anyway, I love you all :) have a solid week

-Elder Shockley 

Return of the Phone (Week 87)

Throwback to literally a week ago.

We showed up at Joseph's home. He is a returning member we have been working with ever since I got to the area. He opened the door and honestly looked a little upset that we were there. After a few seconds of thinking about it, he let us in. He was kind of a wreck, haha. We started talking about how things are going for him and come to find out, things were pretty sucky. Just a lot of things had broken down and some people hadn't pulled through that he had wanted to. He was also struggling with some health challenges and was just not having a great day. 

We read from Alma 18 together and talked about how the Lord knows us very personally. He is aware of our innermost thoughts, desires, and feelings. He knows exactly where we are in life.

His phone had broken recently and was a big reason why he was upset. He was using a really, really cheap phone and couldn't communicate at all with other people. We took a shot in the dark and texted our ward group chat to see if anyone had a spare phone that Joseph could use. We talked to Joseph about coming to Church on Sunday (the very next day) but he said he was instead going to walk to a phone store to get his phone fixed. He expressed to us that he was having a hard time trusting in God because of the frustration he was experiencing in his life. He said he wasn't going to go to church because his phone was a lot more important to fix.

Wales

"More important than getting your phone fixed, is coming to church and taking the Sacrament. That will do you a whole lot more good." We said. Joseph had a slightly unimpressed look on his face. We then told him that if he came to church someone would bring a phone for him. Doubtfully he asked, "How do you know?" We told him Faith wasn't to have a perfect knowledge of things but it was to trust in God nonetheless. He had a change of heart and really thought about it. After some more talking and hyping him up, he was set on coming to church. 

The moment that his heart and his intents were set on coming to church and on trusting God, a member in the ward group chat said they had a phone that Joseph could use. It was actually amazing. Joseph was in awe! Haha, it all sounds really cheesy but it was just awesome. Joseph became so grateful and was very happy. It was just so cool to see such a little tender mercy from the Lord in a small way that ultimately had a big impact on Joseph. 

Sunday came around and no Joseph...................  Sad day. Second hour rolls around and in came Joseph from the rainstorm. He had accidentally slept in and missed his ride earlier in the day, but determined to get to church, he walked 40 minutes in the rain. Haha it was amazing to see it all come around.

Love, 

Elder Hayden Shockley