A Whole New World (Week 52)

It's kind of surreal being here in the UK. I am only on the fourth day of being out of quarantine, but I feel like a kid in a candy store haha. The architecture, the new language (hah), the food, the lay of the land, driving on the wrong side of the road, the common rain, and especially the people, are some of the things that are just super, super cool here, haha. I honestly can't believe I'm here, but the time I have spent here has been pretty sweet so far! A lot of this past week was spent in quarantine where we were able to do some extra studying, resting, and playing card games. Good times, haha.

Friday we got out of quarantine and also got sent to our areas. I am with Elder Mallonee, a stud of an Elder from Spokane, Washington! We are in Solihull, which is just southeast of Birmingham. So far so good, still trying to get situated with who we are teaching and all of that good stuff so more of that will come! On Sunday we walked 3 miles to church, and I absolutely loved it. Afterwards some of the awesome members loaded us up with a bunch of food and gave us a ride back home, so that was pretty neat.

Fish and chips here are amazing!! And the sweets are just sweeter haha. There is the place called Greggs and it has these sausage rolls and wow, they are fantastic. I might gain a couple pounds here.................................................. 

On Saturday we were on our way to the park and there was this lady at the bus stop that starting talking to us. We were having a super solid conversation and I had a Book of Mormon with me that I felt impressed to give her. The conversation headed towards what we do as missionaries and what we believe. I asked her a question that I had heard in a talk from President Nelson that I had listened to that same morning. President Nelson had asked this question to a king to teach him about the Book of Mormon, so I didn't see why it wouldn't work. I asked her if she had heard about the ministry of Jesus Christ to the people in the ancient Americas. She had not and we were able to teach her about it. It was an awesome way to bring up the Book of Mormon naturally and to testify of the love of Jesus Christ for all of us. Sharing the truths of and from the Book of Mormon is something that to me has been very fulfilling and worthwhile. I love Jesus Christ and His Gospel.

Love, Elder Shockley