18 Months (Week 77)

Well,

It’s been said many times and in many ways, but time is the weirdest thing on the mission. I have now been set apart as a Full Time Missionary for 18 months. Weird. Haha anyway, here we are.

This past week was wild. We had our Christmas Zone Conferences across the mission. On Monday night we drove 2 hours up to Coventry to set everything up the night before. We ran into some audio difficulties which took forever to figure out. Once we finished setting up, we were starving. So on the way to the Elders who we were going to stay with, we made the competent decision to go to McDonalds and fill our bodies with food at 1:30 in the morning... It was one of those things that felt nice in the moment but definitely not after waking up 4 hours later. Good times. Wow. This is my life now haha. We drove to a couple other places the following days for the other Zone Conferences, and it was a good time.

It’s been amazing to see that even with less time to be doing classic “missionary work” in our own area, we still see miracles. The Lord knows where we are at. He knows the individual circumstance. When we give what we can to Him, He is happy and makes more out of it than we ever could.

This was probably the most anticlimactic 18 month email you have ever received. On top of that there are no pictures.  I don’t know where this paragraph is going, but pretty much I’m grateful for you all! 

(Note from Mel: I put some of his pictures in from his last pday. He got to go to Stonehenge!!)

-Elder Shockley

D E C E M B E R (Week 75)

 Hey Everyone!

So it's been a couple weeks, but things have just been really busy! Haha I got moved down here to Bristol and am in the office, so that's great haha. I live with 5 other Elders and it's like living with 5 brothers. I LOVE IT! It's been huge because the biggest challenge for me on the mission has been being away from family. I'm very grateful for this experience:)

We've had a lot going on so it's been a little hectic, so forgive me for only remembering like 2/33 of the things I've done recently.

 I technically have 3 companions (that's a story for another time) but I mainly work with one of them. He is from Exeter, United Kingdom, which is at the southern part of our mission. This past week I got to go on an exchange with one of the Elders there. I got to do some street contacting in my companion's home town centre. Wow. I really just spelled center like that..... We started talking to this homeless dude while we were out an about. Afterwards I said, "God Bless you." He then told us that he was God. Then he said he was Satan.  Haha, you just never know what kind of people you are going to run into. I love it, haha. Later that night, me and the Elder I was with, went to visit my Companion's parent's house (hopefully that made sense). So I got to take a picture with his parents and can now claim that I have been in his home more recently than he has, haha. Good stuff.

Anyway, we have been able to do some solid work in the area despite being really busy, so that's been nice. It's also been so nice to be able to talk to my family every week. I absolutely love it. On Thanksgiving I called home and talked with my parents for a bit. My mom expressed her gratitude for her family and for Jesus. She said that that is all she needs. I would have to agree :)

I love you all! I hope you get some good snow wherever you are.

-Elder Shockley