weekly update

Dear Fantastic Family!

Life in England is going Great! It has been rainy a lot lately. But it's a good thing because the grass was starting to get yellow but now it is beautiful and green again! But i lost one of my umbrellas in wigan because i left it at the chapel after a district meeting, And just recently the cheap one broke on me. so i will need to buy a new one today.

This week started out with teaching Julie, she is still doing great and progressing very quickly. We taught her about the word of wisdom. And hasn't had a cup of coffee since. Later in the week we taught her about the law of tithing. I really think she could have taught it to us. There is nothing that will keep her from being baptised on the 6Th of August!

Elder Jolliffe and I are doing fantastic and getting a long great! We are still trying to work on building the unity between us. We are working to have a "Zion" companionship. Elder Jolliffe has a great knowledge of the scriptures, and he has a real good sense of charity. He is always looking for opportunities to serve others. Just yesterday, he saw an older lady trying to cut a branch off of her tree, he offered to help her with it. Although she said she didn't need help, I thought it was a kind gesture to make.

On Thursday, we were able to go to the Chapel in Chorley on the Preston temple grounds for zone conference. It was nice to be able to see the MTC again. It made me want to go back. It was nice to see the temple again. It was so nice to be able to live so close to the Bountiful Temple. For us it's almost an hour drive just to get there from southport. My companion lives in devon so the closest temple is about a 2 and a half hour drive for his family to got to the temple. So one word of advice don't take the privilege of living so close to the temple for granted.

This zone conference was amazing! we didn't get to go camping this time but it was still really good! Something that really stuck out to me was something the assistants said. It was basically to expect miracles. To many times i had doubts that we would have success for the day in terms of finding, which puts me in a down mood. But now that I expect miracles every time i go out, and pray for these miracles to happen, i have had such a better outlook on finding. Also, Since then I have yet to see a day were a miracle doesn't happen.

This Sunday, President Hughes spoke to us in sacrament meeting. He gave an amazing talk about missionary work! One thing that stuck out to me was, how the devil says we aren't good enough missionaries to do missionary work, But that is a lie! Satan is the father of all lies. Missionary work doesn't have to be hard. Anyone can do missionary work. You don't need a badge to say your a missionary. To many times we think of missionary work as knocking on doors, and speaking to people we don't know.
Missionary work can be as easy as changing your face book status to something like, "This weekend was great! I went to church and heard the primary kids sing their hearts out. The spirit was so strong!" Let people know that you had a good experience at church, Don't keep it to yourself. Missionary work can be as easy as, Answer a friends question by using the Book of Mormon.

Again thank you all for your support! I greatly appreciate your letters and e-mails!
With Love,
Elder Ballantyne