weekly update 12/28/2011

Elder Kevin Ballantyne has been out serving for 600 days

HELLO EVERYONE! HAPPY NEW YEAR!


The week leading up to Christmas was a good week. On Wednesday, we had a try by appointment with a man called martin, it was pretty shakey, but we decided to go anyway. When we got there he invited us in and we taught him about the restoration. It was a very spiritual lesson. We feel like we taught to his needs as guided by the spirit. Martin plays in a brass band in Littlebourgh, We gave him a copy of the joy to the world DVD, and in exchange he gave us a CD of his band. Obviously it's not approved, but I feel like we were able to build a great trust with him. Just yesterday he actually saw us waiting for a bus while he was driving. He stopped just to say "hi."

On Thursday, we had an appointment with a member family in the evening. But we got in the area a little early so we thought we would tract in the area for a few minutes. The first door we knocked was a couple named Linden and Hailey. Linden let us in straight away and told us that not too long ago he was thinking about what happens after this life. We didn't have time to teach him as we had an appointment with the member family, so we set up an appointment to come back in a few minutes. After the appointment with the members we took Lauren Simcock, who is preparing to serve a mission, to the appointment with Linden and Hailey. We then taught linden and Hailey about the Book of Mormon. We will be seeing him again today. They are great!

We had a very good Christmas with the members this year the schedule was absolutely booked. We were able to go to a few members that I didn't know very well so that I could get to know them. We also had some fun with the members that we already knew. The members here are just exceptional!


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With Love,
Elder Ballantyne

weekly update 12/19/2011

Merry Christmas

This has been a great week! We have been able to find a few new investigators. Their names are Simon, Ray, and Sunny. I will talk a little bit about each of them. First of all Simon was a boy that Elder Marjanen spoke to on the bus. He agreed to be taught right when we got off at the Rawtenstall bus station. He seems really good we haven’t been able to teach him since because he was away but he should be back now and we will probably teach him on Wednesday.

Ray is a potential that Elder Marjanen called while is was ill in the flat a couple weeks ago. The appointments kept falling through but we were finally able to teach him this week. He seems quite busy in the next few weeks so we aren’t teaching him again till after Boxing Day.

Sunny is an African man who lived 75% of his life in Italy. He is a strong believer in Jesus Christ. We have a few concerns to resolve with him, but we should be able to handle it with the spirit.

We went to a ward Christmas party this week. It was a great finding opportunity. We learned of another girl who is progressing towards being taught. The Simcock’s have been working on her for awhile and they expressed that she is finally coming around. So there are some good possibilities open to us. I believe that if we did not ask at the party we might not have learnt about this girl.

Tomorrow we will be able to go to the mission home for a Christmas Get-together. We were told that we will be playing white elephant! Other than that I'm not entirely sure what's going to happen. But it will be good to get together with the missionaries in the Chorley zone! That is also when we will receive all our Christmas pressys!


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With Love,
Elder Ballantyne

weekly update 12/12/2011

Seasons Greetings from England!

This week just flew by. It was probably because I have been on exchanges all week. I was first on exchange in Chorley with Elder Smart. It was really good to work with him. I remember a three day exchange that we had when we were both very new to the mission. (2nd and 3rd transfers) Ever since then I have not evening served around Elder smart. So it was very good to “catch up” on things. He was a great missionary back then. However, I was able to see how much he had changed since our last exchange so long ago, for the better of course.

The second exchange was with Elder watts in Burnley. He is from Logandale, Navada Which is near Las Vegas. He Has ben out for about 5 months, and Served in Swinton, Manchester, and now Burnley. It was a great exchange. I feel that Elder watts knows his area very well for the few weeks that he has been there. Elder Watts is a very good finder. I described it as being a meerkat. He always had his head up so he could spot people wherever they were.

While being on exchanges throughout the zone and looking at the Rossendale ward. I have been able to notice that, in general, the members here in the Chorley stake are just great members. They support the missionaries as much as possible. What a privilege to work amongst such spiritual giants.

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With Love,
Elder Ballantyne