Weekly Update 4/4/2011

> Hello Friends and Family > > So a miracle that we saw this week has to do with planning specific > times that miracles will occur. As we have done this we were blessed > with two unplanned lessons and two new investigators and both of them > were when we had planned for the miracle to occur! I have gained a > testimony of this action of faith. > > We were also blessed with two former investigators wanting to be > taught again. Caprice was found with Jordanna, a recent convert, and > ever since she stopped investigating Jordanna has been working on her, > sharing her experiences, and helped her to want to be taught again. > The other, Robert, was taught once and then was thinking about moving > down south so he stopped investigating but he was found again street > contacting and said he wasn't moving anymore and agreed to be taught > again. We are being blessed immensely! > > Rhys is still doing all right. He still has a desire to give up > smoking. He wants to help his girl friend, and we expressed that the > gospel would help her in her life. Rhys has agreed to share the > restoration pamphlet with her. We are excited to see how it goes! > > Elder Mecham is doing great! I have learned a lot from him. He is > always reminding me to talk to everyone even if I have talked to him > or her already. I always have felt that it is awkward to talk to > people I have already talked to. But Elder Mecham has helped give me > ideas on how to make it easier. > > A highlight for the week was definitely General Conference! I always > enjoy Listening to the prophets and apostles! I love to have a few > questions ready to be answered and if I pray to have those questions > answered, most of them if not all are answered. > >

With Love, >

Elder Ballantyne

letter to parents!!! >

Hello Family! > >

I thoroughly enjoyed conference! We watched it at the stake center in > Ashton. We did not get to see the last session because I started at 9 > and we are not allowed to be out past 9. We watched the Saturday > Morning session Live, sat. evening, and we watched a recording of both > the Priesthood session and Sat. Afternoon sessions sunday morning. > Then we watched the Sunday Morning session live Sunday evening. > Then they showed the Sunday afternoon session live at 9 and we > couldn't watch it. We'll just have to read it in the ensign. The > weather here has been all right, not as good as last week but still > all right. Good news is we can proselyte without suit jackets now! I > saw that it snowed because of General Conference. That was fun to see, > I Hope next year it snows a lot this late in the year so i can go > snowboarding as soon as I come home! For allergies Sister bullock told > me to take a hayfever medicine like Zirtec but the store brand and it > has seemed to help my running nose quite a bit. I forgot to take it > today. :~/ For easter are you planning on doing the shooting thing? If > not why not? Eh no reason is good enough to not do it. No not even > snow or rain. > I love top raman mac and cheese and they don't have it > here so i would greatly appreciate those at anytime. If you send a > package I probably wont get it till zone conference next transfer > which could be quite a few weeks, just for a head up. > Anyway have a good week.

I > love and miss you! > > Love, > Elder Ballantyne

weekly update 3/28/2011

> Hello!
>
> I looked out the window and what did I see? Popcorn popping on the
> apricot tree! It's such a boost to see the sun out and the flowers
> blooming. It has been very exciting! I remember looking at the flowers
> blooming and saying to Elder Mecham, "Look spring is coming!" The
> Weather this week supports the fact that it's spring. It has been
> really sunny and it has been "jackets off weather" for a couple of the
> days. Today is one of those nice sunny days!
>
> Rhys has been progressing great! His understanding has seemed to pick
> up. As far as we know he should beable to enter the waters of baptism
> on his scheduled date of the 9th of April.
>
> Elder Mecham is doing really good. A strength that I see in him this
> week was his boldness. He is very straight forward. He lets people
> know how it is.

>
> With Love,
> Elder Ballantyne

weekly update 3/21/2011

GOOD MORNING UTAH!!!! (AND OTHER PLACES)
>
> I would like to report on the help that the members have been! We were
> happy to see that our Lessons with a member present were above that of
> our other lessons. Which shows what a support the members have been
> for us. Not only have then been coming out to the lessons but they
> have been a blessing on getting investigators to church and also the
> mission home fireside! Also just recently two of the members have
> spoken to their friends and are near to setting up an appointment with
> them. They are working hard! This week we had the focus of writing
> thank you cards for the members, what a week to have this focus. We
> have a lot to thank them for. They have been a great blessing to us!
>
> Elder Mecham is doing a great job at being senior companion. I have
> definitely learned a lot from him. Things here in littleborough are
> going great, and i think it is because of Elder Mecham's faith that we
> are seeing so much success!
>
> We have a tool in the mission called "The commitment pattern." It is
> an effective way to resolve concerns that people may have that would
> keep them from accepting a commitment when we commit them. So we were
> committing Rhys for sacrament. He said yes but it wasn't a sure
> answer. So by using the commitment pattern we were able to discover
> and resolve his concerns and when we committed him again and he said
> yes with a for sure answer!
>
> Another plus to the members, when we committed Rhys to baptism he said
> now because he didn't want to commit himself to any religion. But
> after going to church we committed him again and he accepted with a
> date of the 9 April. I think two things contributed. The first is he
> must have felt something at church to change his mind. The second
> thing is I think he was well fellowshipped the first week. The members
> were saying hi and introducing themselves. So I tip my hat to the
> members of littleborough ward.
>
> With Love,

> Elder Ballantyne



Hello parents and Kyle,
>
> I'm excited to stay in littleborough for another 5 weeks. Yes this
> transfer is only 5 weeks long, It's just to make it work out so that
> everyone gets 17 transfers. This transfer next year will probably be
> my last transfer! that's a bit weird to think. For Jordana's baptism
> we tried the first time and it didn't work so we sent everyone to the
> chapel and did it again while everyone was in the chapel to avoid
> embarassment for Jordana in case it didn't work again. Jordana is great
> though, she is strong in the gospel already!
>
> Love
> Elder Ballantyne

weekly update 3/16/2011

> Hello Family,
>
> The Highlight for this week was of course Jordana's Baptism. She had
> to be baptised twice because the first time she didn't go all the way
> under, so it was a bit crazy, she expressed that she felt the spirit
> anyway which is the most important thing.
>
> We have been given a new tool to share with the members. With this
> tool members are to create a family mission plan to guide them in
> there missinary work. As we were sharing this mission plan lesson with
> one of the members we asked if they had anyone in particular that they
> could incorporate in their mission plan. They then told us about his
> brother, they told us that they were actually going to ask him to be
> taught somtime this week! A similar experiance happened again later in
> the week while sharing the mission plan with someone else. It's really
> great because we are already seeing miracles from this mission plan.
>
> I'm excited to be staying here in littleborough with Elder mecham. It
> was good to experiance all the miracles together last transfer, and it
> will be good to have these miracle continue next transfer. It will
> also be good to continue to learn more from Elder Mecham.
>
> Love,
> Elder Ballantyne





> Hello Parents and Kyle,
>
> So it's transfer week and for Elder Mecham and I nothing is changing.
> We are both staying in Littleborough.
> I did hear about the earthquake. It's just one more excuse atheists have not to
> believe in god. We get a few people who ask, "If there was a God why I didn't he > prevent this earthquake." If they would give it a chance the Book of Mormon easily > answers this question, and questions like it. The answer to this is in 2 Nephi2:11 > were it talks about having an opposition in all things. I relate it to if we >didn't have rainy days we could appreciate the sunny days. If we didn't have hard >times, we could appreciate the good times. It's so nice to have the Book of Mormon > to carry the load for us.
> I'm grateful to be in England were ther is a lot of church history. The baptism >did go ahead and it was great. As i said before I was the one privileged to baptize >her. It was a great experience even though I kinda sorta might have messed up. :) >The font was pretty shallow because there was an unknown leak in the font and so >the first time she didn't go all the way under. The second times we had everyone go >back into the chapel and had her kneel down before and then it worked after that. >So it was very interesting and exciting. Despite everything that happened Jordana >said she felt the spirit anyway, which is all that matters.
> And yes i did buy a new camera. I got a Canon Ixus 105. It's pretty
> nice. I wish I could send some pictures though e-mail but these
> computers won't allow it, unfortunately. Elder Mecham bought a new
> camera too because his was broken and it wasn't focusing. So anyway
> have a great week! I love and miss you all!
>
> Love,
> Elder Ballantyne

weekly update 3/7/2011

> Panounda! (That's "Good afternoon" in Welsh I think It's probably not
> spelled right)
>
> This week was just full of miracles! We were really blessed this week!
>
> Jordana is doing amazing! She is excited for her baptism and she has
> invited friends already. She is already doing missionary work; she has
> 3 maybe 4 friends that are interested in learning more! Things are
> just exploding Rochdale!
>
> After church, we took Jordana home. And as we were heading to the bus
> station to head back to littleborough, Jordana called and said her
> friend was interested and asked if we could come and teach him. His
> name is Robert and he expressed that he was doing research about the
> church and he wanted to learn more. He accepted a baptismal date with
> no hesitation.
>
> In littleborough we found some new investigators as well. Melanie was
> found this Thursday afternoon, and said to come to her house later in
> the evening. So that's just what we did and it turned up Aaron, her
> husband, and Ryan, their friend, were both there and they were also
> interested. So blessings were poured out upon us on Thursday!

>
> Thanks for everything!
>
> Love,
> Elder Ballantyne

Email to parents

Hello!
We are so excited about Jordana's baptism this weekend! She has also asked me to baptize her! She is 20 and she has two kids name Eysack and Elsie. It is unfortunate about Caprise, She will be ready soon enough though.
I did buy a new photo album because I had too many to fit in the one brenda gave me so I am using the one Brenda gave me for pictures from my friends and The new one for pictures from family. It is no bueno about the camera i still can't find it anywhere. I will probably be buying one today.
The weather here has been really great! nice and sunny. I think it only rained once this week!
With the player from Byu I think it is actually World wide, because a member showed me an article about one of the players from Byu getting in big trouble. So it's in the papers here too believe it or not. I think it was a good idea to suspend him if he is not doing what he should be. If they didn't that would look bad for not only for Byu but for the church. Thanks for the sports update, Mom.
And now we'll go over to Kyle for an update on the drivers license. haha. How is driving, Kyle? That would be good to get Kyle working! It sounds like no fun trying to get a job though. I have a place a dick's Produce secure for me :) I probably won't jump on that though. It mostly depends on if I can get a job somewhere else or not.

Anyway i'm going to go Have a good week and I will email you a week from wednesday. because of transfers.

Love,
Elder Ballantyne

Can it really be

300 days

in the Mancherster,

England Mission!

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We will see you soon Elder Ballantyne

weekly update 2/28/2011

HELLO FAMILY!!!
>
> This week was great it has been such a blessing to teach Jordana.
> Unfortunately, her friend, Caprice, dropped us. But Jordana is doing
> amazing!
>
> The biggest help in Jordana's progress is the church websites. She
> likes to research about the church, and we told her the best sites to
> go to, i.e. church websites. By researching the sites she is able to
> Learn about what we will be teaching before we teach it. It makes it a
> lot easier to teach. We have been given 30min. every other week to
> just sit and navigate through the church websites. It has helped being
> able to research the sites ourselves.
>
> Along with the websites, baptismal calendars have been a great
> blessing in her teaching process. Because of the calendars she can
> remember her appointments better than we can.
>
> I just have to say vitamin C is great! I'm the only one in the
> district that didn't get ill this past week. I believe it was the
> vitamin C and Orange juice that kept me going.

>
> Thanks for everything!
>
> Love,
> Elder Ballantyne

weekly update 2/21/2011

> Hello Family, Friends, and Family Friends!!!!
>
> This week was probably the best week I have had so far in
> littleborough even though our finding was pretty low. We were able to
> teach Jordana and Caprice for the fist time on Monday, and they are
> great! We taught them again on Sat. and Jordana said she had received
> an answer that the Book of Mormon is true! We then took Jordana and
> Caprice to an investigator baptism in Rochdale. They enjoyed it, and
> the best part was after the baptism Jordana and caprice were both
> talking about their baptisms and asked if they could have theirs on
> the same day! We are seeing miracles!
>
> We had zone conference this week and it was Fantastic! President gave
> a training on prayer. It has really helped me to have much more
> meaningful prayers, I learned a lot! At this zone conference we also
> found out that President Preston is going to be the new mission
> president. He is from Ashton 2nd ward, so he lives within mission
> boundaries. It is very rare that Mission presidents get called to
> there home mission. He lives in the Ashton Stake and I am serving in
> the Ashton stake so I had the opportunity to meet him even before he
> was called to the EMM. He gave a training on using pass along cards.
> It was great I'm looking forward to serving with him.
>
> Elder Mecham is a great missionary! I'm grateful for the opportunity I
> have to serve with him and learn from him. It will be good to look
> back at all the miracles we have witnessed together.
>
> Thanks for everything!
>
> Love,
> Elder Ballantyne

Finally New Pictures from Kevin

Well its been 5 months since Elder Ballantyne sent home some pictures. So sorry there are a ton of them.

Next time you write to him tell him not to wait as long.
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The Beach

Elder Ballantyne's name tag in Welsh

Elder Ballantyne was able to take a tour of one of the Castles in Wales!

Fall in England This Picture of Kevin really make me miss him.
A really windy day! A really cold and wet day in England!
Pictures of the Elders!

Elder Knibbs

Elder Ballantyne and Elder Knibbs

Elder Ballantyne and Elder Mecham not companions at this time.
Elder Ballantyne and Elder Jolliffe

They do have Dr Pepper in England! Boys will be Boys,

even on there Missions!
Elder Ballantyne's hat he bought to stay warm!
The Elders Christmas!

There are a few more pictures on Elder Ballantyne's Mission site that I didn't put on his blog.

So go jump over there.

www.missionsite.net/elderkevinballantyne/main