Week 33 - Fare Thee Well Birmingham!

Me, my companion and the APs (assistants to the president) at Five Guys Burgers

Me lying on my bathroom floor sleeping (they locked me in!)

So... It's been really busy these past couple weeks. A lot of planning has been going in to the week of Zone Conference. The reason being is: a) Christmas is a special time of year and b) arrivals and departures are actually right after each other in the same week. Add to all of this, we have like, 5 million packages in the office now!

I've been working on putting a video together for Zone Conference and all I can say is that it is AWESOME! Not because I made it.... just because of what it consists of. Its really funny! haha!

All of us office Elders in our office ties

So, guess what? ....Come one take a guess! Yup! I'm leaving the office this transfer. I finally get to go out and be a full time missionary again! I'm so excited! I can't wait for it. I wish I could spill all the details, but since this will be on the internet (writing this on Saturday), and transfers don't come out until tomorrow (Sunday night), I'm not going to tell. But don't worry, next week I will be sure to send you pictures and the beautiful new area I will be in and tell you all about it.

The church building next door all lit up with the sunrise

So let me take you through what we have had to do this past week...

So we need get a coach to drive down at least 2 zones in the north and go to Bristol to pick up roughly 30-40 missionaries. The reason being, because train tickets are so expensive and that would easily be over £2500 ($4000 CAD) worth of travel. So we book a coach that takes the missionaries there and back to save about £1500. The problem is that this Zone Conference is starting earlier, so to get all the missionaries on that coach, they need to all be at the pickup location and make it to Bristol on time. It is impossible because there are no trains that run at the needed times. This was our first dilemma. So we thought, oh, we will just send them down the night before. So we are going to do that, but now we have to find rooms for 15+ companionships to stay. The problem solving and work goes on and on and on. The north is all finished now and all we need to do is the south planning which is a lot easier to do than the north. We also had to find a way to get all the Christmas packages down to Bristol to all the missionaries because there are a lot of them! We ended up just renting a huge van to haul them all down. Then we realized it probably wouldn't be big enough. We also realized that some people have like, 10 packages each and after zone conference they would have to haul those packages back to their areas by train, so we decided that each missionary will take one package each, then all the Zone Leaders would take back all rest of the packages for their zone (they have cars). So these are some of our little dilemmas that we have had to find ways to make it work.

Christmas festivities in Birmingham

More Christmas festivities...

A random street in Birmingham. Looks pretty cool.

So it being Christmas and all, I have an invitation to you. Anyone who is reading, please get a Book of Mormon (if you don't have one, ask the missionaries) and write your testimony in it, and give it to someone you know. You never know who your testimony will touch. Adding your testimony of the Book of Mormon inside of it will bring the Spirit in greater abundance when others read it. I know, I have seen it before. You could even get creative and wrap it up and give it to someone as a gift. I think this would be a nice way to light the world this Christmas season.

I know that the Book of Mormon is true, and that it contains the full Gospel of Jesus Christ. That is why it has the power to change the lives of those who read it. I know that as you read it yourself, you will see joyful changes as you apply its teachings. Others will see it. What greater gift is there than Jesus Christ and His Atonement! The Book of Mormon tells and shows us how to apply His teachings in our lives and this is why it is so important.

Love you all!

I pray for you everyday.

Cheers,

Elder Jakob