September 23rd

It was a busy week. We are working with a lot of less actives and they are making progress!! They are coming to church (the ones who can).  One just got a calling last week and is so happy. Investigators....not so much but we did find "the place".  It’s an area where you don't have to move around a lot and people are always coming and going.  But not too many or you don't stand out. We found it late this week but we are looking forward to working this area. It’s not very big, only a little road about 50 feet long. I found a place like this in Coventry and it helped a lot so I'm really looking forward to working "the place". This week we don't have a lot going on so we can really work it. 

To tell the truth I don't really know what happened but I’ve just got this unreal desire to find people. I kinda lost it when I went to Evington but it’s back and I am VERY happy about that. I'm really looking forward to this week.

The funny thing of this week was Elder Bills and I were out talking to people and we stopped this one lady.  We are talking to her and she says she worships the devil. I asked her if she ever thought about maybe trying God or Jesus and she just walked away. It was one of those where you had to be there, you know.

I hope all is well my family and friends. I'm looking forward to this week!!

 Love Elder Doty

Lincoln Castle Continued

Lincoln Castle

For P-Day the missionaries went to The Lincoln Castle in Lincoln, England.  According to Google:  Lincoln Castle is a major castle constructed in Lincoln, England during the late 11th century by William the Conqueror on the site of a pre-existing Roman fortress. The castle is unusual in that it has two mottes.^[1] It is only one of two such castles in the country, the other being at Lewes in Sussex. Lincoln Castle remained in use as a prison and law court into modern times, and is one of the better preserved castles in England; the Crown Courts continue to this day. It is open to the public as a museum. Lincoln castle remains one of the most impressive Norman castles in the United Kingdom. It is still possible to walk around the immense Norman walls which provide a magnificent view of the castle complex, together with panoramic views of the cathedral, the city, and the surrounding countryside.



September 17th

So this week was alright. Still doing a lot of finding and not finding anything great. We did however find this guy I feel pretty good about. His name is Mark and he stopped another elder when we were on exchanges and we are meeting with him on Tuesday. He just got out of jail and is looking to have more peace in his life. Works for me. Whenever someone stops you on the mission they are always really good. Look what happened in Coventry with Festus...

I still feel we are really close with this part member less active family. Once we get the mom to join the rest of the family WILL become active. But she is waiting for her husband to come back home (he is living with someone else right now). But we are trying to get her to see if she takes the first step the rest of the family will follow. She is coming to church and says she loves it. We go over and do service for her and teach her every week.  We are SO close. Once we get her on a date and baptized she will be an awesome member. Her name is Elaine. Like people in the ward think she is a member. When we told them she isn't they are shocked. Everyone thinks she is a member.  Besides Mark and Elaine we have a few we find and they drop. Been that way this whole transfer.

We are trying to work better with the members by just getting them to do little small things. Each time we have a dinner we always share I think its Alma 7. The small things bring to pass the great things. We are really trying to get the members to help us out. Good news Elder Bills and I are staying here in Boston so we might be able to get the members help  Because they are feeding us and are very kind to us.  We just need from them people for us to teach.

We hope for a good week coming up. Looking at the plans we are packed.  Going to be a busy week.

Love Elder Doty

The District

 

The district is Elder Human. The one in the suit. Elder Higham next to me. He took over for me in Coventry when I left. Sister Curtis wearing the black and red shorts.. yes they are my shorts.

sister Davis looking at Elder Bills and Elder Bills.

September 9th

This week was busy but we didn't get a lot of missionary work in.

On Monday we had zone p-day in Nottingham so we got to run around and play some football and basketball.  It was good to see some other elders and sisters again.

We saw the less active with the 3rd nut again. He didn't bring anything up about his 3rd nut again which was nice because last time it was just awkward...

I went back to Leicester to see a doctor.  I don't know why they sent me all the way there. 3 hours on the train just one way. So we didn't get anything done that day. It was crazy to be back in Leicester and my old area again. Never really liked that place. Just not the people I like to talk with.

We had our 1st English class this week....no one showed up. So we are going to try and get the word out more and give it another shot. We have too many people who speak polish and russian here but speak poor english so we are trying to use it as a finding tool.

We have had a lot of dinners from the ward.  We had two on Friday. This less active lady always feeds us but we showed up late hoping she already ate... no luck. I never felt so sick in my life. I thought I was going to pop.

This other less active lady came back to church. We were at stake conference and the bishop comes up to me and elder bills and asks if we can help with a blessing. She asked if I would do it. I have no idea who this lady is and I had to give a blessing. That was a lesson of always being ready to give one because you never really know when we might have to give one.

 

Well this week we did a lot of finding. We are finding people but no one will hold. Hopefully this week will be better.

Miss you all and love you all so much.

September 3rd

It was an alright week.  A lot of weird things happened from talking to people on the street.

We had someone last Tuesday tell us that us knocking doors kills people. He said that when we knock a door an old lady has to come down the stairs and when she does that she falls and dies and because of that we are to blame...so in other words us knocking doors kills people. We had a chat with him for about 10 seconds then he used some nice words and left us. Didn't stop us knocking more doors.

We also met with a less active and he told us about his problems which are a lot. One of them being that he has a 3rd nut because he got the snip and something went wrong. I have no idea why he needed to tell us that but he was very open with us and told us the whole thing.  A bit awkward but not going to lie it was very funny to hear this because this guy is a bit off so it was funny.

Sad news... the lady we had on a date dropped.  We are going to try again in a week. We also had to drop about 4 of our investigators this week so we are kinda starting over in a way. We did have one person at church. She is a part member family. Everyone is less active in the family but she came to church and it was everything she needed to hear. It was like the fast and testimony meeting was made just for her. She said she loved it and was going to go call her husband (who is living with someone else right now) about tell him how she felt. Hope that turns out alright.

Should be an alright week. I have to go back to Leicester to see the doctor again about my knee.  I hope we can finally figure this thing out. We also have stake conference this week. Hope they talk about member missionary work. Just of right now we have people in the ward who are sharing the gospel with friends. This one lady comes up to us and says elders I need 4 book of Mormons now! She is working with friends and we had no idea about it. Hope something turns out there.

Thank you all for the letters and emails, Love Elder Doty

August 27

I have two stories I think are good so here they go:

1. We were up in this area called Skegness and Elder Bills felt like we should go see a former member. So we go pop by. We start walking down this hill to the flat and this kid comes down on a bike and knocks the door we are trying to knock.  So we start talking to him. About 10 years ago he met with missionaries and said he wouldn't be up for retaking the lessons. Told us the former didn't live here and his mom might be down to have the lessons again. He gives us his mom's details and we go by his mom. We go to his mom's house and she is outside smoking.  We start talking with her and she thought we were police haha. We talk to her for about 15 mins. She tells us how her son (the one we just talked to) is on his way to prison because he just beat the crap out of some guy. We/Elder Bills talked to her and bore testimony of how the atonement of Jesus Christ can heal even the most broken families. She said we could then come back next time we go up to Skegness and she took a Book of Mormon and said she would reread it. The reason I like this story is because of just the timing of it. It just happened to be the time her son was riding his bike and just happened to be the time she was outside and listened to us. And that just happened to be the day we went us to Skegness. Truth is it didn't just happen. God has a plan for everyone of Jis children and it's on His timing.

2. We have this golden person but we just can't get a hold of her for some reason. So we go tract her house. We got her mom in and she said she moved to west street. So we make plans to tract the hold street and card every single one of them to find her. The street has about 40 houses. so we start at door number one...nothing...two...got a referral to door number three....not home. So we keep knocking and no one is home. We get to about door number 25ish and it is getting late and this lady just slammed the door in our face. We feel like giving up and I just look back at all of the doors we have knocked and guess who I see walking our way. Savannah. the golden person. We then talk with her and she tells us how her phone has been all messed up and she said she is going out of town for a week. But she just felt like she should come outside and talk to us because she saw us through her window. Elder bills says" oh what a small world.  We just happen to be knocking door to door where you live...it was meant to be" haha funny guy. So we plan to meet with her next week.

Besides that the week has been alright We had a ward bbq the other day. Nothing like the American bbqs but it was good.  We had a few investigators come and a few less actives. Things are starting to pick up here in Boston. I really don't want to leave or get a new companion for a while.

 Love you all and miss you, Love Elder Doty