Merry Christmas!

Dear Family and Friends,

I sincerely want to apologize for my letter this week. I had a lot of unexpected Christmas e-mails from family and friends. Thank you all so much! You have no idea how much I appreciate them.

All I want to share this week is the words from my favourite primary song.

Stars were gleaming, shepherds dreaming;
And the night was dark and chill.
Angels' story rang with glory;
Shepherds heard it on the hill.
Ah, that singing! Hear it ringing,
Earthward winging, Christmas bringing!
Hearken! We can hear it still!

See the clearness and the nearness
Of the blessed Christmas star,
Leading, guiding; wise men riding
Through the desert dark and far.
Lovely showing, shining, growing,
Onward going, gleaming, glowing 

Leading still, our Christmas star!

The Christmas star was a light that led the wise man to our Saviour. Our Saviour is the light that leads us to our Heavenly Home. I hope we all choose to follow Him this Christmas and by this time next year when we ask ourselves "Am I more Christlike now than I was a year ago?" We can all say yes!

Jesus Christ was born for YOU. ALL OF YOU. Remember that. Ponder what that really means. This is my challenge for you. Share the light of the gospel with your friends and family. WITH EVERYONE!

I love you all.

Elder Humpherys 

 Dinner with President Preston

 

 

These are the bags that Sister Preston and her Sister Jackie made each Christmas for the missionaries

In the Bleak Midwinter

When I walk through the streets of England on those cold days I think of these words:
In the bleak mid-winter, frosty wind made moan,

earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone; 

snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow, 

in the bleak mid-winter, long ago. 

Our God, heav'n cannot hold Him, nor earth sustain; 

heav'n and earth shall flee away when He comes to reign. 

In the bleak mid-winter a stable-place sufficed 

the Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ. 

 

Angels and archangels may have gathered there, 

cherubim and seraphim thronged the air; 

but only His mother, in her maiden bliss, 

worshiped the beloved with a kiss.

 

I think these words so beautifully paint the picture of the birth of Jesus Christ. This week wasn't the easiest for me. I will admit we had some challenges. But, I learned more abundantly about the pure love of Christ this week than any other week of my mission.

 

We have lost about all of our investigators to opposition and sadly a little bit of my fire died with it.. I was really struggling to understand how to handle everything that I was going through! As I was studying Preach My Gospel with Elder Suriyachan I came across these words from Chapter 5. "As we read the Book of Mormon with the guidance of the Spirit, it helps us answer personal questions. It teaches that prayer and revelation are the key to solving particular problems. It helps us have faith that God will answer our prayers." I decided to really put that challenge to the test and I really did find my answers! My testimony was strengthened and so was my desire to share the gospel! It was a huge spiritual boost. I am really grateful for the Book of Mormon. Then we had the Christmas devotional yesterday.. and WOW! When Russell M. Nelson spoke and they played that recording of Jesus's voice I thought it was real! Haha. But I felt SO much peace and I really wanted to share the peace of Christ with everyone! I know that these small experiences I am having are truly preparing me for my future.

 

I went on an exchange with Elder Burns and it went pretty good. I discovered that he is good at stopping people and I am good at keeping them there! Then we can teach them! We had a beautiful lesson on the spot with a man named Marco. He was from Portugal. We stopped him using the Mormon.org card. We taught him briefly about the Book of Mormon and he seemed pretty interested but it was obvious that he was in a rush. So we asked him if we could pray with him before he went and said yes. We then followed more of Elder Texiera's advice and asked him if there was anyone we could pray for. He told us to pray for his wife. She passed away 3 months ago.. My heart broke for him and I just wanted to soothe his aching soul. The spirit was helping me feel some of his pain. I can't imagine having my wife pass away.. I was privileged to offer the prayer and as he left he gave us some contact information and had tears in his eyes. It was truly a tender moment for all of us.

 

These were some of the highlights of these week but I want you to know that the things I share with you don't even scratch the surface of the spirit and experiences I am having every minute of my mission. Every second I am spending trying to do my best and grow closer to Christ. I love my mission so dearly.. I love our Saviour Jesus Christ.. I hope we can be giving to Him this Christmas season, by giving ourselves to others.

 

What can I give Him, poor as I am? 

If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb; 

if I were a Wise Man, I would do my part; 

yet what can I give him: give my heart.

 

I love you all

Elder Humpherys

 A sweet shop. A CHRISTMAS ONE!

 Handing out Mormon.org cards to a really nice nutcracker man. His name was Pistachio. Super nice!

 Here are our Christmas sweaters

 I though this dog was a wolf. Flippen massive dog!

 A nice relaxing Coca-Cola.

HIYA!!

Hiya!

So just for a warning I had some computer difficulties and have had my time cut short by about 20 minutes.. so sorry if I neglect some e-mails. You are only neglected in words.. not love 

So, this week we had an amazing miracle! Whitefield is a wonderful place. It has been a really good week here. I love laboring among these people. Sometimes we find some rejection but I sincerely hope they can feel my love for them.. but more importantly God’s love for them.

Monday was good. We bought companion sweaters! (as show below) Ha ha so much fun. We also taught our investigator Carl who is doing well. He has shown a lot of growth in the past 2 or 3 weeks.

Tuesday was our miracle day! We had a fantastic Zone Meeting with our new zone leader (Elder Walker). He is such a good missionary. I sincerely see these missionaries that I just want to emulate. They make me want to do better.. Anyways, that night we stopped by a potential investigator. Her name is Julie. She was found by some missionaries a few months ago. We saw her name and I felt prompted to give her a ring. She answered and said we could stop by and she sounded super sweet! When we went to teach her we found she had to children who were just as kind as she was! We taught them the restoration and felt the spirit. I loved it.

The rest of the week was good. I really learned a lot about the power of the spirit. Beside our new friend Julie, we haven’t been seeing much fruits of our labors. It has been quite frustrating because I feel like I have been doing everything in my power to be obedient, diligent, patient, loving and faithful to my call as a missionary. I have been learning the principle of “long-suffering.” I was getting quite stressed and was feeling a bit overwhelmed with my responsibility and the outcomes that were happening. I broke down to my Heavenly Father in prayer and literally pleaded for help.. it was amazing because the next morning during my personal study I read a talk from this last conference and a portion of it really stood out to me.

Well, gotta run. Thanks for all you have all done for me. You are always in my prayers and I love you each very much

Elder Humpherys

Is that Christmas I hear??

Dear One and All,

So, this week has been amazing! I love love love missionary work! It’s tough but oh so worth it! I have learned so much this week. CHRISTMAS IS COMING! ahhh.. approximately 22 days and 14 hours! Not that I am counting or anything... 

Monday was a normal day except for we got to e-mail.. Our investigator Carl is doing so good! I really think he has a deep desire to change. He is so kind and loves our visits. He is currently battling a challenge that is really hard for him, but we are trying to help him every step of the way! Pray for Carl that he can have the strength to do what is right!

We were able to attend the temple on Wednesday! AHHH! I received more answers in this temple trip than any other before. It was amazing. I loved it so much. I am thankful that we have a temple in our missionar boundaries. We are very lucky. Bishop’s wife took us. She is so sweet and kind. Imagine and angel - that is bishop’s wife.

Thursday we taught a woman named Margaret and it was good. We didn’t actually get to teach her anything but she told us a lot about her life. We were able to introduce the Book of Mormon but she is a talker! She is a wonderful woman and has had some rough patches with the death of her mum. She has such a wonderful family though. Her daughters are both really nice and she has an adorable grand baby! I loved meeting her. Unfortunately we can’t meet with her again until after christmas because she is too busy. But we will bring her a christmas cake or something. I know that she has so much potential and that she will be blessed so much from living the gospel.

This weekend I went on an exchange with Elder Clark again. It was really good. I learned so much. He is such a good missnioary.. He reminds me a lot Zach Skenandore. He is so funny! He is also a really good finder. I learned a lot about just letting your mind go blank. I think way too much when I am finding. I get myself all worked up and then I get stressed because I don’t know what to say. He just doesn’t think about anything and when he see’s someone he goes “Evening sir.. etc” So he just told me to think about a color. Just a color. Then we I get close to someone start thinking. Haha, it sounds weird but it actually does help!

I love my mission. I love every single solitary second that I have here. I love what I am learning. Even though it can be hard I know that it is worth it. I know that my mission is going to be sufficient for the rest of my life as long as I continue to work hard and be obedient. I am learning things know that will help me forever.

My loved ones - Keep going strong. Keep praying. Keep praying with your families. Keep your feet on the delicate and steep path that leads to our heavenly home. Keep fighting for the truth. “Dangers may gather.. WHY SHOULD WE FEAR? Jesus, our leader, ever is near.” We never need to feel alone or unloved in the Lord’s service.. because we never are (Eyering). I love the gospel and I love you all.

Love
Elder Humpherys