Elder Britton Holyoak : Finding and Preston, England Temple visit

Hey again! Here's a 2 week update because of my Temple trip. Time is flying by quick. It's mad! Elder Legisma and I have been proper stuck in to the Lords work lately. We've had some funny experiences and went on a trip with a recent convert to see the brilliant Preston Temple.

So first off, the highlight was definitely the temple visit. We set off from Worksop at 10am with a couple of members and Elder Legisma's recent convert. The 2 hour drive was quite beautiful through the fields of Yorkshire to Lancashire. The member driving us is originally from Preston and was telling us all loads of interesting stories about the church there and the whole process of building the temple. Once we arrived we had a few minutes to spare, so Elder Legisma and I popped into the MTC for a little. It was so strange being their again after almost 2 years! I've learned so much on my mission. It's like a lifetime of knowledge crammed into 2 years. It was some quality reminiscing. We timed it perfect, the sun was out and the Temple grounds were beautiful and peaceful. Richard, who is Elder Legisma's recent convert, was in awe. When we walked up to the actual temple building we asked him, what do you think? He said, "It's Brilliant!"

With the help of the members, we were able to get 14 of Richard's ancestors baptized in the Temple. I've never done baptisms for my own ancestors either, so I took a name as well. It was was my Great Grandpa Balen's grandad, named Marko Balen. So he is my Great, Great, Great Grandad who was from Croatia. Overall, it was an amazing experience and I'm so grateful that I was able to see The Lord's house here in England one last time.

Throughout the week we've been doing lots and lots of finding the elect via buses, streets, doors, members and charity shops. And it's gone pretty well this week lads and lasses! We're getting let in to people's homes and sharing with them the teachings from the one and only Jesus Christ. We've gone through loads of Books of Mormon's this week, good thing we've got an extra box of them! We are seeing our new friends again this week and are right chuffed to share more. Has it been hot? Yes! It's probably been one of the hottest weeks on my mission!

A quick funny experience to share from all of our finding. We went to an outer village called Clowne a couple days ago to visit a woman that we met the previous day. Her partner open the door and started chatting with us in his front garden and sat on his brick fence. He was very open and wanted to hear more of what we had to share. Then a man working for some electric company came by to check their electric. He was kind initially and then saw that we were Mormons. He told us that he was a Baptist and talked with our lot before. Then fire and brimstone came down! He started preaching against us and to our friend we were teaching. There was so much contention that he caused our friend to say, "Hey lads it was nice meeting yous. I'll have to see you another day." Then he went back into his house........ Gutted! We continued to calmly talk to this angry man. We noticed that he was trying make us lose our cool. We shared with him Galations 5:22 about the fruits of the Spirit and how we didn't feel he had the Spirit as he was talking with us. Then we heard the door behind us open up and we heard, "Do yous wanna come in for some tea?" The woman we met yesterday let us in and we got away from that prideful man who as the Book of Mormon prophet Jacob says, "persecutes the meek." We went in and had a really good lesson with them and taught them about the peace and love that God has to give them. It was a funny experience and a reminder of how important having the Spirit really is in this work!

I'm going to do everything that I can to help as many people as I can, with the time I have left here in England. Hope everyone has a good week.

Talk to yous later cheers!

-Elder Holyoak