Monday 27 October 2014

Still in Dudley Hill

Hey guys,

Still a missionary and still in Dudley Hill! This past week was pretty good. Lets just say that right now I'm at a loss as to what to say. Best part of last week was I found out that Lynn wanted to see me on Sunday! And so the Stephenson's were bringing her to sacrament. Then the biggest surprise was that they brought us loads of food!!! Our fridges and our cupboards are all full!! :D Like I won't have to buy food for the entire transfer!
Anyways, my brain is pretty scrambled right now but big news, its just one team now in Dudley Hill so we are super busy now from taking care of all the members.

Congrats Logan on your mission …
"Success breeds success, Obedience brings blessings, exact obedience brings MIRACLES!"

Love you guys
Sorry this letter is a little rubbish! Will be better next week
Love
Elder Zachary Lee Dotschkat

PS - if you didn't get it … I'm humbly awesome :D hahahaha

Monday 20 October 2014

We've knocked on over 1000 doors in this area!

Finishing off last week and all about this week ….

Saturday was pretty good! In the morning we went to a less active's house to wish her a happy birthday. It was great to put a smile on her face and help her out as we talked about her five children and one on the way! After that we went home and took a nap! It was great to feel refreshed and then ready for work again! In the afternoon we went and helped the EQP with some service at his home and then had Mexican for dinner! In the evening we went over to one of the members of the Elders Quarum who is moving and just spent some time with him. His name is Shane and he has Cerebral Palsy and he doesn't really know how to interact with people so we just had a great time with him there!

Sunday was good! After church we took another nap and then went and had a power hour of finding. No people but we got let in because of our bladders haha.

Monday was great! All the classic stuff then went over to David's where we are going again today. In the evening we went and had a great FHE with a half polish half english family in the ward. We talked about the importance of using technology for good things in life and not becoming addicted to it. We talked about how we can use these potential spiritual weapons for the good and sharing Mormon Messages on FaceBook and twitter and all the good stuff.

Tuesday we went finding all day. I swear we have knocked on over 1000 doors since I have been here. In the evening we had Ward Coordination and we talked about how the ward can become more involved within the community to interest people in the church.

Best part of Wednesday was the tea appointment and the time that we spent with the bishop and his family! We talked about his mission and how to use the things that we learn on our mission to help us become better people. We talked about how to use the difficult experiences to relate to other people and left them through their trials.

Thursday we had a great day of service with David. We went around a few peoples homes to help them out and make their lives easier. We helped move some couches and then some other things and just had a great time serving others. I love giving service to people :) Then we had tea with a pretty old member and he was telling us all about the war. Its quite interesting to hear it from so many different angles. Its almost as if you had been there at the time. In the night we had a FHE with another members family an fused the same talks that we had used on Monday night with the other family.

Friday was crazy …… lets just say that I am glad that Friday is far behind us. In the evening we had tea with David and I talked with him about cars and how to get the most bang for your buck.

Saturday was the Elders Quarum activity. Due to the rule that we could not go to the activity unless we had an investigator and some key members wanted us to be there, they invited some family to the driving range for us to go and be able to talk to them about the gospel. I had a great time just hitting all the golf balls down the range. Might have found a new hobby for back home! Its great cause I got some gnarly blisters now.

Sunday was good. Did I mention that it rained all day? We went knocking in the rain. Woot Woot.

Anyways, Life is great! Transfers are this week so who knows what the Lord's plans are. Will tell you all next week!

The gospel is true!
Love
Elder Dotschkat




Monday 13 October 2014

A new investigator

Hey everyone!
Just want to say that I am happy and well :)
Thank you for all your prayers and fasting on my behalf, it has truly been appreciated and I truly fell lifted from before. I now know that the angels of Heaven are watching over me and that Heavenly Father knows and loves me. No matter what we do, he knows what is best for us and it is our job to trust him.
So the highlights of the week!
Insanity every morning has motivated me to get out of bed and get into better shape (even though round is still a shape :P) and to work hard during the day. I really enjoy morning work outs right now!

Monday we spent the day with a recently returned less active member. We watched How to Train Your Dragon 2 and Mr Peabody and Sherman! Great films. At the end of the day I felt super relaxed and loved the rest of my evening.

Tuesday was crazy because it took us two hours to travel a normally 20 minute route. While we were traveling to ward co-ordination we found out that there was a five car pile up on one of the main roads and so traffic was super heavy! We ended up taking two busses and a train to try to make it on time and we were still late for the meeting. Just five minutes but punctuality is key in the mission right now. One late for a tea appointment - call president. Two latex and you don't get to go to tea appointments for a week. SO YOU BETTER NOT BE LATE!!! ;P

Wednesday we went and found a new investigator. We went to one of the tippy edge parts of our area and on the 3rd door we got let in! What a miracle! He lived in Australia for 20 years and has his own web design business. We had a great talk with him about Christ and everything that he has done for us. We are seeing him this coming Saturday (I think) and will try to schedule him for baptism :)

Thursday was a great time in Pudsey! We were working and I saw this guy working on two pretty nice cars so being like myself I went to check it out. After a while of talking to him we find out he is the less active man that we are looking for! What a miracle! He then invited us in and told us of this South African grocery shop. Well I lost it there, it was a losing battle for my companion. He was determined to find it lol. So after the lesson we got a call from the member asking if we wanted to come over for tea! That was great because he showed us some of the rugby world cup finals! (All Blacks vs South Africa). Lets just say that Thursday my companion was VERY HAPPY!

Friday highlight was that we went to one of the areas that we found the shop at! Elder V was like a kid in a candy store! :) Lets just say that it made me very happy to see him happy. We then bought some spicy sauce for the man that let us spend p-day with him and they invited us to have tea with them so we agreed.

I have run out of time now - I will hopefully remember to tell you about the weekend next week!
Have a great week.
I love you guys
Thanks for what you do!
Sincerely,
Elder Dotschkat




Monday 6 October 2014

Just keep swimming

Hey everyone!
Hope that you are all doing well and are happy!
So this week was alright
Unfortunately not too much happened because my companion was sick a few days this week. Though I have started to do a fitness regime called insanity and that was great!

Monday night was good after p-day in Leeds. It takes quite a while to get there so I don't think that we will go there often for p-day. In the evening we went with the ward mission leader to our Romanian investigator's home but unfortunately they flogged us so we ended up having a really great talk with him and he bought us some nutella, ferrero roche and peanut butter milkshakes (I just gained back whatever I lost lol)

Tuesday Elder Viviers and I went and worked in Pudsey and we had a great time! Just too many interesting things happened. There was a sandwich place that we go to eat at and its really good and cheap! Not like subway lol. Well I can't remember what else happened that day except for ward coordination in the evening that was really good. We had a fun time there just laughing and having a good time.

Wednesday we had DDM at Dudley Hill and the assistants to the president joined us. After the DDM we went and had lunch and then hit Elder Viviers. He had been feeling a littler under the weather for a while but then he just felt terrible so I called the mission president's wife and she told us to stay in and let him rest.

Thursday I took a nap for a while cause he was still sick and then in the evening we tried to go out and had a tea appointment at this great member's house. We laughed loads and I look forward to hanging with him for p-day today.

Friday I went on exchange with Elder Vogli and we had a pretty lax day. Unfortunately none answered their doors for the people that we went to and by the time that we just got everything sorted out there wasn't much time. Knocked in this really posh area but none wanted to hear from us. JUST KEEP SWIMMING RIGHT?!?  So we did and then in the evening we had tea at this Polish member's home and it was great. We had Polish stew!

Saturday and Sunday were spent in the chapel at conference. Not too much happened. Saturday night was a good time though because I got permission from the mission president to go and have a meal with Lynn. I'm just hoping against all hopes that the president just simply moves me back to Dewsbury!

Well I got to go now.
Love you all!
Keep your chins up and remember that God knows you and loves you!
Love Elder Dotschkat

Thursday 2 October 2014

A visit to the Lego Store, Pudsey and a farm

Hello everyone!

Sorry this email is going to be late, no matter how many hours or minutes I try to save it just seems that time is moving so quickly that I can't seem to catch up with it! Quite literally I have missed a huge chunk of my last bit of my mission in my journal but I guess that is just going to have to wait. I'm doing well and feel that I am getting closer to understanding myself and the man that God wants me to be and that makes me quite happy :) Anyways you all probably want to know about last week. It flew by pretty quickly but his week has definitely flown a lot faster!

So Monday was a pretty good p-day. Unfortunately there wasn't much time to relax because we had to get so much done! So by the end of the day the best part was being able to spend 20 minutes or so in the Lego Store - BooYah! It was so fun and I was told about this website which will create a custom Lego person for you based off a photo. Pretty cool huh! (possible future purchase)  After the p-day we were meant to have FHE with a family in the ward but when we got there all of them were full of flu :( so we ended up traveling home and working around the city centre in the evening (its what we do at the end of the day if nothing else is planned). I really enjoyed the fountain there, it reminds me and brings back some memories of Disney with my family ;)

Tuesday was pretty good! Unfortunately though Elder V was feeling ill again so as he rested I cleaned the flat a little more and just relaxed. In the evening we had tea with a member who has been a journalist in the middle east countries and was exciting to hear the stories of how the British military came to find her and take her home as there was civil unrest. I forget which country it was unfortunately.

Wednesday was a really fun day because I was on exchange with Elder Q. He is from London and has like 4.5 months left. Pretty crazy! So during the day we went to some villages in our areas for some less actives that the bishop and WML had sent us to contact and invite back to church before General Conference. Not too much happened except we ended up just working the entire day and then going to eat in the evening. Not too crazy. The most interesting thing of that day was meeting a less active with five horses and a farm. Unfortunately she doesn't want to return to church but that doesn't mean we will give up on her :)  Just let her cool down after her surgery and then take the situation up again in a few weeks.

Thursday was pretty good. We went into an area that we have not gone to before and it was quite nice. Its right close to the church and a nice little quiet village with some scenic views. I enjoyed the views because it was wide open spaces and rolling hills. Anyways in the afternoon/evening we had tea with a member of the bishopric and had a great time just chatting about rugby and memories we have of this brutal but manly sport hahaha. After tea we went to reach out night (its a night in which the members go and see the less actives and invite them back to church) to some people that had previously organized to go to. When we got to the address that we were told to go to we called the person and she told us that she lived in a complete other end of our area. LOL so funny. We then scrambled around to be able to make it to her house before she put her kids to bed. In the end we made it to her house and had a great talk with her as Elder V fed her kids chocolate and played with them.

Friday was alright. We and one of our zone leaders join us for our weekly planning. He is from my group and has been companions with Elder V so it was a great time of fun, Reese's Cups (thank you mom) and laughter. After that we went to Pudsey. Another village! We went by some former investigator's and got let in! Yeah! Funny enough when we got off the bus we were walking with him and asking him for directions to the road and if he knew his neighbours that lived on his road. He replied no but then I realized that he lived at the address that we were directed to haha. Just different name on the sheet. Apparently he was going to let us knock the entire road to see if we figured out that we were looking for him. After the lesson we had to run and I mean RUN to our next tea appointment. We had tea with the Elders Quarum President, his wife and their little 8 month old daughter Esther. She is adorable. She is so curious and intrigued with new things, especially the colour orange. Anyways we ended up taking our EQP with us after tea and just had a good time there.

Within the first few hours of Saturday morning all of our plans were cancelled and we had to rely completely on our back up plans which was … you guessed it! KNOCKING DOORS! The most interesting person that we met as we were knocking during the day was a young lad who had recently been fundraising for this little girl with leukaemia to travel to Disneyland with her family. He and his rugby team played a charity football match an due was planning on doing a charity bungee jump from 300 feet and apparently his head would come within a foot of the ground. I was bluntly honest with him and told him that he was crazy for taking that type of risk (only cause I was slightly jealous, the biggest risk that I could take right now is to see how cold or hot I can stand in the shower lol) He then replied that people would pay more for a bigger risk and that it was all going to a good cause so I guess thats alright .. possible fundraising idea for the future! Just kidding, if the fall wouldn't kill me, the women in my life definitely would for doing something so ludicrous.

Sunday was a pretty good day. We finally were able to have two people at church. These are two Romanian guys that we are teaching. Its like the United Nations sometimes with teaching pools here. I have taught people from near all of Europe, some from Africa and many other places. Then in the afternoon we taught some sisters from Zimbabwe and they showed us this milkshake place that they said we should try sometime .. nothing will replace Peters Drive In though hahaha. Anyways then Sunday night we motivated ourselves for INSANITY in the coming months.

Well that's my week
I hope and pray that you all are doing well and that you are all happy :)
Please know that I love you guys and that you are all in my prayers.
Have a great week
Love
Elder Dotschkat