Transferred to Dudley Hill

Hey everyone,

So this week I just have to send a scripture to explain my feeilings for this area because I am now transferred to Dudley Hill.

2 Timothy 4:6-7

6 For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.

7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:

Let's just say that because I have served in this area I feel that I have grown and matured myself more into being the man that God wants me to become. I used to pray nearly every waking moments for those people back home but now I understand what it means what when the Lord says in DC 84:79-84:

79 Behold, I send you out to prove the world, and the laborer is worthy of his hire.80 And any man that shall go and preach this gospel of the kingdom, and fail not to continue faithful in all things, shall not be weary in mind, neither darkened, neither in body, limb, nor joint; and a hair of his head shall not fall to the ground unnoticed. And they shall not go hungry, neither athirst.
81 Therefore, take ye no thought for the morrow, for what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, or wherewithal ye shall be clothed. 
82 For, consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they toil not, neither do they spin; and the kingdoms of the world, in all their glory, are not arrayed like one of these. 
83 For your Father, who is in heaven, knoweth that you have need of all these things. 
84 Therefore, let the morrow take thought for the things of itself.

I now am no longer worried for those things that await back home for I know that the Lord will take care of them if I work his work. Here in Dewsbury I feel that I have given everything I could and more. I have given my sleep, my energy, my food, my thoughts, my time, my talents, all my efforts and ALL my love to this area and the people here. This does not mean that I do not love the people I have met before or that I am glorying in myself, it simply means that through the grace of God and his mercy I was able to have my capacity to love increased. It also means that I have the same feelings as Alma in Alma 29:9:
9 I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy.

I love this work and look forward to everyday that I am able to bring someone to feel the love of Christ, for I know that he lives and that he loves us. I know that he loves all of the children of God and desires for us eternal joy and happiness living in the presence of our loving Father in Heaven.

He loves you
Always remember what you mean to him because you mean the world to him :)
Have a great week!
love you
Elder Dotschkat

ps- James baptized this week, Maja next week and George the next week and I'm leaving!!!!!! (Heavenly Father might have a sense of humour or rather he needs me to go and help someone else :)

Elder Dotschkat & Elder Kooijman

The Royal Evitt family

James

Having a great life and a great week

Hey everyone!
I am shattered!  LOL  Having a great life and a great week!

It seems like yesterday that I was just emailing you guys because honestly this week went really fast!

Monday we spent the day just having fun and doing our own thing.  Cleaned top to bottom, then went to Ikea for a posh lunch! YUM horse meatballs.  I'm not bothered about the animal because it tasted great.  Then we spent the day with Lynn and gave her a "minion-ary" because she's feeling ill lately. Watched the Croods with her and laughed a lot!  Then we worked in the evening.  James moved his date to August 2nd.   I hope that I am here for it because its transfers this week!  Yikes … where has the last month of my life gone?

Tuesday I had an interview with the President which was the highlight of the day.  Advice from him: distance is better than resistance.  Gonna keep that!  Then in the evening I nearly passed out because I was dehydrated!!! Whoops … sorry not trying to die here.  Anyways had a great lesson with J once again.

Wednesday we had a great lesson with some in actives.  You find out some really weird stuff as a missionary and sometimes I'm like AHHHHHHHHHH TMI, TMI!!  Then we had pancakes for lunch at George's house and then got a taxi to our tea appointment.  Stupid busses. Then had to get another taxi to a priesthood meeting cause we gave up our seats in a members car so that they could take some of the priesthood brethren without vehicles. On the way we got stopped with this van in the middle of the road.  We prayed for heaven's angels to help us, called some random people walking by to help and then pushed it off the road.  Muscle deterioration?  I think not!!! Actually I'm kidding - totally the powers of angels in heaven entirely.

Thursday we had an Evangelist preacher that we teach ask us a curve ball question.  Shook us for a bit but now we're ok.  Then we saw a great old couple that we are going to help out paint sometime this week.  Then in the evening we served the sisters in the ward and it was so warm.

Ah, no time to finish …..

Love
Elder Dotschkat

Gift basket of food from Lynn

Did you know Minecraft prepares for exaltation?

Hey everybody!!!!

So this week was pretty great and I am glad that its over hahaha!

So on Monday we were required to go to Huddersfield chapel for p-day because the elders are singing in the all priesthood meeting this Wednesday! It will be great! ...I hope :) lol Anyways, whilst at the chapel I learned what it meant for integrity and honest and obedience. Lets just say that some people wanted to do things that were against mission rules and it was hard not to give into peer pressure but I got my companion and we left the temptation (nothing seriously wrong, just watching a film that was unnaproved. Its one of my favorites back home, but that is where it is for, back home!) Anyways, in the evening we had a lesson and a new investigator!  He is the brother and son of two less actives in the ward, he's honest and seems like he would be a great addition to the elders quorum and he's a body builder! 

Anyways, Tuesday was very eventful! In the morning we were meant to meet with A but she never showed at the chapel so we ended up talking to our ward mission leader about his conversion story and.....MINECRAFT! He and his wife play minecraft for date night! Cheap, fun and preparing ourselves for exaltation (creating things hahahaha) at least that's what he says! Anyways, after that we went to clean a less active home a bit more and we felt sick as we left. That's when the week started going pretty troublesome. For some reason or other we felt different, didn't knowingly do anything wrong (might have just been the stench of cat pee >:( IF I EVER GET A CAT, IT MUST BE CLEAN! Dog goes outside, homes are for people and can be for animals ONLY if they are clean. If not, they stay outside! Just my opinion...lol After that we met this evangelist  preacher at the church and gave him a tour of our building here. He doesn't want to bash (which is good) he just wants to  see a new light on the gospel and what we believe. It kinda threw me off a little because I didn't know what to tell him because he has read all the standard works in our canonized scripture YIKES! So we just bore testimony to him and set up time to read the scriptures with him. After that because we were running late for a tea appointment we called a taxi!!!!! FIRST TIME EVER!!!!!  In the evening we were meant to go with the YM to do some service but the YM president forgot us at the chapel!! So while we waited for him we bashed a tennis ball at each other! lol

Wednesday - DDM in Horbury! It was good and my grandson (the kid I trained, who then trained him) is my district leader. He is 22 and a great guy. From down south London area! Anyways he challenged and said that the team that would get 8 investigators to church get his next Tesco delivery! If that's not incentive for a missionary elder I DONT KNOW WHAT IS!?!?!?! hahahaha.In the afternoon we went finding and got some doors to the face! YAHOOOO! Its honestly great! I AM JUSTLOVING MY MISSION RIGHT NOW!!! (no sarcasm at all btw) lol

Thursday we organized our area just a little more so that we can be as efficient as possible with our investigators and help as many people as we can coming to Christ. In the afternoon we were able to do some different types of contacting people and we have 4 new service opportunities! Looks like we will be thrusting in the sickle quite a bit as of lately! Great thing for life experience right?! Anyways, after that we went to tea at a members home and were able to just have a great visit with them (this is the one that reminds me a lot of papa Robb) and the fed us so much! I laid down on the couch and their dog jumped right on my stomach yikes! it was okay though! After that we saw Lynn, she hasn't been doing well lately but she sticks through it. She says that if she is stood, standing and breathing she's doing great, if she is standing and breathing she's doing okay and if she is just breathing THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG! hahahahahahah so we make sure she is doing alright :)

Friday! Great planning session in the morning with large goals! We want to teach 21 investigator lessons this week. Pretty crazy but if we are exactly obedient, God will bless us :) After that we went finding all day and now this time young girls were hitting on and trying to flirt with Elder Kooijman! bahahahaha they were like 14! lol it made me laugh so hard because I was like, "GIRL! You ain't got any chance with this servent of Christ! " lol It was hilarious! Then in the evening we had tea with our ward mission leader and his family and they showed us their minecraft world!!!!! Not gonna lie, it was pretty impressive (btw he is an IT guy just to mention) then we went home completely and entirely shattered!

Saturday - In the morning we took some computer time and once again I watched that talk by Brad Wilcox called His Grace is Sufficient and when I watched that the spirit comforted and taught my heart that if I do my best, that is what God wants. After that we were finding and got a miracle call! This former investigator of over a year wanted to meet with us and change her life! We rushed over there as soon as we could and had a great visit with her! Then we had a miracle evening! The investigator started smoking so my clothes reaked! We only had a matter of minutes to run home (which was luckily fairly close), change and get back to the bus stop in time for the bus! SO WE RAN!!! Just as we left the flat we saw the bus that we needed pass us! I felt sick! I knew that if we didn't have all of heavens help that we would be late for our tea appointment and that was NOT GONNA HAPPEN!!!! Elder Kooijman and I started to pray with all of our might to call down heavens powers! We felt that we deserved it because we were giving our best to be our best! And then a great miracle - the nest bus showed up early! We were still on our toes on the bus cause we knew that if we didn't get our connection we were up the creek and all hopes of promptness for the Royal Evitt family lesson and tea would have been dashed! As soon as the bus stopped at the station we jumped off and WE RAN AGAIN!!!!!!!!! It was funny because on the bus I prayed that a specific three busses would be there to pick us up and guess what! The exact bus that we needed that took us there the quickest was the one we caught!  All the powers of heaven were with us that day! We ended up having a extra 25ish minutes so we fulfilled an assignment from President in which we would take a reverent picture with a war memorial.....Lets just say, that night my heart was in grateful thanks to my lucky stars, my guardian angels and my heavenly father! We then were able to have a great lesson with George in which he realized the importance of baptism and will hopefully be talking with his mother about his desire to be a member! Please pray for him!

Sunday - Whew! Day of rest?!?!?! More like day of STRESS!  Sunday used to be my favourite day of the week back home but now I dread Sunday nearly because I know all that I need to do. We had ward coordination in the morning, talked about about everyone in 20 mintues! It was great ! After that we met James for a tour of the building and then went into Elders Quorum in which I had to teach about baptism and let me just say I was like a frog in a frying pan but tried to show confidence! I will be honest been so busy last week that I couldn't prep the lesson so I was relying completely on heavens angels! Whew! Went well none the less and the gp was alright, cooking hot in the room though and then had a talk in sacrament BUSY BUSY BUSY!!!!!!!!

Anyways, talked with members and setup some meetings this week and was told by a member that she wanted to adopt me into her family :) That made me feel good (it was sister Royal Evitt) and I just look forward to having more great talks with her and her family!

That's my week!

No more time!

Love you!

Elder Dotschkat

An emergency transfer

Hello everyone!

So the biggest thing that happened this week was the emergency transfer within the mission that has caused our teaching pool to triple, the flat to go from 4 man to 2 man, and us to be running around like chickens with our head cut off hahahaha!

Friday we got a call from the mission president and he released me as a district leader and told us that we are now taking over the entire area. WE DROPPED EVERYTHING and headed home to help the other two pack. Elder B wasn't so happy because he didn't get to say goodbye to anyone but that's okay, he called people to do so. Then they told us about their teaching pool and we spent a couple of hours organizing it all.

I have a firm testimony of the blessings of the spirit. It will be there to comfort and calm us when we need the peace that can only come from God. I have prayed more fervently now in my mission than ever before because I know that without God, nothing will happen in this work. We are planning to see miracles in the next few months with many baptisms! We have 2 in the next 3 weeks and will see many more as we are obedient to the word of the Lord.

Please keep Elder Benjamin Mielacher in your prayers.

Love

Elder Dotschkat

A win for Netherlands, a baptism and a Kebab-tism

Hello Family, Friends (and biped acquaintances - lol I'm weird I know!)

Anyway, I had a great week!

Monday - Got a haircut, watched Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 on the big screen at the Royal Evitt family's home and then watched the Netherlands game! YEAH BUDDY!!!!! It was fantastic! Then we had a great lesson with George about faith and illustrated it with the trust exersize, defined the difference between belief ,faith and knowledge!

Tuesday we went finding the entire day! KNOCKING IN THE RAIN!!!! All the RMs know what that means! hahaha I got a lot of points that day lol Then we prepared our instruction for Zone training on why the sabbath day is important.  So that was great!

Wednesday we had zone training with President! That was entirely nerve racking because we were standing up in front of 30 people and our president :S That day I really learned what it meant to trust in God, trust in our companions and trust in ourselves! Then we went on exchange and I went to Meltham with Elder McGee! We had the car! WOOOHOO!!! (I didnt get to drive on the exchange but will today lol wish me luck! )

Thursday was a great solid day of village finding and we got in! Unfortunately the people didnt want to hear the gospel :S  Thats alright though!

Friday we drove back and it was raining.........again.............lol. We had our planning and then we had another day of finding because we have got dropped by Rob & Jackie's and so we are trying to find people to teach to replace them. That day we talked to a lot of Muslim people and it once again made me appreciate when people are truly invested in their faith.

Saturday we had finding all day again until the baptism in the evening..........Oh! Did I mention that it rained? Lol hahahaha, I like the cold water on my face but it sends shivers down my spine when it hits my scalp! In the evening was the baptism of the investigator of the other team and it was a fantastic service. We then KEBAB-TIZED Elder B at the flat and just had a great night laughing, singing hymns, talking about testimony and ........sad to say............TRYING to rap! Key word TRYNG!!!!! lol hahahahhahahaha

Sunday the best part was teaching Gospel principles and being able to liven it up by making people laugh! I love to make people laugh and appreciate when they understand my jokes because its pretty akward when you hear the cricket chirp...…lol

Life is great and my testimony grows greater every day !

Hope you all are well!

Take care!

CONGRATS KATIE ON YOUR GRADUATION!

The KEBAB-TISM of Elder B.

Me in front of the life sized game. Netherlands won! WOOT!!

The rolling hills of England (Manchester Mission border)

Farewell Elder Simon

HEYA!

So lets get down to business!

This week was a slow/fast week. I can't tell my feelings on it lol

So Monday was DDM! Yeah buddy! Elder Simon instructed on how to enjoy our missions day by day. The biggest thought that I had was WHY? Why do missionaries come on their missions and are they out here for the right reasons? The biggest thing that I learned was that we all go through periods of time asking why and we must have faith that these questions will be answered in time. We might not understand what the reasons for things are but when we trust in God, there will always be an answer to the question! The reason that I am here is because I know that God loves me and that he has a son who loves me more than I can completely comprehend.

Tuesday we went to Royal Evitt family's house and had a great P-day with them! We just had a BBQ all day, played with the kids, ate the food and just had a great time to talk about the gospel with them :) They are such a lovely family and good people. In the evening we went over for tea with President Pilkington's good friend (former mission President and Stake Patriarch) for tea. We had a great discussion on the priesthood and what power it has. Just think for a moment what it means to you.. It is the power of God given to man to bless his children. Simple.

Wednesday was a teary eyed transfer day. Elder Simon has been the big brother that I have always wanted. I will miss him but I know that he goes to the land of eternal P-days! hahaha  In the evening we then went and did service all day and got down to the dirt! I love working hard and sweating … its great!

Thursday the biggest thing that I learned was honesty. We had an opportunity to "bend" the rules and still be safe within reason and we deicided that exact obedience is nessescary for the blessings of heaven to be poured out upon us. So in the end, we may have missed a once in a lifetime experience but we have clear conciences before God.

Friday we met with Alexandra and were able to just be friends and listen to her needs. It suffices me to say that I am eternally grateful for the commandments of God and the protection they give to us.

Have a good week!

Love Elder Dotschkat

Make Time Count!

Hey everyone,
Not too much happened this week but I will tell you the highlights!

I'm staying in Dewsbury by the way.  Transfers were yesterday and we're still here.

We saw Lynn quite a bit this week and enjoyed our great time with her.  She is such a great lady.  We had a party a few nights ago because we just wanted to celebrate our missions and serving together in Christ.  President Pilkington talked on Sunday and we were laughing so much! He is a really funny man! The biggest thing is that I am grateful for the missionaries that are serving around me and with me. I have learned so much from each of them. The biggest thing that stood out to me this week was rather than count the time, MAKE TIME COUNT! Yes I know, I only have a year left and that's exciting BUT I only have one year left to serve the Lord entirely with all of my heart, mind and strength.
I have learned that patience is a heavenly virtue and to have success and accomplish what the Lord has for us, we must wait for his timing and the way that he will bless us.
I'm attaching a few meaningful quotes that will explain more what I have experienced this week.

CONGRATS CASSIE ON YOUR GRADUATION … WELL DONE!

Take care
Love Elder Dotschkat