A week full of miracles!

Hello everyone! This week has been a great week full of miracles! 

So on monday it was just a wonderful day. Elder Li and I spent the pday at Newcastle just hanging out with other missionaries playing sports and watching a movie . After p-day we went to a members home and taught her fiancé Alex! He is our newest scheduled investigator! He is scheduled for baptism for the 8th of March! Its so good to finally have an investigator that is wanting to meet with us and that wants to learn more :) 

The biggest thing that I learned is that we need to communicate with those people around us. Those people that knew me before my mission know that I can communicate, I just need to make the conscious effort to do it :P I also learned that Heavenly Father blesses us in enormous ways, especially when we feel that we don't deserve it. I know that it was only through Heavenly Fathers blessing that we are now able to teach Alex.  A lot of the time we say as members that God will answer prayers but while teaching Alex the thought came to mind to ask if we truly understand what that means? Do we truly understand the position and powers that prayers can hold? Heavenly Father wants to bless us with miracles and wants us to have ALL the blessings that he has in store for us but sometimes we need to be the ones to ask for them. Heavenly Father wants us to come here and have happiness in this life so why would he hold anything back from us. The fact is that God will give us all the blessings that we need and that we ask for. They may not come in the way or the time that we want, but they will come! 

"I the lord am bound when ye do what I say, but when ye do not what I say, Ye have NO PROMISE"

God will bless you!

Another thing that I have learned is that life is too short so we need to make the most of every minute that we have! This life is too precious to waste it on things that don't matter so we always need to be doing things that do matter. I have realized this especially in missionary work with how fast time is going and how little time is left. My Zone Leader said to my district in the meeting yesterday that we should not let a day pass us by and I stand by that!

Have a good week

Elder Dotschkat

The beach, a castle, some swans & a Canadian goose

Hello everyone :)

So this week was pretty good :)

Monday - we went to Newcastle and got there an hour before the other people so we had to wait in the cold to have people open the chapel doors :P It ended up being the senior couple and so we played Phase 10 with them.

After that I went on exchange to South Sheilds again with Elder Koojiman and worked at this less active's home that night. She is from Zibabwei I think and so she fed us fufu and curry and rice and it was just all so good!

Tuesday - Elder Koojiman and I went finding around South Shield and it was beautiful. We went and saw the beach, a castle, some swans and a Canadian goose! :D it was great to be able to see all of these thing especially because I took pictures! I took 47 pictures that one day and for a missionary, that is A LOT!

Wednesday - We had district meeting again and it went well. I feel that they are becoming a lot better over time only because people are participating in it a lot more. Then the rest of the day was pretty crazy and stressful but let it suffice to say that I was upset at many things going wrong all at once :P So because so many things were happening all at once we had to get a member to deliver tea to us. I am so happy that she understood the emergency.

Thursday - Went finding all day :P Then in the evening we had tea at a members home and they ordered Chinese food for Elder Li and made pancakes with maple syrup for me !!!! :D I never really like maple syrup until my mission :P OH! and it was the real stuff from home :P lol

Friday - Friday we went finding all day and found some places with really nice graffiti, if you can say its nice. More of a talent than a nuisance in my eyes sometimes :) The most exciting thing about Friday was during the sport night. There is a member of the ward that brought her non member fiance and he agreed to let us teach him!!!! :D WOOT!!! soooooo excited!

Saturday - Went up to Newcastle for DLST and took some pictures with Elder P because he is going home next week. It is amazing to me how fast time is flying by! At this rate before I know it....ugh....I don't want to think about it lol I love this work, I don't think that I have ever laughed so much and so consistently in my life. There is always something to laugh about, whether it is something stupid that I have done or not :P

Sunday was Sunday. Twas a busy busy BUSY day in which we visited members and once again gave the sacrament to Bill. Also the other team in Sunderland has an investigator that passed her interview (done by yours truly lol) and is getting baptised next weekend. Please pray that it will all go well because she has asked me to give a talk and she has MANY friends invited to attend!

I must run now but until next week take care of yourselves!

Love you all !

Elder Dotschkat

Pancakes with maple syrup

The Canadian Super Hero

Hey everybody!

So this week started with an exchange to south Sheilds! I was there with Elder Saolatoga. (Austrailia) and Elder Koojiman (Holland) and it was so fun!  Monday night we went and had FHE with this less active family and the kids were so crazy quiet! Like dead silent! I am not used to that!  The one wants to get baptised so that is great and the mother promised to cook me some African meals when I go over next which is either tonight or tommorow! Then back at the flat we played Phase 10 :)

Tuesday - the best part of the day was seeing a less active named David. He is a great guy and LOVES comics!!!!  GUESS WHAT! GUESS WHAT! GUESS WHAT EVERYBODY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THERE IS A CANADIAN SUPER HERO OTHER THAN WOLVERINE!!!! (yes! Wolverine is Canadian!) I got pictures of the comics and it was just so great to have fun looking at the North Guard! Apparently there is a great lakes team of Avengers and a Captain Canuck as well! hahahahahahaha SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wednesday was district meeting and I think that it has been the best one so far because of the missionary's reactions and participation in it!  Then in the evening I took my FIRST AND LAST UK driving lesson! BOY DOES IT EVER FEEL GOOD TO BE BACK BEHIND THE WHEEL!  I like the roundabouts as well! It really is great once you get the hang of it. 

Thursday the best part of the day was doing service for this house of students that needed their yard tidied up but just didn't have the time. We have been in contact with the students and they say that they will be coming to the church soon to the sport night and to have a look around!  I am pretty excited about that because it is going SOOOOO WELL!  

Friday was SO crazy! So the main crazy things were Elder M is gone! He got transferred to south Sheilds and Elder Soalatoga to somewhere else in the mission. I nearly had a heart attack because the assistants called and paused after they had asked if President had called me yet......one word....frightening...haha not really but yes. So when that happened we had to leave the house of the less active that we just arrived at to let Elder M practice his drum performance for the talent show that night at the chapel. We got home, ordered pizza, packed Elder M and then said goodbye. The ZL's picked him up and we went to the chapel for the talent show. It was so fun!  Apprently it is on youtube....if you find it....please just remember, I am still silly old me :P

Saturdays most exciting activities happened in the morning when we got a call from our Chinese member saying that he had found a friend that we could teach at the Newcastle chapel and that would come to the baptism and Chinese New Year celebration! Elder Li was so happy!  He was like a kid at Christmas because that is what Chinese new year is to him. btw it is the year of the horse! So while we were there he taught her completely in Chinese because she cant speak English that well. I felt like the penguins off of Madagascar, "Just smile and wave boys, Just smile and wave..." . Haha. It was great anyways though :) 

We had an authentic Chinese Hot Pot!  Sorry, I feel so bad because I forgot to take pics. I will repent mom. But anyways, it was delicious!!!! After we were done the metro ride home was crazy because Newcastle and Sunderland football teams played and we were honeslty worried that we would get mugged or beaten up hahahahahaha......then I fell asleep. :P I woke up with a 2 drunk guys sitting beside us trying to hit on this girl from London and completely burning out ! hahahahahhahahahhahaahh!!!! SO funny! She was really nice and would like to meet US soon though :P

Sunday - Probably best Sunday that I have enjoyed here. All in all it was a good day. I bore my testimony and listened to many wonderful ones. After we had a huge lunch appointment with the stake patriarch and that was great!  Talked about how rugby is the best sport on earth (kind of biased) and then we went to Roker to give Bill (72 year old man) the sacrament. When we were coming home I saw a mustang and HAD to talk to the guy and compliment his car. There are not many over here so he appreciated it and wants to talk to us and learn more :) Then we went to Mavis, had gammon steak with pineapple and then got dumplings from our chineese member. Then played phase 10 at the flat oh and twister! hahahahahaha it was just great !

Well now I am off to Newcastle to watch the super bowl!!!! 

Have a great week! 

Your are in my prayers

Elder Dotschkat

The Canadian Super Hero

Cold showers, puppies and a sports night

Hello!

So this week has been full of laughter, music and uh..good things.

I hope that your week has been the same for all of you :)

So on Monday we had Zone p-day and it was great because we did it at Sunderland! SO GOOD! This was after Sister Godfrey took us to Tesco to buy us our monthly food :)

When we got to the chapel we played chair football, ate pizza and watched FROZEN! OMYGOODNESS!!!! IT WAS SO GOOD! Now, I know what you are thinking, I have gone crazy.....THAT MIGHT BE TRUE.......BUT it was a great movie!  Anyways, if you haven't seen it....do it. Thats all I will say....And if you don't like it, just remember that I am on a mission and either it was a good movie or my taste in movies has deterioated over time...lol

On Tuesday we found out that our bolier wasn't working.......so the decision was either we take a bath with the water that we can heat up in the kettle and on the stove or a FREEZING COLD shower. Now when I say something is cold, IT IS COLD! Because I am Canadian :) LOL. Anyways, that was an interesting start to the day and so because it was broken we couldn't really do much because someone had to be close to the flat to be there when the repairman came.  AND THEN WE FIND OUT THAT IT WASN'T BROKE, IT JUST OVER HEATED!!!! :S I felt sheepish :P Whatever though...in the evening we had a visit with a member of the ward. His name is Stan Davies and he is a funny old man :P

On Wednesday we had district meeting, then district lunch and Elder Weggerson came on exchange and Elder Mielacher went to Durham. We went finding all day and talked to some nice fishermen again. They always have time to talk and kinda are a captive audience :P In the evening we went to the house of a former British military member and he fed us food from the Philipines! It was so tasty and then when the spice set in....IT WAS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOT!  hahahahahhahahahahahha.

Thursday the most exciting things were the visit with Mavis (the lady where we went for Christmas) and the ward splits in the evening. At Mavis's house we watched the Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration from his mothers point of view and it was just so wonderful. Everytime I watch this my testimony is strengthened. I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet called by God and the our Heavenly Father exists and loves us. In the evening I went with Brother Tom Fowdy (the ward mission leader) and discussed what we can do to improve the work of missionaries in the ward.

Friday we had weekly planning and discussed what we can do better this coming week so that we can be better missionaries and better men. I am very grateful for the spirit to comfort and humble us during circumstances that might not be what we desire but are for our good. Then the afternoon we did service for the other teams investigator and once again I got the crappy job.......LITERALLY! I was cleaning up the dog poop! They have 2 siberian huskies which just had a litter of 6 puppies which were adorable! It was great to be able to serve someone and SEE a change :) In the evening we had the sports night again which was a great success! MORE MEMBERS CAME!!!!!!

Saturday was a day to get some more things done to fix the flat....radiators fixed...check....dryer fixed....almost check. Ward coordination and then Mavis's in the evening...Elder Li beforehand though had twisted his ankle on wet concrete and so we carried him a fair distance. After Mavis's we went to the flat to heal his ankle and let it rest. We just had a good night of discussing life and the matters of the universe.

Sunday was a good day in which we now have a new investigator!!!! he is about 6"3' and weighs a little more than me. He said that he would be baptized if he received his answer so please pray for him, his name is Jack
.

Have a great week

Elder Dotschkat

Do you know where I can find some maple syrup?

Hello Its me again!

So this week was pretty good!

Monday - Pday! In the evening we went to visit some less actives in the ward that are needing help :)

Tuesday - We went beach contacting and I talked to all the fishermen on the pier. Its pretty good to go and talk to these guys because they are so relaxed and are just thinking about life....at least that's what I do when I am fishing....I will do it soon I hope! After that we had a lesson with a man in the ward that served for the British Forces and he had some pretty crazy stories to tell! He loves the scriptures and enjoys deep studies so the next time that we see him, I wouldn't be surprised if he had a question about a topic that I did not know about :P He is very intelligent.

On Wednesday we received a referral that was all the way out in our areas edge and guess what! It was a bogus call.....:P It took quite a bit of time to travel out there so we just enjoyed being a companionship and doing what we do :) We talked to some very nice people out there and one was named Helen. She reminded me of my grandmother and I just want to say a quick hello grandma Helen! :) I hope you see this!!!! Um...after that We went home and had tea.:)

On Thursday we had Zone training and our president came to instruct us and have interviews.  We talked about being better and more personal finders and new approaches that we could use to people. He asked for volunteers and me and my companions went up. I was on the spot okay so this was how I greeted him..."Hello sir, Do you know where I can find some maple syrup?" bahahahahaha! I thought that was great, when the laughter died down he answered my question and then we did it again but Elder Li asked for fried rice :P I think that we were hungry or something LOL. Anyways, the training meeting was great because I feel a new fire within me for this work and am even more excited than before to go finding and try these new approaches out on people. So I tried some on the train and was able to have 3 great conversations with people that naturally turned into conversations about the gospel and the church! We have committed ourselves to find two new investigators per week per companionship.

Friday we were finding all day and took some pictures around the university. In the evening we had sports night again and played some hard core games of UNO!!!! hahahahah....it got pretty intense...lol

Saturday we did some service for the bishops family and it felt weird to be out of my suit into jeans again....Just not me.....at least at the moment. :P They gave us a new couch and chair for our flat and that was great because I have a new comfy chair to study in. In the evening there was a baptism of Abbie and Leah. It was a wonderful service with a lot more support from the ward than anticipated. So much so that we ran out of programs for the baptism. After the service we gave tours of the building to people who were interested.

Sunday was a good day.....I can't really remember what happened except that I was reading the lessons for Elders quorum and wow they are good!

Well thats my week!

See you later!

ps- MY COUSIN JUST COMES HOME THIS WEEK!!!! TIME FLIES BY FAST!

most profound thing that I learned this week was that time flies by too fast, live in the moment and enjoy it. Let the future come when it will come.

Elder Dotschkat

From a companionship to a trio

Ni hao ma! Its jong-lao Dotschkat
I love having a Taiwanese companion!

This week was great!
P-day was email, shopping for a new suit and trousers and a nap. On Wednesday it was transfers and we were in a three companionship with Elder Olasson from Utah (he sings like an angel). He's been out about 18 months and it was fun to serve with him.  On Wednesday my companion and I got Elder Li in our new tri-companionship. He's from Taiwan, went to BYU Hawaii, lived in China and is so funny! Also he is from my group so its a pretty great change of events!

On Thursday we went finding all day and in the evening the ward mission leader (recently returned from the Perth Australia mission 3 months ago) was so stoked to have five missionaries for splits! We went to see a less active man and had a real nice chat with him about the scriptures.

On Friday it was weekly planning with our zone leaders and sport night in the evening. The zone leader (Elder Weggerson from Norway and Elder Putnam from Utah) were really funny! They are just so humorous and just love to laugh all the time! In the evening we had a sports night in the chapel for the ward and the community. It was an alright turnout, quite a few kids and a few adults. I enjoyed laying sports with them and building better relationships within the ward through that (I know it doesn't sound like I could but I did, I know I didn't think I could either).

Saturday we had a wonderful day full of laughter. We found this place where Chinese people live and talked to like 30 in a short time … we are going back there needless to say .. haha.

Sunday was a pretty good day. The other Sunderland team has two sisters scheduled for baptism this coming Saturday and I gave my first interviews. It was an interesting experience because the girls were quite shy but they opened up eventually. As soon as I made them laugh it was just like talking to an old friend. In the evening we had the ward's first cottage evening at the bishops house in which we discussed who Heavenly Father is to each of us and what it means to us that we are His children. :)
All in all it was a good week and I can feel myself growing closer to my Father in Heaven.

Have a great week.
Love you all!
Elder Dotschkat

I'm staying in Sunderland

Hello Ere'body!

So this week was pretty good and I don't have much time so I'm just going to tell you the most interesting parts!

So first of all I am staying in Sunderland for another transfer with Elder Mielacher BUT we are going to be in a tri-companionship. We are getter an Elder Lee! I am assuming that he speaks Chinese of sorts so this coming transfer will be a VERY interesting one. Chinese people are very open to the gospel here and always bring at least one friend with them!

So also with the past week it was the New Year! Happy New Year everybody! I hope that you have made all your new year resolutions :) 

So also something that happened last week is that we met with the Patriarch of the stake and had a wonderful discussion with him. TO EVERYONE THAT HAS ONE, READ YOURS! (you will know what Im talking about if you do).

New Years eve we just partied at the flat watching movies, stayed up till midnight and then as soon as the clock changed, went to bed lol. It was something that was really nothing :P haha  New years day we went over to our bishops house and played with his kids and their family. We played Scattegories and watched Treasure Planet! SO GOOD! 

After that we went back to the flat, had pizza and worked out (probably did nothing for me after the pizza though :P) 

Thursday we got lost. We went to a new area for an appointment and got completely turned around. Once a week this is happening but thats alright.

Friday I was feeling a little down, just something weird that happened. The day seemed kind of bleak and hard to me and then we went and had Mormon.org time, brought up my spirits a little bit and then in the evening we had a visit/lesson with the Liddles family again! SO good! OH OH OH!!!! THEIR SON GOT HIS MISSION CALL!!!!!! HE IS GOING TO THE EDMONTON MISSION!!!!! Hahahahahahahhahahahhahahaha

We laughed the whole night and it was just great! 

Saturday we we running around like chickens with our heads cut off all day and I was so exhausted at the end. We had DLST (District Leader Specialized Training) and we discussed what the Zone needs to be able to progress. Just as some investigators get stuck doing the same thing, we do as well. We say the same, eat the same, sleep the same. IT JUST DOESNT WORK! WE NEED TO ALWAYS BE CHANGING!  So now we are being ourselves so look out England! Here I come!

Sunday was alright, no crazy people at church....darn. hahaha It's so great to laugh, just try it out! So yeah! Just laugh a little! It works!

Well thats my week,

take care!

Elder Dotschkat