south side! (Week 48, Rhiwbina, Cardiff, Wales, Elder Mason)

Hey everyone!

First I gotta give some big shoutouts to the homies Issac Berrett and Garrett Cook who are leaving on missions this week! That's so crazy that you are both leaving now! It's come so fast! You'll love it! Also a big happy birthday to my awesome aunt leslie!!!! Today marks 11 months of me being in the United Kingdom, the time seriously gets faster and faster, and with it comes a sense of urgency to the work, because my time out here is so short and I want to do everything I can to make the most of it.

This week was a good one! I did have health issues the entire week, had a super bad cold and etc, but it's all good cuz it didn't stop me from rising and doing the grind out here! We visited Vyyerena again, she's a less active in the ward, and we met with her daughter this time as well, and they both came to church yesterday!! It was so cool to see them both there! We are really gonna be focusing our efforts on them, they are way cool! It was a miracle to see them there, and they were early too! We visited another less active/part member family one night around 8:40 just when we were in the area and it was amazing timing, they are having some family issues at the moment and we set up a time this upcoming week to go do a family home evening with them! We worked most of the week in the southern part of our area in some poorer areas, but wow, the people in those communities are so much humbler and receptive, people will just offer us cold drinks and they'll actually talk to us. 

Do you know that moment when you realise you shouldn't have said something? Well elder Mason had one of those this week, we knocked on this door, and the lady who answered was Muslim and we were talking to her, and elder Mason innocently said "where In the Middle East are you from?" She was born in London...awkward, but she was so nice about it haha. Some guy saw us from a distance and he was one of the biggest grown up chavs I've ever seen, he started yelling at us to see if we were "knocking off" I was beyond confused, but turns out knocking off means ditching school, when he saw we were missionaries he started rapping about us so that's cool. It rained a lot this week, there was one day where I would have been drier in a swimming pool. 

We had interviews with president Leppard which were great as always, he's such a good guy! We also had our district meeting and our district is three people bigger, we now have sisters ackley, Thornton, swasey, wadsworth, and Siri ek. But sister Thornton goes home next week and sister Siri ek and wadsworth are moving to a new area next week but it's a pretty big district right now!

My spiritual thought of the week is about procrastination. Something we all do in different extents. President Henry B Eyring said "There is a danger in the word someday when what it means is “not this day."...The God who gives us each day as a treasure will require an accounting. We will weep, and He will weep, if we have intended to repent and to serve Him in tomorrows which never came or have dreamt of yesterdays where the opportunity to act was past. This day is a precious gift of God. The thought “Someday I will” can be a thief of the opportunities of time and the blessings of eternity." We can apply this in every aspect of our lives. Don't delay improvement and action. I'm gonna borrow something the homie elder wayment whose killing it out in Texas said last week, he said the only two days we can't do anything our yesterday and tomorrow. Be invested in TODAY! Don't wait! Check out the talks "this day" by Henry b eyring, and "your four minutes" by Gary e Stevenson. Thanks for letting me borrow some of that Coop! Happy year mark 🎉

Have a good week! Go serve some people around you and lift where you stand! And always remember that Elder V loves you!

Elder Varner

Sent from my iPad

pic 1: crossing tracks

pic 2: post-interviews

pic 3: sweet view on a day where i would have been drier in a pool

pic 4: RIP OFF of chick fil a