par baby! (Week 88, Glenfield, England, Elder Andrulevicus)

over fifteen feet away, but it felt way further, after debating in my head what the best thing to do was, i kicked it and...drained it! so last pday we played footgolf which is golf but with a football (soccer ball) and bigger holes. it’s actually pretty fun, I shot, or kicked?, even par.

this week was a mixed one that’s for sure. do you know that song that says “my sweet summer is gone”? well the summer that we experienced last week pretty much ended and this week was back to the rain. there were a few cool notable events from the last week. we’ve been putting up ads on Facebook Marketplace for free copies of the bible and the Book of Mormon and we’ve been getting messages asking for copies! instead of us searching after the interested people, they are coming to us with this! 

one night last week we were on our way to somewhere when we saw a few people working in their yard cutting down some big branches, it was out of our walk path but we felt like we needed to offer our help and to our surprise they actually took us up on our effort. they were a really cool family from Poland, and what’s cool was a few days previous I felt prompted to carry around some polish leaflets, which I was able to give to them after helping them out for a bit! we also met dxxxaz this week! well, we met him in front of his house a few weeks back while he was working on his car, and we had a really good conversation but not much came from it. last week we knocked into his door and...he let us right in. we taught a bit about prayer and set a return appointment, and we saw him on Friday and taught him the plan of salvation. he’s got a young family and has lost a few loved ones, so this really was cool to him. it was a good lesson and we are planning on seeing him more this week.

in our mission we read the Book of Mormon for 30 minutes a day, and I can testify that the days I read are the best days. there was one day last week where I didn’t get to read the Book of Mormon for as long as I wanted to, or should have, and that day just plain sucked, I was in such a cruddy mood. Elder Holland once said “Brothers and sisters, God always provides safety for the soul, and with the Book of Mormon, He has again done that in our time. Remember this declaration by Jesus Himself: “Whoso treasureth up my word, shall not be deceived”--and in the last days neither your heart nor your faith will fail you.” I’m grateful for my experience from this past week and the lesson I learned with it. The Book of Mormon truly is safety for our souls, and why? Because no other record found anywhere testifies of Jesus Christ so plainly and beautifully. I encourage each of you to dive into the Book of Mormon each day. I can promise you that you will be happier by doing so.

I just realised that today marks TWO years since getting my mission call, I cannot believe it’s been two whole years since I found out I was coming here. I could have never anticipated what’s taken place over the course of the last 20 months. going on a mission is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, no doubt! happy birthday to my aunt taryn and one of my all time top homies, Chad Boberg!!! I love you all! Have a GR8 week! Don’t fredette to go serve someone in need!

Elder Varner

the jimmer of cricket! (Week 87, Glenfield, England, Elder Andrulevicus)

hey hey hey! it’s actually been a pretty lit week out here, definitely the best one of the transfer so far. it went by so fast and so much happened! to kick off the week we went to the family history specialists to learn more about the program, and while they were showing us, they helped me find an ancestor family of seven that were born in norwich [Note: Norwich is were Dallas' 3rd and 4th Great Grandparents, Anne Jex, and William and Eliza Jex are from]. the spirit of elijah is so real! the entire time we were doing family history I felt the presence of those beyond the veil.

we were invited to young men’s and I learned how to play cricket. it’s not as boring as it looks, I think I got the hang of it too, but I think I’ll just stick to golf for now. if all else fails in the states maybe I’ll come back and become the jimmer of cricket. we also did a ton of gardening for service this week, and I must admit, it was actually pretty relaxing. 

this was by far the nicest week of my entire mission pertaining to the weather. i saw the sun everyday this last week, i was finally able to break out the short sleeve shirts, and I even got a sunburn for the first time in ages. it was so hot on a few of the days that we stopped and grabbed some ice cream to cool off. although there was one day where it was super sunny and warm, so I thought no way I was gonna carry around an umbrella or a raincoat, but then out of nowhere it was chucking down rain, and then an hour later it was sunny and not a cloud in the sky. the weather here is seriously as indecisive as a teenage girl. we spent a lot of time on the campus of De Montfort University (DMU) and that was a party. hundreds and hundreds of uni students just walking around, they are so much more open to talking than most people. we stopped one guy from Poland and a few minutes into our conversation we asked “well do you have a few minutes right now that we could sit down and teach you?” and he did, so we sat down and taught him a few life changing principles. that being said, as we talk with people at the university and anywhere else, there are times we “take upon us the shame of the world”. but it’s all good, it allows me to feel just a small bit of what Jesus Christ felt. 

we met lots of cool people though. one night we were going back to our flat but we felt like we needed to knock just a few doors, so we went to a really nice looking street and said we’d knock until a certain time, and then at the last minute we knocked into a cool family with a guy named Sxxxxcott. Him and his kids are awesome and were so nice to us! we should be seeing them this upcoming week. we also had a lesson with a returning less active member in which he finally committed to paying tithing! we are really focusing him on the temple as his goal!

lots of sick dinner appointments as well! we had enchiladas, chile con carne jacket potatoes, roast dinners, but my favourite one was steak and mashed potatoes with a member named Syyyyionne. him and his family are Tongan, and he plays professional rugby here in england. he’s such a beast, apparently he’s one of the best players in the league. anyways, the steak he made and the mashed potatoes he threw together were by far the best I’ve ever had, sorry mom, it was so dang good! he sent us home with left overs and 5 days later, we still haven’t finished them all!

i think I’ve shared this quote before but I wanted to share it again and I’ll explain why. Gordon B Hinckley once said “Many of you think you are failures. You feel you cannot do well, that with all of your effort it is not sufficient. We all worry about our performance. We all wish we could do better. But unfortunately we do not realize, we do not often see the results that come of what we do. You never know. You never know whether you do any good. You never know how much good you do.” Lately, I’ve been feeling like my efforts have been for nothing, I’ve felt like I’ve done no good and that no one has been benefited from my time here. On a night this past week I was feeling this pretty strongly. I was thinking of calling one of my mission leaders just to catch up on old times, but i was a bit hesitant, finally I decided to call just to chat, well he was on exchange with the zone leaders in cardiff, where I had served last summer. he told me that Sxxxxtephen Pxxxxxatten was now active in church again. sxxxxxtephen was a less active while I was serving in Cardiff, and the entire time I was there we were trying to work with him. after a few times of visiting with him, he texted us asking us not to come around again. we were shattered, but continued on, every week after he sent that text for the rest of my time in the area, we would run into him out of the blue. that was divine intervention. anyways when I left I didn’t think I did much, but this elder told me over the phone last week that Sxxxxxtephen Pxxxxatten had recently come back to church and Sxxxxxtephen said “tell Elder Varner thank you for his persistence, and that I love him”. I thought to myself, the words Gordon b Hinckley once said “you never know, you never know if you do any good. you never know how much good you do”.

i really do love each of you, and I hope you all have a great week out there in the land of the free and the home of the brave! 

look unto Christ in every thought, doubt not, fear not ️

Elder Varner

world tour! (Week 86, Glenfield, England, Elder Andrulevicus)

a while back one of my young men’s leaders told me that “light always shines through darkness”. well I’ve seen that a few times in the last week. it wasn’t an easy week, i feel like I’m in the middle of the refiners fire, but this week did include some miracles and many tender mercies. today also marks 20 months since leaving home. wow the time has been flying by. im excited to see each of you in a couple of months tho!

last week President Nelson and Elder Holland started their ministry tour around the world and the first stop was the United Kingdom. so last Thursday we had two broadcasts from them, one just for missionaries and one for all of Britain. ill share some of my notes at the end of this email but we decided that we’d try to invite people to the general broadcast. one man named Syyyyamuel from Africa, who was just on our phone as a potential, texted back saying he’d want to come, and he did! at the beginning as I explained prophets, he was hesitant, but by the end of the broadcast this man’s countenance changed. he looked at me after and expressed the joy and comfort he felt that God would speak to a prophet today on the earth. we met with him the next morning and taught him the restoration. we challenged him to read the Book of Mormon and to ask god if it is true. he said if he gets an answer to his prayer he wants to be baptised, so we set a goal date with him for may 26th! 

while teaching the great apostasy I decided to spice things up and try an analogy. I asked him what was his favourite food and he answered “rice!”. alright so picture this, imagine if I explained to you the correct and best way to make rice. you love it, so you explain it to a friend, cuz why not share something you love? anyways, your friend loves it, so he tries to explain it to a friend but as he is doing so he forgets one of the instructions. it doesn’t change things too much still, but as one person tells another, eventually you get a completely different end result, which Is completely different from the original, correct rice recipe. now compare it to Jesus Christ’s gospel. He taught his apostles and others, and they went out to teach the world, when the apostles were gone many shared their teachings but left out, or changed a bit of Christ’s original teachings. These small differences made a massive difference over time, leading to the formation of thousands of churches, which all claim to be formed from the teachings of the same book, the Bible. I testify that God has restored His church through a modern prophet. A young boy, confused by the different churches, prayed and asked God which church was true. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ really did appear to him, and through this young called prophet, God brought back his gospel, his teachings, his priesthood authority. The Book of Mormon clarifies and sets straight the teachings of the bible. This all clicked with Syyyyamuel and has led him to a desire to pray and ask god for himself.

we met a few really cool people, including a super cool young couple named Syyyyhane and Syyyyytephanie, they talked to us for like 30 minutes at their door step, they’re super interested in the Book of Mormon and we had a really good chat about eternal families and random stuff, it was great! a few experiences of getting promptings to knock a specific door as well, and where we saw miracles following that. 

rejection of the week:

Us: Hello how are you doing?

Random lady: nope nope nope, I’m a satanist

Good times, good times. Anyways the broadcast from President Nelson and Elder Holland was great! here are just a few of my notes from it:

• instead of praying to be led to the elect, pray to be led to those whose ancestors have accepted the gospel on the other side
• just as we would clean our rooms or houses in preparation for an inspection, we should clean our lives in preparation for the second coming of Jesus Christ
• we, as members of the restored church, know more about Jesus Christ than any other group on earth. and why? because we learn about him from both the bible and the Book of Mormon
• our doctrine isn’t complex, just love god and love your neighbor
• seek tutoring from the Lord day after day
• “is our life a witness to the truth?”
• our unique message to all the earth: the heavens are open! our ultimate message: the life, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ
• speaking of the restoration: “it’s so exciting that I bounce out of bed every morning!”
• Love others without limit, just as the lord would love them”
• some had gone to the solemn assembly with the intention of protesting, but the spirit silenced them
• the mission is a conversion experience: we are God’s investigators, and when we return home we are his recent converts
• our duty is to testify of the saviour Jesus Christ and of prophets

A big birthday shoutout to my brother Adam who is out in the Phillies right now! Also to my cousins Hannah and Emily! Sorry for the massive email, I’ll try to get some good stories to share with you all next time. If you made it this far, props to you, I love each of you. Have a lit week! I’ll try to do the same! Look unto Christ in every thought, doubt not, fear not ️

Elder Varner

angels round about to bear me up (Week 85, Glenfield, Elder Andrulevicus - Lithuania)

a major thank you to each of you who helped pick me up this past week. honestly those emails of encouragement meant a lot to me. i love you guys. i wish I could say this week was amazing, that everything was magically fixed, but that wasn’t the case. this week had some highs and some lows. im trying to stay patient and I’m trying to learn from the lows. ive been extra aware of my weaknesses this last week, but as I’ve turned to Jesus Christ, He has slowly made them into strengths.

we had some good lessons this last week and even two exchanges. i had one with elder odgard from denmark and one with elder Jensen from Utah. both were fun and good learning experiences. on those two exchanges we had plenty of “good touches”. as my cousin Trevor has said, it’s all about “good touches”. its the best feeling when you walk away from someone who wasn’t interested, but you know you left them with a good impression of the saviour. 

over the last weeks, as I’ve “look[ed] unto [Christ] in every thought, doubting not, fearing not”, I have been blessed with needed strength to get through my refiners fire. he has gone before my face, he has been on my right hand, and on my left. his spirit has been in my heart and his angels have been round about me, to bear me up.  i testify that the Lord will be with us every step of the way, whether we turn to him or not he is there, so why not turn to him and get the help he so badly wants to bless us with? whether you believe in him or not, he does love you, he preformed the atonement for you, please turn to him.

happy birthday to one of my main homies cooper wayment! im grateful for each of you. i love you all. look unto Christ in every thought, doubt not, fear not ️

Elder Varner

#KeepPounding (Week 84, Glenfield, England, Elder Andrulevicus-Lithuania)

this week was a rollercoaster of a week, it had some sweet parts and some super rocky parts. if I’m being real with you all, this was the hardest week of my mission. to start it out, for travel arrangements to my new area, it wasn’t a train, or a bus, but it literally said walk. i felt like a pioneer in some way. it has been so hard to be so close to a ward and an area I love so much but to be so far. I literally can see my last area every single day. 

my companion is a nice guy but it has been so hard. my saving point in this area would probably be the fact that knocking doors in this area is so so so much better than my last areas and the ward members I have met so far have been awesome. one guy, whose name is Dxxxan, is a big panthers fan so we got a pic with him reppin the panths #keeppounding. he shared a really cool experience with us actually: he was less active and was making a lot of bad choices a few years ago, at the time the panthers played the broncos in the Super Bowl. He said as he watched he was sad to see his team getting smacked but he was still hopeful for a comeback, and when it hit mid 3rd quarter it hit him that they weren’t going to pull out a comeback, he would say as they made bad plays “no, don’t do that, come on”. And it hit him that Heavenly Father must think the same thing when he makes mistakes. It completely changed the course of his life.

the other members we have met have been cool. the district is alright. we’ve been on foot because my comp is on a bike hunt, but it gives us a chance to talk to people as we walk from place to place. Conference the last two days has been a spiritual powerhouse for me. I haven’t seen the Sunday afternoon session yet but the other ones have been great. I loved elder Bednar’s talk on meekness and president Nelson’s talk on personal revelation. how great is it that god loves us so much that he has given us a prophet? I testify that if we follow the prophet we won’t ever be led astray, for he points us to Christ. 

two other experiences, one funny and one serious:

Funny: you’ll only get this if you’ve seen dumb and dumber, Elder Johnson and I were biking back to our flat on Monday night and he was ahead of me and I shouted “pull over” and he actually pulled over and looked at me concerned and I sped past him and shouted “no it’s a cardigan but thanks for noticing”. man we were dying, I love the homie Johnson!

Serious: I was having a really crappy day and I was in an awful mood, I was praying to God and asked for him to work a miracle through us. within two minutes I stopped this polish guy who was about to cross the street and he wasn’t too interested but we kept the conversation going anyways, he eventually cracked and told us of his struggles, he began to weep and said he was considering suicide. we talked with him for quite a while and his countenance completely changed. at the end of the conversation he had two things he didn’t have before that convo started, a friend and hope. God does answer our prayers, and he uses us to answer other’s prayers

I hope you all had a great Easter. I shared this on Facebook yesterday but I’ll repeat it. Elder Holland said in a talk once, “So today we celebrate the gift of victory over every fall we have ever experienced, every sorrow we have ever known, every discouragement we have ever had, every fear we have ever faced--to say nothing of our resurrection from death and forgiveness for our sins. That victory is available to us because of events that transpired on a weekend precisely like this nearly two millennia ago in Jerusalem. Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, suffered, died, and rose from death in order that He could, like lightning in a summer storm, grasp us as we fall, hold us with His might, and through our obedience to His commandments, lift us to eternal life.” I am so grateful for my saviour. I love Jesus Christ. He is my elder brother, my friend, my redeemer. I have not seen him in this life, but when I one day see him again, I will not know better then than I do now that He lives. In the words of one of my all time favourite hymns:

1. I know that my Redeemer lives.

What comfort this sweet sentence gives!

He lives, he lives, who once was dead.

He lives, my ever-living Head.

He lives to bless me with his love.

He lives to plead for me above.

He lives my hungry soul to feed.

He lives to bless in time of need.

2. He lives to grant me rich supply.

He lives to guide me with his eye.

He lives to comfort me when faint.

He lives to hear my soul’s complaint.

He lives to silence all my fears.

He lives to wipe away my tears.

He lives to calm my troubled heart.

He lives all blessings to impart.

3. He lives, my kind, wise heav’nly Friend.

He lives and loves me to the end.

He lives, and while he lives, I’ll sing.

He lives, my Prophet, Priest, and King.

He lives and grants me daily breath.

He lives, and I shall conquer death.

He lives my mansion to prepare.

He lives to bring me safely there.

4. He lives! All glory to his name!

He lives, my Savior, still the same.

Oh, sweet the joy this sentence gives:

“I know that my Redeemer lives!”

He lives! All glory to his name!

He lives, my Savior, still the same.

Oh, sweet the joy this sentence gives:

“I know that my Redeemer lives!”

Please, Any encouragement would be great right now. I believe that there is light up ahead? I won’t give up, I’ve still got some fight in me

I love each of you. Look unto Christ in every thought, doubt not, fear not

Elder Varner