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 
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Elder Varner
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