Elder DiPeri and I are in a little library in Morecambe, England. The Lancaster area covers the towns of Lancaster, Morecambe, and Heysham mostly and is in the Preston stake. Pronounced MORE-cum, not More-cam-BEE, by the way haha. Our flat is in a little complex in Morecambe about a five minute walk from the docks and we can see the ocean stretch out over a bay with the mountains (well, sort of) or Barrow in the Lake District on the other side. Every morning I wake up to the crash of waves and seagulls chirping and the white sun fringing the clouds.
That makes it sound pretty romantic, but it's actually freezing here and rain and hail and wind fall like bullets every once in a while. Get me my fishing coat from Doc Warner's! But I'm pretty sure if I had to live in England, I would live in Lancaster. The flow of Morecambe is like a hipster seaport town with Chinese takeaways and little cold English beaches and the homes are impossible to describe. I feel like I'm in mainland Europe now. And Lancaster is probably the closest thing to what you would think of Scotland or Ireland. There's great stretches of vivid green pasture and sheeps and English homes straight out of Harry Potter. Pretty steeze.
The ward here is amazing! Elder DiPeri and I came in to help build it a little more and they are responding so well. They already love us and they love Sister Sun so much haha. We don't have too many investigators from the previous elders but the flat isn't bad and Elder DiPeri is a missionary machine. He didn't believe in anything like a year before his mission and then came to church out of curiosity and investigated for like seven months and got a really powerful answer and most of his membership has been on a mission. He has no fear of anything and he just teaches boldly all day long! So I'll learn a lot from him.
Unfortunately I haven't talked to any Chinese people yet, but hopefully we will find them soon. The city centers are really fun with all the Christmas spirit and there are two major universities here. There is the Lancaster University and the University of Cumbria. As elders we are not allowed to proselyte on campus so we will try to find them elsewhere. I really hope to find some Chinese people that aren't just students, maybe like a family that owns a takeaway. Pray for me :)
And guess what we do that I've never done before? Door knocking. It's painfully awkward but no one is as rude as the legends state. I'm sort of learning that hours and hours of it aren't the way to do missionary work, there are much better ways to use time. We have a car actually that Elder DiPeri drives and we get to keep it until the end of December. It's nice for when it gets really cold but our miles are pretty limited. I think there's a lot of good work to do here.
So far we've only really taught this old lady named Helen and a man named Stuart. Helen's home reminded me of Grandma and Grandpa's Shadowbrook home and she had so many little decorations. It's impossible to explain what it feels like to be a missionary all day haha. And then Stuart is really great, he likes missionaries but doesn't really understand it all yet. It's weird to have somewhat of a focus on English people now, I have to admit I miss basically just doing Chinese but I guess I wasn't called to England by chance. I really respect the missionaries who aren't Chinese speaking here. But Elder DiPeri doesn't give up on people so he's a great example. I think since he's a convert his missionary spirit hasn't died even though he has been out so long.
Sorry I don't have any pictures, I don't like to carry my camera around for fear of rain or weight or whatever. This place and time will be a great way to endure the colder months of the year and build my missionary skills.
That's about it.
Love you all,
Elder Webb
Oh yeah here's my new address:
Elder James Webb
303 Queen Square, Opus Building
Station Road
Morecambe, LANCS
LA4 5JL
England, United Kingdom
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