December 29, 2009

It was really good to get to talk to everyone on Christmas! It didn't make me homesick, it just made me happy so don't worry about that. I'm sad to hear about Nat's new companion. I hope it all works out with them. I haven't had a bad one yet so I don't really know what thats like or how to deal with it. Hopefully I won't ever have to deal with that. For New Year's here we'll be painting our flat. They don't let us out after 5 because we might get mugged so we're stuck in there doing that. That should be more fun than a barrel of rabid monkeys. I'm hoping everything will slow down a bit soon so we can actually teach people. We're trying to stay positive though so we'll make it through. I talked about getting some new shoes because mine are rubbish so we went and looked a bit on Boxing Day. The cheapest waterproof set I could find that would last a while were 70 pounds. So thats about 110 dollars. So they're pretty spendy. Thats even with sales. They were originally 85 pounds. But I do need to get some soon and I hate to sound like a mooch but can you help me out with that? Customs took all of my money haha. Boxing day was really good for us. One of the member families invited us over all day and made us a huge English fry-up breakfast. It was pretty good. Except I tried blood pudding and it was just like Garrett said, a scab. They just kept calling it black pudding so I wouldn't know what it was. But it was sick I didn't like it at all. Anyways I better get moving I love you guys!

December 15, 2009

Hey Mom and Dad how is everything going back home? All is pretty well here. Our baptism tanked out on us so that isn't very cool. But it happens. To this end was I called. We've been spending a ton of time finding lately cuz someone whizzed in our teaching pool. It seems like all of them got antied at once so they won't talk to us anymore. It's a little bit tough. But it's ok. The thing is that everyone is so busy during the whole Christmas season. You would think Christmas might make them think a little bit about Christ but it just makes everyone cranky. I've never been sworn at so much in my life. Some lady spit at us the other day. I tried really hard to be Christ-like but I really wanted to kick her in the teeth. But I didn't do it so you should be proud of me. The members are taking care of us really well during the holidays so don't worry. We've got two different meals planned for Christmas day and the whole day with one of the families on Boxing Day. Boxing day is the day after Christmas. It's really big here I guess. We're not allowed to proselyte during it so we'll go chill with the members. But they got us covered so not to worry. As far as phone calls go I'll be calling on Christmas. Thats about all I got for you at the moment. We get to email on Christmas Eve with the details about it so I'll let you know what time on that day. It'll probably be about 11 or noon your time though if I were a guessing person. But I'll let you know later.
Elder Largesse and I get along great! The work has been really enjoyable with him even if we do get rejected. He's from Vegas I don't remember if I told you that or not but he's been out for 19 months now. He goes home the first part of May. I'm glad Nat is doing well in the MTC. I haven't heard from her since she got in there so it's good to know everything is going well. The time flies like crazy out here! I feel like I'm still relatively new but my mission is 1/6th of the way done. Crazy huh. I was thinking of that the other day it's pretty wild.
I don't have too many crazy stories to tell about this week. We have a Christmas conference down in Cardiff with a talent show on the 23rd and me and Elder Largesse are going to sing a song we're writing. We're writing a rendition of "Knocking on Heaven's Door" called "Knocking on People's Doors". Should be pretty good I think. Funny anyways. I got your package last week at zone conference. Thank you for all of the stuff. I was needing socks and deodorant believe it or not. I was out of American deodorant and the stuff they have over here sucks. So thanks for that I appreciated all of it.
In your letter you asked if the cold was different here and yes it is. It doesn't get as cold temperature-wise, but it's a humid damp cold so it penetrates to your bones. It's crazy. I miss the snow though. Christmas just isn't quite the same without the snow. But it'll be ok. 

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December 8, 2009

Hey how is everything going back home? All is going pretty well here. Everybody is atheist it seems like. All Christmas means to them is to drink themselves stupid and not have to go to work the next day. There are a few believers but the overwhelming majority are atheists. It makes it a little bit tough to talk to them because all they do is mock you for having a belief. One of my mission goals is to bag me an atheist before I go home though so I'm going to do it. I'm also gonna bag me a Jew, a JDub, a family, and a Born Again Christian. So those are my goals just so you know. I was reading my conference notes and found out I'm supposed to share my goals with my family so there you have it. Post is pretty ridiculous isn't it? I haven't gotten the package yet but we have Zone Conference on Friday so it'll probably be there.We set up our Christmas tree the other day too. You should see this thing, it's a disgrace. It's a fiber optic tree that stands 9 inches high. I'll take a picture for you. You'll laugh I promise. As far as Christmas goes we don't know what time we'll be calling or anything yet, that'll come eventually I'm sure. We do have two dinners set up for Christmas day though. One is with a less-active lady and her son for lunch and then we're going out to the ward mission leader's house for dinner and calling home. He has a really posh house you should see this thing. It's like 400 years old but he restored the whole thing and modernized it all. It's sweet. I'll let you know about all the Christmas details later though. My bike and I have not fared well this week I tell you what. I've had 2 flat tires and a wicked wreck. We were cruising down a bike trail and there was a bridge over the creek that was covered with moss. One second the bike was under me the next it wasn't. I kissed the pavement and thought I knocked out a tooth but they're all still there don't worry. Elder Largesse was behind me so he ate it as well and landed right on top of me. His bike went over the bridge and swimming in the creek so when we gathered ourselves we had to do a bit of fishing. Pretty cool huh. I was telling some members about it and said the word "crick" they thought that was pretty funny. I got hit by a car too. Not hard or anything he just bumped me a bit. But by heck I kept control of that bike like a champ I tell you what. Didn't even fall over. I watched a guy get hit by a car in Worcester the other day!  He got hit by a bus. It wasn't moving too fast so he was ok and everything but it shot him in the air hardcore. I thought he was a dead fetcher but he got up and walked it off. It was awesome. And yes that is the same Worcester as like Worcestershire sauce. But you say it like Woo(as in wood)-ster-sher. So now you know how to say it properly. It sounds nothing like it's spelled I know, but thats how you say it. I'm teaching one of the member kids how to speak like an American so that's pretty cool too. He's pretty good at it. Oh by the way, I was reading an Ensign from August 05 and there was a story in there by Bart Benson from his mission. It was really good, I liked it alot. I don't know if you ever read it but if not you should. It's a good one.

December 1, 2009

So an update for England. My new companion and I get along really well so that's going really good. He's from Las Vegas. We both hate BYU as well so we'll continue to get along lol. And the best part.... He's a Raiders fan! Sweet huh. He loves the blanket you made me too. He said you are awesome for doing that. He has a girl waiting for him. Get this, she is at BYU-I and she's been there for 2 years and she's not even married! I told him she must be a keeper lol. But ya all is going well here still. We kinda lost a ton of investigators for unknown reasons though. They all kinda quit answering their doors and phones at the same time so we just have to look for new ones now. So that was just a little bit stressful but it's ok we'll find the ones who are prepared right? Oh ya I was going to tell you a funny story about an old lady lol. We stopped her and she told me I was good looking so I would go far in life lol. Crazy huh. At least somebody thinks I'm good looking.... ;)
Hey I hope Thanksgiving was good. Ours was really good I liked it alot. We had dinner out at Brother and Sister Hansen's house with some members from the ward. Brother Hansen is a fellow yank so it was pretty sweet. They made us some really good food I enjoyed it alot. So don't worry we were taken care of Nobody has claimed us for Christmas quite yet but it's coming I'm sure. Thanks for all of the pictures I loved them and they all came in fine so no worries. If you want to look up the Hansen's on facebook his name is Tom Hansen from Hereford I don't think it'll be too tough to find.Our baptism for the 12th fell through because the guy suffers from depression and tries to drink away his problems and he has no desire to quit whatsoever. So there's not too much we can do for him but pray. It's a bit frustrating but it'll be ok. Have you gotten any snow over there? It was frosty today but no snow yet. Just butt-freezing cold. And my under armour was in the wash today so I'm not keeping very warm. We don't have a dryer so we have to hang dry everything. That really sucks alot but it's ok. Christmas is coming really fast. I just realized I need to do some shopping. Fetch. Oh well. I'll get that done. Anyways I better head out now.

November 25, 2009

Hey guys how is everything going? All is well here. I'm staying in Hereford for another round so no worries there. We baptized a guy named Justin last week. I did the actual baptism so that was a really cool experience. I loved it. The work is awesome! And don't worry about thanksgiving we have a big huge dinner planned for tomorrow night at the American's home. I got a new companion as well. I don't know much about him yet other than his name is Elder Largesse and he's a fellow American so he'll appreciate the dinner. One of the members brought us a pumpkin pie last night. I thoroughly enjoyed that I tell you what. It has been raining like mad the last little while. The river flooded over on monday. We had to get bussed out to Worcester for 3 days so we wouldn't drown. Just kidding. The river really did flood but it only got into one of the parks and we live on the only hill in Hereford so we woulda been fine anyway. Just wanted to wind Mom up a little bit.

It's all good here in Hereford, especially since I'm staying here. Elder Israelsen is moving to Boston on the other side of the mission but I'll still be here. I love Hereford. I'll probably be really sad when I do have to leave. My new companion is Elder Largesse. He's American thats about all I know. I haven't even met him yet he should be here in about an hour. The baptism was awesome! Justin is the man. Seriously. He's so solid. He's going to be an awesome member! He'll probably be getting a calling soon as well. So that will be really good.

November 17, 2009

Hey Guys I don't have too much time this week but I just wanted to shoot you a quick email. Everything is going well here. We have transfers next week so we'll have to see how that goes. We still have a baptism on Thursday and he asked me to baptize him. Pretty cool huh. So I'll get to baptize somebody. I'm really excited for it he's a really cool guy and we've been working with him for quite a while now. We also got another guy who accepted a baptismal date for Dec. 12th. I don't know if I'll still be here or not but either way he's a really cool guy and I bet he gets baptized eventually. It has been raining like crazy lately and my bag started leaking and got my scriptures wet so they're all smeared and everything. Could you send my old scriptures to me ASAP. They're still good and they have a nice case and everything but if you could send them soon that would be wonderful.

We had football today, I didn't play because of my hip but it's fun to just go and see everyone you know. I got to tell one of the sisters in my district at the mtc about your call and everything she said to say congratulations to you. And I'm so excited for the baptism! He actually asked me to baptize him so I'm really excited and a little bit nervous but it'll be good. Yes you should probably hold the post until next week. Depending on where I get moved to I might be emailing Wednesday or Thursday either one. Transfers are a bit crazy. Anyways I better get going.

November 10, 2009

Man I'm proud of Garrett tell him that for me. Even if Blake and Brandon would prefer to just hang out with dudes the rest of their lives I'm proud of the Guthmeister. Satan does work really hard it's true. It's sad really. What has been going on? We have one guy set up for baptism on the 19th. Thats a Thursday night so that's kinda weird but he wanted to be baptized soon and the weekend wouldn't work for the ward that week.My package is in Birmingham. I'm not sure why but I have to pay 18 quid to Her Majesty's Revenue in order to get it. That's England's version of customs. Either way it's here so I'm going to pay that and get it forwarded to me. I have some pictures to print then I'll get them sent out to you. And they do have me in them so don't worry. I'll get them on the way soon. Ya I actually gave myself a haircut last night to be honest. It was a professional job I tell you what.

Teaching has been awesome this week. We have the guy who was struggling with tithing getting ready for baptism next week. He's so confident and excited about it too. It's so amazing to watch someone's life change right in front of you I can't even tell you. It's just the coolest thing ever!  In your last letter you asked if riding a bike was hard. It used to be when I first got here lol. But I'm used to it now. I've lost 2 stone so far. And I'm getting good at riding wheelies lol.

November 3, 2009

Hey how is all going back home? Everything is going ok here. It's freakin cold though. The last couple of days I thought my feet were going to fall off. Seriously. We have one guy committed to baptism on the 21st now so that's pretty sweet. We've been teaching him for a month and a half now but he wouldn't ever commit. Now we just have to get him to stick to it. Wales is beautiful I love it. And yes they talk alot different than the English do. You can instantly tell when you're talking to a welshman. They're pretty cool though. A pretty rough crowd when they've been drinking thats for sure. But nice enough when they are sober. I sure as heck don't talk like they do but some of the words they say are pretty funny. One of them heard me say "crick" the other day and they thought that was pretty crazy. Oh well. We changed the time over here last week. Now it gets dark at about 5:15 or 5:30. I've heard that around Christmas it gets dark at like 4:30. My training of the greenie went pretty well. We saw pretty much the most intoxicated man I've ever seen in my life the other day. He was trying to ride a bike and totally turfed it big time. We went and helped him get up and told him he should probably walk the rest of the way home. He agreed and started walking but that lasted all of about 10 yards and he was riding again. It was pretty funny though. He couldn't even walk the bike in a straight line.

November 3, 2009

I actually haven't gotten any post since the letter you sent on your birthday. They're actually having postal strikes in England at the moment so maybe that’s the delay.
We have been attempting to get the issues resolved with our investigators this last week but unfortunately they're not taken care of yet. One guy did agree to work towards baptism on the 21st though so that'd be the Saturday just before transfer week. I think I told you already but that one lady who lost her husband has been coming to church for the past couple of weeks so that is awesome. We gave her a blessing when were out there and she said that was what helped her the most. Priesthood is so amazing you know. It only works by faith, though. Have you ever noticed in the New Testament that every time Christ healed someone he either asks them beforehand if they believe, and then he can heal them, or he says afterword that their faith has made them whole? It is so cool! I love it!
I have one funny story though about my bike. The other day I was looking behind me to find a space in traffic and freakin ran right into a street light lol. I felt like such a tard. I carved up my hand pretty good on that one too cuz I hit the pedestrian button with it. And we street contacted some gay dude who started sending us dodgy txts so I had to call him and rebuke him. It was nasty lol. Then the other day we were tracting and met this guy who said he'd been to Miami and Florida, and he like Miami better lol. I almost told him that Miami was in Florida, but I thought I'd just leave him to it. It was pretty funny though! That's about it for exciting news though.

October 27, 2009

Elder Israelsen and I get along great still. He goes home on January 4th I think. He only has one transfer left after this one. We figured out the other day that transfer week is the week of Thanksgiving and transfers are on Wednesday so I might not get a Thanksgiving dinner after all. Hopefully though. We were supposed to have a baptism this week but it fell through because the guy just said he needs more time. He won't tell us why though. Oh well. We're still working on the rest of them as well. The ward we work with has about 100 active members. The ward boundaries are huge though! It spreads for about 30-40 miles in every direction. Some of the members live in villages just across the Welsh border and they drive for about 35 minutes to church every sunday. Wales is really cool though. We had dinner at a members house out there a couple weeks ago and went and tracted the village. I took pictures I'll try to get them sent. It's beautiful out there though. Tomorrow we have exchanges for a day and I get to train a greenie. Kinda like the blind leading the blind if you ask me but I'm excited to do it it'll be really fun I think. They trust me with the responsibility so I'm going to have to step up to the plate right? 

October 20, 2009

Hey thats really cool about Natalie Lloyd being engaged. I am really excited to stay in Hereford I didn't want to be transferred very bad. We just have a few people we're working really hard with and I'd hate to have to leave. But I guess sometimes that's the name of the game right. Just keep praying for Blake. I will too. Everything will work out alright. Remember the power of the Priesthood. Look up Ether 12:12, I think it applies. It's good that you donated my flip flops. You're right I can just get some new ones later. We don't see much news so I hadn't even heard about Somoa. That's pretty crazy. It's fetchin cold here today I tell you what. It's weird here, it's like potato harvest weather. Some days you sweat and some days you have icicles hanging off everything. It's ridiculous. I'm pretty pumped for Devon getting that deer, I can't wait to see some pictures. I'm so glad I decided to serve a mission. It's the hardest and most rewarding thing I've ever done I can tell you that much.

We had a flat inspection today at 11 that we found out about yesterday and then they were about a half hour late so we got delayed a ton and didn't have time to get to the library before they came.  So with that sister we taught her about reading and praying and gave her a blessing and then she came to church on Sunday with her family! Awesome huh! We have had a few minor setbacks with our investigators though. We had to push back a couple of baptismal dates because of some concerns but they do still want to be baptized so thats good. We still have one set up for the 31st though and that's moving forward like it should so we're really pumped about that. So I have a funny story, yesterday we were riding down the road and I saw this person walking so I went to stop them. It looked like it was just a really manly woman but it turned out to be a freakin transvestite!!! It was so gross! He was all wearing makeup and everything. Totally grossed me out I tell you what.

October 14, 2009

It was transfer week this week so p-day was on Wednesday. I got another tour of duty in Hereford with Elder Israelsen. We didn't get to see the last session of Conference but we get Ensigns every month so I'll get to read Elder Holland's testimony of the Book of Mormon then.You also asked how many miles we bike and it usually ends up being about 5-6 per day depending on whether we go out to the church or not cuz that's about 4 miles away. Teaching has been going well we have 4 investigators with baptismal dates right now so that's sweet. It's starting to get cold here so I am about ready for my "armor all" ha ha (a little inside joke between me and mom).

So as far as the old teaching goes we lost one of our investigators with a baptismal date, we call them projections, because he heard some anti information I think so that really isn't cool at all. But the good news is we picked up three new ones the next day! Sweet huh. We have to help one of them quit smoking but he sounds committed so thats good. But yes the new three all accepted a date. two are on the 31st and one is on the 7th. So I'm way excited for that. We tried to go talk to college students the other day cuz there's a college just up the hill from our place and that was different. It's weird to talk to the girls here because they hear us talk and find out we're Americans and then they try to flirt with my companion lol. So thats kind of weird.  So I need a little help, we have a less active woman who quit coming to church after she lost her husband to cancer. She has 4 little kids. She understands the plan of salvation and stuff but I just don't know what I can say to help. If you think of anything will you let me know? That would be so good if you could.

October 6, 2009

We got to watch conference at the chapel through a broadcast but we only got the Saturday sessions and the Sunday morning. Most of them had to be recorded because of the time change and we have to wait for the Ensign for Sunday afternoon. It's really weird because the stake center here is an hour and a half away in Cheltenham and that was the only place showing priesthood so we got a lift with some members on Sunday morning to watch that one and then had to scream back to Hereford for the next session in our chapel so it was kinda crazy. Priesthood session was pretty good I'm not going to lie. Ya, I've lost a stone now so it keeps falling off the longer I'm here. By the way a stone is 14 pounds. You really should get a bike it's crazy how fast it comes off when you ride it every day. Of course I have the advantage of not having snow so that's a little different back home. Thats how they measure weight over here it's kinda weird.
As far as transfers go our pday for transfer week is on Wednesday so I would say just hang on to any more post until I email you again and let you know if I'm still here or moved. That would probably work out the best I would say. And as far as teaching goes we got two people to accept a baptismal date for the 24th and another for the 31st so now we just have to teach them the rest of the lessons and get them ready. I'm really really excited for these people! It's so fun to teach someone who is ready for the truth you know. I love it!

October 3, 2009

It's all going pretty well here, I am missing the mountains though. So, I dropped 5 pounds last week.......then I picked it back up and put it in my pocket, ha ha. Just thought I'd share a stupid money joke with you. I made it up, can you tell? But seriously I've lost about 10 pounds since I got here from riding my bike so it's doing me some good. Pretty soon my trousers won't fit anymore, ha ha. I'll just have to tighten my belt a bit.
The members here are awesome! They take good care of us with meals and everything.
One of the teachers at the MTC served in the Ogden mission, his name is Brother McClure and he taught Scott and Pam Kimballs adopted son. One of the members of the Bishopric in Hereford is American and he fed us good old American hamburgers the other night so that was awesome. He said he always makes a Thanskgiving dinner for the American Elders every year so if I don't get transfered before then I will get to enjoy that. When I first met him I thought he had a weird accent because he didn't talk like everyone else then I realized that he talked just like me, ha ha. He went to school at Utah State so he knew where Grace was. One of the other members does business in Pocatello and Boise too so that's cool.
Alot of the members give me crap about how I talk but I always ask them who is easier to understand me or the English so I always win that argument. Our ward mission leader always calls me "Pops" because I have a bad hip and reading glasses. He's a cool guy though I like him alot. Anyways I gotta roll out so this will be all for now.

September 29, 2009

People have some weird ideas about the mormons here.We had one born again guy try to tell us that he knew what went on in the temple and in one of the ordinances we have to slit our own throats so that was kinda funny. Kinda weird that we're still alive isn't it. I've heard other missionaries talk about how lots of people tell their kids that they can't talk to us cuz we'll kidnap them. That's cool about Kirby getting his call. I'm glad he decided to go. Just so you know you shouldn't complain about the hospitals there til you've seen one here. We went over to visit a guy in the county hospital the other day and it was ridiculous! They make the front look all posh and nice but then you get back to where they keep the patients and it's a bunch of old military barracks' that have been connected. Each barracks is a different ward and they keep 25-30 people in each one. It was bad! If President Obama gets socialized health care we're in deep trouble just so you know. So I found out the other day that President Ogden was the President and CEO of the company that owned Coral Canyon golf course in Hurricane before he retired. I talked to him about playing it so that was sweet. And Sister Ogden is related to Charles and Elizabeth Ashbaker who lived in Grace. I don't know if we're related or not but thats who hers are. Oh ya and if Scott Murdoch ever talks about an Elder Barney in Chile, his cousin is in my district his name is Elder Hooper.

September 22, 2009

All is going well here. I have a bike I got it real cheap at a second hand shop and I had enough cash to pay for it. It was only about 60 quid (pounds) but it's a good solid piece of work I tell you what. The shop owner even threw in some sweet mudflaps. It's alot better than some of them I've seen missionaries have. One of the zone leaders told me a story about his bike breaking in half while he was riding down the highway so I feel pretty good about my purchase. I have bought a few ties at tie rack and they are sweet! The work has been going well lately. Our teaching pool is a little shallow at the moment so we spend a ton of time
finding but I'm ok with that. We watch conference at the chapel with the members so thats pretty cool. We haven't had any general authorities visit us in the field. Just the ones in the MTC. And we have KFC and Mcdonalds and Pizza Hut. The members take good care of us for dinners and I haven't eaten anything too weird yet, just curry. But that was pretty good.

September 15, 2009

Hereford is about the size of Pocatello but there's alot of farming just outside of town. They grow
potatoes here but they're really little. I got a good wiff of the potato dirt though the other day. I almost shed a tear it was so glorious. Elder Israelsen is awesome we get along great and we do some good work. The baptism was great too. It's amazing to see the change take place in someone's life you know.

September 8, 2009

We've been working really hard this week. Our baptism actually got moved up to Friday night instead of Saturday so that's when that one will be but she's still right on track so that's pretty sweet. Yesterday was pretty rough for the first part of everything. Nobody would listen to us at all. For like 4 hours we tracted and street contacted and got absolutely nowhere so it was pretty tough. But then we decided to say a prayer and guess what... The next two people we stopped accepted the Book of Mormon and return appointments! Crazy huh. Being out here is so much better than the MTC I love doing the actual work you know. And I forgot to tell you that we live in the basement of a bed and breakfast owned by one of the members so that's pretty sweet.

August 30, 2009

It's our last Sunday in the MTC today! I just had some more personal time thsi afternoon to write. We head to the field on Wednesday morning so this might be the last letter I write to you from the MTC.

So I have a couple of experiences I wanted to share with you. So I can't really remember whether I told you or not but last Sunday Elder L. Tom Perry came to the MTC to give us a little devotional. It was really good. He talked quite a bit about Nephi getting the brass plates from Laban. He likened it to missionary work really well; he showed us how they weren't able to get the plates until they trusted in God and he delivered them to them. It was way good. And then last night we had another devotional from Kenneth Cope. He came and gave a talk and it was so good! He talked about us being literal children of God and compared it to the love he has for his children. It really hit me hard. You know, I've heard people say we are God's children thousands of times but its never hit me like that... Like it cut me straight to my soul. All I could think about is what if one of my children were lost but I couldn't reach them myself? I would want someone to do it for me. Then I realized that's why I'm here! To rescue my brothers and sisters! It was such an amazing feeling! Kenneth Cope wrote a 4th verse to "Because I Have Been Given Much." I love it and wanted to share it with you. The words had a profound effect on me when we sang it at the end of the devotional.

Because of They life's mission, Lord
I too will serve.
I'll leave the comfort of my home
To teach Thy word.
I'll seek Thy sheep who've gone astray,
And those who've never known the way.
I will make Thy work, my work, today!

So I was going to tell you a funny story, too. So on Thursday we got to go out tracting in Blackburn, a nearby city, and quite ghetto I might add. But anyways, they sent us out to locate less actives and invite them back to church. So Elder Peterson and I got pretty much the most ghetto part of town; we were in all these little apartment complexes full of Muslims. We were literally the only white people within a 5 block radius so we looked really out of place anyway... But then we were in our suits and everyone else was in these long robes and Muslim hats. So we were in this on complex and this bobby (cop) comes out of nowhere and starts interrogating us about where we were from and what we were doing and everything. He asked about every question in the book and he had never heard of the church, so that didn't help. He wanted to know why we were in England and where we were staying and everything. He even made us show him our American driver's licences and everything lol. I guess he thought we were there to rob people or something. But luckily we didn't get arrested lol. It was close though. But we didn't end up getting into any houses or anything but on our way back to the van to go back to the MTC we ran into one white guy on the street who said he was busy at the moment but we could send anybody over to his house later and he'd love to hear our message, so we took down his address for the Manchester missionaries. So at least there was some success. Getting out and doing the actual work made it kinda tough to come back to the MTC, though, lol. Oh well, we get plenty of work later, right.

So I should probably tell you why I was with Elder Peterson, huh? Well its kinda crazy but Elder King has been really sick for the last 3 or 4 days, so I got paired with Elder Peterson now. We get along so great! Like seriously, you hear people talk about eternal friendships with companions and I'm here to tell you its true. Like just in the 4 days we've been companions we've become so good of friends. Unfortunately he is going to the London mission, though, so that sucks but its ok. We also get to take care of Elder King so I've gotten to be really good friends with him, too. We really have a good time together so it helps to keep the time passing and the homesickness down, which is really really nice! I've found that friendships and work are the best medicine for that!

September 3, 2009

I just am at my first area now so they let me have a little time to email home and let people know that I made it ok and stuff lol. So just so you know I am alive. My first area is Hereford, and my new companion is Elder Israelson from Kaysville. He seems like a really hard worker so I think this is going to be great. We road the train from the mission office out to Hereford and had to walk about a quarter mile with our suitcases in the rain. It was a blast haha. I think everyone thought we were homeless. We did a little bit of tracting last night and we got poured on lol. Good news though, we're picking up an investigator and teaching the last few lessons to her and she plans on getting baptised on the 12th! sweet huh. We went over to her house last night and taught a lesson like 5 minutes after we got to our flat so it was straight to work. It was good though. Tell Dusty and Megan I got their letters that they sent to the mission office yesterday and I really appreciated them alot! Also they don't forward our mail out from there they just give it to us at zone conferences and stuff so it might take forever to get it so I think I'll just have you send it to my flat k. My address there is 1 Folly Lane, Hereford HR1 1LY. So if you could send everything but packages there that would be great! Anyways I better head back to work now :) Have a good week ok. My p days are still normally on Tuesdays so that won't be changing.

August 26, 2009

Today we had a devotional from the Preston Temple President and his wife and it was so good! The were Welsh and they were way funny! The president's wife gave a way cool quote in her talk. She said, "We shouldn't pray for our tasks to meet our abilities, we should pray for our abilities to meet our tasks." It is really simple but way powerful I think. But ya I thought the whole meeting was really good. Then we got to watch a bit of Elder Bednar's MTC devotional in Provo from June, it was way awesome, too. He talked about following the Spirit. It really is amazing to see the Spirit help when teaching lessons and stuff, even in little MTC role plays you can feel and see the Spirit working through you. It's really amazing!

August 25, 2009

MTC life is about like Dusty always talks about. It seems a little bit monotonous at times, and there's a ton of information to take in, but in the end its a pretty good experience. It is what you make it out to be you know. Sometimes its tough to make class more fun, but I always have fun at mealtimes and stuff. I just try to keep a good attitude and it all goes great.

So today we got a tour of church history sights around Preston, like President Hinckley's flat and stuff. I got some pictures of that. It was crazy though cuz when we left the MTC the sun was shining and right after we walked away from President Hinckley's flat (the first monument of the day) we got hit with one of the worst downpours I have ever seen in my life. I took a picture of that, too. Some of the elders forgot their umbrellas, so I got a picture of them standing in the rain, they look so miserable lol! It was really fun though!

I'm in a trio right now cuz I didn't have time on the computer. Ok, so at first in my district there were 6 elders and 4 sisters. One of the elders was Italian and can't speak English, lol. So after a long few days for one of our elders, they decided it would be best to send Elder Boer (the Italian) to Provo to learn English. So now I've picked up an extra companion. Seriously, this Elder Boer knew about as much English as I know Spanish so it was kinda funny. He was a funny guy though. I kinda miss having him around lol. So now I am with Elder Muro from Brazil and Elder Engelbrektsson from Sweden. We get along really great. Elder Muro is one of the slowest people I've ever met thought lol. Like in everything. He can be the first to start getting ready and you can guarantee he'll be the last to finish. But its ok I think its kind of funny. The other two elders in my district are Elder King and Elder Peterson from Smithfield and Grantsville. I'm the only elder in our district going to Birmingham and it makes me a little sad to have to part with these guys next week. Oh well, I guess that's kinda how it works, right.

Today is my first p day so I get to send you an email isn't that exciting?! For starters, I just wanted to tell you how my flight was. When we were headed to Manchester, there was a baby on the flight that screamed nonstop for about 3 hours, so that was pretty exciting. We had an in-flight dinner and it was pretty much disgusting. It was some weird chicken thing that tasted like a mixture of old peppers and old french fries. Pretty nasty. I had sort of an in-travel companion that sat with me for both flights and he is really cool. We talked quite a bit during our flights. There were also two Elders that sat in front of us; both of them have girlfriends back home. So pretty much we discussed the inaccuracy of the "waiting girlfriend" statistics. There were about 16 to 18 missionaries on the flight with me, so was pretty sweet I felt pretty safe lol. Everything is going pretty well at the mtc right now. I got called as an mtc district leader so that is pretty cool and it has gone well so far. My companion is really cool he's from Sweden. He looks just like Scott Murdoch! There's one elder here with us that looks just like a taller version of Nathan White, too. The mtc president is a really really cool guy I like him alot. He's always walking around talking to everybody and stuff. For some reason I had the president envisioned as some mean old guy who sits in his office waiting to send someone home lol. But he has really changed that belief for me. Well my time is up for the computer now so I better go...
Elder Brice Anderson