January 25, 2010

Thanks for the pictures! They were great! The work is going well here. Unfortunately our Indian investigator got deported back to India on Sunday so we didn't get a chance to baptize him. But he was really solid so I think he'll find the church in India and get baptized there. So for right now we're back to finding someone new to teach. So that is a little tough but we're working hard. I'm glad you got my pictures now. The post is a bit unpredictable so hopefully they're finally getting back to normal after the holidays. It was a joke during December though I tell you what.  I'm glad you guys are getting the snow now. All of ours has been rained away so we're doing alright now. Back on the bikes and whatnot. So you should tell Kim the church is the same everywhere in the world. You always have that one crazy lady who decides to breast feed her child in the middle of sacrament meeting or at some other inappropriate time that there's lots of people around who would rather not witness it. People like missionaries, named Elder Anderson. Some lady in our ward did it   last week and I really wish she hadn't, that was messed up. But then it made me laugh cuz it reminded me of Kim at the ward Christmas party a couple years ago haha. But it was gross let me tell you. So I better get going now but first I just had a couple of favors to ask. The first is can you ask Vivian Mendenhall which part of Leicester she is from? Elder Largesse served in Evington before here so I'm just curious if that was the place or not. And I was also wondering if you could send something over here for one of our non-member friends. His name is Garrick James and he's always wanted to have an American belt buckle so I told him if I could get him one he had to come to church and he agreed. So I was wondering if you could send him my Confederate flag one. He would appreciate that and then you would be furthering the work of the Lord. So if you could do that it would be wonderful. But ya anyways I better get going.

January 19, 2010

The work is moving forward here in Hereford. We found a new investigator and invited him to be baptized and he even accepted it. He's an Indian guy named Bitu and he is scheduled for baptism on the 7th so now we'll try to get him ready for it. He's really interested though so we're really chuffed. And I have found the purpose of my mission and I can't even tell you how it makes me feel. It's truly amazing to feel such love for these people. I had the chance to do something cool on Saturday too. The river flooded over again into a park so the bike path was completely covered. It was about a foot or two deep and 10 or 15 yards wide. So we decided to ride through it anyway. So I rode through first and when I got to the other side there was a girl standing on the footbridge holding her puppy and she couldn't get across the flood. She could have taken another route around but that would have added about 3/4 of a mile to her journey and she was cold and shivering and didn't know what to do. She was about 12 years old I would guess. I tried to figure out what to do so I finally just sent her across the water with my bike so she wouldn't get wet and I took off my shoes and socks and rolled up my trousers and waded through with the puppy. I couldn't feel my feet when I got done but that was a time that I really felt like a missionary. I'm here to help people. So I was really glad that God saw fit to bless me with that opportunity. It was really awesome.
That plane sounds pretty sweet Dad. I really want to take a ride in it when I get home. And thanks for the life lesson, it's very applicable to my situation here and pretty much life in general. So thank you for that. Anyways I better get moving. I love you all!!

January 12, 2010

The work of the Lord is going pretty well here. I feel really blessed to be here. President Ogden told us he left us here to do something amazing and I think I figured out what it is, we have to reactivate the recent converts. Some of them have gone a bit wayward the last little while so we're going to get them back. President's big push is that our job does NOT end at baptism. We have to get the converts to the temple and there they will be safe. At interviews a couple of weeks ago he shared some scriptures with us that have pretty much changed my entire view of my mission. Alma 26:5-6 talk about gathering your sheaves in the garners so the whirlwind can't take them away. Sheaves are converts, and garners are temples. Our job is to help these people gain salvation, not just baptism. So a ton of my lessons are with less actives and recent converts lately and it will likely stay that way for the rest of my mission. At the very beginning of Preach My Gospel it tells us the missionary purpose, at the end of the purpose it says "enduring to the end". Thats what temples do. So consequently the number of new baptisms I get during my mission will suffer, but I don't really care. I would rather have 10 people with me in the celestial kingdom than 1,000 baptisms who fall by the wayside because I don't have time to help them after the actual baptism has taken place. It's awesome I tell you what. I'm so excited to do this work!!
That's really cool about your plane dad, we'll have to go for a flight when I get home. Commercial jets just don't really do it for me after the two of us going up ourselves you know. So that's really cool to hear you bought into another one, I'm chuffed about it. Hopefully Blake finds a job. I haven't heard from him in a little while so thanks for the update on him. Tell him to not be a numpty while he's in Logan. I did get my shoes so don't worry about that. I'm going to wear my other ones into the ground before I use the new ones though. But that won't take long. They're about dead. Anyways I better get going now. Love you guys

January 5, 2010

Everything is going well here. It was transfer week this week and me and Elder Largesse are staying in Hereford for another one. I'm really excited about that, I love the people here. I'm pretty sure I'll be leaving on the next one though. But oh well. We have another six weeks here. I'm glad the party went well. Painting the flat wasn't all that fun but you're right it's better than a brick to the head. I'm glad you like you're presents. Now you can look posh in your bishopric meetings. What did Blake think of his. I thought maybe I should tell him where Cardiff is in case he didn't know haha. I'm glad it got there though. I guess Nat hasn't been getting my post or something... One of the members in her area sent me an email asking if I was still doing ok because she hasn't heard from me in a while. The only thing I can think is maybe it got delayed because of the snow or something. We got dumped on this week. (By England standards). We got about 6 inches the last couple of days. The city is about to shut down I think. They've never heard of snowshovels. The only thing they have is grit-salt. And nobody knows how to drive in the snow either. It's hilarious. We've seen a couple of car crashes so that was pretty sweet. But ya it's cool. Everything is still going well here. Anyways I better get going. Love you!

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.