February 23, 2010

Hey Mom and Dad! Things are good here in Worcester. You pronounce it Woo(as in wood)ster, so basically completely disregard the spelling, because how stuff is spelled doesn't mean much over here, and just say it like that haha. And tell Brian and Vivien Mendenhall that Brother Turvey says hello. He's one of the members here and he said he has been to Grace to stay with them before. He even knew the population! So that was really cool. And no they don't make the bad ones go with the district leaders. Thats where the good ones go haha. I didn't do anything wrong so don't worry. And it was tough saying goodbye to Hereford but I'm still in the same district and since I'm with the district leader I can go over there on exchanges with Elder Largesse and check up on Justin and everyone else so it's not too bad. I forgot Justin's postcode again so I'll have to do it next week. Sorry about that I'll get it done. And Garrick did get his belt buckle the last week I was there so thank you for that. He said you wrote him a nice letter too and he asked for the address to send one back so you should probably be getting one soon. The fireside we did was just a random one we decided to put on for the ward with our ward mission leader about the Restoration. Oh ya and by the way I forgot to tell you earlier but I met Elder Krywult at transfer meeting last week. He's a cool kid from Vienna, Austria. My new area is awesome. I love the people over here. And the city is maybe about 25% bigger than Hereford I would say. With alot more hills!! ( but it's ok). We're teaching some cool people too. One of them is a pro rugby player from Fiji. This guy is MASSIVE. He looks like Tuia and he's a really cool guy. I like teaching the Polynesian people cuz they're all really nice and they're good family people. And we're teaching a Hungarian guy who is hilarious. He doesn't speak too much English but he always jokes with us and stuff. He's pretty cool, but he thinks Anderson and Spence are our first names so he calls us Andy and Spencer because our names are "terrible to say" haha. We've tried to explain but to no avail. Oh well. Dad you will appreciate this, on Wednesday we were out street contacting and saw 5 spitfire planes flying low in a formation over Worcester. It was awesome! I didn't even know those were still around. But ya it was pretty cool. Anyways I better get going now. Love you Guys

February 17, 2010

Hey Family! Thank you so much for the package I loved it. I just got it today at transfer meeting. I got moved to Worcester with Elder Spence(note the new address). The funny thing is I only moved about 24 miles away and I'm still in the same district. Elder Spence is actually my district leader so I already knew him anyway so we get to skip the awkward "new comp" stage. I'm not complaining about that. I actually already know a bunch of the people in the Worcester ward cuz I've been on exchange over here quite a few times. It's cool though I'm excited to work here I think it'll be fun. And Elder Spence is a farm boy from Oak City, Utah so we get along great. So ya I'm excited. It's cool that the olympics are going again. And Dad I think it was Apollo Ohno who skates, not Yoko. But it sounds like he's ripping it up again so that's good. Anyways I don't have a ton of time today so I'm going to get moving. Love you guys!

February 9, 2010

Hey Family! Hey how is everything going for you? It's all going well here. We're still working on finding investigators and stuff so thats been a bit slow but we've worked quite a bit with less actives and we got 3 of them at church on Sunday so that was cool. Garrick didn't come but we had a deal so when he gets his belt buckle he better go. But, I might not even be here cuz we had interviews yesterday and President Ogden pretty much told me to start packing so yes, I bet I'll get transferred. We'll have to see what happens. The converts who fell away are still struggling a bit but Justin, the most recent one, is so solid it's ridiculous. He taught Sunday School and bore his testimony yesterday. He's the man. I think it would be cool if you could write him an encouragement letter too. Like from both of you. I can't remember his postcode off the top of my head though I'll give it to you next week.
Mom you need to quit beating Dad up. He said he got a black eye and his head split open cuz you elbowed him or something ha ha (it was really an accident at work for anyone that wants the real story). And ya if you could find out where Vivien's mom lives that would be cool cuz if I get transferred to there maybe we could go visit while she's at her mom's or something. But anyways I better get going now. I love you guys!!

February 2, 2010

Thanks for the life lesson Dad. That was a really good one I appreciate that. Life has been pretty much the same around here lately. No snow, luckily. But it's fetchin freezing I tell you what. It makes me more frustrated than Hitler at a Bar Mitzva. But we can still ride the bikes so that at least keeps us a bit warmer so thats good. Ya, you have to watch out for those Baptist preachers I hear, especially in the South. We've only met one or two but they're not the friendliest people in the world that's for sure. Ya, I was sad to see Bitu leave too but his work visa ran out sooner than he thought so he got booted. But he has a family back in India who he hasn't seen for 6 years so I guess it wasn't all bad. Ya, it probably is better for me and Dusty not to make those runs for the Baconator haha. But man I'm gonna get one when I get home I tell you what. Burgers here are no bueno. They put fillers in the meat for some stupid reason so it tastes like meatloaf. Meatloaf burgers are not good in case you were wondering.
Brother Hansen, the American member, just was back in Salt Lake last week for his Dad's funeral. I missed that guy while he was gone. I don't know what I'm going to do when I get transferred and don't have an American member to reminisce about foods from America with haha. I thought about telling him to go up and visit you guys but I thought 3 hours was quite a drive. If you lived a bit closer you might've gotten a visit from him. Hopefully I get your Valentine's post soon. I think they are finally back to normal after the holidays now so it'll probably get here on time. Nat sent a package last week to give it plenty of time and I already got it so that was cool. Packages are awesome. I got her Christmas package a couple weeks ago and you were right, Neal's message made me chuckle. Me and Elder Largesse sat there and listened to it and we were both laughing. It was funny. So anyways I better get going now. Love you guys

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