Thursday, July 29, 2010

July 28, 2010

Hey Mom and Dad,
First of all, I have to say that those pictures of climbing the mountain are awesome! And it sounds like Mom didn't have a heart attack from the stress so it was a successful climb. But that looks really cool I'm glad you had fun doing that. We just have transfers this week and Elder Von Brughan and I are both staying here so we're really excited for that. Our mission is going through some drastic changes lately. We just dropped from 8 zones to 6 since the overall number of missionaries has gone down quite a bit so our districts and everything have gotten all rearranged so that's crazy. And then starting next week p-days are moving to monday. It's pretty intense stuff.
Thank you for doing all those things for Natalie. She told me how great you guys were and she really appreciates all of it so thank you so much for that.
I hope the camping trip went ok. I really miss that alot. I would've totally gone for some of that extremely unhealthy camping food. I bet it tasted good if nothing else. I've decided I'm going to eat healthy for the last year of my mission and try to lose a few more of my extra pounds. I'll have to only buy vegetables to eat in the flat cuz you can't really choose what you get fed when you go to members' houses you know. So I'm going to try and do my best.
I haven't gotten my package yet but we're going up to the office today for p-day to collect our post so I should be getting it today I would imagine. We'll have to see what happens. Gerry is taking us up into Birmingham today for p-day to check things out and get some good chinese food in Birmingham's "Chinatown". We're pretty pumped for that. Oh ya and I did get the letters from the young women tell them all thank you from me. I'll try and write a letter back when I get a bit of spare time.
Thank you again for the pictures Dad. And for the life lesson. That was great. Sad story, but a good lesson learned from it. Thank you for that. I had better get going now because I'm out of time but thank you both for everything. I love you both

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

July 20, 2010

Hey Mom and Dad. So I didn't even know Natalie was home until about 10 minutes ago. That's crazy. But she emailed and said everything was fine so that's really good to hear. Thank you guys for going down to see her too. She said that really meant alot to her. The work is going really well here. We have a few people we're teaching and everything so that's really exciting. There's one member here whose wife and son aren't members and he wants us to start teaching them here in the next couple of weeks so we're really excited for that. That'll be really fun.
So after seeing the people over here and all of the crazy ones we meet and everything I've made an observation that I would like to share with you. Many of the areas we go into that are run down and mingin are that way simply because of the type of families that are there. That sounds rude but let me explain myself. God's way is a man and a woman who are joined together equally in marriage for the rearing up of children. These places we go into are so full of single parents it's frightening. Or of "partnerships" as they call them, when two people aren't married but Biblically know one another if you catch my drift. But those relationships usually end in some sort of domestic abuse and a single parent anyways.  And then when you go out and tract "posh" areas those houses have families living in them. Like husband, wife, and children. There seems to be some kind of correspondence between having a "traditional family" and having temporal prosperity. It's quite interesting. I know sometimes there are circumstances where single parents don't have a choice, they aren't the people I'm talking about. The moral of the story is that if you follow God's way and marry and cleave unto your spouse and none else, you will be blessed in worldly as well as spiritual matters. Pretty cool stuff. But seriously after you get out into the world you get to see a bit of how others live and it makes you really appreciate and understand why God's plan is the way it is. It makes you realize how important it is that a husband and wife work together and are tolerant of one another's weaknesses and faults. But anyways I just wanted to share that with you.
But ya everything is good here. I haven't gotten the package yet but with a bit of luck I'll get it on Thursday. We'll have to see. So that bike is a pretty expensive piece of equipment then. That's pretty sweet.
I sometimes really wish I could call you guys and talk you know. That would make life a ton easier. But I guess missions aren't supposed to be easy huh. But next time you go for a ride in the Nissan do a sweet burnout for me. And make sure to have a Coke with Blake at least once a month for me til I get home then I'll go do it myself.
Anyways I better get going now. Tell Cody to keep on working with them and their bourbon haha. The tea thing is serious here though cuz no one thinks there is anything wrong with having a bit of English morning brew. It's crazy. But anyways have a good week. I love you both

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

July 13, 2010

It's all going good here. We've been out working and trying to find some new people to teach and we've got a few we're working with so we're happy about that. Gerry gave me the Idaho flag he ordered as well so now it's hanging up in our flat. I thought that was really cool. He's already planning a trip to come over and see Idaho and Salt Lake and whatnot next September after I get home so just letting you know. I told him we could go out to Fort Hall so that he could see Lamanites lol, there aren't too many of those here. He's pretty excited about coming over. So you might have to give him a ride in the plane while he's there Dad. I told him you had one and the only way to appreciate the beauty is to fly over it so he said he might do that. That's really cool about Kally and Mark doing the shirts and pins like that for Blake. I think that's really cool. So are you guys going to do the potato thing again to earn money? It may be a pain but they do make alot for it don't they? Just curious.
So whereabouts does this guy live who is related to Dale? I'm trying to think of places that are 10 miles away from here and there's too many little villages around to guess. Is it like Droitwich or Alcester or something? That's pretty cool that he lives close by anyway. It was flippin hot here last week I tell you what. I was dying out there. The last couple of days it's cooled down quite a bit but man it was crazy. My shirts have like permanent sweat rings on the back so I think I'll have to bleach them hardcore or something. It's crazy.
We had a bit of a disappointing week last week with people dropping appointments like mad but this week is already going better than last so that's good. We're really working with a couple of people here so we're hoping to be able to get a few to move forward a bit. Thank you for the life lesson today Dad I think it was inspired. Sometimes when things aren't going so good in our area or something and we're in a hazard I try to pull out the driver on it and generally it doesn't go so swell. That just reminds me of what you always used to say to me and Blake when we would be working on his car and get ahead of ourselves. "One problem at a time." I couldn't possibly count how many times we heard that one haha. But it really is true if you apply it correctly. Anyways I better get going now. I love you both
Oh ya and I have my provisional license now so I just need to do my theory and driving tests. I just have to find out where they do those and find the time to do it. I'll let you know when that happens. And tell Kim we have trifle here all the time and it is gorgeous. It's one of my favorite puddings I tell you what. Sometimes we buy a bowl of it at Tesco's cuz they have it packaged and ready to go. It's not as good as homemade but it'll do the job. But ya members give us that every now and again at DA's and stuff so it's really cool.
p.s. I have one more request for something sent in the next package. If you can find two pairs of the "Bad Boy Pants" (American Flag pj's) up at Alco me and Von Brughan would both appreciate some of those, if they even still sell them that is. Just get XL's if you can find them. Love you guys

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

July 6, 2010

Life is good here. Me and Gerry talked the Bishop into singing the Star Spangled Banner in priesthood on Sunday so that was good. The only thing was me and Gerry were the only ones who had ever sung the song so it sounded a bit like a pub brawl at times but it was good anyways. We had us a sweet barbecue at Gerry's on Sunday. He made hot dogs and fried chicken and put up the stars and stripes all over his house and played the national anthem and America the Beautiful and everything while we ate. It made me feel nice. Von Brughan didn't really understand all of it but he enjoyed himself anyway. The Bishops wife was there and she asked me what the 4th of July was about. She honestly didn't know what it was a celebration of. So I shared with her the purpose of it and she asked Gerry why he would support such a thing lol. It was really funny. So then for our spiritual thought for the day I shared 1 Nephi 13:16-19. You should read that it's funny and it's in the Book of Mormon so it's doctrine. And on Saturday we did some service for some members and got an awesome new investigator. She's one of the member's daughter's best friends and her name is Sophie. She's like 16 and we gave her a BoM and she loves it. So we're really chuffed about that.
That's cool about you guys eating at the Ranch Hand. I can't even tell you the amount of times we went out there haha. Good memories anyways. That's what me and Blake were about. Eating diner/truck stop breakfasts and going to watch football games. I was thinking the other day about how many games we went to together and man I can't even number them. Between the Utes, Colorado State (that's when they played against BYU in Provo but Blake would come smack me if I said we went to a BYU game), and Idaho State holy crap that was a ton. That's not even counting the high school ones. We had some good times. I like those ideas you guys have for the headstone. I agree that it just has to fit Blake so whatever we have to do for that I agree with.
Thank you for getting those things for me. You can just send them to the office that'll be fine. Von Brughan is excited for his Vote for Pedro shirt. All we do while we tract is quote Napoleon Dynamite, Hot Rod, and Nacho Libre so he's heard my impressions haha. We were looking around in the closets in the flat and found a pair of moon boots in there so he wears those around in the mornings. He's going to get a picture wearing those and his t-shirt when it gets here so he can send it to his brother lol. Him and his brother are alot like me and Blake. There's just funny stuff he sees that he has to send to his brother just cuz only him and his brother would see the humor in it lol. It's funny to see.
So how is Ginger liking Forks if the kids are hating it? I keep on telling all the Twilight fanatics in the wards that I have an aunt and uncle who have a hotel there and they freak out and everything it's pretty sweet. So Dad now that you have the new plane and whatnot are you going to get Mom to fly up to Forks to visit Ginger and Dan? That would be the easiest way to get there you know. I think that'd be a fun flight to take anyways. Thank you for the life lesson as well that was really a good one. I've had to apply patience a bit in the last little while here because the work has been tough but that's ok.
So I have to get going soon but I need to tell you a story first. On Thursday we had zone conference and we had Elder Kopischke of the Seventy there. They told us beforehand to come with a question in mind that we wanted answered so I did that and prayed that it would be answered there. It was awesome. It was Pres. Ogden who answered it for me but I watched him receive a spiritual prompting to share a scripture with us that answered my question. He was standing there at the podium and all of the sudden he paused and pulled out D&C 64:33 for us. It was awesome. Anyways I better get going. If you apply that principle even to coming to church on Sunday I promise it will work. Just be prepared. I love you both. Have a good week.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

June 29, 2010

Hey guys it sounds like you guys have had an interesting weekend. I'm glad everyone is ok. Thats intense. Man that could have been disastrous. Our week was pretty crazy as well. We had another baptism this last weekend, it was Keiffer's little sister who got baptized. I'm sure right now you are wondering why I didn't tell you we were planning one but the thing is I didn't even know we were having one either. It's a bit of a long story of how that happened. We got a call on Wednesday night saying she was getting baptized on Saturday because the Bishop had set up a date for her. Ya that was weird. The Bishop here is new so he kind of forgot the normal protocol about missionaries setting up baptismal dates with interviews and all of that business. So long story short we called Pres. Ogden and he just asked if she had been taught and everything, which she had about 4 times with the rest of her family when they were getting ready for their baptisms, and then just said to do a baptismal interview with our DL and if she passed she could get baptized. So she passed the interview and he let that one slide but ya it was pretty crazy. But hey we had another baptism so that was sweet.
Elder Von Brughan and I are getting along really well. We have tons of fun cuz we joke all the time about stuff. Seriously if I could've hand picked a type of greenie to have he's it. He likes to work but he likes to have some fun too so it's all good. And he set a record this weekend for time for a greenie between when he gets to the field to when he gets a baptism that he organized. Cuz lots of people get out here and go to baptisms that their companions already had planned but as for setting up one for himself he's probably one of the fastest in a really long time. So that was neat.
We're having a 4th of July party on Sunday with Gerry. To answer your question, no the English really don't even like our Independence day but Gerry is from Northern Ireland and back when they had American troops there during the war the Irish in his area celebrated it to make them feel more at home and then they just carried on celebrating it every year since then so he keeps on doing it even now. Gerry is the man. Seriously. I've got my tie ready to roll on Sunday too don't worry. I don't think I'll get bricked at church so don't worry about that either. I'll be sure to take some pictures. I tried to convince them to sing the Star Spangled Banner for Sacrament meeting next week but I don't know if that one will happen. Probably not I would imagine.
Thank you for the pictures Dad. I liked those alot. I forgot how cool the Manti temple looks. I'm glad you sent me pictures of that stuff. It's good to see you guys having a good time out there. I really like the picture of me and Blake you guys have. That's really cool!
So anyways I better get going now. Before I go though it's funny you should ask if I need anything because I do have a request or two. Elder Von Brughan is a big Napoleon Dynamite fan so if you can find a Vote for Pedro t-shirt for him that would be sweet. His shirt size is a medium if they still sell them at Big J's or anywhere like that. And also I've lost my multi-color scripture marker so I need a new one if you get the chance. They sell them at Deseret Book. And also at Deseret Book they have these little blue books called " the pocket reference guide for missionaries" If you find those Elder Von Brughan and Gerry both said they would like one if you can find them. Sorry that list was huge. But I really do have to get going now. I love you both.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

June 22, 2010

It's going good here. We had our baptism on Saturday and everything went well for that. I didn't get Beus's mom's email address though so sorry about that. I'll try to get it sorted out though. But the baptism was all good and Keiffer is doing well so we're chuffed. We're going to go and see him later tonight too.
The Manti pageant sounds fun. I went to it once in the Scouts I thought it was awesome. Were there alot of anti people waving their signs? There were when I was down there. But I've decided all of the anti stuff is due to mis-information and half truths. One of the zone leaders here had a picture of a picketer outside the conference center waving a sign that said "Abortion is Murder" so obviously they had their facts skewed a bit. I never went to the Strawberry Days what do they do there? It sounds fun though. I know what you mean about Blake though. Every week I come to the library with this little bit of hope that there'll be an email from him in my inbox. It's a bit tough sometimes. But we just have to fight through it.
I got my tie so I'm really excited for the 4th of July to come around. I'm not too worried about getting bricked at church but then again you never know haha. I don't think that'll be a tracting tie though. I think that bike thing is really cool. If you get the chance tell Maili thank you for that.
The weather here is ridiculous I tell you what. It'll be flaming hot one day and freezing the next. It's weird. But it's been pretty hot the last couple of days. The humidity is killing me. It just feels way muggy and then you sweat like a priest in a brothel when you tract. It's crazy. Anyways I better get going now. I just want to tell you both that I love you and appreciate everything you do for me. Thank you so much. I love you both!




Thursday, June 17, 2010

June 17, 2010

Hey Mom and Dad! It sounds like the tournament was a success this year huh? That looks really fun even if the weather was nasty. It sounds like TripleK M is back in the glory days huh haha. Blake was the one who named that team actually. But that's really cool. I think it would be awesome if they held it off til I got home next year as well. But ya that sounds sweet. I'm glad you guys had a laugh as well. Sometimes it's tough not to have a laugh when you get everybody together like that you know. I'm happy they did that tournament though that is really cool of them.
So I won a bike did I? That's pretty sweet I'm not gonna lie. But you might as well keep it there cuz it'll cost you a ton to send it over here and besides that it'll probably get stolen anyways so just hang on to it and I'll use it when I get back to stay in shape. (Just to explain how he won a bike......Maili entered his story from his January 19, 2010 blog in a contest for a missionary bike company and his story won so he will be receiving a new bike. Thanks Maili!)
Keiffer's baptism is still good to go on Saturday so we're pretty chuffed for that. The only problem is he wanted Elder Beus to baptize him and Elder Beus just got moved to Wolverhampton. But it's ok I think President Ogden might let him come back and baptize him anyways cuz Wolverhampton isn't that far away. So now I'm training a new Elder called Elder Von Brughan from South Africa. He's a really cool guy so I think we'll have some fun over here. I'm excited to train but I feel a bit inadequate right now. But I'm sure we'll make it through. I'm glad you liked my Studley picture too haha. I thought that was pretty funny.
The World Cup is a bit crazy over here that's for sure. I think a tie is the best thing that could have happened for us. The Good Lord was looking out for us I think. The reason I say that is cuz if we would have lost we would have gotten alot of stick from the people because we lost and if we would've won, even though the bragging rights would've been fun, they would've harbored some ill feelings and we would've gotten bricked. so with a tie they can't really say much either way. They take this stuff very seriously.
So Rapana's Mom is coming over to the States next year huh? That should be really fun for you to meet her. I still hear from him quite a bit. He has to call and ask about investigators sometimes so we get to talk. And plus at some of the meetings and whatnot he'll be there so I'll talk to him alot for the rest of my mission I'm sure. He goes home 3 months before I do so he'll be here for quite a while.
So you used Blake's clubs and stuff for the tournament, Dad? That's really cool I think. I hope you guys are still hanging on to all of his stuff. I'm glad that tournament was good. I just really think that is awesome. Happy Father's day on Sunday! I found  you a card the other day and I'm posting it today so it'll be a bit late so sorry about that. But Happy Father's day all the same. I just wish I could call on Father's day as well so I could talk to you guys again. But I just wanted to say thank you for everything. You brought us up right, even if it took us a little longer to learn some lessons than others. We learned them nonetheless. Thank you for that Dad. And for all of the life lessons. I really liked the one today alot. I love you. And yes I still have the battalion coin. I keep that safe don't worry.
I better get going now but I want you both to know I love you. I gotta go out and get to work now. I'll talk again on Tuesday.
p.s. as far as the driver's license goes, I sent in for the provisional and as soon as that goes through I'll start taking the tests and everything so it's all under way don't worry.