Letter from Elder Smith - May 2nd
Happy May!
Hey familia, another crazy but great week has flown by in Coventry. Lots has happened, as usual, since last pday. After pday last week, another one of playing squash...seems to be the main pasttime of the zone which I definitely don't mind. It's a good work out and a lot of fun. Elder Till, the austrian Elder is getting better each week, and just bought himself a lighter raquet so he's beginning to be a better competitor. He beat me once last week, but, it was one out of about 12 games so I'm not worried.
Tuesday night after pday was pretty much spent walking, since we were still waiting on getting our car. We took off around 6, after grabbing some grub, and stopped at a few call backs, a few people we had talked to but they weren't in. It was pretty fun walking back actually as it was about 4 miles. Elder E Silva and I were reminiscing about Swindon when we walked one day down to the ASDASuperstore, which was about 4 miles from our flat to grab groceries and do some shopping. That was the worst case of shin splints I had ever gotten, since I wasn't used to walking that much in church shoes at that point. After walking forever, we made it back home and crashed.
Wednesday was actually really good in the morning. Since we didn't have the car, we decided to tract an area which was very close to our home, but had been overlooked. It's what we would call a "Council Estate", where the "Council Queens" usually live. Pretty much just the welfare people, lots of single moms, the ones that abuse the ability to get money from the government for having kids. They usually have like 3 or 4 kids, and start when there 15 or 16...always drives me nuts seeing girls that young with prams(strollers). Anyhow, we started tracting and immediately began to get some response, people were talking to us, accepting pamphlets and scheduling times to come back. It was great. Even sometimes when you know the people are probably not going to end up investigating the church, it still always makes you happy to actually get to talk to people...as its pretty dang hard to do generally in England. I think we found about 5 or 6 investigators just in that morning tracting session of 2 hours. A few from Africa, England and other places. One guys door we knocked, just going back to see the guy, opened up, and clearly a different African guy opened the door. Immediately you could see the fear in his eyes. Two guys with white shirts and name tags...no doubt we looked like we were from the Home Office, trying to deport him back home. It's amazing how many people I've met in this city that are illegal...seems like everyone. We tried to give him a Christ card, but he was practically shaking from fright. We asked about his friend, but he was really evasive and wouldn't say if he even lived there, despite us mentioning his name. Crazy dude. Later that day after some lunch, we tracted a bit more bef going to our appointment with Verina and Louise. Just prior to going we got a text message saying 'Can't make the apppointment today, we'll have to reschedule", with no name. Of course we figured it was the ladies we were about to teach, but I figured it might have been the member we were teaching with. I tried calling her for an hour, but she was on the phone the whole time. Finally I got through and the member said "it was me...I can't make it". I just about slapped this lady again like last week. I hung up immediately and called verina and Louise to tell them we'd be a bit late, but they said "we don't want you today", in a kind of mean/bitter way. I definitely wanted to kill that member now who an hour before the appt cancelled, making it basically immpossible to have someone to teach with. But luckily, they didn't want us...but you never know, had we shown up it might have been differeent. Thursday was a pretty SWWEEEET day. We got our car back! Whooooo. We worked really hard all morning up until lunch tracting...and it was a pretty miserable day actually, overcast, dark and cold, and only old people answering the door...they're die hard Church of England, and wouldn't change even if Christ himself told them to. So anyway, just after lunch the Vauxhall dealership said our car would be ready in the evening. We walked the 4 miles down to town, and hopped on a train, then taxi. It worked out beautifully, instead of a bus picking us up, a taxi did...apparently the bus only runs when theres lots of people, but to save money they also use a private taxi. We sailed smoothly into the city of Daventry in our taxi. We showed up to Daventry, and met the Elders there, who told us we'd have to wait about an hour to get the car. No sweat....it'd been over a week, an hour was nothing. Finally the moment came where we were back in the car..it was great. We drove home and got back to working smart again..not just based on convenience of location to our flat.
After getting told by that lady we weren't wanted we kept tracting for a bit, ate some grub and decided to drive down to Warwick and see the elders there; Elder Riekwel and Elder Shurtliff, one from Canada and the other from Holland. We only had a few days left to use our car, and the miles that we were allotted. Since nobody had been visited for awhile due to the loooong drought of driving, we thought it'd be best to use our miles, get some drivin in and most importantly see the rest of the zone. We showed up in Warwick around 7 or so...Warwick being where the Warwick Castle is, probably the coolest one I've seen so far in England. Elder Baader tells me the best ones in Germany hands down...the one that the Disney land castle is based off of. We'll have to see...I'll definitely be finding a flight in the future up to see Baadernator and his family. Anyhow, back to Warwick. When we arrived we walked in and as usually were greeted like Kings from Elder Shurtliff. He reminds me soooo much of the guy in Best Two Years with the glasses who "challenges" about 900 people to baptism every month. This guy has the fire, and love of missionary work. He's got a folder he's been putting together for about the past 3 years, about 2 of those before his mission of talks and thoughts, things he'd been studying from the Book of Mormon, etc. Really impressive guy. He's what the Elders on a mission would call at first glance and without too much information, a striver. Ie, striving to look good, laugh at your jokes, agree with you always and just work hard. Cant say anything aboot the work ethic of course...but all of the "eh's?" make me laugh at him for sure. He's a cool guy...never takes off his coat, ever, so he seems really formal all the time. Good guy nevertheless though. His companion Elder Riekwel is a guy I've known on and off for awhile. Pretty solid missionary, baptized awhile before his mission and out working hard. The two do welltogether.
We actually ended up just going tracting briefly that evening without any success...the 4 of us hitting and rampaging a quiet, town. Had a good time goofin around with an old guy. He asked me what I thought of England and I said "Old, Stubborn and Irreligious". He just started laughing and laughing, said good night and closed the door. After an hour or so, we drove home, sat on the couches and chatted with a guy named Nigel.
Just a brief Nigel bio. He's one of those guys thats probably "saved" but just to be safe got baptised. He's like there sometimes and others not...medicines definitely a big contender with that. He just comes around there flat apparently for meals to talk and at night to hang. Definitely a weird guy, always tells stories about his bowel problems, swears randomly and drinks tons and tons of soda and hot chocolate. He's got the biggest belly I've ever seen. Elder Shurtliff's got a 3 strike plan for every time he swears. 3rd time gets him booted which is pretty funny...he usually says like "Oh...I said....shoot" to cover himself. Good guy...definitely super weird though.
So anyhow, eventually we hit the sack despite the towneys and kids running around all night. Everyone was commenting on the weed smell coming in the windows and hearing screams...but I slept through it all like a log. Gotta love it. Moms looks and Dads ability to sleep. It's beautiful. When we woke up the next morning we briefly "showered". Again, this flat was a bath tub with a shower attachment. BUT the catch being the shower attachment actually doesnt attach to the bath, but to the faucet and sink next to it. Obviously of course it wouldn't have much pressure or hot enough water to suffice...so I basically took what Stew Clyde likes to call a "mexican shower" and washed my face/hair and put on some aftershave/deoderant. Elder E Silva apparently tried to do a full shower with this little spoon full of water all over himself. Haha, and he's like 3 times as tall as me. Crazy guy. After showering I walked down stairs and whatdya know, Nigel was in the kitchen at 6:30 making hot chocolate. That definitely weirded me out. Apparently its normal, so I just kept going. We had a great study that morning actually. I was reading about the Book of Mormon and its types and shadows of Christ and his Atonement found in different symbols, and prophets, or objects in the Book of Mormon. Elder Holland helped me see: The Staff of Moses, Abinadi, the Liahona, The Olive Tree, and the Tree of Life. I hadn't really picked up so much on the Olive Tree, nor Abinadi as the others. I was reading Jacob 5 and noticed the fruit of the Olive Tree was described pretty similiarly to the Tree of Life described by Lehi which was pretty cool, both fruits being "precious" and "white". The Abinadi one was super cool as well. The King didn't want to kill him, but the Priests did...just like Herod but the Jews crying out "Crucify!!!" or the way in which both couldn't die until their missions were fulfilled. Abinadi being protected by God's power as he discoursed, and Christ obviously avoiding stonings and other things till the cross. Pretty sweet study and it was great talking about all of that with the other Elders. Elder Shurtliff was taking copious notes which I had to laugh a bit about. Noting me and my thoughts, ideas on scripture...crazy!
Eventually we got out and went tracting for about 2 hour after trying some of their callbacks, me being with Elder Riekwel. Was actually a terrible morning for tracting, but as always the conversation was good and fresh and the opportunity to check up on the District Leaders work and efforts were important. We're actually really lucky to be able to have such great District Leaders. Straight away after tracting we decided to go drop off the Elders in Stratford Upon Avon. Man that place is absolutely beautiful, and incredibly expensive looking. We didn't look around too much, but we saw the Shakespeare theatre there and Jean Luc Picard doing a few shows which is pretty cool. Too bad we can't see em'...probably would break our wallet anyway. We ended up just looking around the town briefly, then grabbing some food from McDonalds which was basically the cheapest thing around...pretty disappointing to eat McDonalds in one of the older cooler places in England. Had a good laugh though thinking of all the cool places I've eaten McDonalds now. Added to the list of Hawaii with Dad and Jess just about every day...that was sweet. Anyhow, there were an incredible amount of people all over the place just hanging about watching the performers. Later we actually found out President and his family were in Stratford for the day cruisin around, and also doin a bit of paddlin on those tiny boats you see that you can rent. Too bad we didn't see him...definitely would have committed him to buy us lunch. After eating and looking round, we planned to come back for a real touristy pday and we were off again.
After stopping home to check on our appointments...which all got flogged, we grabbed some food and we're off again. Continuing onward we decided to go see the Nuneaton elders. These guys are pretty ridiculous. There basically Sisters trapped in Elders bodies. Always fighting and bickering, with loads and loads of shower equipment. They probably have like 15 body lotions, 10 soaps and just do absolutely ridiculous stuff. Apparently they'd been like playing Scrabble a lot with some of the members, as we'll as doing random waste of time service stuff. Service is good...but they weren't doing it at the right time, nor the right type. Had to go down and sort that stuff out. We got there round 5, and they were like "Uhhh we can't make it till 7 since were playing Scrabble with this old lady". SO me and E Silva were a bit t'd..but we went and grabbed some food, and ended up reading in the car for a little while. Once they showed up, we'd basically planned to verbally slap em' around...which Elder e silva more or less did. After straightening them out a bit we rolled out and headed home.
Church was actually really good, it was fast and testimony meeting...and despite what I said earlier about grabbing food I realized we actually we're about to grab some and we're like "we'd better keep fastin!" so we did. President Munday decided to come down and interview us and some of the other elders to save himself some time later in the week. It was probably the most beautiful Sabbath ever. Ever single testimony had something to the effect of "I love working with the missionaries in it". Every one was saying how they loved feeling the spirit, and how it helped their week or day...when it came around time to interview me and Elder E Silva he was like "Thatta way to work the ward". Us and the other 4 Elders have been workin our best to get members out to most lessons so that was sweet. Definitely had President smilin about that.
The rest of the day was pretty relaxin, did some tractin and since our DA was a bit late we had an opportunity to go home teach. We went to this family called the Nutt's...which basically they were. We walked in and a kid was sittin there in a towel, upper body naked, enormously fat. Walked around the corner and saw the mom as well just chillin out, thankfully clothed, but as well immovable like Nephi..but not with righteousness. We sat down with Bro Reynolds and basically let him take over. Nothing really happened. He had forgotten the Ensign, they didn't have one other and we just winged it. He found an old one, read an obscure passage and asked us to explain. Elder E Silva said "It's about Hope...Elder Smith can explain the rest". I just laughed kind of and briefly expounded...to which they all were enriched and edified of course. We're actually going to do some service for them, while tryin to reactive a bit. Some good potential there. A young kid about 14, a daughter that's 17 and her less active boyfriend who's livin with them that's about 19. We'll get that kid movin for sure. We rolled out of there like the kids lower belly and got back to our DA.
Another Sunday came and gone. Monday was another pday. We're still workin our best with some of the Elders to unify and also kill off the homesickness with a bit of fun and distraction. We took the Junior Companions from our District down to Solihull where we played squash again. Seems to be a weekly thing as I mentioned which I really love now...despite being dead the next few days. We played and played and played. Elder Till had just about a 26 pound raquet, versus my 10 pound one which is about 4 times as heavy. I'm loyal to it though.
I think we played about 10 times and he beat me one of em...the new raquet helps him get loads of shots he wouldn't have before since its lighter. Kept me on my toes a bit more. It was a bit of a weird pday being on Monday since interviews were Tuesday...except for the coventry guys that got interviewed. Just didn't really feel all that into it...I think as well since Elder gilbert was scremin and yellin, getting angry after losin and literally breakin his raquet I was distracted. Crazy guy.
So yah, good overall week. Got the car, still workin with some of our investigators though we don't have too much...we're buildin em up. We solidified a Frenchmen today so that should be cool...he let us come in after we woke him up and gave a brief First Discussion before leavin to let him sleep a bit more...his name is Stephan. We're still movin along with Atilla who's very interested, and very able to listen and learn and try. He was askin "how about the
cigarettes?", "how about the ladies?" to which we were tryin to only answer a few questions at a time...don't want to scare him off with all of the obligations and commitments. He's great though, he'd read another few chapters. Although Sunday he actually slept in which was disappointing. His shifts are so long...usually 4am to about 6pm he's spanked all day and really makes an effort to get to church. I called him around 2pm and clearly woke him up. We'll get him to Stake Conference this week though.
A new lady we found today is a Seventh Day Adventist. She's named Drusilda and is from Jamaica. Big surprise there really...not. We got in and she had requested a Finding Faith in christ video which we gave her, but also talked about the Restoration. It was actually one of the best discussions we'd been able to give in awhile...since usually we don't get to get in to all that many homes. We ended up with everything, made commitments and she seemed set. Then she did the usual Seventh Day Adventist move "So what about the Sabbath?" Elder E Silva tried to maneuver with some good principles, explainin ours and Christianitys stance on the day to worship as Sunday...and not there Saturday. She said "I guess we'll have to disagree...' and looked ready to bite a bit more and argue...to which I quickly dodged again and said "To us the sabbath day is very important, and day to read the scriptures and think about God. The Book of mormon is very important..." and so on. She basically forgot her concern, and said she would read...phew..those Adventists love their Sabbath..or Saturday as it is to us.
Another eventful crazy week. I'm sitting her actually typing my email Tuesday night about to die of exhaustion. Hopefully I said what yall would like and enjoy. I'm still struggling and working hard to find more people to teach with Elder E Silva. For us it's such a treat to get someone and get in their home. It's always the highlight of my day to actually have a real sit down...and not a tracting situation. I guess elsewhere the Elders might not consider it as highly...I'm glad to be here. I love getting to teach, however hard it is. Definitely enjoy it so much more.
Anyhow, another great week and Atilla's still getting ready for baptism. Olsie Plum, the lady in Daventry I projected, was baptized and confirmed a member of the church on Saturday. Also, in Chelmsley Wood we just got another projection for the zone. Despite being slightly dead, things are picking up. A mix of righteousness, unification of the zone, fun, purity and overall OBEDIENCE is definitely getting us as a zone to better results. Gotta love. Hope everyones doing we'll and has a great week.
Love,
Elder Smith
Hey familia, another crazy but great week has flown by in Coventry. Lots has happened, as usual, since last pday. After pday last week, another one of playing squash...seems to be the main pasttime of the zone which I definitely don't mind. It's a good work out and a lot of fun. Elder Till, the austrian Elder is getting better each week, and just bought himself a lighter raquet so he's beginning to be a better competitor. He beat me once last week, but, it was one out of about 12 games so I'm not worried.
Tuesday night after pday was pretty much spent walking, since we were still waiting on getting our car. We took off around 6, after grabbing some grub, and stopped at a few call backs, a few people we had talked to but they weren't in. It was pretty fun walking back actually as it was about 4 miles. Elder E Silva and I were reminiscing about Swindon when we walked one day down to the ASDASuperstore, which was about 4 miles from our flat to grab groceries and do some shopping. That was the worst case of shin splints I had ever gotten, since I wasn't used to walking that much in church shoes at that point. After walking forever, we made it back home and crashed.
Wednesday was actually really good in the morning. Since we didn't have the car, we decided to tract an area which was very close to our home, but had been overlooked. It's what we would call a "Council Estate", where the "Council Queens" usually live. Pretty much just the welfare people, lots of single moms, the ones that abuse the ability to get money from the government for having kids. They usually have like 3 or 4 kids, and start when there 15 or 16...always drives me nuts seeing girls that young with prams(strollers). Anyhow, we started tracting and immediately began to get some response, people were talking to us, accepting pamphlets and scheduling times to come back. It was great. Even sometimes when you know the people are probably not going to end up investigating the church, it still always makes you happy to actually get to talk to people...as its pretty dang hard to do generally in England. I think we found about 5 or 6 investigators just in that morning tracting session of 2 hours. A few from Africa, England and other places. One guys door we knocked, just going back to see the guy, opened up, and clearly a different African guy opened the door. Immediately you could see the fear in his eyes. Two guys with white shirts and name tags...no doubt we looked like we were from the Home Office, trying to deport him back home. It's amazing how many people I've met in this city that are illegal...seems like everyone. We tried to give him a Christ card, but he was practically shaking from fright. We asked about his friend, but he was really evasive and wouldn't say if he even lived there, despite us mentioning his name. Crazy dude. Later that day after some lunch, we tracted a bit more bef going to our appointment with Verina and Louise. Just prior to going we got a text message saying 'Can't make the apppointment today, we'll have to reschedule", with no name. Of course we figured it was the ladies we were about to teach, but I figured it might have been the member we were teaching with. I tried calling her for an hour, but she was on the phone the whole time. Finally I got through and the member said "it was me...I can't make it". I just about slapped this lady again like last week. I hung up immediately and called verina and Louise to tell them we'd be a bit late, but they said "we don't want you today", in a kind of mean/bitter way. I definitely wanted to kill that member now who an hour before the appt cancelled, making it basically immpossible to have someone to teach with. But luckily, they didn't want us...but you never know, had we shown up it might have been differeent. Thursday was a pretty SWWEEEET day. We got our car back! Whooooo. We worked really hard all morning up until lunch tracting...and it was a pretty miserable day actually, overcast, dark and cold, and only old people answering the door...they're die hard Church of England, and wouldn't change even if Christ himself told them to. So anyway, just after lunch the Vauxhall dealership said our car would be ready in the evening. We walked the 4 miles down to town, and hopped on a train, then taxi. It worked out beautifully, instead of a bus picking us up, a taxi did...apparently the bus only runs when theres lots of people, but to save money they also use a private taxi. We sailed smoothly into the city of Daventry in our taxi. We showed up to Daventry, and met the Elders there, who told us we'd have to wait about an hour to get the car. No sweat....it'd been over a week, an hour was nothing. Finally the moment came where we were back in the car..it was great. We drove home and got back to working smart again..not just based on convenience of location to our flat.
After getting told by that lady we weren't wanted we kept tracting for a bit, ate some grub and decided to drive down to Warwick and see the elders there; Elder Riekwel and Elder Shurtliff, one from Canada and the other from Holland. We only had a few days left to use our car, and the miles that we were allotted. Since nobody had been visited for awhile due to the loooong drought of driving, we thought it'd be best to use our miles, get some drivin in and most importantly see the rest of the zone. We showed up in Warwick around 7 or so...Warwick being where the Warwick Castle is, probably the coolest one I've seen so far in England. Elder Baader tells me the best ones in Germany hands down...the one that the Disney land castle is based off of. We'll have to see...I'll definitely be finding a flight in the future up to see Baadernator and his family. Anyhow, back to Warwick. When we arrived we walked in and as usually were greeted like Kings from Elder Shurtliff. He reminds me soooo much of the guy in Best Two Years with the glasses who "challenges" about 900 people to baptism every month. This guy has the fire, and love of missionary work. He's got a folder he's been putting together for about the past 3 years, about 2 of those before his mission of talks and thoughts, things he'd been studying from the Book of Mormon, etc. Really impressive guy. He's what the Elders on a mission would call at first glance and without too much information, a striver. Ie, striving to look good, laugh at your jokes, agree with you always and just work hard. Cant say anything aboot the work ethic of course...but all of the "eh's?" make me laugh at him for sure. He's a cool guy...never takes off his coat, ever, so he seems really formal all the time. Good guy nevertheless though. His companion Elder Riekwel is a guy I've known on and off for awhile. Pretty solid missionary, baptized awhile before his mission and out working hard. The two do welltogether.
We actually ended up just going tracting briefly that evening without any success...the 4 of us hitting and rampaging a quiet, town. Had a good time goofin around with an old guy. He asked me what I thought of England and I said "Old, Stubborn and Irreligious". He just started laughing and laughing, said good night and closed the door. After an hour or so, we drove home, sat on the couches and chatted with a guy named Nigel.
Just a brief Nigel bio. He's one of those guys thats probably "saved" but just to be safe got baptised. He's like there sometimes and others not...medicines definitely a big contender with that. He just comes around there flat apparently for meals to talk and at night to hang. Definitely a weird guy, always tells stories about his bowel problems, swears randomly and drinks tons and tons of soda and hot chocolate. He's got the biggest belly I've ever seen. Elder Shurtliff's got a 3 strike plan for every time he swears. 3rd time gets him booted which is pretty funny...he usually says like "Oh...I said....shoot" to cover himself. Good guy...definitely super weird though.
So anyhow, eventually we hit the sack despite the towneys and kids running around all night. Everyone was commenting on the weed smell coming in the windows and hearing screams...but I slept through it all like a log. Gotta love it. Moms looks and Dads ability to sleep. It's beautiful. When we woke up the next morning we briefly "showered". Again, this flat was a bath tub with a shower attachment. BUT the catch being the shower attachment actually doesnt attach to the bath, but to the faucet and sink next to it. Obviously of course it wouldn't have much pressure or hot enough water to suffice...so I basically took what Stew Clyde likes to call a "mexican shower" and washed my face/hair and put on some aftershave/deoderant. Elder E Silva apparently tried to do a full shower with this little spoon full of water all over himself. Haha, and he's like 3 times as tall as me. Crazy guy. After showering I walked down stairs and whatdya know, Nigel was in the kitchen at 6:30 making hot chocolate. That definitely weirded me out. Apparently its normal, so I just kept going. We had a great study that morning actually. I was reading about the Book of Mormon and its types and shadows of Christ and his Atonement found in different symbols, and prophets, or objects in the Book of Mormon. Elder Holland helped me see: The Staff of Moses, Abinadi, the Liahona, The Olive Tree, and the Tree of Life. I hadn't really picked up so much on the Olive Tree, nor Abinadi as the others. I was reading Jacob 5 and noticed the fruit of the Olive Tree was described pretty similiarly to the Tree of Life described by Lehi which was pretty cool, both fruits being "precious" and "white". The Abinadi one was super cool as well. The King didn't want to kill him, but the Priests did...just like Herod but the Jews crying out "Crucify!!!" or the way in which both couldn't die until their missions were fulfilled. Abinadi being protected by God's power as he discoursed, and Christ obviously avoiding stonings and other things till the cross. Pretty sweet study and it was great talking about all of that with the other Elders. Elder Shurtliff was taking copious notes which I had to laugh a bit about. Noting me and my thoughts, ideas on scripture...crazy!
Eventually we got out and went tracting for about 2 hour after trying some of their callbacks, me being with Elder Riekwel. Was actually a terrible morning for tracting, but as always the conversation was good and fresh and the opportunity to check up on the District Leaders work and efforts were important. We're actually really lucky to be able to have such great District Leaders. Straight away after tracting we decided to go drop off the Elders in Stratford Upon Avon. Man that place is absolutely beautiful, and incredibly expensive looking. We didn't look around too much, but we saw the Shakespeare theatre there and Jean Luc Picard doing a few shows which is pretty cool. Too bad we can't see em'...probably would break our wallet anyway. We ended up just looking around the town briefly, then grabbing some food from McDonalds which was basically the cheapest thing around...pretty disappointing to eat McDonalds in one of the older cooler places in England. Had a good laugh though thinking of all the cool places I've eaten McDonalds now. Added to the list of Hawaii with Dad and Jess just about every day...that was sweet. Anyhow, there were an incredible amount of people all over the place just hanging about watching the performers. Later we actually found out President and his family were in Stratford for the day cruisin around, and also doin a bit of paddlin on those tiny boats you see that you can rent. Too bad we didn't see him...definitely would have committed him to buy us lunch. After eating and looking round, we planned to come back for a real touristy pday and we were off again.
After stopping home to check on our appointments...which all got flogged, we grabbed some food and we're off again. Continuing onward we decided to go see the Nuneaton elders. These guys are pretty ridiculous. There basically Sisters trapped in Elders bodies. Always fighting and bickering, with loads and loads of shower equipment. They probably have like 15 body lotions, 10 soaps and just do absolutely ridiculous stuff. Apparently they'd been like playing Scrabble a lot with some of the members, as we'll as doing random waste of time service stuff. Service is good...but they weren't doing it at the right time, nor the right type. Had to go down and sort that stuff out. We got there round 5, and they were like "Uhhh we can't make it till 7 since were playing Scrabble with this old lady". SO me and E Silva were a bit t'd..but we went and grabbed some food, and ended up reading in the car for a little while. Once they showed up, we'd basically planned to verbally slap em' around...which Elder e silva more or less did. After straightening them out a bit we rolled out and headed home.
Church was actually really good, it was fast and testimony meeting...and despite what I said earlier about grabbing food I realized we actually we're about to grab some and we're like "we'd better keep fastin!" so we did. President Munday decided to come down and interview us and some of the other elders to save himself some time later in the week. It was probably the most beautiful Sabbath ever. Ever single testimony had something to the effect of "I love working with the missionaries in it". Every one was saying how they loved feeling the spirit, and how it helped their week or day...when it came around time to interview me and Elder E Silva he was like "Thatta way to work the ward". Us and the other 4 Elders have been workin our best to get members out to most lessons so that was sweet. Definitely had President smilin about that.
The rest of the day was pretty relaxin, did some tractin and since our DA was a bit late we had an opportunity to go home teach. We went to this family called the Nutt's...which basically they were. We walked in and a kid was sittin there in a towel, upper body naked, enormously fat. Walked around the corner and saw the mom as well just chillin out, thankfully clothed, but as well immovable like Nephi..but not with righteousness. We sat down with Bro Reynolds and basically let him take over. Nothing really happened. He had forgotten the Ensign, they didn't have one other and we just winged it. He found an old one, read an obscure passage and asked us to explain. Elder E Silva said "It's about Hope...Elder Smith can explain the rest". I just laughed kind of and briefly expounded...to which they all were enriched and edified of course. We're actually going to do some service for them, while tryin to reactive a bit. Some good potential there. A young kid about 14, a daughter that's 17 and her less active boyfriend who's livin with them that's about 19. We'll get that kid movin for sure. We rolled out of there like the kids lower belly and got back to our DA.
Another Sunday came and gone. Monday was another pday. We're still workin our best with some of the Elders to unify and also kill off the homesickness with a bit of fun and distraction. We took the Junior Companions from our District down to Solihull where we played squash again. Seems to be a weekly thing as I mentioned which I really love now...despite being dead the next few days. We played and played and played. Elder Till had just about a 26 pound raquet, versus my 10 pound one which is about 4 times as heavy. I'm loyal to it though.
I think we played about 10 times and he beat me one of em...the new raquet helps him get loads of shots he wouldn't have before since its lighter. Kept me on my toes a bit more. It was a bit of a weird pday being on Monday since interviews were Tuesday...except for the coventry guys that got interviewed. Just didn't really feel all that into it...I think as well since Elder gilbert was scremin and yellin, getting angry after losin and literally breakin his raquet I was distracted. Crazy guy.
So yah, good overall week. Got the car, still workin with some of our investigators though we don't have too much...we're buildin em up. We solidified a Frenchmen today so that should be cool...he let us come in after we woke him up and gave a brief First Discussion before leavin to let him sleep a bit more...his name is Stephan. We're still movin along with Atilla who's very interested, and very able to listen and learn and try. He was askin "how about the
cigarettes?", "how about the ladies?" to which we were tryin to only answer a few questions at a time...don't want to scare him off with all of the obligations and commitments. He's great though, he'd read another few chapters. Although Sunday he actually slept in which was disappointing. His shifts are so long...usually 4am to about 6pm he's spanked all day and really makes an effort to get to church. I called him around 2pm and clearly woke him up. We'll get him to Stake Conference this week though.
A new lady we found today is a Seventh Day Adventist. She's named Drusilda and is from Jamaica. Big surprise there really...not. We got in and she had requested a Finding Faith in christ video which we gave her, but also talked about the Restoration. It was actually one of the best discussions we'd been able to give in awhile...since usually we don't get to get in to all that many homes. We ended up with everything, made commitments and she seemed set. Then she did the usual Seventh Day Adventist move "So what about the Sabbath?" Elder E Silva tried to maneuver with some good principles, explainin ours and Christianitys stance on the day to worship as Sunday...and not there Saturday. She said "I guess we'll have to disagree...' and looked ready to bite a bit more and argue...to which I quickly dodged again and said "To us the sabbath day is very important, and day to read the scriptures and think about God. The Book of mormon is very important..." and so on. She basically forgot her concern, and said she would read...phew..those Adventists love their Sabbath..or Saturday as it is to us.
Another eventful crazy week. I'm sitting her actually typing my email Tuesday night about to die of exhaustion. Hopefully I said what yall would like and enjoy. I'm still struggling and working hard to find more people to teach with Elder E Silva. For us it's such a treat to get someone and get in their home. It's always the highlight of my day to actually have a real sit down...and not a tracting situation. I guess elsewhere the Elders might not consider it as highly...I'm glad to be here. I love getting to teach, however hard it is. Definitely enjoy it so much more.
Anyhow, another great week and Atilla's still getting ready for baptism. Olsie Plum, the lady in Daventry I projected, was baptized and confirmed a member of the church on Saturday. Also, in Chelmsley Wood we just got another projection for the zone. Despite being slightly dead, things are picking up. A mix of righteousness, unification of the zone, fun, purity and overall OBEDIENCE is definitely getting us as a zone to better results. Gotta love. Hope everyones doing we'll and has a great week.
Love,
Elder Smith
posted by JerzyGrl | 7:07 AM
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