No Pictures But Good Week

Hello, I'm sorry but I haven't taken any pictures this week.

This week has been good. I can't really even remember what I said last week, but I'll just tell a story or two from this week.

The guy I talked about last week that we knocked in on, turns out that he raps about the Bible and things like that! He is a funny guy, I don't think he's interested in the message we have, but it was really cool to meet him. He raps about all sorts of biblical things ranging from "Proverbs 31" which is of course about how to find a virtuous woman. :D And he has a chorus of one of his songs which goes, "I don't pack a matic(as in an automatic gun), but I pack a Matthew Mark Luke and John." Haha, he gave us each a CD and I listened to parts of it. I'm definitely keeping the CD and bringing it home with me, it's just a great souvenir.

Well, also this week, we had a missionary training of some sort. It was good, it was uplifting, but it was quite long. But I endured. :)

Well there really isn't much to report this week. It seemed like nothing much happened, but we were constantly busy this week so I don't even know where the time went! All I can say is that next week I will have more to say, because next Wednesday is Moves day! So I will most likely get a new companion and it will just be full of changes, so that'll be exciting. Thanks for writing me and stuff, love you, bye!

Mario Star, Rock DJ, and Chinese Buffet

Picture 1- A Mario Star!

Picture 2- Me on Exchange with Elder Evans.

Picture 3- The MI6 building...!

Well, this week has been good! I had an exchange with Elder Evans, my district leader, who is going home in just a few weeks! He lost his a tooth, and the temporary crown cracked, so he is missing a tooth for about another week. Poor guy. But it does look pretty funny, so it's all good. :D It was a good exchange, we had a lot of fun and taught some nice people. One lady's husband is kind of not happy with the church for some reason, but we talked a bit to him and apparently he's a 50's rock DJ! He's actually played with some famous people and known them quite well, but I can't remember any of their names. Dad would know them though, I'm sure. One was the guy who sang "In The Summertime". Anyways, I just thought that was cool.

Oh! This week I had my first "Knock-in" lesson. That's when someone lets you in just from knocking, and that happened on Tuesday. The guy seemed like he was trying to trick us or something, but he did set up a return appointment for tonight so we'll see how that goes. :) They are a nice couple, so it was just a good experience.

Also this week, we started painting a lady's dining room. She gave us the paint she wanted us to use, and to be honest it was terrible paint. It didn't go on the walls very well at all. But we did about a whole wall with it and then she walks in and says, "Oh! This color is terribly dark, it makes me want to weep!" (She really did say that it makes her want to weep! :D) So then she gave us some white paint and we started painting the other walls. So we get to go and finish that up this week.

Well, as for spiritual experiences this week, I guess I'll just say some things that I've learned. I have been reading the Book of Mormon from the beginning while I've been out here, and I'll be honest in saying that this is the first time I've really understood it, and therefore enjoyed reading it. It's good to realize that it actually is a helpful book, not just "Ancient Scripture". The examples in it, both good and bad, teach you things to do and avoid doing. Also, I can't remember if I told you or not but I read John recently and I really learned a lot. So I guess I'm just trying to say that I've learned the scriptures really do give good counsel. So that's good. :)

Well, I'm going to go to a all you can eat Chinese buffet and then going to play some chair football now, so thanks for writing and emailing me and everything else you're doing to support me. :) Love you bye!!!

Pigeons and Mangoes!

Picture 1-Amen to this sign!

Picture 2-Me eating a mango that was only 50p! So good.

Picture 3-Brother Kearl(?), My companion, and Bishop Cooke!

Hi, I don't remember what I wrote last week, except for the story about that crazy lady and the weird conversation we had. But just as an unexpected update on that, I saw her again in a completely different part of our area! It must be some sort of sign or something.

This last week has been good. We met a Chinese guy named Jin Ming Wang, and he is awesome. He doesn't speak very much English, but we could communicate a little and we brought him to church yesterday. It's really cool to meet people from all over, as I have said many times before. :)

This week hasn't been terribly eventful, except I guess for the fact that there seemed to be more people at church than usual. Most of them were visiting while they are on holiday or something, but still, the singing sounded a little better than normal. I don't know if I've talked about how cool the bishop of this ward is, but he is really cool! Yesterday we had a dinner appointment at his grandma's house, (She's an old Jamaican lady, who I can't understand a lot of the time.) and there were lots of people there. In fact, one of the bishop's counselors (Brother Kearl) was there who is moving back to America next week, so I think I'll give him your email address so he can send you pictures that he took there. I didn't take any because my battery died. :(

Well, sorry there really isn't much news this week. But I'm still learning a lot, and I'm becoming more comfortable with talking to people on the street and stuff. But like dad says, you can't fall into a routine with it. So I try and keep it interesting. I love being out here, and it's such a growing experience! I am looking back on myself even just 6 weeks ago and seeing how much I've improved. So it's really cool, and I just have to keep trying my hardest. One thing that I've really come to realize is that this church, even though the people in it are definitely not perfect, myself included, is that it's here to help us become more "perfect". Sometimes if even just to strengthen our patience and tolerance with other people. :D Well, I guess that's all I've got this week. So, talk to you next week! If I forgot anything, then it probably wasn't too important. Or, it was, and I'm just too forgetful. Love you, bye!

A Bit Late--But I Haven't Had the Internet

Hi Everyone! Here is Eric's post from last week. I'm sorry it is late but I have been at Val's and at the Alldredge Reunion for the past 10 days, with limited internet access. We should have another one tomorrow which I will post right away. Isn't he cute!!! Mom/Lou/Louie
 
Picture 1- Surprise, I got a haircut! Also, I got to see my good friend Elder Whitehead from my MTC group at a Temple conference!

Picture 2- A little guy we met on the bus.

Picture 3- A view of part of our area.

Hello! I'm still doing good, and don't have really a lot to tell you, but I'll try and write some interesting things.

Well, a few days ago we had a conference at the temple, which was really nice to see a lot of the people I knew from the MTC. Everything else about the conference was pretty good too. But then after the conference (which took allll day long, so I was a little tired by the end of it) Elder O'Faolin and I had an exchange. So he basically traded places with Elder Muller for a day. We had a really fun time, and it was pretty funny as well. One funny thing is that I had to navigate us around by myself, which turned out quite well. We never got lost, but we certainly didn't take the quickest routes, haha. We walked for half an hour straight once (which is barely possible in London, because there is so much public transport.) and then when we got to the lady's house, she told us she didn't really feel up for us to come over anymore. So we just shared a scripture with her so the traveling wouldn't have been for naught. Later that day, we were in Brixton Market, which is a crazy place with lots of crazy people. A conversation I had with one lady went like this:
"What church are you from?"
"The church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints."
"Where are you from?"
"Utah..."
"Do you know the Osmonds?"
"Yes, I've heard of the Osmonds. Bu-"
"Name them!"
"Erm, Jimmy, Donny, Marie..."
"How old are you?"
"Erm, 19"
"Then how do you know the Osmonds!  They were before your time!"
"Oh, I've just heard of them I suppose."
"Do you know Earth Wind and Fire??"
"What? Yes, I d-"
"What kind of music do they play?!"
And it just followed that "pattern" for a few more minutes. Then at the end I went to shake her hand and she didn't shake it. Then she said "Oh, I don't shake anyone's hand. Don't worry, it's not because you're white."

So that's the kind of people I meet everyday. It's something else. :) Well, I guess that's good for this week. Have a good day, I love you guys! Thanks for the letters and emails and stuff. Bye!

Imperial War Museum

Picture 1- Hitler!

 

Picture 2- Me listening to a man reading somthing. Or something like that.

 

Picture 3- Us in front of some really scary models of military men.

 

 

Well, I don't have a lot to say this time, since I emailed just 5 days ago. But here goes!

 

We went to the Imperial War Museum last Wednesday for P-day and it was pretty cool. I sent some pictures of part of it, but it was a really big museum. It had lots of cool stuff. Also, they have really nice football (soccer, sorry.) fields that we played some football at after the museum. We're actually going back there today to play, and hopefully there will be some other Elders there as well, so it won't just be 2 on 2. Anyway, that's how p-days are going, but I guess that's not what you want to know about. I just write about it a lot because that's the day that I write emails. But as for the missionary work, it's going good. We really want to strengthen this ward, since there are so few people attending. We had another alright week this last week, but we're planning for an excellent week this week! Oh, one thing that we're doing to let people have fun is that we play chairball once a week and invite anyone who wants to come. Chairball is basically this: Each person has a chair, and they try and guard it from being hit with the football. Once your chair gets hit 3 times, you're out. That's basically it, but it's really fun.

 

I'm honestly running out of things to say, but don't say I didn't warn you! There's so much that goes on, but nothing terribly out of the ordinary happened. I'm doing good, and well, and happy! :) It's a good thing to be out here, and I'm glad that you're all doing good back home. Alright, love ya, bye!