'Tis the week after Christmas, and all through the house.

Picture 1- This probably means nothing to you, but it's a very empty high street on Christmas morning. It was weird.

Picture 2- Most of my presents!


Hello! Christmas as a missionary is weird!

For Christmas, all we did was eat at people's houses. We tried to service at an old folks home but they didn't want us, haha, so we just went and ate other people's food. There was no transport on Christmas, so we did a lot of walking. We walked from our flat all the way up past Brixton which is just over 3 miles I think. I know that's not a terribly long distance, but it is substantial when you're used to riding buses and trains everywhere. :) But we ate so much food on Christmas, I never want to eat again. And we have a fridge full of leftover dinners and desserts. It's great, and I hope we can eat it all before it all goes bad. Because that would be a waste of the most tragic kind.

Other than Christmas this week, it was pretty slow. In fact, it was very very very slow. But now that Christmas is over, we're going to be spending this whole week finding! Seriously, we're going to get about 30 hours of finding this week, and it'll be great. We need to find people who are willing to learn and willing to act, so that's my goal this week, to find some people like that.

So thank you everyone for the Christmas wishes and packages and thoughts and stuff. I love each and every one of you, and hope you had a good Christmas and will have a really great 2011. Set a resolution that means something! And then do it, because that's the whole point of resolutions or commitments in the first place! I know I need to set a few good resolutions to make myself better, and I don't want to forget about them in a few weeks, I want them to be actual! Alright, talk to you later, bye!

Merry Christmas week!

Picture 1- Temple Christmas Conference.

Picture 2- Crazy Snowstorm!

Picture 3- Aftermath. (This was taken about 2 hours after the one of the snowstorm. Yeah.)

Picture 4- Ward Christmas Party.

Merry Christmas! This week was good, we had a Temple Christmas Conference on Tuesday. It was good and uplifting and got me very excited for Christmas. And then on Saturday we had a Ward Christmas Party, and that was good too. This week has been good, but tough. It's hard to go out and talk to people when it's cold outside and they don't want to listen to you, but this week is going to be great, because it's Christmas week and hopefully people will be more willing to talk! :) It's also hard being a missionary at Christmas time because you see everyone celebrating and stuff, and then you remember that you have to still be working to serve others. But it's also very good being a missionary at this time of year, because like I said, this is when a lot of people's hearts and minds are more open to learn more, and there are lots of opportunities to serve.

I don't really have a lot to say this week. Plus, I have to save some stuff to talk about on the phone on Christmas. ;) I'm pretty excited for that.

Thank you everyone for everything you do, and have a merry Christmas! I love all of you! Bye!

Hello hello hello, December!

Picture 1- Me chilling with my homie Sonic the Hedgehog. I'm so glad I saw this.

Picture 2- We got Christmas cards from someone in the ward, and mine had significantly less stickers than Elder Keck's. Hence the sad look on my face.

Hello, where did December go? Christmas is in two weeks, and that's weird. It came so fast! I'll only send you one more email before Christmas. Whoa!

This week was pretty good. It was really long, but at the same time I can barely remember a single thing I did. But it has a positive vibe in the end, so it must have been good. :) The guy who was baptised last week passed the sacrament this week, so that was really cool to see. He's changed his life, and he says he's learning a lot and it's a change for the better, and that's what it's all about! This last week I went on an exchange with Elder Henderson, and that was really good. We had a really good time, and I spent the night in the Wandworth flat. It was only the 4th time I've slept anywhere other than my flat in the last 6 months! So yes, Brixton is my temporary home, because I called it my flat. :D Hmm, this week we also met some really cool people, but the week went by so fast and slow at the same time that nothing seemed to happen! Oh yeah, yesterday we got a text from a lady we had been teaching and she invited us to her house for lunch because it was her Birthday. So we went and had some of the best jallof rice I've ever had, and I've had a LOT! She said she was really greatful we could come, so it was really nice. Also yesterday, there was a Christmas music program at the church and it was really good. We got to see some missionary friends who moved out of the zone, and they played some really good music. The choir here is really good too, it's so gospel. :)

This next week should be packed with action! In fact, tomorrow we're having a Christmas conference at the temple, and that will be really good. And Saturday we're having the ward Christmas party, so I'm well excited about that.

That's about all I got. I'm doing good, I'm still learning and growing and stuff. I'm actually having a really good time, so now I just have to harness that good attitude and use it for good! :D Ok, I love you guys. Bye!

Current Contact Info

Hi Everyone,

People have asked and I am trying to cover all the bases, so here is Eric's info:

For letters during the next five weeks (perhaps longer, pending future transfer) you can send to--

Elder Eric M. Boothe

Flat C, 233 Streatham High Rd.

Streatham, London

SW16 6EN

      ENGLAND

Use the following address (including the phone number as written) for packages that could otherwise not fit in a mailbox and thus get stolen :-)

Elder Eric M. Boothe

England London South Mission

The London Temple

West Park Road

Newchapel, Surrey

ENGLAND RH7 6NB

      Phone: 44-1342-833-916

If you would like to be notified of blog posts, let me know; If you would like a forward of his emails, let me know. I don't promise anything but I will try to accommodate as many wishes as possible :-). My email is blouella@gmail.com.

Lou Ella, Louie, Lou, Mom, Grandma, etc.

Heya!

Hello there, everybody! Happy December! I can't believe it's this time of year already. Time has flown!
This week has been a pretty good week. I've told you about everything up to Friday morning I think, so I'll start from there and let you know about my weekend. Let's see, Friday night there was a wedding reception for someone in the ward so we stopped by there for our dinner. :) It was my first African wedding reception and it was definitely something! It's kind of hard to explain, but the food was quite good. I really wish I could explain it better, but... it was just a bit undescribable. Haha, sorry. Everyone was having fun though, so that's what matters! Then on Saturday, the guy I've been telling you about was baptised! He's a cool guy, and hopefully he'll continue to grow in his spirituality. So it was a pretty good weekend, but I don't really have a lot else to say. It's still quite cold, but not as bad as it was last week. The wind is the worst part, I don't know if I've mentioned that before. Oh, people from the ward have already asked us over for Christmas, so we'll probably just be going around from family to family all day. So that will be fun.

Well, the last week was really weird with moves and the cold and everything so I'm very grateful for a p-day today to recover from that. :) And I'm hoping to do some good this next transfer, which will (very most likely, almost 99%) be my last one in this area. That's going to be weird, since this has just become my home for the past few months. We'll see what happens.

I love you guys, have a good week! Talk to you next Monday, bye!

Picture 1- Merry Christmas!

Picture 2- Merry Christmas!

Picture 3- Liam's baptism!

Well, turns out moves was today!

Hello there, transfer day was today! And I'm actually staying in Brixton for anoth 6 weeks! So I'll be here for Christmas, isn't that cool? Elder Keck is staying as well, so we figured out that by the end of next transfer we will have been together 24/7 for 5 out of the last 8 months. That's a very long time. Luckily we get along very well, and we're practically brothers. The only thing is that we were both just ready for a change, and we're starting to get a bit... relaxed. So hopefully in 6 weeks we will both get a change that will be good learning experiences for us. :D But yeah, just wanted to let you know that you can continue to send stuff to the Streatham address for the next 6 weeks. Packages though, would best be sent to the mission office. But don't feel obligated in the least to send anything, because postage is really expensive. Okay, well that's that! I love you guys, have a good week! I might send another email on Monday? I don't really know when p-days are supposed to be, but we were once again told to email home and let them know what the results of moves were. Ok, talk to you soon, bye!

AHHHHHH, what's going on? I don't know! :D

Note from the mission president about Christmas and address for packages:

We are already anticipating the Christmas season.  We are hoping to have a wonderful celebration with our missionaries.  In addition, we know that you will want to send Christmas gifts to your children.  Could you please send all packages to the Mission Office?  Last year, some of our missionaries received their gifts at their flats.  Unfortunately for some, once the postman left the package, someone came by and stole everything.  More than one returned to their flat to find an empty box sitting in front of their door.  By sending your parcels to the Mission Office, someone will always be there to receive it and place it in a secure location.  We shall distribute the packages throughout the mission, and they will receive them in their assigned areas sometime before Christmas. 

The office address is:  

            Elder Eric M. Boothe

England London South Mission

The London Temple

West Park Road, Newchapel

            Surrey  RH7 6NB

England

Eric's Email:

Picture 1- District picture

Picture 2- A Snowman that someone built on the common. :D! 

Picture 3- A picture from our window. This is a lot of snow for London!

Oh my DAYS have I got a lot to tell everyone! For starters I have less time to write emails this week, so this might be a shorter length than required to portray the events of the last week. Here goes.
Well, it's really snowy here! And even though London had quite a bad winter last year, they still aren't prepared for snow! :D So the last 2 days or so everything has kind of been all over the place. Our bishop asked us to go and get rid of the snow at the chapel, but they didn't have any shovels so we just threw grit salt everywhere. :) I don't think they have invented snow shovels over here because I haven't seen one. Everyone is just using garden spades and stuff like that, haha. And I think they said a third of all train services in London yesterday were delayed or canceled, so everyone is in a tizzy (That sounds like a British word but I don't think it really is a word at all.).

As for moves day, it was SUPPOSED to be on Wednesday, remember? Well, it wasn't, and last week they moved it to today. Is it today? No, no it is not. Is it tomorrow? Don't ask me, I have no idea. It's been delayed as well, because the new missionaries can't get from the MTC to the Temple down here because of all the snow! So moves day could possibly be tomorrow, or it could possibly be on Monday, or it could even possibly be sometime after that, who knows? But I'll send another email on the day it is and let you know who's moving where. So the reason I'm emailing today is because we've been granted 2 hours of P-day today to email home and buy food because we have none and we don't want to starve. That's one of the tender mercies I suppose, haha.

Let's see, the guy I told you about last time who was preparing to be baptised is still preparing for this Saturday! So hopefully I'll be here to see it because that would be really cool.

The last few days have been crazy in a lot of ways. Because of the snow messing everything up, because people are feeding us a lot, maybe even too much sometimes. I had 4 meal appointments in one day, and I felt like I was going to explode. Luckily I didn't, and luckily the food was all very tasty, but I think I've gained about 10 pounds in the last 3 days! :D Also it's been crazy because lots of other things that I don't have time to explain about right now, but trust me! :)

Phew, well happy December to everyone and I'll hopefully be in touch in a few days. I love you guys, and will talk to you later! Bye!!