Elder Boothe is Coming Home!

We're so excited! Eric's mission report will be Sunday, May 20th. For more info, feel free to call or email! Thanks so much for your interest in Eric's mission and for your love and support.

Err, a blog email finally.. April 23, 2012

Okay, so I haven't given an update for a while. But everything's going good. :) We had an awesome activity with the young men last Saturday (14th) and they all loved it. It was an all day thing, and it was a mini-MTC, and then we went out and taught people with them. And so many cool things came from that! We met with a guy named John who they met and was interested to hear what we have to say and we've taught him once. Then yesterday a girl named Amelia came to church and loved it so we're going to start teaching her. So we're starting to teach more people, which is always a good thing. A man named Simon was baptised last week and confirmed yesterday, he's a really cool guy. We only taught him a few times, he was mostly taught by the senior couple here.

Hmm, that wasn't a very good update, haha. Not much information there. I can't really think of how to explain everything that's happened, so that's probably why. I'll talk more about the mini-MTC thing:
It started at 8ish with a breakfast and then we got our temporary companions. We had some presentations on how to teach and approach people and stuff like that, then we went out to find and teach! My companion and I taught 2 member's friends, which was really good. They were very spiritual teaches. Then after all that we had a testimony meeting which was awesome. All the young men got really excited about missionary work, and there's a guy who goes on his mission later this year, he's just waiting for his call and he got really excited.

Anyway, I'll probably just end there. I'll try to do another email soon. :/

Okay, bye!

Conference

Picture 1- We all got to do an exchange!

Picture 2- Bournemouth

A girl from Taiwan came to Conference on Saturday and loved it! She didn't understand everything of what was said but she said the feeling of peace there was amazing. She's only going to be in Bournemouth for 2 months but we hope to teach her everything before.

Elder White is in Poole with Elder Palmer, so my last 2 companions are serving together.

One of my favorite talks was Elder Bednar's on Saturday. Next week is a transfer week so I might email on Monday, maybe on Wednesday. Bye!

Pictures--Finally! Internet issues during the past few weeks.

Notes from Eric about Bournemouth

Bournemouth seems like a really nice place! There are a lot of older people, [and] it's also a University town so there's a lot of younger ones too. Elder Beardall has been here for 6 weeks. There are a lot of things I'm excited for! There's a Young single adult center here and a husband/wife missionary couple running it. They're cool, they taught a girl who got baptised on Saturday and they're working with a few more people. They said they want us to get in there and help teach them so that'll be good. The guy, Elder Hamblin built the KFC in Spanish Fork! I think he was a building manager or something. The members here are awesome, I'm excited to work with them. The only bad thing about here is that I don't have much time for emailing. :/ And the library computers don't let you plug in any cameras or anything. :/! But I think we can use a computer at the chapel to send pictures later

Surprise! Address Amendment

Amendment! I'm now in Bournemouth with Elder Beardall, and this is going to be a good area! Oh, and I gave the wrong postcode for my address. It's really:

Elder Boothe
Flat 2, 7 Suffolk Road

Bournemouth, BH2 5SU
England

Okay, bye!

Surprise!

Elder Palmer and I have both been moved from Wandsworth because they're putting Sister missionaries there! :D It's really unexpected, but I'm excited. I'm going to Bournemouth, and Elder Palmer is going to Poole which is in the same District as Bournemouth. It's been an awesome 7 weeks here, and I'm sad that I can't end my mission here, but at the same time I'm glad there's something new and exciting to do for the next few months. I'm going with someone named Elder Beardall, who I've never met before so that'll be something new as well!

Bournemouth is down on the coast, but it's a lot more west than Eastbourne. Perfect timing though, getting to go to the coast at the start of the warm weather! I'm sad to leave London and all the people here, but I'll see most of them again I'm sure.

I want to send some pictures, but when I plugged my camera into this computer it looked like it started downloading something virus-like onto it, so I deleted it and unplugged ASAP. So maybe you'll get some pictures of Bournemouth next week.

That's about it!
Oh, my new address!

Elder Boothe
Flat 2, 7 Suffolk Road
Bournemouth, BH2 5FU
England

So hopefully any post already on it's way to the Wandsworth flat will be forwarded quickly to me. :)
Bye!

A good blog email. Hopefully.

Picture 1- A snowman someone built outside our flat.

 

Picture 2- The Snow! (This picture only really looks cool on a good quality screen.)

 

Picture 3- The biggest piece of meat I've ever eaten.

An awesome member made them for us for dinner.

Hi! This week we had a zone training meeting, which I think was really good. We've been going around the names of people on the ward list we don't know and seeing if they would like us to visit them or not. Most of the people have moved, so we're writing that down so that missionaries won't go do it again and annoy the people that live there. That's been good fun, and we've been meeting people that way. Also this week I got to have lunch with my trainer, Elder Muller! That was awesome, getting to catch up and talk about the good old days. He was just visiting London for the weekend, which is weird for me to think about, but then I remember that Europe is a lot closer together than I think. This week we did some FamilySearch indexing too! Haha, never something I would have wanted to do, but it was actually enjoyable.

 

Ok, I'll be frank. Writing blog emails at this point seems pretty dry, so maybe I'll just do a monthly update from now on (haha, so like 4 more updates. Oh well.) But I'll at least send pictures weekly. If you don't like that idea, then send in a complaint to me. :D Alright, till next week/month! ;) Bye!

January is over.

Picture 1- Picture of the river.

Picture 2- A bear in Wimbledon.

This was a cool week. I got to do an exchange in Brixton! It was really good, and I did get to see a few people I wanted to. I realized that as good as the past was, it won't ever really be exactly the same. So you've got to embrace it how it is now and work with it! A few places I went weren't really the same as when I was here at the beginning of my mission, and I think I was trying to live in the memories too much. But there are lots of things that are a lot better than when I was there. The ward is stronger and one member I really liked who moved into the ward when I was there, his family just came over here to live with him. He had been waiting for that for a looong time, but he looked so happy on Sunday when he could be at church with his family. I also got to see someone get baptised who I helped teach a few times when I was here. That was cool.

One funny thing that happened was that we went to stop by a less-active member and she shouted at us "Come back later!" so we went to leave and then she opened her window and threw us a bag of suckers. And then closed the window before we could even say thank you. That made our day.

Til next week, bye!

I am getting lazy about writing blog emails again.

Pictures 1 and 2- London Scenery

Picture 3- Me with a familiar road sign!

 

This week I had the first authentic Mexican food since being on my mission. That alone made this week really good. We learned about family history and indexing and that was interesting because I actually cared this time. :D So we're hoping to do family history with people as a form of service and finding people who want to do learn about it. I also had a really really good kebab this week. I bought some really good food today too. On Sunday we had a really good Brazilian dinner.

 

I'm obviously too hungry to think straight, so that's it for this week. Sorry this was a lame blog, bye!

New Address!

Haha, it's spookily similar to my last one:

12 Elms Court

Montague Rd

Wimbledon, London

SW19 1SZ
ENGLAND

So go ahead and send those letters! :)

First Week in Wandworth

Picture 1- Me, Elder Wooley, and Elder Palmer

 

Picture 2- Ice cream!

 

Picture 3- A cold stone!

 

Ok, I have a lot to talk about the last week and I don't know if I'll be able to get it all in there, so I might just pick and choose. My first week in Wandsworth was great! I got to see everyone from my first ward on Sunday, including a man that I taught when I was there, and recently got baptised by the missionaries there. I got to see so many good friends and I was surprised by how many people actually remembered my and were excited to see me. We even talked to one of the street fruit vendors yesterday and he says he remembered seeing me walk past a lot last year. :D I had never talked to him before in my life, but he still remembered me! :D I thought that was funny. Even a lot of the members of the Wandworth wards said they remember seeing my face.

 

The whole zone of missionaries here are just really nice too. It feels like a small little family, and I was glad I could be a part of it for the last week. It will probably change a lot with the remainder of the transfers that will happen on Wednesday. But I got to see one Elder who I served around at the beginning of my mission, and he's just going home today or tomorrow. It was really good to see him before he went.

 

Ack, only have a few minutes left! Okay, so this week we got to help clean up the old Wandsworth flat because two senior Sisters moved in there this week. We showed them around too, and that was fun. Oh, and I'll get to go on Exchange to Brixton sometime soon! I'm excited for that and get to go have dinner with some members from there. I'm on exchange in Peckham today, which should be fun. I'm out of time, but I am doing really good. I should have some really good stories for next week. :) (I had some for this week, but don't have time to write all of them.) Bye!

Surprise Pre-moves!

Picture 1- Elder White and I, for the last time.

Picture 2- Anne and I, for the last time.

Well, the last two days were surprising. Last night about 7:30 we got a call saying that the mission President felt he should do a few transfers before the scheduled transfer day. So I was informed that I would be moving to Wandsworth with Elder Palmer and Elder White would be getting Elder White. Two Elder Whites. And that transfer's would be in the morning. So we went home and I packed my things. I could barely sleep last night because I was so excited to come here! One main reason is that Wandsworth is the ward right next to the Brixton ward (my first ward), and they share a chapel. So on Sunday I'll get to see all the members of that ward! What a cool thing to happen! And I'm also just excited to be back in London. A few days ago we had to pass through Clapham Junction to get somewhere else, and even just passing it on the train I felt happier. I think I have a special love for London, it being my first area here.

I'm also excited to be serving with Elder Palmer. We came into the mission at the same time, and we have a similar way of doing missionary work and that'll be good. I'm also excited to not be living with a member. :) It was nice and everything, but after a year of it, it's nice to have a flat. I'm sure I'll have lots of good stories by next week, so be prepared! I'm convinced this is going to be one of the best times of my mission. Everything seemed to work out perfectly so far, and I can look back and see how nearly everything has played a part  leading up to now. Okay, I have to go, but just know I'm really happy and excited. Bye!

Happy 2012!

Picture 1- A space alien alarm clock that I bought for Christmas

Picture 2- District Christmas lunch.

 

Picture 3- A Wallace and Gromit mug I bought for Christmas

Ahhh, it's 2012!! That [last] year seemed to go by pretty quick.

 

This week went by fast too, because Elder White has been sick so we haven't done much. We did meet one guy though, who seems cool, we just need to catch him when he's at home. We did have a post-Christmas lunch with our district and that was really good. This New year's Eve we had dinner with some Philippino members and that food was really good. Then they told us that one of the things we thought was meat was actually shredded lung. I still ate more though, it was that good. :)

 

This year will be a good one! I still need to sit down and think up some goals for it. Okay, have to go, bye!

Blog Pictures [& Happy Holidays!]

I am just going to send a few emails of pictures and captions for Christmas. But my Christmas was good. :)

Picture 1- Pac-man Stress ball head companion.

Picture 2- A electric tricycle. Best thing ever.

 

Picture 3- Crazy Christmas lights!

 

Picture 4- Me opening a present.

 

 

Picture 5- A portion of what I got from the ward.

 

And for fun, I, Mother of Eric, will include pictures of Mike in his British crown and socks, our new "London" book, and our Skype session.

 

 

Week before Christmas!

Picture 1- Our small Christmas tree!

 

Picture 2- ???

 

Picture 3- First snow of the season! (only lasted an hour and didn't stick.)

 

Picture 4- Mission Christmas conference party.

 

Picture 5- Ward Christmas party!

 (my camera was on a different setting for the last week for some reason,

so the pictures might be a little different?)

I don't have much time this week, and I just realized I didn't send a blog one last week. So, I'll do a little catch-up. We've had our mission Christmas party and our Ward Christmas party which were both good. I got to see a lot of good friends at the mission one, and a lot of non-members came to the ward one which was really cool to see them enjoying it. Not much is happening in the work right now, even though there should be because it's CHRISTMAS! But oh well. We did get to teach a lady yesterday who I met about 2 months ago, but she was never in. She saw us on the street last week and invited us over. We stopped by, and she was excited for the Book of Mormon. And then she told us that she's working pretty much every day for the next 2 months. :/ So she said to come back in February. That seems to be how everything is going right now, stuff sort of happens, but then gets delayed a while. But it's okay, Christmas is on Sunday!

Alright, that's about all I've got time for, so I will send a good email on next Monday, Boxing Day. Bye!

14th transfer, staying in Aldershot with Elder White for Christmas!

No pictures due to being at a dodgy internet cafe due to having an unusable chapel.

So, this last week and a bit have been good. Hannah was baptised and confirmed on the 3rd and 4th of December, respectively. Here is the story of her baptism:
We got a text from our Bishop Friday night at 8:30 saying that the gas needs to be fixed at the chapel and so it is off until the next week, so we may need to postpone the baptism because there would be no hot water. I didn't feel that we should postpone since Hannah had been preparing for this day for a while, but we called Hannah and let her know the water would be cold and gave her the option of doing it or postponing. She said she wanted to just go ahead with it, so we told that to Bishop.

Saturday morning we went over the chapel to see how cold the water was. The water that came out of the font tap was... freezing. But, the water from the kitchen taps was somehow really really hot! So Elder White and I thought we would just fill up pots of hot water from there and run them over to the font to equalize the temperature of the water. We did call Hannah again and let her know just how cold the water was, and she still wanted to go for it. Her baptism was at 5:00 and from about 2:30 until then, with the assistance of our ward mission leader and his wife, we ran as much hot or boiling water from the kitchen to the font as we could. After about an hour and a half of that, the water was... still freezing. So then we got about 3 or 4 little heaters and plugged them in and put them in the rooms next to the font as we continued to boil as much water as we could and dump it in there. By 5 o clock, the water was... actually not too cold! So when it came time for the baptism, it went really well. Hannah said it was warmer than she thought it was going to be, and I guess that's the best thing we could've asked for.

So, that was a really cool experience. I could see how God helped us answer our own prayers by letting us do as much as we could, and then making up for the things we couldn't control

Anyway, we had transfers today and both Elder White and I are staying here. So this will be a pretty good Christmas. :) It's starting to get colder here, but no snow yet. :( That's about all I've got time to write, so talk to you later! Bye!

Last Week of November?

Picture 1- Elder Keck and I on exchange!

Picture 2- Our Exchange!

Hello! Wow, it's almost December! This week has been good, we got to go on an exchange with Elder Keck and Elder Folkerson, and that was good fun. It was really cool to serve with Elder Keck again, if only just for the day. We met some cool people and we'll go back to see them this next week.

Also, it was Thanksgiving and it was great! We had a feast with the youth, and our American ward mission leader's wife made pies! She even made a grasshopper pie at my request, so that was really awesome. We also had another Thanksgiving dinner the next night, which was good, if not a little less unconventional. (Did I write that right? I don't care.) We did have Turkey...Burgers. And curly fries and onion rings and Krispy Kreme doughnuts. So it was like an American themed meal, but it was still good.

Hannah is doing good, she's ready to get baptised this Saturday! So I'm excited about that. She's so cool, she's studied the gospel really well and has asked such awesome questions. I also talked to Keziah who was baptised nearly 3 months ago now, and I asked how her first few months being a member have been and she said "Well, I don't regret it!" :D And then she did say that it has improved her life, and that was so cool to hear that.

Anyway, this next week is transfer week, so I won't email on Monday, I'll email on either Wednesday or Thursday. I think either Elder White or I will move, but we'll see next week!

Seeya later, bye!

Thanksgiving week! November 21, 2011

Picture 1- Me bowling!

Picture 2- District picture.

Picture 3- A dove on an old church. Not the best picture,
but it was cool to capture it in mid-takeoff (or mid landing, I don't remember).

This is Thanksgiving week! I'm very excited for it, for many reasons. 1. Thanksgiving. 2. We found a few really cool people this last week who we're going to go teach this week. 3. Hannah is still really enjoying the gospel and she's still preparing for baptism.

And I'm sure there are other reasons too, but I can't think of them right now. The weather should cool down a lot more this week. Emphasis on should, but who knows what really will happen. I'm doing good right now, I can't really think of much to write about this last week. It was just a good one. Oh, one thing that happened is that we went knocking with a member, and at one of the first doors we knocked on was this guy on crutches around our age, and he said to the member "Hey, I remember you. You opened the door for me in town a few days ago." So that was cool to see this member's good deed also helped with missionary work! The guy said that he actually is interested in these things, so we're seeing him this week. Anyway, I guess I'll leave it at that. But let me know what you want me to write in here now, because I'm all out of ideas. :D 

Okay, write to you next week, bye!

The Missionary's Mother Has Been a Slacker!!!

In November I have been taking my very last finals at BYU and visiting my kids and grandkids :-), and I have not kept up on Eric's posts. I'll fix that ASAP, but to answer an immediate question, here is the mission home address for Christmas packages and/or letters. They will take about 10 to 14 days to get there and will be delivered to the Elders before Christmas. For packages, it is recommended to include the phone number at the bottom.

Elder Eric M. Boothe

England London South Mission

The London Temple

West Park Road

Newchapel, Surrey

ENGLAND RH7 6NB

Phone: 44-1342-833-916

Thanks for your interest in and support for our missionary! MERRY CHRISTMAS! 

Mike and Lou Ella