6th letter from England (Nottingham, Eastwood)

Okay hey!

Sorry about yesterday.  I'm not quite sure what bank holiday Monday entails either but I know the library was closed and a lot of the shops were too.  Anyways we're emailing today.  And yesterday we were at the church and I intended on emailing you  but then we ran out of time kind of.... which really just means I got distracted in a crazy game of darts running through the church building and building forts and stuff.  But that was yesterday and I have a whole weeks worth of stuff to tell you first!

Last Monday for P-day after we emailed you we went to Derby (pronounced Darby) and went shopping and stuff there.  We met up with the two sets of missionaries there.  Two sisters and two elders.  One of this Sisters, Sister Dixon actually is good friends with Steele Crandall which is funny.  We shopped around there and in a sports store I saw a man with a beard and 3 boys all wearing thobes!  We had a brief conversation in Arabic!  I just said hello how are you and stuff but it was awesome!  It made me kind of miss Saudi ahaha.  Elder Harris seemed incredibly impressed which was funny.  I hope more events happen like that again! 

Really time here is flying.  I cant believe its been another week.  There werent very many day to day events that I can distinguish to tell you but a lot of progression with the events from last week.  Which I guess Ruby told you some about?  Ruby first off is amazing, and yes it was me that added you but she wanted me to.  She has a facebook group that she made that is like Latter-day saint converts or something??  I knew that you'd love Ruby.  She is awesome and I completely intended on her telling you more about what we're doing!  I cant remember everything of course! 

Anyways, we do have a baptism set up for September.  His name is Sean and he is awesome!  We were just in Ilkeston last week and we went to a less active members house which I think I told you about in last weeks email.  Anyways we just talked about football really then we got to our flat and we had a text asking if we could meet with him again.  The first lesson we had he cooked us tea (dinner not actually tea of course) and he loved the lesson then we've gone back twice since and we go back today immediately after the emails!  He is awesome!  We haven't even taught him things like the word of wisdom yet and he's coming to us and telling us that he's stopped some things because he felt like he should.  He's a great guy.

Our ward is awesome, there aren't too many different accents really... I don't think so at least.  I don't know I haven't really paid attention.  

Other than teaching Sean we really haven't had much time to do much.  We did a lot of tracting and talking to people without too much success.  One of the days we went over to a Spanish members home to help him change his electricity provider then we took his son out tracting to help him learn English.  It was insane because I took him and Elder Harris went alone.  We were in sight of course but Andy (the kid) and I knocked on about 13 doors and not a single person answered.  

On Saturday we actually taught English at the church...  I wasn't too sure about that but it ended up being really good and we're doing it again next Saturday!  There are a good amount of Spanish members here.  

Now Elder Pauly as a young Rod Stewart is interesting.... I don't know about that but he does look like a teenager straight out of the 90's.  I actually joke a lot with him about that!  This is his last transfer so he's going home extremely soon.  

My bike is a great bike and its been working fine!  But somehow I've already popped the front tire, got it fixed and as I'm typing this I think there's another small hole in it.... I don't know what my issue is!  That's fine though it doesn't cost much at all to fix.  

I should get some mail on Wednesday because I'm going on exchanges with the Zone Leaders so that will be awesome!  I can't wait.  Any packages send Ill get on September 6th when I go to Birmingham.  Anyways I'm really glad that you are sending stuff!  I know Kelcy has sent me stuff too so that will all be awesome to get.

In finality you, mother, are failing miserably at your only job!  The Avett Brothers have announced their new album called maybe Magpies and Dandelions???  I don't know but its sad that I know that and you don't.... (:  

I like when you send me facebook comments, yes.

And about Mawmaw.  I'll definetely be praying for her.  Please keep me updated with that.  Tell her I love her and that I'm praying for her!

If I remember anything that I forgot to write about I'll send it next week.  Sorry for the rush.

Love you all,

-Elder Evan Pogue 

5th...

Thanks MUM, haha

This week has really been great.  It's extremely weird to look back to last Monday because it feels like it was way more than a week because of all the stuff we've done but I think of the amount of time I've been out here and I can't believe how fast it's gone by.  I really don't know what to think.  Anyways this week has been awesome.  I'm loving the mission so far.  Its awesome that Taylor Zachary is home!  I bet he's so happy to be back.  I can't imagine what it's like to come home after two years of this.  It seems like everyday runs together while you're on the mission.  

So I think it was Wednesday Elder Harris and I had a dodgey day planned in a dodgey city called Ilkeston.  Every time Elder Harris had been to Ilkeston everyone was mean and nobody would listen but we both really felt like we should go.  We were worried that the chavs (teenage kids who think they're all that) would mess with us.  Before we went to Ilkeston nothing was working out, like one of our potential investigators fell through and then lunch sucked anyways it wasn't a good day but we cycled to Ilkeston which is a really pretty cycle and we got there and had so much fun and success!  First we found a lady that we can do service for and so she's an awesome potential.  Then we went up and found some kids who were on these things called flying turtles that were little things you can ride down hills on and they go really fast so Elder Harris and I raced down a hill on them.  That was so much fun.  We got a pretty sick video of that.  Then later we went up the hill and knocked on a few doors and we placed a Book of Mormon to a nice guy there.  Then we went and found a really posh neighborhood, like there were really nice Bentleys and Audis parked outside every house and the first two doors we knocked on were really solid potentials and we gave both of them Books of Mormon.  By this time is was dinner time so we went to a Kebab shop but it was closed so we went to find another one.  Got Kebabs and this guy told us that there were benches at the top of the hill that we could sit on to eat so we went up there and while we were there we found this guy and we just talked to him for a long time.  He became an investigator.  Then we felt like we should go visit a member named Claire.  She had a mate over and after we left they texted us and asked if we could go teach him sometime.  So that was crazy awesome.  We expected that day in Ilkeston to be complete rubbish but it turned out has the most successful and fun day of the mission so far.  Oh yeah, we also saw some kids playing with an american football so that was cool we threw that around for a couple minutes. 

The next day we had interviews with President Rasmussen, so that was a pretty boring day because we were just at the Nottingham 1 chapel all day but to answer your question, Pres. Rasmussen is really nice and a great guy.  He's strict but not ridiculously at all.  He's a very great guy and he says to send you his love for all your love and support.  I like him a whole lot.  After the interviews we had tea (which here is dinner and dinner means lunch) at the bishops house.  So that was nice. 

I've not had to eat anything gross.  People here eat lots of curry but I've always not minded curry.  It confused me when you said black pudding because here pudding means dessert.  But anyways I don't know what black pudding is so no. 

So the next day we went to lunch with Reg and Kitty which get this, Elder Harris has a really really good friend in Orem named Kelsey, he writes her and all that.  Kelsey's great-uncle is Reg here in Eastwood.  Small world.  Anyways him and Kitty took us out and they are so nice.  It was funny they were getting us to watch Gunsmoke for a few minutes and he was talking about how much he loves westerns and stuff.  Anyways we ate at other members house after that.  I guess I'm saying that the member feed us a whole lot which is really awesome.  By the way Reg and Kitty aren't members. 

Yesterday was pretty great too, it was my second Sunday.  I love the ward.  Everyone is so incredibly nice.  Especially this lady named Ruby.  She was baptized just over a year ago and she is just amazing.  I love her so much.  Her faith is insane and she just really loves to have us over and talk to us and stuff.  We went to church and all that.  Then we went and had dinner at a family's house and had a great time.    We tracted after that on one house and met this  guy.  He was... interesting.  He was obsessed with the Osmonds and he asked all the right questions and stuff and he had a lot of the same beliefs and said he already had a BoM and had read some of it but we gave him another one and I'm really not sure if it was a solid potential or not.  Interesting guy.

Finally got to play CATAN!  It was so much fun!  I must admit that it wasn't quite the same as playing with Adam and Jordi and Andrew and all of them but it was really a blast. 

If there is post for me I'll get it this Wednesday but for the bigger packages or whatever I have to wait until I go to Birmingham in 2 weeks.  That's okay though. 

My vocabulary is already changing ahha!  Its just natural to use these English words now like rubbish, posh, proper, trousers, flat.  I don't know really! 

Glad to here everything's going great, and I hope this email was sufficient! 

Love you all!  -Elder Evan Pogue

4th Letter from England

Hey Everyone!

It's finally P-day!  This week has really been great but I guess I have to back up further than that because I never got a chance to tell you about my last week at the MTC.  So We went on that church history tour but that was kind of boring.  We saw places like where Elder Kimball and Fielding first stayed in in the 1830's and where President Hinckley stayed while serving his mission.  The Pageant was absolutely amazing.  The show was great and singing in it was such a good experience.  You could tell that the crowd loved it when we walked in and sang Called to Serve then Redeemer of Israel.  I was a little bummed because Elder Holland and I think Bednard were going to the Pageant but they went the day my group left...  So I think the foreign language speakers got a devotional from them.  

Okay so I guess you know that I am in Eastwood.  It is part of the Nottingham district I guess but we don't really ever go into Nottingham.  I love it here so far.  It hasn't rained once.  But maybe it'd be good to order me a rainjacket from the Amazon.UK thing?  I'll need one for sure.  It's a miracle I haven't needed it already.  Elder Harris is really awesome.  He's from Orem and he's just a great guy and a great missionary.  He's just been on his mission about 4 months so its crazy that he's already training me.  We get along really well.  There are two other Elders in Eastwood named Elders Pauly and Smith.  Pauly is german and he's super awesome and so is Smith. He's from England.  Elder Smith's grandparents are actually in the ward here so thats super crazy.  

  My first day here we had a lesson with an investigator that went really well.  Unfortunately he didn't work out.  So far we've just done a lot of finding.  Which means tracting and talking to people on the streets.  Its been going really well so far.  We live in a nice little flat and the other Elders live just like a 5 minute walk from our flat.  Today I am going to get a bike and a backpack.  The bag I have hurts my neck so bad and it makes me look like a Jehovah's Witness so that sucks.  (there are a lot of JW's around here)  President Rasmussen was quoted saying about backpacks 'I'd rather you look like a student than a Jehovah's Witness.'

  The members in our ward are so nice and they love the missionaries.  This week we have Dinner Appointments almost every day so we are well fed so far which is awesome.

The weather here has been pretty nice, I've only worn a jacket once so its not too cold yet.  But it will get cold soon im pretty sure. 

Its so cute that Piper and Rhett keep telling people that!  I love them.  I'm jealous that y'all all got to hang out together that week.  I hope you had butter cake for my birthday (:   We actually kind of celebrated my b-day.   There is an Elder in Derby who's birthday is the 7th so we had a District Meeting on the 8th and we had cake and they sang to us and stuff.  So that was really nice. 

There's been a couple awesome things happen so far I guess.

Miracle #1 of the mission- I have not missed a single day (besides fast sunday) of eating breakfast.  Crazy right? 

#2 There were sisters in Derby who had a french speaking investigator and the member who was translating for them moved out of the area and they had no idea what they were going to do.  So they just didn't tell anyone or anything but then when the transfers came there was a girl in my MTC group that spoke french and she was called to Derby with that sister!  So that's really awesome.

If I think of anything else to say than I'll write it.  I'm going to try to upload pictures now if I can... on a different email though. I really can't believe how fast these weeks are going.  It really is going to go by so fast. 

Hey here are some more things and hopefully pictures.  Just add these into the last email and make it sound good.  Sorry everything is so scattered its hard to remember everything and I don't have the thing where I wrote stuff down in with me.

I'm already using words that I wouldn't in the states like proper, holiday, toilet, dinner (meaning lunch), cheers, mate, flat, trousers.  So that's funny.  Maybe I'll have an accent by the time I come home. 

Elder Harris is 18 and his birthday is on the 29th of august.  He went to USU for a semester. 

I did meet Brother Rojas but he wasn't my teacher (Mr. Zack's missionary companion's son).  He's a really nice guy.  He said his dad told him to look for me.  We really just said hey and that's it.  I guess Elder Clement and I had the same MTC teacher.  I just know that from his blog.  Sister Bennie.  She was super awesome.  I had her and Brother Day.  They were super amazing teachers.  and I've learned so much already.

I receive mail every two weeks so that's that.  I don't guess I want to receive mail at my flat so just send it to me through the mission home.  I'll get that.  I'll write back whenever I can.  I got emails from some of my friends saying happy birthday and stuff like that so that was really awesome. 

Here are the pictures insha'allah.

Okay that's not working too great.  I'll try to send more next week.  I need to figure out a better way to do that.  But hopefully you got a few pictures.

Miss and love y'all so much.  -Elder Evan Pogue

Nottingham!

Parents,

We are so excited to be serving with your son.

He has been assigned to serve in the Eastwood area
of Nottingham with Elder Harris.

More pictures are available on our mission blog:
ebmission.blogspot.com

Warmly,

President and Sister Rasmussen

Looks Like He Made It...

I got these off the mission blog, http://ebmission.blogspot.com.  Elder Pogue with President Rasmussen and his wife and another one of the newest group of missionaries in the England, Birmingham mission!

3rd Letter from England

Hey!  I know it's only Monday and I have a few minutes and I WILL NOT be able to email Wednesday.  Wednesday is transfer day so I'll be up early and will be on my way to Birmingham!  I'm really excited for that!  I'll be able to email you on the mission p-day which I think will probably be Monday.  Sorry about that.  I got two Dear Elders today from Mom and one from Kelcy so that was awesome.  It'd been a while since I got anything so I was really wanting mail.  I got the amazon box on August 1st.  I opened it and THANK YOU MOM!  You're the best!  I haven't gotten a chance to play Catan yet but I'm so happy you got that for me.  The socks have been useful too.  Happy Birthday Dad and Ivy and Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad. Hope y'all are having fun with Piper and Rhett and Ivy over there.  I have a lot more to tell you but I've only been given five minutes today.  I'll have a lot more to say by Monday after several days of being in the field anyways.   Things like where I am and my companion and all that.  Sorry I still haven't been able to send pictures.  Maybe next week from Birmingham. If anything comes to the MTC after Wednesday they'll forward it over but just start sending stuff to the mission address.  I love y'all and miss y'all. 

 

Love,

Elder Evan Pogue

MTC Time Winding Down

August 3, 2013

Dear Brother and Sister Pogue,

Your son will be departing the England Missionary Training Centre on Wed. morning, August 7.  We want you to know how much we have enjoyed having him with us. 

Elder Pogue is a fine young man and we are grateful for the opportunity we have had to work with him on a daily basis.  He is well-prepared for his mission and he continues each day to grow spiritually.  He is developing good teaching skills and is excited about the work.  He is ready for full time service in the England Birmingham Mission.

We love this young man and are grateful to you for all you have done to prepare him for this wonderful time in his life.  Your love and continued support are important to his success.   Letters from home are always greatly anticipated and appreciated.  Please address all future mail to:

England Birmingham Mission

187 Penns Lane

West Midlands

Sutton Coldfield

England  B76 1JU

United Kingdom

May you and your family be blessed as he continues to serve our Heavenly Father.

Sincerely,

President and Sister Edwards

President and Sister Edwards

President and Sister Durkin