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