Monday, September 23, 2013

10th Letter (Eastwood)

Hey everyone!
 
Sad, but I knew Chelsea would be dead by now... (our dog died)
 
Yes, I talked to Janet, she's awesome!  She loved Hot Springs.  And Shaun is way awesome!  He was actually sick this week but Claire and Shaun's daughter Louise still came to church.  I find it very hard to believe that you haven't napped... I'll remain skeptical no matter what you say.  That's awesome that y'all are going to the gym everyday.  Elder Harris and I are going to start doing crossfit in the morning.  Hopefully that will show some good results. Ruby is great.  She really does do so much for us!  She's awesome. 
 
So yes, as you know Elder Harris and I are still in Eastwood!  We're both extremely excited about that.  Elder Harris will pretty much for sure leave next transfer, though.  I think I'll probably stay in Eastwood.  I'd really like to train but it would be rare to train on my 3rd transfer.  We'll see though.  So Elder Pauly is back in Germany, that's so weird to think about.  It was weird saying bye to him and quite sad really.  He seemed nervous to go home but I'm sure he'll get there and have a great time.  Elder Smith is also gone, he went to Nottingham so he's not too far.  We got Sisters in Eastwood!!  I'm really happy about that, they are going to do great here.  There names are Sister Stapley and Sister Eldredge.  Stapley is from Arizona and Eldredge is from Spanish Fork.  They're both really solid missionaries. Sister Eldredge is brand new out of the MTC. 
 
This week has been the slowest of my mission.  It was weird because every day there was a conflict.  So last Monday we went to Nottingham to bring Claire and Shaun to Chinese because they quit smoking.  That was great.  Then that night was what we call 'dodge night' and thats were we get the call about transfers and who's going and staying.  That was an extremely exciting night.  It was sad to hear that a couple people from our district are transferred away though. 
 
Then we literally spent the whole day Tuesday at the other Elders' flat.  We said goodbye to them at about noon and we scrubbed and cleaned the place for hours.  It was really a mess.  We didn't have time to do anything else that day.
 
Then Wednesday morning we went to buy a new toilet seat and installed it in the other flat.  The group of elders two transfers ago broke it and nobody ever fixed it.  So Elder Harris and I decided it'd be nice to do for the Sisters.  That didn't take too long.  We headed off on our bikes that day for Ilkeston and as we were on the path there guess what... I got ANOTHER flat tire.  I had just gotten it fixed two days ago!  There's supposedly some type of liquid you can put in your tire that fills up holes when you get them.  I'll have to look for that.  Anyways we locked up our bikes near Shaun's house and did some finding and followed up with a couple of people we'd met before.  Nothing really came of any of it yet though. 
 
The next day we had district meeting.  This was nice because we got to meet our new district leader and the new sister in Derby.  They're both really awesome.  We all went to McDonalds after. We did some finding in Heanor on the way back.  We found this literally crazy guy who kept asking us tons of questions.  'Where are you from?' 'What's the most prosperous place in your country', 'Where would you least like to live?' 'What do you feel about Ronald Reagan?' 'What do you feel about George Bush?' 'What do you feel about George Bush, Sr?' It went on for like 20 minutes of constant questions!  Then we tried to incorperate the gospel and suggested that we could come by some other time and talk to him more and he turned and RAN AWAY!  Literally ran away.  Elder Harris yelled WAIT! ARE YOU LEAVING!?!  and he yelled back YEAH!  It was really bizarre because nobody had ever just turned and ran. ha  We had a Dinner Appointment that night and we did some service for a lady in our ward named Sue. She was moving into a smaller flat so we carried her furniture up and stuff.  It was a miracle that some of it got up the stairs.  That took a lot longer than expected.
 
On Friday we helped Jay move.  We were there all morning just making runs from his old house to his new place and carrying it inside.  That was really nice and they're about done with all the moving.  We had a Dinner Appointment that night at the Rigby's.  They are awesome.  They practically run EFY in England.  Our dinner appointments are really for us to kind of spiritually uplift the members but with the Rigby, every time we go there we are the ones uplifted!  I love them.  That night we had an activity planned at the church.  We're going to have games and stuff every Friday.  We played some games, the Wii and ping pong.  It was fun.  Elder Harris is supposedly the Orem Ping Pong Champion....
 
On Saturday we taught English classes as we usually do.  That went really well.  I think it's good for the Spanish members and they seem to really like it.  After that we got a bus to Ilkeston and were going to fix my bike... this is where the bike story gets worse.  We walk up to the bikes, unlock them and then notice that I don't have a front wheel!  At all!  Somebody had pinched my front wheel!  Ahh it was so aggrevating.  Shaun walked with us down to a store called Halfords and now my bike is there getting a new wheel and a tire fixed.  We talked to several people that day and hopefully something good will come out of that.  We ate kebabs that night and I was officially 'Kebabtized' (:  Ahaha we are really having a great time together. 
 
So yesterday we went to church.  It was really a good Sunday.  All the classes were based around the Priesthood, actually really this whole week has been.  I've realized how lucky I've been to have the priesthood in our home my whole life.  It's something I guess I've always taken for granted.  We went to Janet Stinsons after that and had a delicious Sunday Dinner!  We talked a lot about her mission to Arkansas and just really had a great time.  She's an extremely funny lady. 
 
Today we are going to Derby and going to shop at Primark :D  I'm really excited.  I love Derby.  Elder Harris has been feeling quite sick but he claims that he's okay today.  I can tell he still doesn't feel to great.  Hopefully he gets better and I don't get what he had. 
 
So I was thinking about Alma 32:27 which says:
 
27 But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than adesire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words.
 
I was thinking about how when we teach people and even when we learn things, they don't always come real easily to us.  We gain a testimony slowly and as we follow the teachings of the Book of Mormon.  I think that it's so interesting that it says experiment on my words and how that implies that we have to maybe not be sure what the outcome of our actions will be, but we have to exercise that faith and do these actions and these steps that are taught in the Book of Mormon and by doing this we will eventually get to a point where we do have a strong belief and testimony in this gospel.  I guess that's my 'spiritual thought' for this week.  If there's something anyone struggles with testimony wise, just read the Book of Mormon and pray about it, follow the teachings of it and the testimony will come. 
 
I love and miss all of you.
-Elder Evan Pogue

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