15th Letter from England (Eastwood)

Hey!

I was sure to read Megans email first! (Note:  His friend Meg get her mission call to Helsinki, Finland)  So she told me herself where she was going!  I'm so stoked for her!  I hope she read that story I shared a couple weeks ago about how hard that Finnish is (:  She's going to love it!

That's interesting about your Friday.  I wish I could have been there.  Like you I had a really, really good Sabbath but I'll tell you about that when its time for me to talk about Sunday! 

I knew Taylor would be laughing about my bike! Honestly, I was laughing a bit.  Elder Harris was more cross about it than I was! 

This is probably going to be the most boring, uninteresting email because I look back on the week and nothing too big really happened with us, but lots of little blessings. On Monday we just hung out.  We went to a less active couple's house for tea and had a great time.  They're the Ellis' (the people lending me their bike).  We had a ton of fun.  We're going back tonight actually.  They're awesome.

On Tuesday we had an amazing lesson with Amy.  Amy is so fun to teach.  She's been reading the Book of Mormon and asking us questions and is wanting to know more and all of that.  It's just so much fun to have an investigator that's so excited to learn more.  We taught her on her back porch which overlooks hills and stuff and it's really just a beautiful view.  Unfortunately we weren't able to meet with her sister Rachael this week but we will soon.  They're just so awesome. 

I'm not going to lie, I have no idea what we did Wednesday.  We just did regular work.  That May have been when we  taught our investigator Jason.  He's cool, we're just not too sure about how interested he is.  But he said he read the Book of Mormon and if he likes it he'll probably 'just read it again!' 

On Thursday we had district meeting!  I always love district meeting.  Elder Patton is our district leader and he really is such a great guy and awesome missionary.  I look up to him a lot.  After district meeting we had a dinner appointment with the Leach's.  Brother Leach is the funniest man I've ever met.  His humour is the dryest and quickest I've ever heard and he just always says the most comical things. 

Friday was a fun day.  Elder Harris had to go to Nottingham with Elder Akebrand so I was with Elder Taylor for a couple of hours and we went to Heanor to talk to people on the street. (GQ)  We got really lucky and got two pretty good potentials.  They seemed to be coming to us and asking us what we were doing.  It usually doesn't happen like that!  After Elder Harris got back we weekly planned and just sat around. We did some garden work for the Evan's family so that was good.

Friday night we got a text saying that Sister Wengert (from our district) was hit by a car!  That was extremely scary but she's perfectly fine.  She's awesome. 

Saturday was a fun day.  We went and did some more finding in Heanor then went to Luis' house.  He's Spanish and has an awesome family.  He taught Elder Harris how to make rice and we ate this amazing rice meal.  It was great, we then helped his son Andy write his talk for sacrament meeting because he doesn't speak too much English.  Guess what!  I'm totally picking up Spanish... Luis' wife, Rocio (I dont know how to spell it) asked me a question in Spanish and without thinking about it I said before is fine.  After Luis' we had to go straight to Ilkeston to Claire and Shaun and they had a huge meal for us too!  We were so stuffed by the end of that day! 

Yesterday was probably one of the best Sundays of my life.  It was very bitter sweet.  The spirit was so strong all day but it was also extremely sad.  It was so sad because Elder Harris is most likely leaving this week.  Transfers are Wednesday and we find out tonight what happens.  He's been in Eastwood for 7 months now, and it's practically unheard of that anyone would stay in an area for longer than that.  At church he and lots of members were crying saying goodbye to each other.  We then went to Bill Marina's house for dinner and had Paella and Lasagna and the pudding was three different types of cake and ice cream.  We then played a game and then everyone shared their testimony about when they first k
new the church was true.  The spirit was so strong in there.  After that Ruby asked Elder Harris to say what he'd miss the most about everyone.  He was hestitant but he did.  He said, I'm not going to talk about Elder Pogue or else I'd just lose it immediately.  He talked about everyone and we were all crying by the end of it.

Right now I want to tell you all about how awesome Elder Harris has been.  I know when I first came out on my mission I was talking to President in our first interview together.  This was when he was assigning companionships.  I told President I wanted the best he had and someone who loved the work and would work hard.  President gave me that and so much more.  I know this is way cheesy to write about him like this but he really has been a huge blessing to me.  Elder Harris and I have grown so close and we just laugh and have fun all the time.  We work really well together and we probably get along better than any set of missionaries ever in history of missionary work.  In our whole time together we have not gotten in a single argument or even had cross feelings towards each other.  I know he'll be a really great friend for the rest of my life.  There's a quote from the best two years and it's Elder Rogers looking at pictures of his companions and Elder Calhoun asks him about one of the pictures.  Elder Rogers says that that was his 'first companion and [his] favorite too.'  I would not be surprised at all if at the end of my mission I'll be saying that about Elder Harris.  I'm going to miss him like crazy.

Now watch the call tonight we will find out that he's actually staying... I wouldn't be complaining.

So overall its been a really great week and I'm excited and nervous for this coming week.  I'll probably have a new companion next time I email.  I love you all.

Love,

Elder Pogue