24th (Sheldon)

24th
Hey everyone!!

It really seems like there is nothing to tell any of you about because I just talked to (my family) on Skype on Wednesday.  But I'll go through the normal week as usual.  But first: to answer your questions. So we've been really reaching out to the ward and building relationships.  We've done a pretty good job and there are several people who I am getting quite a bit closer to.  Elder Chardon is in the other Sheldon team with a kid named Elder Peek.  My companions name is Elder Michael Hoffmann from Clinton Utah.  We get along fine, no fighting or anything like that. We're here to build up the ward and to really get them excited to do the work.   When Elder Hoffmann leaves I'll almost for sure stay here.  I know we're working on getting sisters here in Sheldon so Elder Chardon might leave.  Or just come with me.  Hopefully that will be the case.

Okay so this week.
Monday was not p-day so we just emailed really quick then went to try and do some work.  We had a potential from Yemen named Adam that we saw.  After that we did some other work around the area.  Then we decided to go caroling to members to try to build relationships.  That night we carolled to a family called the Maloneys and they invited us in for dinner.  Then the Matthews and we also saw a guy named President Abbott from the ward.  It was a great start to meeting all these people.

So Christmas eve is when we started getting a lot of work done.  We had district meeting in the morning in Solihull, then ate at subway.  After that Elder Hoffmann and I went caroling and were able to stop by 4 members houses.  All but one of them were able to let us in and the one who didn't only didn't because she was alone and that's against the rules.  We shared the Nephite Christmas Eve story from 3rd Nephi 1 and talked about how Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace (by the way, did y'all see the Christmas Devotional??  Elder Nelsons talk was amazing.)   I was getting excited for Christmas and to open all the presents!

So Christmas morning comes along and I wake up, take a shower and put my onesie on.  The first thing we did was open presents.  I had bought Elder Hoffman a box of Kraft Macoroni and Cheese, a delicacy for any foreign missionary.  I was shocked when I opened the things y'all sent me.  There was so much in there!  I love the Ghutra Ties the most I think.  It was weird seeing the Pez in the stocking!  I got kind of emotional ahah!  Then Kelcy sent me some icebreakers because I love those, and a picture in a frame of us (the one she posted on Facebook a couple weeks ago.)  That was nice.  That day we went to a family called the Camisani's.  They're from italy and we had italian starters, lasagna, then turkey and potatoes, then a cake!  It was a lot of food!  and extremely delicious.  We hung out with them.  Then of course we skyped home.  That was such a quick 40-50 minutes!  I'm glad to hear y'all are all doing well!  I can't believe the Zacharys are moving though!

Thursday was our P-Day and we went to Birmingham for boxing day.  Tons of sales.  (oh yeah, to answer your question, I didn't spend any of it I just took it out just in case)  I didn't end up buying anything but Elder Hoffmann bought some stuff for his family.  It was really hectic!  We went with Salin (our investigator) and he brought his friend named Tony who told us that he is interested in learning more about the gospel!  Such a huge blessing.  The other Elders also came, and brought a member Kenny Jones with them who I'll speak more about in a bit.  Some of the lines going into the stores were so incredibly long!  It was just daft.  Especially Next, and Hollister.

On Friday we had to Weekly plan then go and stop by a couple of less actives, neither of them were in.  We had a party to go to that night!  Kenny Jones's mission farewell!!!!  I'm so excited for him!  He's officially gone, he was set apart last night (sunday) and left at about 6 AM this morning to the Provo MTC.  He's going to be speaking Spanish and serving in the Texas McAllen (I think) mission.  He'll be a great missionary.  His farewell was fun, it was at the church and most members came.  We had some texmex food, sloppy joes and things like that.   We went on exchange that night so I was with Elder Chardon in our flat.

Saturday Elder Chardon and I wake up, and study.  We then went to visit a couple of members and just talked to everyone on the way.  We ended up getting about 6 potentials mostly with solid return appointments!  That's pretty good compared to how we've been doing.  I had a great time on exchange.  We exchanged back late that night and Elder Hoffmann and I didn't end up getting back to our flat until 10:30!  If you're in later than that you have to call president.

Sunday morning we got up and went to church.  Went to a joint sunday school, Priesthood Relief Society class.  It was by the bishopric on Hastening The Work of Salvation.  that's really good.  I'm excited for this new year.  It was Kenny's farewell talks that day, and so he talked, then his mom talked, then bishop talked.  We sang a special musical number in between and by we I mean us Elders and a few women.  I don't know why they keep wanting us to sing!  We got in after church and ate.  Then went to visit some more members and less actives.  It's been a pretty good week so far.

I'm getting a cold which sucks but its alright.  Just sinus' and all of that.  It was hard not to be with all of y'all this Christmas season but also very good being here.  I'm growing every day.  It's amazing the knowledge of the gospel and of the scriptures I've gained.

I can't believe that Piper is 4!!!  That's insane!

What are your plans for new years eve, I'm so grateful that nobody is going to try to convince me to go to a ridiculous stake dance and end up succeeding because I'd realize I had nothing better to do.  Ahaha, we have to be in our flat by 6 on New Years Eve...

Send me that package with the Tonys!!  (bold??)  and whatever else it was!  I'm dying without it.

I love and miss you all!

Love,
-Elder Evan Pogue  

23rd Letter from England (Sheldon)

23rd
Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Reading your email was so hard this week!  I can't imagine all of you in Louisiana without me... but that's okay.  The other day at church Elder Coppin (a senior, public relations missionary) said something like 'looking forward to Christmas gumbo??'  and he just laughed at the face I made.  He could tell it really hit a spot.  I wish I had time or money (or knew how) to make some!  How did Taylor and Mitchell do fishing??  I guess I'll talk to all of you about this on WEDNESDAY WHOOOO!  So today is technically not P-Day our P-day this week is going to be on the 26th of December, boxing day.  We probably won't email then though because we're emailing now and we want to go to Birmingham to get in on all the cheap sales, especially because Elder Hoffmann is going home soon and needs to buy souvenirs.

So I guess I'll go through the week as normal, even though this week has been very very uneventful.  Last Monday we were at the Stilgers house to email.  After that we got together with Elder Peek and Elder Chardon (the other Sheldon Elders) and we tried to go to a Seik temple but we couldn't go in because we needed a reservation.  We'll do that some other time.  That night Elder Hoffmann and I did our weekly planning because we didn't have an opportunity before then.

On Tuesday we got with Elder Peek and Chardon again to go over a list of less actives in the area and plan to meet them all.  Elder Hoffmann and I were going through our area book and found a lady with very little information except for the fact that her husband is a member and she wants to be baptised so she can be sealed to her husband.  We tried to contact her but we haven't found her in yet.  Tuesday I got our white board and drew a nice tree on it and put my presents under it.  Its not quite the same as having a real tree but it's better than nothing!

I'm sorry this week is so boring.  On Wednesday we went to Zone Meeting in Harborne.  It was a good meeting.  My new zone leaders are named Elder Kulow and Elder Parr.  They're really nice.  That meeting lasted a really long time though  we barely got in on time to go to our ward coordination meeting.  Elder and Sister Morris (senior missionaries) gave us some caramel popcorn that is extremely good.  It's nice getting ready for Christmas!

Thursday morning I was feeling sick so Sister Rasmussen told us to stay in the flat until I felt better.  It sucks being in the flat so we left as soon as we could really.  It just feels like so uch time is being wasted.  We tried again to contact that lady that wants to be sealed to her husband.  We also have been going around and trying to find members who are on the record that have kids that never got baptized.  That night we had a lesson with our investigator, Salin.   We watched the biography of President Monson with him and talked about the prophets.  Have you seen that documentary?  Its dead good.  I think its called On The Lords Errand.

Friday we had our weekly planning session again... the most boring time.  Our appointment that night was cancelled too so that sucks.  We have this potential family and I really want to teach them because they seem so nice!

Saturday was just like all of the rest of the days.  A lot of finding, going to try to see some members and less actives.  We really have had no success.  I've been studying this letter though that Elder Steel gave me from a missionary in the 80s.  It was cool as I was reading the part where he had the hardest time on his mission and he mentions that he was in a small town in the suburbs of Birmingham named Spark Hill.  That's really cool because Spark Hill is part of my area now.  Its nice to read another missionary's experience here.

Sunday church was good. A lot of members gave us food and a few presents!  That was nice.  After Church we got flogged by this guy from Yemen named Adam.  We were late though so it was more our fault.  After that we went and had lunch.  Then at around 4 we went to a methodist church service where they were singing Christmas hymns and stuff!  I really enjoyed that.  We met a lot of nice people and we were able to share a little bit of our beliefs without being disrespectful.  Only if they asked (because we were guests in their church).  We spoke with the reverand and he offered us some cordial because he knew we didn't drink tea or coffee.  It was really nice and they had a really good choir.

It's been raining like crazy here.  I'm so glad i bought those rain trousers a few weeks back!  I just really want it to snow already!  It's been well cold enough.  And also very wet.  Just not snowy yet.

So I guess the primary purpose of my emails today were supposed to set up skype times... so we are going to skype at 5 oclock our time.  So that should be about 11 for you i think???  Be logged in before that also though just in case.  I don't know which account I'll call from.  maybe mine maybe theirs.  Just if you get a call then tell me.  WAIT!  What's your skype name?!?!!  If I don't know it I'll have to call from mine but tell me what it is just in case!

I love you!
-Elder Pogue

22nd Letter from England (Sheldon area)

Hey everyone!  So I have a lot to talk about but the problem is I don't have enough time!  All of the library computers in the Birmingham area are crashed....  We're at a members house using two iPads to email so it's a little hard to type.  I guess I'll just start off at the beginning of the week as usual.  That seems like ages ago!
So on Monday after emailing ElderSteel and I went to Derby after emailing.  We just wanted to do some shopping and get out of Eastwood.  That night was 'dodge night'. Where we find out about transfers and all of that.  So as you know I'm in a place called Sheldon which is literally in Birmingham.  My companions name is Elder Hoffmann.  He's from Utah.  I'm actually killing him this transfer so I was scared that he was already 'dead' which means he's too trunky to want to work.  I'll talk more about us later. ("killing him" means his time is up and is heading home!). Not the case, though!

So Tuesday was my packing day.  That morning we went so I could have a last Eats n Treats breakfast. It was so sad telling Claire and Rachael that I was leaving. Amy wasn't there yet but I told her on the phone and she hung up on me. It was really upsetting. Anyways I ate my bacon and egg cobs and had to go pack some more. I packed and packed and packed and packed a little more. I still managed to forget my TONYS!  You should send me some (:  Tuesday night we had ward coordination so that was hard saying bye to Ruby.  She has done so much for me. She's the best. Also other members like Bill Marinas (who said that I'd be back). And Peter Morrison said some really nice things. Alan Stinson said that Gemma was going to be gutted. She had asked if I could be in the confirmation circle when she got the Holy Ghost on Sunday.  She just turned 8.  That night we had young single adult family home evening where we ate pizza, made cake and played Jenga. I had to say bye to Amy, Rachael, Claire and Martin which sucked. Hopefully Rachael will get baptised soon.  She knows she needs and wants to. Claire is going on a mission later this year so that will be exciting.

On Wednesday we had transfers so Elder Steel and I woke up early and got a train to the mission home. I basically just stayed there and hung out all day. It was nice seeing all my missionary friends like Elder Harris and other people from my MTC group. Elder Hoffmann and I made it to Sheldon pretty late at night after a lot of stressful train rides with two things of luggage and a bike. Walking through Birmingham town center was nice though. It's a lot different than Eastwood so far.

Thursday morning we went and taught our only investigator. His name is Salin and he's from India. That's cool!  Sheldon is very multi cultural.  We did some finding and went to see a lot of potentials we didn't have too much success but we had fun.  We've been working hard and having a good time. He hasn't had a baptism in like 18 months so it's my goal to send him home with one.

Friday was a really good day!  We had the mission Christmas conference in Harborne.  It was great having the whole mission together. Singing hymns with all 260+ missionaries was powerful. We had a good dinner and a good devotional by President and Sister Rasmussen. President gave us a temple recommend holder with pictures of us from our trip to Gadfield Elm chapel so that's really cool. Maybe that's why I could never find one that I liked. Remember?  Again it was really great to hang out with all my mission friends and to see how they're doing.  I got 3 packages.  I only opened one because it didn't have a name or anything.  It's a bunch of hand warmers so I'm assuming that's from you?  I'm glad I openned it before Christmas because they're handy! <--- get it?  Handy....  Anyways I'm saving the rest for Christmas.

Saturday morning we went "white board finding". We wrote on a whiteboard 'what does Christmas mean to you?'  Quite a few people stopped. We got a couple solid potentials. One of them was really great. His name is Martin so hopefully you'll hear more of him later.  Saturday night we had the Sheldon ward Christmas party. That was fun and it was nice to meet some ward members. We ate food and sang christmas songs and things like that.

Sunday was good too. Sheldon ward has sacrament meeting last which I don't like much.  I met a lot of people but now it's a struggle to remember their names.  The ward is also a lot smaller.

So it's been good so far!  I've spoken to a couple of people in Arabic!  There are more Arabs/Indian here than English people is what it seems like!  It turns out my mission call was to Pakistan and not England.  Just a small mix up.  (;  that's what it seems like at least. I'm loving it so far though! A huge change of pace from Eastwood. At the same time though I miss Eastwood so much.  My relationships with the members there was amazing.

So to answer at least a couple of your questions.  On Christmas we Skype. I don't know the exact details yet though.  Sorry.  I'll let you know. I don't have a car.  There are only two areas in the mission with cars unless you're a zone leader or ap.  I do like the area and the new companion.  My flat is small. Very small. It has a nice bath tub and a fake fire place though so that's amazing. Also carpet floors.  It's been nice and warm so that's a plus.

Hope you're all doing great. I love and miss you all!  I hope you're having a great Christmas season.

Love,

Elder Evan Pogue

PS typing that much on an iPad kills!

21st

Hey everyone!

Okay so I guess I emailed last Tuesday, so you know we had Zone P-Day and all of 

I'll start on Tuesday, we had a crazy day booked.  After we emailed, we went to the Hole in the Wall Carvery with Peter Morrison.  We always love that place, but it's impossible to eat for days after.  We're always so stuffed when we leave.Later that day we had another big meal with the Rawson's which was awesome.  After the Rawsons we had our ward coordination meeting and the first Young Single Adult, Family Home Evening in the Eastwood ward!  It was a lot of fun, we played Charades, and pictionary.  Only Amy showed up other than Claire and Martin, and us but hopefully it will grow.

On Wednesday morning we had the motivation class again.  Then we went over the baptismal interview questions with Amy.  We didn't really get too much done on Wednesday because of lack of time.  We headed down to Ilkeston and met this bloke named Jeff from Texas!  I heard him say y'all and made me jump a little.  It was exciting to meet an American and especially one from around home.  We talked to him about American Football and stuff then got a return appointment.

Thursday was an exciting day!  We spent a lot of the morning at the church for District meeting, then we were going through the baptismal clothes looking for clothing for Amy to wear.  Then at 4 we had President Alick (second counselor to President Rasmussen) come to do the baptismal interview with Amy!  He came out of the interview saying she was definetely ready and he was surprised at how much she knew!  He said we were doing a great job and to keep it up!  That was so exciting!  So for the stop smoking program we promise a victory party if they succeed.  Amy succeeded and all she wanted was to play a few games of pool!  So we bought some cokes and played a few games of pool and had a great time!  The pool in England is smaller than American pool!  I was better than I thought I was, I never lost a game!  That night we had ward council and scheduled the Baptism for Saturday at half two!

Friday we had a lot of work to do for the baptism, we had to make programs, clean the font, get snacks, call to invite people, etc.  It's just a lot of work!  We spent a good amount of time on Friday doing that stuff but still weren't able to finish.  We had a dinner with Claire B. and Shaun that night so we went there, and had fish.  It was good. We missed our bus coming back so we were stuck in Ilkeston until 8.  We got to our flat just in time. 

Saturday!  Saturday was such a good day.  I'll never forget it.  We went to the Church as soon as we finished studies, to finish the programs, and cleaning the font.  There was a primary Christmas party there so there were a lot of kids running around.  Elder Steel and I got free happy meals out of it though. :P  Did you know that in England instead of cookies and milk, they leave things called mince pies for Santa?  We tried one and they're gross!  They aren't too terrible but I would much rather some cookies!  Anyways, we finished our work just in time for the baptism, I changed into 'the whites' and the service started!  Sister Eldredge gave the first talk on the Holy Ghost and it went really well!  She really invited the spirit to stay for the rest of the meeting.  Claire gave the second talk on Enduring to the End.  It was really sweet because she got emotional she was so excited for Amy.  She had made a 'candy gram' for her about how the Holy Ghost 'wispa's in your ear.  But now that I write that I realize that Americans don't know what Wispa's are!  They're delicious Cadbury chocolate bars.  Then right after that we had the Baptismal ordinance.  The spirit was so strong, and one memory I'll always have was when Amy came out of the water, they closed the curtain and Claire was jumping up and down on the side of the font yelling 'She's Perfect!  She's Perfect!  She's Perfect!  She's Perfect!'  Those words were so powerful, especially knowing how sincere she was because you could tell she just couldn't hold back her excitement.  It's amazing the transformation Amy has made over these past few weeks and months.  She's come such a long way.  That night her mom had a birthday party and someone asked her (who didn't know about the baptism or anything) 'How different do you feel now than this time last year?'  Amy responded smiling, 'You don't even want to know.'   I just thought that was funny!

On Sunday we gave Amy the gift of the Holy Ghost and confirmed her a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  We were all jumping up and down and saying, she's a member she's a member!  It really has been so fun teaching her, and watching her transform from someone who had no interest in learning about what we had to say, to being a little interested, to being completely converted.  After church Elder Steel and I just did some regular tracting.  On Sunday night though I played such a good prank on Elder Steel!  We have a CD player, radio in our flat and we had never used the remote.  I was pretty sure that Elder Steel didn't know there was a remote.  So I concealed it and skipped the song, and acted all shocked.  Then I kept doing it and Elder Steel took out the CD and cleaned it and put it back in and was getting a little frustrated.  When he put the CD back in I just started changing everything!  The volume, the songs, turned the whole thing off and on, just made it look like it had a life of his own and he started freaking out!  At one point he yelled, 'If that thing starts playing music, I'm leaving!!!!'  I waited a minute or so then pressed play.  He really thought something weird was happening in our flat!  I just couldn't hold in my laughter anymore.  It had been five or more minutes of Elder Steel running around freaking out.  It was so funny. 

Okay so that was this past week.  I've got to say, it's been great.  So transfers are Wednesday, and we find out tonight what happens.  I don't want to leave Eastwood, but we'll see.  I really have no idea what's going to happen.  I just know I want to do whatever I need to.  Things have been going really well here.

I'll end this email with a spiritual thought, I've been studying Captain Moroni a bit. (John Bytheway helps a lot with this) There is a point where Moroni is fortifying their cities so the Lamanites, their enemies, can't destroy them.  In doing this he builds ditches, then he builds, mounds of dirt, then he puts logs up to strengthen the mounds of dirt, then he puts spikes on the logs, then he builds towers, then finally he puts people in the towers.  The questions that arise from this is, what are we doing to protect ourselves from the enemies?  How are we fortifying our strongholds?  One thing that can be drawn from what Captain Moroni does, is pertaining to the towers and the people in them.  The people are in the towers to be able to see far off.  To warn the cities of enemies that are approaching.  They see more than the rest of the people.  We sustain our Prophets and Apostles as Prophets, SEERS and revelators.  the word seer, literally means See-er.  One who see's.  I can't count the amount of times I've said, 'I don't really see whats wrong with that though.'  John Bytheway would say, you're right, you don't see.  But there are people that do.  Those people are our prophet, and apostles.  Follow their guidance. 

I love and miss you all so much!

-Elder Evan Pogue

20th Letter

Hey everyone!!

I can't believe you're watching Breaking Bad.... ahahah it's such a good show!  But it's also terrible.  I'm glad to hear your Thanksgiving was good!  But I bet it wasn't as good as mine! (:

Sorry this email is a day late, we had zone p day yesterday which means we didn't have time to email.  That's good though because now I have more to talk about.  This week has been very good to say the least.  Last monday after emailing we went to Derby to buy some stuff for Christmas but didn't end up buying anything. 

So the week started off pretty slow and Tuesday we really didn't have anything either.  We did some work in Kirk Hallam and found a few good people.  We had a dinner that night at the Rigbys and had a great time there.  Ward Coordination meeting happens every Tuesday night and we ended up being there until almost 9.  It was the Eastwood Christmas light switch on that night so we stopped by Eats and Treats to see how it was.  They seemed to all have a great time. 

On Wednesday morning we had Zone Meeting which was really good.  The spirit was very strong and it was really motivating.  As a mission we're doing this Come Unto Christ month thing where every missionary chooses a couple of things to work on to come closer to Christ and as a challenge we've been 'invited' to find, teach, and baptize someone in the month of December as a Christmas gift to them, and the Lord.  I'm excited to see the miracles this Christmas season.  I can't believe it's already December!  Bill and Nancy took us to Hole in the Wall so that was nice.  That night we went on a walk with Ruby and did some tracting.  That was a good experience.

Thursday was such a good day. One I'll never forget.  We had a district meeting that morning which went really well.  After that we went to the Heanor area to do some work, and around 5 started walking to Eats and Treats for our Dinner Appointment where we were having 'lasagna.'  We were about 5 minutes late and they called and demanded we run to the cafe!  We diligently obeyed.  When we walked in they had a really fancy table set up with assigned seats and fancy plates and cups, and a big table with foil covering all of the food.  They pulled off the foil and yelled Happy Thanksgiving!  They had made a full, proper, American Thanksgiving meal!  They had to have worked for a couple of days to do it!  They talked to both Elder Steel and my mom to find out what our favorite Thanksgiving foods were and what the traditions are.  It was incredible, with Turkey, rolls, potatoes, corn, yams, EVERYTHING!  And topped it all off with pumpkin pie!   Claire and Amy then read a short message from each of our mom's about how thankful they are for us.  We both teared up.  It was so special that they would do that for us, and that's a night I'll never forget.  We had to leave a little earlier than we wanted though because we were going home teaching with a member from our ward.  I'm so thankful they did that for us.

Friday was another pretty good day, we were STUFFED from the night before!  We had an appointment with a guy named Steve but he flogged us ):  that sucked, but we were able to go and find some people around that area.  Also, I went into a charity shop and bought 2 suits for 5 pounds each!  The lady working there was extremely inappropriate but hilarious.  I was taking off my jumper to try on a jacket and she was like 'Oooh!  We're going to get a show!'  Then as we were paying for the suits she asked me 'You didn't try on any of the dresses while you were upstairs did you??'  to that the other lady said 'Oh!  Don't be cheeky!'  Then the crazy one said 'You'll be fetching ducks off water in those suits!'  We were all laughing, this lady was probably in her 70s!  I wasn't sure what fetching ducks off water meant, but supposedly it means that I'm handsome and I'll be getting all the girls.   

Saturday was a great day because we went to Loughborough!  Elder Steel's investigator Darren got baptized!  Elder Steel baptized him too so that was amazing!  It was a great baptismal service and we were both so excited for that!  That took up most of the day, we went to Heanor that night and tried to do some finding with little success.

Church on Sunday was good, Ruby taught the lesson on the gift of the holy ghost.  I shared the story about me getting trapped by the dresser for some reason... She did a great job with the lesson.  After church we went to the Birch's (which is Claire Sanderson's family) and ate a soup thing made up of the things from thanksgiving!  It was really good!  After that we did some 'service' by setting up and decorating their Christmas tree while listening to Christmas music!  It was great day!  I just feel like there's so many people here that are helping us have the same experiences and memories that we'd have at home.  After that we went to visit an unactive member named Shelley, she's so nice.  She's not really interested in the church but we're planting seeds and she seems to like having us around so we'll see.

On Monday we had zone p day, which is why I'm emailing on Tuesday.  It was a lot of fun!  We played Frisbee, American football, football, basketball, ate pizza and just hung out with the zone.  Its always fun to see all of the missionaries from the zone and see how they're doing.  That night was also great because Shelley texted us and reminded us of the Heanor Christmas Light Switch On.  So in England, the towns set up Christmas lights and a tree through the main parts of town and they have a big event when they switch them on.  We decided to head up there and see Shelley.  There ended up being hundreds of people there!  It was a huge event and we had no idea!  They had a band there playing songs, and some small rides and food booths.  We ate cheese burgers and chips from a booth.  Then at half 7 there was a really amazing fire work show.  The fireworks weren't the biggest I've ever seen but we were so close, and they didn't fly too high.  They also had a lot of them going off at once.  And to add to it, they were going off right in front of a Church of England so the fire works would light up the old church.  It was extremely beautiful and one of the best fire works shows i've seen.  I'm glad we did that. 

So that's been my week as far as events go.  I haven't even said the best part though,  A. has now been EIGHT DAYS without smoking and is being interviewed on Thursday and baptized on Saturday!!!  I'm so excited!  She asked me to baptize her and Elder Steel to give her the gift of the Holy Ghost.  I knew that she would be able to do it.  Thank you all for your prayers.  Keep praying for her this week of course.  Hopefully R. will follow soon after. 
Elder Pogue