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