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