Hey! I can not believe you guys are such stalkers, haha , yes I DO live at (an address)
in Stroud. How did you find that out? What missionaries did you stalk? I haven't really noticed it looking like Privet drive but I might just be used to that type of road. I can't wait to read and watch Harry Potter when I get home because it'll be so much easier to imagine. I think JK Rowling is actually from Yate, I'm going on exchange there on Tuesday. It's a part of our district. If you think that was nice looking, google earth the town of minchinhampton. That's in my proselyting area, and so is Cirencester. This area is insanely nice. It's very old and historical. We're in a part of England called the Cotswolds and tons of celebrities live here. I believe that Prince William lives in our area?? Elder Olivos and I are getting on great. He is a great missionary. I thought I told you in the last email that he's Peruvian but grew up in London. I think it's crazy that all of y'all are living at our house. I can't imagine what that's like. Are y'all enjoying it?
To answer the question about the movie, Grand Budapest Hotel, yes I knew about it and it drives me mad. I saw a poster for it on a bus a couple of months ago and just from the artwork of the poster I knew it was a wes anderson film. I've heard its really great and it's on my list for when I get home. Should be really good, I love Ralph Fiennes and all of the other people in it.
I don't think I need any more money. I did by a good bike, and I have money left over for shoes and a backpack and maybe even a suit. Things have been really great here in Stroud. I love cycling around and really feeling like i'm in an old english village. All of the buildings are made of stone and just looks really old. The Darracqs keep talking about a timeshare that you can get out here called Stouts Hill. They know all the good places to go and to see cool things. We're going with them again today to go sight seeing. I'm really excited for that. Last monday we saw a couple 'long-barrows' and a few beacons here in Stroud. There's also an exciting even coming up at the beginning of next transfer called the cheese-roll. You have to look up videos for that. It's crazy. Basically they roll cheese down a hill that's 60 degrees steep and people race it. We're not doing it but we'll go and watch! It's actually illegal because so many people get hurt every year.
This week has been quite good. Last Monday I emailed at the end of the day so you should know that we went and saw some sights for p-day. After that we went and taught our investigators J and A with a member called F we had a really good lesson with them. They are really cool people, I'll talk more about them later because we see them a lot.
Tuesday was a busy day. We went in the morning to see an investigator named S who doesn't want to be baptised. We went with a member named Peter. We had planned to drop her but we didn't. We will this time if she doesn't keep commitments. Then later that day we went with the Darracqs to see J and A. again. They are really hilarious and say absolutely inappropriate things all the time. It's such a good time every time we go over there. We taught A the stop smoking program and as far as I know, she's still doing a great job. Then we went with the Darracqs again to see a lady named B who has been investigating for ages and goes to church every week but doesn't want to get baptised. It drives us crazy! and finally after that we had a lesson with our investigator Ana who wants to be baptised and comes to church every week but has to get married to her partner first who isn't interested. All of our investigators are really really cool.
Wednesday we had zone meeting in Gloucester in the morning. It was a great meeting. The best part for me was when Elder A. Harris (not my trainer but the one from my group) talked about american football and how the line backer has to know everything he needs to do in less than a second. Even though there's an insane amount of confusion that can happen in the backfield. The way that they can know what to do is by watching the offensive line. He compared this to 2nd Nephi 32:3 where it says the words of christ will tell you all things that we need to do. No matter the confusion in our lives, we have that source to look to. We went to teach J and A again to follow up with the stop smoking program and help them out. We went to see B that night and had a powerful lesson with her. We were just at her doorstep too because we didn't have a member to go in with us. We taught Alma 32, one of my favorite lessons to teach to those who need it. The spirit was so strong. We identified it and she felt it. We then taught her about personal prayer where we all kneel down and offer a personal prayer. That invites the spirit like nothing else. After all of this, a lot of silence, and a lot of feeling the spirit, B still says she doesn't think she needs to be baptised. I don't understand! Elder Olivos and I were kneeling on her doorstep for probably about 30 minutes. Our knees were in so much pain after that. My testimony grew during that lesson. I just don't understand what we need to do to help her.
Thursday we had a pretty average day. We had a lot of lessons planned but a lot of them didn't work out, we brought a member named L. S. to meet Jamie and Angie, then we went to teach Angies mum, Margaret. We had a quick lesson with her and had an average rest of the day.
Friday we did our weekly planning quickly and went to eat lunch with A. We went to teach lessons and to do find people but not much happened on Friday. We did end up teaching A. though. Ah, something I forgot about. On Tuesday when we taught A, she had a question about why people say so many bad things about the church. A. has a wild 2 year old daughter named S. who had been running around and she even tore a picture out of the book of mormon and things like that. As soon as Ana asked that question Sophia opened the Book of Mormon and demanded that her mom read to her. Ana was like 'ugh, sophia wants me to read.' Ana asked . to point to one place. Sophia did and Ana read it out loud and it answered her question exactly. It was a good experience for her!
Saturday we weren't able to do too much. We went briefly to R's (Jamie and Angie's 1 year old) birthday party. We met a lot of their family there and had a good time but we had to go really quick to stake conference. We had a Priesthood Leadership meeting, then Saturday afternoon session.
Then yesterday morning the Darracqs picked us up and we had stake conference. It was a really good meeting. Our stake presidency is really good here. Ana came and it was nice to see all of the missionaries in the Zone. Also President and Sister Rasmussen. After the conference, a member from Stroud, Peter was ordained an Elder and it was great to watch that. We went with the Darracqs for dinner after the meetings then went to visit an elderly lady who can't make it to church named J. J was just full of energy and a really nice lady. She got so consumed in helping Elder Olivos with some things that she forgot all about her struggles. It was a really nice visit and she had made us loads of delicious desserts.
We are going to London this Thursday with the Darracqs so Elder Olivos can take care of his business. I am beyond excited!
I have loved Stroud so far. The ward is great and willing to teach with us, the investigators are great. The food is great here, the Darracqs are great, and just the city of Stroud and the Cotswolds are great.
I hope all of y'all are doing well (:
Love,
Elder Pogue
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