#53

Hello Everyone!
This week unfortunately has been quite uneventful.  I'll tell you why in a bit.  Things have been good though.   I'm jealous that y'all get to go to Vegas and spend all that time together.  That should be loads of fun. Then going to the Grand Canyon, make sure dad doesn't forget the Camera like he did that time at Hoover Dam, he was so gutted, remember?
You talked to Raveena?  That's so cool, I was actually thinking of her the other day.  Hopefully I hear from her.  I'd love that, see how she's doing.  I still need to write a lot of people back... I'm terrible at that.  There's just so little time.
So this week,
Monday was average, we just did some shopping and hung around  then that evening went to Jamie and Angies.  They're still doing well.  and of course we still love going over there.  I can't believe how big little JayCee has grown since I've been here in Stroud.  I don't think I'll be here much longer though.  Just a couple more weeks, we'll have to wait and see.
Tuesday morning we had to catch up on last weeks weekly planning so we did that but Elder Chugg started feeling really sick.  We were supposed to go with the Darracqs at night to teach Ana but unfortunately we couldn't.  They had a good lesson regardless.
Wednesday was much like Tuesday, we just basically did nothing all day because Elder Chugg was sick all day.  I was fine though because it gave me plenty of time to prepare for my District Meeting and also a talk I'm giving next Sunday (I spoke last month and now this month).  That evening we both were dying for some fresh air so we walked to a store to try to help Ana with her bike.
Thursday morning we got to go to Gloucester, Elder Chugg was still quite sick but feeling better.  At 9.30 we had our District Meeting that I think went well.  We had a great discussion about commitments.  Then we got to have interviews with President.  The interviews were good.  I always enjoy talking to President and Sister Rasmussen.  I can really feel their love every time we have a meeting.  We had a dinner that night and then still kept it very slow, to recover from the sickness.
Friday was another slow day but we got weekly planning done and were happy to do that.  We also got to have a dinner with the Coles.  They're a really great family who help us out a lot.  and that night had a really great lesson with Ana.  We talked to her about the Prophet and are trying to help her understand their importance better.  Really the Prophet has been the theme of the entire week.  We've also been trying to teach Jamie and Angie the importance of  the Prophet and how much we love President Monson.
Saturday morning Elder Chugg was feeling better except there was a major thunder storm.  Too bad for us to even go out at first, when usually we just go and proselyte through it.  After a while it calmed down a bit and we went and knocked on doors.  We were able to talk with quite a few people.  They've all met missionaries before and think they know it all though.  That's how it seems.  Saturday night we went with Peter to see Jamie and Angie.  Angie was asleep but we had a good talk with Jamie.  He even made us some Tuna Pasta.  He's way cool.
Sunday we had ward conference, and I was really hoping Jamie and Angie would come but Angie had been sick.  It was good though, we heard from the Stake presidency and recieved a lot of good training.  This Sunday we didn't have a dinner with the Darracqs so we went straight to Stonehouse to see why they weren't able to make it to church.  I had call-ins that night to get the key indicator numbers from the Yate team and call in to the Zone Leaders.
Today we've had a good P-day but I'll tell you about that next week...
I big theme of this week was President Monson as the Prophet.  I really think it's amazing that we have a Prophet just like Moses and Abraham were Prophets in the time of the Bible.  It's so great that President Monson recieves guidance from God about the whole entire world.  I was trying to add a video but I can't, but it's called President Monson: special witness or something.
I hope you all have a great week, and safe travels.
Love you!
-Elder Pogue

#52

Hello everyone!

I'm am extremely jealous that you got to go to a surprise fireside done by David Archuleta.  I'm sure y'all were all so excited.  To answer your question, about my birthday.  The only thing that I really want is a new suit!  So maybe just money?  I still haven't bought a suit except from the charity shop.  And I gave one of the suits I brought with me to Elder T.  I really can't think of things that I particularly want though.  You can just surprise me if you want.  

This week has been exciting for a couple reasons!  I'll go through the week.

On Mondays lately we haven't really been doing anything.  Just going to charity shops and things like that.  Elder Olivos and I had been playing pool but we haven't done that since he left.  We ate at a chippy though and just relaxed and cleaned a little.  Normal day. 

Tuesday morning I got a call from Elder Gray in the mission office, and this is kind of ironic from what we emailed about last week.  Elder Gray told me that President has asked that I be one of the ones to get my drivers license.  I'm so excited for that!  That doesn't necessarily mean anything about transfers but just to prepare me if he wants to call me to a driving area.  We spent all day Tuesday in a place called Nailsworth; a really cool little city.  We ended up getting absolutely soaked.  It just tipped rain and even some hail.  We had a good time though and were able to talk to a few people who may or may not be interested, we'll see.  We did go into a charity shop to escape the heavy rain though, and I found a Motab CD so that was lucky.  We walked up a huge hill to a place called Minchinhampton but nobody there was interested.  We talk to so many people but so few actually listen to us.  Sad isn't it?  They have no idea what they're passing up. 

Wednesday we had zone meeting in the morning and I had to go early for a District Leadership Council.  The meetings were good, I'm excited to be more involved in some of the work.  Discussing how we can improve the zone and our areas and things like that.  Right after Zone Meeting we went to Stonehouse to see Jamie and Angie quickly then went to ward choir at night.  The Darracqs bought us fish and chips that night.  They're the best.

Thursday morning we went around to some of the shops in Stroud to try to find some cheap birthday gifts for a couple of people.  Then we headed off to another place we hadn't worked in before called Bussage.  Bussage was up an insane hill and took ages to get there, but we had quite a bit of success there!  We went and talked to some of the people former missionaries contacted and we met this one lady named Bernadette.  She had actually met with missionaries before in Acocks Green of all places!  My last area!  We talked a little about that and she said we could come back so we'll be planning a time with her, she just has to wait a couple of weeks.  We also talked to a few other formers and none of them were quite as exciting but still potential investigators.  We got to cycle down the longest hill though, it was great.  We probably were going about 35 miles per hour.  I had to break to prevent from passing the cars ahead of us.  We'll definitely go there again!  

Friday I had a meeting in Birmingham with President for all the District Leaders so Elder Chugg stayed in Gloucester for the day and I went in a car with a few other District Leaders to Birmingham, we had a great time.  One thing that's funny is that here in England a 2 hour drive is considered a long drive.  The meeting with President was probably the best one I've had.  He talked a lot about leading like Christ lead, and being true representatives of Him at all times.  Even when it means doing things we don't want to like correcting misconduct and things like that, which I definitely don't look forward to.  Friday night we taught Ana with the Darracqs.  She's going through a lot of hard decisions but is doing great and she'll make it for sure.  

Saturday we went to help Ana in the morning with her bike and then we headed off to Stonehouse.  We went to buy Angie some flowers for her birthday and went and visited them for a while.  That was fun, I love being in their house.  They always say that they don't want us to knock because we're like family and things like that.  You'll have to meet them someday.  We went briefly to see Beverly after that and she's doing well.  She hadn't been at church in a couple of weeks but we committed her to come and she did.  

Sunday was a good day as well.  Elder Chugg spoke in church and did a great job.  It was his birthday so I made him breakfast.  Sister Darracq made him a big birthday dinner for after church and a red velvet cake.  He had a good birthday.  We went to visit Jacqui W. again, turns out she had broken her arm this week.  She just will never relax and try to heal though!  She's like in her 80's and always has to be doing something!  I actually don't know quite how old she is though.  

In the off times of the week I've been studying a lot for the theory test for my license.  I will send in my provisional application today and get that before 3 weeks so then I'll be able to take that test.  I'll get an instructor just for a couple sessions then take a practical test.  Most people actually fail the theory test or the practical but I really don't want to.  It's expensive for the mission.  

Love and miss you all,
Elder Evan Pogue

Letter #51

Hey,

 

So, Mom,  I'm sure you're going crazy to know anything about transfers.  Not much is changed, I'm still here in Stroud with Elder Chugg.  I was called to be district leader though.  I'm excited to be in Stroud for another transfer really, things are about to pick up with all of our investigators I'm sure.  This week has been pretty good. 

 

About my drivers liscense, is expires on my birthday but that doesn't even matter because I can't use it after July 25th.  You can only use an American license up to a year after being in the country.  I can get a UK license if I get call to be a zone leader, so we'll just have to see.  Don't worry about getting it updated or anything though. 

 

The weather has been brilliant, really just perfect.  Not too much rain surprisingly. 

 

So this week has been good, Last Monday we obviously got a call about transfers, so that was exciting.  One guy we talked to on Monday night kept saying that we are indoctrinated and decieved which really bugs me because they must think we're idiots or something.  We get that a lot though.  I remember Taylor said something about the attitude of some of the UK people being a bit colder than Americans and that true for a lot of people.  But it's really just different, not necessarily bad.

 

Tuesday we got to do a little bit of service, just to move some things around a garden and clean up.  On Tuesday night we got to go see Jamie and Angie with Brother McArthur.  They are doing way good.  We also gave them a Children's Book of Mormon and they think it's so funny how intense some of it is, like Nephi cutting of Laban's head and Ammon chopping off arms, different things like that. I guess it's not the ideal bedtime story for toddlers. 

 

Remember that Italian lady named Carmella?  Wednesday we went to see her, and also some potential investigators from past missionaries.  We talked to a lady named Amy and set an appointment for her on Friday.  We went to see Carmella and she has continued to read the Book of Mormon.  That's so exciting but, I'll mention her later.  We had dinner with the Turners that night.  Joe is preparing to go on a mission and should get his call in the next couple of weeks.  We met up with Jamie in Stroud.  He sold his playstation and bought us McDonalds, how cool is he?  That was just the first of his good deeds of the week too. 

 

Thursday we had to clean in the morning for a flat inspection from the letting agency, and then we decided to do our weekly planning, because our Friday was booked.  So we did that... boring day.

 

Friday was good, so we went to see Tracy with Peter and talked about the blessings of the gospel.  We shared Mosiah 2:41 about the commandments making us happy.  And talked about how we recieve revelation step by step and not instantly all at once.  Peter is the man, he worked until 4 in the morning then came teaching with us for 11.  He's such a great guy.  That afternoon we met up with Joe Turner to see Carmella and Amy, we knocked on Carmella's door and she asked if we could stop coming around... her priest had spoken to her. (more on that later)  That really sucked but we went to see Amy and she let us in.  We taught her the restoration and set a return appointment for this Friday.  We're not sure how actually interested she is but it's exciting that we got to finally teach the restoration to someone!  New investigators are dead hard to find.  That night we saw Ana with the Darracqs, she's doing fine.  She's a bit nervous about moving into a new flat with just her and Sophia, and having to work, and being alone and things like that.  She's moving forward with faith though and that's really great.  We're excited for her.  She gets to start moving in in about 3 weeks.  So for our 4th of July we just taught lessons.  We sang some American songs though and hung up a little flag for the day though.  It was good.  It's weird to think though that it was a year ago that I went to see Emily Warren in Galveston.

 

Saturday we went to Stonehouse all day.  We saw Jamie and Angie again and taught them a quick lesson.  Jamie gave us some pizza, good deed of the week number 2.  Then went around Stonehouse, tried to see Beverly but she wasn't in.  We tracted on quite a few doors.  One guy answered 'hello, if you're from the Mormons then goodbye!' and shut the door.  We get that about every day.  The problem is that everyone has heard about us.  A little knowledge is worse than no knowledge.  We had a BBQ at Jamie and Angie's where we met some of their friends.  That was well fun.  Jamie cooked us some burgers and sausages, good deed of the week number 3.  What a man.  It was fun to do something like that around the 4th of July.  We got to our flat last night and noticed that the musician guy that lives across the road was moving tons of boxes to his car and I asked him out the window if he was moving, he said yeah so we went to help him pack up his boxes.  He's such a cool guy, his name is James.  We talked to him as we were bringing the boxes out.  Turns out missionaries had helped him move in in February.  He said that having someone to talk to and to help him really made his night.  I love doing service like that where you can really feel how thankful the people are. 

 

Sunday only Ana came to church but she had a good time.  The quote of the week is by Chris Curren, he's so funny.  He said, ''live your life in such a way that when you wake up, the devil says 'oh crap, he's awake.''  Elder Chugg said something really cool in his testimony he talked about when we teach people we get the opportunity to see the joy of the gospel in others.  We get to watch them change and we get first hand to really see the fruits of the gospel.  I love being about to do that.  The gospel really is the best thing we could ever have.  After church we celebrated Chris' birthday at the Darracqs so of course we had delicious food and cake.  We were able to go give Jacqui Webb the sacrament after that then go back to the flat for our weekly call ins.

 

This transfer we have some great goals.  I realize that we haven't been finding too many people or anything like that but the people we do work with are great.  This is a really hard mission but we get to do things all the time to improve peoples lives.  I really wish more people would just give us the initial chance.  If they would just hear the first message of the restoration, they'd listen to all of it.  I love this work though. 

 I forgot to add this bit:   Right after church the bishop beckoned us to his office and said 'I just got a visit from a local police officer.'  That line scared me a bit!  I guess what happened was Carmella (the old Italian woman) had spoken to her kids about us coming and they notified the police!  It was kind of ridiculous but nothing bad.  So I guess we're lucky we weren't arrested!  Needless to say, we won't be visiting her again.

Love,

Elder Pogue