Letter 64

Hey! :D

 Things have been good!!  Loughborough is the place to be.  Leicester Zone is the best.  So last p-day we really just hung out with the Elders all day.  Elder Haynie is Elder Hunter's new companion and they're just really fun to hang out with.  After p-day we went and taught Alex and Ariel.  I really love spending time with them. and it was a pretty solid lesson.

Tuesday we had Mission Leadership Council MLC.  That's always one of the best parts of the month.  It's definitely one of my favourite things about being in leadership.  So we got a lift with the Nottingham Elders (Elder Matheus and Elder Debeikes).  We got to MLC and had an interview with President, then had the meeting.  It was really great to see everyone again, like Elder Harris as an AP, and Elder Steel, and some people from my MTC group.  President gave a training about genuinely speaking from the heart, and building relationships with people.  I felt like it'll be something I'll use for the rest of my life so that's really cool.  After MLC we spent quite a bit of time preparing for our zone meeting the next day.  One cool thing that President said was 'You KNOW that the Lord is in the details of your life because you have had experiences where you needed help, and he has helped you.'  It was really true when we thought about it.  It's so obvious the work that he does with us. 

Wednesday we had zone meeting in the morning so we caught the train out there.  We did a lot of training in zone meeting about what President had talked to us about. I felt like the meeting went well and it was fun to do.  After zone meeting we had to stay in Leicester all day because we had a meeting with the Stake President.  We hung out with Elder Nogueroles and Smith all that day.  Then the meeting with President Smith was really good.  He's such a great Stake President and is really involved in missionary work so that is a really great meeting to have.  So something really cool happened this night.  So we were pretty stressed because our flat was a tip, we forgot our phone at the flat and we had meetings all day, and flat inspection the next morning and we knew we wouldn't be in till late.  So mid day we asked the Elders to go and get our phone and just monitor it for a while until we could get it back just in case someone in the zone needed to get in touch with us while we were in Leicester.  So that night we went and met with the Elders at the train station at about 9 o'clock and got the phone and keys and headed to our flat ready to spend the whole night cleaning.  I opened the door and the whole flat was spotless.  Everything was very cleaned and organized.  The Elders had spent so much of their day cleaning because they knew we were having a busy and stressful day.  I was so thankful for that. They're awesome.

Thursday we had our flat inspection then headed out to hit the streets.  Talked to a few solid people then we had the Beasley's for a DA that night and had such good Spaghetti Bolognese.  Right after that we had ward coordination which was good as always. 

 Next day I went on exchange with Elder Bies and had a good time with him.  We did some finding, I ate a kebab. Then I conducted a baptismal interview for Aiden, the other Elder's investigator.  That went well. We then we taught a chinese girl named Monica for the first time.  She's way cool!  She gave me a new Chinese name.  It is pronounce Pwah-guh shong.  It means 'poguey-bear' ahaha.  Then we taught Alex and Ariel and had a good time.  

Saturday morning we woke up and went to play football on the Uni.  We had a good time playing for a couple of hours then it came time to exchange back before Aiden got baptised.     We got on the train and got to Leicester but as Elder Harris and I were exchanging back all the trains got cancelled because somebody trespassed!  We ended up missing Aiden's baptism.  We got there about 45 minutes after it started and congratulated him and then prepared for the 'after-party.'  Which was really just a huge fireside at some really awesome members house called the Leslie's.  We went over to the Leslie's and all hung out, had some food, and then Elder Harris and I had a spiritual thought, then we played conkers.  It was one of the greatest things of my mission really.  We just all had such a good time running around with the kids, talking to all the investigators, dancing around, singing, taking pictures, and playing games.  It went really well.  We were really buzzing for missionary work after that.  We talked to a guy named Steven on the way home who seems elect. 

Sunday was a pretty busy day.  We got up and headed to church which was really good.  We were kind of concerned that Alex and Ariel hadn't shown up but then they got there just at the end of sacrament meeting because their car ran out of petrol.  Right towards the end of church Michael B. showed up and started ranting and venting to us about how his mate is being maltreated.  He was really causing a massive scene at church.  One kid even came up to talk to us and he waved his arms in the air and yelled at him to back off because he was having a private conversation, then a little while later another kid comes up and Michael yelled, 'f***in hell!' and walked away.  All in the foyer! It was crazy.  We calmed him down quite a bit and then went to teach Anthony.  That lesson went well, we are working with him to keep praying and reading.  Right after Anthony we went to take a practice theory test for Elder Harris and I made some hot chocolate.  Isn't it crazy that it's already very cold outside these days?  Cold and wet!  We then went to teach that Steven guy.  Steven was really cool!  We taught him about the godhead and about prayer then we all said individual prayers together.  At the end Steven said 'I feel like I can fly, I really just feel fantastic!'  It was a really cool experience.   After that we headed over to the Elders flat so I could do call ins with all of the teams while Elder Harris and Haynie taught a guy named Michael that we have.  We started a nice fire in their fire place, drank hot chocolate and played the guitar for a while after.  It was a really cool night.

I'm excited for this next week, it should be really good!  Hopefully we'll see quite a bit of miracles.  I'm really glad to hear that all of you are doing well, and that everyone is safe and happy and healthy.  

PS: I did love conference, especially David Bednar, Jeffery Holland, and especially Lynn G Robbins, His was the most relate-able to me at this time.  I also like President Uchtdorf's Is it I? talk.  

For a Christmas package... is it almost Christmas already?!  Uhm, I really can't think of anything I NEED, or even things that I'd even want... I'll have to think about that more.

Uhm and yes YOU should definitely call the mission home very soon.  Very soon.  Just in case they're already looking for tickets and things like that.  You'll probably talk to a guy named Elder Gray who's such a legend.  It'll be funny to hear if you understand him really easily or not.  But yes, call the office.   

Can you believe I've been out for 14 months?  Can you believe I go home in less than 9?  I really wonder how much I've changed and things like that.  I think I'm definitely more assertive than I've ever been in the past.  We'll just have to wait and see what you think.  Time is flying though, before I know it, I'll be on an aeroplane, and frankly, that though really scares me.  It's going fast!

I hope you all have a great week! :D

Love,

Elder Pogue

Letter 63

Hey!  It's so crazy that you are just chilling in Sri Lanka right now!  I can't believe all those pictures of snakes and lizards and boars!  Sure you're freaking out all the time about there being so many snakes?  Sri Lanka looks like a really cool country though!  So this week has been pretty good.  I really feel like not too much has happened that would be interesting to say but I'll try to remember stuff.  (just a side note, the guy on the computer ahead of me is updating some type of profile and creating a forum that is titled 'The Banisher of Demons is looking for some female fun'.. and his profile says that he used to be a competitive swimmer, and kickboxer... and there is no way  that's true.  I can't believe what some people use library computers for! Poor guy... I feel bad for him. haha)

Last Monday we just did normal stuff for p-day.  Then that night we taught Felicity a lesson and the lesson was okay, but we found out that she'll be traveling for the next month and a half then when she gets home she'll basically be heading right back to china.  We had a dinner appointment with the Kears that night which is always good though (:

Tuesday morning we got a call telling us that we would have interviews with President Rasmussen on Thursday so we had to order subways and do all types of things to get ready for that so we spent a little bit of time working with that.  Most of the days this week has been spent trying to find new investigators.  On Tuesday we also taught some lessons, we taught our Nigerian investigator named Michael and our investigator Anthony. We felt like the lessons could be going better, but we'll see what happens.  We were called earlier that morning and a member wanted us to do some service for her friend.  We ended up doing that for a couple of hours then teaching her children to pray.

Wednesday the same lady wanted us to do some of the same service work again so we went over there and did that for a few hours.  That was alright then we did some finding afterwards.  I really don't remember what we did for the rest of Wednesday.  

Thursday we had our interviews all day.  We had to wake up early and get the train to Leicester and then just hung out at the chapel there all day.  My interview with President was really good, it was about 30 minutes of him telling me that I am the presiding priesthood authority for the missionaries in the Leicester Zone and he told me some of the things I need to make sure I'm doing.  It was a good interview.  That all went smoothly, then after interviews we had a DA with the Mattson's then we had our ward coordination meeting.  Somehow miraculously though we got 4 potentials that day even.  I think we talked to 6 people and 4 of them told us that they'd like to learn more.

Friday we had our weekly planning at the chapel and planned a lot about what we would do with the zone this transfer. We did a day of finding and taught a few lessons. 

Saturday was good, we were on exchange and played football in the morning. Then we went and taught Anthony again.  It was cold and rainy though unfortunately.  Then after that we went finding.  We watched conference that night which was really good.  Alex and Ariel came.  After conference we went to eat at the Cheng Do restaurant.  It was so funny, I pulled something out of the soup, looked at it and put it back.  Then I saw Alex eating it and I asked what it was, he said something in Chinese then translated it on his phone.  It was intestines!  

Sunday we spent the whole day at the chapel watching conference which was good as always.

I'm so sorry but you won't be getting any pictures today!  I only have 4 minutes left!  

I hope you had a good week and make it safely back from Sri Lanka!  Love you!

-Elder Pogue 

62nd Letter From England

Hey Everyone!  I've had a pretty interesting and great week! 

So I'll just go ahead and start with last p-day.  Last p-day we went to some abbey or something and just looked around with the district.  It was well fun, we took some funny videos and just had a good time hanging out together.  It was a nice place and we also ate kebabs.  We then had a dinner appointment with a family called the Leslie's.  They're one of my favorite families here so I enjoyed that. They have tons of chickens running around the back garden and has a room devoted to star wars toys.  After the Leslie's we went and saw our investigator Melanie.  It was a powerful lesson, I really just feel so much charity for her because every time we meet she expresses how much she desires to do what's right but because of her addiction she just can't, every time she tries, she fails.  Hopefully we'll help her. 

Tuesday morning I got to go on exchange with Elder Kerr and we had a great time.  I went down to Demontfort in Leicester and we just worked really hard.  We taught a really hippie girl named Ellie, that was cool.  Then met with some other people and did some good finding.  I found this keyboard music thing in their flat that we played with all night and had tons of fun.  It was a great exchange.  We exchanged back pretty early and came to our district meeting.  Elder Harris and Elder Bies talked to a girl named Felicity from China.  It was a good talk, and she said she'd meet us again but then that night they got a call from Ivy in China!  Ivy said that Felicity had messaged her and said that she met two Americans who will teach her how to pray.  Ivy said no way?  What are their names?  Felicity told Ivy then Ivy said, I'm a member of that church and you should listen to them.  The crazy part was that Ivy wasn't even great friends with her or anything, Felicity just had some prompting to tell Ivy in China about it.  It was great!

Wednesday we had a district meeting in the morning which was good.  Right after district meeting we went down to Leicester again to do a workover with the Westcotes Elders.  I went with Elder Pacler for only about an hour.  We didn't really have much success but it was fun.  We got back pretty late and saw Melanie again that night. 

Thursday morning we went over to Leicester again for a a district meeting and had a great district meeting.  I think my favorite part about being zone leader is just really knowing all the missionaries in the zone.  After that meeting though we had to drive to Peterborough for exchange.  I went with Elder Page.  He's such a great guy!  I loved it.  Elder Page actually when he was a freshman in high school was pitching 90 miles per hour and doing it amazingly accurately and had scouts coming to his baseball games, but then he developed tendinitis in his elbow and can't play anymore.  We had a great time and just did a lot of finding.  We met this hilariously prideful old man that kept saying how perfect he was and showing us all of his achievements, then we were walking down the street and some chavs started yelling at us and one of them threw a lighter at us... Chavs are hilarious.  I got to hear the best street musician I've ever heard though so that was great!  

Friday we exchanged back and went to see Alex for a little bit but then we exchanged again!  Elder Hunter has been sick so I went to stay with him so Elder McCray went with Elder Harris.  I was happy to have a little rest.  I just played guitar most of the time while he slept.  I got a text on Friday night though saying that Angie has been baptized!  I was so excited!  Elder Olivos baptized her in Cheltnum chapel.  I wish I could have gone but the mission rules are you can go if you're a one hour trip or less away.  I'm so happy she made it though!  

Saturday I was still with Elder Hunter and I called Angie in the morning and talked to her for a while.  It was great to hear from her and it sounds like her baptism went really well!  She was very very excited! Elder Harris and I went to teach Felicity and the lesson was amazing!  She is really excited for the gospel and is already feeling the spirit and even told us something about prayer that I didn't know until my mission!  About accounting during our prayers.  So that was great.  

Sunday was a great and relaxing day.  We had church and Felicity came, she loved it and even said she felt very proud to be there.  She said 'I want to join this church!'  It's such a miracle!  We had the primary program so that was great.  After church a lot of members from Melton Mowbury fed us at the church so that was really fun and then we stopped to say hey to Bob on the way home.  We then went to see Jill and Alex and headed home for our call ins.  

Something really funny happened this morning.... so I was telling Elder Harris about a little kid in the ward running around with a rubbish bin above his head saying put him in the garbage.  I was telling him this story and said, he was running around with a.. aaa... a... What is it called in America!?  Rubbish bin was all I could think of.  But Elder Harris had to think and after maybe 45 seconds he yelled trash can!  It was ridiculous that we genuinely could not remember the word trash can! 

Well, that was my week.  I hope you have had a great week!  Love y'all
-Elder Pogue

61st Letter from England

Hey everyone!  It's weird sometimes as I sit here I honestly can not remember what we did this week.  It was a good week and I'll try to remember some things!  

I feel bad that Dad broke his toe!  You should have listened to him ahaha, maybe it was revelation...  I was thinking about Chili's the other day and how much I'd love to go there.  I miss proper American food sometimes.  

I'll try to go through the week and tell you what we did.

Monday we had a pretty normal p-day, as I said I went to Leicester to take my theory test so that went well.  Then we just relaxed and emailed.  After p-day we went street contacting and talked to some Chinese people then we went to the flat and prepared for zone conference the next day.

Tuesday was great, and a long day.  We woke up and basically headed straight for zone conference.  It was good to see everyone and great to see President.  I was asked to conduct the meeting which was cool.  We had a lot to do at the conference.  We had to get all the Subway and had to help set up and everything.  It's weird not just showing up and having it all done for us.  We had to do some training on teaching the law of tithing. President always gives really good training.  The best part about these meetings is seeing all the missionaries though.  That basically lasted all day.  

Wednesday we had a pretty good day.  We went and saw Alex and Ariel, and Anthea and taught all of them.  We had a lot of time to find as well.  We had to go to Leicester in the evening and meet with the stake president about the missionary work in the stake.  It was a good meeting and we had a good time.  While we were there we booked a practical driving test for me on Saturday morning.  We had the opportunity to teach a lady named M. that is going through a ton of stuff.  She really really wants to be baptized but she is addicted to heroin.  Heroin is so popular here in England.  It's just insane.  Wednesday we also said goodbye to David who is now back in China.  That sucks.

Thursday we went on exchange with the Elders in Glenfield.  I went with Elder Magda and Elder Harris came to Loughborough with Elder Harris.  Confusing.  Elder Magda is hilarious.  He's from Hungary.  One thing he did made me laugh so hard.  He was cycling down a hill and he put his stomach on the bike seat and stretch his legs out like he was superman, then he started moving his legs like he was swimming.  It was hilarious, I was laughing so hard.  We had a good exchange and were able to teach a couple lessons to their investigators.  

We exchanged back Friday morning then went to teach a lesson to a guy named K. He's from Nigeria.  I don't think he's too interested.  After K. we went to the church and I drove around the parking lot for preparation for the driving test.  It's ridiculous because I've driven for so long and have never been a bad driver but still needed to get used to it again.  We filled up the baptismal font then had a dinner appointment with the Hardy's.  Brother Hardy is the most knowledgeable person about the gospel I've ever met.  He's a genius.  He was a CES institute teacher for 40 years and just retired.  Basically the whole dinner was him telling us interesting things about the scriptures.  Right after the DA we went to Ariel's baptism!  Elder Harris baptised her and I gave a talk.  It was such a great service.  The spirit was so strong.  It was great to have another baptism after so many months without!  Her husband Alex will be baptized soon, then hopefully Anthea!  

Saturday morning we went to help a recent convert named Michael move house then I went for my driving test.  I drove like a pro.  I don't think I've ever driven as good as I did for that test.  My examiners name was Dennis, he was so hard to talk to!  He was very cold and stoic about everything.  So basically, I failed my test.  I can't believe how strict they are here about driving!  Literally my mistakes were the tiniest things you could ever think of.  One of them was his fault even.  And the thing is, if you get a mistake it's an instant fail.  So for example, he told me to turn right but because of traffic I couldn't get into the correct lane, so I missed the turn.  That was two serious mistakes, instant failure.  Ahah It basically all just depends on who your examiner is if you pass or fail.  

The highlight of Saturday was something called hotpot.  We went to some Chinese friends house and had hot pot which is basically a dinner where we all sit around a table with boiling water with spices in it, and raw meat.  Then we gradually just put what we want in and a couple minutes later it's finished and ready to eat.  It's great!  It's just a really social dish because you keep talking while the food is cooking.  I don't understand how it cooks so fast though!  I loved it.  

Sunday was good, Ariel got confirmed and we had a great sacrament meeting.  The worst part of the whole week though, was after sacrament meeting we had to say bye to Ivy.  She's on her way back to China.  That really sucked.  After church we had a really funny dinner with a family called the Rasmussen's.  Brother Rasmussen was one of the funniest guys I've ever met.  After that we just had our call-ins.

So this week was good.  It's the worst saying goodbye to these Chinese people though!  I was feeling pretty sick with a cold a couple days of the week but am better now.  I'll retake my driving test very soon.  As soon as I can.  I can't believe this transfer is already almost over.  It's gone way too fast.  

Transfers are not this Wednesday but the next!  

Hope you all have a great week.

Love,

Elder Pogue

60th Letter from England

Hey!

How is everyone?   This week has been interesting...  up and down really.  We've had a lot of things come up that we had to take care of in the zone which took some time away from our own proselyting time.  I'll just start with the week though.

Monday was such a sick day, we spent all day with Barry in preparation for him going back to China )': .  But we had a great time and that night we were able to take Barry and another Chinese recent convert named David to get their patriarchal blessings.  I am so excited for them.  When they came out of the room from getting the blessings they were both just buzzin with the spirit.  They were so excited.  It was really a great experience for them, and it was cool for me to be able to see that.  I really believe that they, and especially Barry, will be the future leaders of the church in China.  Barry is one of my priesthood heroes already.

Tuesday was a great day as well because we had Mission Leadership Council where all the zone leaders, the Sister Training Leaders and the Assistants all go to Birmingham and have a meeting with President about the mission training plan and how we can improve the mission.  It was great to see some of my good mission friends like Elder Steel.  It was also really cool to just walk into the room and see tons of tanks sitting around the tables.  Elder Harris was pretty excited because he said one of the prayers and I guess that means he is dropping from Zone Leader this transfer.  We had a really good meeting about the Book of Mormon and how to use it in our work.  After the meeting Sister Rasmussen made us a massive dinner.  What she made was just unreal.  It was poppy seed chicken that was just perfect.  That was really cool.  After that meeting we drove back and Elder Harris and I prepared for our Zone Meeting that we had the next day.  Then we went and ate at a place called the flaming grill with Reece.  

Wednesday morning was a cool experience.  We woke up then drove to Leicester and prepared for our zone meeting.  We had a district leader council first then held a zone meeting.  It was a good experience to conduct zone meeting with Elder Harris.  Everyone seemed to really enjoy it.  We talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and did a couple little activities to express how we should use it.  The spirit was strong, especially when a few missionaries bore their testimony about the Book of Mormon.  That book is just the best thing in the world. 

 After Zone meeting we went over to Barry's and had a Chinese barbecue.  And had a great time.  We spent a lot of time throwing apples at the tree and playing guitar.  We had Alex, Ariel, Barry, Anthea, Ivy and David all over there and the other elders came a little later.  After the barbeque we all piled into a room and taught anthea a lesson.  The spirit was so strong as we were all in there testifying and take turns talking about the gospel.  After that was the worst part of the week.  I actually don't remember a single other time I cried out of sadness on my mission.  We said goodbye to Barry.   Everyone was crying and nobody wanted to leave.  I've only known him for 3 weeks but he really has made a profound influence in my life.  He's safely in China now.  We'll just have to travel to China sometime and visit him and Ivy and Barry and Anthea, and Alex and Arial and I'm sure there will be more soon (:  China is seriously on my top priority.  

Thursday we went on exchange with Elder Lee and Page.  I went to Peterborough with Elder Lee and it was good.  I was very impressed because Elder Lee literally talked to every single person there was to talk to.  He's a very diligent and very very obedient missionary. 

Friday morning I was still on exchange and we were able to see a little miracle.  We were near town center and some lady came running up to us saying Elders Elders!  She had been looking for the missionaries for about 6 months and couldn't find them.  But we were at the right place at the right time.  Friday night we exchanged back and talked about the exchange and went over to Ivy's for a bit.  Then did some weekly planning.

Saturday was a really interesting day as well.  A couple funny things happened.  So Boyd K Packers grandson is in the zone, which I think is just awesome.  He's such a great guy.  But anyways they asked us to come down to their area and help them because they thought they didn't know how to work on a University effectively so we went down there.  I walk in to their flat and see a mug on his desk with a picture of him and Boyd K just chilling there which was cool, then we got a call that an investigator from another team just had been missing for a day and needed our help to find him.  He's actually still missing, and the police are trying to find him.  Then Elder Harris asked Elder Packer what his middle name was and he said 'Boyd'.  I just thought that was so funny, because that's one thing that you don't just bring up all the time, because you know he probably doesn't like being singled out because of it. But it was funny.  We went on a little workover exchange and I worked with Elder Lindquist from Sweden.  We talked to some great people.  A couple of them were Chinese students and they were League of Legend professionals in China.  They were so cool.  Then, the we talked to this Asian looking girl from Brazil that was super interested so that was a good miracle. 

Sunday morning we of course went to church and had a good Sunday, then right after we were so tired and fasting that we took a nap for our lunch break. and right after that went over to Bob and Gillians for another Barbeque.  It was so nice, they actually printed all of us a picture of us standing on the patio.  They have one framed in their house.  That's just a huge testimony that what we did really means a lot to them that they'd print out a picture of us and frame it and display it in their house.  I love Bob and Gillian.  Sound as a pound!

This morning has been good, we traveled to Leicester to take my theory test again and I passed it with flying colours.  It wasn't even close to failing.  Just shows you how stupid the test is.  

But anyways, this week has been great, but slow with our missionary work, and full of ups and downs.  One thing that we talked about at Mission Leadership Council that I thought was pretty cool was the patterns of a prophet.  We went over only 1 Nephi 1 about Lehi.  What happens to Lehi is, he prays, then he receives a vision in which he sees heavenly beings.  Then they give him a book to read, he does.  Then he prophecies about what he reads, then people mock him and threaten his life.  We went over that and compared it to the life of Joseph Smith and talked about 1st, how the Book of Mormon is true, and second how Joseph Smith must have felt translating that and realizing that he was the Prophet and those things would happen to him.  

I hope you all have a great week!  Love you!

Elder Pogue

59th Letter from England (Loughborough)

Hey Everyone!  I'm still recovering from the Sheep guy, it may be a little too soon to mention that... ahaha.  I'm actually thankful for the 3000 pens.  They are very useful sometimes.  We can never say we don't have any pens because there are always about 3000 floating around somewhere.  

I'm basically for sure only serving with Elder Harris for 1 transfer but I'm just thankful that I get to at all.  So I think dad is right.  

Nigel is going to Oxford?  That's crazy!  It's really a beautiful area. we drove through it on our way back from London with the Darracqs a few transfers ago.  It's really close to Stroud actually.  

Sounds like y'all are doing great.

Last Monday was great, it was bank holiday Monday so the library was closed but we just went to Barry and Ivy's house and emailed there.  We literally spent all day at their house.  Ivy cooked all of the missionaries Chinese food and we just had a massive meal together.  They have an apple tree in the back garden and we always pick the apples and throw them at another tree, baseball practice.  Barry also taught us an amazing Chinese song on the guitar.  It has to be one of my favorite songs now.  We never left their house that day because after p-day ended we taught our investigator Alex at his house then we taught our investigators Frankie, Danny and Yang at his house.  We then went and taught our investigator Michael.  

Tuesday morning we woke up and went straight to Bob and Gillian's determined to finally finish the service work. We didn't quite finish but we nearly did.  Right after that we went on exchange.  I went to Leicester with a missionary named Elder Sibyeng from South Africa.  He actually goes home in a couple of weeks.  We had a good time, but didn't have too much success.  He's such a funny kid though. 

We exchanged back the next morning and had district meeting in Loughborough.  Then we had our district lunch which is always fun.  The sisters had to run off to a lesson though.  Really all of our days are typically filled with teaching Chinese investigators and Barry and ivy's house.  Really Barry and Ivy are the best fellowshippers and teachers.  There's another recent convert named David that is really just as good too.  Barry goes home to China this Thursday though and I really think I'll probably cry.  It'll be cool in like 20 years we'll be watching conference and we'll here him sustained as a general authority.  He will for sure be a future church leader in China.  

Thursday morning we went to Peterborough for their district meeting, we were going to go on exchange but we decided not to because we had too much going on.  It took ages to get there though and ages to get back.  It was a good meeting though and I got to see the Peterborough Cathedral.  Then when we got back we had a dinner appointment with a family called the Sandersons.  They're actually Claire Sanderson's cousins.  Right after the DA we had ward coordination meeting and that went great.  A man from Logan Utah randomly showed up and was buzzing for our coordination meeting.  He was over for business and just likes to go see the local church buildings, he was lucky we were there.  

Friday was a really fun and kind of funny day.  It was Elder Harris Birthday so we went to Ivy's in the morning and she made us some noodles for breakfast.  Noodles are in their culture for birthdays because they represent a long life.  It was delicious.   So we went to Derby for my theory test and I... failed!  Ahaha, It's such a stupid test.  So the multiple choice is really extremely easy, but then they have something called Hazard Perception which is the stupidest thing in the world.  Basically there are these really obvious hazards and you have to click when you see them.  That's so easy except you have to click exactly when it wants you to and if you don't you fail.  So the test is easy but nobody really knows what they want from you.  So many people fail it.  There was one Elder that failed 7 times.  We had a good time though.  We went to the Derby mall for lunch.  We had Kebabs at the same place we used to back in the Eastwood days.  It was really weird being back there and knowing where to go and seeing the familiar places.  It was kind of like we had never left.  I'll retake the test soon though.  After Derby we had just a little bit of time for District finding and we found a couple of potentials but then we had to shoot off to a lesson with Anthea.  We had a good lesson with her, hopefully she will be baptised this weekend with Ariel and hopefully Alex.  After that lesson we went to meet with a recent convert named Jill and she took us out to the Driving range for Elder Harris' birthday.  It was so fun, and made me really want to play golf a lot when I get home.  

Saturday we were supposed to have a baptism for Ariel but she had to shoot off to London on Sunday Morning so we decided to just wait for this Saturday and hopefully Alex and Anthea can join her.  We had a good day Saturday though because we did finish Bob's patio!  It was really great to be done!  After so much time especially.  After that, we taught Alex, Ariel, and Anthea and got fed by all of them!  I am loving the Chinese food.  My favorite on Saturday was a chicken curry and it had a hint of coconut taste in it.  

Sunday we had a great church service.  Both speakers did amazing and it was all focused around reading the Book of Mormon and how the scriptures are our compass.  It was a great Sunday then right after church we helped Barry and David get interviewed so they can have their patriarchal blessings.  I'm so excited for them to do that!  They are getting them tonight, before they leave on Thursday for China.  We had a DA at a family called the Young's then went to a really quiet wooded area and just read our scriptures for a while.  The spirit was really strong there and it was just really peaceful and nice.  Then we went to Bob and Gillian's for a BBQ with their neighbours and all the other missionaries in celebration of the patio being done and nice.  It was great!  Bob is just one of the greatest people I've ever met. 

After the BBQ we had to go in to do our call ins with the district leaders.  It's pretty boring but I really enjoy talking with the different teams in the zone and also it's great because our zone is just doing amazing.  

So this week has been pretty great and we have a lot of exciting plans for this next week.  

Also, I've had this weird infection or something on my big toe for like 2 weeks, it reminded me of Taylor on his mission, because he had the same thing.  I don't know why I thought about that.  I think it might be better now though.  Elder Harris is really converting me to DoTerra.  I put it on a blister I had on my thumb, and ulcer I had in my mouth and on my toe and they all seemed to miraculously heal.  

Hope y'all have a great week!  

Love,

Elder Pogue

58th letter....from Loughborough

Hey everyone!

This week has been amazing.  I'm loving every second of my mission right now.  It's really nice serving with Elder Harris again.  We're getting on just the same as we did before.  It's cool to see how much we've changed in actual missionary work though too.  I bet it's nice for him that I rely less on him.  I am in love with the Chinese culture.  We've been hanging out with tons of Chinese people.  

Last monday we just had a normal p-day.  We shopped around, ate a kebab, and then took a nap.  We ended up having to drive half way to the mission home because the Assistants needed to give us some supplies for one of the teams in our zone.  After that we went to teach Stacy.  I actually met Stacy while I was serving with Elder Steel because she really really loved him and chased him down in Eastwood.  After Stacy we went and taught Frankie, Dannie, and Yong.  Frankie and Dannie are really only interested in learning English but Yong is way interested.  

Tuesday morning we did the service for Bob, laying down the patio.  That's almost done and we are excited for that to be over soon.  It's just taking so much time out of our days. It's been fun, though. We just have to finish the edges now though.  After the service we went down to Evington for exchange.  Exchange is probably my favorite thing about being a zone leader already.  I went with Elder Kezele who is from my MTC group.  We had a great time and were able to find some really cool people.  

Wednesday we went to the Demontfort district's district meeting, and exchanged back.  When we got back we taught a lady named Gabriela which was a referral from Reece.  Reece has given the missionaries 14 referrals in one week.  That's just crazy.  We taught her and that went well.  Then we went finding and I talked to a Chinese guy that reminded me so much of Daniel L.  It was great.  I talked to him and said I was from America. (by the way,I've been working on saying a few phrases in Mandarin....)  When I said I was from America he made a funny face and in his chinese accent said 'ooooooooooh!  That is why I understand every word that you say!!!'  Elder Harris and I laughed so hard about that.  It was that guy's first day in the UK.  That night we made Spaghetti for Barry, Ivy, Alex and Ariel.  They all loved it and had never had it before.  Then we went and saw Michael B., another investigator.  It's so great to have so many people to teach and share the gospel with.

Thursday we had our own district meeting, and then we went on a little split.  I went with Elder Hunter because his recent convert from Gloucester was coming to visit him.  They took us to Pizza hut for a couple of hours and it was great to see how happy they all were to see each other.  After pizza hut we went to Bob's house and sang happy birthday to Gillian (bob's wife) and all had some cake.  Her candles were so funny, they said 21ish.  She thought that was funny.  We worked a little more on the patio then had to head of to ward coordination which was a great meeting.  We have a great ward mission leader here.  It's Brother Ford (Camerons mission president's son).

Friday I went on exchange with Elder McCray.  He is from Snowflake Arizona and wants to be the worlds strongest man.  He's massive.  He is serving here in Loughborough.  In high school he bench pressed 415 pounds and right after high school benched 435 lbs.  We went and taught 3 of their investigators and had really good lessons.  At 5.30 we went and played basketball for a couple of hours and met a few new people.  That's been really fun, but it makes me wish that I had stuck with it in high school because I could have been a lot better!  

Saturday... was the worse day of my life.  It was awful and hilarious.  I just don't even know how to put my experience into words.  Elder McCray had agreed to do some service for some guy that lives in the another ward but has a warehouse in our area.  So he said the service would take 6 hours and would be heavy lifting.  So, at 8 in the morning we get picked up in this van with 3 seats.  Elder McCray is massive so we barely fit in the seats, I was being squeezed up against a plastic bit and it was very uncomfortable.  Then we went to the warehouse and literally spent 7 hours shuffling paper around.  My job was to stack 3 papers then put them on a bigger sheet of paper, then he would roll up the paper and elder mccray would put it in a tube and close the tube. It was some sort of planner for sheep herders about how to take care of their sheep.  We were standing on concrete and a little slouched over the whole time.  The worse part was that this guy just could not stop talking about lambs!  I know far to much about lambs!  Like if 'a ewe is lambing, and the head comes out first it's very bad!  You actually have to cut off the head of the lamb and shove the rest of the body back up into the ewe.'  Elder McCray said he didn't see me smile a single time the whole time we were there and I didn't see him smile either.  We probably said about 20 words between the both of us because this man was talking so much.  Poor guy just has all these ideas that never sell.  Like a tool to feed a dog a pill.  When he was talking about that I was thinking that you just put the pill in a piece of cheese and the dog eats it!  Why do you need a tool?  Then, when we were finally done with the service, he just drove us to an obscure city and gave us a tour of the place, still talking about lambs.  And when we left, he gave us.... 3000 pens.  I'm serious.  He was like, well I'm sure you could use some pens, hand them out to the other missionaries.  So we now own 3000 pens that.  On the pen, it says something about... sheep.  I was terrified that night that I'd dream about lambs.  Elder McCray and I got back to their flat and just laid down and started busting out laughing at how ridiculous the day was.  Elder Harris and Hunter came over very curious about what had happened because we hadn't had service the whole day and as we told them, they were busting out laughing too at how ridiculous our time was.  I felt like I was in shock for the rest of the day.

Sunday we had a good day.  We went in the morning to walk with Ivy Barry, and a couple of investigators named Jessica and Amber to church.  After church we did some weekly planning then came to Ivy and Barry's for dinner.  They taught us a sick chinese song on the guitar.  It's a really cool song, and we're kind of obsessed with it.  Then Sunday night we had our call-ins with all of the district leaders.  Our zone this week did amazing.  We set a record for new investigators found, so we're very excited about that.  

I love it here in Loughborough.  The ward is great and the investigators are great.  I am booked to take my theory test this Friday and then my practical driving test probably in a couple of weeks.  Hopefully I'll do fine.  I haven't bought a suit yet because I haven't had time!  Just be patient!

I hope y'all are having a great week.

Love,

Elder Pogue