Music withdrawl

This week has been a good week. Nothing too interesting. We're still meeting some pretty interesting people on the street. People of all kinds. I think I'm starting to get music withdrawals. But at least I keep busy enough that It doesn't bother me too often. I think it's getting a bit colder here. Not too bad but the rain is what I don't like. We often get a rain that is like a mist. I't makes cold weather that much worse. But I'm glad it's not as cold as it is over there. I'm sorry to hear about Kaitlyn's wedding. I would really like to be there but I'm sure Britt would like to just as much. I'm not sure what she can do. I don't want her to wait too long. Thanks for letting me know about grandpa's birthday. I had a letter I was going to send them today so I'll have to add a happy birthday before I send it off. Good job with the missionary work. Remember: the missionaries are there to help the members do missionary work. Not the other way around. Otherwise we end up knocking. And knocking is very ineffective. Especially in England. The people here love their privacy. What are my favorite things about England? Well I've only really been in Croydon so it's hard to say. I like the old buildings and all the parks. We also see a lot of really cool cars every now and then. There are lots of restaurants here that look really good that I'd like to try but we don't have the time or the money to go to any of them. Well I'll just leave you now with some pictures before I run out of time. 244 is Elder Caruso.

Crazy Ninjas

Hello once again family!

I think I'll start with the question of what is happening over here lately.

A lot is happening as usual. This week has actually been a crazy week. Valentim has gone to Portugal. He'll be there for a week. Bruno and his family are doing well. Denis is getting into a lot of trouble. He gave us a scary referral that we visited a couple times. She's schizophrenic and bipolar. She has a gang of satanic ninjas after her and she wants us to help her find her son who was kidnapped by a pedophile. We've decided it's out of our depth and want to avoid visiting her because her partner is crazy alcoholic who told us he has died at least three times already. He's also satanic and has attempted murder from time to time. They're really kind people though.

Well I'm running out of time so I won't be able to answer all the questions. Did you get the DVD I sent you yet?

Good to hear you guys are doing good. Justin is crazy. I need to do better with my morning work-outs. Have you made any montages yet. Does he work out to the Rocky theme song now? Bruce Lee once said that he worked out to the James Bond theme song. Soon Justin will be doing one finger push ups. Nice to hear about the band concert. Queen medley. Good choice. I am so happy for Kaitlyn. I'm glad I'll be able to attend her wedding. Can't wait! And I can't wait to hear about Britt's mission call! You are all making me so proud!

Baptism

Hello again.

So I already sent pictures of Bruno and Elton's baptism to Mum and last Sunday was Graciela's baptism. She has hydrophobia and we didn't know about it. She didn't go completely under the first time so she had to do it again. She was so scared and didn't want to do it again but the second time went really smooth and she was fine. I will send a picture from her baptism. So I sent a letter and a Christmas card a wile ago. Did you get both of them? I also have the dvd ready to send you (haven't done that yet) and I think I'll send it today if I've got the time. The last couple of weeks have been really windy and rainy. But it's not freezing out. Not even below zero. If it weren't for the wind and the rain it would be quite nice. I've also got a picture of a house that is all decked out for Christmas with fake snow and everything. Have a happy new year and talk to you next week.

Good as always to hear from you guys. Not much going on this week. Just trying to keep working hard. There was a ward dinner on Saturday and all the missionary's in the ward were invited to sing. It was fun and all. I'm sending a picture from the dinner of our new member Bruno with our investigator Valentim (I have always miss spell't his name as "Valentine"). We are still working with Valentim and he's doing good but he needs to come to church on time and quit smoking. He wants to be baptized but we need to make sure he's ready. He's a really funny guy. Sounds like you're having a rough winter over there. I don't think I'll be seeing snow this year. I sent you the DVD last week. Let me know when you get it. 

Our First Paper Letter

Dear Family
So i wrote ya'll a letter a long time ago but i never finished it because I never had the time  so now I have to re-write it because things have changed since I wrote it and other things that i have included in the original letter are irrelevant. Wow that last sentence is long! So we are working with a man named Valentim right now. We met him on the street on the 26th of September. He was walking down the road and we tried to stop him but he said he was going to the shop so Elder Johnson asked him if he was coming back our way and he said yes. and we said we'll wait for you. Elder Johnson doesn't know why he said that; its not something you would normally ask someone in this situation. He cam back and we basically followed him into his home and sat down and he just talked and talked nonstop. He just ranted on and on the whole time about random stuff and didn't really let us talk. The second time we met at his house was very much the same. The third time we met started the same way and we thought we would get no where with him until he saw our Book of Mormon. He recognized it and remembered he met with missionaries back in Angola when he was young. Now he listens very well to our lessons and he has decided he wants to be baptized. We do not know when that will happen though because he is not in a hurry to do anything. We originally planned for him to be baptized on the 23rd of November but he wasn't ready by then. He need to come to church enough times before he can be baptized and he's only been once, and he was late. But he has a good excuse. He is currently taking heavy medication that makes him sleep all day. He's trying to get a different prescription or lower his dosage or something so we'll see if that works. He will eventually be baptized but he's the kind of guy who's never in a hurry to do anything.

Denis is a recent convert now. I'm sure i sent you pictures of his baptism. Before he decided to be baptized ha was far from being converted. He was a heavy drinker and smoker. On top of that he liked to argue. When we tried to teach him he would always dissagree with everything we told him. Finally we decided not to teach him anymore. We were going to watch the Joseph Smith movie with him and then drop him and stop teaching visiting him. So we went to his house one last time and watched the movie and when it was over we asked him "how did you like that?" to which he replied "I want to be baptized." From then on we taught all the lessons again to him and he listened and accepted everything and he got baptized on his 62nd birthday (the 17th of November). He even bore his testimony in the testimony meetings on both the fast Sunday before and the fast Sunday after his baptism. He also quit drinking and smoking. He also said he would give me one of his guitars (once he gets the strings on it). Well i'm running out of room on this paper and don't have enough to say to fill another page so I'll end here. Good buy and Merry Christmas!

Letter and Baptism

I sent a letter and then a Christmas card. Did you get both of them? Glad to hear you had a good Christmas. Did I interrupt you'r gift opening with my call? The baptism went well. Bruno and his son Elton were baptized last Saturday and the Mother is being baptized next Saturday. I'll send you a picture of the whole family at the baptism (the youngest one is only seven). There's also a picture of a wild fox. We see them in Croydon all the time. Happy new year! 

We did received his card and letter and we will add his letter another time for everyone to read.