Picture tells the letter

Hello it's me again. Good to hear from you as usual even though you couldn't think of much to say. Don't worry I understand how that feels more than anyone. I think most of my letter will be told in pictures (I actually have some this week). I am very exited to hear about where Sister Fisher is going. I kind of wish I didn't guess Australia now that I know so many other people guessed it. That would be a cool place to go though.

So this week actually went by pretty fast compared to recent weeks. However I can't really remember allot of what happened this week. A lot of knocking happened, and a lot of stopping by less active member's homes who were not in. All in all a lot of walking. And some pretty bad weather for walking as well. Steph came to church again and this time brought Martin and they both enjoyed it. Richard loves church! Martin thought it was long but he's right so I can't argue. Steph seems to have more concerns now but they're easy ones to resolve and she shows that she trusts us by asking right away. That just shows that she's actually investigating and not just going with it. We gave them a baptismal date but it's not very solid. She said she wants to pray about it. We'll see how committed they all are when we next see them. They still have some word of wisdom problems but we'll see how we can help. Elder Brown and I want to try to get the ward to have more firesides and activities for members to invite friends to. We'll see how that goes.

I saw this picture in a members house and I thought one of the apostles looked like Christian Bale. Also I thought this ad in a train was unintentionally funny...

Just a cool trailer I saw last week and one of the posh houses in our area. There are a lot of rich people here.

We were knocking on a less active members door and this bird just flew up and landed in front of us. Elder Brown touched it but it flew away when he tried to pet it.

Best Guess

Thank you for the pictures of your trip to the black hills. All the pictures came through. I love the pictures you sent me. It looks like you had lots of fun. And leaned lots. I'd like to see Mt. Rushmore one day. I've heard that it doesn't look as big in real life as it does in pictures. I've heard of the Crazy Horse one as well. I wonder why it's taking so long for them to finish. Didn't the head get complete a long time ago?

I like the Thairs family. Brother Thairs is the ward mission leader and he's a huge movie fan. He's always quoting movies. He's pretty funny and so are his kids. They love the missionaries.

As for the guess on where Britt is going on her mission, I think Sister Fisher will go to Australia. Elder Brown thinks she will go to Germany.

As for the question that you asked about visiting any historical sights yet. We haven't really visited any historical sites over here. There are of coarse many old churches around that we come across but we haven't really looked for any historical sites to visit on a p-day.

Things here are going pretty good. We've been working with the people I told you about last week that Elder Brown found on exchange. They are really nice people. Martin and Steph are a married couple and Richard is a friend of theirs who has come every time we visited. He is 66 years old and the others i think are in their 40s. Mandy is another friend of theirs and she's been there for a couple teaches. Steph seems to be really accepting it well but Martin is a bit skeptical. It's not that he doesn't believe it or doesn't want to believe it; he just has lots of questions. That's not a bad thing; he has lots of really good questions and we keep telling him that it's good to have questions but we have to remind him that we can't teach him everything at once. Richard and Steph came to church and they both really enjoyed it. Martin didn't want to come because he didn't think he had any nice enough cloths. But Steph is trying to talk him into coming and they are feeding us this week. They're super nice!

My companion is from Kalispell Montana. His closest temple is the Cardston Temple.

So here are some pictures. The first one is of our district (with the zone leaders) and the second one is an older picture of the district before Elder Moulin left. I think he should be home now!

Finding the lost sheep

Hello everyone!

So this week has been another slow week but it's been a better week. We found some nice people to teach. Last Monday we were looking for a former investigator and we knocked on their door to find out that they don't live there any more. The person that answered seemed interested though. He was busy but he told us to come back later that night and we did and shared a lesson with him. His name is Adam. He's a nice guy who is recently married, has a little boy, and is training to be a baptist preacher. He had a lot of questions but we have another appointment with him later today and we'll teach the plan of salvation which may answer most of his questions. We got some other investigators that Elder Brown met while we were on a companion exchange. We had another visit with them on Saturday and they seemed really nice. They all read at least something from the Book of Mormon when we saw them and we have two appointments with them next week.

We also knocked on a inactive members house on Saturday. His name is Richard. His house was a little hard to find. He's a really nice guy (in his 30s). He invited us in and offered us some orange squash and we got to know him. He said he hasn't been to church in over 14 years and hasn't had much connection with the church except for family members. But he said the church has been on his mind and he has wanted to become fully active by the end of the year. He's even talked about it with his wife (maybe just partner) who  is not a member and she has a Book of Mormon. They are moving to Bracknell so that means they will be closer to the chapel. We'll see if we can do anything to help them with their move but the sisters will have to fellowship him because they cover the Bracknell area.

Well that's all for now. Talk to you next week.

Blue Cheese Icecream

This week was better than last week. Only because we had a few service projects to keep us busy. Street contacting was starting to stress me out. Just because we have been doing too much of it and not seeing much success. But because of the service projects and some dinner appointments we've been doing a lot less contacting this week. 

We have also contacted almost all the people in our potential files now that they are more organised. We have been able to clear up some information on who has moved, who's still interested and who's not. We actually have a few appointments coming up now with some of them as well as some people we have found on the street. 

All this work should have made the week go by a lot faster but this week has been extremely slow. It feels like it's been a long week. In fact, this whole transfer so far has been really slow.  

I really enjoyed conference. There was a lot of good stuff that I think can help me to stay positive. I can't really think of a best talk; I think for me the talks as a whole tied together really well. Over all it motivated me and helped build my confidence. I often feel like the lord is trying to communicate directly to me whenever I listen to conference talks.

Good to hear about the weather you're beginning to enjoy. It's starting to rain again over here but it's not too bad. I love the MTC picture you sent me. [One of mine (mike) that grandma found from 82]. If you find any more of those be sure to send them my way. 

I did get your letter this week. Justin's picture looks funny. Tell him to shave.

I saw the craziest thing the other day. There is a really nice ice-cream store at one of the train stations and one of the flavors they had one day was blue cheese ice-cream. I also saw a banjo ukulele. I wanted it so bad! Too bad it's so expensive.

Typical P-Day

Hello! Good to hear from you. I can't wait to hear about Britt's call. I hear that she has seen the Stake President and your taking guesses. Can I make more than one guess? Or is that cheating?

Not much happened this week. We have been doing a lot of contacting this week and it has been hard. Everyone seemed to ignore us or just want to argue with us. The only numbers we got were fake numbers. All our appointments were flogged. We've been contacting a lot of old potentials and we've got a lot more to go. No luck so far. The area book is starting to look really nice; more organised and easy to read. We want to organize more fire-sides and activities and we want to meet with the members more. We've got a few service projects coming up and dinner appointments so hopefully we can work with them more.

We will be able to watch the conference talks. We see the broadcast at the chapel. (probably not live)

On a typical P-Day we always have our study and exercise in the early morning as usual. Then we go to the library to e-mail family and stuff. After that we might have lunch and go to Tesco for shopping. We also take some time to clean the flat and do other personal chores. If we have any time we might plan to go somewhere and do something or see something but usually (because of travel, lack of time, or no good ideas) we just have our dinner and p-day ends at 6:00pm. We then work until 9. P-days are often more busy than regular days.

Grandma Fisher was wondering if we were looking for Robin Hood and his merry band of men. Little John. No we wernt, do you think they could have helped? Maybe I should have...

Take care of Baxter and enjoy you'r trip to America!

Alberta and Montana boys get lost

Hello everyone.

So this week has not been too bad. My new companion and I have found some really interesting people by chance who seem interested. Some even have some connection to the church. One of them we met on the street the other day and she recognized us because of the Shaytards!(Mormons who do youtube clips) She had some good questions and wanted to know more. The trouble has been getting appointments with these people. They are all so busy. But we will keep trying and hopefully they will find some time. We are also planning on finishing cleaning up the entire area book. I didn't realize how bad it is. We haven't done much in it since moves but this week we are going to go through it and redo it and contact all the potentials. Elder Brown seems pretty good so far. I don't feel like I know him too well yet but we seem to get along. He seems like a good, hard working missionary who is confident and very organised. He has been out for the same amount of time that I have. We were in the same MTC group but not in the same district so I never met him before. I never heard about the situation in question 4 (I asked him if the issue with an Ex-member wanting to take President Monson to court was talked about over there.) but now I will be asking people about it. 

Just a reminder of his mailing adress:

 4 St Francis Close, Crowthorne, Berkshire, RG45 6DF

I've got some pictures to send you. First of all here are my second pair of shoes to be thrown out.

Now my new companion and I were going to a members house for some service. We decided to walk rather than take a train because I found a shortcut on a trail through the Bracknell Forest that I thought would take less time. We took a wrong turn on trail not marked on the map and eventually lost the trail completely. We were lost in the forest until we saw a church steeple and decided to walk toward it. The walk was supposed to take an hour and a half. It took two and a half hours.

transfers

So moves is this week and I'm staying in Crowthorn but my companion is moving to Croydon! I didn't realize how short a transfer is. I'm a little unsure about how well I'll be able to lead the area but it will be a good learning experience. I really wasn't expecting Elder Moulin to move. That was a big surprise to both of us. I hope he likes Croydon. I'll have to tell him to say hi for me to a bunch of people over there. My new companion will be Elder Brown from Montana.

This week has been pretty good. We are finally starting to have some service projects. Now that I think of it the weather is probably the reason. It's finally nice enough out for the members to want to do some work and they're not shy to ask for some help. I think the members are starting to trust us more witch is good because we can start to work with them more.

We got to teach with a guy named Matt. He seems pretty nice. Unfortunately his mum was there and all she wanted to do was bible bash. We tried to keep it to the lesson but she kept asking questions and wouldn't listen to our answers. It sort of ruined the lesson. But he still listened and seemed interested. We'll try to meet with him again and see how much he got out of it.

Questions: (from home)

1. Have you driven any of the cars that have the steering on the opposite side?
2. Who is your favorite member in the Crowthorn ward, what are they like and what makes them your favorite?
3. What is the best missionary tool, approach or most productive method?
4. If you could tell all the people in South England 1 thing, if there was a way to broadcast so all would hear, what would you broadcast?

Answers: (from Elder Fisher)

1. No I have not driven at all. I haven't been in a vehicle area yet.

2. I don't have a favorite member.

3. The members are the best approach in missionary work when they are involved. It's important for the investigators to have member support. And people will tend to be more willing to hear the gospel from a friend than from a stranger in a suit.

4.That's a hard question. I have no idea. But I'm running out of time so I'll talk to you next week.