Sept 23, 2012

Hey,

Maybe you will have to wait until I'm back to finish the treehouse. It sounds tough. Speaking of cursing though... in this country damn and hell aren't swears and people say them all the time and in church and stuff. So tell Dad it's no big deal. 

I will try to send photos every week now. We have a huge family history center in this church. There are like 10 computers.

 Okay, the church here is amazing. 150 members come every week, we have solid returned missionaries, we have a youth and YSA program, people feed us all the time, we have a car, this area has so much potential. My companion is Elder Perry. From Wales. He is a good kid but still seems pretty young. He has been out 3 months less than me. I came into this area expecting there to be investigators and things on the go.However, Elder Perry was just serving with Elder Day and it was Elder Day's last transfer and he is now home. So Elder Day was dead. And they didn't seem to have done much. We have no investigators and no real potentials. And we are the zone leaders here now so we really need to turn things around. We have just been finding a ton and having DA's with awesome members. I have never been in a strong ward on my mission until now, and I am really excited to bring people to church. We have a great bishop and WML. We picked up 4 new investigators last night. They are a family, and I think one of them might be a gypsy. But they are really open and want to come to church and stuff. 

The London Times this week had the front page of 'THE MORMONS ARE COMING' with a picture of a missionary. This was because of the Book of Mormon musical opening in London, but even though the musical is pretty much making fun of our church, a lot of people have been talking to us because of it. So that has been good actually.

My other thing I am really excited about is we are in a 4 man flat. It is really fun! It is us two, and also Elder Culciu and Atkinson. Atkinson is a great guy and we get along really well so far. Culciu is a Russian convert. He grew up in the street and survived by mugging people. He speaks decent English. He is just such a character. He is tough and a lot of missionaries don't really know what to make of him. But so far we have been like best friends. We served around each other when I was in Slough, and he is a really genuine guy once you get past his Russian exterior. We wrestled last night. He choked me out in about 10 seconds. So we rematched and went for about 5 minutes and called it a draw. I am really sore now. 

The summer is over. It has been cold and raining most days. This was a pretty rubbish summer. 

We were eating with a family yesterday for lunch. They were both RM's from Spain. Returned missionary sisters are on such a spiritual level then a lot of the other ladies in there 20's. These two are my favourite members so far. But sis. silsby talked about a friend of hers who went to central america. She said she had a parasite once that was so bad she had no control over her bowels. She said she completely pooped her pants on a few occasions. We were dying laughing and I can't wait to hear Riley tell stories of this happening to him. He is going to have such a different mission than me. 

Have a good week guys, forward me anything Riley sends

Love ElderSteed