"Ahhhhh yeah! Cadbury here we come!"

Hello!! 

Things are going alright here in Nottingham! :) 

We are trying to get something rolling! But yeah, it's good. :) 

Let me tell ya. The weather is soooo weird here!

 It was crazy cold a couple days earlier in the week, then it warmed up a ton. 

It's just now starting to drop down again. Haha Craziness! 

I experienced some misting and some down poor rain. It's very windy. 

It's not AS depressing as I just made it sound though. ;D haha

There were some cool stuff and some less cool stuff this week. 

We'll start with the good! 

One day we decided to do some member stop bys in a certain 

area and then tract in the area. 

We wanted to hopefully get to know the members better!

 We stopped by this family and had some good conversation with them! 

At the end, they told us of a recent convert that was feeling kinda down. 

There had been some bad rumours spread about her. :( 

So, we decided to go straight to her house and talk with her right away! 

At first, she seemed pretty down and depressed. 

We managed to get to know her more and we talked about things. 

Anyways, we ended up reminding her of her baptism and how she felt. 

We taught her about strength in trials through Jesus Christ. 

By the end, she seemed a little brighter and uplifted! It was way cool:) 

And she ended up coming to church which was way cool! :) 

That was a good day. After we got home, we planned 

and then I just crashed on my bed. Still in my clothes. Haha

Another good thing! 

The sisters had a baptism this weekend! Jackie is her name. :) 

She was taught by the Elders but after the transfer, she was given to the sisters. 

That was a way cool experience!....as baptisms usually are. :) 

It's always cool to see people enter the waters of baptism!

Now for the less cool stuff!

We got bashed on the phone! Yeah. Interesting right? 

Let me tell ya bout it. 

We found a potential last week. We tried calling him up and set up a time to meet. 

He rang us one day when we were in town centre. 

He said, "share with me your message." 

(This is all on the phone) We start teaching him the Restoration. 

We talked about prophets and immediately he says,

 "I thought your message was centred on Christ." 

Then just from there, he was going to town using all sorts of 

references from the Bible. We tried to salvage it a little, 

but it didn't work. We testified and that's really all we could do. 

Haha Interesting though! 

There have been days where you just walk a bunch and tract 

a bunch and nothing comes from it. :/ 

But, the bad days make you appreciate the good ones much more that's for sure!

Another....interesting...story. 

 We were walking home one night when an old guy, all alone, 

stopped us and asked us a question. 

His words were slurred. The combination of being old, slurred, 

and British made it very hard to understand him. 

 We were trying to decide if he was mentally challenged or just wasted. 

Anyways, after a bit, he started stumbling away and then collapsed to his knees, 

then to all fours, then just rolled over on the ground! 

We were like "What do we do??" 

We thought, for a minute there, we were witnessing this man

 move on to the spirit world! We called 999 

("Quick! What's the number for 911?") 

Luckily, a British Red Cross lady happened to be driving past 

and stopped and took care of him while we called the ambulance! 

We hope he was alright! 

We found out the next morning that he was probably just wasted. 

We walked past where it happened and there was a blanket 

and an empty bottle of Scotch. 

We went to Wayne Manor on PDay this week.

For those of you who aren't Batman fans, 

this is where the Batman movies were filmed.

We discovered a good chocolate bar! So, it's Oreo filling and 

cookie crumbles wrapped in Cadbury milk chocolate. 

YES! Soooo good. 

One night, we were walking 

home all wet and cold and saw a cornershop. 

We just looked at each other and we were like, 

"Ahhhhh yeah! Cadbury here we come!" Hahaha 

There's a cool family in the ward. The Beveridges. :) 

They're way cool! Anna is from Venezuela.

 Mike is from Dalkeith, Scotland. I know you're not supposed to pick 

favourites....but they're pretty up there. 

There's also a member named Oz. He's been a convert for about 7 years. 

Old guy. Way cool!

 He helps the missionaries out a ton. Turns out he used to be a con man 

in a major gang in Nottingham called the Gunnies. Hahaha 

He's got quite the past! He's also has some funny stories, man:) 

Things here are going alright! Were managing to stay kind of afloat. 

 It's been an experience that's for sure! I wouldn't change it for the world:) 

I love the mission! Anyways, hope all is well and dry in da States! 

God bless 'Merica. God save the queen.

 Cheers mates! 

Elder Wright

Life Across The Pond Is Full Of Adventures!!

Hey hey! 

So wow!! 

There have been some switch ups in the past week! 

It all started on Monday night as we were GQing in city centre. 

We were wandering around, talking to people. Then we got the phone call. 

*Ring, ring* It's the APs. 

They were announcing an Emergency Transfer happening. 

So, I am no longer in Peterborough!! 

I was told that night to pack up my things because 

the next day I was leaving to Nottingham!! 

Crazy beans!! 

 I have been in Nottingham since Tuesday. 

And, the even crazier thing is I'm white washing the

 area with a missionary from the same group as me!! 

Elder J. Porter Smith. So yeah! This is an adventure. 

Hahaha! Two "just barely greenies" white washing in Nottingham. Man.....

The kind of stinky thing too was I had to leave so fast, 

I didn't really get to say goodbye to any of the members! :/ 

Bummer. 

Elder Smith is way cool! We get along really well! 

It's funny because we slept on the same bunk bed in the MTC. 

Haha! His first area was Kidderminster. 

Little did we know in just 3 months we'd be thrown into the deep end together. 

Haha! But it has been great so far! 

We're always thinking of how it's gonna be awesome in 

some future day to look back on this and say, 

"Remember when we white washed Nottingham together as greenies?!" Haha!

Holy cow. Hills! Hills everywhere! 

I didn't quite realize how FLAT Peterborough was until I left it and came here! 

This is a little river in Nottingham.

Nottingham areas are split into four and we cover the north of Nottingham. 

Our main town is Bulwell. The flat is alright! It's a bit bigger than my last one.

 We've been walking everywhere because some missionaries accidentally 

broke my bike in the transfer process. :/ 

So, I'm gonna have to buy a bike! 

Luckily I didn't really lose anything with it because it was free. But yeah!

This week has been very interesting! 

The area book is one of the most important tools when white washing an area, 

so if it's not really up to date, then the next missionaries are screwed. 

And guess what!....the past missionaries weren't super great 

at keeping the area book up to date. Haha! It has been interesting! 

We've seen some of the old investigators and some 

less-actives that they were working with. 

Cool story! 

One of the first days, we stopped by a less-active by the name of Andrew. 

We showed him the Because He Lives video and talked about it with him. 

We saw him in town a couple of days after that and he was like,

 "After you guys left the other night, before I was about to go to sleep, 

I started to read my scriptures again!" 

It felt good to see that we were making a difference in his life! 

The work here in Nottingham is alright. 

We found several potentials, so hopefully we can go somewhere with them! 

This is a huge learning experience being put with Elder Smith since we're both new.

 I feel like we're learning more, faster. It's good:) Way exciting! 

 Of course there's always disappointment.

(especially when you have like 4 lessons planned 

in a day and NONE of them turn out!) 

Sadness 101....... 

But it's alright. :) We have some good times, some good laughs:) 

We were walking to a lesson the other day and 

Elder Smith and I just quoted remember the Titans a bunch. 

It was great!! Haha Good times:)

The ward is pretty cool! Our ward mission leader is FREAKING GREAT! 

He got back from his mission to Brazil about 3 months ago, 

so he's still got that mission fire attitude going on. It's way exciting! :) 

He was totally laughing that first coordination meeting. 

He was like, "How long have you two been out??" 

 "Oh about 3 months for both of us!" He just started cracking up!! 

Apparently, the ward has a big influence of Portuguese and Spanish people. 

It's pretty cool! The ward has been very good at welcoming us. 

At church, we'd shake everyone's hands and they'd just be like,

 "Four new missionaries?? Wow!" 

Haha! Yup....we're thinking the same thing. 

May God be with us. 

 Before I left Peterborough, we were talking about this whole 

transfer thing and how I'd be white washing with someone in my MTC group. 

These were the wise words of my zone leaders. 

"Rely HEAVILY on the Atonement." Hahaha! It was hilarious. 

It has been a very long week, but pretty decent for the most part. :) 

 Many memories! Many laughs. It's good:) 

More excited than nervous now which is good:)  

We had some freaking good fish and chips for lunch today. Mmmm. 

But, I had to get medium cod because they were out of large cod! 

What the heck! That's like Arby's being out of roast beef!! ;D haha!

 Cadbury is beloved. Mmm. On a cold day this week, 

we stopped into a cornershop for some warmth and bought some Cadbury. 

Soooo delicious:D So milky. So milky. 

Anyways, quite a big week this week! Hope you enjoyed the news feed. 

 Hope everything is well back home! 

Have a happy Thanksgiving! Eat a ton of food for me. 

Cheesy rolls. (A tear just came from my eyeball).

Cheers! :)

Elder Wright

They don't have Thanksgiving here in England

Hello!! 

So, some of you may be wondering where I am right now!! 

Well, let me tell you....starts with a P........and ends with an eterborough. 

Yup! That's it! I stayed in Peterborough:) And my companion is still Elder Ashcraft! 

This is his last transfer in the mission so I'll be "killing him off". 

(Little did he know his own son would kill him!) 

So yeah! That means I'll probably stay another two transfers here.

 Hopefully, I'll be here for Christmas! But yeah..that's the news. 

We lost Sister Tenney (went to Warwick) and also Elder Jones (went to Leicester). 

Now, Elder Du Plessis is with Elder Mbingwana from Zimbabwe. Good stuff:) 

Two comps from Africa and two comps from the States.  

I'm officially not a greenie anymore which is cool. Haha!

 Elder Ashcraft is trying really hard to not be trunky...but of course 

it is inevitable sometimes when you're that close to going home. 

He talks a lot about women and marriage. Haha! 

I'll be his longest companion on his mission. 3 transfers with him! 

Highlight of the week was most definitely on Saturday. 

Elder M Russell Ballard came to our mission for a conference and it was fantastic! 

We traveled to Leicester on Friday night and stayed at Elder Jones' flat 

(which, the inside of, reminds me of a hobbit house). 

On Saturday morning we traveled to Solihull for the conference. 

There were also a couple of other General Authorities. 

Elder Kearan (don't know how to spell it. Area president) and 

Elder Christensen (Presidency of the Quorum of the Seventy). 

But it was so cool!! We got to shake all their hands and listen to them speak. 

One of the strongest spiritual experiences I've ever had! :) 

The Spirit was way strong! You can tell those men are called of God!

                                    So cool! They talked a lot about hastening the work. 

They talked about how the devil uses sleep as a tactic for disrupting missionary work. 

Not just physical rest but also being asleep spiritually. 

He talked about being awake spiritually and mentally more than ever before. 

They also talked about how we are in a hurry. We've got more work to do in this dispensation (preparing for the second coming) and less time to do it.

 Just some good quotes from that: 

"You have got to be the best gospel teachers in the history of the church." 

"Wake up! (He shouted that one. Got everyone's attention! Haha) 

Why? Because we're in a hurry." 

"When you have a rough day, go to Gethsemane. 

Go to Gethsemane in your mind. As you picture 

Christ there and understand what he did there,

 your problems will naturally begin to diminish. 

Faith and hope begin to grow stronger." 

The conference was way good! It was more personable because 

he was talking directly to us missionaries. Gooood stuff man:)

We went and visited Longthorpe Tower today!

 Twas pretty cool! 

Kinda plain. Pretty old though! T'was erected in the 14th century. 

The bike ride over there was beautiful! 

We saw a freaking posh hospice place. Way cool! 

All the Christmas lights and decorations are up! 

They don't have Thanksgiving here in England so there's no set marker like 

"I can put up lights after such and such day". 

It's just kinda randomly in the beginning of November, which seems a little early. 

But we witnessed the lighting of the Christmas tree in Cathedral Square! 

Way cool! Being from a smaller town, I don't see that as much so it was fun:) 

Funny story! 

We were biking through town the other day and Sandra Swepson 

was driving through town just as we were passing through. 

They saw us and tried to get our attention by honking. 

We heard their honking and looked over and started waving. 

Then, as she was focused on waving at us, she accidentally drove over the curb! 

They were totally alright, no damage, it was just hilarious. 

They were all embarrassed. Haha :)

Another random story. 

We were GQing this guy in town and while talking to him, 

we just heard this loud explosion sounding thing! 

We were like "What the heck!" 

And after it went off, everyone in town was just dead silent....not moving at all. 

You could hear a pin drop. 

We then figured out it was some Remembrance Sunday memorial thing 

that was going on. Haha! So, that was pretty exciting! 

Especially in light of the Paris attack.

 Things are going good here! I'm happy to be here. It hits me
every once in a while that I'm actually on my mission and it's not
just some dream. England is a beautiful country! 
 But yeah, things are good! 

Yup, yup...That's how things are going over here! 

 Cheerio me duck (Nottingham thing) Haha! 

I hope all is well in the states! 

Love ya tons. Thanks for all the support. 

Cheers!

Elder Wright

"..when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind."

Wazzz up!! 

The picture above are the Swepsons. They feed us all the time.

It's already snowing over there??

 Man...that means we've basically already gotten as much snow as we did last year. 

Hopefully that doesn't mean it's going to start snowing a 

bunch this winter...just when I leave. 

(Sorry dad! Invest in a good snow blower;) ) That's way cool though. 

Weather over here is still wacked. 

It's been pretty rainy and wet the past week, 

but there were a couple of days that were pretty warm!

 Today is pretty chilly though. Cool breeze up in here! :) 

Man, biking through the wind and rain heavily against you is something else! 

Makes me think of that scripture 

"..when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind." 

Now, just picture me biking through that! (exaggerating of course;) ) 

So, the other day, I officially hit my 3 month mark! Crazy stuff! :) 

It has gone by WAY fast...for reals. It's crazy. 

In a couple of days, I am no longer considered a "greenie". 

We'll find out tonight if I'll be leaving Peterborough or staying. 

Which is kind of sad to be honest! 

I've made Peterborough my home for the past few months!

 But hey...I could be staying for a couple more transfers...who knows! :)

We got to do exchanges in Stamford this week. 

Stamford is a pretty posh place. Lots of rolling hills.

We had interviews with Pres. Leppard this week! That was way cool:) 

He's one of the coolest people on the earth. Truly great! 

He's a black belt in Chinese kick boxing or something like that. 

It's just funny to imagine him in his ninja robes. 

He knows a TON about the gospel. 

He does this thing at the end of every time we see him 

where you can ask him any question about the gospel. 

Whether it be stories from the scriptures, study tips or deep doctrine questions. 

He just lays it down. 

He's a magician, man. He knows so much! It's way cool:) 

He gave some good counsel to us though.

One of the concerns I brought up to President was that our investigators

 just don't meet up and when they do, they have a hard time keeping commitments. 

He was telling me that if they're not keeping commitments 

(mainly church, prayer, and reading), 

it's better to drop them for the time being. It says many times in 

Doctrine and Covenants "the field is white, already to harvest." 

There are people out there that are ready right NOW to receive the gospel. 

And of course, sowing seeds is also important in the work, 

but it's good to realize that the Lord has said that there are people

 ready now to receive it. So, we did end up dropping a certain

 amount of our investigators for the time being. 

We have also been counselled to use family history a lot more in finding. 

So yeah! That's how the work is going right now. 

And speaking of good counsel, on Saturday of this weekend, Elder M Russell Ballard 

will be coming to our mission for a mission conference!! 

Heck yeah!! I'm excited for that. :)

We had "bonfire night" this last week. That was pretty cool! 

But it wasn't that lively on the night of, because it was raining. 

Haha! So, we pretty much heard leftover fireworks for 

like 3 days after the official bonfire night. 

But yeah! We went to a bonfire ward activity and 

they made this huge bonfire in someone's garden.

 The weird/funny thing was they put a stuffed body on top of the fire while burning. 

Why? 

Who knows. 

It's England! 

Haha! But, you gotta love them:) 

That's about it for the week though! :) 

I hope all is well over there! 

Cheers. 

Elder Wright

I guess I did learn something on all those scout camp outs I went on!

Hey hey! 

Happy Halloween! Hope it was a good one:) 

Trick or treating isn't as huge here in England. 

It's getting more and more popular but not 

even close to how it is in the states. 

One thing that threw me off though, was when the trick or treaters 

said the phrase "Trick or treat". I feel that I am well used to the accent here, 

but that threw me off so much! I think it's because it's a phrase 

I've heard said the same way all growing up! 

Kids always say it the same way and that's the only way 

I've always heard that phrase. But, when you throw an English accent into it, 

man.... Haha Anyways, we had to be in our flat by 6 on Halloween. 

Our flat is the top right windows.

We did more studies, and watched Prophet of the Restoration. 

 That was the extent of my Halloween! 

It's been a pretty good week over here! Very wet in the past week. 

Very foggy too! Kinda cool. :)  

Weather is weird as far as temperature goes. 

It gets warm one day. Really cold another day. 

 England, just make up your mind!  :)

We went on exchanges on Wednesday. 

T'was with Elder Du Plessis from South Africa. 

He's pretty funny! We biked over to Whittlesey and basically 

tracted and went by less actives all day. 

One of which was....interesting. About 30 years ago, 

he was convinced by some people that the Mormon church

 was a man made church. It was really sad to talk with him! 

It was kind of getting a little tense and we finally decided to head out. 

So, we said bye, he got in his car and left. Then a couple minutes later, 

he drove back and came walking to us. 

He said, "Let me pray for you guys." In the prayer, 

he basically told us to stop the things we were doing 

and try to find the real Jesus. Haha!

 That day was full of less actives that had changed religions. 

It's sad to see people taste a part of the truth and then fall away. :/

We met with our investigators finally! 

Decio is going through a rough time. 

He's having a hard time forgiving his father back in Portugal. 

Also, his girlfriend, that's in Portugal, is pretty sick right now. 

We taught him about how we receive strength in and through 

Jesus Christ in the midst of our trials. 

He came to church and had a good time! 

He later texted us, "Thanks Elders for all you do!" 

That was pretty cool! :) 

We met with a few others, but they're all kind of in the same busy boat right now.

We had the chance to do some service a couple of times in the week. 

We moved some cupboards for a lady that was moving out, and also a piano. 

Then we helped move a huge stack of twigs and branches 

in a members backyard. We also lit it on fire afterwards. 

Haha Mmmmm....it was so good! :) The smell of a bonfire! 

I was proud though because after we started the fire, it died. 

Peter (the member) gave up and was going to get some petrol. 

 I started to work with it a bit and eventually got a huge fire started,

....without petrol! Haha! 

That was a proud moment for me. 

I guess I did learn something on all those scout camp outs I went on!

 They have a holiday kind of thing here called Bonfire Night. 

They celebrate this guy that tried to blow up parliament, 

by blowing things up and setting things on fire.

 So, there's a night coming up where there'll be a ton of bonfires 

and fireworks being lit. Kinda random trivia for ya! :)

On P-day, we went to see the Burghley House by Train.

These are the train tracks in Stamford.

We saw this cool house and church on our way.

This is the Burghley House on a foggy day.

And these are the gates to the Burghley House.

Life in Peterborough is swell. :) Making good memories!

 There are good times as well as bad ones. 

But the good times far outweigh the bad:) 

Hope you have a fine week! 

Cheers. 

Elder Wright