This week was splendid!

Hey guys!! 

This week was splendid! :) 

 Pretty much the same stuff going on I suppose. 

The weather has just now started to get cooler in

the past few days. Winter is upon us! :o  It'd be a bonus if I

avoided the wetness and coldness this winter by having a car...we

shall see;) Speaking of!....Elder Hayes failed his driving test this

past week unfortunately. :/ Haha So we set up for another test on the

11th of October. Wish us luck again!! :D

So yeah, pretty much a normal as far as the work is going. The zone is

doing pretty well right now! Slight improvements each week which is

super cool!! There'll be a baptism over in Boston this weekend!!

Super exciting! :) Oh and conference, we're all super stoked for that

over here. One of the best times of year!

There was kind of a cool experience this week! There was a certain

day that we misplaced our phone at an investigator's house, although we

didn't know it was there at the time. After a DA, we noticed that

we had lost our phone so we decided to stop by a certain less active's

to use his phone to find our phone! Well anyways, we talked with him a

bit, and invited him to church! And he came!

He hasn't been in YEARS! :o He set up a time to meet with the bishop

later on this week and he's got a wife and a nine year old daughter.

It's super sweet!:D

Uni is in session now as well!! Loads of Uni students out wandering

the streets now, so it's cool to talk about their studies and whatnot.

A few of them are interested in meeting up so we shall see where that

goes. We have Nottingham Trent in our area so there are loads. We also

have a couple of students from various places that moved into the ward

as well so it's exciting to have a bunch of young bucks around. :)

That's really about all the excitement I have to share with you this

week...sorry. Haha Kinda boring. 

But hey! Hope you're all doing well over there:D 

Sure love you guys! 

Speak to yas soon:)

Elder Wright

What the flip am I doing here?? I'm 19 years old and I'm in a meeting with a Stake President and a Mission President discussing the missionary work for the eastern midlands of England!

My Zone

What is up my peeps! 

It's been a busy busy week for sure:) 

We had zone meeting, double district meeting with President, 

stake presidency meeting, and two sessions of stake conference.

 LOADS of meetings!! Hahaha That's the life innit;) 

It was really funny though because in the stake presidency meeting 

(meeting where we meet with our stake president and 

mission president and discuss the work in the zone) I

looked around me and thought to myself "What the flip am I doing

here?? I'm 19 years old and I'm in a meeting with a Stake President

and a Mission President discussing the missionary work for the eastern

midlands of England!" Hahaha

But yeah, things are alright for sure!:) This zone is way sick! We had

a lot of meetings all together this past week so, we saw the

missionaries a lot! :D We also had the chance to go to the District

Leader's areas and do a bit of finding with them which was a blast. One

of the times was really funny alright. So, we're on exchange with the

Notts 2 Elders and we go, all four of us, to Eastwood's area to help

them out a bit. I was with elder Faulconer. We were cracking up though

because we found this potential in their area but unfortunately he

lives in Liverpool currently. We were like "So, I'm from Notts 1,

Faulconer is from Notts 2, we are in Eastwood's area, and we just

found a potential that lives in a completely different mission." Haha

It was good fun though! It's nice to be able to go to other

missionary's areas and help them out a bit:)

A majority of the Stakes in our mission now require a lot of

reports for the missionary work going on in the stake. It's a

common thing to be at the church on the computer writing up reports.

Well anyways, it was pretty cool! We were at the church, and all of

the sudden a film crew comes into the building. Were like, "What

the heck is going on??" We noticed they had American accents as

well, so we were asking what was going on. Turns out the main guy

there helped out a lot with the church film 17 Miracles! They were

there filming something for the self reliance courses. 

But yeah, that was cool!:)

Were doing alright over here! :) Things are busy,busy and can

sometimes be a bit stressful, but for the most part it's a good time!

As far as our own area, it's working out alright. We've found some

pretty cool peeps to hopefully work with over the next few weeks. I'm

wanting to go by the prospective Elders from the ward a bit more.

That's a focus that they're having in this stake right now. Well, two

things really. 1) Less Active Endowed and 2) Prospective Elders.

Should be good! I do believe that's about it really. 

Sure love ya loads! 

Until next week. 

Cheerz.

Elder Wright

We were biking through what felt like a tempest, and cold rain was spraying directly into my eyeballs.

Hello from Nott'nam!.....again;) 

 I was here about 10 months ago. I can't believe that. Time flies I suppose:)

Nottingham is still doing alright. Since I was only here for 1

transfer, it never quite felt like home, but now is an opportunity to

change that. :D It's pretty likely I will stay here for 2-3 transfers!

Boy, oh boy, there are many hills over in this part of the country!

Probably not nearly as bad as Wales, but still, it makes biking an

adventure for sure. Man, I'm trying to not be bitter about us not

having cars. Let me tell you three moments in which it was very

hard for me to not be bitter about it! 

First one, the very first morning I had here, we were heading outside

 in the morning before traveling a fair distance to district meeting.

 As we were walking on the driveway, we looked and saw a perfectly

 good car just sitting there. I thought I heard it say 

"Come inside where it's warm and dry. Oh, don't worry, kick your feet up a bit. 

Just type in where you want to go and I'll take you there with little effort on your part."

 And then I realized, hey wait....that's OUR car we CANT use!

 

Second one, the mission home decided to let our district leader (who funny

enough is Campbell....the one I served with for 3 weeks!) use the

car for the time being until Hayes can get his license. That moment

when they came to our flat to pick up the car from us and they started

to drive away. They were all smiling and waving goodbye to us while we

stood there empty handed... And third one, on a particular rainy

day, we were biking through what felt like a tempest. As cold rain was

spraying directly into my eyeballs, the other set of sister

missionaries in our ward (STLs) drove past us all dry and waving to us

in their car! Hahaha! Ah man, amidst all the over exaggeration and

laughs, yes I do know the car isn't what the calling is all about. It

is a bonus for sure!...but the calling is a good opportunity to be

able to help out other missionaries with whatever kinds of things we

can. :)

The life as it is right now is alright! The ward here in Nottingham is

great so far!! I love it so much!:) I'm just going to go on

about some of them that I've enjoyed meeting. The bishop, so far,

is a lad for sure! He's this millionaire that you wouldn't even have

known he was one. Seems to me like one of the most humble guys ever.

He's super cool! :) There's also a few American families in the ward

that recently moved in that are cool. It took me a bit to

recognize their accent! It's to the point now where their accent seems

like the odd one, ya know? :o But yeah, there's another

member that got baptized about 9 months ago that is just a legend!!

Like seriously, he's definitely a "convert". Another thing..the ward

had a super cool ward activity this weekend too! They turned the

church into some kind of medieval Renaissance type theme. They had

 a small catapult for the kids, a cool dragon piñata thing, 

they even rented medieval horses that the kids were riding around

on!! Haha:)

We had a couple really cool teaching experiences this week!! The

first, we met a potential named Marcel that had been found a bit back.

We meet up with him and he brings three of his mates (they're all

black by the way). They're all non denomination Christians...they

believe in the core teachings of the bible and they live it! Anyways,

we did a lot of "how to begin teaching" in the lesson with them. The

more we heard about what they believe, we were thinking "Wait, that's

what we believe! Hey that's also what we believe!" They have so many

beliefs that are just crazy similar to the teachings in the church! We

taught them quite a bit in the Restoration. Oh man, it was so cool. 

Loads of smiles and soul, shouting "AMEN!" and all that kind of

jazz. Haha! :D It was so cool! I'm hoping we can go far with them!

The second cool experience was with a woman named Maria. She was a

media referral, meaning she looked online and kind of requested to

meet with the local missionaries. We met up with her in town and got a

table somewhere and just started talking with her. Really nice lady,

probably late 40s and she's been through a lot in her life! She hasn't

been too, too religious but she said she's willing to "start to open

the door". We taught her the full on Resto and man the Spirit was

strong for sure! We actually softly committed her to be baptized right

then and there! Miracle for sure!!:) Please pray for these people!!

Life is pretty good, innit. Wish us luck as we attempt to run this

zone here! We have some great teams here so it shouldn't be too

rough!:) Ah man, I love it all. Well, sure love ya guys! 

Talk to ya next week! 

Cheers:D

Elder Wright

Transfers always feels a bit like the Hunger Games.

 

What's up guys!! How you been? :) 

Things are going alright over here in Leicester! 

This is the last week of the transfers...which is crazy to be honest! 

Time has absolutely flown by! I guess a lot did happen in the

 past 7 weeks, but still! It's been a really good transfer! :D

Not too, too, much is new. I have some big news but we will save that

for the end! ;D We've been teaching Callum more and more since his

baptism. He's loving everything and is pretty excited for the next

steps in his journey! (Hint hint: Priesthood coming soon) The cool

thing is he's pretty tight with all the missionaries here in Leicester

and has been familiar with the missionaries for a while now. He's

actually thinking about serving a mission himself which would be super

awesome!! :) That's Elder Smiths story. He met the missionaries when he

was 17, was baptised a bit later and then came on a mission! Converts

"stories" are much more intriguing than the typical Mormon kid who was

raised in the church. Haha But yeah, it's been a really cool

experience working with him:)

Someone "soaped" the fountain. haha

We are still progressing with our Chinese friends! Ah man, they are

hilarious:) Hey, I've been learning some Chinese! 我是男人 That means "I

am a man." There's also 水 which means "water." 果 which means "fruit."

高富帅 which means "Tall, rich, and handsome." You got to get the basics

right!? Haha But yeah, we actually planned a lesson plan

with them! We are planning on either playing badminton or ping pong

with them in the chapel, and then afterwards doing a "private chapel

tour" them. The more you play it up the more they get excited.

The exclusive private chapel tour with the missionaries. ;) haha Yes!

Chapel tours have the opportunity of being absolute hits! If you do

them right, they're magical experiences! :D

We had a funny experience with the China folk. We played ping pong

with them (in which they absolutely destroyed us! They are so flipping

good it was amazing!! You know Forrest Gump?....yeah. That!) Anyways,

after ping pong they invited us over for a "huoguo" which being

interpreted means "hotpot". Basically you all just sit around this

type of kettle thing with your chopsticks and stick food in it and eat

and socialize. Pretty cool eh?? Well, the night came and we had to go

back to the flat to change. We forgot to charge our phone and as we

walked (bikes were out of commission) the phone died!! We knew where

we were supposed to meet them but there was no way of contacting them

to tell them we were there! :o We stood there for about 25 minutes

waiting but all was lost. :.( We didn't get to enjoy the huoguo!!:/ 

Oh well.. Haha

So hey, I got some big news for ya!! As you know, transfers is coming

up. The results are in. As a side note, transfers always feels a bit like

the Hunger Games. You don't know if your name will be picked

or not and you just wait in anticipation. Well hey.....they drew my

name!! :o I am not staying in Leicester any more which sucks!!

I love it here!:/ 
But yeah, let's just get into it I guess. I am leaving to

Nottingham again and am ZL over there.. Which....eh. We shall see how

it goes. I'm with Elder Hayes again as well which is crazy. Hmmm....

You wanna know the funny part as well? All zone leaders in this

mission have cars...that is except for us!! That's what I was

looking forward to a lot but then they told us neither of us have a

liscense. What?? Ah man, we shall see how this goes. It

is kind of crazy though because Elder Matus (my son) is replacing me

here in Leicester! That's the new news! I hope all is well for

you guys! :) Wish me luck. 

 Cheers guys!

Elder Wright

Thanks so much for the love and support! :)

What is up my peeps! How you living??:) 

The week has been pretty good!

It seems like just yesterday that I was writing emails!:o 

Time flies when you're having fun! :D 

Life is pretty good eh!

Weather overall has been quite nice to be honest. Not too, too much

rain lately which has been really nice! Apparently, it's been one of

the hottest recorded summers in a long while for Britain! :)

It has been a good week for sure!! :) 

We have seen Callum a few times since he's been baptized. 

Man, he really is a legend!! 

It's crazy to see how far he has come since he started 

with the missionaries only a couple months ago! 

There is a lot of opportunity with his friend Kearan as well. 

They were best mates growing up and they kind of

followed each other's views as far as religion goes. Before Callum met

the missionaries, they were both men of science. "Why are you always

judging me....only because I believe in science!" (Wise words from

Eskeleto. Haha) But seriously, so many people nowadays either choose

science or religion. Because somehow people think they can in no way

work together....hmmm. Anyways, since Callum has started to grow faith

and understand the gospel, Kearan has been tagging along ("For the

support of Callum" " but I think he's genuinely starting to get

interested for himself) Every Saturday we have sports in the mornings

where we go to Mandela Park and play basketball and football and. 

We actually have a pretty big group coming to it (that's kind

of how the fellowshipping with Callum and Kearan came to be.

 So yeah, good things are happening over here!:D

The other stuff that's been happening is our work with our Chinese

friends!! They are so funny. :) On Friday we went to a gym

with them all to play some badminton, which was pretty sweet!

Then afterwards they took us to one of their house and they cooked

some authentic Chinese food for us!! It was awesome!! :D We've begun

teaching them more and more about God and His ways. They loved the

Because of Him video. But yeah, as far as people we are teaching

that's about it!

There are loads of missionaries coming in for this next transfer. 

(it's that time of year!) There will be loads training as well. I

thought for sure I was probably going to get that call again but

nope!....the calls came out and I was not one of them. Dodged the

bullet. Haha JK....but seriously. ;D (Ah man...so we are currently in

city centre sitting at a bench writing these emails. As I was

pondering what to include in this weeks segment, a little girl walked

straight into a giant piece of metal and smacked her face on it.

She's mostly alright so I can say it was hilarious! Anyways, this

transfer has gone by pretty dang fast. At the end of this week, we

receive the news about transfers. Shall be interesting!! Well hey, I

do believe that concludes this session of the emails. 

Thanks so much for the love and support! :) 

Wish us luck...cheerio.

Elder Wright