We had a fun miracle this week which reconfirmed to me that God is very much involved in His work.

Wazz up my friends!:) 

This week was pretty dang good to be honest!!

There was loads of awesomeness going on! 

But as always, let's talk about the rubbish we call weather. 

This week has been sooo wet!! 

It literally didn't stop raining for 3-4 days. 

During one of those days, it was flooding pretty bad. 

I was with a member on splits and came across

a car stuck in a river of water on the road. 

We got out of the car and helped push the guy out! 

 My shoes are slowly drying over the radiator in our flat;)

 It's been alright though! Fun adventures.

One day we decided to switch things up a bit, so we biked to a town

called Coleshill which we don't normally go to.

 It's a posh little English village. 

Not a ton happened there though! 

They were very rich people (who can be somewhat prideful sometimes). 

One of the old guys was wearing a toupee...I didn't know people 

still wore those for reals!! Haha! But yeah, it was nice to have something new!:)

We had two great lessons with our investigators. 

First lesson was with Paul. He's still doing alright! 

He's continuing to read and think about the gospel a lot, 

but he's struggling at the moment to commit to coming to church.

We set a goal with him to shoot for next week, so let's hope!! 

We also taught Teresa one night (who came to church again!) 

with our bishop and helped her with some of her concerns. 

If we can see her regularly and have her come to church regularly, it'll be great!:) 

We taught Thomas Witts again but unfortunately he's on a low point right

now. Loads of concerns about certain things. 

We eventually just testified of the Saviour and advised him 

to make sure Christ is the foundation of his testimony! 

We showed him the Mormon Message "Mountains to Climb"

(which is great...I would highly recommend watching it;)) The Spirit

was very strong in that lesson! Let's just hope on his own time he can

keep on pushing through it! :)

We had a fun miracle this week as well, which reconfirmed to me that

God is very much involved in His work. 

We were on a bus to go to the Coleshill train station to exchange 

with the Nuneaton Elders. On the bus, we got a call from 

the other guys saying they missed their train.

We decided to get off and knock on some doors. We followed our

feelings after praying for guidance and came to a little stretch of

three houses. The first one.....nada. The second one.....yyyeeee-no.

Then the third one....we got talking to this really cool guy. We

talked about his religious life and answered some of his questions. We

told him a bit about the Plan of Salvation and set up a time to see

him the next week! He's a cool guy!:) It was super cool and it all

started with those other guys missing their train. Because of that, we

met our new investigator. The Lord truly either leads us to those that are ready

 or puts them into our path:)

We had a few things to try to help the district out this week! First,

we had district meeting. I focused the training on fear vs. faith,

then we set the goals for the coming transfer. We had good input from

all the Elders in the district and it motivated us to work real hard

this next transfer!:) Then we had some district finding in Nuneaton to

try to help them out (the ZLs showed up too. It was way fun to have 6

missionaries walking around in their town centre talking to people!).

And, finally I had exchange with Elder Davis (from my group) which was

pretty good stuff!

I think that's about it really! If I remember anything else that was

noteworthy, well...I won't be able to let you know if it comes to me. ;)

 Sorry mates. Until next week! 

I love ya guys and hope you're enjoying the summer over there! 

(By the way...it's June 20th??! Where does the time go..) 

Cheers guys! :)

Elder Wright

June 13, 2016

Sup peeps!! I'm back! 

This week went by way fast..it seems like I was
just here writing my email last week! Crazy crazy:) 

This week was pretty good!! It's been pretty dang warm that's for sure! 

Some of the members are like "You guys are from Arizona and Mexico, 

you should be used to this!" There's a couple things about this. Firstly, I never
used to bike around for miles in suit trousers and a full backpack.
And lastly, it's a different kind of heat here. Arizona is a dry
oven heat and over here it's humid, which makes it seem much hotter
than the temperature actually is. So yeah! The nice thing is the rain
and clouds will cool ya off a bit:D

It was nice, last Monday we didn't have a dinner appointment set.
Right as we got to our flat, a member called us and invited us over
for dinner. Yay blessings!! They're into the Lord of the Rings
as well, so I got the chance to go on their keyboard and play some of
the Lord of the Rings songs! Even better about it, you could set it to choirs and strings, which added to the effect! We were cracking
up:D haha It was a good ol time...

On Tuesday, we biked over to Water Orton to go by an older family we
tracted into a while back. They are way cool people! They love going
over to America and seeing the different places. We talked a while
about San Francisco (one of my favourite places) and about the BUSH
MAN! Hahaha They were like "Yeah we'd just sit and watch him scare
people forever." I was like "Me too!!" Haha They gave us a big bag of
Jack Links beef jerky, which was delicious. :D That is something
that I have missed...they don't believe in beef jerky here.

There was a certain morning that I was struggling a bit...the day
was going slow, not much happening, so we decided to lift our spirits
by going to visit Godfrey, that newly returned member. And boy was
that a pick me up! It was nice to be able to just explore the gospel
with this member. His motivation and energy about the gospel was
pretty motivating and inspiring! That legend of a man. :) Lately we've
been sharing points from a certain Ensign talk that I would highly
recommend to you guys if you want to think more about happiness! It's
from February 2016 and its entitled "What Can the Book of Mormon Teach
Us About Happiness?" It's got some cool principles! :)

One day, Elder Matus was leading me to a street that he had picked to
tract. Along the way, I kinda got thinking about something. I had no
idea where he was taking me, and in my mind it made the journey seem
longer, because I had no idea where the finishing point would be. I
don't know if you've ever noticed that before! It's similar with
hiking. If you've never done the trail and aren't too familiar with
the distance and whatnot, it can make the journey a bit harder on the
mind! Well it's the same with the mortal journey! If you have a good
view of where you want to end up, that finishing line, it can help us
along that journey. I am a firm believer of needing a DAILY reminder
of who we really are and our divine potential. It creates that proper
perspective we all need!:) Anyways, just some thoughts;)

We had exchanges this week, which was great! I was with Elder
Opheikens and went to Nuneaton for the day.

 Man, that was nice:) Were hoping to help those guys build 

something up in their area because it's lacking a bit. 

But! The ward members in Nuneaton are way cool! We
went to their ward council and had a good time talking over things.
They talked a lot on how their ward is doing when it comes to Sabbath
Day observance. In the conference with Oaks, he talked about how the
first presidency and quorum of the twelve are thinking that if we
improve our Sabbath Day observance, than the plateau that the church
is on will hopefully start moving up! There were some good ideas there
though. But yeah, the exchange was mighty fine. :)

We had a cool miracle this week! We've been trying to find
new investigators here. Well on Sunday, one of the older ladies in the
ward was walking to church and started talking to this girl. Turns out
the girl was interested in the church so they both walked together to
the church! When they got to the church, we met her and talked for a
bit and set up a time to teach later in the week! It was awesome:) And
Teresa was finally able to make it to church again!! So it ended out
to be a pretty good week with loads of little miracles.

I think that is about it for now folks:) 

Enjoy the rest of your week!
Love ya tons!! 

Ta ta.

Elder Wright

The smell of cake flowed into my nostrils for a good half hour:D

Sup guys!! How you been?? 

I hope the weather is sort of normal back

home!...because over here it's mental!  Early in the

week it was cold, Tuesday was a very wet depressing day. 

That carried on until a few days later when it started to warm up!

 And now, today was BEAUTIFUL weather:) 

Warmth, blue skies, etc. (The types of things

you don't appreciate until you live somewhere like the UK) Haha

This week was overall a pretty great week! :) We had a couple of

funnies. There's this old couple named David and Iris that live

here. We visit them every so often, and the funniest thing about them

is they play Xbox together!! They're like in their 80's!  Iris

was describing when she was "stuck on a level" and "people were

shooting at me". It was sooo funny to hear this old woman describe her

Xbox adventures. Haha :) Also, I was in the car with Bro. Kitsell and

I looked out the window and saw a Hobbit house door! So the

next day we biked over there and did a bit of finding. 

(Knocking on doors in the Shire;)

We finally got to see Teresa again!!! She's the one a while back I was

telling ya about. She's still way solid, she has just been soo busy

lately. Like, crazy, crazy, busy. Hopefully things lighten up a bit for

her soon!:) But she's cool. We talked to her on the doorstep for a

while. (and it was nice because she bakes cakes, so the smell of cake

flowed into my nostrils for a good half hour:D ) It was good to

finally catch up with her and hear she's doing okay:) She said she

should be able to come, her and Bill, to church next week. Keep the

fingers crossed! We are also still teaching Paul, such a lad! He just

needs to be able to realize the significance of coming out to church

on a Sunday. Otherwise, he's legit:)

There was a bit more persecution this week than usual.

 I don't know why. I guess the Lord is trying our patience. 

 A group of chavy bruvs were talking to us, making fun of us. 

It was ridiculously pathetic though! 

They were just like "Jesus ain't real! Why do you

believe in that crap!" I just asked them "Why don't you believe!?"

Their arguments were pathetic. Just makes ya feel pity for

them.  Another time we were biking and this car of chavy bruvs

drove past and squirted water (I hope) on us. Haha!

A sign I made for the bathroom door. Get it?

This week we also decided to pop by one of the guys we were

teaching a while back who is an alcoholic. Things weren't progressing

well with him so we stopped seeing him for a bit. But he's such a nice

guy!:) He's the type of drunk that doesn't get angry or aggressive, he

just gets really goofy. Anyways, we popped by and boy....this

time I felt a great deal of compassion for him and I sincerely wanted

to help him with his issues. (Which is something I honestly didn't

feel for him when we were first teaching him) He has had a really,

really tough life. It's things like that that help you view life with a

different perspective. What you think are problems are mere stones

compared to the boulders some are burdened with. It truly makes you

think... I hope in some way we can help him come unto Christ and

experience that "lifting of heavy burdens" that He so graciously

provides.

We had a special treat this week. :) We had a tri-stake conference

with Elder Dallin H Oaks!! It was way cool! I always love when General

Authorities speak I smaller settings because they're more inclined to be

real people and joke around and laugh. It was great! Also

President Kearon of the Area Seventy was there. These are some of the

quotations/notes I wrote down:

"One of the best ways to create vibrant faith is to reach out to those

in need." -President Kearon

"The good feeling we get when we gather on a Sunday never lasts if we

don't act when we depart." -President Kearon

"In the pre existence, all of us fought for the Saviour. When we take

the sacrament and take His name upon us, He fights for us!" -Sister

Oaks

"What I say is less important than what the Spirit will tell your

heart. Listen." -Elder Oaks

Elder Oaks' mother was a widow that was poor. Growing up, his mother

earned 100 dollars a month and payed 10 dollars every single month for

tithing. One day, little Dallin asked his mother why she payed so much

money to the church. This was her response. "There may be people that

are rich enough to not pay tithing. We are poor, and we need the Lords

promised blessings."

It's always a wonderful illuminating experience being able to learn

from a witness of Christ! It's so cool:) Overall it was a

great week! Time flies for sure! I've been on the mission for 10

months to the day today! Crazy, crazy! :) At the conference, I was able

to reunite with some pals from a while ago. Elder Du Plessis, from my

first area! I hadn't seen him in over 7 months! It was fun to see him

for sure. I hope all is well with you peeps! :) 

Have a most bodacious week. 

Cheers.

Elder Wright

"A Birthday Present From God!"

Hey all!! How it goin?? :) 

T'was a pretty decent week this week! 

We enjoyed a couple of really nice days as far as weather goes! 

Then on Wednesday, the temp dropped like crazy! 

Like, back to coat weather....in the end of May. Gotta love it! 

 I bet you may be wondering where I went as a result of transfers!! 

You will be pleased to hear that I am indeed staying in 

Chelmsley Wood for at least 7 more weeks!

My fifth transfer here! Haha!

 But hey, I'm totally alright with it to be honest!

I truly do love the area! It's one of those areas that grows on ya

after a while. Really each area is what you make of it. It's to the

point now where I know the streets in the area better than most of the

members here because everyday were constantly biking around it!! 

All the short cuts and all. It could be better but it could also be a

lot worse! So there's nothing to complain about. :)

Paul, the not so new investigator, is doing well still!! The nice

thing with him (unlike our other investigators!) is he's not working

right now so we're able to see him quite a bit!:)  It's been cool

as well because every time we go, we take a member with us to start

that fellowshipping going. It's been a good experience for the members

as well! During fast and testimony meeting, a couple of them got up

and mentioned the experience they had teaching, so it was a good thing

for them:) D&C 50:22. How true it is!

So hey, fun stuff...at the beginning of the mission I started a deep

study of the Book of Mormon, reading the institute manual and all that

jazz. I finally finished!! :D And oh man, was that a cool experience!

I love that book so much! Growing up I never truly had a strong

testimony of the power of the scriptures. But now I could say I have a

passion for them!:D So cool..

This week was Elder Matus' birthday!!:) My boy is 24 years old today.

(Wait....how does that work) haha! It was a good b-day for him! We did a

Big Johns lunch and had some delicious kebabs and fish n chips:D

OOHHHH yeah. And it just so happened that we had dinner with his

favourite fam in the ward! Oh, and kind of a funny story, Elder

Matus has been wanting a new tie lately, since the tie is really the

only thing we can do to switch up our look. One day we were walking

and there was this really nice tie...like really nice!...just laying

in the grass! We were like "A birthday present from God!" Haha!...it's good stuff. :)

Here's a funny little experience we had walking home from church. We

came across this black lady and started talking to her a bit. I could

sense maybe something was just off with her. Haha Anyways, after it

wasn't going anywhere, we bid her farewell and wished her a great day!

As we were walking away, she starts singing and dancing all crazy just

right there in public! Hahaha It was pretty funny to watch!:) I love

meeting the crazies.

Anyways, the week was alright!:) Pretty much the same stuff other than

what I told you in this letter. Oh! I forgot to tell you the changes to

the district!  Elder Pedersen is leaving to Eastwood and we are

getting an Elder Davis, who is in my MTC group. Woo hoo!

 Anyways, I love ya peeps!:) 

Hope your days are bright...cheers mates.

Elder Wright

5/23/16

What's up guys!! How's it going?? 

All is well over here. Twas a pretty decent week! :) 

The weather ultimately was okay-ish. As good as it can
be.  We enjoyed a couple days of sunshine. It's amazing how the
weather affects ya! I've never appreciated the sun more until now.
It's always fun to talk to the British about the weather.  When
you don't know what to talk about...talk about the weather!!

One of the members here said something pretty dang funny at dinner
the other night! For the spiritual thought, we were talking about the
blessings of the temple. We got into the topic of baptisms for the
dead. Then this member told us "I heard the Catholic Church has
started to do baptisms for the dead!" We were like "Oh really?" And he
told us "Yeah, they put sprinklers next to the graves." Hahaha!

 It was hilarious!

By far the highlight of this week was teaching Paul, our new
investigator from last week!! He is doing fantastic! We actually
taught him twice this week. Once on Tuesday,  where we talked more in
depth about Moroni's promise. Then on Friday, we taught him with
Bishop there. (which was great to have him there!) We taught him about
the Plan of Happiness and purpose of life, why trials, etc. He's doing
so well! I'm wishing upon a star that he can keep progressing!:) haha!
Everything else really is the same ol same ol. Working with the less
actives trying to boost their faith:) Good stuff man.

We had exchange this week. I went to Nuneaton with Elder Pedersen. We
went and visited one of their recent convert members named Jason. This
guy is hilarious! He told us about this time in his life where
"things were going nowhere." So he decided he would "take a walk".
Initially his plan was to walk to the next town (he was in Dorchester,
south England). So he did, and then decided to go to the next town. He
kept going until he flipping ended up in Scotland!!  Straight up
walked from south England to Scotland! Jason is the real life British
version of Forrest Gump. Sooo funny! :D (One of the funny
things about the mission is you meet some very, very funny/unique people)

Hey so this is awkward...You know how I told ya about Elder Matus last
week running into a parked car?? Yeahhh....guess what. Karma!! It
happened to me! Haha Let me explain. We were riding down a side street
and I was talking on the phone while riding. I looked back and saw a
car coming behind me so I swerved to get out of the way and hit a car
that was on the side of the road. Luckily nothing on the car was
damaged. The guy came out and he was super nice about it! But
yeah...haha Nothing on me was hurt but my pride.. ;)

I'm really loving this area!:) It's not the easiest of areas
but I think in challenging moments you have the opportunity to learn A
LOT. And that is how's it's been here! DL is going okay! Sometimes it
can be a bit stressful because you're responsible for your area and
for the other missionaries' area, and the zone leaders are sometimes
hounding ya about the numbers. But hey...it's all a good learning
experience!:) If you're thinking about a mission, I would highly
recommend it! Anyways, I sure love ya all! Hope all is fantastic:) 

We shall speak in a weeks time. 

Cheers.

Elder Wright

Ask the missionaries, they can help you!

Hey, hey! How's it goin?? 

It's Elder Wright here, and let me just say 

I can't believe how fast time flies sometimes!! It's so weird. 

Some days are so long but overall I can't believe how fast it's going. 

I've been in Chelmsley longer than I had been on my mission before I got here.
It doesn't seem like it!! Haha Anyways, here's the account of my week!
The weather has been quite nice really! :D There were two days where
it pretty much didn't stop raining for the entirety of the two days
but other than that, it's been good!

This week was full of doing service, which was awesome! Now that the
weather is getting better, peeps are wanting to get all the outside
stuff done:) haha "Ask the missionaries, they can help you!" And they
did! We helped a member build a shed. We helped another member put new
fencing panels in their garden. And then lastly we helped a member cut
her grass. That one was funny. Haha Her lawn mower was so dinky and
her grass was so long, which didn't make for a good combination! Haha
That was pretty funny:) But yeah, service is the best! For a couple
reasons....firstly and less significant, you get to dress in normal
clothes;) Haha And lastly, service really helps you feel better!
Seeing people so grateful for such small things to be honest is so
cool and totally cleanses your soul! :) It's good stuff.

Elder Matus is doing good! He's a good guy. He's getting used to the
whole mission life and everything and he's settling in good! He's
starting to feel more confident sharing in lessons and whatnot, so
it's good! Earlier this week when we were biking, he was looking down
at his chain and accidentally ran into a car parked on the side of the
road. Haha He's okay though (that's why I'm laughing!) I think it was
quite a humbling experience for him! (It kinda reminds me of when my
trainer was riding his bike and accidentally put his foot through his
front wheel and flew over the handlebars. Haha)

Friday was my birthday!! Yahoo!:) It was a great birthday! We went and
got a little apple pie at TFC (fast food chain) for the bday. Mmmm
Also one of the less actives gave me a little cupcake and a card. Haha
I think the best gift of all though was a sweet new investigator!! He
seems pretty solid! I'm hoping we can progress with him a lot. But
yeah...good day:)

We were expecting a lot of less actives at church. We thought for sure
Thomas Witts would come (since he overcame his fear last week and
came!) but nope...surprise surprise! We did have one less active at
church though which I think was good for her! :) Every week there's a
hope that the people we invite will come...I was reading Moroni 6
which talks a lot about the purpose of church and why it's even there.
So good! Hopefully these guys can overcome their fears and whatnot and
come to the spiritual feast of church!! Haha

DL is going alright! It's pretty fun being district leader! A little
bit of responsibility but not too too much. I like that:) haha The
district is doing good! We're all trying to get more investigators,
because we're lacking a bit in that area. They started doing these
"minimum standards of excellence". Basically if we don't hit the
minimum standards for the week, the ZLs exchange in our area. If it
keeps happening through the weeks, eventually the APs exchange in your
area. If it continues even more, WE GET SENT HOME!!!..........hahaha
jkjk. The ZLs told me that over the phone when they were explaining it
and I was like "WHAT?!" They were only kidding. We said that in zone
meeting and it was hilarious to see the missionaries faces when we
told them that:P

Well that's about it really!! Overall a pretty decent week!:) Hope you
all doing fine over there! Have a most fantastic week dudes! Cheerio
lads!

Elder Wright

5/9/16

Wazz up guys!! How it going?? This week was a pretty good week for

sure! For a majority of the week, we enjoyed some pretty good weather!

Nice and sunny, the temp started to pick up a bit which is lovely

beyond measure:D Mmmm! There was a weird day though....it was nice and

beautiful and then literally out of nowhere we hear thunder. And then

it started to down pour! Haha Soakage.

This week was very much full of teaching the less actives were working

with! And we were able to see some fruits:) Our goal for the rest of

the month is to reactivate 2 less actives, so we've been going by a

lot of them trying to teach them. So let's talk about Thomas Witts.

He's an older guy that joined about 5-6 years ago. But he's always had

problems with always having questions and doubts. And of course it's

normal to have questions and it's important to always seek out

answers. But this quote I think helps a lot: "When adversity comes,

don’t let something you don’t fully understand unravel everything you

do know." And that's what he struggles with! We've been meeting with

him for about 5 months working on him, trying to strengthen his

testimony and whatnot. There were loads of ups and downs for him in

the course of this 5 months. But he finally came to church this week!!

We were walking to church and we saw him in his suit drive past us. We

were like "Yes!!" I just had to go give him a big hug. Haha Also an

important part to realise in this is some of the member fellowship he

got as well! He would not have come if some of the other members

didn't come and visit him. It's good stuff man!

All the other ones were working with right now are slowly making

progress, but hey! It's going in the right direction:) We started

teaching a new person named Jackie. She was a former investigator so

we went by to see if she was still interested and sure enough she was

open to talk! She's an older lady and rages quite a bit on her

neighbours because they're always smoking weed and the smell gets all

over her house. One time we went over, I'm pretty sure she was high on

the secondhand. Haha Not sure how that's going to go.. But yeah! Our

solid investigators were both either out of town or super busy with

work...again. Flippn work man! It's of the devil!;D haha

Earlier in the week, we had exchanges with the zone leaders. Both of

us went to Coventry to work with them! It was pretty fun! We taught

some Chinese girls the restoration which was way fun. I flippn love

the Chinese!! They're so cool! Haha They get way excited and

enthusiastic over the funniest things:P Man...so funny! But yeah! I

served with Elder Mthethwa from South Africa. We had a blast! I always

like serving with older missionaries because you learn a lot more with

them! :) We taught one of their investigators named Jasmine. She's got

her PhD, way smart but it's almost to the point where she's a bit

crazy. She told us at the end of the lesson that she got an answer

that the Book of Mormon was definitely NOT true. We were like

"Hmmm...have you read from the Book of Mormon?" She told us no, but

that she wants to stick with what she does know (referring to the

Bible), which is funny because she rarely even reads that. Haha Some

people...but hey! It helps the other Elders be able to drop her for a

bit and start finding those that are ready!

And of course for Mothers Day, I got to Skype the fam!! It was so fun

to be able to see them and talk with them!:D I always love that. I

love you family!! Thanks for all you guys do:) Anyways, that was about

my week. Hope your week was swell as well! Cheers mates!

Elder Wright

5/2/16

Hey hey hey!! Sup mates:) I can't believe it's already MAY!! Holy

sheep time flies. This week was okay! All exciting stuff for sure!

Changes to the district here....the sisters both left. Quesada left

and we got Elder Opheikens from Utah (sounds like he should be from

Germany or something but nope...good ol Utah. Haha) 4 man district,

which is way fun! :) We had district meeting for the first time here

in the Hood which was way nice. But yeah! Weather has been cray-cray

for sure. Funny story with that...here we go. So one day we were out

finding and we looked in the distance and saw this giant storm cloud

moving our way. I was like "Elder Matus that thing is headed this way!

Get ready!" He was like "Come on man...you don't know that! You're not

God." I was like "Alright man...I bet ya that it'll start raining in

10 minutes!" And sure enough, almost to the exact second, it started

raining! I was all laughing and I told him "You don't have to be God

to tell that that thing was coming for us!" Haha He didn't quite find

it as funny as I did;P

We're doing good though!! He's a fun little man! We've been starting

to mesh now for a bit so it's getting much betta:) We have fun! There

was one morning he woke up all depressed and he told me he dreamt that

we got split up and had to say goodbye and he was like "Man, we have

to make the rest of our time together great." So that's a good sign!

Haha:)

This week was my first district meeting. I hope it went alright! We

played a get to know ya game and had some training on "Our purpose"

tied in with "A Successful Missionary and Goal Setting". Fun stuff

man:) It was nice and chill. We got the comfy rollie desk chairs from

the clerks office and had a good ol time:)

The weekend was spent going over to Nuneaton a couple of times because

they had a baptism this weekend!:) Friday, I was able to interview the

guy for baptism and then Saturday we went again to the baptismal

service! It was way cool! Good guy...fellow ginga as well;) haha The

zone leaders came to the baptism as well and our new zone leader is

Elder Smith whom I served with in Nottingham!! So that was fun to

reunite with him and reminisce on some good times:) This week was full

of "firsts" First district meeting, first baptismal interview, first

call ins as DL. The mission is all a learning experience for sure:) So

good!

The work is still kinda meh here. We haven't really been able to see

our more solid investigators because they've been way busy with work

and illness..:/ But yeah! We set some nice goals and plans for the

coming week! Hopefully we can begin to see some fruits:) We have been

trying different types of finding. One of which is just helping people

with like yard work outside and stuff:) It was cool though because we

were walking down this road one day and saw this lady out working in

the garden. We said "Hey! Would you like any help??" She kindly

rejected our offer but we began talking more with her. Then she said

"Maybe I'll come back down to the church one of these times." We were

like "So are you pretty familiar with the church?" She said "I'm a

member!" That surprised us!! Haha She's a less active member and said

she wants to make it down one of these time. It was a poor job on our

end because we forgot that that weekend was stake conference in

Coventry. She later told one of the members that she showed up on

Sunday but no one was there! Dang it!! Haha So hopefully we can start

working with her and help her along:)

Anyways, that's about it really!:) Thanks all for the support! Enjoy

the sunshine:.( haha;) jkjk But seriously.... Cheers butts!

Elder Wright

I love my mission, I love England, and I love the English people!

Sup guys!!:) Y'alright?

 This week was a pretty good week!

 We had a fun week because it was the Challenge Week!! 

But before we get into that, of course, let's talk weather. ;) 

Bit of the same stuff really. 

There were a couple of way warm days where we were walking

 around in just the white shirts, but then the temp dropped a ton! 

It snowed one morning, which was fun for Elder Matus! 

He's never seen snow before!!

So that was fun stuff:)

So here's a list of all the challenges for the various different days.

And just to clarify, each challenge is worth 1 point and it only

applies for the day of. Here we go:

Tuesday

1. 7 selfies with random people. Haha That was fun.

2. Hand written "thank you" note to member of ward council.

3. 2 new investigators.

4. Pres. Challenge: 4 potentials.

Wednesday

1. 2 part member stop bys.

2. Dance off with someone and film it.

3. 1 member present lesson.

Thursday

1. Commit 6 people to church.

2. Ask someone to draw a portrait of you on a pass along card.

3. Take a member "finding" with you for at least 30 minutes.

4. Pres. Challenge: Place 3 BoMs.

Friday

1. Stroke 10 different cats.

2. Have 3 members put testimonies in BoM and you place it that day.

3. 2 new people committed to a baptismal date.

Saturday

1. Contact 2 referrals

2. 2 new family investigators

3. 5 DAs set up for the next week

4. Pres. Challenge: 2 member stop bys.

The challenges were way cool! 

They were designed to help us stretch our potential

 and shoot for specific things. And it helped a ton!

 It helped me realize that we should be expecting and working towards

miracles everyday in missionary work. :) It helped me understand truly

the importance of the daily goals we set too! We should always be

striving to work toward our goals. It was way fun! :) 

We had some good moments for sure! 

The 7 selfies....hahaha Luckily that day, there were Dominos Pizza

 workers dressed as super heroes so we were able to

get a few pics with them!!  We got someone to draw a portrait of

Elder Matus and I and we hung it up on the wall in our flat. :D 

We had cool experiences looking for families to teach. 

 We went through the area book and found a bunch of potentials 

that mentioned they were families and went by them. 

None of them bore fruit, but we were able

to find families in the areas of those potentials! We kept looking for

clues, like mini vans in the drives or toys in the yards. 

And lo and 

behold, we found two potential families to teach! 

T'was way cool:) And we got members involved in specifically

 praying for families to teach

so it was fun seeing those prayers answered!

We had exchanges this past week and I stayed here with Elder Quesada.

(What's with me being with all these dudes that speak Spanish!? Haha)

Elder Matus went to Nuneaton with Elder Pederson and boy oh

boy....hahaha Elder Pederson is one of those guys that's SO sarcastic

all the time he seems really rude.

 Elder Matus isn't quite used to that level of sarcasm....lets just say 

he was happy when exchange was

over;D haha

Other than that though, 'twas a pretty normal week! We're having some

fun!:) It's kinda crazy though because with the way that the transfers

are now, I'm training Elder Matus for only 6 more weeks! :o 

Holy flip, man...time flies. I just want to say, I love my mission, I love

England, and I love the English people! Sometimes it just hits you

like....man, I'm walking the streets of England preaching the word of

God!! Crazy, crazy lucky:) 

Anyways, I hope all is well with you guys!

Cheers mates.

Elder Wright

Peace. Love. Cheers.

Hey hey all! :) How's it goin?? 

Welcome back to the account of my life over here in the British Isles:)

 The weather lately has been pretty crazy (surprise, surprise). 

There were a couple days where we were able

to wear just our white shirts, which was awesome!! But, then it got

freezing cold again.

 A couple of good wet days, which was good for Elder Matus to experience!

 "Welcome to Britain Elder." Haha!

Things are starting to lighten up a bit:) 

We have quite different personalities, 

but it's fun to build on the common stuff! 

For instance, the Spanish do the same thing to him that the

 British do to me in that they profess that their accent is the 

"original" language and that we just messed it up. 

We have some fun laughs about that!

 But yeah, it's going alright:)

The first part of the week was spent walking around 

because we had to get Elder Matus' bike fixed at a bike shop! 

Eventually we got the bike fixed and now were cruising

 around the Hood in style;)  Oh how I do love bikes on the mish.

The past week was pretty good! :) We saw a lot of less actives.

I'm bummed though because there's one less active that we started

getting back to church pretty regularly but she's now on holiday for

two weeks! Hopefully she does okay while she's away:) We gave her a

cool little list of scriptures she can read when she's gone.

We had a super cool experience with one of the less actives named

Constantine. Our WML was telling us we needed to go by soon. 

So we decided to go on a certain day. 

When we got there, she had a friend over.

We got talking about things a little bit and her friend started taking

interest! Long story short, we ended up teaching her about the

restoration right there with Constantine!! It was way fun!:) 

It was a cool uplifting/energising experience for Elder Matus 

(heck...and me!).

 It was super cool because at the end (Huguette is her name) Huguette

asked US when we could meet up next!

 So we're going to see her on Tuesday!:D 

Super duper awesome!

Thursday was zone meeting for us, which was pretty good!! 

Our zone is so culturally diverse, it's awesome! Here's a list of all the

countries that missionaries are from in the Coventry zone:

 'Merica, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, Fiji, Taiwan, Germany,

Italy, Spain, Norway, Holland, and Zimbabwe!! 

Pretty sweet man:)

This coming week is an England Birmingham Mission challenge week!

Every day you get a set of challenges you just complete. Each is worth

a point. There are three categories:

 1) Best companionship 

2) Best district 

3) Best zone. 

There's a reward for each category. It's cool stuff though! :) 

They start off pretty easy and get progressively

harder. It makes it fun! So I'm excited about that:) 

Anyways, sure love you all!! 

Thanks for everythang you do. 

Peace. Love. Cheers.

Elder Wright

Back To The Hood

Hello all!! How's it going?? 

Things over here are pretty crazy man! 

So, I bet you are wondering who my boy is! 

Here we go.....drum roll please......his name is 

Elder Matus and he is from Oaxaca, Mexico!

Pretty cool stuff!:) He's a crazy little Mexican man. Living with

Latinos...very interesting. ;D But it's fun! He's 23 years old and he's

got a good testimony which is awesome! 

His English is pretty good,

there's still a language barrier sometimes. 

Funny enough, he speaks German as well. 

So hey....if we ever need to teach someone in

 "the celestial language", I'm all set!!;D haha

He, like most missionaries, is a little bit shy when it comes to

talking to people at first so, we are trying to talk to a lot of

people on the streets, at bus stops, and at train stations. 

All the good stuff:) I told him that at the beginning of my mission, it was

difficult for me to speak to people and I was pretty shy. 

I think it gave him a bit of confidence helping him know that he's not the only

one! It's funny though because he's been complaining lately about his

shins and feet being sore when we walk. :P Haha!

 Better get used to it buddy! But yeah, we're doing ok. 

He can be a bit crazy sometimes, but it makes it fun throughout the day!

It's been fun to come back to Chelmsley Wood:) 

It was like coming home!

 Coventry was way fun though. I'll be honest, 

I miss the Coventry district a ton! They were way fun:) 

But hey, back to the Hood. We've been on the bus the past week 

because we are waiting to buy Matus a

wheel for his bike. Haha Good stuff though!

We had a funny experience with a group of young-ins one day. 

As we were walking, this giant group of probably like 9-10 year old boys

 are like "Are you guys American!? Are you Jehovahs!?" 

So we talked to them! They got a kick out of my accent and all the

 American phrases we use. Haha! 

Then they challenged us to a game of football, so we

accepted! It was pretty fun not gonna lie!:) It was good for Elder

Matus as well because he was feeling a bit down. 

After that, he was all skipping around because he felt like a celebrity.

 Hahaha Funny guy!

Conference was pretty good!! Uchtdorf is hilarious man. 

 He was making all sorts of jokes. 

Some of the talks I liked: 

Gary E Stevenson, 

Russell M Nelson (priesthood), 

Dieter F Uchtdorf. 

They were all good, but theirs stood out!:) 

(Sometimes Dale G Renlund reminds me of the actor John Malkovich. Hahaha)

On P Day last week in Coventry, we went to an authentic Chinese place

for lunch. We ordered the food and everything and it came out with

chopsticks. I didn't want to be "that guy" that asked for the fork and

spoon so I determined I would finally learn how to use chopsticks.

 And man, I've never been more exhausted

 after eating a meal in my entire life!! Haha

There is a less active here named Anne. She is someone Elder

Hill and I saw on the ward list about a month ago and decided to go

by. We were able to teach her a bit and set up a ride for her to come

to church. She wants to come out again and wants to stay motivated

this time. Anyways, she has been to church every week since! It's

super cool:) Elder Matus and I stopped by after we got back and had a

good lesson with her. She brought up some concerns on how she doesn't

know where to start in the BoM so we gave her a little chart with

some reading topics and stuff, which she was much appreciative of! 

It's been a really cool story:) She wouldn't have come to church

at all if it wasn't for the members that fellowship her and give her a

ride. It's been a cool display of missionary/member work actually working!:)

I do marvel at the faith of the greenies!

 It's pretty dang cool! 

It was funny though because one morning we got a potential investigator.

Later that day in a comp prayer, Elder Matus said in broken English

"We thank you that you open the gates of heaven that we could find

potential investigator." It was funny! 

But it does kinda serve a cool lesson:)

Yeah, things are okay! I've been stressing a bit lately about

everything but that's life, innit. 

Anyways, sure love you all! 

Thanks for everything. 

Hasta semana!:)

Elder Wright