I love music, and few things are better than having a successful improv jam sesh!

Hey, hey!! What is up my peeps! :) 

This week was pretty good!! Not bad at all. 

The weather has been pretty much the same really. 

Nothing new there..just craziness. 

So, yeah, no need to really waste time with that

this week. ;)

We had a lot of cool things happen!!

 We've REALLY been trying to find new people to

teach but it can be a struggle sometimes. Well we thought about it and

figured it would be a good idea to look for a miracle through former

investigators! One day, we were going by formers, probably a list of like

20 peeps. Anyways, long story short, the very last person we went by,

the lady answered. She said that right now she's in a rough time in

her life. We were like "Hmmm...Plan of Salvation!" Taught her and set

up a time to see her Tuesday night this week! Woo hoo! 

Miracles:D

Thursday we had some zone meeting action! It was super good and

spiritual as always but I want to talk about something we did during

lunch after it. There was an elder from Idaho (Elder Fullmer) who was

over at the piano playing some stuff (he's way good by the way!) I

went over and we were talking for a while and I was listening to him

jam. Part of the way through we decided to jam together. So we decided

on a key and went for it!! It was a TON of fun! :D 

I love music and few things are better than having a 

successful improv jam sesh! :) 

Haha! Anyways, that was just a bit of fun!

After zone meeting, Elder Matus and I stayed in Coventry because we

were on exchanges with the ZLs. I was with Elder Smith (it brought us

back to the good ol times in Nottingham!:D) It was awesome! We had

some good times on exchange! :) I'll mention one experience...we were

knocking doors and came to this one. The lady answered and right away

was like "I'm Catholic and am very busy!" I don't know what we did or

said but somehow we got talking to her...eventually it led into the

gospel and we taught her the entire Restoration and she was totally

interested!:D It was awesome stuff for sure.

Saturday night was way fun! Our investigator, Teresa, asked if she

could take us out to eat! So, we were like "Flip yeah!!" Haha!

 She took us to this restaurant called Nando's. 

Oh. My. Such good food!!:D

It's this Portuguese chain restaurant. They sell some of the best

chicken in chips! Ah man:) They have all these different sauces that

you pour over the chicken and chips that just makes it to die for.

Mmmmmm.. Anyways, she's still doing well! She's coming to church

regularly and enjoys it a ton. Unfortunately, because of the setting at

Nandos, we weren't able to testify strongly about baptism and put her

on a date. :/ But! We're seeing her again very soon so we shall keep you

posted:)

Church was super good! I have exciting news as well. I'm sure I've

told ya but there are three missionaries serving from the ward right

now. Well...not anymore because one of them just finished!! :) He was

serving in Switzerland. It's been way cool to talk with him since he's

been back (which is less than a week). He's still trying to get used

to it all. He says he was ready to come home but he really misses

the mission! He bore a moving testimony in church. Since being a

missionary, I feel I can relate to the testimony of a

missionary/missionary work. It's such a great work!! 

Sometimes I can't put it all into words. :)

I think that's about it for the week! T'was good. :) This is the last

full week of the transfer. Next Sunday night I find out if I'm staying

or if I'm going! But yeah, keep up the goodness over in da States:)

Thanks everyone! 

Peace. Love. Cheerz.

Elder Wright

After a nice bike ride through the country, we went back and ate at a chippie....living the dream!

What's up!! How it goin?? :)

 This was an alright week I guess! 

It started off pretty slow, but eventually it picked up a bit! 

We experienced some crazy, crazy weather earlier this week. 

A random hail storm in the middle of the week!

It was very crazy because literally 30 

min after it happened it was sunny and hot. 

But ya know...

that's how it is over here! Haha!

 I took a video so hopefully it gets to ya! :)

Sorry if this email isn't too long.

I'm struggling to think of anything spectacular to talk about. 

We had zone conference this week with President!:) 

We received good training on "pulling the yoke together"

...whether it's with companion, the ward members, 

literally in any phase of the work you should all be working

together to help pull it along! It was good stuff.

We had a real fun Pday today! We biked with one of the members out

past a town called Maxstoke to see the nice English countryside.

Mmmm....never gets old! I'll send some pics I took;) After a nice bike

ride through the country, we went back and ate at a chippie....living

the dream! Haha I love England.

Not too many stories to share this week unfortunately. The work is

still going. We've taught Paul and we're happy to hear that

he's living the Word of Wisdom as of now, so that's way cool! 

STILL struggling to commit to church but other than that...he's way good!:)

And Teresa is well also...still progressing! :) We're hoping to have a

good conversation about baptism with her so wish us luck!

Yup...so sorry this is about it really!:/ 

Better luck next week though.

 I hope you all are having a grand old summer!

 Enjoy the week and best wishes:) 

Ta ta.

Elder Wright

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