They don't have Thanksgiving here in England

Hello!! 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Two comps from Africa and two comps from the States.  

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

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

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

He talks a lot about women and marriage. Haha! 

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

Highlight of the week was most definitely on Saturday. 

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

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

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

On Saturday morning we traveled to Solihull for the conference. 

There were also a couple of other General Authorities. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Not just physical rest but also being asleep spiritually. 

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

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

 Just some good quotes from that: 

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

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

Why? Because we're in a hurry." 

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

Go to Gethsemane in your mind. As you picture 

Christ there and understand what he did there,

 your problems will naturally begin to diminish. 

Faith and hope begin to grow stronger." 

The conference was way good! It was more personable because 

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

We went and visited Longthorpe Tower today!

 Twas pretty cool! 

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

The bike ride over there was beautiful! 

We saw a freaking posh hospice place. Way cool! 

All the Christmas lights and decorations are up! 

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

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

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

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

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

Funny story! 

We were biking through town the other day and Sandra Swepson 

was driving through town just as we were passing through. 

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

We heard their honking and looked over and started waving. 

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

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

They were all embarrassed. Haha :)

Another random story. 

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

we just heard this loud explosion sounding thing! 

We were like "What the heck!" 

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

You could hear a pin drop. 

We then figured out it was some Remembrance Sunday memorial thing 

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

Especially in light of the Paris attack.

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

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

 Cheerio me duck (Nottingham thing) Haha! 

I hope all is well in the states! 

Love ya tons. Thanks for all the support. 

Cheers!

Elder Wright

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

Wazzz up!! 

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

It's already snowing over there??

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

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

bunch this winter...just when I leave. 

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

Weather over here is still wacked. 

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

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

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

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

Makes me think of that scripture 

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

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

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

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

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

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

Which is kind of sad to be honest! 

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

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

We got to do exchanges in Stamford this week. 

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

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

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

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

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

He knows a TON about the gospel. 

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

where you can ask him any question about the gospel. 

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

He just lays it down. 

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

He gave some good counsel to us though.

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

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

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

(mainly church, prayer, and reading), 

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

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

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

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

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

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

 amount of our investigators for the time being. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Haha! So, we pretty much heard leftover fireworks for 

like 3 days after the official bonfire night. 

But yeah! We went to a bonfire ward activity and 

they made this huge bonfire in someone's garden.

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

Why? 

Who knows. 

It's England! 

Haha! But, you gotta love them:) 

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

I hope all is well over there! 

Cheers. 

Elder Wright

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

Hey hey! 

Happy Halloween! Hope it was a good one:) 

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

It's getting more and more popular but not 

even close to how it is in the states. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Our flat is the top right windows.

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

 That was the extent of my Halloween! 

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

Very foggy too! Kinda cool. :)  

Weather is weird as far as temperature goes. 

It gets warm one day. Really cold another day. 

 England, just make up your mind!  :)

We went on exchanges on Wednesday. 

T'was with Elder Du Plessis from South Africa. 

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

tracted and went by less actives all day. 

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

he was convinced by some people that the Mormon church

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

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

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

he drove back and came walking to us. 

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

he basically told us to stop the things we were doing 

and try to find the real Jesus. Haha!

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

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

We met with our investigators finally! 

Decio is going through a rough time. 

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

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

We taught him about how we receive strength in and through 

Jesus Christ in the midst of our trials. 

He came to church and had a good time! 

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

That was pretty cool! :) 

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

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

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

Then we helped move a huge stack of twigs and branches 

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

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

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

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

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

....without petrol! Haha! 

That was a proud moment for me. 

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

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

They celebrate this guy that tried to blow up parliament, 

by blowing things up and setting things on fire.

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

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

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

These are the train tracks in Stamford.

We saw this cool house and church on our way.

This is the Burghley House on a foggy day.

And these are the gates to the Burghley House.

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

 There are good times as well as bad ones. 

But the good times far outweigh the bad:) 

Hope you have a fine week! 

Cheers. 

Elder Wright

A random thing about England...there are a TON of spiders here!

Wazzzz up guys! This is Elder Wright. 

And things are going pretty decent over here:) 

Tis autumn time and sure as heck feels like it! It's starting to get cold! 

Especially while biking! It makes it feel like 20 degrees cooler.  

I'm beginning to be more and more thankful for heaters in the flat!! :)

Speaking of Flat....this is a picture of the inside.

And this is a picture of my view out the window.

We were finally able to meet with Decio and have a good lesson with him!! 

Yes! Haha! He's way cool. He just got sick which stinks but he's doing good. 

We taught him how to strengthen his faith through 

church, prayer, and reading. (CPR baby)! 

That was when I was on exchange with Elder Andrus from Utah. 

It was a good exchange. We talked to a lot of Chinese people 

that day because Elder Andrus has kind of an alarming 

obsession with the Chinese. Haha! But it was way cool! 

We also talked with a Jamaican who became a potential. 

Anyways, all of our other investigators are still the same...

  busy-ness and lack of desire:/ Pfft. 

If they only knew what they were missing! 

We did some good tracting action during the week.

Us making cookies on P-day!

 

Just to fill up some space on the email, 

I will tell you about some random things I have learned about Britain!! 

Woooo hoooo. Let's do this. 

Let's talk about the air. The air is very much humid and heavy. 

When the wind blows, it is a chill-to-the-bone wind. Very cold! 

There are also certain smells in the air that are 

unique to England....or at least Peterborough. 

These are the different smells in the air that I have smelled: 

Coal (when the fireplaces are cookin), streets smell like rubbish sometimes, 

countryside smells like cow manure and sheep, 

and the infamous smell of curry! (I love the smell of curry. Yes!) 

A little bit about the culture and how they eat... 

Very proper manners while eating. if you're not eating with manners, 

they're not afraid to point it out! 

They eat with a fork and knife for pretty much everything! 

Pizza, salad, chips, everything! Haha! 

We went to eat at a pizza place the other day and 

I just grabbed the slice and started stuffing. 

I then looked around and these people were all looking at me funny. 

Haha! Whoops! 

Meals are named a little different here. 

Lunch is called dinner (depending on who you talk to), 

dinner is called tea (depending on who you talk to also), 

and dessert is called pudding. 

Another random thing about England is there are a 

TON of spiders here. It is ridiculous! They are everywhere! 

No joke. There are all different varieties of them. 

Big ones, and tiny ones (like smaller than ants). It's crazy!

No wonder Ron from Harry Potter was so afraid of spiders!! Haha!

Anyways, that's about it for now. Life as a missionary is truly great!:) 

Sooo cool. Hard...don't get me wrong. But very cool. :) 

Well, have a great week! Enjoy life. 

Thank you so much for all the support. 

Cheers! :)

The guy that plays R2D2 in Star Wars lives in Yaxley, which is in our area!!

Hello!

This week was just alright! 

Temperature in the air has dropped significantly. 

It's starting to get pretty chilly! 

Apparently, it's supposed to get a ton colder so I'm

going to enjoy the last bit of warmth while it lasts! 

The leaves are changing and it's super pretty. 

So, I apologize now for the shorter letter.

Nothing too interesting happened this week!

The work is about the same. We did a bit more tracting this week!

We found that we have a lot more success when we pray 

for specific streets and really try to follow promptings from the Spirit. 

T'was way cool! While tracting, this freakin huge guy answered 

the door. A physical specimen really. Haha! Turns out he used 

to play professional rugby for Northampton Premiere! 

And.... he's a potential investigator now!

We've been trying to meet with him but he's been 

busy with family (which is good in a way!) 

Random fact(?), I heard that the guy that plays R2D2 in 

Star Wars lives in Yaxley, which is in our area!!

Whether that's true or not, I have no idea.

 But maybe we'll have the opportunity to teach R2D2!!;) 

haha! Anyways, 

we met with some less actives in the week. 

Our investigators are very busy. We did find a

couple of new ones though. We dropped Sergeis 

again cause we could never get ahold of him. 

But every time we see him, it's randomly in

the street! We saw him yesterday on accident. 

He's actually been reading parts of the Book of Mormon 

which is way cool! He said he's been enjoying it:) 

Just goes to show that not everything is how it

looks on the surface. Also, we had a lesson with our 

Czech investigator Peter. Language barriers man.... Haha!

 We retaught him the restoration because he didn't understand. 

He thought the BoM was our version of the Bible. 

We taught him using the pamphlets in his language and he

understood better so that's good! Other than that though, nothing

noteworthy really happened. It was just kind of an average week.

We have another American that moved into the ward! 

He was catching us up on election stuff, sports, misc. stuff. Good stuff:) 

One night as we were heading home, our homeless friend Tony 

asked us to guard his stuff so he could go use the toilet.

 So we just stood there making sure his stuff was ok! 

I guess he trusts us so that's good!:)

But sadly, that's about the extent of my week. 

Nothing super funny happened. 

Sorry! Anyways, I hope all is well:) 

I will talk to ya next week! 

Cheers!

Elder Wright

It's like, "Dudes! Your salvation is on the line!"

Hey guys! 

So, this week wasn't very eventful, but it was alright. :) 

I officially hit my 2 month mark on Tuesday! 

The weather this week has been weird, man. 

Monday was very rainy. We biked a lot too and got soaked! 

Tuesday we biked about 20 miles. The less awesome part 

about it was it was barely raining all day yet the air temperature 

was still pretty warm. So, you wear a coat to stay dry 

from the rain, but you get super sweaty because 

of the coat combined with the humidity. Fun stuff!

 Then the weather kind of tamed down a bit. 

It started being sunny for a couple days. 

It's been quite warm for October apparently so that's kinda cool! 

 Just in the past couple days the temperature 

has been starting to drop. Time to whip out the winter gear! 

Tuesday we biked to a town called Whittlesey. 

The bike route goes through some pretty countryside! 

We saw a double rainbow while biking there. 

I felt like I was in the movie The Best Two Years when 

riding on the bike path! Haha! Wednesday we had zone meeting

 in Leicester. It was way cool! We had some training on using 

family history while finding people. There was a statistic 

that said that if a recent convert makes it to the temple 

1-3 years after baptism, they're 80% more likely not to 

fall away from the church. That's a huge percentage! 

We applied that into our finding this week a little bit. 

They gave us family history cards to hand out.

 We had a Philipeno dinner one night. She made SOOO 

much food, it was funny. She first brought out this 

big ol' dish filled with Pahdt Thai. Then, she brought 

out a big slab of beef. Then, a giant plate of sausage. 

Haha! It was awesome! She also made a dessert for us. 

Afterwards, she packed up the rest of the food

 (which was still like 3 days of food), 

and gave it to us. Hahaha! It was great! :) 

There definitely is no shortage of food here in 

Peterborough that is for sure!

The work here is still kinda slow. For the training on finding, 

they told us to use a lot of different types of 

finding...not just GQing ("Golden Question"-Basically street contacting) 

So we've been going by less actives in the ward, going 

through former investigators, tracting. It's fun to mix it up! 

It's just slow to see results really. Our investigators 

right now are very "busy". It can definitely be aggravating sometimes. 

It's like, "Dudes! Your salvation is on the line!"

 We have a new investigator named David! He's from Czech Republic. 

He has never been religious and just recently went through a rough time. 

He seems pretty solid! He'll be tough because 

he literally has no idea about anything related to God. 

But I'm way excited for him! :) Decio (our Portuguese investigater) 

will be returning from holiday this weekend so I'm hoping 

we'll be able to start working with him! That's how it's going though! :) 

Remember Pat the Chat? 

The guy that won't ever stop talking? 

 Usually we have a dinner appointment with him every Tuesday. 

He takes us to this Chinese buffet. Anyways, 

his thought processes are wacked. He used to be a pro boxer 

and I think he took a few too many blows to the head! 

He's single now, and is probably about 40yrs old. 

He told us about this time he fell in love with a sister from the ward. 

She eventually was going to move back to Ireland 

and invited him to the airport to wave her off. 

So, he started to Coventry, and all the sudden his car broke down. 

He decided he needed to see her very bad and starting 

running the 60 miles to Coventry. Hahaha 

What the heck was going through his mind??? 

"Hmmm....car broken. Train? No. Bus? No. Running? Yes!!" 

Yeah...that's just a taste of Pat. 

That's about it for my week! :) Things are great with the new missionaries! 

They're all way cool:) We have the biggest district in the mission so that's cool! 

Anyways, I hope all is well. Say hi to America for me. I miss her. Stay sweet! 

Cheers!

Elder Wright

Conference was the bomb!! Can I get an amen??

Hey guys! 

So, this week was alright! 

I am officially done with my first transfer of my mission! 

Pretty crazy eh? It flew by! At some times, 

too fast and at other times, too slow. 

But for the most part, it was great:) 

I've learned more in the past 2 months 

than basically ever before. 

 I'm still being trained in Pete'. 

There are a couple changes though. 

Sister Banchini was replaced with 

Sister Thompson, and her trainee, Sister Romo 

(trio of Tenney, Romo, Thompson) 

Sister Banchini left to Nottingham! 

And then we got another set of elders here in Peterborough! 

Elders Jones (Mesa, Arizona) and Du Plessis (South Africa). 

They're way cool! It'll be fun to work with them as well. 

As a result of them coming in, 

Elder Ashcraft and I lost a lot of referrals 

because they were in their area. But yeah! Good stuff:)

We had some training on member visits this week. 

We were encouraged to visit as many members homes 

in the week as possible, but to keep the 

visits no longer than ten minutes.

 We were just to share a spiritual thought. 

So, we've been stopping by members homes! 

We are trying to get referrals from them. 

We did some street contacting this week,

 and did a lot of less active work. 

Charles and Danny (Old guy brothers from last week) 

didn't end up making it to conference though:/ 

That was a huge bummer! 

Not a super eventful week but it was alright. 

We have an investigator named Decio. 

He has finished his night shift work routine so he can 

start seeing us a lot more! He seems way solid! I'm excited:)  

My week started off not so good...but ended up being great! 

I'll tell you why. 

On Wednesday, we biked down to a town called Orton. 

We were going to contact some referrals we had received. 

One of which was a man named Jonathan. 

He was a referral given to us by a man we had met. 

We didn't know beforehand really, but we showed up to their 

house and found out very quickly that they were 

Born Again Christians. Not only was he a Born Again Christian 

but he was a preacher/missionary. 

For those that don't know, Born Agains believe that it is solely 

by the grace of God that we are saved. 

Basically just believe and you're saved...not through your works. 

Anyways, that visit quickly turned into a bash on the Mormon church! 

He was finding all sorts of scriptures and references 

trying to disprove the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. 

We left his house with just a bad feeling. 

And honestly, I thought a lot about it during the week. 

It was definitely a trial of my faith. 

Afterwards, I was talking with Elder Ashcraft about it. 

He gave me some reassuring words of encouragement that helped a ton. 

He told me about his first few times people just bashed him down. 

Satan seriously has a strong grip on some people. 

But the thing that helped me the most through all of it was 

thinking about times in my life where I knew I had felt the Spirit. 

The good feelings that come from listening to prophets and apostles, 

while reading the Book of Mormon, and the peace at the 

temple are all undeniable feelings that tell me this is true. 

It has been the biggest help! 

Conference was the bomb!! Can I get an amen?? 

Here are some of the themes/impressions I got from conference: 

Hold fast to the simple truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ, 

have close relationship with the Spirit, 

be bold and courageous in defending accusations toward the church, 

stand up and testify, don't jump on the band wagon of 

worldly opinions and views, maintain great faith through trials. 

Some of my favorite talks:

 (Uchtdorf Sat a.m., Cook, Holland, Stanfill, Bennett, Uchtdorf priesthood)

It seems like a few were talking about how the worlds views on things are changing. 

These are some thoughts I had on the subject: 

Don't jump on the band wagon of worldly opinions and views. 

Their ways may bring a pin prick of happiness and pleasure 

in comparison to eternity, but living the gospel of Jesus Christ brings 

the purest happiness anyone can feel, which eventually leads 

to a never ending state of that happiness in the presence of our 

families and Father in Heaven. 

We met kind of a sketchy guy on the street. 

We asked him what made him happy in his life and he said "Money".

 He said, "Money buys me pleasure. 

When I run out of pleasure, I buy more pleasure" 

(referring to some not so good things) 

It's so sad! 

Some people have no idea what they're missing out on! 

But hey, that is why the church sends missionaries! :) 

Our job is to find those people and share what we know to be true, 

in hopes of them being able to feel that same happiness. 

Haha sorry! Conference just pumped me up. 

It was a much needed spiritual rejuvenation. 

Sad to say...this was probably the first time that I have ever payed full 

attention to conference. Haha! And man....it was great! 

That's my story about the week! :) 

It was all a learning experience, that's for sure. 

Here's a funny thing that happened this week. 

We stopped this Polish mom that was walking on the street with her kids. 

We got talking to her about her beliefs and stuff. 

She was pretty happy to be talking with us! 

We then asked her if she has ever heard of Mormons before. 

Her eyes widened and asked "Wait...you're Mormons??" 

Without even waiting for a reply, she started shaking her 

head "no" and walked away fast with her kids. It was just such a 

huge change in her when she found out we were Mormon! 

Sometimes....rejection can be funny. Haha :)

Anyways, it's about that time. That was my week! 

Hopefully you enjoyed the stories and whatnot! 

Maybe you even learned something new. 

Haha Who knows! 

Thank you all for the support:) 

Stand strong in the gospel folks! It is the best. :) Cheers!