Baptisms

The teaching is going ok. I'm still a greenie but I can kind of be involved in the lessons now. I really just need to make sure that I have the spirit with me and then my teaching skills are not all that important. I've done exchanges a couple of times. They were both uneventful days but the one kid is from AZ and so we had a little more to talk about.

Rex and Stanford were baptized this Sunday!! It was really great to see them be able to do it. We were a little worried about Rex because the night before he said that he was worried about it. But he went through with it. He will be confirmed on Sunday in sacrament. He said that he felt like he was flying when he was done. It was great. Stanford is a cool little kid. He was so happy to be baptized and confirmed. His dad was really funny because he really didn't know what he was doing when it came to the blessing part of the baptism. We were entertained by it.

Another guy that we are teaching, Siyuan, said that he would be baptized this month. We are a little worried about it because he is Chinese and his English is not that great and we don't want to go too fast with him. So far his wife hasn't joined us for any of the lessons but they both came to Sacrament meeting this last week but they didn't stay. Hopefully this will all work out.

The weather is a not too hot but its waaaaay humid. If it weren't for that I would be fine. And no one has AC's or even coolers in their house. Just open the windows. It really doesn't cool them off that much. Our flat gets really stuffy because we don't really have a window that we can leave open while we are out. It’s only rained once or twice while we have been out. It looks like it may rain today though. Our district leader, Elder Sinclair laughs at the rain coat that I have. Apparently they really don't wear those here. He is from Chester in England.

The roads here are really small. It will be amazing if I don't get run over on the cycle. It’s crazy how close people get to us but they are better drivers around here then back home.

Our area is VERY Muslim and we can’t really talk to them so it’s hard to go out walking and trying to talk to people. We can talk to them but we aren't allowed to baptize them because of the danger that it puts them in, in their culture. Then there are a lot of India Indians, not "red Indians" as ours are called, they are hard to talk to because they are either Muslim or Hindu so they don't want to hear it.

We did meet a Muslim lady on the street who did not look Muslim at all. We have been to her house twice and she has fed us twice. We weren't planning on it either time. She said that her husband is Christian and that is why we went by but he was not interested at all. At least we got some good Turkish food from her (she is from Turkey). Her mom is also visiting from Turkey and kept saying that she loved us and that we were sent from Allah (God).


Not sure what else to write. Love you guys!

Elder Wright

This is a pic of our flat. It is literally stables turned into a flat. The one pic is the vine, Steve, that is growing above our desks. The other one is me with my trainer, Elder Smith and Grandpa (his trainer, Elder Richter from germany). Elder Smith has blonde hair and Elder Richter has dark.

Bicycle+Hills=Death of Elder Wright‏

Things are going well here in Leicester (said lesta). The members feed us pretty much every night. Which is great because I doubt our food would be nearly as good. Our self made lunches definitely are not that good. But the only problem is that the members think we have all day to just hang out. We don't and we are only supposed to spend an hour for dinner. I doubt if we have been out in an hour thus far. But the ward has made me feel very welcome so that is good.

Brother and Sister Browns are great members in the area. She is the one that picked up my bags at the train station so that I would not have to carry them as we walked to our flat. She's crazy. They have 2 cats and a dog. The dog I loved but the cats not so much. They were all over us (asthma was fine). Then I looked over and they were on the table which had already been set. The food sister brown made me was all green since I'm a greenie. The chicken was not green but the salad, potatoes, and other stuff was all green. I even had green utensils

This Sunday should be really good. We have to Baptisms. Rex and Stanford. I think I told you about Rex. He's a good guy. We were a little worried about how his interview would go but he passed. Stanford is a 10 year old African boy. His parents are both members but for some reason he was separated from the dad while he and his mom were is Africa. I don’t know the whole story. But they will both be baptized this week.

Biking is not my favorite thing to do. There are some killer hills. My companion goes up them like they are nothing else but I'm lagging behind on the hill part. I'll tell you this much I should be in good shape by the time I get back. If my knees make it that long.

Well the work is going good. Not too many rude people so far. Love ya.

Elder Wright

My first day out in the field

I'm am officially out in the field. My companion is Elder Smith from London. I really like him thus far. Last night we went out once we finally got to our area from the Mission office. We are in the Evington area in the city Leicester. It's a really nice area. The city is...culturally diverse. Lots of Muslims and Hindus and people from all over. Last night we taught a lesson to a progressing investigator who is planning on getting baptized two weeks from Sunday. He was a very interesting fellow. When Elder Smith and his previous companion, Elder Davis stopped him on the street he was a alcoholic who smoked 40 cigarettes a day. I've only met him the one time but I can tell that he has made a huge change in his life. He is so thankful that they stopped him. We have some other investigators too. I haven't met them yet but I will over this next week. We have met quite a few people on the street too. I'm hoping that I will be able to teach and that I'll be somewhat of a help. So far I feel like I'm just along for the ride but I know that as time goes on I'll improve and be able to teach also.

Apparently this area has older people in the ward. Its a good thing though because we have a dinner appointment pretty much every week. Sister Brown picked up our luggage at the train station and then we walked to our flat. It is the stable of an old house. Its pretty nice inside but when I first saw the stable sign I got a little worried. Its on Haynes street. You should Google Map it. I don't remember the number though.

Its weird to think that the MTC is already over. Some days felt like they went so slowly but now looking back it went by super fast. I'm really going to miss my M.T.C. District. They were all really great and we got really close as time went on.
President and Sister Ogden were both really nice and I can tell that they will be great. They said that we will be their last group that they will see all the way through for the full two years. I'm glad that we will have the same one.


Keep sending letters!!

Love you,
Elder Wright

Leaving the MTC

We are going out to the missions tomorrow! We are all really excited and can't believe that our time in the MTC is over. Love you all, I'll write you a letter and let you know more.

Forget yourself and go to work

It has rained quite a bit here. It was raining today on our "Church History Tour". It was a really cool tour. We went to a park that is by the River Ribble which is where all the first baptism in England were done. It is such a beatiful park. I'm going to try to send some of the pictures. We then went and saw the front of President Hinckleys first flat when he was here in England. It was the one where he wrote his dad and said that he wanted to come home and his dad wrote to him to get over it. It was cool because I was thinking of that story the other day when I was frustrated with the teachers and some of the MTC stuff. After that we went to Downham Village. The village is kept the same way that it was at the beginning of the last century. It is really cool. There is a lot of church history there if you want to look it up. A lot has happened this week. Our days are litterally full 24/7. It can be kinda frustrating but I just go with it. Some of the teachers can be really a pain in the butt. Its really hard to not say something to them. But like I said I thought of the story of President Hinckley and it was alot better. We got to go tracting at Manchester Picadilly Train station. Most people were pretty rude but it was cool to see some people that were interested. This week we are going to go door to door in Preston. For the tracting thing we took the train to Manchester and then just tried to talk to as many people as possible.

Love ya, Elder Wright

MTC

The flight her was incredibly long. I cant sleep on airplanes so that did not help anything. I didn't sleep at all over the Atlantic and only slept a little over Ireland. Once we got through customs, they put us on a bus and sent us to the MTC. They had no mercy on us at the MTC and made us do a full day of orientation stuff. The first couple of days of Jetlad were killer but I think that I am finally over it.

The MTC is on the Temple Grounds. There is also a stake center and a couple of other church buildings. Its all so green and beautiful. There are tons of plants and flowers and stuff like that. Around everything is a thick forest. Its fun to walk around with all our spare time. (sarcasm, no such thing as spare time here). I've taken alot of pictures of the grounds. I'm hoping that I have enough time to send them in another email.

The Spirit is really strong here at the MTC. I have learned so much and I am enjoying going to classes. We got our "allowance" yesterday. But half of it is already gone to buying postal stuff. Its going to be wierd getting used to the pound (£) system. It kinda stinks because right now the dollar is really weak to the £ so it takes more money in dollars.

We were told that the people telling us that the British missions aren't high baptizing were wrong. And the Birmingham mission is the highest baptizing mission in England right now.

My MTC companion is Elder Clark from Boise, ID. Our roommates are Elder Tonga, a Tongan from Tonga, he is our District leader and his companion is Elder Whitehead from Montana.

Today is Pday so we went to the temple and got some stuff done. Well my time is running out.

Love Elder Wright