Wonderful Christmas Time

Well since today is not actually p day I'm going to have to be brief,

I'm glad you guys are recovering from the mental blow of losing another son to the mission system. I bet he's doing just fine. He's still in Utah for another 5 weeks so he'll be ok. As for me, I'll be skyping you probably around 5-6 my time... we'll see how that goes. Just be on the internet and looking for when I come active. Or just look for an email that I'll send you and that way you can know when I'll be on.

I think we've done this like 3 times now so I think we can handle it pretty smoothly this time. but I won't be able to call you via phone because I used up all the calling card minutes when I called mark last week :P Unless I want to buy another one... but 5 pounds is alot of money when it can by you dinner for a few days.

We are booked to the top though for the next 4-5 days. At Church yesterday we had almost everyone come up to us and ask whether we could come over or not. Seriously so many people. I didn't imagine to get a response like that. So we tried to fit as many people as we could into our schedule, but we had to push a few back to New Year's time. That's ok. At least I don't have to cook for about 4 days or so :) That is like the best feeling ever :) So much food... well there goes all the exercise I've been putting out for the past 3 months. I've done really good with it. Shannon would be proud that I've been moving my fat butt over here. :)

Anyway I'm excited to hear from you, I hope everything is going well :) I'll catch you on Wednesday.

Love,

Elder Smith

Just Around the Corner

Its crazy to hear that Mark leaves in three days. That is probably really stressful for both you and him. Imagine having two sons on missions, imagine the blessings!

Well I'll try to give you a clear picture as to what is going on around here in my mission. I'll try to answer a few of those questions that mom has sent me.

First I will probably call mark via his cell, if he doesn't answer that for any reason than I'll call the house phone. You can tell me if this is wrong but I believe his number is 18013858856. Obviously I still have the house phone memorized.

I don't know by what you mean by "email blasts". I do get your regular emails if that is what you mean.

I have found a place to skype this Christmas with our recent converts Anne and her family. So I'll introduce you guys on Christmas to each other :) Plus we are having Christmas dinner with her family. Jamaican style :) It'll be really fun.

So yeah, things are going pretty good over here. Elder Evans has been teaching me all about how to pimp cars and how to make them cool... apparently his brother just spent over 100K on his BMW M3. Just a little bit ridiculous. So when dad mentioned that he met a guy that had a 10K airplane it made me chuckle just a bit because I've met a lot of people here in England who just love their expensive toys. I think my favourite car I've seen this week was an awesome Mercedes Sl 65 AMG. The thing was so stinking loud. Just happened to pass us as we walked to the chapel and it nearly blasted my eardrums out. Then I had a revelation that one day I'll build a car like that... but I don't think be doing that anytime soon :P

So as to that friction chafe stuff... I don't know how to get that over here... where do I buy it? because that stuff would be a life saver to me. My legs just like to rub it up over here :P

It been quite a gray week as for missionary work. We've been seeing a lot of less active members and a few that didn't even know they were members of the church... which I don't get how they got baptized and then forgot about it :P But alot of the are pretty cool people. Erik is one of our less actives. He's pretty much crazy. He's from Ghana, and I'm not sure as to why the government let him have a drivers licence because when he pulled up to meet us he bumped into people's cars with his tiny Peugot, which really upset a few people. Its really funny because he just doesn't care :P Up until he got his car impounded this past week because his neighbour complained to the police because he can't drive straight.

We have a cool Iranian lady that we are working with for baptism. She runs her own business with her fiancee and she converted from Islam to Christianity after she came to the UK. We've been working with her for about 2 months and she has been really good. The only thing we have to do is wait for her to get married :P Which could be a while according to her future husband's plans. So we'll see where that goes.

Oh Mom wanted me to answer questions about my camera... My camera charges off the battery charger that came with it. I did have to buy a converter for it but since the charger works for 240V it isn't a problem. Where as with my iHome I brought it only worked on 120V so that was the problem. So make sure the things that you buy are comptable with the voltage in Thailand. You can look that up on Google I'm sure.

My camera doesn't charge on the computer unfortunately. Only through the battery charger.

Well I hope I've fed your appetite for this week. I hope everything goes well and I'll call mark this Tuesday around 1-2... which is 7-8 for me because that is when I get done with missionary activities. Just let him know to be ready and that I might call the house phone first just to make sure my international calling card still works.

Love you guys,

Elder Smith

Two Weeks Till Christmas

Well England has switched its gears and is now heavily in the holiday season. Well there have been advertisments here in London for Christmas pretty much since the end of October. They get started here nice and early.

Anyway its been an "ok" week. Most of our investigators were pretty hosey this week so it made it really difficult to have lessons. It just makes it so we have to knock more doors, find new people, and continue the age old process of finding and teaching. If your not finding, your teaching, if your not teaching, your finding. That's pretty much the missionary motto. I do enjoy the teaching part. That is always fun. It's really cool to see people who have never heard of the gospel before suddenly start to understand the purpose that we share. Kinda fun. As for knocking on doors in the nighttime when it is freezing... well not quite so fun.

Enough about me ranting, I saw from some of the pictures that Brandon is engaged. I'm not sure what I should say to that, but good for him :) They Hillyards may have had the first missionaries from there family, but our family had the first marriage. I'm not sure these are things we want to brag about though :P

So with the call for Mark on the 17th, the only time I've got is after a conference so I'll call in the evening here. I'll just be at the flat so I don't need to go anywhere. We can finalize next week but I'll probably try to call around 8 (my time) which will be 1 in the afternoon (your time). I might be able to do a little bit later because I'll be free about after 7 my time which is noon for you. So just let me know how you want that to work.

Its good to see the snow in Utah still exists and that I'm not the only one missing snow during this time.

Well I'm glad you are all safe. I do love the Christmas time here. I'll talk to you guys on Christmas, and i'll speak to mark next week.

Love,

Elder Smith

3 Weeks Till Christmas

Great Grandma Prediger

Grandma KSmith

Grandpa JHSmith

Grandpa JWHillyard

And the youngest of the lot, Grandma CHillyard

So I've had a good talk with President this week and I've gotten some cool privileges for this Christmas time.

So first thing, I've received permission to call Mark on the 17th of December and speak with him for little bit before he goes into the MTC. I can still call you guys on Christmas, but I've recieved a bit of time to speak to Mark before he goes in. President thought it would be good for him to hear from me so I'm excited to talk to him :) So I'll have to let you know how that goes as we still have a 7 hour time difference. 

So I think that is the most exciting news that I have. I'll probably only be able to call, so I don't know if I'll have skype for the 17th so just be prepared for a phone call. As for right now everything is going alright. We have another possible baptismal candidate so we are excited for that as well. Christmas baptisms are great :)

It was great to see all the pictures of the family around at Thanksgiving time. I really enjoyed seeing everyone still alive and well :) (especially the old people :). Looks like everyone is doing well and keeping warm.

I had a fun workover in a place called Watford, were Elder Hansen died or ended his mission and I got to have an awesome basketball game there. So much fun. Man, I learned a few good moves from my Brasilian companion so I actually did impressively well... plus all my running has put me into pretty good shape if I do say so myself :) So that was really fun. We were trying to get the coach of the basketball team that we were playing with to come to church this Sunday, really cool guy and he really loves the missionaries. So that was a cool experience. 

Well I'm excited to see how this Holiday season goes, I got the package from the mission office i think. I haven't opened it so don't worry :) I know better than that. I'm excited to see you guys this Christmas as well so I hope you guys have a good time as well.

I'll catch you guys later,

Love, 

Elder Bradley Smith

Thanksgiving a Maybe

What is interesting this week is that we've had one of our investigators invite us over for Thanksgiving dinner this week. Quite interesting seeing that none of the members have, but none the less our friend Chris wants us to come share a "international" Thanksgiving with him. Chris is a pretty cool guy. In his upper 40's and he is quite English. He attends the current Church of England but has always been fasinated as to why Mormons even exist. So we've helped him understand that a bit and he also wants to get a taste of our American culture as well. So we should have a good Thursday this week.

As for this past week things have been going pretty well. We've managed to have a few good appointments this week so we've been pretty happy with that. We're having interviews with our President again this week so we'll probably have a good conversation there. Not exactly sure what we are going to talk about but we'll probably find something.

We ran into a few crazy people this week. Most of them drunk to be honest. Our town center crawls with those kind of people after about five because everyone just goes straight into the bars. We had an interesting experience with Muslim man that said if we really believed in Jesus we'd be Muslim. I guess everyone has their own point of view because that's what the Catholic church has been trying to say for the last two thousand years. I thought we handled the situation pretty well. No bashy comments, no rude insults, just testify. Worked really well. Keeps the spirit there. I've had way to many conversations that involve me or my companion pulling out the bible because someone tries to quote it off the top of their head. I think if any conversation gets that far, the spirit is not really there.

 We also met with another lady from Iran, her name is Nina. She actually looked us up online about 2 months ago and got in contact with the missionaries from LDS.org. She's been really cool to meet. She speaks a modern form of Persian, or Pharsie... not exactly sure how to spell it and she runs her own travel agency with her husband to be. She converted from the Muslim faith to Christianity due to a few of her friends here. She is kind of the same way that Chris is, the guy having us over for Thanksgiving, and she wants to understand why we are different from the rest of Christianity. So we've had a good time teaching her this past week and she's been coming to church. Possible baptism to be I would hope.

I'm really looking forward to Christmas, its just crazy thinking how fast this is coming up. It's going to be December this Sunday. Next thing I know I'll be talking to you guys. Say hello to Kyle for me. He gets back in like 15 days. I can't believe that he's already done with his mission. Well tell Mark not to panic about missionary work. Your always taken care of, for the most part. Give him a decent camera, you want pictures of your mission. Its going to be cool to upload all of my pictures to a new computer and be able to look at the past two years on there. It'll be great. I hope you guys are doing well. Not getting sick or anything. My companion is suffering the common cold at the moment. Puts a damper on his usually happy attitude.

We'll I'll catch you guys soon.

Love ya,

elder Bradley Smith

Good Week with the Hench Man

As the title of the email states the word "hench" in slang here means "buff" or "huge". My current companion Elder Evans is a weight lifter, and he's quite fit. Kinda makes me jealous. Well, that's something I can work on later. I got rebuked by Shannon just barely, and I realized that I don't really send enough stories... but it does take some time to type them out. Plus when I get home you can just ask me about anything I'll have dozens of stories to share with you guys. Its just not really practical to write all of them down you know? So I'll share one with you from this past week.

Its starts a little like this, We were meeting with a good Sister. She is from B--- and she has lived here in England for nearly 3 years. The missionaries happened to find her and her (previous husband) walking down the street. Obviously her husband just kept walking, but she stopped and listened to what they had to say. Changed her life forever. Due to lots of details and information that follows previously in her life prior to this experience, I can't relate everything that she spoke to us about. Sufficeth me to say that her husband emotionally and physically abused her for nearly 18 years. Way to long for anyone. Well, she didn't do anything about it because that was the culture that she has grown up in. Its normal in their society. To some extent that is. But in England physical abuse is illegal and her colleagues at one of her jobs found out about it and got her husband locked away for a few months. She began to have the missionaries over during that time in which she than joined the church very quickly. My companion and I heard that story from her after she had borne testimony of the Book of Mormon to an investigator that we had brought to her home. That was probably one of the best member present moments on my mission.

So I have had some great experiences here in Wembley, though I may not relate all of them just know that I do have things to share with you :)

So I'll describe to you a little bit about Elder E. He was born in California, grew up in Las Vegas, and spent his High School years in Missouri. His family has just recently moved to Highland in Utah, so they are like next door neighbours to us. So that makes four Utah companions that are going to be coming over for dinner mom. We'll see how well that goes :) As I said, Elder Evans likes to lift weights and he loves his cars. We talk about that all the time. Tis quite fun. We've been working hard, hopefully we might have another baptism this transfer but everyone hosed us at church this past week so we are still figuring things out on how to get people there... but that's all missionary related problems. We've been teaching a lot of Romanians... interesting and peculiar people. Lots of them in this part of town. We've had our Romanian members out with us recently, so there have been some good experiences there as well.

Well, I hope your week is going well. I like the pictures with Shannon and Whitney doing the strange bridge thing... and then having Hazel and Delores in the corner just chilling there. Such a classic look on our family. Anyway, I'll catch you all next week.

Love, 

Elder Bradley Smith

PS, 

You are getting my pictures I send you right? from Google Drive? just let me know :) Yes, I do.

Bright Day for London P Day

Well another bright week has come and gone and we finally just had our two baptisms. So we've enjoyed decent weather for most of the week after that massive storm, but its been quite chilly during the night because our heating system has been broken for the past week or so and our landlord has yet to fix it :P Lovely how motivated these landlords are to fix your problems :P

Well I did receive the garments on Friday, and the are blessedly amazing! Freedom of the chaffing crotch... that is for now. So far I haven't had any problems with them, but lets just hope that all goes well with them. I bought some great new shoes, though breaking them in is not always fun, but they are quite comfortable. They come from a store called Clark's, and they make some great, durable shoes. So hopefully with these shoes will last until the end of my mission, which they should.

As for the sports clothing, I haven't found anything here for a decent price... we are going to through Wembley and they have a new outlet Mall there that we want to check out and I'll see if I can find some good under armour there for a good price. I'll let you know next week how that goes and whether or not you should just amazon a pair to me. I'll just take a sniff in there, and find out if there is any good deals. I know mom loves good deals :)

Our baptisms went well, notice how I am wearing the white in the pictures I sent you. Lovely to see that those white trousers actually have gotten used since I was in the Temple in Preston. Its been a long time since then... Well now we need to continue to find more awesome people like the family we just baptized.

If everything goes smoothly here, the end of the transfer is this next week, so I won't be writting until Tuesday probably. So don't be shocked because I think we've been through this process about 10 or 11 times now. So I think everything will be going just fine, I'll probably stay here in Wembley all the way till after Christmas this next transfer, but President might surprise me and drop a bomb on me or something and I could end up in Norwich or something like that :P Nah, I'll probably just replace my old district leader here as the new district leader, but I may just end up being a regular missionary again for another transfer.

Well I hope to catch you guys next week, its been fun here and Halloween was interesting. Well I'll fill you in on that. People here are not big on Halloween like they are in the states. I think society is just changing so much that people don't bother to go door to door anymore on this holiday here... I can imagine why. Well we did tracting on Halloween and didn't get the responses we thought we were going to get. But that is just life :)

Well love you guys. 

Elder Bradley Smith

PS 

Shannon that was a hilarious story. I started laughing here in the library :) Probably not the most reverent thing....

Break These IN

Well I'm most grateful for new shoes, as I'm going to pick up two new pairs this afternoon so I'm excited about that and I'll be able to endure this winter :) I'm most blessed to have people and parents that support me :)

As for this past week, things have been going pretty well. We have another baptism, well two that is, scheduled for this coming Sunday so this will be really exciting, and I'll get to share more photos with you guys :). This transfer has gone by quite quickly, I'm surprised that we only have two weeks left before the end of the transfer. So we've been hinted on what will be happening for Christmas. Going with the regular transfer routine, the transfer day would have fallen on Christmas, but to prevent a lot of unhappy missionaries and the fact that transportation and trains are shut down during Christmas, President Jordan has moved the transfer day to the 27th of December. So where ever I am next transfer, is where I will be spending Christmas. So It's quite likely that I'll be here in Wembley, but there is not always guarantees. So I might be sniffing out a place that we can skype for Christmas here in the next few weeks. I'm just surprised how fast the time has gone. By Christmas time Mark will have left on his mission, and Kyle Magelby will be home. Thats just craziness.

As for how I'm doing at the moment, everything is just fine. With my order being filled I really don't have any complaints... except for our rock hard mattresses on our beds. My companion will testify to how bad these beds are, and they are brand new is what is really funny. Its like sleeping on a stone altar, they are just so dang firm. But, I guess I'll trade that for a dryer for my clothes :)

So I'm going to enjoy the week here, hopefully the weather won't get to bad. oh, I forgot to mention the mini hurricane we had this morning. Nearly blew down our fence in the back yard plus all the trees. We had gale force winds this morning just tearing up the place. I felt like I was in Hurricane Katrina or something. Just nice that we were inside and not outside :) Besides that I haven't had any natural disasters here.

Well I'm glad to see that everyone is doing ok back home. Dad, just don't crash all these planes you have. I swear you have a new one every week that you write me :) I hope everyone is enjoying the school season, well I believe mom probably is. Don't worry, I'm getting my studies done as well, I got a new Qu'ran from the friendly Muslims that are always out on Saturdays and we talk with them and learn about what they believe. Quite interesting, but false. Anyway, I hope you guys have a great week.

Love,

Elder Bradley Smith

Rainy Wet Shoes

Well this week has been one of the more blustery weeks here in England. For say it is not warm anymore. I kinda want the sun back that was out in July and August here... I think I appreciate it alot more now than then because I was getting sunburned back in July.

Well we are planning on having 2 more baptisms by November 3rd. I'm quite stoked about that because of the lack of baptisms I've had in my mission is general so this is a good thing for me. The problem my companion and I have been running into is that we don't have anyone to teach... funny enough that the only people we are teaching are getting baptized... so then we don't have anyone to teach again. Catch 22 there I guess. I don't think I used that reference quite right... but whatever. I'm just happy we have something going on. We done over 30 hours of pure knocking on doors this week... so I can imagine how much money I could have made getting paid minimum wage...

I'm still doing well with running every morning. I think my double chin is getting smaller finally, but think the better changes are going to come this winter if we keep it up. I'm just running into a slight problem here down the road which I'll talk to you more about... when it gets cold in the morning and I don't have appropriate clothing. Anyway I'll complain about that somewhere and sometime else. As for now I might be able to keep up with my lacrosse team back when I was in high school... well I should have ran more then :P Silly me.

I wish I had more to inform you on as of this coming week. I think we have zone conference this Friday, so it'll be good to talk to President again. I hope Mark is feeling preped for his mission. I just spoke with a kid here that is leaving on his mission in about a month and we gave him so handy ideas to help him prepare. I think I'll repeat a few things we told him so that mark can use them.

First, Mark this is for you brosideon

take a look at Preach my Gospel Chapter 3 Lessons 1-3. You'll pretty much need to memorize those because that is literally everything that we teach.

Then just have a breeze through Chapter 10 which is about teaching skills that you will need. Ask Darin Hillyard if he will help you because that is what he did for me. great guy.

If Mom has Jesus the Christ laying around the house, I challenge you to read it before you go on your mission. It is like the best book I have ever read. So thick, but just of pure awesomeness. I promise you'll learn some good things from it. If you finish before your mission, I might get you something cool here in London :) Just a little positive kick to make you want to do it. The thing about Talmage, the author, is that he has some big vocabulary so you'll learn a few things from him and about your saviour.

Well I hope you guys have a great week, looks like things are starting to cool off over there. Just remember when it starts to get warm again is when you get to come and get me from that airport :)

Love,

Elder Bradley Smith

Fitness First

Well as the subject of the email suggests, I have been getting very fit as of lately. I'm proud to say that I have managed to go running in the morning for almost 2 weeks straight. I think that is the longest I have every pulled this off, and with any luck I should be able to keep going. I might actually be able to keep up with my younger sisters now... probably not... but I'm trying none the less. The only thing I'm afraid of is the fact that its starting to get alot colder around here... the fall has moved in and the temperature is dropping rapidly. So I'm not to excited about that. I'll just have to suit up in the morning and face the cold weather, probably will help me lose more weight as well. That is what I'm excited for :)

Well our week has been quite good. As I think I said last week, this area is pretty much brand new so we don't have a lot of new investigators but we did have a BAPTISM! Yes! My first one since January! So I'm sending you all the photos of that. I'll give a little background detail.

Shana is from England, but her mother is from Jamica. She's 18 years old and has a good christian upbringing as her mother has always taken her family to the Church of England. How the Elder's managed to find her, its considered a miracle. She been easily the most golden investigator I've ever met, plus her sister and mother should be getting baptized in the next few weeks here,so I'll have even more photos for you :)

That has defintely been my favorite thing about this area. I just show up and get a fresh baptism handed to me. It was an Act of God. Write that one in the scriptures. So I'm feeling pretty good about this area so far. We do spend a lot of time knocking doors and trying to find new investigators because we are going to be baptizing all the ones that we do have :) That's pretty funny compared to my last few areas... cough cough. Well I'm just happy to be here for the moment.

I'm glad that you guys had a good time at the cabin. Looks like nothing has changed since I've left. Fun stuff. Just everyone in our family is just getting older and older... man... I wonder how I look now? I'm growing a beard way to fast... I almost have to shave everyday like a regular man but none the less it still bring loads of acne... such a pain. I think when I get home I'm just gonna be the guy that has the beard in the ward... except mom will kill me so I probably won't. Just the sideburns then ;)

I'm getting along just fine with my good companion here. I do enjoy having someone who understands what it is like to be from the most Mormon populated state on the planet. So at least we understand each other and work well together. Other than that I don't have anything to complain about. I am excited for Christmas and talking to you guys again... but that is still in like 3 months so I really shouldn't focus on something like that but it is a nice thought none the less. Yeah, I think that pretty much covers my week. If I left anything out I'm sorry... Oh wait.. we got yelled at by some excommunicated member here that we met in town center. I won't lie the stuff he was saying was total BS but we had a good laugh about it afterwards. Trying to remember if anything else happened.... nothing is coming to mind at the moment. If I remember I might include it next week.

Anyway have a great week guys,

Elder Bradley Smith

What is Wembly?

Harrow, Greater London

As the subject suggests, I'm still trying to figure out my new area mostly because I don't know anyone or anywhere. Makes it kind of difficult to give your companion suggestions on what to do during the day or who to visit when you are completely clueless about who is in the ward :P Well I guess that is just my new life here. Well all be honest mother, I haven't taken a single photo yet because we have been so darn busy. I really should just snap a few shots here and there... so I promise to do better for next week because of my laziness... or working to hard... not sure which one is the cause of the problem here... 

That should get any letter that you have right to my doorstep :) So we share the area of Wembley with 2 other sets of missionaries, so it is the most shared area that I have ever worked in... yet there is still a huge section of area to cover. No surprise that President put multiple sets of missionaries here. So technically I'm not even in Wembley. I'm in the northern part of our area, if you look on Google Maps, which is called Harrow on the Hill. I'm not positive, but I do believe this is the more "posh" side of our area. Actually what I figured out the other day, the complete northern side of my area which is called Edgware and Stanton are completely populated by Jews. Like Jewish people everywhere. I have never seen so many yamica's in my entire life, well if you don't know what I'm referring to it's there little hat that they wear on there head. So it has been an interesting experience because the Jewish are not very friendly to Christian faiths in general, let alone ours. So half of our area is nullified because of the natural inhabitants... but what can you do.

I do enjoy our town center, its about the same as Romfords probably just a little less sketchy and there are less women with clothes off, well thats a shame... just kidding. We are actually having a Baptism this week! YES! My first one since January! About flipping time! I'm grateful to just come into an area and just get handed a baptism... which has pretty much been how all my baptisms in my mission have been, just walk in to an area and steal one! Well, that's fine by me :) I'm not arguing. She's a really cool half english, Jamaican girl named Shana. She is pretty much english because she has lived here her whole life so she's really not Jamaican, but I guess that is her heritage. She's 18, young, hip and ready to get in the font. So we are excited for her and probably the rest of her family will be coming along here in the next couple of weeks. So we are excited for that as well.

So its nice to just be handed miracles. All in good time :) Apparently how the orginal missionaries that met Shana and her family was a complete miracle... well that's what everyone here says about finding anyone to teach *symbol slap* (joke explained: its hard to find people to teach here lol). Apparently Shana's mother say the missionaries coming and didn't want to speak to them so when they knocked on the door, she didn't answer the first time. So the missionaries left, but Shana's mother (Anne which I will now refer to) got the impression that she had met them before. So Anne opened the door and yelled at them to come back. So we've been meeting with them ever since. Anne wants to get baptized but she works for her church, so she is ready to change her job to join the church she just wants to get a few things in order to be prepared to join the church, so we are not to worries about her not joining the church. So all things going really well here :) But now, as always, we need to find new people to teach so we'll keep our eyes open here.

Our flat is a bit bigger than Romford's, and alot nicer, but he size is not that much bigger. I guess its the way that the flat is arranged that makes the difference on how "Spacious" the flat looks. I'll have to send you pictures for you to really understand... but my Favorite thing about our flat is the fact that we have a DRYER! YES! I'm just so happy to have a regular machine to dry my clothes instead of a towel rack. We are one of the few flats in the mission that have a dryer, so we are so blessed :) Well there is always a downside to every flat as well. I'm not to concerned about the size of the flat now, really not a problem to me, just the fact that my mattress feels like a slap of concrete! Flipping just kills my back when I wake up in the morning! Easily the worst mattress I've had in my mission yet it is Brand NEW! That doesn't make any sense! Well... I guess that is the trade off for the dryer...

Well I didn't whitewash the area, but the area is only 1 transfer old. So I'm the third missionary to be in our area, so it is pretty darn close to being a brand new area so it kinda feels like whitewashing still but that's really not a problem for me. We'll get working hard so that time will pass by quickly. Oh by the way, at interviews with President we talked about a few things that are going to happen next year. Many missionaries, including me, are in need of coming back in time for school so I from what I know is that President is going to have a us all go home in the July Transfer. So that is going to be like the 28th of July. Just so you guys are aware so I don't show up at the airport and no one is there to pick me up kind of thing... Well of course I'm going to talk to you guys at Christmas so that's not going to be to much of a problem :) Well I think that is about everything. I'm getting along well with Elder Butterfield. Smart Kid. Sterling Scholar in Math... so he makes me feel stupid.. just kidding :) He's a great kid, loves to work hard and has a great sense of humor. This will be fun. You'll get to meet all of my Utah companions because the only live an hour away :) Not to bad. Well he won't be home at least until a year after me... so he's got a while. Well anyway I'll catch you guys next week, and i'll get you better pictures I promise... even though my promises have like no value... just kidding :)

Love you guys,

elder Bradley Smith

To the Center of London!!!!AWAY!!!!

Well, I got the call last night and I'm leaving the valley of sin! Just kidding, I am leaving, but I am going to miss Romford. There are a lot of good people here that have helped me quite a bit, so its going to be sad to go.

I have been called to Wembley, an area in North London that is from what I've heard "all  black" so if I don't baptize there then I must be a terrible missionary :P (That's a joke just so you know).

I'm not exactly sure what is in Wembley or how big the area is, but I do know that it has a massive ward, so that is going to be nice from the 35 people I'm used to here at Romford, so that's going to be quite a change for me. Plus I get to use the Tube all the time now! That's going to be fun, plus all probably get to spend the next few months there so I'll probably even be there for Christmas, unless President only keeps me there for one transfer... which would really suck. So I'm excited to see how this next week is going to go.

My new companion is a 6 week missionary from Utah. I don't know if you guys know where Morgan is... because I didn't... but apparently he's from there, which I think is just beyond South Ogden. His name is Elder Butterfield. I don't know anything about him, so its going to be a complete surprise to me. He's probably 18 years old as well. I've met a few of the young missionaries that are only 18... it makes me feel really old for some reason even though I'm not that old :P

Well, I already packed last night. I'm getting pretty good at this stuff, so I  can just party all today :) Not worry about anything till tomorrow morning and just enjoy visiting my favorite members this even and playing football "soccer" this afternoon. So, it's going to be a good week. It's going to be refreshing. I'm follow up training again... which I'm not really mad with, but I'm annoyed that I haven't trained yet. I don't have a mission "son" yet. My mission "father" is already home and I still haven't had any of his Grandchildren :P Well that will have to wait till later I'm guessing.

This next week will probably fly by, so I'll do my best, keep my head up and I'll catch up to you guys and show you some cool pictures and all :) Ohhh... plus I'll be in central London, which means I get to see all the nice cars ALL the TIME!  YES! This is going to be epic! Well I'll catch you guys soon, I've got some sports to go enjoy :)

Love,

Elder Bradley Smith

PS

You should Photoshop me into those family photos... that would be really funny :) Its really weird, Mark actually looks really good. Tell him to keep those button up shirts because they look really good. Actually while your at it, buy me a few good button up shirts, I've really come to like the style here in England so I'm gonna make sure I have some good Calvin Klein ones or Ralph Lauren ones because they are flippin good looking :) 

Almost the End of the Transfer

Well as the subject of the email reads, its almost the end of the transfer. I'm not sure if that is a good or a bad thing at this point because it possibly means I could move and I hate packing... well that's just life isn't it. But we had a much better week than previously. 

We finally managed to get some new investigators this past week and had some awesome appointments with them... so that was quite spiritually refreshing. We were just getting so tired of our previous "friends" who literally made no effort to do anything than just open the door and have us come teach them and then not do anything after we left :P I guess I know how it feels when Mom tells me to do a chore and I don't do it... its a bit frustrating. But we are changing that!

We had a wonderful flat inspection this past week, and we had to deep clean our flat... that was really fun (as you can see that sentence is reeking with sarcasm :) ). I don't know what has happened in our flat for the past year, but I don't think anyone has cleaned behind the toilet... and when I had to do it I used a sponge and so mold cleaner with bleach to get the job done. There was just so much hair and gross stuff... ugggg... I don't know how I'm still healthy right now. Was easily the grossest job of my life. Plus I had to clean the shower drain... and you don't even want to know what the heck was down there. I pulled out this wad of gunk and hair and it smelled like Davie Jones locker! Well at least that's what I'd imagine what Spongebob was smelling in there :) Really gross job at least. I hope I never go into a cleaning business... or at least I need a pair of gloves... because I didn't have any and I had to partially touch the stuff >:( 

Well I'm glad that was all exciting. We are just planning to hit the day at Lakeside and enjoy some Costco again. Most of my district is coming again so we are just going to enjoy ourselves :) This Costco card is making me popular! :) Which is good thing I suppose. I hope you guys are taking care of yourselves. It seems like Shannon is enjoying the world of men... but I'm confused because she always considered me as a pig... so I'm confused how she could like any other guy. Well they probably look a lot better than I do, but they probably have half my IQ. Lol :) I just giving you a hard time Shannon just because its funny and your dating now... and that is really weird... soooooo.... It'll be fun to make fun of you when I get home :) So you have 11 months to prepare yourself :) 

Anyway, have a great week and I'll get back to you on whether I move or not. So stay tuned :)

Love,

Elder Bradley Smith

Trial and Error

Well the week when by pretty quickly, that was a good thing :) We had a good meeting with our Stake President and our Stake leaders this past Saturday. Pretty much our Mission President, President Jordan, got up and rebuked the leaders of our Stake for not working with the missionaries enough... well he was a bit gentler than that, but none the less the idea that he was trying to get across to the members of the ward councils here was that they were not working with the missionaries enough and not teaching with them. 

That was really the only thing that was big this week, everything else was relatively the same. Raining, tracting, raining some more... we got so soaked in Brentwood this week you wouldn't believe it. We head out to do work in the furthest part of our area and it was bright and Sunny! So we have just our short sleeve shirts on and minimum clothing because we thought the day was going to be very warm... well that was the biggest lie I told myself this week. About halfway through the day a massive rainstorm moved overhead and the heat just went out the door. So COLD... I don't get how that happened so fast but we were about two hours away from our flat and we were drenched... and we had to pretty much walk an hour back to the town center that we were working in and then get the bus back home... so that was a very uncomfortable day... 

At least that only happened once this week. We are just trying to make our area grow because it's kinda like a garden without any seeds in it... we are just going around planting the seeds and then later the other missionaries are going to harvest them... I'd prefer to be the harvester to be frank. 

Well it sounds as if everyone is doing alright back home. Make sure you get Mark's Visa as soon as possible. We just had a missionary here who got delayed by 3 months because his visa wasn't coming... New Zealand wasn't being nice to him. So get that stuff done as soon as possible, then you won't have to worry when his date rolls around and he needs to only pack his suitcase. Not too bad :) 

Well I'll keep going this week and I'll catch you all next week on my love mission here in the British Isles. 

Love,

Elder Bradley Smith

Grey Week

Well it sounds like you guys have had an exciting week, I'm glad that everyone is getting their exercise there. I don't even know if I could make it to the finish line if I tried that triathlon, probably wouldn't go to well for me. The problem I'm having is getting fit. I've actually managed to get down to 205 pounds, but I don't really look like it... if you know what I mean. I just need to get rid of the belly... but I just don't flipping run enough :P I guess that's why were are going to play sports today for P-day, get the endorphins going and what not... would help me to be happier that is. 

Ok, so the computer just decided to send the message early... so that's a cool computer :P >:P !"£$%!"£%.

Anyway what I was going to say is that it's cool to hear that Mark got his mission call. I didn't even know that you had put in his papers let alone that he got his call... I'm really well kept up to date here and all. Well, Bangkok is going to give him a piece of humble pie, so tell him to get ready because he's gonna be in for some culture shock hardcore. I thought that England wasn't going to be that bad when it comes to culture shock but South East Asia is quite a different world from the English speaking nation that we are all used to.

 Well, I'll be almost 18 months out when Mark leaves, that is gonna be kinda weird to think about. 

Well I'm glad that he's going on a mission. That's going to be a good thing for him. Just let him know its kinda like being a nun, well in a way. We just have to shun all worldly things for a period of two years. I bet the culture there is going to be really fun though, quite interesting and unique. Give him the right garments though, because i'ts probably humid there. Get him the ones that dry out quickly... or else that's really going to suck for him :P If you want any other tips, just ask me and I'll give you my opinion :)

As for how this week went here... well to be honest it was really boring. Nothing much happened, and all of our investigators have hosed us :P So we've spent a lot of time on the streets again just trying to contact people. We've offered service to people and when we come to give the service we have offered the people don't let us into there houses... it doesn't make any sense. They just give us some made up excuses as to why they don't need us to help them anymore. Blahblahblah, you can probably guess the rest. I guess I'm just a little bit tired working with a system that is not bringing the results we are looking for, so I'm evaluating the way that we do our work. 

I have to thank you for giving us an awesome P-day last Monday. My district really enjoyed going to Costco and getting pizza and having a good time. It was great :) So I guess I've bought myself a few friends (just kidding :) ). I love my district here, they are pretty much the only people that are keeping me sane at the moment. Well I'm going to enjoy myself today by kicking a football at some people's heads and I'm going to enjoy it :) I'll catch you guys next week :)

Love, 

Elder Bradley Smith 

Over the Hump

Well for some reason I thought hump week would be a little more epic than it actually turned out to be... oh well, I can't get everything I ask for. Well we are planning on going down to Costco today to enjoy a bit of anniversary madness there, compliments of awesome parents :) So that should be pretty fun. Also I got to burn one of my old shirts (lol). Its a year mark tradition were most of the missionaries will burn something on their Hump day or every six months. I stuck with they year mark tradition rather than burning my tie at six months... but I have a funny video of it now... I just think it might be two big to send via google drive because the maximum is five gig and it might possibly be more than that... its kinda big video. Anyway I have some good pictures from it :)

It has been kind of a slower week because we lost quite a few investigators because they just don't seem to meet with us so we've found it quite difficult work wise. I guess the world isn't always full of fluffy kittens :P To say the least my companion and I get a long really well so we just keep each other entertained really really well :). Makes life a lot more fun when you get a long with your companion. I guess this is teaching me how to behave with my wife... except for we can't get quite as affectionate (well this is awkward...). Just ignore that last part. 

Our ward members here love us though, which makes my life a whole lot easier.  So, I really appreciate this area a lot because I can survive the tough days through the loving and caring arms of our members here. To say the least, they are great :)

I figured out something really weird. I just remember talking to Elder Hansen about a year ago when I just got into the mission field and asking why he doesn't write so much in his emails. He told me that when I get older I would find out. I guess I've found out. I find it a little bit difficult to find things to tell you guys. You pretty much know everything that is going on here. I send the pictures, you see what I'm up to... and that's pretty much it. I mean I would show you anything else that was really cool that is going here... so I'm sorry if I don't have a ton to share with you guys. I'll just start expressing my appreciation. You guys love that :) I'll have to give you all big hugs when I get home. 

Well I'm starting the walk home. I just got to the top of the mountain now I'm on my way back... so you'd better get ready to pick me up from the airport because I'm on my way back :) What'll be interesting is when we talk in December on Christmas we'll be talking about what is going to happen in a few months down the line hmmm... that will be interesting. And then when next summer rolls around... LIFE GETS REAL. Well I don't have to worry about that yet at least. One year is still quite a long time. Anyway, I'll keep doing what I've been doing and I'll catch you next week :)

Love,

Elder Bradley Smith 

Hump Day

So I reached the "technical" half way point of my mission. Dad you are probably right that I'm going to have to come home just a bit early to get back to school and all, but this is the week that I have been away from the blessed land of Utah for 1 YEAR. Man, it feels like it was yesterday, but also feels like its been forever... so I'm not sure how to feel. Well I guess I feel pretty good :) So yeah I'm feeling pretty excited about what's going on over here. I love my companion. I love my area. I really don't have anything to complain about except the size of my flat. Other than that I can handle pretty much everything that is going on over here. Man I'm so grown up :P 

So I do enjoy serving here in Romford. Its quite a cool place. Obviously its not the nicest town in England but you take what you get. I'm just glad to be so close to London. Its been nice to be able to just literally ride a bus into central London... well that takes like two hours... but I can still do it. We have Zone Conference again this week, so that is the highlight of what is going on here this week. Nothing else is really new or incredibly worth mentioning. 

I do like your idea mother. You don't need to send me a package. The only thing about spending money at Costco is that I need to take it off the card first... because I don't have an American Express card... or the cards here that they require. I'll figure something out. My companion is excited to be with me because he knows how fun it is to be with a companion that is turning a year old in the mission, because his previous one had his hump day with him as well. So he gets to party with both of us. That's really not a problem with me :) Now I just need to make it to next August and we'll see how i'm doing there. Everything else is pretty good. Garments. Good. Attitude. Good. Health. Good. Alright I'm set for another transfer here. Thanks for all your help and support Mom and Dad. I love you guys so much. Thanks for being awesome :)

Love,

Elder Bradley Smith

More Romford

So I just got the word that I will be staying here in Romford for another six weeks. So will be enjoying the essex culture for quite a while now :) We didn't get the calls till like 11 at night, flipping took them forever to tell us. So we didn't know if we had to pack or not and most of us at that time of night basically wouldn't have packed anyway. Well, I'm staying with Elder Behrends for two transfers. He is my third 2 transfer companion. I haven't had a 2 transfer companion since I was with Elder Affleck. Man, that has been a long time. So Pretty much everything is ok over here. Our president has just made a major change when it comes to hours of accountable labor that we perform everyday and just removed the aspect of Hours of Finding. So that makes a big difference for us because we don't baptize so much, we can't base our key indicators on the fact that we are not baptizing enough here. But our President has so much faith that he wants us to be baptizing more so that we don't have to worry about being accountable for how much "Finding". That was probably the biggest change we've had in the past few weeks. Everything is going pretty well now. The flat is clean. We have food. We have a P day to entertain ourselves with, so I can't complain to much at this time. I was quite peeved last week, but I'm feeling quite better now. I'm just going to go enjoy myself today and work hard the other six. Horray for being awesome. SO... About my Greenie Package MOM! I don't know if you realize mom that most missionaries here recieve a package from home at there 1 year mark, and well... that mark is just around the corner. Coming up in a week and a half I will be half way done with my mission. Can't believe it went by so fast. Oh by the way Elder Hansen is coming home tomorrow so you guys should say hi to him :) He wants to come and see the Bunny Rabbits that we have, because you made my gloves out of Ludwig's fur, so he wants to see "Binnicula," the vampire rabbit. Well because he's an albino you know. So yeah, things are looking pretty good here. Just got to keep going and pressing forward :)

Love you guys, I hope you are having a fun time with Aynie around the house :)

Elder Bradley Smith

PS

If you want to do the greenie package mother that would be fantastic. You know your beloved son has spent so long away from home... I don't think there are any requirements on what needs to be in it, edible stuff isn't a bad idea though... so homemade cookies and stuff are cool. Maybe some famous brownies or something... Just giving you ideas :)

The Last of Summer...Well, Two Weeks More

My Days... I haven't gotten any time to do anything this week. Just constant work and all that good stuff. We had a huge mission conference today in Hyde Park again. So I don't know who plans these activities but they are not doing a good job. They keep doing it right on our P-day so we have absolutely no time to do anything... Even Email and shop and stuff... So I can only fit in emails today and I'll have to do shopping tomorrow or Wednesday :P Just a bit frustrated there. I'm thinking this email is going to sound a bit complainy because I just got off the train and I have a massive headache and I'm feeling a bit train sick (or car sick). Normally this doesn't bother me... but I'm not feeling the best. I just got out of a huge four hour conference with Elder Evans from the First quorum of the Seventy. He's the guy that runs all the missionary department for the church... so it's probably a big job. I thought he was going to come talk to us about cool stuff like setting up internet proselyting and stuff like that but nope... Chuck Testa :P He spent four hours talking about how we could do street contacting better... like literally knowing I don't already know. So he just preached for four hours concerning what preach my gospel says about how to find new investigators :P It was like attending an uber long district meeting that I have every week... so to say the least I was a little disappointed. I know he takes the time to come over here and everything, but I lost my p-day and all activities that I NEED to be able to get through the week... So not my favorite day I've had so far.

Our week was a little better than today though. The Sun was out. I played basketball most of the mornings... usually from 6:15 in the morning till about 7:15. We found a court near by our flat so we just jog there in five mintues in the morning. Really nice :) We also had a Ward picnic on Saturday that was a big success. Investigators came and a lot of the ward helped fellowship some of the new people we had there. It was really cool. But I got extremely sunburned. I wasn't expecting to be outside in the sun for about 9 hours straight. We were playing sports and stuff with the ward and then we played basketball with some random guys in the park afterwards as a finding activity :) Yeah it went really well. I was so exhausted after that day though. I literally couldn't move when we got back to the flat to shower and stuff... but we still had like two more appointments that day before the day was over >_<. Good day overall though :)

That was about the most interesting thing that happened this week. Oh I did get the Garments mother :) I really appreciate you sending me those. I really badly needed them. So everything is pretty good. I get moves calls this next week so you'll get to find out where I'm going this next Tuesday. So your pretty familiar with how this works because we move P-day to Tuesday... which makes this week extra Long! Plus I didn't get a P-day today Hooray! (You can probably smell how much sarcasm I used there :P)

Well, if I survive the day I'll let you know. I'm just hoping I'm not getting ill because of how crappy I feel at the moment. I really don't have time to be sick this week... but maybe it'll give me a break that I need :P The hard way I guess... Well I'll catch you guys next week. Maybe you guys should say "Hi" to Elder Hansen. He comes home next week. I said "Goodbye" to him today... and that was a bit tough. So, it has been an emotionally strenuous day... dang... I think I need to go to bed right now... I'll catch you guys in a bit.

Cheers,

Elder Bradley Smith